Wisconsin Protests

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/03/madison-firefighters-denied-access-to-capitol-during-emergency.php

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It's generally speaking a bad idea to attract press for preventing firefighters from rescuing police officers during an emergency call. But that's about where we are in Madison now.

 

Check out this report from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

 

Dave Trainor, a Madison firefighter, said he was part of a crew dispatched to the Capitol on a call that someone was trapped in an elevator. Firefighters were denied access at one of the building's entrances that is being guarded by police....

 

As it turned out, a police officer was trapped in an elevator. But at the time of the call, firefighters did not know if there was a medical emergency, Trainor said.

 

"We lost crucial time on a call we didn't know anything about," he said.

 

Read the whole report. It turns out the firefighters were turned away by other police officers who were blocking an entrance to the Capitol. Fortunately everyone was ok.

 

A sort of irony here is that Scott Walker sought to exempt firefighters and police from his plan to scotch public sector unions. Now, whether through solidarity or through hijinx like these, they've become a big part of the story.

Basically, all of those protesters who were sleeping in the capitol building were kicked out and not allowed back in. Scott Walker is now preventing fire-fighters from entering the capitol because they aren't on his side of the union argument. He also had people bolt the windows shut (a clear breach of fire code), prior to clearing the capitol, so that no one could pass food in the windows to the protesters.

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Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker on Thursday warned 14 absent lawmakers trying to stall his controversial budget bill to return to the state Capitol immediately to vote on the measure, or layoff notices will be sent to 1,500 public employees before the weekend.

Can anyone say "ransom"?

http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/03/03/wisconsin.budget/http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/03/03/wisconsin.budget/

gov-scott-walker-has-lost-the-war/

I hope his fucking dick falls off.

he will probably be re-elected, or replaced with another republican senator just as immoral.

so, they busted the unions by by removing all fiscal aspects of the bill (fucking joke on a number of levels) and just passing the bit about bargaining rights, which they initially argued was critical to the balancing of the budget. why are people not storming the capital in unprecedented numbers? what the fuck is going on? the right is destroying what remains of this joke of a country.

heres where we are in michigan. jesus christ. from boingboing-

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Michigan Republicans create "financial martial law"; appointees to replace elected local officials

 

Cory Doctorow at 4:47 AM Friday, Mar 11, 2011

 

Republican Michigan governor Rick Snyder, along with the state's Republican house and senate, have passed a controversial bill that allows the governor to dissolve the elected governments of Michigan's towns and cities, replacing them with unaccountable "emergency financial managers" who can eliminate services, merge or eliminate school boards, and lay off or renegotiate unionized public employees without recourse. Republican senator Jack Brandenburg -- who supported the measure -- calls it "financial martial law."

 

While local governments are subject to electoral recall by residents, the "managers" the governor appoints will answer only to the state legislature. There are no limits to the salary "managers" may draw (an amendment that would have limited their compensation to $159,000, which is the governor's own salary, was defeated).

 

"Managers" will be able to govern as they see fit. Practically speaking, this opens the door to the kind of "governance" we've seen in occupied Iraq, where high-paid appointees who don't answer to the governed get to award no-bid contracts to their pals, with little or no oversight or control.

i read somewhere a quote that stated unions only enforce mediocrity.

fucked up shit.

i agree with those that essentially see this as a civil rights issue. sure unions could use reform, but fucking destroying them just demoralizes an already disheartened and cynical populace.

just more evidence that this cannot be fixed, only dismantled.

  On 3/12/2011 at 3:25 AM, Smettingham Rutherford IV said:

just more evidence that this cannot be fixed, only dismantled.

yeah, dismantle the government and run the right wing out of the state. fuck em. theyve shown their true colors.

as it happened. historic moment. smarmy thugs..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XYJmPv13zmY

Got to love Scott Walker. Hopefully the poor bastard is the catalyst that ends the last 30 years of shit we've had to put up with. Gold star for robot boy.

O well, I can dream =)

  On 3/12/2011 at 5:00 AM, Dirty Protest said:

Hopefully the poor bastard is the catalyst that ends the last 30 years of shit we've had to put up with.

i think there might be some truth to this, although i think things are going to get worse before they get better..

  On 3/12/2011 at 4:03 AM, Z_B_Z said:

as it happened. historic moment. smarmy thugs..

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XYJmPv13zmY

Watching that, it makes me think it will all get thrown out?

Is that too optimistic?

you know, the logical part of me thinks "of course this is going to get thrown out", but in light of recent fascist events, im not so sure...

and the more heated each side is becoming against each other, this isnt going to end neatly. not by a long shot.

i honestly see a military/extremist right-wing takeover of the government before i pass, as sad as it is...but most liberals dont own guns, and they will be run over by the machine like rats.

  On 3/12/2011 at 5:54 AM, Smettingham Rutherford IV said:

and the more heated each side is becoming against each other, this isnt going to end neatly. not by a long shot.

 

 

 

i honestly see a military/extremist right-wing takeover of the government before i pass, as sad as it is...but most liberals dont own guns, and they will be run over by the machine like rats.

fascism is indeed in the air.. hopefully more people will wake up and realize that most republicans and a lot of democrats do not have their best interest at heart. that being said, these democrats in wisconsin have been courageous.

I live in a bubble here in SF. I really have no idea what the climate is elsewhere in the country. At least not on a first hand basis.

well (in my view anyway) the midwest has been manipulated into electing individuals that BLATANTLY go against their best interests, be they democrat or (mostly) republican. the working class have been cheated, and if theres going to be any kind of uprising against this kind of blatant abuse of power, it will begin here in the midwest. or it wont, i dont know.

the question that gets me though is that I don't think the American populous or any portion of it can really successfully pull off a protest (i mean a REAL one that actually works in favor of the protesters)...with all the new anti-riot equipment, and the majority of Americans absolutely despise protesters of any kind fueled by a distorted media perception...

i know i always sound pessimistic, but i really cant help but feel the time where something actually could have been done has since long passed away.

[youtubehd]gM95HHI4gLk[/youtubehd]

it seems like technology is about to significantly change the game.

  On 3/12/2011 at 6:27 AM, Smettingham Rutherford IV said:

the question that gets me though is that I don't think the American populous or any portion of it can really successfully pull off a protest (i mean a REAL one that actually works in favor of the protesters)...with all the new anti-riot equipment, and the majority of Americans absolutely despise protesters of any kind fueled by a distorted media perception...

 

i know i always sound pessimistic, but i really cant help but feel the time where something actually could have been done has since long passed away.

if shit gets bad enough, things will get violent. theres only so much you can take away from the average person before they turn extreme, thats just a basic fact.. but then again im of the mindset the the root of the problem lies in wall street and the economic system itself, so i guess collapse and dysfunction is an inevitable outcome if you choose to believe that.. i think the right are in the process of overplaying their hand, i think theyre overcompensating for a fundamentally flawed view of the ecomony and social policies.. how long this process will last, i dont know.

  On 3/12/2011 at 6:33 AM, chaosmachine said:

[youtubehd]gM95HHI4gLk[/youtubehd]

 

it seems like technology is about to significantly change the game.

nice talk.

Sorry, why are you all angry with the unions? I really doing understand this, being as I'm British. We had miner strikes in the UK in 70s, but Thatcher destroyed the mines and took away some rights--what rights I can't tell you. But we still have strikes. They're mainly the teachers, police force, transport unions, lorry drivers, one catchall union etc. They strike about pay and government legislation, normally. All the unions are mostly seen in a good light: they protect their members from often shitty practices. I've had teacher friends who've had to resort to using their union to stop their managers fucking them. Fairly useful, as resorting to court action is pretty digging your own grave. Is the problem that the unions in the US are basically corrupt? This would never happen in Norway etc.

the problem with the teachers union, for example, is that they negotiate contracts that give tenure to senior teachers (after 5-10 years). teachers with tenure are impossible to fire, no matter how bad their performance is. unions are seen as protecting these shitty teachers that have seniority, rather than giving more incentive for performance.

the problem i see with the police union is that a large portion of officers are paid way too much while another large portion are paid way too little, this is also usually based on seniority rather than performance.

now that wisconsin and other states have figured out their budgets are fucked, they need to cut costs. once you say teachers will get laid off all hell breaks loose in the media as both sides use their resources to buy up local ads.

basically turns into another huge waste of money for everybody

fine, so work on union reform, not elimination. this whole thing is a complete joke anyway. even with the republicans crushing unions for " fiscal" reasons, I'm sure they'll just find themselves in another financial cluster fuck in a couple of years and want more sacrifices from the middle class, instead of doing the more noble thing and fixing a broken system.