Monday, March 28, 2011
I Thought We Were Broke...
Gov. Walker gave a job in his administration to Senator Randy Hopper's (R) mistress. A job she didn't really even apply for. With a $12,000 raise over what the previous job-holder was making. Emails indicate that she requested a job and was given one, without going through the usual channels of applying for a state job. Valerie Cass, 26, is making $20.35 an hour as a communications specialist with the state Department of Regulation and Licensing. This is considered a temporary post, but she can work 1043 hours (26 weeks of work) between now and June 30 at a rate that would earn her $12,000 over the course of a year than the person who previously held that post. She and Senator Hopper have been living together in Madison, as was pointed out by Senator Hopper's wife when protesters began picketing her home in Fond du Lac as part of the recall efforts against him. Here's the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel article. So are we broke or aren't we? If we all have to "pay our share", then why does a senator's mistress get a massive raise for a job she didn't even apply for? Where are the "modest" cuts there?
Follow the Money
UW-Madison History Professor Dr. William Cronan decided to find out where this so-well-orchestrated-it's-obvious attack on labor rights, and the working and middle class, and social services like education and healthcare is coming from. He's usually a centrist kind of guy, but his research led him to find some things that are pretty chilling. Here's a link to his website. For those of you who haven't followed the evolution of both major parties in America in the last century, he does a nice job of explaining how and why the Right has gotten to the point that it goes against much of what it used to stand for. How did the party of Lincoln become the party of the intolerance and corporate wealth? Read this website and find out.
Tuesday, March 08, 2011
An open letter to President Obama
Dear President Obama:
Thank you for running our country; it’s a big job, I can’t imagine the toll it takes on a person, and I appreciate that you’re willing to do it. That being said, I have some thoughts on your presidency.
I grew up in a household with a liberal/Reagan-Democrat mother and Republican/farmer father. As the Cold War ended, my father began shifting to a more moderate point of view. I remember them supporting Ross Perot briefly, because he was different and they liked a politician who spoke candidly; Bill Clinton was their second choice that year for the same reasons. I spent my high school years living in a world where America was awesome and so was our economy.
As a college freshman in 2000, I was decidedly, blissfully uninformed on national policy issues. I voted for George W. Bush because he seemed more personable than Al Gore (I was valedictorian of my high school class, so that doesn’t say much for the state of civics education in our nation). My naïveté ended abruptly on September 11, 2001. My dad called me and woke me up. I turned on my tiny dorm-sized television and watched as the Twin Towers crumbled to the ground. My college roommates regarded me as the resident political expert. They asked questions like, “Why did this happen?” and “Who would want to hurt us?” I spent the rest of the week huddled in the campus library learning about Osama bin Laden and America’s foreign policy decisions of the previous three decades. My major changed from biology to three others instead: history, philosophy with a concentration in religious studies, and social studies education. Patriotism led me to support the invasion of Afghanistan, and that patriotism began to wane as the White House shifted its focus to Iraq. I couldn’t believe how many people thought Iraq had been part of 9/11. I can’t believe how many Americans still think that. Needless to say, my vote in 2004 stood in stark contrast to my vote four years earlier.
When George W. Bush won his reelection bid, I was so disappointed with my country. The blatant catering to corporate interests, the self-serving intel and unwillingness to listen that led to the wrongful invasion of Iraq, and the conservative social policies that violated many Americans’ basic rights didn’t seem to phase people. The message that Americans were unpatriotic if they didn’t support the war or President Bush had been beaten into people’s minds to the point that many believed it. It made me really sad, because our patriotism was being used against us by our own President. Unfortunately for those Americans who don’t directly profit from the military-industrial complex, Karl Rove is a genius. He put anti-gay marriage amendments on the ballot in states he thought Bush was in danger of losing, playing on people’s religious beliefs to undermine an election. He masterminded a political environment in which questioning or opposing American foreign policy was blasphemy and fear of shadowy figures in the Middle East was used to justify absurd overreaches of power, all the while selling out America’s best interests to the highest bidder.
I regarded the 2008 campaign with apprehension. I didn’t know if I could take another swift-boating. Sen. McCain seems like a good man, and I felt sad watching the right hijack his floundering campaign, force Gov. Palin onto his ticket, and make him parrot a negative, sarcastic message that undermined everything he'd ever stood for. In contrast, your campaign united people. It mobilized people. It made people feel like things might be okay. In November 2008, I voted for you with all my heart. I wanted the hope and change you promised more than I’d ever wanted anything.
You came into office in early 2009 to a country that barely even resembled the one in which I came of age just nine years earlier. By that time I was in my third year as a high school social studies teacher, pounding the rights, responsibilities, and obligations of the electorate into the brains of juniors and seniors. As the nation sank lower and lower into the financial crisis, I maintained my optimism because you were at the helm. I thought of you as an attack dog of progressivism, ready to expose corporate misdeeds, close Gitmo, and begin investing in our nation’s social, educational, and environmental future. I’m still waiting, Mr. President.
We elected you to do the right thing, not to maintain the very un-equitable status quo. As the days went by, Gitmo stayed open. You began using phrases that scared me, like “too big too fail.” I watched my tax dollars bail out the mistakes of unethical unregulated Wall Street banks, and saw less and less funding for the school in which I worked. As the health care bill began to take shape, I felt very uneasy about the insurance companies having such a heavy hand in the planning; didn’t we all go into this knowing that a single-payer system was the goal? I don’t mean to downplay the successes of your administration. You have accomplished a great deal in your two years as President. But you had a mandate to kick ass, and then you didn’t. The electorate handed you the Senate, the House of Representatives, and the White House on a platter, and then you shared it with the corporate interests we so strongly opposed in the first place. Your “shellacking” in the Nov. 2010 election didn’t happen because you were too far to the left; it happened because you were too far to the right. The hope and change that 66,882,230 people wanted in 2008 was far too watered down to be palatable in 2010. Your administration seems to be a testament to the business-as-usual style of government. What happened?
Have you ever seen the Michael Douglas movie The American President? You should Netflix it. The main character is the president, and he spends most of the movie ignoring the rhetoric of his GOP-opponent; he says, “I’m not going to swing at a pitch in the dirt. Nobody wins these fights.” His decision to stay mum has a negative effect on his ratings and domestic policy. In the film’s uplifting, heart-soaring crescendo, the president faces the camera and gives the speech of a lifetime, refusing to apologize for his progressive agenda and winning the back the heart of the nation in the process. This is the moment your supporters are waiting for. I know that the Democrats aren’t nearly the politicians that Republicans are (can we seriously not find a Karl Rove of our own?), but I don’t think it takes a political savant to see that this is the moment where you have to stand up and fight.
The Republican agenda benefits the top 5% of Americans, and that’s about it. It’s a big corporate cake with pro-life frosting and pro-gun sprinkles. Those wedge issues protect thinly-veiled anti-American policies that hurt our nation, our citizens, and our future for corporate gain. The GOP doesn’t support education for all, basic civil and human rights, or the environment, and this is a message that wins elections?! Your attempts at compromise have been heartening in light of the polarized state of our political climate, but sometimes you just should not compromise. When the Republicans hold unemployment insurance hostage in exchange for tax cuts for the rich, get loud about it. Look into the camera, and tell the American people the truth. And while you’re at it, call out the Republican governors that are currently attempting to undo decades of progressive legislation in Wisconsin, New Jersey, Indiana, etc. I appreciate your hesitation about getting involved in state politics, but this is a national attempt to silence millions of people and give corporations even more control over society. When the Republicans took office in January, they had a plan. They have spent the last few weeks unrolling those plans in unison across the nation. I originally thought that low-level Republicans were in on the scam, but my many emails with my state representatives has shown me that they really thought they were doing the right thing. They didn’t know that Gov. Walker had an inappropriate relationship with Koch Industries. They didn’t know that the budget would slaughter local economies and benefit corporations. They didn’t know that anti-family planning legislation would also be accompanied by massive cuts to Medicaid and child welfare. They bought into the idea that limited government was by definition good government; after three decades of GOP propaganda, even good-hearted educated politicians have bought the message.
We need a revolution. Get the voters back. If the GOP only represents 5% of the population, then the other 95% are up for grabs. Nixon’s Southern Strategy was largely based on racism, but the concept of showing people that they are voting for a party that does not have their best interests at heart still applies. The Tea Party in Wisconsin doesn’t want big government, they have been made to believe that Gov. Walker has their best interests at heart, and they don’t realize that every voice supporting Gov. Walker is funded by the Koch brothers – Americans for Prosperity, the Republican Governors Association, Koch Industries PAC, the Cato Institute, StandwithScottWalker.org., Citizens for a Sound Economy. Every single one is funded by Charles and David Koch. Many Americans do not hear this information because they are busy watching Fox News’ coverage of Wisconsin’s palm trees. This is unfolding in many states right now. You need to call attention to it and stop it before it is too late. If Walker and other corporate-sponsored politicians destroy unions and enact voter ID laws that will disenfranchise thousands, how will the working and middle-class fight against corporate interests? The Republicans need corporate support to win elections; you don’t. Please keep that in mind when you’re making deals that undermine the hope and change we were promised. I’ve read the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. They contain phrases such as “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” “promote the general welfare,” “secure the blessings of liberty”, “deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,” etc. They don’t say anything about government existing to protect the bottom line of corporations, allowing corporations to fund independent political broadcasts in candidate elections, or making college tuition out of the reach of the working class. Stop apologizing for progressive policies. It’s the core of who we are as a nation.
Put together an awesome website of sources for people who want to check the data for themselves, and then put together an awesome speech that calls out the GOP agenda for what it is. Show a graph of the distribution of wealth in America and how it’s gotten so much worse in the last few decades. Explain the fact that the trickle-down Reaganomics theory was debunked years ago, and that it doesn’t benefit anyone other than the wealthy. Ask Americans to take a look around and see how they’ve fared in an increasingly-deregulated economy. Ask them why they accept the rhetoric against green technology fed to them by the fossil fuel energy conglomerates. Ask them why we dump billions of dollars into high-tech weapons systems when we’re fighting basic guerrilla warfare in the streets and hills of Afghanistan and Iraq. Ask them why so little of the meat we buy at the grocery store gets the special label indicating that the animal was humanely-raised. Ask them why they so readily approve of allowing profit-driven insurance companies to decide what life-saving treatments people get but when the government would be in that role they call it a "death panel." Ask them why they tolerate grassroots movements funded by the second-largest private corporation in the country. Ask them why they support politicians who oppose abortion, family planning services, and sex education, yet do nothing to assist in the care of those uplanned children once they're born. Ask them why they are supporting bills that strip away basic workers’ rights and social services to maintain tax cuts for the very wealthiest Americans and corporations. Ask these questions, and demand answers. What’s the worst that can happen – you’ll be a run-of-the-mill one-term president? I worry that will be your fate if you don’t give the speech. Fight for us. And then we’ll fight for you.
I conclude with a quote from Benito Mussolini: “Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.”
Sincerely,
Miss Lippy
Thank you for running our country; it’s a big job, I can’t imagine the toll it takes on a person, and I appreciate that you’re willing to do it. That being said, I have some thoughts on your presidency.
I grew up in a household with a liberal/Reagan-Democrat mother and Republican/farmer father. As the Cold War ended, my father began shifting to a more moderate point of view. I remember them supporting Ross Perot briefly, because he was different and they liked a politician who spoke candidly; Bill Clinton was their second choice that year for the same reasons. I spent my high school years living in a world where America was awesome and so was our economy.
As a college freshman in 2000, I was decidedly, blissfully uninformed on national policy issues. I voted for George W. Bush because he seemed more personable than Al Gore (I was valedictorian of my high school class, so that doesn’t say much for the state of civics education in our nation). My naïveté ended abruptly on September 11, 2001. My dad called me and woke me up. I turned on my tiny dorm-sized television and watched as the Twin Towers crumbled to the ground. My college roommates regarded me as the resident political expert. They asked questions like, “Why did this happen?” and “Who would want to hurt us?” I spent the rest of the week huddled in the campus library learning about Osama bin Laden and America’s foreign policy decisions of the previous three decades. My major changed from biology to three others instead: history, philosophy with a concentration in religious studies, and social studies education. Patriotism led me to support the invasion of Afghanistan, and that patriotism began to wane as the White House shifted its focus to Iraq. I couldn’t believe how many people thought Iraq had been part of 9/11. I can’t believe how many Americans still think that. Needless to say, my vote in 2004 stood in stark contrast to my vote four years earlier.
When George W. Bush won his reelection bid, I was so disappointed with my country. The blatant catering to corporate interests, the self-serving intel and unwillingness to listen that led to the wrongful invasion of Iraq, and the conservative social policies that violated many Americans’ basic rights didn’t seem to phase people. The message that Americans were unpatriotic if they didn’t support the war or President Bush had been beaten into people’s minds to the point that many believed it. It made me really sad, because our patriotism was being used against us by our own President. Unfortunately for those Americans who don’t directly profit from the military-industrial complex, Karl Rove is a genius. He put anti-gay marriage amendments on the ballot in states he thought Bush was in danger of losing, playing on people’s religious beliefs to undermine an election. He masterminded a political environment in which questioning or opposing American foreign policy was blasphemy and fear of shadowy figures in the Middle East was used to justify absurd overreaches of power, all the while selling out America’s best interests to the highest bidder.
I regarded the 2008 campaign with apprehension. I didn’t know if I could take another swift-boating. Sen. McCain seems like a good man, and I felt sad watching the right hijack his floundering campaign, force Gov. Palin onto his ticket, and make him parrot a negative, sarcastic message that undermined everything he'd ever stood for. In contrast, your campaign united people. It mobilized people. It made people feel like things might be okay. In November 2008, I voted for you with all my heart. I wanted the hope and change you promised more than I’d ever wanted anything.
You came into office in early 2009 to a country that barely even resembled the one in which I came of age just nine years earlier. By that time I was in my third year as a high school social studies teacher, pounding the rights, responsibilities, and obligations of the electorate into the brains of juniors and seniors. As the nation sank lower and lower into the financial crisis, I maintained my optimism because you were at the helm. I thought of you as an attack dog of progressivism, ready to expose corporate misdeeds, close Gitmo, and begin investing in our nation’s social, educational, and environmental future. I’m still waiting, Mr. President.
We elected you to do the right thing, not to maintain the very un-equitable status quo. As the days went by, Gitmo stayed open. You began using phrases that scared me, like “too big too fail.” I watched my tax dollars bail out the mistakes of unethical unregulated Wall Street banks, and saw less and less funding for the school in which I worked. As the health care bill began to take shape, I felt very uneasy about the insurance companies having such a heavy hand in the planning; didn’t we all go into this knowing that a single-payer system was the goal? I don’t mean to downplay the successes of your administration. You have accomplished a great deal in your two years as President. But you had a mandate to kick ass, and then you didn’t. The electorate handed you the Senate, the House of Representatives, and the White House on a platter, and then you shared it with the corporate interests we so strongly opposed in the first place. Your “shellacking” in the Nov. 2010 election didn’t happen because you were too far to the left; it happened because you were too far to the right. The hope and change that 66,882,230 people wanted in 2008 was far too watered down to be palatable in 2010. Your administration seems to be a testament to the business-as-usual style of government. What happened?
Have you ever seen the Michael Douglas movie The American President? You should Netflix it. The main character is the president, and he spends most of the movie ignoring the rhetoric of his GOP-opponent; he says, “I’m not going to swing at a pitch in the dirt. Nobody wins these fights.” His decision to stay mum has a negative effect on his ratings and domestic policy. In the film’s uplifting, heart-soaring crescendo, the president faces the camera and gives the speech of a lifetime, refusing to apologize for his progressive agenda and winning the back the heart of the nation in the process. This is the moment your supporters are waiting for. I know that the Democrats aren’t nearly the politicians that Republicans are (can we seriously not find a Karl Rove of our own?), but I don’t think it takes a political savant to see that this is the moment where you have to stand up and fight.
The Republican agenda benefits the top 5% of Americans, and that’s about it. It’s a big corporate cake with pro-life frosting and pro-gun sprinkles. Those wedge issues protect thinly-veiled anti-American policies that hurt our nation, our citizens, and our future for corporate gain. The GOP doesn’t support education for all, basic civil and human rights, or the environment, and this is a message that wins elections?! Your attempts at compromise have been heartening in light of the polarized state of our political climate, but sometimes you just should not compromise. When the Republicans hold unemployment insurance hostage in exchange for tax cuts for the rich, get loud about it. Look into the camera, and tell the American people the truth. And while you’re at it, call out the Republican governors that are currently attempting to undo decades of progressive legislation in Wisconsin, New Jersey, Indiana, etc. I appreciate your hesitation about getting involved in state politics, but this is a national attempt to silence millions of people and give corporations even more control over society. When the Republicans took office in January, they had a plan. They have spent the last few weeks unrolling those plans in unison across the nation. I originally thought that low-level Republicans were in on the scam, but my many emails with my state representatives has shown me that they really thought they were doing the right thing. They didn’t know that Gov. Walker had an inappropriate relationship with Koch Industries. They didn’t know that the budget would slaughter local economies and benefit corporations. They didn’t know that anti-family planning legislation would also be accompanied by massive cuts to Medicaid and child welfare. They bought into the idea that limited government was by definition good government; after three decades of GOP propaganda, even good-hearted educated politicians have bought the message.
We need a revolution. Get the voters back. If the GOP only represents 5% of the population, then the other 95% are up for grabs. Nixon’s Southern Strategy was largely based on racism, but the concept of showing people that they are voting for a party that does not have their best interests at heart still applies. The Tea Party in Wisconsin doesn’t want big government, they have been made to believe that Gov. Walker has their best interests at heart, and they don’t realize that every voice supporting Gov. Walker is funded by the Koch brothers – Americans for Prosperity, the Republican Governors Association, Koch Industries PAC, the Cato Institute, StandwithScottWalker.org., Citizens for a Sound Economy. Every single one is funded by Charles and David Koch. Many Americans do not hear this information because they are busy watching Fox News’ coverage of Wisconsin’s palm trees. This is unfolding in many states right now. You need to call attention to it and stop it before it is too late. If Walker and other corporate-sponsored politicians destroy unions and enact voter ID laws that will disenfranchise thousands, how will the working and middle-class fight against corporate interests? The Republicans need corporate support to win elections; you don’t. Please keep that in mind when you’re making deals that undermine the hope and change we were promised. I’ve read the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. They contain phrases such as “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” “promote the general welfare,” “secure the blessings of liberty”, “deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,” etc. They don’t say anything about government existing to protect the bottom line of corporations, allowing corporations to fund independent political broadcasts in candidate elections, or making college tuition out of the reach of the working class. Stop apologizing for progressive policies. It’s the core of who we are as a nation.
Put together an awesome website of sources for people who want to check the data for themselves, and then put together an awesome speech that calls out the GOP agenda for what it is. Show a graph of the distribution of wealth in America and how it’s gotten so much worse in the last few decades. Explain the fact that the trickle-down Reaganomics theory was debunked years ago, and that it doesn’t benefit anyone other than the wealthy. Ask Americans to take a look around and see how they’ve fared in an increasingly-deregulated economy. Ask them why they accept the rhetoric against green technology fed to them by the fossil fuel energy conglomerates. Ask them why we dump billions of dollars into high-tech weapons systems when we’re fighting basic guerrilla warfare in the streets and hills of Afghanistan and Iraq. Ask them why so little of the meat we buy at the grocery store gets the special label indicating that the animal was humanely-raised. Ask them why they so readily approve of allowing profit-driven insurance companies to decide what life-saving treatments people get but when the government would be in that role they call it a "death panel." Ask them why they tolerate grassroots movements funded by the second-largest private corporation in the country. Ask them why they support politicians who oppose abortion, family planning services, and sex education, yet do nothing to assist in the care of those uplanned children once they're born. Ask them why they are supporting bills that strip away basic workers’ rights and social services to maintain tax cuts for the very wealthiest Americans and corporations. Ask these questions, and demand answers. What’s the worst that can happen – you’ll be a run-of-the-mill one-term president? I worry that will be your fate if you don’t give the speech. Fight for us. And then we’ll fight for you.
I conclude with a quote from Benito Mussolini: “Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.”
Sincerely,
Miss Lippy
More links
Gov. Walker's emails are public domain. When he receives an open-records request for copies of those emails, he is legally obligated to comply. He is, however, refusing to release emails requested by the Associated Press. They are suing him as a result. Gov. Walker has said that he received thousands of emails in support of his budget proposals; his unwillingness to release those emails casts doubt on his claim. Here's the story in the Wisconsin State Journal.
Wisconsin's legislature is currently considering a voter ID bill. This bill would largely disenfranchise college students who attend schools away from their home towns. The supporters of the bill say that they are trying to eliminate voter fraud. However, New Hampshire's assembly speaker was recorded saying the GOP is interested in taking away college students' vote because they vote for liberals. Here's the story in the Washington Post. Also, student IDs issues by state universities more secure against fraud than drivers licenses. Wisconsin's voter ID bill would be the most restrictive in the United States. Here's a Wisconsin State Journal article explaining what would have to be changed about it to ensure that it doesn't disenfranchise legitimate voters. Three of Wisconsin's counties don't even have DMV centers, and most centers have hours between 8-4pm, one or two days a month. That doesn't meet most people's needs if they need an ID to vote.
Here's a link to a Channel 3000 story about the budget's effort to deny many women access to contraceptives. For every $1 spent on birth control, the state saves more than $4 on medical care for moms and babies in unplanned pregnancy situations. This is in the same budget that cuts medical care for low-income families and children. The two policies are at odds with one another, and kids suffer greatly.
Wisconsin's legislature is currently considering a voter ID bill. This bill would largely disenfranchise college students who attend schools away from their home towns. The supporters of the bill say that they are trying to eliminate voter fraud. However, New Hampshire's assembly speaker was recorded saying the GOP is interested in taking away college students' vote because they vote for liberals. Here's the story in the Washington Post. Also, student IDs issues by state universities more secure against fraud than drivers licenses. Wisconsin's voter ID bill would be the most restrictive in the United States. Here's a Wisconsin State Journal article explaining what would have to be changed about it to ensure that it doesn't disenfranchise legitimate voters. Three of Wisconsin's counties don't even have DMV centers, and most centers have hours between 8-4pm, one or two days a month. That doesn't meet most people's needs if they need an ID to vote.
Here's a link to a Channel 3000 story about the budget's effort to deny many women access to contraceptives. For every $1 spent on birth control, the state saves more than $4 on medical care for moms and babies in unplanned pregnancy situations. This is in the same budget that cuts medical care for low-income families and children. The two policies are at odds with one another, and kids suffer greatly.
Thursday, March 03, 2011
Resources
Here are some resources related to Wisconsin's economy, the Budget Repair Bill, and the 2011-13 Budget.
Press release from Rep. Hintz about the wetlands bill introduced to the special session that was supposed to deal with jobs
Wispolitics article describing the Legislature's special jobs session bill that provides $67 million to give businesses less than $1/day to create new jobs
Summary of some of points in the Budget Repair Bill, according to the Governor
Fox 6 article exploring Democrats' concern about the fact that the Budget Repair Bill allows the governor to sell the states power plants without taking bids (a significant concern because of his relationship with Koch Industries, see below)
Huffington Post article describing how Wisconsin will lose $46million in federal funds for public transportation by eliminating collective bargaining for public workers
Study from the Institute for Wisconsin's Future explaining the unintended consequences of cutting public workers' compensation
Abbreviated version of the same IWF study, with costs by county
Audio and story of Gov. Walker accepting a phone call from a man he believed to be billionaire David Koch
Koch Industries website, so you can see all the things owned by David and Charles Koch - they own Georgia Pacific and other companies that operate in Wisconsin
Americans For Prosperity website, a group that tries to present itself as a grassroots movement, but is actually funded by the Koch Brothers - many good people who want limited government unwittingly support this group not realizing that it is funded by the 2nd largest private corporation in America
CBS News article about the role of the Koch brothers in funding the Tea Party and Walker support
Capitol Times story explaining how Koch Industries opened a lobbying office next to the Capitol the week Gov. Walker took office this year
Channel3000 article explaining Madison police chief's concerns that Gov. Walker admitted to considering planting troublemakers in the Capitol to cause problems with the peaceful protesters
Washington Post article about Koch brothers giving $1.2million dollars to elect Republican governors who will break unions
Politifact Wisconsin website exploring the truth of statements made regarding our budget; according to their non-partisan findings, we are not broke
Peninsula Pulse article explaining the role of corporations in pitting private and public workers against one another to distract from the real problems
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article written by UW-Milwaukee professor Marc Levine, explains alternative plan to address Wisconsin budget by ending tax breaks for the wealthy
Video clip from Fox News' Bill O'Reilly's show, supposedly showing the protests turning violent in Madison, but there are palm trees in the background...
Wisconsin's Budget in Brief (98 pages) - Please go to page 23. The last tax exemption listed is for modular homes. Why is there a tax exemption for the production of modular homes to be sold in other states? Because Georgia Pacific makes components of modular homes. Google "Georgia Pacific modular homes" and see what comes up
Los Angeles Times article explaining why Gov. Walker's budget bills are more about power than about financing
Rachel Maddow Show video explaining the public opinion polls that show Wisconsin opposes Gov. Walker's policies and the role of the Koch brothers in funding the opposition
Green Bay WBAY article about the 65,000 people who will lose BadgerCare coverage because the Budget Repair Bill allows changing Medicaid coverage and eligibility without approval by the Legislature
Press release from Rep. Hintz about the wetlands bill introduced to the special session that was supposed to deal with jobs
Wispolitics article describing the Legislature's special jobs session bill that provides $67 million to give businesses less than $1/day to create new jobs
Summary of some of points in the Budget Repair Bill, according to the Governor
Fox 6 article exploring Democrats' concern about the fact that the Budget Repair Bill allows the governor to sell the states power plants without taking bids (a significant concern because of his relationship with Koch Industries, see below)
Huffington Post article describing how Wisconsin will lose $46million in federal funds for public transportation by eliminating collective bargaining for public workers
Study from the Institute for Wisconsin's Future explaining the unintended consequences of cutting public workers' compensation
Abbreviated version of the same IWF study, with costs by county
Audio and story of Gov. Walker accepting a phone call from a man he believed to be billionaire David Koch
Koch Industries website, so you can see all the things owned by David and Charles Koch - they own Georgia Pacific and other companies that operate in Wisconsin
Americans For Prosperity website, a group that tries to present itself as a grassroots movement, but is actually funded by the Koch Brothers - many good people who want limited government unwittingly support this group not realizing that it is funded by the 2nd largest private corporation in America
CBS News article about the role of the Koch brothers in funding the Tea Party and Walker support
Capitol Times story explaining how Koch Industries opened a lobbying office next to the Capitol the week Gov. Walker took office this year
Channel3000 article explaining Madison police chief's concerns that Gov. Walker admitted to considering planting troublemakers in the Capitol to cause problems with the peaceful protesters
Washington Post article about Koch brothers giving $1.2million dollars to elect Republican governors who will break unions
Politifact Wisconsin website exploring the truth of statements made regarding our budget; according to their non-partisan findings, we are not broke
Peninsula Pulse article explaining the role of corporations in pitting private and public workers against one another to distract from the real problems
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article written by UW-Milwaukee professor Marc Levine, explains alternative plan to address Wisconsin budget by ending tax breaks for the wealthy
Video clip from Fox News' Bill O'Reilly's show, supposedly showing the protests turning violent in Madison, but there are palm trees in the background...
Wisconsin's Budget in Brief (98 pages) - Please go to page 23. The last tax exemption listed is for modular homes. Why is there a tax exemption for the production of modular homes to be sold in other states? Because Georgia Pacific makes components of modular homes. Google "Georgia Pacific modular homes" and see what comes up
Los Angeles Times article explaining why Gov. Walker's budget bills are more about power than about financing
Rachel Maddow Show video explaining the public opinion polls that show Wisconsin opposes Gov. Walker's policies and the role of the Koch brothers in funding the opposition
Green Bay WBAY article about the 65,000 people who will lose BadgerCare coverage because the Budget Repair Bill allows changing Medicaid coverage and eligibility without approval by the Legislature
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