Skirts Below The Knees?

I am not going to cut and paste any of this, but you have to go read the full blog post to understand the idiocy that is Wisconsin's Scott Walker. Seriously, taking away the coffee pots? Making the female teachers wear skirts below their knees? What era are we in? 1960's? Oh yeah, that IS what these nut job Republicans want. I forgot! It was soooooo much better back in the 1950's when women did not have to work (even if they wanted to, most of the men would not let them work), and their only job was to pop out babies and service their husbands!

First Set Of Recall Elections In Wisconsin Set For July

The recall elections for Wisconsin state GOP Sens. Dan Kapanke, Randy Hopper, and Luther Olsen will be held on July 12, 2011.

Excellent work, Wisconsinites!

Prosser/Kloppenburg 50/50

4/6/11 - Courtesy of Crooks and Liars:

UPDATE: Kloppenburg has taken a narrow lead of 369 votes. Is a recount coming?

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Update #29: We're going to wrap this up shortly. I'm going to take out the rest of the recycling and come back and take one more look at the AP data. But, as we said before, this is almost certainly headed to a recount.

What an amazing election. We'll have one more in about ten minutes and then more tomorrow.

Prosser has 724,859 votes
to Kloppenburg's 723,175. The percentages are 50%-to-50%.

According to Daily Kos:

We have 99% of precincts reporting and Kloppenburg has cut the margin to 585 votes.

Hang on to your hats ...

If anyone of you out there had even an inkling of reservation as to whether the real intent of Walker's agenda was to kill unions and break the backs of the American workers, this should stop you in your tracks. Before Walker's ill advised agenda was being pushed through as law, Prosser was a shoe-in for the Wisconsin State Supreme Court spot open, which would have made him the deciding vote in Walker's favor. However, after all the support shown for just the opposite of Walker's plans, by the Wisconsin voters no less, the election of Prosser became in jeopardy, and we netroots (just as we collectively handed the Democratic majority to America in 2008) pulled together in a relatively short time to oppose Prosser's election, such that Kloppenburg holds a three digit small lead against Prosser, and most likely this will be headed for a recount. But here's a little email sent out by Walker's people to the voters as to why it is necessary to elect Prosser (H/T to Think Progress):

Prosser originally billed his reelection campaign as being about “protecting the conservative judicial majority and acting as a common sense complement to both the new [Walker] administration and Legislature.” Recently, however, he has attempted to claim independence. But Hagedorn’s e-mail laid it plain to Walker’s supporters: elect Prosser, or the governor’s agenda is in peril. From the e-mail:

“If Justice Prosser loses:

* The Supreme Court will shift from a 4-3 conservative majority to a 4-3 liberal majority.

* Governor Walker’s agenda could be stopped in its tracks by this new activist majority.

* Union bosses and their allies will be emboldened and further push to recall the brave Senators who voted for Governor Walker’s budget repair bill.

* (Chief Justice) Shirley Abrahamson and her allies will continue to drag down the reputation of the Court, with an additional vote to further push through their radical agenda.”

Sort of puts it right out there, doesn't it? There is no longer even a show of impartiality by the Republican leaders. Just a full throttle onslaught on Americans and their civil rights so that Republicans can pander to their base (corporations, individuals need not apply, unless, of course, you're a Koch family member). No hidden agenda in Wisconsin, eh?

Wisconsin Republicans Ignore Court Order, How Typical!

(AP Photo/Michael P. King, Pool)

UPDATE 3/31/11: Well, Judge Sumi finally scared the pants off of Walker and his minions such that they have tacitly admitted they will not begin implementing their ill-gotten law that they pretended was published legally and were going to start taking money out of paychecks for certain union workers. Guess who blinked first!

It's just unfortunate that in so many other states the Republican governors are doing the very same thing that Walker has done, and they are steamrolling this very wrong idea that somehow unions and their collective bargaining rights are what is problematic to the United States, and more importantly, the cause (now) of the bad economy. It sickens me to watch this continued assault on the middle class all the while the uber rich continue to amass their wealth.

I found this companion piece full of information concerning the "wealth" in this country. It is ironic that many Americans are so stupid that they believe big corporations pay "their fair share" of taxes on their earnings, when in fact, they don't. This piece up on Crooks and Liars, concerning the latest 60 Minutes interview done by Ms. Stahl shows one just how uncommitted these big corporations are to sharing the wealth, creating new jobs and opening up business in America. If they have to "pay" their fair share, they are more than willing to move their business out of the country, and deprive America of the taxes due, as well as deprive Americans of jobs, all so that corporate CEO's and the like can continue to make billions in profits.

Stahl was shown to a conference room they said Weatherford rents for board meetings, but Weatherford's Houston office told us they never go there. So are these big companies pulling a fast one? Apparently not: under both Zug and U.S. tax laws, it's perfectly legal to get the low tax rate even without a real presence in Zug. But Rep. Doggett wants to change that.

"You have a proposed legislation that a company will be taxed not based on where they file some pieces of paper, but where their decision makers and management actually resides and makes decisions," Stahl remarked.

"Let them pay the same way that other Houston-based companies pay. And so if they have their management and control are there, they ought to be paying here in the United States. I think it's fair," Doggett argued.

We found that faced with the mere threat of Doggett's legislation, Transocean and Weatherford both recently packed up their top brass and shipped them to Geneva.

We were told Transocean's top ten executives live in the Geneva area, and work on the top two floors of a Geneva office building - everyone from the CEO to the chief financial officer, to the vice president of taxes.

They wouldn't talk to us on camera, and neither would Weatherford. They also moved their CEO and CFO to Geneva. And so now we're beginning to see a jobs exodus from the U.S. of top management.

And people actually feel that this country is being threatened by terrorists from the Middle East which will destroy America? Rich Americans and their corporations are what is destroying America! This pernicious corporate greed has infiltrated every stratum of society, and thanks to Citizens United, only the rich and their corporate mouth pieces will be making the laws affecting the rest of the poor people in this country. A full frontal assault on our rights is being waged right in the open, and despite public opinion to the contrary, nothing really seems to be stopping it.

UPDATE: 3/30/11:

On Tuesday, Sumi reiterated that her order barring action by the secretary of state was still in effect, and she threatened to sanction anyone who disobeyed the order, saying she wanted to be “crystal clear” that no further action on its implementation should be taken.

Of course, even that completely clear and explicit statement is being scoffed at by the Wisconsin Republicans!

Republican Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald went further, openly questioning the judge’s right to rule in the case, saying it “flies in the face of the separation of powers between the three branches of government.”

“It’s disappointing that a Dane County judge wants to keep interjecting herself into the legislative process with no regard to the state constitution,” Fitzgerald said in a statement.

Hello? Anyone at home?

“I cannot understand the legal rationale of attorneys who are apparently advising this administration to ignore this order for whatever reason,” Democratic Sheboygan County District Attorney Joe DeCecco said Wednesday. “The very fabric of a just society is based on the rule of law. We don’t have the option of which law we will obey and we don’t have the option of which court order we’ll ignore.”

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It appears that despite a court ruling staying the implementation of that disaster of a bill by Governor Walker (not to mention the impropriety with regard to the method the Republicans used to even "vote" the bill in), the Republicans in Wisconsin feel they do not have to follow the law.

In my business, a stay is a stay. You disregard the stay, you are in contempt of court. Yet, now, Republicans don't even try to be sneaky about disobeying court orders -- they simply put their fingers in their ears and shout out loud "I don't have to pay attention, I don't have to pay attention, I don't have to pay attention."

With more than 60% of Wisconsin voters unsatisfied with the way Walker and his Republican cohorts have handled this situation, and fed up with the lies, recall efforts are clearly gaining serious momentum.

For more on my earlier posts on Wisconsin and solidarity, see here. If you want to help with the recall efforts, click here.