Wisconsin governor: balance budget by breaking unions

[SirNitram]

A teacher, a steelworker, and a CEO are at a resturant. When the food comes, and the CEO takes the steelworker's main course, leaving him with the appetizier and nothing else. When the steelworker looks at the CEO, the CEO speaks. "See that teacher? She's got an appetizier and a main course! Isn't that disgusting how she's getting more than you?"

And in the case of some, they respond, 'Yea, that's awful of her!'

Back in the trenches, the Democrats have returned, and been informed, 'What, vote for your constituents? No. We're not going to let you.' Link

The saga of the "Wisconsin 14" -- the state Senate Democrats who fled the state in an attempt to block the three-fifths budget quorum on Gov. Scott Walker's anti-public employee union proposals -- isn't over just because Republicans used a parliamentary end run to pass the bill with a simple majority quorum last week, and the Dems have since come home.

As WisPolitics reports, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R) sent a letter to his fellow Republicans, reminding them that they had previously found the Democrats to be in contempt of the chamber -- and as such, they are not to be allowed to vote on committees:

Please note that all 14 Democrat senators are still in contempt of the Senate. Therefore, when taking roll call votes on amendments and bills during executive sessions, Senate Democrats' votes will not be reflected in the Records of Committee Proceedings or the Senate Journal. They are free to attend hearings, listen to testimony, debate legislation, introduce amendments, and cast votes to signal their support/opposition, but those votes will not count, and will not be recorded.

This, along with Michigan, proves nicely that the modern GOP has no desire to even continue the legal government of this country. As a song once said, 'Yeaaa, take the money and run..'

[The Yosemite Bear]

well one of the lines they keep using is those exorbiant public pensions...

which if you consider the full ride for politicians is pretty exorbiant, well if you consider the 2/3ds of the shitty wages we pay school teachers and cops, who have put in a great deal of service, or purhaps they were teachers who put in ten plus years of service and were cut to make the budget work, or police who were injured on the job. your looking at being treated like shit.

So essentially they are blaming the entie mess on not being able to renage on a pre existing agreement with old folks.

[Patrick Degan]

Meanwhile, the popular resistance in Wisconsin continues to mount. Not only have GOP poll numbers cratered and protests outside the statehouse persist, the recall petitions against GOP state senators have already collected 45% of the needed signatures only 15 days into the drive:

In another sign that the Wisconsin GOP’s quick passage of the bill to roll back bargaining rights is only causing the fight to escalate, Dems have now collected over 45 percent of the signatures necessary to hold recall elections for eight GOP state senators, the Wisconsin Democratic Party tells me.

Dems have now collected over 56,000 signatures supporting the recall drives, according to party spokesman Graeme Zielinski, after another surge in organizing activity over the weekend. That’s up from rougly 14,000 after last weekend. This means Dems are well ahead of schedule: In each targeted district, Dems need to amass the required signatures — 25 percent of the number who voted in the last gubernatorial election — by a deadline of 60 days after first filing for recalls, which happened nearly two weeks ago.

In other words, Dems are reporting they are nearly halfway to the finish line, with roughly three-fourths of the alloted time remaining.

Though the national media has largely treated the Wisconsin story as resolved, now that Republicans used a procedural maneuver to pass Scott Walker’s measure, the new signature numbers suggest the GOP’s maneuver may only be giving more momentum to the recall drives. The recall fight has drawn the attention of national Dems, who are keeping attention on the battle in hopes that it will have ramifications in the 2012 Congressional and presidential elections, by galvanizing the Dem base, persuading independents that the GOP has overreached, and reawakening the affection of blue collar whites for unions.

Some will insist that these numbers are unreliable, because they are coming from Dems. But if they did cook the numbers, such exaggerations would quickly become apparent if they fell well short of their goals by the deadline. (Republicans are refusing to reveal the amount of signatures they’ve collected to recall Dems.) What’s more, these signatures numbers claimed by Dems mirror other indicators of enthusiasm: Dems and labor continue to raise money for the recall drives at a dizzying clip, and a huge rally amassed in Madison over the weekend.

According to Wisconsin Dem spokesman Zielinski, Dems are ahead of pace in signature gathering in every single one of the eight districts being targteted, and in three of the districts, Dems have well over 50 percent of the number required.

Some caveats: The last half of signatures is far harder to collect than the first half. Dems will want to collect well over 100 percent of the number required as a cushion against signatures getting tossed out. We don’t yet know which of the districts Dems are ahead in and whether they correspond with the districts where a recall election has a plausible chance of dislodging the GOP officeholder. It could also become harder to sustain momentum in the weeks ahead. But for now, Dems and labor are very pleased indeed with the progress they continue to make.

[bobalot]

Are recalls that common in American states?

[Duckie]

Only when someone really really fucks up.

Last successful one that really was nationally noticeable was the governor of california after the budget crisis and rolling blackouts.

[bobalot]

Only when someone really really fucks up.

Last successful one that really was nationally noticeable was the governor of california after the budget crisis and rolling blackouts.

Weren't those blackouts engineered by the companies to gouge consumers?

[Duckie]

I wouldn't put it past them- it's not on my radar because I don't live there. Nonetheless, people blamed the government for it and voted out the governor, which is what I was mentioning.

[Terralthra]

The blackouts weren't really a factor in the recall. It was the budget. It reached a certain point of shortfall, triggering an automatic increase in the vehicle license fee. This incensed people who were used to being told they can have more without paying for it. They recalled Gray Davis and elected the Governator instead.

He went on to raise the vehicle license fee.

[The Yosemite Bear]

Only when someone really really fucks up.

Last successful one that really was nationally noticeable was the governor of california after the budget crisis and rolling blackouts.

Weren't those blackouts engineered by the companies to gouge consumers?

yes, with the aid of the president of the United States

[Ritterin Sophia]

Oh hey it looks like some of the Dems found a spine in their back somewhere. And it only took two illegal methods attempting to pass it, one of them successful, and the abridging of basic worker's rights to do so.

[Patrick Degan]

And a Wisconsin judge has just told Scott Walker to go fuck himself:

A Wisconsin judge issued a temporary restraining order Friday blocking the state’s new and contentious collective bargaining law from taking effect, a measure that drew tens of thousands of protesters to the state Capitol and sent some Democrats fleeing to Illinois in an tempt to block a vote on it.

The judge’s order is a major setback for Walker and puts the future of the law in question.

Dane County Judge Maryann Sumi issued the order, which was requested by that county’s District Attorney Ismael Ozanne, a Democrat. Ozanne filed a lawsuit contending that a legislative committee that broke a stalemate that had kept the law in limbo for weeks met without the 24-hour notice required by Wisconsin’s open meetings law.

Even if this challenge is overridden somehow, there is still the matter that Walker's new diktat included the powerplant sale provision, slightly reworded. Which means the measure fails on the basis of having a fiscal issue included, which requires a quorum to pass, which still makes the bill illegal.