Walkerville on CNN

June 5th, 2011 10:24 pm § View Comments § permalink

Walkerville is back, and has made national news! Let’s turn on the heat, and continue the fight. This summer will be exciting and full of action.

Wisconsin activists create Walkerville to taunt governor, tout change
By Greg Botelho, CNN

(CNN) — Eighty years after Hoovervilles sprung up around the country, and four months after tens of thousands descended on the Wisconsin state capitol, progressives have a new home in what they’re calling Walkerville.

The Madison tent city is named in honor — or, more accurately, in defiance — of Gov. Scott Walker, who became an icon for conservatives and lightning rod for liberals after he pushed through a controversial new collective bargaining law earlier this year.

Read the full article

Sen. Erpenbach on Voter Supression Bill

May 23rd, 2011 5:41 pm § View Comments § permalink

Walker began this week with a bill-signing frenzy; then on Wednesday, between setting other corporate-driven agendas, he will be signing the recent Voter ID (a.k.a. Voter Supression) Bill into law. Here is Senator Erpenbach’s message on this subject:

Republican politicians have been driving this witch-hunt to stop non-existing “voter frauds” all over the country. Comparing to 2002, the American landscape has changed drastically for voters; most affected are students, usually a main staple for liberal votes. Of course, Wisconsin voters who will be affected go beyond the student population. Many will simply not be able to vote because of strenuous barriers set up by this bill.

Join the rally this Wednesday from 12:30pm to 3pm at the Capitol Building right outside of Walker’s office (MLK corner) to show your disapproval of this horrendous move to suppress voters!

Sad day for WI voters

May 17th, 2011 6:28 pm § View Comments § permalink

***Correction: VoterID Bill was passed TODAY (5/19/2011). It’s equally sad. When a political party relies on tactics of intimidation and of silencing opposing voices, despite the fact that it has the majority, you know that:

  1. Something is wrong, and they know it.
  2. They know something is wrong, and they do know it’s wrong to do it.

After Wisconsin was essentially turned backward for decades in people’s rights to vote, this speech was given, and then “We Shall Overcome” broke out. The video moved me to tears.

—-

Just nowthe Wisconsin Senate, controlled by the GOP majority, slammed through the Voter ID bill (2011 Assembly Bill 7). Disguised as an attempt to curb the non-existing voter fraud (see some of the fraud claims made by RW blogs), this bill really serves to make voting very difficult for some Wisconsinites–veterans, seniors, students and working class citizens, to name a few.

Wis. Voter ID Bill is Voter Suppression in Disguise
by Mike Hall, via AFL-CIO Now

Not satisfied with attacking the collective bargaining rights of public employees, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) and Republican legislators have set their sights on voting rights with a so-called “Voter ID” bill that opponents call voter suppression.

The bill was passed by the state Assembly last week and the state Senate is expected to approve it today. Both chambers have a Republican majority. The legislation will make it much more difficult for many Wisconsinites to exercise their right to vote due to confusing and onerous obstacles, such as the most restrictive photo ID requirement in the country.

In addition, the bill’s estimated cost is some $7.5 million at the time when Republicans claim the state is in dire financial strait…

 

Students, Teachers rallied in DC against school privatization

May 9th, 2011 4:23 pm § View Comments § permalink

Glorifying GOP’s sneaky action to siphon money off the public schools as “reform” will not cut it. Walker and Corbett got booed by more than 200 students, teachers and activists today.

Education Supporters Rally Against Walker at Privatization Conference
By Mike Hall, via AFL-CIO blog

More than 200 students, teachers and other activist—many from Wisconsin and Pennsylvania—rallied today in Washington, D.C., against  Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) and Gov. Tom Corbett’s moves to privatize their states’ schools.

The two—along with former Washington, D.C., school chancellor Michelle Rhee—were the key speakers at an annual conference by a right-wing “education reform” foundation that advocates privatizing public education and draws of some of the biggest funders of right-wing political projects nationally.

The American Federation for Children (ACF) promotes school privatization and voucher schemes that take away critically needed funds for public education.

Also watch 4th grader Noah Williams Morrow [sic.?] from Pennsylvania, who told Walker/Corbett like it is.

Trains and Tea don’t mix: high-speed rail now a fantasy for Florida (and Wisconsin)

May 9th, 2011 3:58 pm § View Comments § permalink

When governors run state business not with business, economic or common sense but instead with ideology, we see idiot decisions like returning federal funding that would otherwise have created jobs and spurred local economy. Wisconsin, like Florida, will sadly be missing out on Obama’s initiative to have 80% of Americans connected by high-speed rail within 25 years–while all of our neighboring states beginning with “I”s can all laugh.

Florida’s High-speed rail money redirected to states that aren’t run by idiots
by Jeremy Bloom, via Red, Greed and Blue

It’s all over for high-speed rail in Florida.

The Tampa to Orlando line had the backing of everyone from business to the state’s Republican legislators; but Rick Scott, the new Tea Party-backed governor, blocked it as a “big government boondoggle”. Today the Transportation Department announced that the money will go elsewhere.

Scott had claimed that even though the Federal Government was fully funding the project to the tune of $2 billion dollars, the state couldn’t afford what he called “huge operating costs” – this despite the fact that investor groups had guaranteed to cover any overruns or deficits.

What became clear was that this wasn’t about economics, but about ideology - just as in New Jersey and Wisconsin, where Republican governors blocked equally necessary rail programs out of opposition to “big government”.

 

The Unions Are Hip Again

April 16th, 2011 1:52 pm § View Comments § permalink

It’s been slightly over 2 months since the Wisconsin protest began in solidarity with the public employee unions. The circumstances are still not the best looking, but at the same time many good things came out of it. Besides the unsurpassed unity seen among unions, and the rise of support for middle class and the poor, unions have finally come back to the spotlight again. Because of this epic fight, we will be seeing more and more unions.

In University of Wisconsin System alone, faculty at Eau Claire, La Crosse, River Falls, Stevens Point, Stout, and Superior have joined the rank. It’s a clear statement to Walker, as UW-SP Math professor Andy Felt put it, their vote for union provided a “cause to stand in solidarity and say, ‘We will not allow intimidation to silence our voice.”

Soon we’ll likely welcome the employees of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to the brother- and sisterhood of union.

Unions Woo Airport Security Screeners
By Steven Greenhouse, on New York Times, 4/15/2011

Public employee unions may be taking a shellacking in Wisconsin and Ohio, but that has not discouraged the unions representing federal employees from vying to recruit 44,000 airport screeners. It is the largest unionization effort of federal workers in the nation’s history.

By next Tuesday, the screeners, employees of the Transportation Security Administration, are to finish casting their votes on whether to unionize. Almost everyone agrees that they will choose to do so.

[Read full article on New York Times]

A Visit To Rep. Duffy’s Tough Life

April 16th, 2011 12:19 am § View Comments § permalink

Remember last week that Rep. Sean Duffy made a statement on camera about how he struggled with his $174,000 salary?

Let’s take a visit to his home, where all the struggle takes place! It’s a 4-br, 3 baths house located at 2906  City Heights Road, Ashland WI.

Do Our Part, Get The Words Out!

April 15th, 2011 10:39 pm § View Comments § permalink

…Because the mainstream media is clearly biased and can no longer be trusted in providing the people a correct picture of the world.

Come to the Capitol Square tomorrow (Saturday 4/16) from the morning through 2pm, enjoy the Farmers’ Market, and greet the Tea Partiers. Show them how much you prefer coffee, collective bargaining rights, and a world where middle class won’t be squeezed and the poor stomped on. » Read the rest of this entry «

Rotundaville: A Place to Share, Inform, and Discuss

April 15th, 2011 3:23 pm § View Comments § permalink

We are happy that people in Rotundaville are feeling strongly about the need of an independent channel of information, provided that time and time again the mainstream media has failed us. To protect democracy, we all need to be informed, and be critical. And Rotundaville is hoping to serve as the place where we all can share info/research with each other, and discuss the situations at hand.

» Read the rest of this entry «

Probing Waukeshananigan

April 15th, 2011 10:37 am § View Comments § permalink

The more people investigate Ms. Nickolaus’ history, the fisher it smells. Voting “errors”? Uncooperative with GAB advice on improving Waukesha’s voting system? Nothing new. I hope investigation will go back even further to days when Nickolaus worked for David Prosser.

State investigating vote irregularities in Waukesha County going back 5 years
By Mary Spicuzza, via Madison.com » Read the rest of this entry «

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