What's Happening in Wisconsin?

Good late morning!

My goodness but there's lots of news on the lines this morning. I'll begin with something I received from One Wisconsin Now.

Dear Jeanie:

I was so outraged after watching to the Assembly Republicans smirk and sneer as they moved to pass Gov. Scott Walker’s Voter Suppression Bill today, I simply had to leave their hearing.

Tell me, how is making it harder for legal voters like seniors, students, minorities and working families to cast their ballot going to create jobs? It won’t. It will just make elections easier for corporate candidates, like Walker, Randy Hopper, Dan Kapanke and Alberta Darling, who serve the Koch Brothers, Big Oil and the Health Insurance cartel.

So, I left and came back to the office so I could tell you exactly what’s in this Voter Suppression Bill, and how with your help, we are going to do everything we can to stop it. Wisconsin is desperate for good-paying jobs, but instead we have Republicans focused on suppression our voting rights. Here’s our analysis of the Voter Suppression Bill:

* It requires voter identification that will disenfranchise untold thousands of seniors, students, minorities and working Wisconsinites
* It makes unprecedented restrictions on absentee voting
* It increases residency requirements for new Wisconsinites
* It creates barriers for voters with disabilities

And why are Scott Walker and Wisconsin’s legislative Republicans hell bent on attacking our freedom? Because they want to rig our elections.

This is an enormous fight, but One Wisconsin Now has never backed down from challenging any voter suppression. You and I know how high the stakes are in this fight. Thank you for everything you do.

Scot
One Wisconsin Now

PS: The Assembly Republicans voted to pass this bill out of committee so it can come to the floor as soon as possible.

Walker has not stopped in his push to strip Wisconsin of just about everything. The Wisconsin Supreme Court will hear arguments on collective bargaining rights on June 6th. This is from scottwalkerwatch.com - "While the Supreme Court will continue the legal process on the first attempts by Walker to bust unions, the collective bargaining language may be put into the recent budget talks, making the possible protests to happen all over again. Here is the timeline:

The Wisconsin Supreme Court said Wednesday it will hear arguments in June over whether a judge had the authority to block implementation of Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to eliminate most collective bargaining powers from nearly all state workers. The court asked both sides of a lawsuit challenging the legislation to submit arguments by May 18 explaining why the justices should take the case and, at the same time, why it should either undo or uphold the lower court’s action. Oral arguments are set for June 6."

And while that is planned for June, this is happening under the radar. Makes me mad as hell.

"Something bad is happening under the mainstream media radar regarding the Wisconsin Supreme Court recount. The General Accounting Board had requested that electronic voting machines used during the election were to have the ballots printed out and hand counted. That’s not happening. Ballots in unmarked bags, confusing count numbers making votes magically appearing and other oddities are not being reported. Even Barb Hansen, hired by Waukesha County after County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus recused herself from the recount has stated the recount “is not pretty” regarding how recounting procedures are being done."

Read the entire post at www.scottwalkerwatch.com. Write to your legislator and ask for honest information from him or her on how they think the process is proceeding. Ask them to look in on that and ask for transparency in this critically important procedure. We deserve to know what's happening!

Call your legislator: 877-753-5578

This citizen participation takes lots of effort - we need to keep at it. I was at meeting yesterday down in Illinois. At one point I spoke about participatory democracy and how We The People in Wisconsin had awakened to that in a phenomenal way on the 11th of February. Citizens woke up to the awareness that they are the ones who can make a difference even if it takes monumental effort over a sustained period of time and that, in fact, it is the only thing that will make a difference. We The People!

So, in the spirit of Bob La Follette, the following are some tidbits from the protest.

http://solidaritywisconsin.com/feedpage

http://www.politicususa.com/en/scott-walker-two-faced-too-late

and talk about the spin meisters!
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/2011/05/10708/scott-walker-champions-state-employees


Andy and I are off to Ohio this weekend for my Dad's 90th birthday. That's something isn't it? He's pretty connected to things at 90. He reads several daily papers, several scientific magazines and other periodicals. I doubt if I'll have time to blog while visiting - for me that's like chewing gum and doing anything! But I'll be back on Tuesday with whatever news has burst forth.

Happy Mother's Day to all you common, wonderful, beautiful mothers!
Power To All The People!