Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
I have already written three posts about Governor Scott Walker, his budget repair bill, and the protesters in Wisconsin. People have been interested in
the Wisconsin story and have left nearly 1,800 comments at my three posts. I’ve even received requests to write up another post so that we could continue the discussion on the subject. I think there are others like me who believe the Wisconsin/Walker story is not over yet.
As I did last week, I’m posting links to some articles on the subject for you—as well as excerpts from some of the articles.
Democrats immediately file suit to halt challenges (Journal Sentinel)
By Jason Stein, Don Walker, and Patrick Marley
Excerpt: Wisconsin is now among the vanguard of Midwestern states embarking on a new era with their rules for public unions. Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, a Republican, signed an executive order in 2005 to eliminate collective bargaining for state employees. Ohio is working on a measure to rewrite its collective bargaining law with public-sector unions.
But the fight in Wisconsin isn’t over – Democrats and unions are already filing lawsuits against the proposal and recall actions against GOP senators who approved it.
“It’s just the beginning,” said Sen. Bob Jauch (D-Poplar). “This is the civil rights issue of this century.”
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Wisconsin’s Legacy of Labor Battles (New York Times)
By Kate Zernike
Excerpt: In her book, “Radical Unionism in the Midwest, 1900-1950,” Professor Feurer recounts how companies in the electrical industry in St. Louis started a network known as the Metal Trades Association in the first part of the 20th century to fight union organizing. The association had been alarmed by union protests that erupted violently with the Haymarket Square riot in 1886 and the demands for an eight-hour day, which started with the 1894 Pullman strike in Illinois — an early effort by Eugene V. Debs, the former Indiana legislator and future Socialist Party candidate for president.
“That left a legacy of the 1930s and ’40s for employers to form deep right-wing networks,” Professor Feurer said.
That network, she argues, was the precursor to the Midwestern groups that have now been assisting the fight against the unions in Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana: the Bradley Foundation, based in Milwaukee, and Koch Industries, based in Wichita, Kan. David H. and Charles G. Koch, the billionaire brothers behind the energy and manufacturing conglomerate that bears their name, have been large donors to Mr. Walker in Wisconsin, as has their advocacy group, Americans for Prosperity, which first opened an office in Wisconsin in 2005.
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By Ryan Haggerty and Michael Muskal
Excerpt: Even as Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker on Friday signed into law a bill that sharply curbs collective bargaining for most public employees, his opponents were preparing for more demonstrations, court battles and political infighting over what has become a national test of labor’s power.
Organizers were hoping to attract tens of thousands protesters to the Capitol on Saturday for a rally featuring the return of Democratic lawmakers who fled the state on Feb. 17 in an effort to block the measure from passing. Along with the rally, Democrats are planning to ask the courts to overturn the new law and they have begun circulating petitions to recall some lawmakers. GOP supporters are circulating their own recall petitions, directed at the Democrats.
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Op-Ed: The GOP’s costly Wisconsin Koch binge is a wake-up call (Digital Journal)
The Big Shakedown: Wisconsin and the GOP’s Vision for America’s Future (Common Dreams)
Dane County sues state to block budget bill (The Cap Times)
Union Bill Is Law, but Debate Is Far from Over (New York Times)
My Previous Posts
Scott Walker: A Fiscally Responsible Governor or a Politician Who Is Playing Favorites?
Is the Scott Walker Story Just the Tip of the Koch Brothers’ Political Iceberg?
Wisconsin, Scott Walker, and Protesting Workers: The Story Continues
You can see the latest result with this and just hit f5 to update it…
11:54 PM (EDT) from the Associated Press:
Total 2962/3630
Prosser 49% 614,578
Kloppenburg 51% 595,839
AP has her up by 33,000. Some republican counties are still uncounted.
at 11:57 she has a 35k lead
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/files/elections/2011/by_county/WI_Supreme_Court_0405.html?SITE=AP&SECTION=POLITICS
Great news OS!!
she has a 9k lead….about 4 county’s not reporting at all…yet
OS I thought she lost by 15% in the previous election…
11:52pm: 81% in, Kloppenburg up 18K votes. Prosser doing 4.66% worse than he did at this point on primary night.
Shes ahead now…
She has about 6k more votes…at the present..
Kloppenburg is running about 75% in Madison. The tea party is in control of the Milwaukee suburbs and the rest of the state. The race is tied now.
County Precincts
D. Prosser (i) J. Kloppenburg
Total 2378/3630 514,475 50% 515,891 50% The tides appear to be turning….
Looks like the Tea party showed up….
Still have Total 2312/3630 1318 to go….
Prosser 504,717—51% Kloppenburg 486,752–49%
The Religious Right’s Anti-Union Crusade
— By Josh Harkinson| Mon Apr. 4, 201
Mother Jones
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/03/religious-rights-crusade-against-unions
Excerpt:
Wisconsin’s ongoing labor battle has officially become a holy war. The Family Research Council, the evangelical advocacy organization founded by James Dobson, has been dipping into its war chest to defend Republican Governor Scott Walker’s efforts to curtail collective bargaining for public-sector unions. FRC president Tony Perkins interviewed backers of Walker’s anti-union bill on his weekly radio program and has tweeted his support for the bill, directly linking social conservatism with an anti-union, pro-business agenda: “Pro-family voters should celebrate WI victory b/c public & private sector union bosses have marched lock-step w/liberal social agenda.”
The FRC’s new political action committee, the Faith, Family, Freedom Fund, is airing ads on 34 Wisconsin radio stations in an effort to influence the April 5 judicial election that could ultimately decide the fate of the law. The ads target Wisconsin Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg, who’s running against a conservative incumbent, David Prosser, for a seat on the state Supreme Court. If elected, Kloppenburg would alter the balance on the court in favor of Democrats, giving them the ability to invalidate the recently enacted ban on public-employee collective bargaining. “Liberals see her as their best hope to advance their political agenda and strike down laws passed by a legislature and governor elected by the people,” say the ads. “A vote for Prosser is a vote to keep politics out of the Supreme Court.”
The FRC’s anti-labor campaign in Wisconsin is part of its larger agenda to meld fiscal conservatism with its family-values message. Its recent priorities have included fighting health care reform, new taxes on the wealthy, and President Obama’s budget proposals. In recent weeks, Perkins has used his radio show to hash through small-government talking points with House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), Tea Party caucus head Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), who told him, “The bigger government gets, the smaller God gets.” After exploring the value of union busting with Republican state Representative Robin Vos of Wisconsin last month, Perkins expressed “our thanks to you, as conservatives across the country.”
Elaine M,
“some people are more equal than others in Fitzwalkerstan”
Nepotism at its finest …
Stamford Liberal,
Thanks for posting that story. I missed that one. It all goes to show that for folks like Walker the tough talk and drastic financial cuts are meant only for some of the people. Evidently, some people are more equal than others in Fitzwalkerstan.
Scott Walker Gives $81,500 Government Job To Top Donor’s 26-Year-Old College Dropout Son
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R)
Since taking office in January, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) has stripped public workers of their collective bargaining rights, proposed wage cuts to local government employees, and insisted that his “state is broke” and that its public workers are overpaid. But Walker applies a different standard to himself.
Today, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reveals that Walker is using state funds to pay more than $81,500 a year to the 26-year-old son of a major campaign donor with no college degree and two drunken-driving convictions.
Despite having almost no management experience, UW Madison college dropout Brian Deschane now oversees state environmental and regulatory issues and manages dozens of Commerce Department employees. After only two months on the job, Deschane has already received a 26 percent pay raise and a promotion.
Deschane’s father, Jerry Deschane was a major financial backer of the Governor’s campaign:
Jerry Deschane, executive vice president and longtime lobbyist for the Madison-based Wisconsin Builders Association…bet big on Walker during last year’s governor’s race.
The group’s political action committee gave $29,000 to Walker and his running mate, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, last year, making it one of the top five PAC donors to the governor’s successful campaign. Even more impressive, members of the trade group funneled more than $92,000 through its conduit to Walker’s campaign over the past two years.
Total donations: $121,652.
Deschanes’ father admitted that during the gubenatorial campaign he may have put in “good words” for his son with Walker campaign manager (and current chief of staff) Keith Gilkes. A state official has confirmed that Gilkes “recommended Deschane for an interview at the agency.” Michael McCabe, the executive director of the Wisconsin democracy Campaign, said the appointment had “all the markings of political patronage.”
In the coming months, we may be seeing more cases of Brian Deschanes. The anti-union law Walker signed last month also included provisions that would convert more than thirty-seven civil service positions into political appointees chosen by the Governor.
– Kevin Donohoe
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/04/scott-walker-hires-dropout/
Wisconsin Union Law Passage To Be Examined By Judge
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/01/wisconsin-union-law-passa_n_843467.html
by TODD RICHMOND
Huffington Post, 4/1/2011
Excerpt:
MADISON, Wis. — A week ago, Wisconsin Republicans thought they’d won the fight over the state’s polarizing union rights bill. They’d weathered massive protests, outfoxed Senate Democrats who fled the state and gotten around a restraining order blocking the law by having an obscure state agency publish it. They even started preparations to pull money from public workers’ paychecks.
But the victory was short-lived. A judge ruled Friday that the restraining order will stay in place for at least two months while she considers whether Republicans passed the law illegally. It was the second blow to Republicans in as many days after the same judge declared Thursday that the law hadn’t been properly published and wasn’t in effect as they claimed.
TPMDC
Univ. of Wisconsin Responds To GOP’s Open-Records Request Against Professor
Eric Kleefeld | April 1, 2011
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/04/univ-of-wisconsin-responds-to-gops-open-records-request-against-professor.php?ref=fpb
The University of Wisconsin-Madison has announced that it is legally complying with the state Republican Party’s open-records request, which sought the e-mails of Professor William Cronon after he had written a blog post critical of Gov. Scott Walker’s anti-public employee union bill. But there’s a big catch.
Chancellor Biddy Martin announced in a statement posted online that the university will release some of Cronon’s e-mails later on Friday. But first, they applied a “balancing test” to the e-mails, excluding those protected by various privacy laws and other key rules, and that they believe they are in compliance with the law:
We are excluding records involving students because they are protected under FERPA. We are excluding exchanges that fall outside the realm of the faculty member’s job responsibilities and that could be considered personal pursuant to Wisconsin Supreme Court case law. We are also excluding what we consider to be the private email exchanges among scholars that fall within the orbit of academic freedom and all that is entailed by it. Academic freedom is the freedom to pursue knowledge and develop lines of argument without fear of reprisal for controversial findings and without the premature disclosure of those ideas.
Reading through that list, one gets the feeling that there would not be very much left. Martin also says that the university examined Cronon’s university e-mails for any violations of the law, such as engaging in partisan political activity — and there are none. And Martin also adds a vigorous defense of the principle of academic freedom.
Key quote:
When faculty members use email or any other medium to develop and share their thoughts with one another, they must be able to assume a right to the privacy of those exchanges, barring violations of state law or university policy. Having every exchange of ideas subject to public exposure puts academic freedom in peril and threatens the processes by which knowledge is created. The consequence for our state will be the loss of the most talented and creative faculty who will choose to leave for universities where collegial exchange and the development of ideas can be undertaken without fear of premature exposure or reprisal for unpopular positions.
This does not mean that scholars can be irresponsible in the use of state and university resources or the exercise of academic freedom. We have dutifully reviewed Professor Cronon’s records for any legal or policy violations, such as improper uses of state or university resources for partisan political activity. There are none.
To our faculty, I say: Continue to ask difficult questions, explore unpopular lines of thought and exercise your academic freedom, regardless of your point of view. As always, we will take our cue from the bronze plaque on the walls of Bascom Hall. It calls for the “continual and fearless sifting and winnowing” of ideas. It is our tradition, our defining value, and the way to a better society.
Late Update: When asked for comment, Cronon told TPM: “I could not be more grateful for the thought and care that Biddy Martin and UW-Madison attorneys have put into crafting these responses — and I am very proud of this university for continuing to defend the great traditions of the Wisconsin Idea and of the ‘sifting and winnowing’ plaque that I discussed in my earlier blog.”
This refers to a plaque at the main entrance to Bascom Hall, a major campus building, which has inscribed upon it a quote from the 1894 report of the UW Board of Regents:
Whatever may be the limitations which trammel inquiry elsewhere, we believe that the great State University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.
Late Late Update: The state Republican Party released this statement, from executive director Mark Jefferson:
“We thank the University for complying with the open records request relating to the email correspondence of Professor William Cronon, and we thank Chancellor Martin for her statement. We share her belief that University faculty are not above the rules prohibiting the use of state resources for political purposes. Like other organizations from across the political spectrum, the Republican Party of Wisconsin has a longstanding history of making open records requests, and we will continue to exercise our right to do so in the future.”
Previously, when Cronon had publicly denounced the records request, Jefferson said that such criticism would deter open-government efforts. “I have never seen such a concerted effort to intimidate someone from lawfully seeking information about their government,” Jefferson wrote last week. “Further, it is chilling to see that so many members of the media would take up the cause of a professor who seeks to quash a lawful open records request.”
Then there is the English translation of the work of Benito Mussolini and Giovanni Gentile, “The Doctrine of Facism,” 1932, as found on:
http://www.worldfuturefund.org/wffmaster/Reading/Germany/mussolini.htm
“The Doctrine of Facism,” in English is as though of beautiful words to me.
Pity that, when put into action, those beautiful words became unspeakably horrid outcomes.
Perhaps what people actually do has more effect than what people merely say.
Or, did I miss something important?