Harry Reid is standing for what is right. He is pressing the GOP on their budget bill, and the GOP is holding it up because they want to strip funding from Planned Parenthood and cultural programs like NPR- now this could be 100% fiscally motivated- except that it isn't. Plenty of bigwig Republicans are encouraging the GOP to cut a deal- the GOP already got the cuts that it originally wanted.
Planned parenthood provides reproductive health services to women for low or no cost. It is a favorite topic for the GOP because it involves the twin evils of sex and helping the poor. Harry Reid is standing firm, asking the GOP point blank if they are willing to shut down the government just to show that they are against birth control and privately funded abortions.
The GOP is dodging the question, because they are ashamed of their agenda and know that it is wrong. I am so proud of my fellow Mormon. Through his example I have a way to be a member of this church and still stand up for social justice. Thank you Harry Reid, for giving me a role model in being politically active.
I hate the authoritarian nature of so much of LDS culture. Harry Reid is sort of my one and only example of integrity. Mitt Romney might have started out fine, but as he is now a republican he has started the inevitable GOP radicalization to the far-right in order to win Tea Party and Koch Brothers' Support. He is a sell-out, and I find that especially disgusting.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Greatest fraud is not just in Waukesha.
If I were going to rig an election, I would pick Waukesha County. I would use a former employee who had already been involved in a few scandals, and I would use an election official who openly mocked experts who suggest that her secretive go-at-it along vote tallying methods where a bad idea. In short, I would choose Kathy Nikolaus.
The recount will tell us if there was actual fraud involved. I suspect massive incompetence.
Another theory is that this vote delay is a sort of trick in itself, as it drags out the Prosser victory and the recount may distract from the much more important recall efforts across the state.
I am sure that the Walker administration along with the Koch brothers and other corporate interests are very capable of fraud. I am not sure if they would do it in such a blatant, trackable way. This is a serious issue, but other injustices are happening in this state right now.
Republican legislators are following the lead of Walker with little or no question. Walker's agenda will defund and then privatize schools and prisons. There is a proposal to impose a stringent 'voter id' at the polling place. This would make it more difficult for some to vote, and would not prevent in-person voter fraud as it is virtually non-existent.
The ALEC is a group of corporations that write legislation that is then given to gop lawmakers. The ALEC is pretty successful, and many of their bills are being proposed as laws here in Wisconsin. But this group does not work for the best interest of the people- it works for the companies that it represents.
The GOP is allowing drug companies to write Badgercare reform, they are allowing private school corporations to write Public school reform, they are rubber-stamping environmental regulations authored by the very polluters that they are supposed to be regulating. Walker says that this is about debt, and that his reforms benefit our grandchildren, but this is an outright lie. These laws benefit those that wrote them; they are not for the good of the people of Wisconsin.
This is the fraud in the state of Wisconsin.
The recount will tell us if there was actual fraud involved. I suspect massive incompetence.
Another theory is that this vote delay is a sort of trick in itself, as it drags out the Prosser victory and the recount may distract from the much more important recall efforts across the state.
I am sure that the Walker administration along with the Koch brothers and other corporate interests are very capable of fraud. I am not sure if they would do it in such a blatant, trackable way. This is a serious issue, but other injustices are happening in this state right now.
Republican legislators are following the lead of Walker with little or no question. Walker's agenda will defund and then privatize schools and prisons. There is a proposal to impose a stringent 'voter id' at the polling place. This would make it more difficult for some to vote, and would not prevent in-person voter fraud as it is virtually non-existent.
The ALEC is a group of corporations that write legislation that is then given to gop lawmakers. The ALEC is pretty successful, and many of their bills are being proposed as laws here in Wisconsin. But this group does not work for the best interest of the people- it works for the companies that it represents.
The GOP is allowing drug companies to write Badgercare reform, they are allowing private school corporations to write Public school reform, they are rubber-stamping environmental regulations authored by the very polluters that they are supposed to be regulating. Walker says that this is about debt, and that his reforms benefit our grandchildren, but this is an outright lie. These laws benefit those that wrote them; they are not for the good of the people of Wisconsin.
This is the fraud in the state of Wisconsin.
alec's private enterprise board
This list has been removed from the public portion of the ALEC website- someone is ashamed- but I think that it is important to see who exactly is writing this legislation that our GOP is rubber stamping into existence.
The private enterprise board is just one arm of ALEC.
For a better explanation and analysis of ALEC, please see alternet or scholarcitizen.williamcronon.net
ALEC Private Enterprise Board Chairman
--------------------------------------------------------
Mr. W. Preston Baldwin, Centerpoint360 (2011 Chairman)
Private Enterprise Board Members (as of December 1, 2010)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ms. Sano Blocker, Energy Future Holdings
Mr. Don Bohn, Johnson & Johnson
Mr. Jeff Bond, PhRMA
Mr. Bill Carmichael, American Bail Coalition
Mr. Derek Crawford, Kraft Foods, Inc.
Mr. John Del Giorno, GlaxoSmithKline
Mr. Matt Echols, Coca-Cola Company
Mr. Jim Epperson, Jr., AT&T Services, Inc.
Mr. Michael Hubert, Pfizer Inc
Ms. Teresa Jennings, Reed Elsevier, Inc.
Mr. Ken Lane, DIAGEO
Mr. Kelly Mader, Peabody Energy
Mr. Bernie McKay, Intuit, Inc.
Mr. Mike Morgan, Koch Industries, Inc.
Mr. Kevin Murphy, ExxonMobil Corp.
Mrs. Sandra Oliver, Bayer Corporation
Mr. David Powers, Reynolds American Inc.
Ms. Maggie Sans, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Mr. Russell Smoldon, Salt River Project
Mr. Toby Spangler, Altria Client Services, Inc.
Mr. Roland Spies, State Farm Insurance Co.
Mr. Pat Thomas, United Parcel Service
Mr. Jerry Watson, Chairman Emeritus
Thursday, April 7, 2011
prosser's 'victory' fund
Justice Prosser's home website is soliciting unlimited private donations for a 'victory' fund to ensure that the recount is done in such a way that 'Prosser's victory is preserved' I do not doubt that a recount could change the results, in 2004 a recount in the Washington state gubernatorial race yielded 723 uncounted ballots. However, Kloppenburg is the winner of the election. Prosser's campaign is requesting the recount, which means that he actually did come in with 209 fewer voted than Kloppenburg.
The Koch Brothers were able to inject a lot of money into this election by setting up a non profit dumbie non-profit. Cognitive Dissidence has a pretty good analysis of the situation. Prosser's interests outspent Kloppenburg's outside supporters 3:2. They still could not buy the election, so now it appears that there is an attempt to buy the recount.
In Wisconsin recounts are funded by the state if the margin of victory is within .5%. In this election 1.4 million votes were cast, with record turnout for a spring election. The recount will be long, and is generally conducted by the poll workers, with the majority of the cost being shouldered by local governments.
I guess that local government officials might be a bit biased against the Walker agenda, as his 'budget repair' takes a lot of state funding away from local governments, and limits the ability of local governments to raise money through property taxes. All this while giving tax breaks to corporations, increasing funding for highways, and reducing government oversight.
People involved in government know that Walker's agenda is bad news. Perhaps this is why Prosser and (let's not kid ourselves) the Koch Brothers are setting up a fund to 'oversee' the recount. I would not put any sort of fraud past the Walker administration, I have confidence that the Elections Board will conduct itself appropriately.
I am afraid that the Republicans will trump up charges of voter fraud and use their ready masses of angry tea partiers to get support for "Voter ID" which will disenfranchise the poor and young, and which are two groups of people that the Walker Agenda hopes to disenfranchise. It is an article of faith among Tea Partiers (Koch Brothers, ALEC) that people who oppose them aren't a part of the 'real america' which is part of their justification for Voter ID and removing same-day voter registration. Senate Bill 6 is a travesty.
The Koch Brothers were able to inject a lot of money into this election by setting up a non profit dumbie non-profit. Cognitive Dissidence has a pretty good analysis of the situation. Prosser's interests outspent Kloppenburg's outside supporters 3:2. They still could not buy the election, so now it appears that there is an attempt to buy the recount.
In Wisconsin recounts are funded by the state if the margin of victory is within .5%. In this election 1.4 million votes were cast, with record turnout for a spring election. The recount will be long, and is generally conducted by the poll workers, with the majority of the cost being shouldered by local governments.
I guess that local government officials might be a bit biased against the Walker agenda, as his 'budget repair' takes a lot of state funding away from local governments, and limits the ability of local governments to raise money through property taxes. All this while giving tax breaks to corporations, increasing funding for highways, and reducing government oversight.
People involved in government know that Walker's agenda is bad news. Perhaps this is why Prosser and (let's not kid ourselves) the Koch Brothers are setting up a fund to 'oversee' the recount. I would not put any sort of fraud past the Walker administration, I have confidence that the Elections Board will conduct itself appropriately.
I am afraid that the Republicans will trump up charges of voter fraud and use their ready masses of angry tea partiers to get support for "Voter ID" which will disenfranchise the poor and young, and which are two groups of people that the Walker Agenda hopes to disenfranchise. It is an article of faith among Tea Partiers (Koch Brothers, ALEC) that people who oppose them aren't a part of the 'real america' which is part of their justification for Voter ID and removing same-day voter registration. Senate Bill 6 is a travesty.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
klopp
Kloppenburg won the supreme court election by a scant 209 votes. There will be a recount, so it is not quite official. This is a really big deal because a sitting supreme court justice is very difficult to unseat. Prosser proclaimed his support for Walker early on, he then spent a lot of time denying that early support and pleading his impartiality. I was very concerned about his opinion that judges need not recuse themselves form cases involving their campaign contributors.
Kloppenburg is qualified, she is capable, but most importantly she is not Prosser, and has never expressed her commitment to his agenda (or against it). I see her as the only hope for a balanced court. I do not expect her to outlaw all of Walker's laws, but I do expect her to act in accordance with the law. Unfortunately our GOP lawmakers have been subverting court orders, and then claiming "Judicial activism" when the court does not uphold their shady ways.
This election is a sort of referendum on the Walker agenda. Walker claims in this statement, that the state is divided between the big cities Madison and Milwaukee (where he used to live) and the rest of the state where the "true citizens" live. I hear this from conservatives all the time; the whole 'us and them' mentality. I also believe that in this case it does not apply. Plenty of rural conservative places voted Kloppenburg (janesville), while Lacrosse voted Prosser.
I think that a lot of people voted for Prosser who will also recall Walker. I do not think that the reverse is true.
Kloppenburg is qualified, she is capable, but most importantly she is not Prosser, and has never expressed her commitment to his agenda (or against it). I see her as the only hope for a balanced court. I do not expect her to outlaw all of Walker's laws, but I do expect her to act in accordance with the law. Unfortunately our GOP lawmakers have been subverting court orders, and then claiming "Judicial activism" when the court does not uphold their shady ways.
This election is a sort of referendum on the Walker agenda. Walker claims in this statement, that the state is divided between the big cities Madison and Milwaukee (where he used to live) and the rest of the state where the "true citizens" live. I hear this from conservatives all the time; the whole 'us and them' mentality. I also believe that in this case it does not apply. Plenty of rural conservative places voted Kloppenburg (janesville), while Lacrosse voted Prosser.
I think that a lot of people voted for Prosser who will also recall Walker. I do not think that the reverse is true.
it will be a long fight.
Paul Ryan is the latest TEA party candidate to propose massive cuts and government privatization under the banner of saving money. His Plan is very closely related to that of Gov Walker for Wisconsin. It sounds reasonable to cut spending when there is a shortfall, but Paul Ryan and Gov. Walker did not come up with these ideas on their own. Their budget repairs are a cut and paste job taken from the 'budget repair toolkit' of the ALEC.
ALEC is made up of private corporate interests that pay lots of money to write model legislation. That is then introduced by the GOP lawmaker side of the business. This is different from what we think of as normal lobbying because it is highly organized, very successful, and secretive. The official ALEC membership is secret, as are the corporations that sit on each committee, and the amount of Money that is paid to belong to each committee.
William Cronon wrote about this shady organization, on his blog (scroll down a bit) the post prompted a Freedom in Information request from the DOA, which was meant to intimidate and embarrass him.
The ALEC, Fox News, The John Birch society, The Americans for Prosperity, and increasingly corrupt GOP politicians on the State and National level are all a part of this big-business takeover of government. I am fighting it here in Wisconsin, but the movement is larger than us. We are just now recounting our latest Supreme court election. Outside interest groups outspent Joanne Kloppenburg 3:2. The main 'nonprofit' funding the Prosser campaign was connected to and funded by the Koch Brothers- who also fund the Americans for Prosperity and very likely bribed national supreme court justices to get the Citizens United decision.
We need all non-profits' membership/contributors to be public record. We also need Citizens United to be overturned. We need to get the word out and expose the corporate greed machine that is the ALEC. We need to recall as many Republican Senators as possible here in Wisconsin. I believe that if people know about what is going on, then they will revolt.
Civil rights is an interesting analogy for the current protest. All minorities suffered under jim crow in the south. But the middle class black population did not participate much in the civil rights movement. As Condoleeza Rice said "if we had waited for the middle class, we would still be waiting". There was a lot of opposition to civil rights; plenty of ant-civil rights groups pointed out that Jim Crow was legal, that it wasn't perhaps a constitutional right to drink from every drinking fountain, and that plenty of places have it worse. I imagine that there was a sneer and an eyeroll when anti-civil rights people derisively said that slavery was wrong, but that there was no relation between that great evil and eating in a segregated restaurant.
I find it very interesting that the John Birch Society, which was well known for their anti-civil rights campaign also vehemently denied that they were a racist organization. The Americans for Prosperity are also funded by the Koch family, albeit a new generation. The AFP also embraces a less explicit anti-civil rights mission, mostly clothed as being pro-american by cutting entitlements and the social safety net, as well as busting unions- which benefit all workers, but benefit minorities most by mandating equal pay for equal work. They also advocate policies like Voter ID which will disenfranchise the poor. Because of these and other claims, the AFP is constantly denying allegations that its policies are classist and racially motivated. They like to point out that they have a few black members. This is true. There are black people in the AFP, and they are very popular, because practically every member of the AFP has a black friend that they love to talk about.
Far from excusing the AFP from any racist tendencies, this just proves that caucasians do not have a monopoly on gullible people.
This is going to be a long fight. It is starting to pick up some steam here in Wisconsin, but it is far from over. Civil rights took over a decade, and there are still battles to fight on that front. Exposing the GOP corporate law machine, and reforming our national campaign finance laws may take just as long. There are plenty of skeptics, plenty of detractors, and a whole lot of misinformation. I am in this for the long haul, and I have never appreciated the words of Dr. Martin Luther King more than I do now when I read;
ALEC is made up of private corporate interests that pay lots of money to write model legislation. That is then introduced by the GOP lawmaker side of the business. This is different from what we think of as normal lobbying because it is highly organized, very successful, and secretive. The official ALEC membership is secret, as are the corporations that sit on each committee, and the amount of Money that is paid to belong to each committee.
William Cronon wrote about this shady organization, on his blog (scroll down a bit) the post prompted a Freedom in Information request from the DOA, which was meant to intimidate and embarrass him.
The ALEC, Fox News, The John Birch society, The Americans for Prosperity, and increasingly corrupt GOP politicians on the State and National level are all a part of this big-business takeover of government. I am fighting it here in Wisconsin, but the movement is larger than us. We are just now recounting our latest Supreme court election. Outside interest groups outspent Joanne Kloppenburg 3:2. The main 'nonprofit' funding the Prosser campaign was connected to and funded by the Koch Brothers- who also fund the Americans for Prosperity and very likely bribed national supreme court justices to get the Citizens United decision.
We need all non-profits' membership/contributors to be public record. We also need Citizens United to be overturned. We need to get the word out and expose the corporate greed machine that is the ALEC. We need to recall as many Republican Senators as possible here in Wisconsin. I believe that if people know about what is going on, then they will revolt.
Civil rights is an interesting analogy for the current protest. All minorities suffered under jim crow in the south. But the middle class black population did not participate much in the civil rights movement. As Condoleeza Rice said "if we had waited for the middle class, we would still be waiting". There was a lot of opposition to civil rights; plenty of ant-civil rights groups pointed out that Jim Crow was legal, that it wasn't perhaps a constitutional right to drink from every drinking fountain, and that plenty of places have it worse. I imagine that there was a sneer and an eyeroll when anti-civil rights people derisively said that slavery was wrong, but that there was no relation between that great evil and eating in a segregated restaurant.
I find it very interesting that the John Birch Society, which was well known for their anti-civil rights campaign also vehemently denied that they were a racist organization. The Americans for Prosperity are also funded by the Koch family, albeit a new generation. The AFP also embraces a less explicit anti-civil rights mission, mostly clothed as being pro-american by cutting entitlements and the social safety net, as well as busting unions- which benefit all workers, but benefit minorities most by mandating equal pay for equal work. They also advocate policies like Voter ID which will disenfranchise the poor. Because of these and other claims, the AFP is constantly denying allegations that its policies are classist and racially motivated. They like to point out that they have a few black members. This is true. There are black people in the AFP, and they are very popular, because practically every member of the AFP has a black friend that they love to talk about.
Far from excusing the AFP from any racist tendencies, this just proves that caucasians do not have a monopoly on gullible people.
This is going to be a long fight. It is starting to pick up some steam here in Wisconsin, but it is far from over. Civil rights took over a decade, and there are still battles to fight on that front. Exposing the GOP corporate law machine, and reforming our national campaign finance laws may take just as long. There are plenty of skeptics, plenty of detractors, and a whole lot of misinformation. I am in this for the long haul, and I have never appreciated the words of Dr. Martin Luther King more than I do now when I read;
"We shall overcome because Carlisle is right. "No lie can live forever." We shall overcome because William Cullen Bryant is right. "Truth crushed to earth will rise again." We shall overcome because James Russell Lowell is right. "Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne." Yet that scaffold sways the future. We shall overcome because the Bible is right. "You shall reap what you sow." With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to speed up the day when all of God's children all over this nation - black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old negro spiritual, "Free at Last, Free at Last, Thank God Almighty, We are Free At Last."
-MLK
-MLK
Friday, April 1, 2011
ALEC links
The actual ALEC website tells us a lot about its intentions, everything from the "workfare" to the "parents rights amendment" but as we can not read many of its documents, or find its membership, we need other sources to find out the truth behind this shady group. Here is a nice article on the workings of ALEC.
ALEC is run by private corporations who pay money to join, and then pay even more money to actually write 'model legislation'. Since the bills are written by corporations paying top dollar, the bills are all very pro-business. Many of these bills are then lobbied to the republican lawmakers who are also ALEC members, they pay only $100/yr, and they are lobbied and treated to conventions by the ALEC who then get them to enact the 'model legislation'.
In effect, Private business interests are writing legislation. The legislation, like Arizona's recently overturned 1070 immigration law is sold to the public as the work of conservative legislators doing their best to serve the interest of the people, but in reality that law was written by private prison companies that hope to profit from the incarceration of illegal aliens.
Much of the Current budget strife here in Wisconsin doesn't make a lot of sense- why does our budget eliminate an early-out program for prisoners? Why does the 'budget repair' actually call for LESS regulation for roads projects? A lot of these can be answered by the simple fact that the 'Budget repair' proposed by Walker and the GOP legislators is written by, and in the best interest of, private companies.
The healthcare changes alone have been drastic; It seems that the cuts could have been made without appointing Dennis Miller to make all change of eligibility decisions instead of congress. But this change was not made for the benefit of the public, it is made in the name of 'fiscal responsibility' which when spoken by Scott Walker and his cronies means 'they are responsible for fiscally benefiting the ALEC".
There is even more to this movement; Business interests are first and foremost, but Paul Weyrich (prominent member of ALEC) has even more of his agenda written up in his 2001 book The Integration of Theory and Practice.
SHAME!
ALEC is run by private corporations who pay money to join, and then pay even more money to actually write 'model legislation'. Since the bills are written by corporations paying top dollar, the bills are all very pro-business. Many of these bills are then lobbied to the republican lawmakers who are also ALEC members, they pay only $100/yr, and they are lobbied and treated to conventions by the ALEC who then get them to enact the 'model legislation'.
In effect, Private business interests are writing legislation. The legislation, like Arizona's recently overturned 1070 immigration law is sold to the public as the work of conservative legislators doing their best to serve the interest of the people, but in reality that law was written by private prison companies that hope to profit from the incarceration of illegal aliens.
Much of the Current budget strife here in Wisconsin doesn't make a lot of sense- why does our budget eliminate an early-out program for prisoners? Why does the 'budget repair' actually call for LESS regulation for roads projects? A lot of these can be answered by the simple fact that the 'Budget repair' proposed by Walker and the GOP legislators is written by, and in the best interest of, private companies.
The healthcare changes alone have been drastic; It seems that the cuts could have been made without appointing Dennis Miller to make all change of eligibility decisions instead of congress. But this change was not made for the benefit of the public, it is made in the name of 'fiscal responsibility' which when spoken by Scott Walker and his cronies means 'they are responsible for fiscally benefiting the ALEC".
There is even more to this movement; Business interests are first and foremost, but Paul Weyrich (prominent member of ALEC) has even more of his agenda written up in his 2001 book The Integration of Theory and Practice.
SHAME!
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