Bank ‘Activity’ Required For Wisconsin Voter ID
In the state of Wisconsin, you may be denied the ability to vote for lack of sufficient recent “bank activity”. A woman surreptitiously filmed the interactions as her 18-year-old son leaps through hurdle after hurdle in an attempt to get a constitutionally-guaranteed state ID so that he could vote. At the DMV, the pair is told that voter IDs were not issued when voters’ bank accounts did not show enough “activity.” The clerk had no answer when asked what would happen in the case of a resident who was homeless or unemployed, or too poor to maintain the minimum balance required for a checking account.
Do You Smell The Chum?
Well, this past Tuesday certainly was freaky. In case you hadn’t noticed it, a massive disturbance rippled through the Force with enough power to knock the shoes off of anyone paying attention. It’s unclear to me precisely what it all adds up to, but I suspect that the universe just passed through a Paradox Inflection. Just possibly the forces of Right Wing Corporatist Perversion have actually begun to turn on themselves. Here’s just three examples of what I mean:
1. Rupert Murdoch retreats on his big to monopolize Britain’s largest satellite service BSkyB. In the wake of the recent phone hacking scandal where person’s in the employee of Murdoch’s flagship publication News of the World was forced to close up shop for illegally eavesdropping on the survivors of terrorist attacks and bribing police officials. Many initial reports saw that as a savvy move to divert attention from Murdoch’s attempt to acquire…
Luntz and Counter-Luntz: The Word You’re Looking for Is “Dissent”
In recent weeks I’ve had number of interesting discussions with friends, Facebook and otherwise, about the bizarre shift towards totalitarianism in American politics. Of course, no political movement is possible without a corresponding cultural alignment, and the most lamentable trend in this regard seems to me to be the ascendancy of misanthropic polemical whores like Frank Luntz, who function more or less as the shock troops against the American tradition of anti-ideology, perverting our traditional inclinations into a cult of Mammon.[1]
Wisconsinites, whom I believe to be reasonably typical victims of Luntz et alia, demonstrate some pretty mixed reactions to the word “protest”, judging by some friends’ anecdotes surrounding pre-recall canvassing going on in this state. One friend’s story particularly resonated with me: a man who angrily turned a canvasser away from his door saying that he was tired of all that protesting going on in Madison, and thought the “Wisconsin 14″ had shown bad…
Happy Bloomsday, America!
Hand drawing of Bloom by Joyce
June 16th is the annual celebration of Leopold Bloom’s doomed wanderings through Dublin in 1904, as chronicled in James Joyce’s classic novel “Ulysses”. And in the 21st century, reality finally catches up with and overtakes fiction.
In 1921 a U.S. court banned Ulysses on the grounds that some of its graphic depictions of nudity and sexuality constituted pornography under the Postal Code. And while that decision was reversed in 1933 by a judge who could only have failed today’s more rigorous selection processes for illiteracy and cretinism, the private sector came to the rescue of public morals when Apple banned an online illustrated version from its iStore last year.
However, that victory had an even shorter half-life. A couple months later, presumably realizing that it would lose it’s investment completely if it maintained the ban, and that nobody would likely access anything remotely smacking of literary merit anyway, Apple decided…
Foghorn Leghorn Speaks On Matters in Wisconsin
Is it possible to channel a fictional character? Specifically, the Southern-gentrified blowhard from the Warner Bro.’s 1960’s “Foghorn Leghorn” franchise? Based upon experiments performed over the weekend, I can report a firm and conclusive “yes”. But the ritual requires copious volumes of an obscure Sri Lankan stout called “Lion“. And Mr. Legohorn seems to have quite a bit to say about Wisconsin people and places . . . .
“The behavior on display before us in this instance constitutes a perfect SCANDAL in the eyes of our sacred parliamentary traditions. This method of proceeding cannot call to mind words any loftier or more noble than “poltroon” and “knave”. I understand that the accepted standards of comportment may not be all they could in some of the darker corners of the great state of Wisconsin, but I see no reason to drag them into the sacred halls of our legislature.”
—Regarding the extraordinary violation of…
Scott Walker Has Painting Of Poor Children Removed From Wisconsin Governor’s Mansion
Other politicians can slash taxes for the rich while cutting funds for teachers and struggling families, but few can throw in some Mr. Burns-style symbolic nose-thumbing like the Wisconsin governor. Via Mother Jones:
Walker has made headlines again after he removed a painting (see right) depicting three Milwaukee children—one had been homeless, one from low-income family, and a third who had lost family members in a drunk-driving accident—from the Governor’s mansion.
The painting, hung over the mantel, was intended to remind state leaders of the people they represent. Scott Walker and his wife Tonette replaced it with a portrait of Old Abe, a Civil War-era bald eagle from Wisconsin.
Through the Eye of a Needle …
Via Dystopia Diaries:
Some unexpected good news here: A Wisconsin judge has ruled that the passage of Governor Scott Walker’s aggressive union-busting bill’s, engineered late in the night without the statutorially required 24 hours notice or the quorum necessary for a budget bill, is a violation of the state’s open meetings law. An injunction is now in place to prevent the bill’s enforcement.
You may recall the raucuous buildup to the April 5th Wisconsin Supreme Court election which was widely seen as a referendum on that un-precedented (and now apparently un-lawful) powergrab, an Orwellian abuse of rhetoric and procedure whose only certain purpose was to destroy any group to politcally organize outside the orbit of his Koch brothers patrons. David Prosser, the Republican incumbent was and still is regarded as strongly in favour of Walker’s dubious scheme, whereas his opponent, Madison-based JoAnne Kloppenberg ran on the ticket of the Democratic party who not unnaturally opposed it.
But if the buildup was a barn-burner, the prolonged…
Madison Activists Push Resolution To Deny Constitutional Rights To Corporations
Wisconsin activists seek support in the belief that corporations don’t deserve the same constitutional rights as citizens. Isthmus reports:
Kaja Rebane wants Dane County residents to send a message that corporations aren’t people and money isn’t speech.
The UW-Madison grad student helped organize a successful effort to put referenda on the April 5 ballot in both the city of Madison and Dane County. It ask voters whether they believe corporations and people, and money and speech, should be considered distinct.
The local movement, spearheaded by South Central Wisconsin Move to Amend, is part of a national one that aims to amend the U.S. Constitution, to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s Jan. 21, 2010, decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. That controversial ruling, passed 5-4, found that the government could not restrict corporate spending on independent political advertisements, saying this violated the First Amendment.
While organizing on this issue is being done nationwide, Dane County…
When No Experience Pays Off Big (In a Government Job)
Brian Deschane's mugshot
Daniel Bice writes in the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel:
Just in his mid-20s, Brian Deschane has no college degree, very little management experience and two drunken-driving convictions.
Yet he has landed an $81,500-per-year job in Gov. Scott Walker’s administration overseeing environmental and regulatory matters and dozens of employees at the Department of Commerce. Even though Walker says the state is broke and public employees are overpaid, Deschane already has earned a promotion and a 26% pay raise in just two months with the state.
How did Deschane score his plum assignment with the Walker team? It’s all in the family. His father is Jerry Deschane, executive vice president and longtime lobbyist for the Madison-based Wisconsin Builders Association, which 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…
“Herr Prösser?!!”: The Madison Uprising to Shift Gears on April 5th
The madness surrounding Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s efforts to destroy trade unionism continues apace, but outsiders are likely to be deceived into thinking momentum of the Madison Uprising has been dissipated from its previous well-defined orbit. They couldn’t be more wrong — and the turnout for Wisconsin’s April 5th supreme court contest between Prosser (R) and Kloppenburg (D) will prove that.
Current reports from Madison consistently describe a hard core of about one to two dozen protestors haunting the capitol building these days. Some Right Wing supporters of the union-busting tactics have publicly taken courage from this decrease since March 11th, when Walker signed the contententious bill. That, however, would be to focus on the hole, rather than the doughnut, so to speak.
While massive 100+ person rallies like those that continued for 3+ weeks in the capitol building are hugely important for gathering momentum and mobilizing latent energies, they really only represent the tip of an ungodly horror being whipped up for Walker and his supporters in…
Indiana Prosecutor Resigns After Suggesting Staging ‘Fake Attack’ In Wisconsin
Vic Ryckaert and Kevin O’Neal report in the Indianapolis Star:
For the second time, an Indiana public official has lost his job because of provocative comments made about the political brouhaha in Wisconsin.
Carlos F. Lam, a Johnson County deputy prosecutor, resigned Thursday after acknowledging he sent an email last month urging Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker to discredit labor union protests by orchestrating a fake assault on himself.
Possibly, Lam suggested, the pretend assailant might even use a firearm.
Lam’s boss, Prosecutor Bradley D. Cooper, accepted the resignation. He called Lam’s Feb. 19 email to Walker a “foolish suggestion.”
On Feb. 23, the Indiana Attorney General’s office fired deputy Atty. Gen. Jeff Cox after he suggested in blog posts and on Twitter that police use live ammunition on protesters who had poured into Wisconsin’s Capitol.
The political fight in Wisconsin erupted when Walker, a Republican, called for eliminating collective bargaining for public employees. That bill passed…
The Beginning of the End? We Can Only Hope
Previously sympathetic commentators disillusioned by Obama’s unchecked lying and fumbling were heartened by the uncharacteristic candor coming from Deputy Secretary of State P. J. Crowley late last week — until he was shit-canned for the same early this week.
But there is still some cause for hope: Hillary has announced her own plans to jump ship at the end of this term as well. Check out her blunt statements to that effect here.
Is this yet another harbinger of the destruction of Obama’s career? A recognition that the situation is so bad that even the filthiest bilge rats see that it’s time to abandon ship? Seems like a reasonable possibility. Anyone working a political paradigm that relies on unquestioning tribal loyalty to the exclusion of substantive policies the way Obama does should be concerned about the defection of establishment stalwarts. Very concerned.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There’s been quite a bit going on at all levels…
What If They Held A Civil War And The Military Didn’t Show Up?
I’m sure you’ve already heard the news: Between roughtly 4:00pm and 6:30pm last night, Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald stripped the union-busting provisions of Wisconsin’s notorious “Budget Repair Bill” into a stand-alone bill, which as an allegedly non-fiscal bill required a much smaller quorum to floor, and forcibly destroyed trade unionism in the state.
A vote in the assembly is scheduled for 11:00am local time today 10th March, but nobody seriously expects any significant defection within the heavy Republican majority.
Upon learning of the coup d’état, crowds rushed and occupied the capitol building in violation of Walker’s Department of Administration restrictions. See video here.
Although exempted from the draconian provisions of the bill, it’s been clear for weeks that the police and their unions know that it is only a matter of time and opportunity until Walker attempts to destroy their political voice as well.
Clearly the next round of conflict will surround injunctions…
Still Waters Run Deep: Phase 2 Of The Madison Uprising
The differences between Madison, Wisconsin and Tripoli, Libya should be obvious. The fact that Madison hasn’t floated away on a crimson tide of gore should be encouraging—horrors on that atavistic scale happen only where there exists not even the nominal right to redress majoritarian excesses through protest.
The contrast to America’s experience of 1968 is positive as well; I remind you that movement flamed out prematurely due to inexperience and lack of discipline. The image created in my mind by this phase of the Madison Uprising is more like that evoked by Edvard Munch’s “The Scream”—the silent edge of a rising shout.
The crowds in Madison seem to have leveled out at a steady 30,000-40,000 per day, according to most reports. That is still a pretty freakin’ huge # when put into context of the relatively sparse population of this section of Wisconsin and personal commitments being made by protesters in order to attend,…
Wisconsin Legislators Want to Make Prank Calls Illegal
Scott Walker. Photo: WisPolitics.com (CC)
Aaron Cynic writes at Diatribe Media:
In late February, Ian Murphy of the Buffalo Beast punked Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker when he called the governor’s office, pretending to be billionaire David Koch.
Not only did he embarrass the union busting politician, but he revealed some dirty tricks the governor planned to use against the Wisconsin Democratic opposition to his anti-union bill and exposed the callous attitude people in power have towards their subjects.
When a smart and resourceful citizen exposes a politician’s contempt for a large portion of his constituency, there aughta be a law. Thankfully, two Republican Wisconsin legislators, who deny any connection to the prank call on the governor, have written one.
The Badger Herald reports the bill would prohibit callers from “defrauding” someone on the other end by pretending to be someone else. In an email to legislators, Rep. Mark Honadel and Sen. Mary Lazich said “While use…
Michael Moore Says ‘America Is Not Broke’
In retrospect, it’s taken progressive celebrity Michael Moore an awfully long time to insert himself into the political shenanigans taking place in Wisconsin, but now that the millionaire moviemaker has found the time to reach Madison, he’s making himself heard amidst all the union-busting noise, as reported by the Wisconsin State Journal:
Protesters in Madison have “aroused a sleeping giant” in the national fight for workers’ rights, filmmaker Michael Moore told thousands at the Capitol Square on Saturday, as rallies opposing Gov. Scott Walker’s budget proposals wrapped up their third week.
“Right now the Earth is shaking and the ground is shifting under the feet of those who are in charge,” said Moore…
The Sacred Clowns Bring Krampus To Wisconson Protests
The Sacred Clown Union
DATELINE: Madison, Wisconsin, USA. February 25
Sacred clowns came down on Wisconsin state capitol. Protesters unwittingly revived an ancient European sacred clown tradition previously thought extinct in North America. KRAMPUS!, also known as the “henchmen of Saint Nick,” were thought to be non-existent in all but a few remote Tyrolian villages, but it seems their population is actually growing “under the radar” in the American midwest spurred on by labor unrest in the face of government corruption there.
And it isn’t even Christmas!
Seems Anonymous might have some company. More on this on the Modern Mythology website.
I also received a missive from their chief organizer, in reaction to criticism that Krampus is generally known for running around, beating children. Here’s a sample:
Some of our clowns definitely take inspiration from Krampus–“the henchmen of Saint Nick” thing you find in the Austrian, German and Swiss Alps. We live in Wisconsin, a bastion of German…
Streets Lined With Palm Trees In Fox News’ Coverage Of Wisconsin Protests
Bill O’Reilly reports that the massive pro-union protests in the Cheese State are largely comprised of “professional left-winger” thugs bussed in to stir up violence. The Fox News camera crews caught footage of the attacks and ugliness unfolding on the streets of tropical Wisconsin.
DNC RIP: 1848 – February 16, 2011
“There was madness in any direction, at any hour. You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning.” — Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Trumka and McEntee
Well, almost . . . I’m not too confident about defeating Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s junta in the near term. In fact I’m detecting a growing rumble that suggests the earth is about to crack open within the next week and swallow the Madison Uprising whole. However, two other points seem equally clear to me:
1.) If it does, it will likely drag the DNC to Hell along with it
2.) The DNC’s demise may not be all that great a loss for Richard Trumka and Jerry McEntee — or the American people.
Madness
I’m only one lone blogger, an overfed garden gnome with a bad haircut. I can’t possibly hope to convey to those outside of Wisconsin the…
