The People vs. Scott Walker

Is it that much cheaper to take a train than fly one way to NYC?

On my protest sign, I got on the bottom right corner the outline of Wisconsin and the words "Recall Walker" outside it. Just to remember how all this got started in America this year.

Depending on how far out it's booked, probably. I can Amtrak it out there in the $100-150 range.


I deliberately didn't answer that question in my posting spree the other night because I wanted to see what you'd come up with on your own... what'd the rest of your sign say?

I got it posted on my Facebook page.

How very 90's of you. Chances are I wouldn't want to work for you anyways.

I already said I decided not to go to Occupy Wall Street. Not while there's work to be done recalling Scott Walker on the home front.
In the grand scheme of things, I feel there is more be gained fighting for this movement than participating in a status quo which means nothing but low-paying layman's jobs unrelated to my field for the rest of my life.
I fight not for the present, but for the future.


Why does everything have to be an "either-or" with you?
Corporations are a necessary evil.
We can't get rid of the "necessary," so we have to minimize the "evil."


I did work hard and learn. I did graduate with better than a C average; I made the dean's list. So don't insult me by suggesting that I didn't.
I graduated with a better GPA than Dick Cheney, who also attended UW-Madison for a time.
I learned much in my political science major - in a soundbite, I majored in "the systematic study of power" - just the basic workings of government and politics in the introductory-level courses. There was also political theory/philosophy, constitutional law, legislative process, American presidency itself, policy making, public administration, international relations, international law, internships with student government and Sen. Feingold... to name a few.
A lot of that stuff is what you need if you're a future lawyer or civil servant.
That's the learning I did which I would be applying, had the economy been able to sustain/support the public sector jobs I would have been seeking after graduation.

That's just some of what I learned. There are other important things I learned about along the way, things which I am applying in the lack of employment using the previously mentioned things.

I learned how power is gained and used.
I learned how law impacts a society, for better and for worse.
I learned about the impacts different economic policies have on nations.
I learned about economic meltdowns and governments' responses.
I learned how governments gain - and lose - their legitimacy.
I compared and contrasted revolutions around the world.
I learned how revolutions begin, how they grow.
I learned which tactics make them succeed or fail.
I learned how authoritarian regimes respond.
I learned how revolutions and movements can be hijacked for other purposes.

It is these types of knowledge, not the employable types of knowledge, I learned which I am applying out in "the real world."
I see the writing on the wall.
I see icebergs of which so many others see only the tip.

This system created me, this system educated me, and this system had nothing to do with me at the end of that process.
I would have gladly become a bureaucrat, if only they would have had me.
By the time this is all over, they are going to wish they'd paid their taxes, acted ethically, allowed fair trade, and all of that.
Because by the time I'm done with them, they are going to wish they had made me a bureaucrat and put me behind a desk. In the end, they would have been better off going that route.
Choosing not to go that route was their decision, and they must face the consequences of that.
I am the face of those consequences.


You insult me.

I am prepared to show up looking like this for 40 or more hours per week for just about any employer that will have me.
You are hereby invited to kiss the fattest, hairiest part of my ass before you go fuck yourself.


You don't think I hold my alma mater accountable?
My alma mater's alumni association does not make fundraising calls to me any more. They haven't in years. Believe you me, they heard all about my employment prospects in my post-graduation world. It is their choice that they no longer call me, not mine. Every time they called asking me for money, I told them they weren't getting a dime out of me until I saw greater employment assistance. I tried to be polite but firm, I asked to be referred to their relevant offices/people for finding employment after graduation. None of those callers had information any more valuable than "Go on the internet."
I am financially holding them accountable. They haven't gotten a dime out of me. They won't until my student loans are repaid. The amount of time between my graduation and my full loan repayment will be the amount of time between my full loan repayment and their receiving the first dime from me. If I die before that happens, that is their problem. I gave them ample opportunity to assist me, and they refused.
UW-Madison put more time and resources into advocating for Scott Walker's failed New Badger Partnership plan than they have in post-graduation employment outreach to one of their own. (I graduated college, Scott Walker cannot say the same.)
I have been to a couple of their biannual career fairs, but have since stopped going. It is basically doing a lap around the Kohl Center, counting the sympathetic winces those doing the hiring make when I tell them I was a political science major.
At least the National Guard called me six months after graduation to check on my employment status, but I wasn't too receptive to their invitation to become IED fodder in Afghanistan. Even that follow-up, though, was better than what I got from UW-Madison.
They, too, are invited to kiss the fattest, hairiest part of my ass.

I just noticed this thread has over 10K reads. I'm rather impressed, kind of humbled, and definitely want to say thank you to everyone who's taken part thus far.


It's been a couple weeks since I checked in. We'll start with the more personal end of things before I move on to updates.

Not too long after my most recent post, I attended a Democratic Party recall information session in Madison. It was conducted by Nick, who ran my field office over the summer and has since been promoted to Dane (Madison's) County regional field director. There were 150-200 people at the AFSCME (which, btw, was started in Madison) headquarters, with a full parking lot, some familiar faces from the summer and a lot of determination.

Weekend before last, I attended the Camp Wellstone session in Eau Claire. It's a weekend training seminar with tracks for activists/organizers, campaign workers and potential candidates. There was a lot of review considering my previous campaign experiences, but there were also a good deal of things in there which gave me new knowledge and perspective about how campaigns operate.
I met a woman from Madison up there, felt a bit of chemistry, but it's been all phone tag and disagreeing schedules since then. Such is life when your forty-hour work week overlaps the traditional 9-to-5 one for a mere two hours a week...

There's no employment in this recall for me. There were about fifty jobs for field organizers; two staffers per office. One of the people who got the jobs in each of the Madison offices worked with me on the summer recalls. Close, but no cigar. Sad thing is, I don't even think this opportunity was the closest I've been to campaign employment. I at least had interviews coming out of college, but not this time... I don't know whether I'm slipping or what it is.

I will tonight be attending the recall information/strategy session for my county of residence. The state Democratic Party is teaming up with the group United Wisconsin for the first phase of the recalls, signature collection. Once signatures are submitted and the campaign phase begins, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin is unable to collaborate with groups on the other side of a wall created by campaign finance laws. These groups can work together on signature collection, but not campaigning and voter outreach. As I said, there's not much of a DPW presence in my area... but the United Wisconsin people were proactive in tracking me down and recruiting me online. My involvement with the Walker recall will likely be done with United Wisconsin rather than DPW. I will be talking with the proper people at this meeting, hopefully with a similar position on a leads team in a field office closer to where I live.



Updates
Scott Walker has been making appearances at Republican Party functions in other states, and has been protested in places such as Nashville and Des Moines. Here's hoping troo can fill us in as to how things went in Nashville...


Among the bills introduced in the legislature's "jobs" session include, in addition to things previously mentioned, a mandate for abstinence-only sex education and changes to hunting regulations. As opposed to, you know, things which actually might create jobs...


Individuals wearing/carrying signs in the capitol were arrested and removed from the gallery during these sessions. There were also arrests made for silently filming proceedings. I feel some explanation is necessary here. State law mandates that the public has a right to record public proceedings; state legislative bodies are granted the power to write their own rules, and accordingly have instituted recording policies contrary to the spirit and letter of such laws. I have mentioned Arthur, whose contribution to the movement has included lots of filming and dissemination of events, in this thread from time to time. Arthur was removed from the gallery and thrown to the ground by capitol police for silently filming legislative proceedings. In the event of such conflicts, it seems that law enforcement sides with our legislators in ignoring our state constitution's preference for open and transparent public meetings.


Wisconsin Republicans continue to throw everything they can against the recall efforts. They have challenged the decision to allow citizens to print and mail in their own petitions. They are attempting to institute an additional requirement that recall petitions be notarized before submission. They tried, and failed, to require that recalls for officials elected in 2010 be conducted under new maps drawn up with partisan self-preservation in mind. That last particular issue failed in the state senate by one vote with Sen. Dale Schultz, (possibly) the last of the moderate Republicans in this state legislature, joining Democrats to defeat the measure. Things like this seem like victories only made possible by our recalls this summer.


United Wisconsin & DPW have decided to only concentrate on recalling Gov. Walker and Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch for the upcoming recall. This is not to say that local efforts will not happen, but they will not receive assistance from statewide organizations like these. The Government Accountability Board has yet to issue a decision as to whether the two, elected on the same ticket, are to be recalled together or separately. I personally think they are being overly cautious in the face of such opportunity.


The Walker administration has created a web site touting the benefits of his actions, which Democrats allege violate the lines between campaigning and governing which seem to be a theme in the ongoing Walkergate investigation.


Today, Wisconsin becomes the 49th state in the union to allow concealed carry. I am sure some interesting stories will arise from this law, which I feel was crafted without taking the best practices of 48 other states into consideration. I think it's just a matter of time before something bad happens because of this.


Tomorrow, hopefully, will be Scott Walker's one and only birthday as Wisconsin's governor. It is also the one year anniversary of his election as governor.


This week's video comes from the atrium Lambeau Field in Green Bay, where Scott Walker hosted an event to describe his jobs plan... charging $50 a head to get in.



Recall petitions against Scott Walker may be circulated beginning two weeks from today. I think the last thing in my life I so greatly anticipated was the loss of my virginity.

Good luck in the comin' weeks/months, Kdogg! Thanks fer keepin' us updated on what's goin' on in your state.

^^I saw that on the news and thought of you, KDogg!

On Friday, the earliest date recall petitions against Scott Walker could legally be filed, a group calling itself "Close Friends to Recall Walker" filed papers to begin their group's recall effort. The filer, David Brandt, filed the papers on Friday and when reached for comment at his home number in Muskego, his wife said he was away on a hunting trip. Both husband and wife, the entirety of the Close Friends to Recall Walker group listed on the form, gave money to Scott Walker's gubernatorial campaign.
This does not necessarily start the clock for the sixty-day effort beginning on the 15th. Parallel petitions can take place, with the possibility of merging into one recall petition later in the process provided certain conditions are met.
I am not certain of all the ins and outs of filing the petition itself, but I know that as a petition circulator one has to sign one's name to a statement indicating one's support of said recall effort.
Close Friends to Recall Walker checked a box stating intent to spend less than $1000 on the effort to collect 540,208 signatures. I'm guessing it was the lowest amount listed on the form. Between that and not collecting any signatures, I don't see how it qualifies as "support." Hell, I'm prepared to spend more than $1000 on this recall effort...


This action does not have so much an impact on the Democratic Party & United Wisconsin's planned recall effort as it does Gov. Walker himself. When a recall effort is filed, loopholes in (perhaps better to say "lack of") state campaign finance law do not provide any maximum contributions which may be given to a candidate defending their office in a recall.
What Close Friends of Wisconsin's filing did wasn't so much begin a sixty-day window for other recall efforts, as much as open the door for unlimited donations to the Walker campaign eleven days earlier than previously expected.

It is the first of what I'm sure will be numerous dirty tricks to be used over the course of the next few months.

I'm going to say this now, so that I may quote it later and say "I called it." I predict that at some point in this process, it will be revealed that there will be faux signature collectors acting with an intent other than to recall Scott Walker. People who think they've already signed a legitimate petition once aren't likely to do so again. While I'm at it, I'm going to go bold and further presume such deception will be financed by the Koch brothers.

My hometown demands discussion at this point.

I hail from Watertown, a city of about 23K located equidistant from Madison and Milwaukee. It's the largest city between the Madison area and the Milwaukee suburbs.
Once upon a time in the mid-1800s, it fell a few votes shy of becoming the state capital itself. A river runs through it, which was more economically attractive in those times; it could hold its own with any of the other cities in the area.

The high school mascot here is a gosling... as in, a baby goose. A big industry here involved noodling, the regular force-feeding of high-protein noodles to geese, to fatten them - and their livers - up for foie gras down in Chicago.

This town is the site of America's first kindergarten. I'm about a mile from it now.

I am sure you are all familiar with Watertown's most famous son, the late Meinhardt Raabe... though you probably better know him as the Munchkin Coroner from Wizard of Oz. That film had its world premiere in the next town over.
There is also a man in town reluctantly known as Doyle the Cow Fucker, because you can't get caught doing that even once and ever live it down.

For two or three brief shining years in the mid-to-late 1990s, this town simultaneously held bragging rights to having most bars per capita and most churches per capita.
Let that one sink in for a moment... it's as bad as you imagine it to be.

It's mostly a blue collar town. There's some manufacturing here, but we know how it's going these days. If I had to venture a guess, I believe the Pepsi bottling plant (if it was bottled at Wis-Pak, it was here) is the largest employer in town. Outside of the local school system, I don't think there's a job in this town that requires a degree.


Speak ill of it all I want, I can't deny it is a safety net. When I quit my job in Madison to give Baltimore a try with my ex and it fell apart the night before and I found myself single, jobless, and otherwise homeless... I had no choice to come here, exiled from that city I love in the parental basement. How I wound up here back then isn't as important to this story as what I'm doing here now, so we shall move on.


By many measures, Watertown is the political inverse of Madison. The results of the past two or three presidential elections, Wisconsin's gay marriage ban amendment, the 2006 "bring the troops home" referendum... Watertown and Madison demonstrate roughly the same strength of support, favoring opposite sides. And yes, this also applies to last year's election which brought us Scott Walker. My representative in the Assembly is the husband of Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch; my state senator puts the Fitz in FitzWalkerstan. My high school class president grew up to be Russ Feingold's press secretary, and once told me Russ considered it one of his least favorite cities to campaign or hold listening sessions.

To give some idea of the Democratic black hole I reside in... the nearest recall field offices are a thirty minute drive to the south and at least a forty five minute drive in any other direction. Watertown isn't exactly high on their priority list. Democrats generally won't touch the place. The Recall Walker effort will.


Which is where I come in.


United Wisconsin is a political action group created in the wake of the protests this spring. They laid relatively low on the campaign end of things, focusing on signatures. I've got to hand it to them, I saw "Pledge to Recall Walker" tents set up the morning after the final recall on my way out of the Northwoods. They gathered contact information for upwards of 200K people pledging to sign the eventual petition to recall Scott Walker. For the signature collection phase of a Scott Walker recall, the Democratic Party is not bound by the same collaboration rules as when a campaign is in effect. DPW and UnitedWI are teaming up for the effort which begins November 15th.

United Wisconsin actually sought me out while I was pursuing DPW employment that didn't come to be. They don't have employment for me either, but they are the only game in this town aside from labor unions themselves. Just because I'm not getting paid doesn't mean there's not work to be done, so I'm on board. I went to some meetings, I have had my recall petition circulator training...

I am a team leader for the United Wisconsin signature collection effort in Watertown. I'm not the team leader, but I have to admit that with my experience I do feel something like a first among equals on the team we've got thus far. We had our first team leaders meeting for this town, and maybe it is elitist, but sitting down with them in many respects seemed reminiscent of all the volunteer training sessions I gave over the summer. I was the only one of them who'd even seen anything like the call lists we were given, which pretty much would have been seen by anyone who's done the campaign basics of phone banking or canvassing in the past.

Not that I don't appreciate the enthusiasm for those who want to help out with those efforts; I do. It's just that phone banking and canvassing are the easy part. It's filling the void between those basics and something approaching the operations of an entire field office - without an office - where I kind of feel alone in my experience here.
That is the role I am going to play in the Walker recall.
So, yeah... I do kind of feel as if I'm going to be the one primarily in charge of the recall effort for this entire town in a lot of respects. I'm not going to be doing it all myself, but there are going to be a lot of things which are going to fall on me above all others. I learned a lot in the Madison field office this summer, and a lot of my motivation going into that was to be enhance my skills in anticipation of this effort. The time is come that I've got to put those skills to use.

I spent two or three hours of my night as a one-man phone bank at the kitchen table. I had my fair share of call sheets from the UnitedWI pledge list.
My first call, I was looking for Mr. A. Mr. A wasn't home, but I was talking to his wife Mrs. A. I wasn't certain whether it was the Mrs. A I was thinking of, a teacher in the local school district, because when I knew her she was a 4th grade teacher. Teachers in my elementary school would rotate classes for one subject, so she was my 4th grade teacher for reading class only. She asked what my last name was, because I hadn't given it, and I was quite surprised I left enough of an impression under those circumstances to be remembered twenty years later. It was a good inaugural call to start off however many hundreds (thousands?) of calls I'm going to make as the recall goes on.


One more thing I need to mention about Watertown, which perhaps provides greater insight into what I'm getting myself into...
I got flipped off by a little old lady demonstrating against Scott Walker in this town.
It's a badge of honor, sure, but still.


Five days until the recall begins.
If you're going to take a shot at the king, you damn well better hit him.
Nuts on the table.

Meanwhile, on the more sinister side of things...

"Close Friends to Recall Walker" filed his own insincere petition for the purposes of starting the clock on Scott Walker's period of unlimited (not even the usual $10K) fundraising, and he is taking advantage of it.
Walker is in western states fundraising this weekend. I believe his schedule tomorrow involves an event at the Reagan ranch.
On Tuesday, when the recall petition against him is filed, Scott Walker will not be in Wisconsin. He will be in Wichita, Kansas... hometown of those .1%ers Charles & David Koch, headquarters of Koch Industries. Surely, that's coincidence


The Democratic Party & United Wisconsin are technically filing five petitions.
1. Gov. Scott Walker
2. Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleesfisch
3-5. Three as-yet-unnamed state senators. (I've heard rumors as to who, but they're playing their cards close to their chest on this one - there's actually five Republican state senators who would make good targets.)
Petitions against Walker will be circulated statewide, along with one other petition depending on location in the state..
Petitions against Kleefisch will also be circulated in 30 of 33 state senate districts.
Petitions against those three state senators will be circulated instead of Kleefisch petitions in their three senate districts.

I can tell you one of these state senators who is not: Sen. Scott Fitzgerald.
Watertown's state senator, the state chair of the American Legislative Council, the son of (through cronyist appointments) the head of the State Patrol.
He's part of the reason there's a "Fitz" in FitzWalkerstan.
DPW/UnitedWI does not plan to file recall papers against him.
However, myself and one of my counterparts a few towns over are.
I am one half of the Committee to Recall Scott Fitzgerald, and we will be filing that petition with the Government Accountability Board on Monday. Our higher-ups aren't too fond of the concept of recalling Fitzgerald, given all the rest that's on our plate.
I just can't sit back and not see at least an attempt to recall a man who helps puts the "Fitz" in FitzWalkerstan.


I know a guy in Madison media, he sent me a text the other night. Said he was getting a sneak peek at 175,000 recall petitions. Multiply that by ten signatures a sheet, and they are going into this effort prepared for gathering 1.75 million signatures. For starters.

I made the front page of the Fort Atkinson newspaper and a picture of me signing led a Daily Kos write-up of Day One of the recall efforts.

The office I'm working out of is, shall we say, under the microscope. There are three women I report to, the Democratic Party county chair running the office and two from United Wisconsin. One of these women, Julie from UnitedWI, was the one who actually filed the recall petition against Gov. Walker & Lt. Gov. Kleefisch. That, and the fact that the woman who filed the rogue recall against Sen. Fitzgerald volunteering there, has us under a bit more scrutiny than your typical office. We are trying to be what we call "militantly perfectionist" as we proceed with these efforts.

Video of the Julie's official filing is here with a background cameo from the other two ladies in charge just under a minute in. Apparently Julie was on MSNBC today, but I was too busy to notice.

It was the first day of signature collection. I live in a Republican stronghold, and I was blown away by the response. Of course, a lot of that is early interest. There were twice as many volunteers who showed up as we had expected for one shift, which was a good problem to have.

It was an early release day in my local school district. I gathered signatures outside the high school with a group including a retired teacher who had taught there. I personally collected the signatures to recall Walker from two of my former high school teachers. I saw a lot of friends' parents, too... it's funny being kind of a grown up and having to use first names with people I'm used to calling Mr. & Mrs.


Day One updates:

There was a DDOS attack against United Wisconsin's website on Monday afternoon, which was to make recall petitions available online at 12:01am Tuesday, which shut down the site for several hours.

A Madison coffeeshop with a Recall Walker sign in the window had their window broken with a rock, nearly hitting a customer. The rock was wrapped with a political message referring to April's Supreme Court candidate JoAnne Kloppenburg, and was believed to have broken the window with such force that it was not thrown but launched by some sort of slingshot.

One of Scott Walker's neighbors in Wauwatosa offered their lawn for signing recall petitions within sight of his primary residence. Around two thousand people came to sign there.

Current public opinion of Scott Walker:
58% disapproval rating
58% favor recalling him from office (this was below 50% six months ago)


I am sure I am forgetting a lot. Going to close with my Facebook status for those who can't see it to explain what kind of day it's been:
Today was probably the busiest and most gratifying day of my life. Whether I can survive fifty-nine more is an entirely different story...