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How are people allowed to get away with that kind of stuff??? Shady things like that over the years have just led me to lose all trust in elected officials on all levels.
The Waukesha scandal is horrendous (and I wish I could say surprising but our elections oversight system has demonstrated repeatedly its corruptibility.) I truly hope WI citizens can and will not let this stand.
The rest of us also need to realize that these things are not unique to WI. I can all but guarantee that your state has problems too. I know TN's new Republican election commission has been purging long time voters (primarily in Democratic areas) without any stated cause or notice. In fact even the purged voter has no right to know if or when he's been purged.
Best to be vigilant and keep an eye on your election officials. And call to make sure you are still registered about 60 days prior to any election, just to be safe.
^^Not really and the numbers are not atypical for this district. But the problem is we'll never know. When a clerk takes the results home and does with them what she pleases there is no way to verify the results. That is unacceptable in and of itself. And when there are serious irregularities in EVERY election and the clerk refuses to conform to State standards or accept State recommendations for reform, she should be fired/impeached.
We the People should never accept incompetence and outright arrogant disregard towards the legitimacy of our primary right, the right to vote. If we accept tampering, or even potential tampering, with our votes, we have lost the core of democracy.
There is nothing besides circumstantial evidence at this point.
There is no evidence either proving corruption/fraud or disproving that Kathy Nickolaus actually did make an honest mistake. That is why we have rules regarding the conduct of these elections and - importantly - providing for citizen oversight of elections during every step in the process. Lack of secure ballot handling and/or accurate vote counts can undermine citizens' faith in democracy.
It's those rules that Nickolaus blatantly disregarded. One consequence of that is that she expects to be taken at her word, despite the mountain of convenient coincidences implying her involvement/guilt. Even in the scenario where she is innocent and this was an honest mistake... we can't prove it in her defense because she disregarded the safeguarded methods which would clear her in such a controversy.
I know this much: regardless of the final outcome, this is the first time we have had an election here which I cannot believe was conducted fairly. Everyone loses.
Also: Rep. Tammy Baldwin, the Madison area's representative in Congress, has officially asked U.S. Attorney General to investigate the matter.
The Government Accountability Board and Milwaukee County District Attorney have a 2pm press conference tomorrow to discuss the results of a "significant investigation." Since it is the Milwaukee County DA instead of Madison, the thinking seems to be that this does not involve the Supreme Court election - but possibly something involving Milwaukee County under Scott Walker's tenure in office.
Here's a county map of this state; focus on the southeast. Milwaukee is in Milwaukee County. Waukesha County is immediately to its west. Madison is in Dane County, two counties over. I live in Jefferson County, sandwiched between Dane/Waukesha. (Alpine Valley is further to the southeast in Walworth County, to those of you who've been there.)
If Madison & Waukesha are ground zeroes in this state, I'm smack in the middle of them. For me, this really can't hit closer to home than it already has... literally.
So, the legend of Scott Walker's departure from college:
Scott Walker attended Marquette University in Milwaukee in the late 1980s, dropping out before the fall 1990 semester after landing a job with the Red Cross. He was involved with the committee organizing parental campus visits and coordinating non-alcoholic student activities.
His campaign would only say that he accumulated 94 credits and had a 2.59 GPA at the time he left school his senior year. He was reportedly 36 credits short of graduation at the time. Walker's angle on this: he went to college to get a good job, and since he'd found one he no longer found obtaining a degree to be necessary.
From the 1990 Marquette Hilltop yearbook, the year Walker was meant to graduate, comes this quote about/from the current governor of Wisconsin: Planning to graduate in December of 1990 with a triple major of political science, economics and philosophy, Walker hopes to continue his political activities such as running for State Assembly against Gwendolyn Moore in 1990.
“I really think there’s a reason why God put all these political thoughts in my head,” he said.
(Gwen Moore crushed him in that election, 61-39, and currently represents Milwaukee's district in Congress. Walker later became a member of the Wisconsin Assembly in a 1993 special election.)
Before I proceed, a disclaimer: I know plenty of good, smart people who have started school and not finished. I was one of them myself for years; let's just say that UW-Madison accepted me on three separate occasions along my long strange trip to graduation. I find it necessary to state before proceeding that dropping out of college in and of itself should not lower one's esteem.
(From this point forth, things might get a bit fuzzy. Information on this mostly comes in bits and pieces from those who attended Marquette with Walker. Walker himself could easily have had his transcripts made available regarding this and other matters during the campaign, but chose not to.)
The curious part, the part that speaks about Walker's character here, the part of this which arguably should lower some people's esteem about Walker... that comes from Walker's sophomore year at Marquette, when he had a scandalous run for student body president.
His opponent in the campaign, John Quigley, was a prominent student activist. The editorial board of Marquette's student newspaper, having sat down with both candidates for interviews, viewed either candidate as an acceptable improvement over student leadership at the time. The Marquette Tribune went on to officially endorse Quigley in an editorial proclaiming both candidates would provide effective leadership.
In the closing week of the campaign, Walker campaign workers were caught distributing leaflets at a campus YMCA, violating a ban on door-to-door campaigning. These leaflets portrayed Quigley as wasting campus' time with ineffective sit-ins and other protests - amongst other charges. Walker's campaign lost all of its YMCA campaign privileges over the incident. The brochure incident took place after the editorial board interviews and endorsement; it occurred on the day that the "co"-endorsement appeared in the paper.
Apparently, an endorsement saying both candidates could lead effectively was not enough. Walker's campaign considered the paper's endorsement to be exclusively pro-Quigley. The Walker campaign's response to this? They sent out campaign volunteers around campus, to gather and destroy as many copies of the student paper as they could find.
Following the mudslinging brochures and destruction of newspapers, the Marquette Tribune's editorial board rescinded its original endorsement, throwing their full support behind Quigley. In rescinding their "co-" endorsement, the editorial board revised their original endorsement and declared that Scott Walker was "unfit" to be student body president.
I knew the Tea Party had planned their usual tax day protest; I know that people on the streets had been looking forward to that counter-protest.
I just heard about Palin today.
I am unfortunately unable to witness or participate in this. I had Coachella plans in place before Walker even introduced this bill.
Wandered around a Palm Springs street fair tonight; saw a Democrats in the Desert stand amongst the rest. They had a "We Are Wisconsin" sign hanging at their booth, and I stopped and thanked them.
For what it's worth, I'll be wearing one of these around Coachella while a ruckus is raised without me:
Sarah Palin came to Madison; that was Coachella Saturday so I missed it. I hear her supporters were outnumbered by double-digits to one.
Two more Republican state senators - Luther Olsen and Sheila Harsdorf - have had sufficient signatures turned in to initiate the next steps of recall proceedings against them. We officially have FOUR simultaneous recalls underway in the state. In an earlier post, I pointed out that there have only been three known instances in U.S. history of two state-level officials facing recall from the same issue.
Wisconsin Solidarity shirts get you hugs, fist bumps and new friends at Coachella.
Gotta run.
Forward! To recap: Recalls in progress: 16 Party breakdown: 8 Republicans, 8 Democrats Recalls vs Republicans: 4 of 8 Recalls vs Democrats: 0 of 8 About two weeks until the deadlines begin passing for remaining recalls.
Update: The statewide recount in our Supreme Court race is underway.
Regarding Kathy Nickolaus, the Waukesha County Clerk: 1. She has bowed out of supervising the county recount and has asked the county board president to appoint a third party; a retired judge was chosen in her place. 2. I'm hearing some rumblings that Nickolaus used a separate, stand-alone piece of software, incompatible with the rest of the state's system, that was written specifically for her. That sounds too wrong to be true, but not outside of the realm of what I feel is possible. Sadly.
6 of 8 Republican state senators are facing recall 3 of 8 Democratic state senators are facing recall
Two petitions seeking recall of Democratic senators have passed their deadline without having collected the required number of signatures. Other deadlines will be coming up within the next week or two. There is a possibility that all eight eligible Republican senators face recall over the issue. I believe the last of the deadlines pass on May 2nd.
According to a recent telephone poll, Scott Walker ties 48-48 when pitted against potential challenger Russ Feingold. That's a telephone poll, meaning you can only call people who have landlines - and people with landlines demographically trend to the right. I see that as encouraging.
Just after two minutes into this video, there is an interesting bit on the "shots for signatures" scandal around one of the Democratic recall efforts. There's some insightful analysis of the recall districts in those first couple minutes as well, but I'm mostly posting this link for two minutes onward.
Updating, even though I suspect I'm the only one who cares.
Today, Scott Walker signed a bill which prohibits local governments from guaranteeing sick leave and family leave to workers. I hate to think about what his next steps down this path may be...
Most of the recall petitions have passed their completion deadline. As I understand it, there are two still out - both against Democrats. The latest deadline is May 16th. The six recall efforts against Republicans which succeeded turned in on average something like 150% of the required number of signatures. The two that failed were in more heavily Republican districts - one of them was 2k votes short and the other achieved 80% of its goal. Eighty percent of its goal = 20% of the electorate still wants him recalled. In the meantime, the three recall petitions against Democrats have been called into question. There was the "shots for signatures" scandal I mentioned above. Also, the name of the father of a Democratic legislator - dead twenty years but still listed in the phone book - appeared on a signed recall petition circulated/submitted against Democrats. Random surveys of petition signers found a 5-10% rate of people who similarly claimed they were never presented with a petition. Furthermore, there were others who claimed that they were told they were signing petitions favoring Scott Walker's recall (which cannot even begin until November) or Native American or environmental causes.
Our recount process appears to be more Florida and less Minnesota than I care to admit. For a long and scary read to lovers of free, fair, open and transparent elections, I recommend the following link: www.bradblog.com/?p=8507
Our neighbors in Michigan have already begun their process to recall their Gov. Rick Snyder. Snyder has already dissolved the Detroit school district and the city of Benton Harbor, handing these jurisdictions over to an appointed Emergency Fiscal Manager. In other words: taxation without representation.
In related news, I have an interview tomorrow morning for an internship with the Taking Back Wisconsin political action committee. I'm afraid I've been on the sidelines too much since the action at the capitol started winding down in favor of other venues.
Updating, even though I suspect I'm the only one who cares.
kdogg, I check on this thread all the time. I know you would never stop what you're doing but don't think that people aren't paying attention. Well I can't speak for everybody but I don't think I'm alone.
Post by LoveLuckLaughter on May 7, 2011 2:13:12 GMT -5
I thoroughly enjoy your posts Kdogg! I feel your pain because our governor is a sheisty son of a gun too, trying to circumvent the rights and wishes of the citizens of Ohio. So keep it up in your state!
We're all a mess of paradoxes. Believing in things we know can't be true. We walk around carrying feelings too complicated and contradictory to express. But when it all becomes too big, and words aren't enough to help get it all out, there's always music.
I had that interview yesterday, and I subsequently have an internship with the Democratic Party of Wisconsin starting on Wednesday. I have myself a copy of DPW's personnel policies and a confidentiality agreement to sign between now and then. I'm sure it's rather difficult turning down the free labor... but whatever I've gotten myself into will be a step above had I just shown up to volunteer.
I quit a job around the height of the protests, and spent more time in the streets, sleeping in the capitol & Walkerville, etc. At least if I'm not going to have two paying jobs, I'm glad to have one paying job and working for free in the field. Taking back Wisconsin is its own reward.
And thanks for the responses, everyone... I'm surprised how much feedback I got from that one offhand aside ;D
Defending Wisconsin PAC is planning a direct action under the guidance of Executive Director Jeremy Ryan. Meet Jeremy at the Capitol 1st Floor Rotunda North Wing at 1:30 PM... Will need at least 50 people for this to take place... This will be a NON-VIOLENT and NON-DESTRUCTIVE direct action and that is all I can disclose at this time... This is sure to send a clear statement though... NOTE: Although this will be a peaceful protest it is possible charges could be filed. If you are not comfortable with this please do not attend. SHARE!!
Hmmm... do I or don't I?
BTW, I did post a video earlier in this thread of Defending Wisconsin Executive Director Jeremy Ryan. There was the clip of a college-aged guy and a veteran woman holding a banner in violation of the Department of Administration's guidelines (as opposed to, possibly, the court order reopening the capitol.) Jeremy Ryan was the guy in that video, and he's the guy planning the shenanigans above. I'm tempted, but - surprisingly - I have a clean record and kind of like it that way...
Post by sendmetoalbion on May 11, 2011 16:02:29 GMT -5
I'm glad to see there is a thread here for this fiasco. I don't have anything new to add, other than that I've been very involved with the Madison protests and subsequent supreme court election issues since the beginning. It's always nice to see out of state support.
Have our paths crossed? This might look familiar if they had.
I don't get out to Madison as often as I should, but I've got a regular gig there now - even if it is an unpaid internship for the love of the game.
My day was rather eventful and mostly political. I picked up on a lot of "Inside Baseball" kind of stuff along the way.
12:30-6:45ish pm: I had my first day interning with the Democratic Party of Wisconsin today. There was data entry, there was phone banking, there was learning & figuring out this gray area between regular volunteer and actual office manager for which I volunteered myself. That could be a post in this thread in itself. 7:30ish: Arrived at the capitol for Assembly BS voter ID bill proceedings. I was there until 11:30. I'm starting to think of my own state's legislative chambers as a place that democracy goes to die. That could be a post in this thread in itself. Midnight-ish: After helping someone phone in the author of the BS voter ID bill for running a red light as he fled protests, I wound up taking part in a noisy vulgar march of about 8-10 people (mostly students) down State Street. My sign got broke; cops were involved both good and bad. That could be a post in this thread in itself. 1am: Ran into a group of 6-8 Assembly Democrats on the patio of a classier joint gathered around a couple post-vote pitchers en route to a dive bar until last call with a subgroup of aforementioned student activists. That could be a post in this thread in itself. Last Call: Ran up with a couple of the aforementioned Democratic legislators leaving the classier joint, and got to shoot the Leno with them. That could be a post in this thread in itself.
Rather than rant about those, I'm more curious to pick the brain of the Inforooster in solidarity and proximity: Spend any nights in the capitol? Walkerville? Your thoughts on being in a crowd of one hundred thousand people? Have you chanted "Shame!" at any elected officials? Do you attend UW, and do you have an opinion on the New Badger Partnership contained within the Walker budget? How many times have you seen Rev. Jesse Jackson speak along the way? Do you have a vuvuzela? Are you on the #WIunion tag? Did you shout down Sarah Palin? Glenn Grothman? What's your favorite slice of Ian's Pizza? Along the way, did you converse with any: teachers, police, firefighters, electricians, iron workers, sewer workers, or people in other occupations with whom you might not otherwise have associated? How many drum circles did you have to put up with? Waved any signs around? What'd they say? What's disgusting...? Were you ever handcuff-locked inside the capitol? Were you at the Tractorcade with Willie Nelson? Michael Moore? Bradley Whitford? Susan Sarandon? Have you drunkenly sang along to "Scotty, We're Coming For You"? Have you been called any names along the way? What songs do you appreciate more as a result of all this? Surely you know... Hunger strike Matt? Segway Jeremy? Indigo? (He's kind of the silent type...) Big "death panel" sign Matt? The werewolf guys? The late, great Ben Masel? That kid Miles? Dan the Button Man? Last, but certainly not least... are you a union thug?
Oh, and while we're on the subject of out-of-state support: I got to speak with Julia for all of two minutes at Coachella. All I really learned was that she was a union worker in Los Angeles and wanted to give me a hug because of my shirt.
Post by sendmetoalbion on May 12, 2011 9:18:50 GMT -5
Alright...I will start from the top...
I wasn't able to actually spend any nights at the capitol sadly. I work in Middleton, so the logistics of getting from downtown to the west side are horrendous during morning rush hour. However, I've helped a friend who would bring those who did stay coffee every morning, and donated blankets to the effort.
Having been in crowds of thousands many times before for concerts, other political rallys, etc I think that these protests and hearings have had a very different atmosphere. Everyone is so united for this same cause that the comaraderie and energy has been absolutely great, even if spirits aren't always the highest...especially as things started to get a little unbelievable in regards to how far into the comically ridiculous Walker was willing to go.
I have been in crowds chanting shame at representatives, and I have also chanted shame at my own close friend who works as a finance committee intern...and is a vehement republican.
I am a UW alumnus and the New Badger Partnership has me completely torn. I haven't been able to form an opinion on it despite all I have read. I can see the benefits, surely, but the fact that Walker can appoint more than half the board, and that funding is reduced scares me. I love UW more than anything else, and it is such a fine institution as it stands any change is bound to scare me.
As an outrageously passionate premiership fan I was given a Newcastle United vuvuzela for my birthday, but I refuse to use it. SOO annoying.
I am on the #wiunion tag, and the democracy addicts faceboko group. I remember the day it was a worldwide trending topic, very exciting. I tweet as sendmetoalbion.
I avoided the Sarah Palin rally like the plague, but we did drive past and yell some choice words from the other side of the square. I was at the first tea party rally however, and though I didn't feel brave enough to make a "I'm a Socialist" sign and wade through the group, I did crack out my 30 Rock and Arrested Development signs...to say the humor was lost on them is an understatement.
Favorite Ian's pizza is honey mustard chicken.
I think I probably talked with members of all the different effected unions a long the way. In school I worked with a ton of education majors, so I spent a lot of time with protesting teachers, and most of my family are nurses...so that was another faction close to my heart.
Avoided most of the drum circles, but I did enjoy watching them on videos later...when I wasn't trying to have a conversation with people around me.
My signs included a Doctor Who related one with "Exterminate Walker" and a Dalek. A 30 Rock one with a picture of John Slattery's senatorial candidate character that said, "Even this guy would be better than Walker...plus, Casinos on the Moon." An Arrested Development one with GOB saying, "Walker's made a huge mistake" complete with segway. And one about how my greatx7 grandfather fought in the original revolution, now I'm in this one.
I was rather disgusted by the out of state twitter users that would harrass anyone that used the #wiunion hashtag. And the lack of media coverage. To be fair we got a lot more than Michigan, Indiana, and the other states with the same issues, but it has all since dropped off the media horizon even though the battle is still raging.
I was at Tractorcade briefly, but missed Willie Nelson. I did catch Michael Moore and Susan Sarandon
I've been called a "demmacommie" and entitled princess. While both are probably technically true, I have always backed up my arguments with facts and intelligence so I don't appreciate it.
I'm not entirely sure what songs I appreciate more...probably the Mumford and Sons, Arcade Fire and Johnny Cash ones that Matt used in the videos that circulated showcasingt he protests. I loved all of them before that, but now they will forever be tied to this experience.
And though I am technically private sector and have parents who own a business and are generally the kind of people Walker works "so hard" to protect...I, and both of them, are definitely union thugs.
Loving the answers. I just followed your Twitter; here's mine"]http://twitter.com/#!/kevinjk]here's mine (for you and anyone reading) I just got added to the Democracy Addicts group recently myself. My friend had been to one, but the way he described it to me sounded like it was a #Wiunion thing. I'm glad I asked around and found otherwise. I plan on going to their third-Wednesday meetup when I'm done doing the intern shift next Wednesday.
I am a tad hung over today. Some highlights from yesterday:
I recognized a name on the volunteer sign-up sheet at the office right away... it was the guy who wrote/called Russ Feingold's office about an issue every single day while I was an intern in said office. I was actually surprised to see the guy in and volunteering at a Democratic Party office, having seen his comments over the span of a semester. He spoke kind of loud and had this herky-jerky way of stressing his syllables; none of the other phone banking volunteers wanted to sit by him when they made their calls.
I had to enter the capitol through the same security checkpoint I took over the night protesters re-stormed the capitol after the initial occupation. Not fun.
At one point during deliberation on the voter ID bill last night, Madison representative Kelda Roys asked why there was such a rush, telling the GOP majority that they still had a couple months to act before the recall elections. There was an outburst from the gallery at this point, in which I have no regrets taking part. Speaker Baby Fitzgerald didn't like that too much and chastised us.
As long as I'm on the topic of Fitzgeralds... I was wearing my Wisconsin state flag shirt yesterday. Fast-forward to about 1am, where we had parked and stumbled upon the group of Assembly Democrats having a couple pitchers. Among them was Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, who saw my shirt and asked why it didn't say FitzWalkerstan instead. I told him I didn't know my shirt would become dated so quickly after I bought it.
Back to the Assembly session... as I said, I'm starting to view that chamber as a place where democracy goes to die. I think we've got a pretty good system as-is; Wisconsin is 2nd or 3rd in the nation in voter turnout with our present laws. In 2008, our Republican Attorney General found eleven cases of voter fraud - and only three of those would have been fixed by requiring identification to be shown at the polls. Most of these cases were felons casting votes when they should not have. This bill would spend $7.5million (estimated, mind you) on a non-issue like this in such a time of fiscal trouble. Now, the state Republicans are rushing through a bill which would make our laws arguably the most restrictive in the nation. Most states, when they pass bills like this, at least delay the date the law goes into effect. Most states' legislatures aren't facing recall in two months, so this particular bill would go into effect immediately. It's a clusterfuck waiting to happen if this passes. There were about fifty amendments suggested to the bill by Assembly Democrats, most of them seeming to be reasonable safeguards to ensure voter participation in the process.
Because of the amendments shot down in the Assembly last night, these existing state procedures would be eliminated upon enactment of this bill: No more assistance for the illiterate at the polls. (Potential legal challenge: aren't literacy tests as a voting requirement illegal?) No more vouching for other citizens' home addresses at the polls (which currently requires signing a legal document at the polls and criminal penalties if you're lying about it.) No more homeless people using homeless shelters as their address. One amendment in particular stuck out. There was a Democratic amendment to the bill, which would have prohibited the offering of things of value in exchange for signing recall petitions. Y'all might remember the "Shots for Signatures" I posted in here earlier... this would prevent that in the future. This particular amendment stuck out, as it passed not by the usual 58-37 margin (as did most votes on tabling Democratic amendments) but by 51-40. Apparently, three Republicans were okay with that.
The bill basically renders existing state-issued photo IDs for college students as invalid identification at the polls. Requiring such identification at the polls discourages electoral participation by a number of groups, particularly as it places more of a burden upon the elderly, the disabled and African-Americans. During the post-vote outburst, there was a hearty "Welcome to Wisconsin, Jim Crow!" bellowed from the gallery.
Now, as not just a Wisconsinite proud of our record of civic participation (I mentioned earlier we are #2 or #3 nationwide in voter participation; we were also #1 in returning our census forms) but as an American... I am disappointed. What I see is an overarching trend towards more participation in our elections, not less. When we started out the great American democratic experiment, non-landowners, women, African-Americans and eighteen-year-olds (to name a few) were not permitted to vote. We have since expanded our political system to allow their involvement in the electoral process, and that is not a bad thing. This bill is a blatant attempt at disenfranchising voters who favor Democratic constituencies, plain and simple. It's a step backward, contrary to our state motto. I mean, it's good to know that politicians are afraid of voters - they should be - but this bill is bullshit.
So, after the vote, I was expecting to grab a sixer before sales cutoff and go home. I ran into a group of students outside the capitol instead. There was a confrontation with the author of the bill. He ran a couple red lights in the process of fleeing the protesters. We conveniently forgot to mention his identity when we called his license plate in to the Madison police for that violation, making him sound more like a drunk driver. I wish I knew how that had turned out.
I will have to revisit the post-vote portion of last night's events at a more opportune time. It's nice out, and I want to get out to the disc golf course while the getting is good.
Breaking news this morning: Wisconsin Senator Herb Kohl - Democrat, the state's senior Senator, one of the nation's wealthiest Senators/owner of Kohl's department stores & Milwaukee Bucks - has announced today that he will be retiring.
Kohl would not be standing for reelection until 2014, but the situation seems to be that Kohl will retire before his term ends... vacating his seat in time for a successor to be chosen in the 2012 election.
This news broke roughly an hour ago, and I have already seen a half dozen names speculated as to potential candidates. Among them: Former Sen. Russ Feingold Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett (Scott Walker's opponent in last fall's election) Rep. Tammy Baldwin (District 2 Democrat, representing the Madison area) State Rep. David Barca (Democratic Assembly Minority Leader)* Rep. Paul Ryan (District 1 Republican) Sen. Scott/Rep. Jeff Fitzgerald (Brothers; State Senate Majority Leader and Assembly Speaker respectively)
* Barca saw my state flag shirt after the vote Wednesday night (he was one of the Democratic legislators I encountered gathered around pitchers the other night) and offered up the suggestion that my shirt say "FitzWalkerstan" instead
I should also add to the list of speculation former Gov./Bush HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson, because someone's going to do it anyway.
Also:
As if 2012 in this state weren't going to be interesting enough already...
Post by sendmetoalbion on May 13, 2011 11:14:10 GMT -5
I'm desperately hoping Feingold runs again.
And Barca is certainly an interesting guy...I was at a business dinner at the Coopers Tavern on the square. They have a little room off the bar called the snug, and we were eating in there and he just flings the door open and starts chatting with us.
I already bought my "Feingold for Governor" shirt... I'm afraid it's possibly been rendered irrelevant with this news. This does seem to mean Russ Feingold is running for something next year ;D
I wouldn't mind Tom Barrett redux. He lost to Walker by six points, and there was a poll a month or two back which said he would defeat Walker by seven in a rematch.
Could go on, but I'd be late for my intern duties...
As an outrageously passionate premiership fan I was given a Newcastle United vuvuzela for my birthday, but I refuse to use it. SOO annoying.
That is exactly why these things are so great! Especially when you're trying to raise a ruckus. I got mine for Christmas specifically because I wanted something to get drunk and obnoxious with.
I am on the #wiunion tag, and the democracy addicts faceboko group. I remember the day it was a worldwide trending topic, very exciting. I tweet as sendmetoalbion
I love how fast "FitzWalkerstan" went from Mark Pocan's lips to trending. What was it, like ten minutes?
I was rather disgusted by the out of state twitter users that would harrass anyone that used the #wiunion hashtag. And the lack of media coverage. To be fair we got a lot more than Michigan, Indiana, and the other states with the same issues, but it has all since dropped off the media horizon even though the battle is still raging.
Oh, the vitriol that was spewed at me the day I CCAPed & tweeted Kathy Nickolaus' home address... yeah, I know. I had Twitter preinstalled on my new phone I got last fall and didn't really use it much, but it became a bit of a necessity out there. Two particular things sucked me in. First, I saw a #WIunion sign up in the capitol with usernames on there, so I followed those names for updates. That was a first step down a slippery slope. Then at one of those earlier protests on the square in February, I snapped/tweeted a picture from the 4th floor of the WI Historical Museum and put it up as my first tweet to the #WIunion tag. It wound up getting 25k hits (I'm not quite sure how much of a feat that is by internet ratings standards, but it sure took me by surprise) and a shout-out from Keith Olbermann. If I hadn't yet been hooked by that point, I sure as hell was then. As far as media coverage... I've lost a lot of respect for CNN this year. Fox was there, though. There was a night I had some whiskey in me and blared my vuvuzela at Fox's Mike Tobin shortly after he went live. Told you they're good for something
My signs included a Doctor Who related one with "Exterminate Walker" and a Dalek. A 30 Rock one with a picture of John Slattery's senatorial candidate character that said, "Even this guy would be better than Walker...plus, Casinos on the Moon." An Arrested Development one with GOB saying, "Walker's made a huge mistake" complete with segway. And one about how my greatx7 grandfather fought in the original revolution, now I'm in this one.
Revolutionary lineage? Nice! I'm but a 4th generation Wisconsinite/American myself. I know I saw a few "Bring Back Arrested Development" signs along the way too. Gotta love it. I made plenty of signs along the way, and many have scattered. Some I left in the capitol intentionally, some I left in the capitol fleeing state troopers, some are within arm's reach, a couple in the trunk of my car, and one is hanging in the window of the DPW office on East Wash. The one I'll always keep is my original "Kill the Bill" one, from a batch my friend & I cranked out on the capitol lawn with poster board and spray paint back on day three. One of my absolute favorite moments this whole ordeal happened during that cold/snowy rally - the one featured in the recall TV ads - and a woman tapped me on the shoulder. She recognized my Forward cheesehead, and wanted to make sure I saw her young daughter still carrying around one of those signs a couple weeks later. I'm still disappointed the DPW office hasn't hung up my "Scott Walker Has A Bat, But We Have the Balls!" sign. I might have to reclaim that one next time I'm in. That one's too good to be left unused.
Post by Longtime and Frequent Poster on May 14, 2011 5:28:58 GMT -5
KDogg, Kohl ran in 2006 so he'd be up again in 2012.
I think I read somewhere Baldwin is officially going to run. She doesn't have a good chance, does she? I hate to say it, but I'm sure there are a lot of people who wouldn't vote for "one of those liberal lesbians" from Madison.
