The People vs. Scott Walker

Run by the indians NOT by N.Y our gouverner is talking about vegas style privately owned casino's .

Like I fuckin care?

1. There's casinos in New York. What's the argument?

2. What does any of this have to do with Wisconsin???

Someone please check IP addresses to make sure this is not Chicagorooer on a second account

Wisconsin has tribal casinos, thank you very much.
Staying on topic would be appreciated.


It's almost 4am. I just finished cutting up some turf for daytime senior canvassing tomorrow. Printing up the "Sorry We Missed You" leave-behind. I've gone through nearly two pairs of ink cartridges these past couple weeks.
Phase One was "Let them come to us" just setting up in public.
We are in the final stages of Phase Two, "Go to them."

The weather has been surprisingly nice. It's mid-January, it was 51 degrees today and I saw a guy bicycling in shorts along a county road on my way to a factory shift change signature collection this afternoon.

My team has an office now, if only for the final week of our efforts. A local lawyer had real estate on Main Street of this town. UPS had been renting it for the holidays until Thursday. We got the keys Friday. We leave Saturday. It is a game-changer for our local efforts. I love having all our signs and such in a centralized location where people can visit.
We even had a notable visitor. I got to meet Ian "David Koch" Murphy from the Buffalo Beast, who made the infamous prank phone call to Walker back in February. That was a good conversation, but one to recount another time.



Democratic Party chair Mike Tate has said the efforts to recall Walker & Kleefisch are on track to meet their goal in the neighborhood of 725,000 signatures.
The three official Democratic Party/United Wisconsin recall efforts against state senators have reached their trigger number with comfortable buffers.
The independently filed recall effort against Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald - my state senator - is at 95% of its goal.
We have been getting a lot of help coming from people outside the district who hate Fitzgerald. The Democratic Party in Madison is redirecting their export volunteers to the Fitzgerald district.
In fact, I have to meet somewhere between 10-18 of them in six hours. Hence the preparations I mentioned earlier; this change in strategy was just brought to my attention today.
I hope it goes through. Wednesday was my girlfriend Tanya's birthday. She got from me a case of Red Bull, a carton of cigarettes, a ticket to the Stephanie Miller Sexy Liberal comedy show in Madison, and she's getting a WI fist tattoo on Sunday - after signature collection ends, but before the GAB submission on Tuesday. There's one thing Tanya wanted I can't buy. She wants a Recall Fitz. Whichever way it falls, it's going to be close. I hope she gets it.

In the morning, the sign in our office window that doesn't have "Recall" on it will be changed to read "2 Days Left to Sign."

I gave up fifteen hours of my work week on Friday & Saturday. I work thirty-five hours a week. Finances run lean and mean these days, but it's well worth it. Our signature collection efforts end at 5pm on Saturday, at which point we're turning in everything we have... then we shut the office down completely, and I go to work from 9pm-2:30ish in the morning. I can sleep and work on Sunday, and I'm pledged to petition submission preparation in some way/shape/form on Monday.

There is a big Petition Turn-In Celebration at a Madison convention center on Tuesday night. Rumor has it "Big Ed" Schultz will be paying a visit.



On top of all this, my mother is having a major surgery in the morning. I'll be making at least two round trips between the office and the hospital 20 miles away tomorrow, on top of a round of canvassing and (maybe) signature collection if I can do it.
I also had a preliminary interview with Obama 2012 this morning (with a woman who helped out with our summer recall efforts, which helps) for an unpaid position with the possibility of employment down the line. I have some paperwork to deal with before noon Friday along with all the rest.
Needless to say, I've been a bit busy.

Tanya found the first grey hair of my life yesterday. That sucks so very very hard. In my beard, no less.

Anyway, it will have been worth it.
This is happening.

Forward!

One million Cheeseheads can't be wrong! Congratulations and great work Kdogg!

tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/01/wis-dems-make-it-official-one-million-signatures-collected-to-recall-walker.php

As awesome as it is that there are (supposedly) 1 million sigs, it's pretty annoying that that's the same amount of people that voted for Barrett. There's no way every single person that voted for Barrett signed a recall petition, meaning there's a large amount of eligible voters who didn't vote in '10 yet signed the petition. I know that I personally know a handful of people who dislike Walker but didn't vote even though they were eligible. Those are the worst.

I think you're underestimating the significance of Republicans who wish to take back their vote for Walker. The filing day poll showed 24% of self-identified Republicans supported his recall. Trust me, these people exist.

A nice video montage of Recall Day events in Madison.

...if you've got thirteen minutes, that is.

mirrors.5nines.com/stream/

The Government Accountability Board has streaming video of petitions being processed from their undisclosed location.
It has drawn tens of thousands of viewers and is starting to draw national attention.

Funniest thing about this is that a Twitter account (@recallcam) has popped up to chronicle and/or mock what's going on.
The workers have been given nicknames like Bald Stockton, Pearls, Flirty, Sideburns, Neckbeard and Sheedy amongst others.

Beats reality TV...

“Stand With Governor Walker” is a real song, and it’s absolutely mind-blowing

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?
feature=player_embedded&v=rQIMDTjHB6A[/youtube]

Check out the "Union Man" song also at that link, if you think you can handle it...


Time for a few pictures from the end of the process. Our team had an office during that whirlwind final week, but only for nine days. It was still much needed and somewhat of a game changer here.


Myself & Buffalo Beast editor Ian Murphy, the man who prank called Scott Walker pretending to be billionaire campaign donor David Koch.
He was doing a county tour as the recall came to a close. He paid a visit to our office between my county office to the south and the county office to the north.
I got to tell him that phone call helped the protests transcend the impression that this was about more than collective bargaining, which certainly wasn't my primary reason for being out there. I got to thank him for that.
I told him tales of hundreds of people outside the Koch's lobbying office in February. He said it was the first he'd heard about chants that went "Who heard the phone call? / We all heard the phone call!" That Koch lobbying office packed up in the night and were gone the next day.


It wasn't much, but this was the front window of our office.


Myself, about to make my final petition run ever.

And now...

Updates!
Scott Walker gave his State of the State speech this past Wednesday. This past Wednesday was January 25th by most people's count...

...unless you were streaming it from walker.wi.gov, that is.
He spewed some more of the "It's Working" BS he's been doing to save his hide. He omitted the traditional nod to the UW System and higher education, which most always occurs during this speech. He didn't mention much about compromise, either.
Only four of the twelve civilians who got tickets from his office were removed from the gallery for causing disturbances, most notably a fierce yell of "LIAR!"


A brief note about his "It's Working" slogan/campaign. Thing is, it's not working... some visual aids are in order here.


Blue line represents jobs created under the budget of Walker's Democratic predecessor, Jim Doyle. Red line represents employment numbers under Scott Walker.
Act 10, Walker's budget repair bill, went into effect on June 29th.
Wisconsin has lost jobs for six consecutive months, from July to December. I doubt this is coincidence.
Also note that Wisconsin has less jobs now than when Walker took office...

This is how Walker's Wisconsin looks in comparison to the rest of the nation:

Yes, that map is a bit dated.
Wisconsin led the nation in job losses in October.
However, we also led the nation in job losses in November.
We are also the only state in the nation which has seen six consecutive months of job losses.
I'm not sure things have changed much since this map was made...


Scott Walker canceled a planned appearance in Wausau in the central part of the state Thursday. He claimed that "weather conditions" kept him from making the appearance. Temperatures were in the upper 30s there, and partly sunny with possible patches of fog... which leads plenty here to believe it had more to do with Walkergate (more on that later) than actual weather conditions.


The Government Accountability Board has completed scanning every page of the Walker recall petition. The review process, where Walker's representatives can challenge signatures, begins on Saturday.


Due to a loophole in state campaign finance law, Scott Walker is able to raise unlimited amounts of money between the initiation of his recall and certification of an election. He has taken advantage of this.
On the day petitions were filed, he was in New York City. He was attending a $2500/person fundraiser, held at CitiBank headquarters, held by the former CEO of bailed-out AIG.
His top four donors, at $250K/person, all hail from out of state. One of them is the Texan who bankrolled Swift Boat Veterans for Truth in 2004.
Over 60% of Walker's recall defense donations come from out of state.
Despite having already spent millions touting what he feels is a job well done, Walker's poll numbers have failed to make any upward movement.


Walker leads four potential gubernatorial candidates between 7-10 points at the moment, according to polling done by (the school he dropped out of) Marquette University. Neither Russ Feingold nor Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca (my favorite in the absence of Feingold) were included.
I'm not entirely discouraged. For one, name recognition among these candidates is presently low because no active campaigning is done on their behalf. For two, Walker seems to have hit a ceiling while the potential challengers still have some upside.


The northern mining bill was rammed through on Thursday. The one which "streamlines" the process - in other words, lets an out-of-state mineral company (and more importantly, campaign contributor) fast-track their plans without regard to environmental impact or public opinion. Over four hundred people testified at public hearings about the bill, with a whopping three in support - and then, they were Walker appointees or mining company representatives. The various tribes of Wisconsin came down to protest the bill, as it threatens their entire watershed and rice crops. One man was arrested for playing his drum in the capitol rotunda. The tribes intend to fight this bill, in federal court if necessary.
The bill is being conferenced between houses of the legislature presently, if I'm up on things.


Last, but certainly not least, more arrests in the growing Walkergate scandal:

Two women who had worked in Walker's county executive office were charged on Thursday. (Told you he didn't cancel that appearance on account of "weather conditions.") One of them is additional charges against Darlene Wink, the woman whose resignation and admission of campaigning on county time originally initiated the investigation. The other woman was Kelly Rindfleisch, Walker's county executive deputy chief of staff.

What we know because of new charges:
Walker's county office employees established a secret, separate internet & email network which was unknown even to his office's head of IT. Campaigning on county time was done through this network, avoiding detection and open records requests.
Emails from Scott Walker regarding the matter were included in the new indictments. They suggest that Walker knew what was going on even in May 2010. This begs the Watergate question: What did he know, and when did he know it?
At least one of the two women charged Thursday is supposedly assisting investigators with information regarding the destruction of digital records.
Walker's staff improperly used county time to campaign for a Lt. Gov. candidate, Rep. Brett Davis, who ultimately lost the primary to current Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch. I'm sure she was thrilled to hear about that.
The involvement of real estate agent Andrew Jensen has had more light shed on it. He was apparently involved in a rushed bidding process on relocating some county offices. Rather than renew an existing lease as was planned, a new round of bidding was instigated by Walker's office - to the benefit of one of his campaign contributors, to the added cost of about $500K to Milwaukee County taxpayers. Word has it that investigators are looking into "pay for play" aspects of wrongdoing out of Walker's county offices as the investigation expands.
Two more big names were implicated in the new allegations:
Rep. Robin Vos, state chair of the American Legislative Exchange Council and Assembly Republican power player.
Reince Preibus, who was at the time head of the Wisconsin Republican Party & is currently chair of the Republican National Committee.

This story isn't going away anytime soon.
Scotty, on the other hand... who knows?

Now for a couple of personal notes...

On the subject of corn... not so much these days.
Up until the middle of November, I would nomnomnom a handful of times a day. I didn't entirely give it up when the petitions were filed, nor resume my old habits once the petitions were submitted.
When the petitions were filed, my adult life "no nomming" record was one hundred hours. I went from a Monday Recall Eve through after the recall rally that Saturday completely without, breaking that record. I went a solid week without at a different point after that. Even then, those were niblets when I'd been enjoying whole kernels. Not so much anymore.
A day without nomming used to be a big deal for an older incarnation of me. I nom less per week now than I used to nom daily. And I don't really mind.
Idunno... I found it makes me more jittery, more scatterbrained... neither as focused nor as effective.


My Bonnaroo attendance is up in the air, primarily because of questions about recall election scheduling.
We will not know until March 19th at the earliest when these elections will be scheduled. A recall election against Scott Walker will take place (assuming there is a primary, which should happen with multiple candidates declaring intentions to run) ten weeks after that. The X-factor here is the time for legal challenges and/or extensions to the process.
The longer this drags out, the less likely it is that I will attend my beloved Bonnaroo.
The earliest possible date for a Scott Walker recall election would be May 22nd.
If the election takes place on May 22nd, May 29th, or June 5th, I'm going... if not, I have to keep a promise to myself of no music festivals until we get a shot at throwing him out of office.
I hate to say it, but that's the reality of things

While you would be missed, you must stand strong! You said it yourself, it's a commitment to yourself to see it through, and that's an admirable level of dedication!
The Farm will still be there if you can't make it this year.