Dane County GOP Personally Attacks Judge Maryann Sumi

Apparently not satisfied with its impetuous and indignant rebuke of yesterday's ruling from circuit court Judge Maryann Sumi barring further implementation of Wisconsin Act 10, the Dane County GOP has decided to go after Judge Sumi's personal life in an attempt to smear her.  Calling her a leftist who prioritizes 'cocktail parties' and 'foie gras' over the Wisconsin constitution, and further alleges that Dane county leftists like her and the people she associates with feel self-righteous about vandalizing the cars and homes of Republicans.  You can read their full non-apology here.  And here is their original rebuke of Judge Sumi's order.

Recall Effort Growing - New Ad [Video]

Check out the new recall ad below and then help by signing up to volunteer or simply shoot a few dollars toward the recall effort at www.recalltherepublicans.com.  The recall effort is going well, but there's only half way through the signature collection phase, with the second half being much harder.

Wisconsin's Biennial Budget Public Hearings and Input Requested

The Joint Committee on Finance has announced the schedule for public
hearings about the proposed biennial budget. This is your opportunity to
make your opinions known about the freeze on Family Care expansion and
cap on enrollment, cuts to education, and other issues. Check out the
DAWN webpage at http://www.dawninfo.org/advocacy/budget.cfm for a summary
of the proposed budget.

The dates, times and location of the hearings are:

- Thursday, April 7 (10 am – 6 pm). UW-Stevens Point (Lee Dreyfus
University Center, Melvin Laird Room, Stevens Point)
- Friday, April 8 (10 am – 5 pm). Northwood School Richard’s Auditorium,
Highway 53, Minong.
- Monday, April 11 (10 am – 6 pm). State Fair Park, Expo Center Hall A,
West Allis.
- Wednesday, April 13. (10 am – 6 pm). Arcadia High School Auditorium,
Arcadia.

The committee notice said it will stop taking testimony at the time
specified.

Written comments can be emailed to the committee at:
budgetcomments@legis.wisconsin.gov or sent by US mail to: Joe Malkasian,
Room 305 East, State Capitol, Madison, WI 53703.


(... via the Disability Awareness Network at http://www.dawninfo.org/news4/)

Many U.S. Workers Now Just 'Keeping the lid on'

On last night's PBS Newshour with Jim Lehrer I learned an incredible statistic from UMass economist Samuel Bowles:  "For every three workers in America that's producing something, there is one worker who's just keeping the lid on. These are the private security personnel. These are the police officers. These are the prison guards. These are the armed forces. These are the people whose job it is just basically to maintain the society's property rights and its -- its social organization."

Source: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/jan-june11/inequality_03-24.html 
MP3 Link: http://newshour-tc.pbs.org/newshour/rss/media/2011/03/24/20110324_makingsense.mp3

Husband of Senator's Mistress Indicted

Senator John Ensign's (R-NV) payoff scheme is finally blowing up.  Not only is he not running for reelection, the political staffer he basically conspired to buy out of his DC office job is now being indicted for engaging in lobbying in the position Ensign lined up for him.  And why did Ensign do this?  Because the conservative politician was sleeping with the guy's wife and needed to keep quiet silent as long as possible.  Things were quiet for a while, but the lobbying gig didn't really work out and then I think the guy tried to extort a bunch of money from Ensign.  Things went south from there, obviously.

Source: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/51907.html

Pacifism is Messy, but Not as Messy as War

During times of armed conflict, powers great and small instinctively react with brute force:  sanctions, no-fly zones, occupation, embargoes, freezing of assets.  Short and medium term goals are achieved with acceptable amounts of casualties and other costs.  Long term peace is rarely secured, unless it is in the form of an uneasy truce (North and South Korea) or when the enemy has literally had its ability to engage in armed conflict taken away (Germany and Japan).

I am a committed pacifist.  I think that all war can and should be actively opposed, whether it is a international conflict like the one simmering between several Arab states and Israel, or the civil war that is beginning to take place in Libya.

How, you ask, can I sit idly by when a dictator threatens to massacre his own people?  Would I have let Hitler murder half the world in addition to the millions of Jews, homosexuals, and others who he thought should be exterminated?

My answer is simply that we must try to find out.  It is more in our nature to get along than it is to fight.  Opposing war, and finding nonviolent resolutions to conflict may be difficult - it may be costly - it may seem insane.  But it is not as difficult as resorting to organized conflict - or as costly - or as insane.

We must find a new period of enlightenment in the world where there are more choices than just doing nothing or engaging in force.  We must find within ourselves the forces of truth, of reconciliation, of love... and these forces will overcome all our obstacles and challenges.  We just have to believe.

How can people of the world believe in a Heaven above and beyond us which they have never seen, but discount a world which seeks to ban nuclear weapons, land mines, and crimes against humanity.  This is the world we live in, and can not afford to write off pacifism any more than we can afford to write off nuclear disarmament and universal human rights.

I believe in this world, for all its faults and missed opportunities.  I believe that peace is achievable if we want it.  If only a critical mass of people in every nation big and small were to believe it as well, and in believing it make it real by building the institutions and platforms necessary for it to succeed.

Belief in peace alone will not suffice.  We need activists and community builders to put it together, here on our streets and in our state houses, as well as at our nations' borders.  If we are lucky and work quickly we may be able to not only save the world, but to have a world worth saving.

It's 2011 and Why Aren't You Blogging?

There's virtually no reason left not to start a blog anymore.  You can decide who can read it - hell, you can even keep it entirely to yourself if you want.  You can share your blog with Twitter, Facebook, or set up a RSS feed that people can subscribe to.  You can have posts sent by email to your grandma.  There is no better way to share than through a blog - at least not today.



For more information see:  http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/whats-new-with-blogger.html

Call Wisconsin Attorney General Van Hollen

Wisconsin residents: Please call (608) 266-1221, between 7:45AM-4:30PM to say you support a full investigation of last week's rushed Senate vote of the amended Budget Repair Bill.  Please copy and repost.

Illinois Abolishes Death Penalty

Pat Quinn, the Governor of Illinois, the United States' fifth largest state and home to Chicago, the country's third largest city, has abolished the death penalty and commuted the death sentences of 15 inmates.

Source: http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2011/03/quinn-signs-death-penalty-ban-commutes-15-death-row-sentences-to-life.html

Gov. Walker's Dept. of Health Services Secretary is from the Heritage Foundation and Wants to Destroy Medicaid - Please Share!

I posted about this guy, Dennis Smith, back in January (link) but that was a month before the Budget Repair Bill came out. There was no press on it at the time, and maybe people thought it was a pretty normal appointment. It's not! They are going to be able to drop 70,000 people from Medicaid or BadgerCare and be able to go around the legislature in changing Medicaid rules.  This is a major reason to immediately call or write your state representatives and the governor and tell them that SB-11, the Budget Repair Bill, is seriously flawed and needs to be given a chance to receive more input from the public before it is signed.

Here's where you can find your legislators' email and phone contact information: http://legis.wisconsin.gov/w3asp/waml/waml.aspx

Read more about Dennis Smith and what the coming changes may mean for Wisconsin here: http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2011/February/25/Dennis-Smith-Wisconsin-Medicaid-Cuts.aspx

#wiunion Night Vigil for Democracy #7 Last one

We did it! About 20-30 people made it through the night sleeping in what looked like big piles of blankets. I slept next to a water fountain (or bubbler as some might call it) so I could look after my bike and gear. It was cold, as I mentioned, but if I had a better sleeping bag it would have been great. I've been up pretty much since 4:30, and as I started to pack up and get ready to leave I got offered coffees by two people and then interviewed by a team from the ABC affiliate in Milwaukee (Channel 12). It was windy and I kept tearing up from that, but I feel like I did a pretty good job explaining why I slept out and what we're asking for. I wish I had mentioned that I'm a social worker, although I did say that I was a state employee who is in a union. I also should have mentioned my support for my daughter's teachers in the Madison school system. Hopefully my sticker for MTI, the local teachers' union was showing on my hat. So this is the last of my updates for my overnight on the square. I hope to be back down there at noon today for a parents' rally, but I'll have to see what the weather's like before deciding to sleep outside again.