Walker's Base

Over the past few days, Governor Scott Walker has been imposing his will over the obviously unwilling state of Wisconsin. He has been busy cutting education and workers' rights

This, predictably has caused a huge backlash from the citizens of the state, who value their progressive stances on almost every social issue. They prefer educating the youth of the nation over giving tax breaks to the people who need it least.

So why is it that so few supporters of Governor Walker have spoken out since the debate started? Perhaps because less than 20% of the state's population physically voted for the Governor.

Read the entire report here: http://gab.wi.gov/elections-voting/results/2010/fall-general

Wisconsin's census measured population was measured to be 5.6 million in 2010, the year the election took place. As you can see, less than half the population even participated in the election, and of those who did, just over 50% voted for Walker.

What's more, the Sunlight Foundation, an organization dedicated to exposing campaign funding in state and federal elections reports that Scott Walker was the highest receiver of Koch money on the state level during the 2010 election.

http://www.followthemoney.org/database/StateGlance/contributor.phtml?d=2113818352

The Koch brothers are multi-billionaires who have donated huge amounts of money to the tea party movement and other Astroturf (fake grassroots) conservative causes. And though the Sunlight Foundation only covers $43,000 in donations to Walker's campaign, they don't record secondary contributions. The Koch brothers are reported to have bought several political ads during Walker's campaign, with costs numbering in the millions.

So the lesson to take form this is that Scott Walker was only elected through the use of millions of corporate dollars, with votes from a very small segment of the population, and that he is now imposing his will on an obviously unwilling people.

It's Funny!

I remember that, after Mubarak was kicked out of Egypt but before the pro-union worker movement began, one of my more conservative followers mentioned that Egypt-style protests would spring up in the United States with the ultimate purpose being the removal of President Obama.

Well, sociologically speaking, that might have been likely...if the right hadn't already exhausted their political clout fighting for the benefit of their political corporate benefactors by fighting health care reform! The delicious irony is that, since the right caused so many pointless protests back in November, the left now gets to take the opportunity to rise up against the right!

There could be no more justice in this situation. The teabaggers, whether they realize it or not, were protesting in favor of corporate oligarchy taking over our democratic system. And it backfired. The anti-worker bill will be defeated in Wisconsin, and the sentiment will spread to Florida, New Jersey, and Indiana.

Note to the teabagger-minded:

• Union workers DO pay taxes. The value of their labor is subtracted from their paycheck in order to equal exactly what a private worker would pay.
• Plus, the workers already accepted a cut on wages and benefits. The Governor still refuses to negotiate. The remainder of the debate is about collective bargaining, or basically the right of the union to exist at all.
• Some claim that it is the "corrupt Union Bosses" versus the Koch bros. All I can say is that it is not the union bosses out protesting in 20 degree weather. It's the hardworking American people.

Koch Whores

If you're like me, you'd rather see public benefits go toward the American people than two greedy, corrupting billionaires. That's why I'm posting a list of Koch products for my readers to boycott with me, if you so choose.

Note: The Union workers pay for 100% of their pension and benefits through deferred wages. These aren't freeloaders who "get something for nothing."

Update: The bill has passed the senate to the shouts of "Shame, shame!" from the protesters. Illegally.

Koch Products:

Bath Tissue

Angel Soft®Quilted Northern Ultra Plush®Quilted Northern Soft & Strong®Soft n' Gentle®

Building / Remodeling

Blue Ribbon®
Clutter Cutter®
DensArmor Plus®
DensDeck®
DensGlass®
DensShield®
DryPly®
FireGuard®
GP Lam®
Hushboard®
Nautilus®
Ply-Bead®
Plytanium®
Southern Gold®
Sta-Strait™
Thermostat®
ToughRock®
Wood I Beam™
XJ 85™

Cups & Tableware

Dixie®
Insulair®PerfecTouch®Ultra™Vanity Fair®

Home and Office Papers

Advantage®Image Plus®Spectrum®

Napkins

Mardi Gras®Vanity Fair®Zee®

Paper Towels

Brawny®Mardi Gras®Sparkle®Zee®

TL;DR

If you didn't have the time to read through my last post, here's a shorter version with some added bonuses.

• The governor is pushing through a bill that would cause three major changes to the state's union structure.

1. Their ability to bargain with their employers is reduced.
2. Their ability to collect dues is undercut.
3. An annual secret ballot would be necessary to vote the union back into existence every year.

• The bill would effectively slash salaries and benefits to state employees in order to close the budget gap left from the governor's $200 million donation to corporate interests.
• The unions have agreed to these concessions, and they are only interested in keeping their collective bargaining rights. They want to get rid of the above three changes. This is not about the money, this is about rights.
• Governor Walker has rejected union concessions of giving up salaries and benefits in order to keep collective bargaining rights. He has made it his personal mission to dissolve the state's unions.
• Governor Walker has received the majority of his campaign financing from Tea Party supporting billionaire Koch Brothers, who are now funding efforts to disrupt the protests.
  
• At least 100,000 are expected to show up to the capitol building in protest today as a few rock legends are expected to put on an awesome show.

On Wiunion

http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/02/whats-happening-wisconsin-explained

For days, demonstrators have been pouring into the streets of Madison, Wisconsin—and the halls of the state's Capitol building—to protest rookie Republican Governor Scott Walker's anti-union proposals. Big national unions, both major political parties, the tea party and Andrew Breitbart, are already involved. Democratic state senators have fled the state to prevent the legislature from voting on Walker's proposals. And the protests could soon spread to other states, including Ohio.

What's actually being proposed?

Walker says his legislation, which would strip most state employees of any meaningful collective bargaining rights, is necessary to close the state's $137 million budget gap. There are a number of problems with that argument, though. The unions are not to blame for the deficit, and

stripping unionized workers of their collective bargaining rights won't in and of itself save any money. Walker says he needs to strip the unions of their rights to close the gap. But public safety officers' unions, which have members who are more likely to support Republicans and who also tend to have the highest salaries and benefits, are exempted from the new rules. Meanwhile, a series of tax breaks and other goodies that Walker and the Republican legislature passed just after his inauguration dramatically increased the deficit that Walker now says he's trying to close. And Wisconsin has closed a much larger budget gap in the past without scrapping worker organizing rights.

What's really going on, as Kevin Drum has explained, is pure partisan warfare: Walker is trying to de-fund the unions that form the backbone of the Democratic party. The unions and the Democrats are, of course, fighting back. The Washington Post's Ezra Klein drops some knowledge [emphasis added]:

The best way to understand Walker's proposal is as a multi-part attack on the sta

te's labor unions. In part one, their ability to bargain benefits for their members is reduced. In part two, their ability to collect dues, and thus spend money organizing members or lobbying the legislature, is undercut. And in part three, workers have to vote the union back into existence every single year. Put it all together and it looks like this: Wisconsin's unions can't deliver value to their members, they're deprived of the resources

to change the rules so they can start delivering value to their members again, and because of that, their members eventually give in to employer pressure and shut the union down in one of the annual certification elections.

You may think Walker's proposal is a good idea or a bad idea. But that's what it does. And it's telling that he's exempting the unions that supported him and is trying to obscure his plan's specifics behind misleading language about what unions can still bargain for and misleading rhetoric about the state's budget.

Walker's proposals do have important fiscal elements: they roughly double health care premiums for many state employees. But the heart of the proposals, and the controversy, are the provisions that will effectively destroy public-sector unions in the Badger State. As Matt Yglesias notes, this won't destroy the Democratic party. But it will force the party to seek funding from sources other than unions, and that usually means the same rich businessmen who are the main financial backers for the Republican party. Speaking of which....

Who is Scott Walker?

Walker was elected governor in the GOP landslide of 2010, when Republicans also gained control of the Wisconsin state senate and house of representatives. His political career has been bankrolled by Charles and David Koch, the very rich, very conservative, and very anti-union oil-and-gas magnates. Koch-backed groups like Americans for Prosperity, the Cato Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and the Reason Foundation have long taken a very antagonistic view toward public-sector unions. They've used their vast fortunes to fight key Obama initiatives on health care and the environment, while writing fat checks to Republican candidates across the country. Walker's take for the 2010 election: $43,000 from the Koch Industries PAC, his second highest intake from any one donor. But that's not all!:

The Koch's PAC also helped Walker via a familiar and much-used political maneuver designed to allow donors to skirt campaign finance limits. The PAC gave $1 million to the Republican Governors Association, which in turn spent $65,000 on independent expenditures to support Walker. The RGA also spent a whopping $3.4 million on TV ads and mailers attacking Walker's opponent, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. Walker ended up beating Barrett by 5 points. The Koch money, no doubt, helped greatly.

What are the Democrats and the unions doing to respond?

Well, they're protesting, obviously—filling the halls of the Capitol and the streets of Madison with bodies and signs. They're calling their representatives and talking about recalling Walker (who cannot be recalled until next January) or any of eight GOP state senators who are eligible for recall right now. Meanwhile, all of the Democratic state senators have left the state in an attempt to deny Republicans the quorum they need to vote on Walker's proposals, but if just one of them returns (or is hauled back by state troopers), the GOP will have the quorum they need. (Interestingly, the head of the state patrol in the father of the Republican heads of the state senate and house of representatives, who are brothers.) Finally, Wisconsin public school teachers have been calling in sick, forcing schools to close while teachers in over a dozen other school

districts picket the capitol, plan vigils, and set up phone banks to try to block Walker's effort.

How could this spread?

Other Republican-governed states are trying to mimic Walker's assault on public employee unions. The GOP won a resounding series of state-level victories in high-union-density states in November. Now they can use their newly-won power to crack down on one of the Democrats' biggest sources of funds, volunteers, and political power. Plans are already under consideration in places like Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan.

How are conservatives working to support Walker?:

It was only a matter of time till the Tea Party got in on the action. Stephanie Mencimer reports that activists are bussing into Madison, and are "promising a massive counter-demonstration." The push is being led by American Majority, a conservative activist group that trains impressionable young foot soldiers to become state-level candidates (check out their ""I Stand With Scott Walker Rally" Facebook page). Founded by Republican operatives, the well-funded group (which, according to tax fillings, had a budget of nearly $2 million in 2009) gets much of its money from a group with ties to those adorable Koch brothers. Conservative media baron Andrew Breitbart will be leading the rally, and will be joined by presidential candidate Herman Cain and maybe—if we're lucky—Joe "The Plumber" Wurtzelbacher. Expect fireworks.

• The words above were not written by me but by the great people at http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/02/whats-happening-wisconsin-explained
• Unfortunately for the Tea Baggers, less than 2,000 supporters of the governor actually showed up, resulting in a majority of pro-union supporters at a ratio of at least 35-1.
• A huge protest is being planned for pro-unionists on Monday, with over 100,000 expected to show up.
• I was having a lovely discussion with a misinformed right-winger last night. It turns out the protests are over "collective bargaining rights" or, basically, the right for the union to exist. This is not a drain on the state at all.
• The right wing hate machine will do their darndest to lie, cheat, and spin in order to make it seem like the unionist protesters are the bad guys, but in reality they are simply peaceful teachers, firefighters, and police looking to keep their right to organize. These people did not cause the deficit and they certainly are not looking for handouts. They just want to keep their current jobs.