35 thoughts on “Open Thread”

  1. Sorry I couldnt find the link. I heard on the news that there were approximately 200 people indoors at a hotel yesterday celebrating the koch brothers millions and the Sam the semi-plumbers ignorance. On the outside of the hotel there was 1600 people and the local republican assemblyman stayed outside with the 1600 protestors not entering the AFP meeting.

    WHile there are many lessons that come with the las tthree weeks in Madison, one of those is that the tea party has been reduced to total irrelevancy.

  2. PP- This is in La Crosse? If so, the article indicated Kapanke decided to show up and suppport Joe the Fake Plumber and Walker. Hope he enjoys his last 3 months of being a Senator, although it will allow him to concentrate on Logger season this year!

  3. I want to share something I’ve seen on the campaign trail. I am a candidate for the Milwaukee County Board on Milwaukee’s south side, 14th district. Part of what I do to campaign is go door to door in the district, talking to voters, introducing myself and telling them my message. While that is the single most difficult part of my job, it can be the most revelatory, for the mood at the doors has dramatically changed in the past two weeks.

    Prior to the budget “repair” bill, most people didn’t have much interest in my candidacy. I take no offense to that, as it wasn’t on people’s minds. But since the bill’s introduction, people have become deeply aware that a game with unprecedented impact is afoot. And people are very angry about it, and they are passionate when they tell me about what they see may happen to Wisconsin. While I do occasionally speak passionately about improving the parks and the transit system, my vigor is dwarfed by what I hear from people at the doors. It’s amazing. For every one person that I hear cautious words of support for the governor, I hear five people that are horrified and angry.

    And these are not people from “liberal Bay View.” These people are in Morgandale, Mitchell West, Southridge, and Cooper Park. They’re mostly older folks who’ve worked for decades as teachers, municipal employees, police, or firefighters. It’s a game-changer.

    Today, another eight hours of doors. Here’s to it!

    1. Jason, thanks for sharing what you’ve experienced on the campaign trail. There’s no doubt in my mind that what’s happening in Madison will have a profound impact on races here in Milwaukee County and across Wisconsin.

  4. Jake,

    It is part of an Americans for Prosperity bus tour. Where they are taking a bus of people from out of state, paid for by the Koch Brothers, to tell people how bad it is that the unions are busing people in from out of state to the rallies in Madison. So it did happen in LaCrosse also, and that’s interesting that Kapanke would attend. I think he is the most vulnerable one there is. I am amazed that anyone who has the ethics problems that he has should not be serving our state anyway! Everywhere the bus tour has stopped, the protestors have vastly outnumbered the AFP supporters.

    Jason, that is great, and I think another thing that has come out of this is that people are starting to realize how much the elected officials effect their lives. I am telling everyone I can to get their local candidates on record supporting this bill or not and then vote accordingly!

  5. If the Koch brothers businesses are so evil, as well as the other corporations supposedly not paying taxes that you all rail against, I want these government employees to protest their pension funds being invested in those very same companies. If they are so evil, then those employees shouldn’t be profiting from them, even if that means taking a hit on their retirement funds. Put your money where your mouth is.

    1. I don’t get to choose how my pension funds are invested; that decision is made by someone who works for ETF.

      However, I’ll note that my deferred compensation fund is not invested in any Koch-owned businesses, at least as far as I know.

      1. You don’t get to choose?! Get out there and protest ETF! Make them divest from all these supposedly evil corporations and let the chips fall where they may.

  6. As a state worker, we have no more money to put where our mouths are…
    I’m not sure how to penetrate the hardheadedness of the conservatives who constantly preach about public workers and their contributions. Let me put it as simple as possible..and I will use bullet points to help you understand.
    ~~The problem with the Koch brothers is not them getting tax breaks. Shoot, anybody would take those. That problem is with the person who gave them the tax breaks.
    ~~The problem with the Koch brothers is that they pulling the strings of your puppet of a governor. Wisconsin and its tax payers, including YOU, are being used as pawn on a bigger political agenda. To break it down, why would the Koch brothers care about Wisconsin unless they were using us?
    ~~Union employees have agreed to the financial concessions. We want our collective bargaining which allows us to work in a safe enviornment, a safe amount of hours, and get paid and treated fairly.
    ~~The “evil” you speak of, is not with the company itself. The Koch brothers have thousands of employees working for them who make $10.00 per hour. Liberals support these people.
    ~~BUT…you bring up a good point. More state workers should stop investing in their company…as there are a lot of companies for use to choose to invest in.
    ~~We can only do one meaningful protest at a time. We do not care about the Koch brothers as much as conservatives seem to. Therefore, we will protest what we do care about…which collective bargaining is only a piece in the puzzle.
    ~~Librals care about people, not just themselves. We care about the disabled, the poor, minorities, women’s rights, children, and the elderly. Most of these people are not effected directly by collective bargaining, but they will certainly be impacted negatively by your governor’s repair bill.
    ~~Saying to a libral “you chose that job,” is a worthless argument. Yes, we chose this job, to help people, and not get paid a lot to do it. However, conservatives seem to forget that they chose their jobs as well. If better benefits are more important than wages, than you should have chosen more carefully. (To break it down, conservatives seem like “big fat haters.”)

    I pose this question to everyone who neglects a good portion of people who are negatively impacted by this budget repair…people who cannot use or afford computers in their homes, perhaps: What is your stance on the impact this budget repair bill will have on the disabled, the poor, minorities, women, children (like children who have experienced hardship whether by poverty or abuse, etc.), and the elderly? With all the offensive terms being used to describe liberals and union workers, I’m wondering what on earth these conservatives say about these people.

  7. And…another thing.
    I am highly offended by the word “lib-tard” and similar terms that are floating out of the mouths of conservatives, like its funny. No one used it here today, thankfully. The reason it isn’t funny to me is not that I cannot handle being called names. I find this particular term to be a highly offensive, unnecessary attack people who are physically or cognitively disabled. However, I would not honestly expect this to be the first thing that pops into a conservative’s mind.
    I’m a liberal, so, that’s what I think about…other people’s feelings and wellbeing.
    So, if you’re reading this and you have used this term or other derogatory terms, please stop. These words are hurtful to people…and probably not to the people you are intending to hurt.

    Good night

    1. Hi Dawn, I have never heard of or used the term you mentioned. I tend to stay away from the name-calling and stick to the issues. I wonder, since you care about people’s feelings, if you have equal concern when liberals engage in name-calling like “teabagger,” and some of the names they have been calling Walker and on signs the last few weeks. It is interesting that you do not call people out for using those derogatory terms.

  8. I’m glad that you do not use those terms…but they are used, frequently.
    “Teabagging” by definition is a sexual act. Is it your position that when someone belonging to the tea party is referred to as a “teabagger” people who engage in “teabagging”, by choice, are offended? Does it cause legitimate concern that when your governor is referred to as a dictator or “Hitler” that the good name of A. Hitler is being attacked? Is the line “100% of teachers have more education than Scott Walker” offensive to teachers who, indeed, have more education than Scott Walker? Maybe by calling Walker a puppet, marionettes and puppeteers are straight up offended? Maybe you mean the references to Voldemort, Saruman, Star Wars Imperial At-At Walker, or Lord Farquaad from Shrek? Perhaps you can provide a better example. The only one I can think of that is offensive to disadvantaged people is “Koch Whore,” and the term is probably offensive to prostitutes. I will point this out to my liberal friends if I hear them using the phrase.

    Again, I appreciate that you stick to the issues and avoid offensive name calling. Truth be told, it would be equally as offensive if Liberals used terms, as slurs, that not only hurt the target but an entire group of individuals.

    1. Are you saying something is only offensive if it implicates “disadvantaged people”? I was saying that if you are critical of one slur, then you should be upset with slurs on your side as well, whether they refer to a “disadvantaged” group or not.

      1. Again, I appreciate that you stick to the issues and avoid offensive name calling. Truth be told, it would be equally as offensive if Liberals used terms, as slurs, that not only hurt the target but an entire group of individuals.

        … You read this portion. right?

          1. It didn’t. She was speaking hypothetically.

            Furthermore: I think Walker being compared to a genocidal maniac or an oppressive authoritarian like either Hilter or Mubarak is completely unclassy. That’s too extreme for my liking and many others as well. You won’t believe how many times I side eye at those signs in particular, but outside of those? They are fairly peaceful.

            (And please, don’t bring up the empty casings found. Let’s be reasonable, everyone knows they were planted because that was a day when there were so many policemen from all over the state were there it would have been possible for someone to get that close while packing heat.)

              1. I don’t know anything about empty casings, so I must have missed that. Must not have been a big deal then. Maybe just a lone nut? These protests draw all kinds. It is amazing how similiar this issue is playing out compared to Obamacare a couple of years ago. People on the extreme get carried away and refer to who they disagree with as Hitler or whatever and it tarnishes the message. I didn’t like it then and I don’t like it now.

                I really get fed up with issues playing out that way. Why can’t we just disagree with an issue, whether it is Obamacare or this union bill, without going to the extreme of calling the other side evil?

                1. Somehow I doubt a lone nut could drop 41 rounds of .22-caliber ammunition outside of three entrances that are heavily guarded by the police without getting caught. It was a pretty big deal and showed up on the news up in my neck of the woods.

                  I can understand: personally I had my reasons for not liking the healthcare reform for any of the major candidates in 2008 – I could go on honestly about my issues with it but that’s another time.

                  1. If not just some nut dropping all those rounds, what do you suggest it was? A conspiracy? Just wondering if there was any follow up as to leads of who did it.

                    1. If you remember – Walker had said twice of planting some trouble makers. Once in the Koch phone call, and another time on Fox News in an interview where he specified ‘lawmakers and others’ .

                      Troublemakers don’t have to be a person. The fact these rounds were all near the entrances of the Capitol in plain sight seems suspicious enough to me.

              1. You are kidding, right? If not, you are exactly the type of person I refer to in my above comment that does a disservice to the issue you are trying to advocate for. With rhetoric like that, you lose all credibility.

      2. Furthermore: There are actually many Tea Party Groups who are actually not at all bothered by the term Tea Bagger, wore shirts of that, and there have been at times some hilarious slips of it even on Fox News.

        1. And many rappers use the n word when referring to themselves and others.

          In both cases, most of the time the context makes the words vulgar and intentionally demeaning.

          1. Somehow I don’t think a term Teabagger that was made after the Tea Party got the national spotlight and the n word that dealt with history of segregation, slavery, and problems to this very day… they are hardly comparable. Does the term Teabagger hurt? Definitely. But you can’t exactly compare the two side by side.

            Now if it was a term like ‘white trash’ which is attacking their class? That’s another story.

            1. I wouldn’t say the two are comparable in that sense either. But my response was to the “some of ‘them’ call themselves that, so it must be ok” argument – and meant the comparison to be only in that area.

              Substitute sorority girls calling each other bitches or something similar if you like. As I said, when it’s clear that the goal is to demean, then such derogatory & vulgar language will always be trashy & classless to me.

    2. Even though I do not use the term “teabagger” anymore it is not a fair comparison. the “tea party” people called themselves teabaggers first, until they found out what it meant then tried to disown it.

      My son desperately wanted to dress up like Harry Potter and go down there with Lord Walkermort sign but he got sick and was unable to.

    2. “Today Christians … stand at the head of [this country]… I pledge that I never will tie myself to parties who want to destroy Christianity .. We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit … We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in the theater, and in the press – in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of liberal excess during the past … (few) years.”

      – Adolf Hitler, quoted in: The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, 1922-1939, Vol. 1 (London, Oxford University Press, 1942), pg. 871-872

  10. We need to make positive proposals to show the public we are serious about improving Wisconsin.
    Right now Wisconsin can begin to save millions of real money without any expenditures.
    If Wisconsin implements a combined hybrid health care system millions can be saved like Connecticut?

    Wisconsin can improve it’s health & medical care coverage by merging medicaid, and all state and municipal coverage under one administrative money saving roof.
    Connecticut is doing this.
    – They studied and estimated the best approach to achieve these objectives;
    – Emulation of the most logical steps being taken by many other states.
    – Logical steps that do not entail additional tax spending and need little legislation for implementation. – Connecticut’s plan –
    Summary*
    “We’ve estimated that the combination of federal health care reform and SustiNet will save Connecticut taxpayers $226-$277 million per year, starting in 2014, by replacing current state spending on HUSKY, public employee plans and Medicaid with newly-available federal dollars. If SustiNet slows health care cost growth by just one percentage point per year, state budget deficits will fall by $355 million in 2014, with reductions reaching more than $500 million a year, starting in 2019.”
    To learn more about SustiNet, inc transcripts and recordings of the Board’s meetings and briefings, see http://www.ct.gov/SustiNet.
    * Keep in view, Wisconsin has 38% grater population and will save more & much more because we hv to many school dists & tax collecting entities)
    .
    There is a Coffee party get together re this subject @ 6:30, Tuesday(3/8) @ Panera Bread just past Pick’n Save @ the corner of Moorland & West Greenfield. Exit 301 on I94, 1/3 mile south.

    ” Ξ Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane Ξ ”
    . . . Martin Luther King, Jr.

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