Courtesy of the fine folks at One Wisconsin Now and xoff’s blog comes this juicy little nugget.
Back when Gov. Scott Walker was trying to explain that his proposed changes to collective bargaining for public employee unions were absolutely NOT an attempt to break those unions but were in fact necessary to address fiscal issues, his office issued a series of four news releases in late February, each one titled, “Why Collective bargaining is a fiscal issue.” Here are links to those four press releases:
Apparently Gov. Walker and Republicans in the legislature want to have it both ways. When they’re trying to curry public favor, they’ll say collective bargaining is a fiscal issue that needs to be addressed, but once they’re desperate to get their union-busting proposals passed into law before their caucus falls apart, they’ll insist the measures aren’t fiscal.
They just can’t have it both ways…
One thing we can do NOW!
Defeat David Prosser!
I don’t get it, my dad said that in an email walker said that the democrats were right that this isn’t a fiscal matter it is policy and then they took them out. I told my dad that how can that be, he then said walker said he was wrong and you were right. How did we get played like that?
After seeing this hateful message from a union member I am now very happy with what the Republicans did last night and hopefully now I would like to see more done to get rid of these hate groups, and that is all they have become hate groups.
Please put your things in order because you will be killed and your familes
will also be killed due to your actions in the last 8 weeks. Please explain
to them that this is because if we get rid of you and your families then it
will save the rights of 300,000 people and also be able to close the deficit
that you have created. I hope you have a good time in hell. Read below for
more information on possible scenarios in which you will die.
WE want to make this perfectly clear. Because of your actions today and in
the past couple of weeks I and the group of people that are working with me
have decided that we’ve had enough. We feel that you and the people that
support the dictator have to die. We have tried many other ways of dealing
with your corruption but you have taken things too far and we will not stand
for it any longer. So, this is how it’s going to happen: I as well as many
others know where you and your family live, it’s a matter of public records.
We have all planned to assult you by arriving at your house and putting a
nice little bullet in your head. However, we decided that we wouldn’t leave
it there. We also have decided that this may not be enough to send the
message to you since you are so “high” on Koch and have decided that you are
now going to single handedly make this a dictatorship instead of a
demorcratic process. So we have also built several bombs that we have placed
in various locations around the areas in which we know that you frequent.
This includes, your house, your car, the state capitol, and well I won’t
tell you all of them because that’s just no fun. Since we know that you are
not smart enough to figure out why this is happening to you we have decided
to make it perfectly clear to you. If you and your goonies feel that it’s
necessary to strip the rights of 300,000 people and ruin their lives, making
them unable to feed, clothe, and provide the necessities to their families
and themselves then We Will “get rid of” (in which I mean kill) you. Please
understand that this does not include the heroic Rep. Senator that risked
everything to go aganist what you and your goonies wanted him to do. We feel
that it’s worth our lives to do this, because we would be saving the lives
of 300,000 people. Please make your peace with God as soon as possible and
say goodbye to your loved ones we will not wait any longer. YOU WILL DIE!!!!
Yeah, and those hateful messages from conservatives on threatening the senators families didn’t happen for the past weeks didn’t happen.
Give me the name of the person who did this, the email, and so on. It might be a chain message that is a lot like that the Obama making a prison facility in Chicago that showed top of the class living when it turned out to be in Austria.
… Actually, looking at this more:
From: XXXX
Hmm. And on Charile Sykes as well. Why didn’t they show the email?
This definitely needs to get looked into if it is a serious threat: but if it’s a fabricated lie — then this needs to also be looked to. 🙂
Now that this has been looked into and sorted out and KATHERINE WINDELS has been charged with this crime, I find it quite interesting that a blog such as this couldn’t be bothered to mention her or this story. A blog that had no problem throwing around the name of a Senator’s girlfriend numerous times can’t be bothered to mention the name of an actual CRIMINAL.
Remember all the distraught comments on this blog after the tragic incident in Arizona about the hateful speech of the tea party and right wing talk show hosts, etc? When it was really only one deranged individual to blame. Why is the same not happening in this situation? Was this woman KATHERINE WINDELS not influenced by some of the strong language and rhetoric of the left and unions during their protests? Where is the cry for civility now? The media isn’t all up in arms about how the left needs to TONE IT DOWN because their speech is DANGEROUS.
Explain to me the difference?!
The number of people killed and wounded in Tucson would be the main difference. You know, actual death and gunshot wounds versus a threatening email.
I’m embarrassed for you that I even had to point that out.
Here’s another big difference.
http://uppitywis.org/blogarticle/motive-person-making-threats-gop-senators-was-frame-someone-else
You fail to see the point. Her e-mail threatening to murder legislators and their families was hardly civil. She made those threats in the context of the collective bargaining issue and surrounding protests. So why is it not fair to blame the unions and their harsh rhetoric for the crime she committed?
You seem to be saying death threats are ok as long as they don’t result in real deaths or violence. Those threats are still crimes and the result of the protestors amping things up. “WHERE IS THE CIVILITY?!” Double standard.
You don’t have a point, which is why I failed to see it. When you have a legitimate argument, by all means, try again.
So you accept the serious threats she made against our elected representatives and their families? Such a tactic designed to intimidate and scare legislators into backing off their agenda. You can’t use threats and violence to get your way. Why is it so hard for you to condemn her actions? You can’t even bring yourself to say that? By your standard we would have to wait for a shooting for you to even comment. To quote your beloved protestors: “SHAME!” Shame on you and others on this blog who are silent against such tactics. Next time some of you get all bent out of a shape about being called “union thugs” you can think back to this incident.
An apple is not an orange, and no amount of phony outrage can make it one.
Ha ha, that’s what I hear everytime I or any conservative is outraged by something: that it is phony. Why is it phony?
The better question is why AREN’T you outraged? Some woman threatens to kill half of an elected body and you think it is fine and dandy. Goes to show even more that you and others used the Arizona tragedy for nothing more than to further a political agenda.
And why can’t a liberal blogger here even be bothered to report the story? Ed here didn’t even hear about it. Seems newsworthy to me.
And I see that I also addressed this in the thread below when it was first reported.
Having a point never stopped you Steve. Or have you given up talking about ear wax?
Forgot two things….1 it just came out yesterday afternoon and 2. I addressed it below
Forgot,
I’m told breathing into a paper bag helps with hyper-ventilation. Give it a try.
Not sure it’s a cure, though, for phony outrage. You’ll need some intellectual honesty for that.
forgot,
When this was first announced and Dave Westlake mentioned it on his FB page I posted that I hoped they caught whoever was responsible and that he/she be prosecuted. Death threats are not ok.
When it was announced that they had a suspect who admitted sending the emails and that she wasn’t a threat, I was dumbfounded that they didn’t charge her with anything at the time.
I just heard abougt this story this morning and haven’t had time to read it…so thank you for the update.
forgot, save your indignation for someone else.
Did we fail to follow on this story? Sure, but there’s a lot of stories that we don’t get a chance to follow on. I apologize that I can’t spend more than a couple of hours a day coming up with entries for the blog, given the fact that I have a family and a full time job.
Having said that, I don’t in any way, shape, or form condone the kinds of threats made by Ms. Windels, who clearly has no shortage of issues she needs to deal with.
Why can’t you just admit the topic isn’t something you wanted to highlight because it makes those pious union folks look bad? The story you want told is about big bad Walker ripping money out of working families hands and taking the food out of their childrens’ mouths. When in fact there were a good number of people like this woman who were nothing but vile. People who used this premise just to protest their political hatred for Republicans (New York Democrats passed a similiar budget with deep cuts to state employees with little to no protests).
I understand time constraints and family obligations, but that didn’t seem to be a problem when you were picking away at a Senator’s girlfriend or the dozen posts per day about collective bargaining, signs in the capitol, or trying to raise money for the AWOL “heroes.”
Katherine Windels isn’t reflective of the vast majority of union folks, despite your assertions to the contrary.
In fact, it’s already been clearly articulated that what she did was an attempt to frame a woman with whom she had a falling out, and not necessarily a serious, credible threat to do harm, not that you’re interested in the backstory, since you seem to be hell-bent on tying her behavior to the rest of us union folks.
If I need to emphasize:
These emails are given to police for investigation first before they appear on Talk Radio. If this email is real, it should be looked into. But somehow since Charile Sykes got it first and he has a history of lying, exaggerating, and writing his own things to slander others for kicks? I’m doubting the creditability of it.
Let the police investigate it if it’s true.
Um…you don’t think that one of the dozens of people who received it couldn’t have forwarded it to Sykes? Presumably others as well. For all his flaws, you can’t possibly believe he’d actually just fabricate something like this, can you? What possible reason are you assuming Sykes got it before the police? It’s not like they hold a press release for every tip or investigation they initiate.
Not to say it’s it couldn’t end up being a hoax or just big talk (I sincerely hope it is), but seriously, the people involved really couldn’t possibly be stupid enough to make something like this up & believe the wouldn’t get caught.
Trust me, I can believe it considering the history of Talk Radio and Political Talk Shows. It’s a disturbing history if you think about it long enough.
Why Talk Radio in that case? Why not wait for the news to be official? After all, if this turns out to be a hoax or if they find out the person who wrote this is a troll/big talker/possibly a conservative republican who supports Walker this could come up with huge egg on their face.
Overall:
If it’s real, I expect to hear it on the national news or at least local news: if Charile Sykes does not show otherwise or bring the person who written this to justice in any shape or form? I will consider it fake.
http://www.620wtmj.com/news/local/117732923.html
http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/117738098.html
http://wbkvam.com/
Need more?
Not really, I’m just seeing if it’s real or not. Let’s hope this goes somewhere if that’s the case: the majority of the unions are not like that as you’ve seen over the days. If this is a hoax/big talk/or a conservative supporting Walker with it backfiring it can prove to be problematic.
After all, it’s not unheard of people to sneak into groups to just do terrible antics on both sides.
I am getting many liberals and conservatives alike to be motivated to look into this since this is a huge threat that Charile Sykes gave us. I think you should call authorities too, so to report this threat so nobody will get hurt on either side.
Notalib…that is a message that no one can support…and I hope that whomever sent it is brought to justice…no matter who sent it.\
But why would you assume this came from a union member?
There are kooks on the fringes of both parties, and while their behavior should never be condoned, it’s important to remember they’re not representative of the vast, vast majority of folks.
I agree Zach for the most part the protestors have been peaceful, and a few kooks on either side of the fence should not define who these people are.
If you agree that a few kooks on either side of the fence should not define who these people are, then why did you say, “After seeing this hateful message from a union member I am now very happy with what the Republicans did last night and hopefully now I would like to see more done to get rid of these hate groups, and that is all they have become hate groups.”
If you agree that a few kooks shouldn’t define an entire group, then would you say you believe unions are just hate groups that should be gotten rid of? Something’s just not adding up in your conflicting statements.
I was in a foul mood after I had dealt with someone at a forum, I know I was pusposely being tweaked by that person and yet I let it get the better of me, sorry I came across as an ahole again…..
The State Department of Justice confirms that it is investigating several death threats against a number of lawmakers in response to the legislature’s move to strip employees of many collective bargaining rights.
Is Andrew Breitbart back in Madison? Anybody seen him? How about James O’Keefe? Anybody seen them sitting over a laptop at a local coffee shop?
Excellent, I hope to hear more about this in that case and the person who created these death threats to be caught. Whether you like it or not, this protest has been peaceful for the most part so if they bring these extremists to justice it will be ultimately a good thing.
I just want to clarify that I’m not suggesting that Andrew Breitbart or James O’Keefe would ever do anything like make a bogus death threat, I just wondered if anyone had seen either of them in Madison.
I think we start out by investigating the only person who has talked publicly about adding violence to the mix.
Nota, are you feelong allright?
Forgot, i was working on one, but i am out of town for a couple days. Since you brougyt it up though. lets see the indiana prosecutor was fired for recommending bringing guns into the crowd. Fair punishment. This lady is banned from the internet for sending this email. Fair punishment.
Now the only person who has not been punished for threatening violence at the capitol is scott walker! maybe fair punishment would be he is no longer allowed at the capitol!?
forgot…I was out of touch last night so I don’t know if was on the news this morning…and I heard it on the radio when I was getting ready for work…it’s lunch time now and I hope to catch up. I condemned it here before and on FB.
OK forgot…I was giving you the benefit of the doubt because all I had to go on was what I heard on the radio this morning. Kinda slim on the details. But know I’ve read the article:
http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/120374304.html
It doesn’t say a damn thing about unions, protests, or anything else so get off it. It sounds like she has a vendetta against someone else. Other than using the activities in Madison as a cover to act up she seems to have no other connection at all.
She has been arrested and charged and has entered her plea. She will now have her day in court and I expect she will be appropriately punished. I am glad to see that our law enforcement officers and court system have taken this seriously and acted in an effective and timely manner.
And I had to search for the article since it apparently is of low news interest…but I expect that if indeed this was a public employee or a union member or a dreaded out of state imported agitator actually trying to intimidate our legislators, this would have had a much higher profile in the news cycle.