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Even more craziness

As I said earlier, everyday just brings a new surprise here at work. I particularly love the guessing game I have to play every morning as I approach the Capitol, deciding which door I am going to be let in through today. It varies depending on the current policies, which again, change every day.

Then there's always the fun task of seeing how many times you are going to get stopped by police officers before you can get to the office. For example, they'll want to see your badge at the top of the stairs, even though they know the bottom of the stairs is blocked off, and you need to have ID just to access the staircase. Alas, it isn't their fault- they're just told what to do.

The problem lies with Governor Walker and the DOA, who insisted on a huge crackdown on protests and the public in the Capitol, practically (literally at times) shutting the entire building down, despite it being legally required to be open to every Wisconsin citizen. I understand it was necessary to close the Capitol overnight after it had been open 24hours a day for over two weeks, with people sleeping in. Lord knows it needed a clean. But to then fail to reopen it to the public; that was out of line, and just another example of the underhand tactics employed by the Walker administration.

Last week, protesters who refused to leave were locked into the building. Initially, no-one else was allowed in. Finally caving to pressure, law enforcement began to slowly-painfully slowly- let some people into the building, but only those with legitimate reasons. And they had to come through just one entrance, via a metal detector screening. Those attending a public hearing, had to wait in line to get a hearing badge, and then wait for either a page like myself or a police officer to escort them to the hearing room, and then back to the exit. There was only a limited number of badges available, based on the number of seats in the hearing room. For constituents who wanted to visit an office, they had to wait for the office to be contacted, wait in line to get in, and then wait for a staff member to come down and collect them. They then also had to be escorted by a police officer. Only 8 constituent badges per district.

This continued all week. People even had to be escorted to the bathroom.

Now if there had been two whole weeks of riots, and multiple incidents of people in the wrong places causing damage and being violent, then I could understand the enhanced security procedures. But there have been zero arrests, and only a tiny number of citations- less than the average football game at Camp Randall. Yet still, the Republican administration, perhaps unable to cope with the large show of democracy any longer, chose to implement these new procedures.

In response to having their constituents locked outside, Democrats took their offices to them. Literally. Desks were carried outside, chairs rolled up. Signs were made and hung from windows. Office hours were held on the ground of the Capitol for any citizen from any district, Democrat or Republican. A stunt? of course. Made a serious point? Absolutely.

Of course, once they were outside holding office hours, there was no guarantee the Representatives would be able to get back inside. Just ask Rep. Nick Milroy, who in trying to get back to his office after having a meal outside, found himself denied, despite having his leggie ID badge on him. When another officer let him through, the first yelled that he wasn't allowed, and the Representative promptly found himself tackled to the ground. Fun times.

Watch the video here.

This video also shows the difficulty involved in getting into the Capitol. The man trying to get in is former US Representative Dave Obey, a veteran Wisconsin politician.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwwtvrH0Vn8]

By the end of the week, access to the Capitol had been restored, after a court case and a Dane County judge ruling that the Capitol had to be open during its regular hours. The court case itself was accompanied with another crazy news story however; supposedly, protesters had caused $7.5 million in damages to the Capitol building. Why? Because of the signs they had stuck up. Apparently tape and marble don't mix, along with all the other "destruction" protesters have caused. Absurd! New figures released show the actual costs involved could be as low as $347,000.

But the Crazy award of the week goes to the one, the only, FOX news! This week they successful mixed live reporting in Wisconsin with pre-filmed footage of rioting protesters. These protesters however, were not in Madison. They weren't even in Wisconsin. How do we know? There were palm trees in the background. The footage was actually from an event in Sacramento, but Fox failed to make that distinction, allowing viewers to think protests in Madison were getting violent.

Oh Fox, how we love you. Since then, a number of protesters have taken to carrying inflatable palm trees around with them. Check out Nicole's blog on the creativity of protesters.

If you want to hear good music...

You could talk to either Nicole or me, and we would hook you up with some awesome new tunes.

Or you could listen to XFM

It's a great British radio station offering lots of new rock and indie songs, as well as some gems from the past. Think Oasis, Killers, Arctic Monkeys, Kooks, Mumford, Stone Roses.

Speaking of the monkeys, just heard their new song on this very station- Brick by Brick- interesting direction they went in, a lot more beat to it, with less focus on lyrics and more on instruments. Almost a little technoey. I liked it though, it was a new sound, but still with the AM stamp on it.

Currently playing Manic Street Preachers.

If you do want a new band or artist to listen to, seriously, ask either of us. Our iPods are full to the brim with the music. Over 160GB of it.

Sorry about the incredibly long posts....

... I just get carried away.

They're interesting reads- I promise. Just bear with me on them. I will try and keep them a little shorter from now on, with more links and pictures etc to break them up.

Also much more on subjects other than politics in the Capitol and collective bargaining.

Don't forget to let me know your thoughts and comments- either via commenting on the post, passing it along to friends with the "sharing" link, or by shooting me an email at statesidemanc@gmail.com

As always, thanks for reading.

It just gets crazier by the minute

It seems like it's just one thing after another. You really couldn't make these kinds of things up. Everyday there is some new development, which if it weren't so unbelievable and shocking, you'd just want to laugh.

If it's not the Senate Dems leaving the state, then it's Governor Walker taking a prank call from a New York blogger and divulging some dirty secrets. That's right- despite ignoring multiple calls from Democratic leaders wanting to talk about his budget repair bill, Walker found the time to take a call from one of the billionaire Koch brothers- ardent Republicans who helped finance his campaign. Refusing to negotiate with Dems, he still managed to find 20 minutes to talk to a man who helped secure his victory, and is obviously very self interested.

And boy, what a conversation. Thankfully it was recorded and wasn't actually a Koch brother. In the full transcript, Walker talks about his unwavering will to stand firm and be uncompromising, and his grateful support for his Republican backers, including the desire to have them fly him out to California for a nice break. He also talks about tricking the Senate Democrats into coming back to the Capitol, if they are not able to force them back.

But worst of all, Walker openly admits to thinking about planting troublemakers in amongst the crowd of protesters in order to antagonise them and stir up some violence. He openly thought about trying to start a riot!!! Can you believe that? He decided it could backfire on him, and force his hand, so decided against it. But just the fact that the thought crossed his mind is simply incredible!!

Then there is all the talk and attempted actions on getting the 14 Dem Senators back into the state. It began with locking their paychecks in their desks on the Senate floor. Then there were talks about fines for not showing up to work- $100 a day. That was followed by cutting off Dem staffers photocopying codes, and assigning them Republican bosses to oversee their work. How extremely childish! Most recently, their has been renewed talks of criminal action, and a Senate resolution to arrest the 14 Democrats and forcibly bring them back to the Capitol.

But the Dems have been standing firm. And though they have been starting to receive some negative media coverage from sources other than Fox, I think they still largely have the public support behind them. They are the only thing that is stopping Walker and the Republicans from ramming through this terrible legislation. T-shirts have been made supporting the "Wisconsin 14". (Just one of the great t-shirts I have seen, including one with the image of the state shattered into pieces, and one which is a play on the "Teach Me How To Bucky" slogan which is popular here, now changed to "Teach Me How To Bargain")

And they have been having an impact, with the eyes of the world on them. Walker's actions proved to be somewhat of a test case for Republican governors across the country. I don't think anyone thought the reaction would be as strong as it has been in Wisconsin, and it has thus resulted in many governors reconsidering their actions, and in fact scaling back their attacks on public workers in the US.

Don't get me wrong; I think public workers should be contributing to help solving the budget Problem-not Crisis- in the state and the country. But they should only be contributing a little, a small amount that they can afford. Everyone should be chipping in- proportionately. Because that's the thing about Walker's new budget- it is simply unfair. It calls for huge cuts in public services, education and Medicaid, as well as reducing the income of those people who also rely on these services. It's like a double whammy. Meanwhile, those who don't use or need these services, get tax breaks for their companies, and don't see any increase in hardships. On the contrary, they actually stand to perhaps make a little more money.

Taking from the poor and giving to the rich is not how it is supposed to work.

To solve the budget problem effectively requires the cutting of spending, and an increase in revenue. That means raising taxes. I think that this tax increase should only fall on those who can afford it- the upper class. That way, everyone is contributing to society- FAIRLY. But Walker has promised that there will be absolutely no tax increases, and has even prohibited local authorities from increasing taxes themselves. That stinks of favouritism to the rich if you ask me.

I never thought I would say this, but comparatively speaking, David Cameron has been doing the right thing in England to address the budget problem- cutting spending and raising taxes.

Enough on this post for now- More craziness and hilarity to follow in the next post. I'll leave you with this interesting and amusing read, which aptly sums up Walker and his fellow Republicans. Congrats to Rick Horowitz for a witty piece.