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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Raise a glass to the hard-working people

Raise a glass to the hard-working people

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Mark Blumenthal says that the AFL-CIO polls showing broad public support in Wisconsin for public worker are probably valid. Scott Walker is giving a fireside chat tonight.

Bobo and Charles Lane and McMegan never had their hearts in this one. They like whining about unions and education. Since conservatives control every other important American institution, it’s all they have left to whine about.

In the meantime, you know what to do, dawg.

Give to Wisconsin State Senate Democrats.

Order pizza for protesters here.

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General food/organization supply fund for Madison protesters here.

Reader Interactions

34Comments

  2. 2.

    cat48

    You should find that interview from Morning Joe where he said he would not negotiate with the Union. He’s going to strip them of their rights as workers and expects them to accept it with not even a “Fuck you” from him personally. What a coward Walker is with his Koch boyfriends.

  4. 4.

    Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people)

    Just ordered them one pepperoni and one cheese pizza. Wish Ian’s Pizza would add paypal, but it’s okay.

  5. 5.

    martha

    @cat48: I actually think he lost a lot of the people at the table during that interview. He definitely lost Barnacle and even Mika asked him a couple of hard questions that he failed to answer. I held my bile and watched the whole thing and was cheered immeasurably by what I saw: Scotty was being his usual dickish self and slamming working people. When he was called in it, he continued to do it. when he was asked about shared sacrifice, he ignored the question.

    The reason that I think he may have even lost Joe is that Joe basically tossed softballs at Richard Trumpka in the next interview. That was very interesting to watch.

  6. 6.

    Southern Beale

    @martha:

    Scotty was being his usual dickish self and slamming working people. When he was called in it, he continued to do it. when he was asked about shared sacrifice, he ignored the question.

    I missed that interview but I’ve seen others and he just has never explained how collective bargaining hampers local and county governments. He cuts corporate taxes and then says we need to worry about future budgets: while, why’d you cut corporate taxes then? To stimulate the economy? Then you don’t need to worry about the collective bargaining thing because money should just be flooding in to government coffers. No? Then maybe what’s really going on is you’re trying to bust unions.

    I mean, his argument is not adding up.

  7. 7.

    PurpleGirl

    @Napoleon: In honor of union leader (and rabble rouser) Joe Hill.

    ETA: I’m hearing Joan Baez singing “I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill”.

    ETA 2: Thanks for the video Doug Hill. Yay for the footage being filmed in Brooklyn and a bit in Manhattan (but mostly Brooklyn).

  8. 8.

    cat48

    @martha: I agree with you 100%. That’s the first time he’s been challenged about anything on TV and he was not ready for it. It did not go well for him.

  9. 9.

    Another Commenter at Balloon Juice (fka Bella Q)

    Kinda like the charming attitude Gov. Kasich displayed the day after his (very narrow) election:

    “I am waiting for the teachers union to take out full page ads in all of the newspapers apologizing for what they had to say about me during this campaign.”
    __During a speech before Ashtabula County Republicans in March 2009, Kasich talked about the need to “break the back of organized labor in the schools,” according to the Ashtabula Star Beacon. He did not back away from that quote last week, saying as he pushes ideas to change schools he has often clashed with teachers unions, who have “smeared my record and distorted it.”

    And yet, like Walker, he seems surprised that there are objections made publicly.

  12. 12.

    martha

    @cat48: It was such a relief to me. His complete intransigence was there, for all to see. When Joe asked Richard Trumka if the Gov had lied about talking with union leaders about their agreement to the budget cuts, Trumka was gracious and side-stepped the question, but made it pretty clear that yes, Scotty had lied on national TV.

  15. 15.

    martha

    @Ash Can: I think the benefit, if there is one, is that Walker is an evangelist and doesn’t understand the meaning of the word compromise. Which is good for “our side” because this quality will just kill him with the Independents and Dems. And, WI still has a fair number of rational Republicans. Heck, Tommy Thompson was one. They, albeit quietly, won’t like this either. In our usual midwestern passive-agressive way.

  18. 18.

    cat48

    Yea if they can just keep protesting this week & a few more interviews like that, there may be a shellacking in his future. heh

  19. 19.

    Yurpean

    OT, Gaddafi’s 40 minutes into a pretty insane rambling speech. The poor translator’s coping very well, in the circumstances.

  20. 20.

    martha

    @Yurpean: Whoo hoo! I sent him an email about the power plant issue and another one dear to his heart…buried deep in the bill is a provision to except gays from hiring requirements by contractors. Which is pure BS and discrimination. But Walker’s a wingnut, so it fits.

  21. 21.

    shortstop

    Am I the only one who thinks Walker looks a lot like David Vitter? Surely we can do something with that.

  22. 22.

    Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people)

    @Yurpean: Not quite – he still thinks public sector worker pensions and benefits should be cut but has suddenly seen the light about collective bargaining and no-bid contracts (I liked the Koch brothers crack – okay, that sounds weird). Maybe next week he’ll notice that certain public sector unions (police, firefighters, etc.) are curiously exempt from Walker’s plan.

  23. 23.

    shortstop

    @martha:

    And, WI still has a fair number of rational Republicans. Heck, Tommy Thompson was one.

    Never thought you’d see the day, did you?

  25. 25.

    Ash Can

    @martha: IMO, the state senate Dems did the state a huge favor by going on the lam, because the resulting delay in the process of passing this budget clusterfuck is allowing all the worms in the bill to emerge (like this one). It’s tough to see the people of Wisconsin learning about teabagger Republicans the hard way, but I do hope they’ve learned their lesson.

  27. 27.

    Liberty60

    I love how Bobo writes today about “making everyone hurt”;

    Um, how is this yuppie columnist going to suffer?

    The budget in all its majesty allows the rich and poor alike to sleep under a bridge.

  28. 28.

    geg6

    @Ash Can:

    And not just Wisconsinites. This is all being dredged up in the national media. This is starting to look like overreach on a historical level. Bet they never thought the proles would utter a peep when this shit was all being planned at Kochfest a few weeks ago. This is why armed guards threw all reporters off the resort property. They never saw this coming.

  29. 29.

    ThresherK

    Bobo and Charles Lane and McMegan never had their hearts in this one. They like whining about unions and education.

    This reminds me of Amtrak or NPR: Actually getting what they wish deprives them of whining about it, but half-assing their way works for them. The rest of us get hobbled, piss-pants-scared of being called liberal NPR reporting, and Amtrak trains running second-banana on tracks which should have NRHP plaques next to them. Elites suffer not so much.

  30. 30.

    kideni

    @Ash Can: @geg6: The Senate Democrats did a great thing in slowing down the process in pretty much the only way they could. Now people have more time to look through this huge piece of legislation, time they never would have had otherwise. I do think the Republicans are feeling the winds shifting. For one thing, last week the local TV news programs in Madison couldn’t get any Republicans to come talk to them (and their audiences) about the bill, while lots of Democrats were happy to come on and make their arguments. This week, the Republicans are actually agreeing to hold their noses and talk to local media. (And it’s not as if the local media here are all rabid leftists in any way, shape, or form, especially not on the TV news.)

  31. 31.

    BobS.

    Does anyone know if the Wisconsin Democrats need safehouses while they’re out-of-state, and if they do who would be coordinating that effort? My dad (retired UAW) has a vacation cottage in northern Michigan that could house a couple of ‘fugitives’ (in fact, northern Michigan is filled with vacation homes of autoworkers, as well as other blue collar union workers like cops, firefighters, etc. – the UAW could probably serve as a clearinghouse).

  32. 32.

    Terrye Cravens

    Oh yeah right. An AFL CIO poll out with no demographics included which supposedly shows 53% support for the public unions. Like I believe that. The people of Wisconsin made Walker the Governor and he made balancing the budget and reigning in public service unions a big part of his campaign. The Democrats lost, and the Republicans won…so needless to say the only thing left to do is run and hide and put out bogus poll numbers.

  34. 34.

    Ruckus

    @Doug Hill:
    Sushhhhhh. Don’t tell them. If they are too hard headed to see any other way than to destroy the country, I think they have to learn (if it’s possible) the hard way. Sure we all will suffer for it but people with no sense of reason and understanding of anything but BS seem to have to learn the hard way.

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