GOP to Wisconsin Women: GOP Will Decide on Your Bodies

Rape is ALWAYS wrong, Scott Walker!

Republicans cheat, lie and mislead voters, and when they get political power in individual states they pounce upon women like a molesting priest of the Catholic Church

There is something pathological about the political Party (Republicans and Tea Partiers) that wants to decide whether a woman ought to have a child, and force that Party's choice onto women.

Scott Walker says even in cases of rape and incest, women should be forced to conceive, and should be subject to criminal sanctions if women decide on birth control or abortion.

This is Walker's outlandish and misogynistic position, though he keeps this crazed view down low because 'legitimate rape' and other such GOP folly such as Walker's don't play well politically.

Walker has, during his past tenure as a Wisconsin legislator, engaged in a "an all-out assault on abortion rights," as Andy Kroll at Mother Jones notes.

We know what's best for you, GOP tells Wisconsin women

Now, Walker is governor.

And the assault continues.

The Republican Party and Tea Party do not openly run on anti-choice campaign promises.

But they do make anti-choice legislation a "priority," once in office.

They cheat, lie and mislead voters, and when they get power in individual states they pounce upon women like a molesting priest of the Catholic Church.

Actually, without the "specific support" of the Catholic Church, the anti-choice movement would be virtually toothless in America, as Faye Wattleton, former president of Planned Parenthood (1978–1992) told this writer in 1990. The Church is getting worse.

The Catholic Church hierarchy and GOP want abortion gone; they can't use persuasion so they use duplicity; and now the two stained institutions are staunch allies.

Witness Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) who actually worked in 2010 before his election against the Wisconsin Child Victims Act, allowing victims to seek redress for rape and molestation suffered as children and inflicted by the Catholic Church.

Johnson, like Walker, did not campaign on his crazy, rightwing social policies. He stressed jobs and the economy. Sounds familiar.

"Faced with a looming re-election bid in 2014 and near-to-last place in job growth, Governor Walker promised us that from here on out he would 'be focused like a laser on job growth,'" notes Jud Lounsbury. "With this laser-like focus, Gov. Walker and company have a promising lead in their search for jobs: Wisconsin women's vaginas! Of course, to actually find those jobs, you need a really long probe to really search for those jobs. They're in there somewhere and by golly the Wisconsin Republicans are going to find 'em!"

Walker's legislative cohorts—Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald—have decided that forced rape, also known as mandatory "ultrasound" for women seeking abortions is a long overdue, legislative "priority," Jessica VanEgeren reports.   From the Cap Times:

Rep. Chris Taylor, D-Madison, is the former public policy director for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin. She says requiring an ultrasound to be performed before all abortions would mean an invasive procedure for women who are less than 12 weeks pregnant.

At that stage in a pregnancy, she said, the uterus may be blocked by the pelvis, preventing a traditional ultrasound from picking up the image. Thus, a vaginal ultrasound would need to be performed in order to provide an image for a medical professional to discuss with a woman.

From NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin:

NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin today denounced yet another anti-choice effort to focus on divisive attacks on women instead of the jobs and healthcare needed for Wisconsin. Anti-choice leadership in the legislature has indicated they consider forced ultrasounds for women to be a "priority,” a move that would put politicians between women and their doctors. The proposed measure is Wisconsin Right to Life’s agenda, and legislators’ comments in support followed Wisconsin Right to Life’s lobby day.

Wisconsin Right to Life and other anti-choice organizations claim their proposal would not require a trans-vaginal ultrasounds for women seeking abortion care. However, the medical reality is that for women early in pregnancy, a trans-vaginal ultrasound is likely the only technology that can comply with the proposed law’s requirements.

"Either Wisconsin Right to Life and anti-choice politicians do not understand the medicine involved or they are misrepresenting the impact of this legislation. Either answer is unacceptable,” said Jenni Dye, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin. "Decisions on whether any medical procedure, invasive or not, is needed should be made between a woman and her medically trained provider.”

"Politicians know that forced trans-vaginal ultrasounds would be met with public outcry, as we saw in Virginia last year. Voters across Wisconsin sent a clear message in November that they are tired of divisive attacks and ready for the Legislature to work together to focus on jobs and the economy. Speaker Vos and Majority Leader Fitzgerald apparently missed the memo that it is time for them to do their own job, not our doctor’s job.”

Federal Judge finds Scott Walker's assault on workers unconstitutional

FDR signs the Wagner Act in 1935

Update: Federal Judge Partially Strikes Down Wisconsin Act 10, the Anti-Collective Bargaining Bill - "... in a clear victory for the public-sector unions in Wisconsin, the onerous recertification and anti-dues check off provisions, which again only applied to non-public safety employees, were enjoined on both equal protection and First Amendment grounds. The court found absolutely no connection between the Walker Administration’s purported justifications for treating these two groups of public employees differently and the need for these two punitive provisions."

"The Labor Relations Act now forbids an employer to say to a laborer: 'Give up your union or give up your job,'" said the great jurist, Robert H. Jackson in 1939. "... Are our great constitutional guarantees in danger? The answer really lies with the people themselves. Civil rights are pretty generally safe except in periods of widespread emotional instability. In such times there are always those who, either because they lack balance themselves or because they see an opportunity to exploit the anxiety of others, institute scares and make drives to save the country from exaggerated dangers by suppressing free speech, or censoring free press, or punishing free opinion."

Jackson was U.S. Solicitor General at the time of this national town hall and had the idea that law and politics ought be the sphere of the American public: Open and public, or civil rights will die.

Jackson could have been speaking to Scott Walker, J.B. Van Hollen and the rest of the GOP regime who concocted the law and after law for cynical, partisan purposes, and even admitted so. See videos of State Sen. Scott Fitzgerald and Walker below. Repeatedly, Walker cried crisis and danger, and used fear to ram through an anti-citizen agenda, with Walker supporters harassing Wisconsin volunteers.

“Today’s ruling affirms Governor Walker and Legislative Republicans once again overreached in their attack on public workers’ rights to belong to a union. This is a tremendous victory for public workers and the rule of law. These abuses of power should have no place in our public policy decisions. The court has affirmed these were political decisions in an attempt to bust unions, not sound public policy,” said State Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Madison).

Scott Walker has a different notion than Justice Jackson on civil rights; mocking and ridiculing them, and bragging about collusion with Attorney General Van Hollen, and using working families' livelihoods as political fodder.

"The other thing is I’ve got layoff notices ready. We put out the at-risk notices. We’ll announce Thursday, and they’ll go out early next week. And we’ll probably get 5 to 6,000 state workers will get at-risk notices for layoffs. We might ratchet that up a little bit, you know," said Walker in his infamous taped phone conversation before ramming through Act 10.

It comes as great comfort that U.S. District Judge William M. Conley rules in Wisconsin Education Association Council et al v. Scott Walker et al (Case: 3:11-cv-00428-wmc; U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin) that Act 10, the so-called Budget Repair Bill, is a violation of union members' First Amendment rights.

"[U]nions engage -- indeed, one of their core functions is to engage -- in speech," writes Justice Conley.

Though the Republican Party thought that it could pick and choose which union members' First Amendment rights to violate, the Court disagreed.

"So long as the State of Wisconsin continues to afford ordinary certification and dues deductions to mandatory public safety unions with sweeping bargaining rights, there is no rational basis to deny those rights to voluntary general unions with severely restricted bargaining rights," writes Judge Conley.

"Wisconsin citizens have long known Gov. Walker's attack on workers was not honest and today's court ruling shows his attack was not legal," said a statement from former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, a Democrat running against Walker. (Bruce Vielmetti and Patrick Marley. MJS)

GOP leader Fitzgerald expanded on Falk's assessment on Fox News last year, saying busting unions will help the GOP defeat President Obama: "If we win this battle, and the money is not there under the auspices of the unions, certainly what you’re going to find is President Obama is going to have a much difficult, much more difficult time getting elected and winning the state of Wisconsin," said Fitzgerald.

Nothing about saving tax-payers' money; and all about a corrupt brand of politics that has seen Scott Walker's closest aides convicted and facing multiple felonies in a criminal investigation of Walker's campaign while Walker tries to stall the investigation in hopes of surviving the recall election.

Walker's signature assault on civil rights is under countetattack by those dedicated to the rule of law, and his legal and political malfeasance is only just beginning to be revealed some 14 months into office.

From Wisconsin State AFL-CIO

“Gov. Walker’s extreme attacks on public sector workers has, in part, been reversed by the court of law today and found in violation of the U.S. constitution,” explained Phil Neuenfeldt, President of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO. “This proves that Gov. Walker rammed through his radical and secret agenda without regard to the U.S. constitution, the rule of law, or to what is right and fair for Wisconsin families. There is still much to be done to reverse the harm that Gov. Walker has done to nurses, teachers, snow plow drivers and other public workers. The fight to fully restore public employee’s voices on the job and a strong middle class for Wisconsin continues.”

“This is a better day for public sector workers but unfortunately does not fully restore the ability of public employees to have a meaningful voice in the workplace so that they can speak out on behalf of the communities they serve,” said Stephanie Bloomingdale, Secretary-Treasurer of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO. “Limiting collective bargaining, as Scott Walker has done, is unjust and un-American. The fight to reclaim Wisconsin and restore the rights of working people to collectively bargain continues.”

While this is a step in the right direction, there is still much work to be done to ensure that all working families have the right to collectively bargain. We must stand together until justice is restored to all Wisconsin workers.

In Solidarity,

---

Scott Fitzgerald's Laughable Challange to Citizen Recall

Update II: GOP leader Fitzgerald sees recall elections moving ahead

Update: From Recall Scott Fitzgerald: "I'm not concerned about Fitzgerald's challenges. He had data entry problems, he reported single signatures multiple times, he falsely claimed we used the wrong map, etc. I've said for weeks that we have far more signatures than required, and I stand by that statement."

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (District 13) is going to be facing a Recall election from the people he is supposed to represent.

His challenge to the Recall signatures fed to the Journal-Sentinel is reportedly a joke, and a desperate Fitzgerald will not stop the people of Senate District 13 from electing their own chosen senator.

Fitzgerald's anti-citizens' recall allies are of course echoing Fitzgerald, saying they have found numerous errors in the Recall Fitzgerald petition.

Absurd. Noise. Distraction.

This folly is the focus of ridicule among Recall Fitzgerald volunteers who say with confidence that the GAB will accept the Recall effort that has gathered over 20,000 signatures, rigorously gathered.

Turns out Fitzgerald's allies in their self-proclaimed 'verfication' efforts made bone-headed errors, including duplicating the pages of the Recall petitions multiple times in their own data entry, and then absurdly claiming that the Recall petition submitted to the GAB is composed of duplicates. :) Nice work, guys.

From Recall Fitz:

• "I concatenated the petition number and row number in their database [the PDF that Fitz's (allies) posted online]. Hundreds of the 'duplicates' were duplicates in their data entry. In other words, THEY entered petitions multiple times. Duh."
• "There were also numerous cases of signers being left out of the database, including some of our volunteers! totally unreliable."

Just to remind folks, here's the 2011 video in which Fitz admits His Union-busting agenda is intended to hurt Obama's reelection, and promote the prospects of the GOP nominee for president. At the time, Fitz and Walker said their only concerns were jobs and the budget.

Koch Brothers State Sen in Wisconsin Gets Recalled

Fitzwalkerstan - Used to be Wisconsin

The organizers of a recall drive against Wisconsin State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald say they have gathered enough signatures to recall a major Koch Brothers ally. They held a press conference Friday.

One local citizen, Lori Compas of Fort Atkinson, started the recall against Fitzgerald on her own, working so hard that the effort became the perfect companion story to the successful recall of Gov. Scott Walker, to be announced Jan. 17.

By Giles Goat Boy

Recall organizers still have the rest of today and all day tomorrow to increase their margin to help fight off any challenges from Fitzgerald.

This is the one they said couldn't be done. The Democratic Party and United Wisconsin both passed on this opportunity, so one local citizen, Lori Compas of Fort Atkinson, started the recall against Fitz on her own.

For more go to recallfitz.com.

UPDATE: Go here For good background on how wedding photographer Lori Compas and her dedicated volunteers pulled off this major shocker.

I grew up in Fitz's district. My parents still live there (and signed the petition!) Let me assure you, this was no easy task. Fitzgerald was considered to be in one of the safest Republican districts in the state. The anger is real, my friends. The anger is real!

And the recall is real, Senator Scott Fitzgerald. You dismissed it, you laughed it off, now you are flailing about filing frivolous complaints with the election board claiming they got the deadline wrong. Save it, loser. Time for you to hit up your out-of-state corporate sponsors for some campaign donations. The days of FitzWalkerstan are numbered.

UPDATE 2 (hat-tip stcroix cheesehead): More from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. I love this part:

Fitzgerald filed a complaint with election officials Thursday arguing the collection of signatures must end Friday, rather than Saturday, because recall organizers have just 60 days to gather signatures.Election officials -- backed by the state Department of Justice -- believe signatures can be collected through Saturday because the 60-day clock did not start to tick until Nov. 16, a day after Compas registered her committee with the state and began collecting signatures.

...

"That's a kid not winning Monopoly throwing the board up at the end of the game," said recall volunteer Sarah Hammer, a Fort Atkinson nurse.

UPDATE 3: Just returned from the noon Solidarity Sing Along that we have been holding every weekday at the state capitol since March, 2011. As is our custom on Fridays, we sang outside today. It was a balmy 20 degrees with brisk northwest winds and a light snow. Lori Compas was still in Madison after her press conference and stopped by to give us the news personally. From where I stood, she looked to be about 5'3" tall and maybe 110 lbs. Charming and polite, too, but obviously as tough as anyone in Wisconsin this past year. Her voice was a little raw, but we heard her loud and clear and gave her a sustained chant of "Thank You! Thank You!" Here is video of Lori at the Sing Along:



Meanwhile, a lifelong Republican also spoke at Friday's press conference:

Scott Walker's Big Lie on So-called Budget Repair Bill Revealed

A news item (Wisconsin State Journal, February 11, 2011) includes Gov. Scott Walker's oft-repeated claim that he needed to force stripping collective bargaining for public employees as part of his "budget repair" bill in Walker's declared 'fiscal emergency.'

It was a Walker lie then, and a lie now that even Walker let slip in the video below, it bears repeating. Walker's lie is about taking rights away for political, cynical partisan purposes.



And the same applies to soon-to-be-recalled State Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, Walker's tool.

Scott Walker Henchman, Wis State Sen Faced Down at Town Meeting

Fitzwalkerstan - Used to be Wisconsin

State Senator Scott Fitzgerald, held a listening session recently and Lori Compas showed up to face him and call him out on his fundraising letters that are blatantly untrue.

One woman has begun the recall of State Sen. Fitzgerald, a lying rubber-stamp for Scott Walker.

By Jeff Simpson

Bravo once more to Lori Compas! I am getting ready to start the Lori Compas for Governor campaign. Scott Fitzgerald never had the guts to face anyone he disagree with in person and Ms. Compas showed up at a listening session to not only face him but call him out on his lies!

Help Lori recall Fitz! NO ONE deserves it more!!

In case you forgot, here's Fitzgerald letting a big lie slip on Fox News this spring: