Blue Courage Needed at Madison, Wisconsin Capitol

Blue Courage

Update: See Madison Police Chief David C. Couper's (ret.) Piece,  “Blue Courage” — Coming to a Police Station Near You?

Wisconsin Capitol Police Chief, David Erwin, please take note of Blue Courage.

The rights of Wisconsin citizens are sacred. And you have an equally sacred duty to protect these rights.

Your actions are faltering. You do not serve a corrupt governor and his minions.

Your calling, when you took your oath, is much higher.

You're a Marine as well; and damn well know better.

Please consider attending a Blue Courage workshop; at the least I'd wager you would walk away feeling you met some extraordinary people.

I think your policing the People's House would change, radically, as a direct result.

"Blue Courage is a way of being, a philosophy that inspires one to embody the noblest of character and unquestioned devotion. It is to flourish in all aspects of life, to act with practical wisdom, to exude vitality, and to hearten human connections."

Blue Courage is a transformational two day leadership development workshop designed for all levels of the organization. This revolutionary educational process is designed to touch hearts, awaken minds and ignite spirits through dynamic presentations and learning processes. If your interest is self-improvement, increased engagement, stress-management, developing resilience, igniting culture change, combating cynicism, while improving overall health and well-being, then Blue Courage is waiting for you to answer the call!"

Capitol Police Arrest Woman for Carrying Book and Talking with Friend as Police Targeting of Political Movement Continues

Capitol Police deny liberty of Wisconsin citizen
Photo credit: Leslie Amsterdam

Update: Capitol Police Chief David Erwin ... is "a complete walking joke." Ludicrous, yes; but a corrupt cop is always a clear and present danger to the public.

Wisconsin has a problem. No, Wisconsin has an outrage. The GOP's strategy with the complicity of the corrupt Capitol Chief David Erwin appears to be 'turning the magnificent public space of out capitol into a closed and closely controlled place of business for corporations, their lobbyists and their bought and paid for Supreme Court, Governor and Republican legislature
.' (Kemble)
Sure, part of the problem is a lawless governor and the Dept. of Administration (DOA) Secretary Mike Huebsch.

Another problem is a corrupt cop, Capitol Chief David Erwin, who feels entitled to threaten journalists. See Isthmus staff taking photos of Wisconsin Capitol police are threatened with 'obstruction.'

Citizens protesting, we know they're fair game to Erwin.

It's worse.

Erwin is actually sending his troops out to citizens' homes and places of work to intimidate citizens, so dedicated is he to his project of targeting a lawful political movement.

And last Friday, a woman, a military veteran, and her friend went to their capitol to protest the sleazy politicians on the take from billionaires.

For this they accordingly constitute what Capitol Chief David Erwin described as a "chaotic" situation in an interview with WKOW.

While walking through the capitol, the pair was surrounded and assaulted by capitol police, acting on the orders of Erwin, the DOA and ultimately Scott Walker.

WTDY reports: "The woman, who is a veteran, was rushed by ambulance to the veteran's hospital. No word on her condition. Her companion was detained by police to be processed in the Capitol basement."

What if this woman—who has a heart condition—were to have died after the Capitol police assault?

And what is the cause for this random arrest?

John Peterson, and WTDY have the story. Rebecca Kemble at The Progressive offers a more comprehensive treatment.

Let's hope civil liberties law suits are filed to halt Erwin from his lawless action that has now veered past denying liberty (bad enough) into physically endangering the health of Wisconsin citizens.

Lisa Wells received a home visit from the
Capitol Police with these two citations.
Photo by Rebecca Kemble

The actions of Erwin ought be challenged again and again with massive protests and innovative political action.

The rule of law and the rights enshrined in the Wisconsin Constitution are not suggestions for Scott Walker and Erwin to follow only if they feel inclined. But we do have precisely this situation.

Wisconsin Constitution, Article One, damn the permits, full speed ahead.

The great jurist, Louis Dembitz Brandeis (1856-1941), wrote, "If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable."

We do have respectable law and a model Constitution. But as a law enforcement official, Erwin is a disgrace.

If Walker and Erwin think their thuggery will stop Wisconsin citizens from exercising their rights to challenge the crooks at the capitol, they are as misinformed about the Wisconsin movement as they are about the guarantees of liberty of which we are vested.

The temptation to borrow from Justice Brandeis is irresistible. To conclude: "The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding."

Without understanding. This describes Erwin perfectly, one would think. Scott Walker on the other hand we know is duplicitous.

Closer examination, however, reveals ignorance is not a refuge for Erwin. Consider Rebecca Kemble's reports for The Progressive magazine.

Writes Kemble.

Since making his first public comments in the press in August after being named Chief this summer, Erwin has waged a two-pronged assault on political dissent and free speech in Wisconsin’s Capitol

The first part of his strategy is to carefully craft a narrative of chaos, disorder and fear. He describes the people who feel their voice is not heard in state government under the Scott Walker regime who use the rotunda as a public place to air their grievances as rowdy, noisy protesters who disrupt the business of the people who work in the building.

In tightly controlled appearances in a few selected media outlets, Erwin reproduces unverified stories of legislative staffers being harassed by citizens coming into their offices asking them questions aggressively, and young children being afraid of the loud singing that takes place every day at noon in the rotunda.

Erwin has given long interviews to rightwing public relations outfits Wisconsin Reporter and the MacIver Institute, as well as to Wisconsin Eye. In each of these he claims that he is a non-partisan public employee who respects everybody’s right to free speech. But in an interview with WKOW he said, “There is a time and place for free speech, and we reserve the right to regulate that a little bit.”

In the interview with Wisconsin Reporter that was published on Monday this week, a day before the 11th anniversary of the bombing of the world trade center and the Pentagon, Erwin said, “And so we have a group of people that come here, and last week they were holding signs and they are part of this group that, for lack of a better word, are terrorizing people at this Capitol.”

It is easy for Erwin to make these kinds of inflammatory, unsubstantiated statements to a rightwing publication who will never challenge him on the veracity of the statement. But when he does not make himself available for questions to a broader range of journalists and when his public statements are so few and far between, it’s easy for these lies to take on a life of their own, be picked up by other news agencies as truth.

The second part of the strategy is to harass and intimidate people by issuing citations to people for administrative code violations that the arresting officers do not seem to understand and cannot explain. They have also begun to step up their visible presence at the daily noontime Solidarity Sing Along. In addition to taking notes, now there are one or two officers walking around the building videotaping every person in attendance.

In a strongly-worded letter to Mike Huebsch, Secretary of the Department of Administration, a group of Dane County state legislators strongly objected to the recent arrests saying, “The Capitol police’s response to individuals peacefully protesting is now verging on ridiculous.” They called on Secretary Huebsch to meet with them after his assistant Wendy Coomer and Chief Erwin walked out of a meeting with Rep. Chris Taylor the week before.

It is difficult to understand where this so-called law enforcement strategy is heading, since it seems to be generating more negative publicity for the Capitol police than for the citizens who are asserting their constitutional rights. In his interview with the MacIver Institute, Erwin said that if his law enforcement efforts failed, he would have to consider restricting public access to the building.

This is something his boss Mike Huebsch has wanted to do since the historic protests erupted a year and a half ago. However, in March 2011, Dane County Circuit Court Judge Albert ordered the building be as open and accessible to the public as it had been prior to the uprising. Perhaps the strategy is to intentionally fail so they can justify turning the magnificent public space into a closed and closely controlled place of business for corporations, their lobbyists and their bought and paid for Supreme Court, Governor and Republican legislature.

It's Not Just Walker and the DOA; Chief Erwin Is Out of Line

David M. Erwin
Chief of Police
Wisconsin Capitol Police

Update: It's 2013 and Erwin is still sending out three police officers, with two squads, to people's houses for the charge of having sung a song at the state capitol; and then named another song. Erwin is a disgrace and a hack for Scott Walker. Sarah Jones has the story.
---
Capitol Police Chief David Erwin is a problem, and being silent and averting our gaze towards Scott Walker is no solution, as our friend John Nichols has advised.

"Our men and women of the [Capitol Police] Department serve not only as police officers but as ambassadors at the seat of Wisconsin's government," writes Chief Erwin on the Capitol website. "... Please contact us if there is any matter with which we may assist you."

Ambassadors? Let's put that aside. There are matters pertaining to your conduct as Chief at our Capitol that require your personal assistance and a conversation.

Chief Erwin, time for a public Q and A, or a private chat with me, if your inclination and time permit. I can be reached at: malleon@live.com.

Arrested Development: A Veteran Police Chief
Sounds Off About Protest, Racism, Corruption
and the Seven Necessary Steps to
Improve Our Nation’s Police - David Couper

It's well past the time you revisit that oath you swore as a U.S. Marine and consider its relevancy to your actions as Chief.

In advance of a meeting, please consider looking up former Madison Police Chief (and now Episcopal priest), David Couper (1972-1993), and author of a new book on policing.

By Giles Goat Boy at Daily Kos

In the past three weeks, a number of Wisconsin Kossacks, including me, have been documenting the abuses being perpetrated by Wisconsin Capitol Police officers upon peaceful citizens protesting in the state Capitol. Those abuses have been orchestrated by the new Capitol Police Chief, David Erwin. Chief Erwin has also launched a media attack against those same peaceful protesters alleging all kinds of wild behavior.

On September 10th, he suggested that sign-holders and singers have been "terrorizing" staffers, legislators, and visitors, without giving any specifics. His officers have made dozens of arrests of "regular protesters" in the past few weeks, none of them for anything other than holding signs, draping banners over the rotunda, and failing to get a permit to sing If I Had a Hammer inside the building. You would think with all this terrorism and intimidation going on, we would have seen people arrested for something serious. Instead, people are being charged with violating obscure sections of the administrative code dealing with hazardous materials and heavy machinery left in the hallway.

The chief even said that people holding signs hurled insults at Red Cross volunteers at a blood drive being held on the opposite side of the rotunda one day. I didn't see anything like that while I was there but surely, with all the cops and video cameras they had swarming around the protesters that day, they arrested someone for that, right? That seems like a fairly straightforward violation, right? Easy to prosecute, got it all on video. Uhhh...no. Instead,they arrested people for holding up T-shirts they had received from Muslims for Life, an organization that encourages blood donations that had a display next to the blood drive that day. If he weren't a Chief, I'd swear he made the whole thing up.

So you might be asking why? What's the Chief trying to accomplish? Here's my theory, but keep in mind I've never met the Chief. Unlike his predecessor, he doesn't talk to regular people. I think the Chief keeps pursuing this ridiculous strategy of manufacturing tales of terrorism in the building while harassing peaceful protesters because he comes from a military background, then served in the State Patrol before becoming Chief of the Capitol Police. Citizens with loud mouths aren't citizens, they're just maggots that need to be broken down, and when they refuse to be broken down, he needs to teach them a lesson. When they still won't obey orders, they become the enemy. That's my theory, anyway.

He also can't wrap his head around the idea that there are no leaders among us. He is attempting, like a good military strategist, to cut the head off the snake, but what he sees as a snake is just a song circle. There is no head or tail. Like a neighborhood pick-up basketball game, there is no formal structure. Everyone knows that if they show up in the Capitol from noon to one weekdays, there will probably be people there singing. That's all it is.

The people who bring signs or chalk the sidewalk? They are just citizens who oppose the policies of the current administration. Some of them sing along while they hold their signs, but there's no plot, no secret funding, no terrorist organization, no political party, no roster, no dues, no clubhouse, no secret handshake, no marching orders, no union bosses, not even a meeting. People are just pissed off.

Yes, believe it or not, when the government strips basic rights from large classes of people, when they "drop the bomb" on public workers, when they admit they advocate the use of violence to break up peaceful protests, when they pass laws suppressing voting rights in a democracy, and when they openly mock and dehumanize 48 percent of the people or refuse to even have a conversation with legislators in the minority party, citizens don't like it. Shocking, isn't it? The Capitol rotunda was designed as a public forum, so when citizens in Wisconsin have an urge to petition their government, that's where they go, just like they go to the playground when they have the urge to play basketball.

A reporter from a local paper asked me on Friday what I thought the "strategy" of the Solidarity Sing Along was going to be now that Chief Erwin had made these aggressive moves against protesters. "I can only speak for myself, but probably show up on Monday and sing for an hour," was my answer. There was an awkward pause, like he expected more, but there is no more. There is no "they" there.

Scott Walker's Palace Guard Installs I-don't-like-your-politics 'panic' buttons

Is this Chief David Erwin?

Update II: VIDEO: ACLU Legal Observer Threatened by Wisconsin Capitol Police Speaks Out

Update: Legislators school Capitol Police Chief David Erwin and the Walker administration on constitutional freedoms in September 12 letter. [h/t Voices Newspaper Blog] Letter reads in part:
"The Capitol has a very special, constitutionally-protected role as a forum for people to exercise their rights to speak freely and petition their government. Civility does not mean that those who disagree with the government should sit down, be quiet, and let the administration do whatever it wants. The Administrative Code and the Wisconsin State Facilities Access Policy cannot supersede the state and federal constitutions."---
The criminalization of politically opposing Scott Walker continues, with the collaboration of Capitol Police Chief David Erwin.

Sing a song?

Hold a sign?

Protest a GOP politician?

Capitol Police Chief David Erwin has ways of making you not talk.

From the AP:

Hundreds of security buttons have been installed around the state Capitol as the new police chief steps up efforts to improve a sense of safety in the statehouse.

Department of Administration officials say 482 buttons have been installed in offices around the Capitol. DOA spokeswoman Stephanie Marquis says the wireless buttons will send an alert to Capitol police who will respond immediately.

Protesters have routinely congregated in the Capitol to sing songs, hold banners and display signs that are generally in opposition to Gov. Scott Walker and Republicans. Chief David Erwin recently told The Associated Press that he respects the right to demonstrate, but believes some protesters' behavior has crossed into intimidation.

Check out this video from Kos.

The Consequences of a Lawless Administration and a Sworn Chief just Following Orders

Wisconsin Constitution

Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney, we need your help against a lawless Capitol police force acting under orders of the Scott Walker administration.

Capitol police have delivered tickets to sign-holders at their homes and workplace.

This is an act of political intimidation that ought not go unchallenged.

Walker is using the machinery of government to shut down political opposition.

Capitol Police Chief Erwin is reported to have emitted words reminiscent of McCarthy and Nixon: "... [W]e have a group of people that come here, and last week they were holding signs and they are part of this group that, for lack of a better word, are terrorizing people at this Capitol."

What's next? Surveillance? Infiltration? Agents provocateur?

Below is a video of a citizen to whom the Capitol police delivered a citation to his place of work.

U.S. Marshals. Dane County Deputies. We need these forces of law and order as a bulwark against this lawless Walker administration.

Call Madison Capitol Police; Voice Your Objections: 608 266 8797

Wisconsin Constitution

Update II: John Nichols on Capitol Crackdown-Blame Walker/Huebsch! I disagree with John. The following-orders defense is no defense. Chief Erwin ought to tell DOA Sec. Huebsch his policy is violative of the Wisconsin and U.S. Constitutions; call a press conference and explain to the people of Wisconsin why he as a sworn officer will not violate the rights of the Wisconsin people.

Update: See Expect more free speech tests AND arrests in Wisconsin’s Capitol

Needed now: Dane County Sheriff's Public Defense of Citizen Rights and a Court-ordered escort of Citizens Protesting Politicians.

If citizens are met with more illegal police obstruction from Scott Walker's palace guard, the Madison, Wisconsin Capitol Police, Dane County deputies ought to act to protect the rights of citizens and promote the peace against the actions of Capitol Police.

The Madison, Wisconsin Capitol Police are unlawfully following the dictates of Scott Walker's Dept. of Administration Secretary,  Mike Huebsch.

As writer, Ted Voth Jr., notes: this new policy has veered into fascism.

Wisconsin citizens assembling to protest the actions of politicians such as Walker and Huebsch now reportedly face hostile actions from what Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney last year termed the "palace guards" of Scott Walker—those members of the Capitol police who choose to disregard the Wisconsin and United States Constitutions' guarantees of freedom of expression, in favor of careerism and passive compliance to Walker and what can only be termed as his regime.

Walker and Huebsch have found a new ally in their unlawful crusade against lawful dissent:  Dave Erwin who in late August promised a crackdown on citizens assembling to petition our government.

A petulant man, Erwin, walked out of a meeting with state legislators after being asked for the specifics of his policy and how he intends to enforce the lawful rights of Wisconsin citizens.

As Judith Davidoff reports in Isthmus:

Wisconsin state Rep. Chris Taylor (D-Madison) blasted Capitol Police Chief David Erwin Friday afternoon for refusing to answer "basic questions" about the recent arrests at the state Capitol and for abruptly ending a meeting on the topic.

"I was very shocked and disappointed today when you and Department of Administrative Assistant Gwendolyn Coomer walked out of a meeting scheduled in my office," she wrote in a sharply worded letter (PDF) that was hand-delivered to Erwin's office in the state Capitol. Taylor also took the police chief to task for being unable to identify the "specific conduct you believe to be unlawful."

Erwin began enforcing permitting rules for the Capitol this week, resulting in the arrests of some 12 protesters for holding signs.

Now, it is possible that Walker, Huebsch and Erwin will again turn our Capitol into what State Sen. Fred Risser said last year was an "armed fortress." (Nichols)

But citizens have a way of making their voice heard. See Rothschild and Kemble.

Blue Cheddar (in a piece by Worley Dervish) sounds the warning on Friday(see also Voices Newspaper Blog):

The atmosphere today was boisterous and jovial—it’s always great to see so many of our friends gathered together in the People’s House. But there was also a serious side to our signs and our singing and our presence. We highly value our right to free speech, and we’re willing to defend it when it’s threatened. The Capitol police have a duty to uphold the law, the law that guarantees that “the right of the people peaceably to assemble, to consult for the common good, to petition the government, or any department thereof, shall never be abridged.”

So thank you again, Chief Erwin, for providing us with this occasion to sing with our friends in the People’s House, for reminding us of how precious our rights to free speech and free assembly are. Thank you for the opportunity to remind you, Governor Walker, and the people of Wisconsin that we’re still here. We’re still exercising our right to free speech, assembly, and petition. And we’re not going away anytime soon

MAL Is Running a 36-Hour Fundraiser

MAL at the Capitol

Update: Thank you! And see Republican leaders are counting on people being lost in the fray, caught off guard. (Sheilah)

To fund many, many hours of research, field work, gas and writing for MAL's Fight [our fight] against the Republican Party of Wisconsin, and for families:

Consider making a one-time [small] secure financial contribution by clicking on the Pay Pal button to the right of this column, just below the CoExist icon.

Thank you! I will not stop. And we will not fail.

MAL Contends blog on the Rachel Maddow Show blasting Randy Hopper and Wisconsin Republicans. (March 21, 2011)

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

- Michael Leon is a writer living in Madison, Wisconsin. His writing has appeared nationally in The Progressive, The Advocate, In These Times and CounterPunch, Veterans Today, and locally in the Isthmus, Capital Times, Wisconsin State Journal and Corporate Report Wisconsin. Leon works as a writer, editor, veterans' advocate, and public relations consultant.

Threatened, Lied-to and Attacked = Politicized Families

Most of us in Wisconsin, like America, are not political animals.

Let's face it, politics is akin to a blur we see as we live our lives, love our families and pursue happiness; it's the American way. Beyond a vague skepticism, most view politics as a spectator sport, a rigged system in which maybe one votes every couple years or so.

Bush, Rove and Cheney knew this truism, and they knew they could get away with a lot before people woke up.

This has changed.

What Scott Walker and the Republican Party has done is awaken a sleeping badger. The fact that people can use the formal structures of democracy to fight back is an exciting prospect. 

The fact the political system can be used to protect and indeed inflict damage to those forces assaulting our families is a self-perpetuating dynamic. Never has Wisconsin seen genuine attacks by government to this extent. And the lies and the hypocrisy spread at viral speed over the Net.

Bill Lueders has an insightful piece at Isthmus, which has arguably run the most comprehensive coverage of the Walker scandal and the new Movement.

An excerpt:

... The daily rallies at the state Capitol since Feb. 14 have drawn more than half a million people, including a crowd of perhaps 100,000 on Feb. 26, a cold and snowy Saturday. For more than a week, mostly student protesters maintained a constant protest presence at the Capitol, banging drums in support of collective bargaining rights and sleeping overnight on cold marble floors, until a judge's ruling that they could be removed prompted them to voluntarily withdraw. The battle has been joined by public and private unionists all over the state, with support rallies all over the nation. These will likely reach a new level of intensity now that the bill has passed as a result of legislative maneuvers the Democrats are plausibly claiming to be illegal.

Most amazingly, the state's law enforcement officers and fire fighters, whom Walker exempted from his benefit concessions and collective bargaining crackdown, have been a major presence at these protest rallies. Warm relations have developed between the protesters and the more than 200 law enforcement officers called in each day from all over the state to keep the peace against no apparent threat; they see each other as being on the same side. When the state began severely restricting Capitol access, Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney pulled his deputies from the security detail, saying he would not let them be used as "palace guards."

Unions and Public Workers in Fond du Lac County Strong

Mercury Marine in Fond du Lac eviscerated their workers after an announced crisis in 2009.

Now, Gov. Scott Walker, Sen. Randy Walker (Fond du Lac) and the GOP seemed to have learned a thing from the pros about how to scream crisis, deplete the livelihood of families, and make the public pay for it.

Most folks in Fondy from the 1970s know well the union-hostile stance of Mercury Marine, Giddings and Lewis Manufacturing Company; and the many businesses targeting the steel workers and machinists the last 40 years.

But Unions are still alive in Fond du Lac County and so are public workers.

A stat bandied about now is that Fond du Lac County ranks second among Wisconsin counties in per capita public workers.

No confirmation on this but it seems true speaking to folks in this rural district, a markedly German area with a beer culture and Wisconsin niceness surpassing most communities.

A stop yesterday at 10 houses on Winnebago Drive looking over the Lake indicates most people like teachers, know a teacher, or have a teacher in the immediate family, and say are happy to recall Sen. Randy Hopper (R-Fond du Lac), and "that Scott Walker" too.

Unions are not regarded as devils and certainly teachers, cops, firemen/EMTs are seen as the people who glue the community together.

Yes, Gov. Scott Walker, Sen. Randy Walker (Fond du Lac) and the GOP have learned a thing or two from the pros about how to scream crisis, devastate families, while assuming heady-handed state control of communities, whether they like it or not. They don't.

Robert Greenwald: Koch Brothers Exposed; Scott Walker Is a Lackey

"The size and the scope of what the Koch brothers are trying to do is unprecedented in the history of our country," said Robert Greenwald of the Brave New Foundation.

Wisconsin Families Working for All Families

Nothing will defeat us!

Largest Madison Rally Ever Tops 100,000

Wisconsin Farmer sits atop tractor circling capital square

Gov. Scott Walker can pit people against people, communities against workers, public against private, schools against communities, turning his back on our farmers, while assuming near-dictatorial Scott Walker control of local concerns and budgets that make Walker and his regime the mayor and manager of all villages, towns, and cities. Walker can spread lies and fear; but for only so long before there comes a time when the people react.

That time is now.

Excerpted below, analysis from John Nichols at the Capital Times

When Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and his aides hailed the series of back-door moves -- violations of open meeting laws, restricted debates, snap votes -- that gave him a momentary victory in his fight to strip public employee unions of their collective bargaining rights, they claimed they were doing the bidding of the people of Wisconsin.

Referencing last November’s election, which gave him the governorship and control of the Legislature, Walker has repeatedly said through the monthlong fight in Wisconsin that “the people have spoken” and “the voters have spoken.”

If we elected monarchs (or “kings for four years,” as Thomas Jefferson feared), then Walker’s pronouncements from on high might be worthy of note.

But, of course, the United States went with a representative democracy, where elected officials are supposed to at least respect and ideally respond to the clear will of the people.

The clear will of the people has been shown in contacts with the offices of Republican legislators, which ran in some cases 10-1 against the governor’s proposal; in polls that show less than one-third of Wisconsinites support the governor’s approach (and that a clear majority would replace him as governor if they could); and in mass demonstrations that are drawing hundreds of thousands into the streets.

GOP Goon Squad Looks to Enact Reverse New Deal

Update: GOP scheme is also illegal. Chris Liebenthal explains why.

Yesterday, March 9, is the birthday of the New Deal, enacted 78 years ago.

The GOP has its own version of a new deal and if you are part of the working class, you're in trouble deep.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt submitted the Emergency Banking Act to Congress, March 9, 1933.



Millwright on the sqaure at a weekend protest

 March 9, 2011, the GOP reverse-new deal sees GOP governors declaring emergencies and then telling the working class they need to pay more, as billionaire-funded front groups applaud fiscal favors for deep-pocketed special interests. Collective bargaining: Forget it. Public schools: Screw 'em.

Adele M. Stan has the story at AlterNet:

When Wisconsin Republicans did an end run around Democrats on Wednesday night in order to pass a bill that would strip public employees of most of their collective bargaining rights, they showed themselves to be liars.

This was supposed to be about balancing Wisconsin's budget, remember? The collective bargaining rights revocation was all of a piece with an ironically named "Budget Repair Bill," and Gov. Scott Walker, darling of billionaire union-hater David Koch and his astroturf group, Americans For Prosperity, swore up and down that it was only the budget he cared about in this fight.

But when the Democrats in the state Senate frustrated Republicans by skipping town on February 17 to deny Walker's Senate allies the quorum required to vote on a fiscal measure, G.O.P. lawmakers refused to negotiate, and after 20 days of protests by union members and no sign of the Democrats' return, they decoupled the destruction of collective bargaining from the budget bill, made it a separate measure, and then rammed it through in a five-minute special legislative session that appears, in this video, to be in violation of Wisconsin's open meetings law, which requires 24-hour notice prior the opening of such a session.

Make no mistake: This fight was, from the beginning, all about an attempt to destroy unions. When G.O.P. senators couldn't get what they wanted in an open process, they resorted to goon-squad democracy. You got a problem wi' dat?

The Pinkerton process that took place in the Wisconsin Senate was foreshadowed in the way in which the Republicans in the state Assembly resorted to passing the Budget "Repair" bill that stalled in the Senate: they organized their people for a vote called at 1:00 a.m. on February 25, a vote called so quickly that a legislator not tipped off ahead of time to its imminence would have to have had the reflexes of a champion "Jeopardy" contestant to hit her buzzer in time to register a "nay."

Cradle of the Public-Sector Unions

For Koch and his agents, Wisconsin is a special place: a cradle of the American labor movement, and birthplace of the nation's largest public-sector union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, better known by its abbreviation, AFSCME. Until now, Wisconsin offered one of the nation's most labor-friendly environments. To bust the unions in Wisconsin would send a powerful message to the rank and file everywhere -- like a club to the head. As Scott Walker thought he told David Koch in a telephone-punking put on by blogger Ian Murphy, he keeps a baseball bat in his office.

But the unions have not been busted, and the outrageous, strong-arm tactics resorted to by Koch-minion Walker, G.O.P. legislators and Americans For Prosperity may do more to energize the unions and progressives than to demoralize them. The trick for the unions will be, moving into the 2012 election cycle, to maintain the fight for self-preservation while simultaneously mounting the electoral ground game in a presidential campaign year -- all the while being mightily outspent, thanks to the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United.

Beyond the unions, though, the Pinkerton process may not play well with the public. The American people tend to be a bit complacent about their democracy, but they like having a democracy.

Wisconsin, Nate Silver of the New York Times' 538 blog points out, is a swing state both within and without -- meaning that the state doesn't just swing between Republicans and Democrats in national elections; it does so within its state-level districts. Since picking this fight with public employees and their unions, Walker has seen his approval numbers sink among even Republicans and independents, so it's quite likely that Walker's over-reach will, in the end, cause yet another turnover in the state legislature, which is currently very red.

For Democrats, a reclaiming of that lost turf in Wisconsin would no doubt be sweet, but its impact will be minimal unless the national Democratic Party (and the national labor movement) uses the moment, and the strife leading up to it, as a symbol of the nation's resilient democracy, even as one of the nation's richest men tries to smash it -- to clear the way for an oligarchy of his own making.

Koch: I'll Show You Who's Boss

Forget the language about the corporations versus the people: Too many people rely on their scrap of corporate profits for their livelihoods. This battle is about a few very wealthy men, and the politicians who seek their slice of power through them, wanting to steal the future from ordinary people and their children. They want to rob old people, who worked all their lives, of their Social Security and their pensions; they want to rob future generations of their inheritance, which, for regular people so blessed, usually comes in the form of the windfall from the sale of a deceased parent's home. If people can't afford to stay in their homes in their later years, there's no inheritance for their children. Why do David Koch, and his brother Charles, and their good friend, Rupert Murdoch, want to rip you off? To enrich their own heirs at your expense.

This is what the fight is partly about. The rest is about control.

Wisconsin is important to David Koch in several ways. As second-in-command of Koch Industries, the largest privately held corporation in the United States, Koch has a natural antipathy toward unions and workers' rights, one compounded by the right-wing philosophy he inherited from his father, Fred, a founding member of the John Birch Society. Let's face it, the Kochs are control freaks. You wouldn't keep a company that big in private hands if you weren't. When a company is not publicly traded, it's much less transparent; reporting requirements are more limited. No pesky shareholders -- at least, not outside the family -- to satisfy.

The battle in Wisconsin is as much about control as it is about money. Koch is like the bully who says to the cowering minion, "I'll show you who's boss." Koch is against virtually all regulation of business, not simply for the sake of his bottom line, but because he seems to believe that no one should have the right to tell him what to do.

How much easier it would to be boss of all of us if there were no meaningful opposition to fulfilling one's self-inflating, heir-enriching agenda. Now that he's made the Republican Party over in his own image -- in Wisconsin alone, at least three congressmen, one U.S. senator and the governor won election in 2010 thanks to his efforts -- the only obstacle left is the opposition party, whose get-out-the-vote operation is rooted in the labor movement. Kill the unions and you cripple the Democratic Party. Game over.

When Tim Phillips, president of Koch's Americans For Prosperity, talks of "shrinking the size of government," as he did in a speech in Virginia on the day the new, Tea Party-stacked Congress was sworn in, what he's really talking about is reducing the size of the public-sector unions in order to reduce the electoral effectiveness of the Democratic Party. (Labor has mostly lost its battle in the private sector; only 7 percent of private-sector workers are unionized, down from a high of 36 percent in the 1950s.)

"The federal workforce is over 2 million," Phillips told an audience of right-wing activists at the Leadership Institute in January. "And those are all people, dues-paying for the most part, [are] pouring money into the coffers..."

Horrors. Individual people paying dues to an organization, as opposed to the Americans For Prosperity model, in which membership costs not a dime to the individual who's willing to trade his or her children's future to the whims of a billionaire's heirs. For that, David Koch will gladly foot the bill.

Scott Walker: Yep, we're lying SOBs; so what?

"Tonight’s trampling of the democratic process in Wisconsin shows that Scott Walker and the Republicans have been lying throughout this entire process and we have been telling the truth – that NONE of the provisions that attacked workers’ rights had anything to do with the budget."
- Phil Neuenfeldt, President of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO

Yesterday Karl Rove announced his massive ad buy attacking unions and the Democratic Party.

Sen. Scott Fitzgerald went on Fox News [video below] and admitted ending public-worker collective bargaining is for the political ends of hurting the Democratic Party by hitting a source of funds and support, flatly contradicting past GOP statements.

And Walker and the Republicans admitted ending public-sector collective bargaining has nothing to do with the budget, removing the collective bargaining provision from the "budget repair" bill and passing it Wednesday night.

Message to Wisconsin: We Republicans lie to you and we don't care what you think about it.

Or maybe Walker thinks no one is paying attention. He's wrong.

"National Republicans can't be happy about this overreach: It has galvanized the labor movement, allowed it to restate its case to the public, given Obama an easy way to mend fences with unions, and complicated GOP outreach to blue collar whites in key swing states and districts heading into 2012. This is exactly the sort of conduct that justifies recalls. This will only escalate from here on out, " writes Greg Sargent in the Post.

The Democratic Party and working families will have their response beginning Thursday.

"What do we do now? Everything. Litigation. Organizing. Education. Mobilization. Recall. Direct action," writes Ben Manski.

Walker Continues Lying and Posturing in Circus-Stunt Press Conference

Via the AFLCIO --Despite his posturing to the contrary, it is Scott Walker who is unwilling to engage in good-faith negotiation with Democrats who are standing up for the 74% of Wisconsinites that oppose his budget repair bill.

The recent Reuters headline – “Wisconsin’s Walker vows no compromise on unions” – demonstrates clearly he has no interest in compromising, just creating the illusion of compromise as his polling numbers sink to record-low levels.

"Walker again today reiterated the lie that all he is asking for is modest contributions from labor on health care and pension contributions. We have already accepted every sacrifice on wages and benefits Walker insisted upon and yet he won’t take ‘yes’ for an answer." said Marty Beil, Executive Director Wisconsin State Employees Union AFSCME Council 24.

"When are corporations going to make their shared sacrifice to fix Wisconsin’s budget?" asked Stephanie Bloomingdale, Wisconsin State AFL-CIO. "In fact, Scott Walker’s plan calls for huge give backs to the corporate special interests that bankrolled his campaign. Walker’s power grab has nothing to do with the budget and everything to do with stripping workers of our bargaining rights."

Given that Walker’s refusal to negotiate in good faith was embarrassingly revealed in a phone call with someone he believed was his billionaire political benefactor David Koch, it is beyond comprehension that he would suggest Democrats are taking direction from out-of-state phone calls. Indeed, it was an out-of-state phone call from ‘Koch’ that directed Walker to take his ‘baseball bat’ to Wisconsin’s working families and launch an all-out assault on the middle class.

It’s time for Scott Walker stop the lies, end the showboating, and come to the table to negotiate a deal that gets Wisconsin moving forward again.

Walker Running Rabid

Update: As gift to insurance industry, Walker wants to freeze self-supporting State Life Fund. (Zweifel)

The Oshkosh Norhtwestern has an editorial noting the Scott Walker budget makes "Walker the defacto mayor and city manager of Oshkosh," as Walker proposes to slash state aid to municipalities while installing state mandates.

Though Gov. Scott Walker never campaigned on his array of radical changes ranging from jettisoning local control, attacking collective bargaining, assuming state control of county human service functions, gutting school budgets, and cutting recycling funding, among many other attacks on Wisconsin, Walker is pursuing this GOP agenda with the fervor of someone who believes he has won a tremendous mandate from the Wisconsin people.

Hiking state taxes on working families--check, says Walker.

Whaaat, say Wisconsin families.

Walker's posture is as dishonest as the GOP effort to end same day voter registration, and install a $multi-million voter ID regime right at the time Walker insists the state is broke.

National GOP operatives look to Wisconsin today as a compass of what they can get away with.

GOP money from corrupt billionaires is flowing into the state as is GOP strategic political advice urging discord between school districts and employees, public and private workers, and mass privatization, while hoping the revealed agenda will sail through the fog without anyone noticing.

40,000-plus hit the streets as Walker goes to fundraiser

Amid the Scott Walker-ordered high security conditions at the capitol, some 40,000 protesters continued their weeks-long demonstrations against the Republican Party.

The margin of error of estimates on the size of the protest is the give-away: Give or take 1,000s.

Walker's lies on just about any topic he speaks are not carrying the day.

Walker was raising money for an anticipated recall election at the Columbus Kestrel Ridge Golf club where even there he couldn't escape from Wisconsin as 100s of protesters met Walker there.

A union man from La Crosse, drinking a beer with his son and warming up from the damp 20s air at a hotel bar on the square, said, "Extremism. That's what Wisconsin will not tolerate. Walker is an extremist, and he takes his ideology and uses it against real people and families."

No matter the induced crises and devestation to local control that Walker and the GOP believe is necessary to sell their agenda, even rightwing polls confirm the sentiment the demonstrations loudly exclaim: Stop the War on Workers!

More GOP Lies Knocked Down as 22-caliber Killer Prepares to Strike

The GOP needs to instill a sense of crisis [more cops, more cops] to jam its anti-family agenda through.

That they are bumbling, modern-day Don Segreti(s) (of Watergate fame) is just as obvious.

These guys are Nixon except the Wisconsin and national corporate press treat the Walker administration with deference, as though it has credibility.

Walker's latest lie meant to paint their opposition as renegades has just been knocked down.

"State officials admitted Friday that they may have overstated cleanup costs related to the recent two-week state Capitol camp-out by as much as $7 million as union leaders and protesters harshly criticized the estimate quoted by a state lawyer at a court hearing Thursday." (Simmons, WSJ)

Right. Overstated.

"Madison Trust (the Wisconsin Trust for Historic Preservation) reports that those gathered at our beautiful Capitol have been maintaining the interiors with a level of care befitting its status as a National Historic Landmark," writes Anne Biebel, Architectural Historian at Cornerstone Preservation Research and Planning, which "dedicates itself to high quality architectural research and planning while working collaboratively with architects, engineers, contractors, and building owners to breathe new life into existing historic structures."

22-caliber Killer Prepares to Strike

Another lie, another farce, has led to an increased threat status and hundreds of police officers in the Capitol -- that is, 22-caliber bullets being found in several places in the building grounds.

They are hyped by the rightwing Free Republic and the like and repetitively invoked by the GOP to justify high security measures at the state Capitol.

Who planted the bullets there? And why?

Cops aren't saying; maybe they're afraid for their jobs.

Maybe they've been watching too many episodes of Criminal Minds, even the ones without Mandy.

President Obama, won't you consider making Scott Walker ambassador to something, anything?

High-Security Capital Shmucks

- Readers can still reach the Madison Capital Police and advise these particular wits of your opinion of the "high security" situation: 608 266 8797 -

The capital police are still carrying out the orders of the Walker regime pretending that a "high security" situation exists at the state capital.

This is the line of crap that Fox and Walker have been pushing since 10,000s began protesting Walker's assault on Wisconsin.

And Capital police are just as dumb as they appear [I checked] in going along.

So people can still only enter at the North and South Hamilton doors, and MLK (if they are willing to show IDs), under new DOA rules.

This is acceptable?

Will one capital cop stand up and say these orders are unconstitutional? I doubt it.

Judge Orders Capitol Open, GOP Attacks Continue

A shameful display of hostility toward constitutional freedoms was dealt a blow yesterday as Dane County Judge John Albert ordered restrictions on political freedoms by Gov. Scott Walker, the Dept of Administration (DOA) and Capital police be halted.

I had phoned my state representative, speaking to Terese Berceau Thursday afternoon.

Berceau's office confirmed no one has ever seen anything like the denial of civil liberties instituted at the behest of Walker and carried out by capital police who would have made 1940s-era Good Germans proud.

I, like all Wisconsin citizens, remained forbidden to walk into the Capitol and drop by my elected representives' offices without police escort.

We have an outlaw governor targeting the state of Wisconsin, with DOA employees and police carrying out the will of Scott Walker.

Clearly, the police do not take seriously any oath of fidelity to the state and federal constitutions.

Former U.S Representative David Obey faced a similar gauntlet (see story below).

Yesterday, WISN TV (Milwaukee) reported in what should be shocking video that "Democratic state Rep. Nick Milroy (South Grange) was tackled by police Thursday evening while he was trying to make it inside the Capitol in Madison."

I made phone contact with one capital police officer Sgt. David Horton Thursday, and he said he is just "following orders" from the higher-ups at the state Department of Administration.

What orders would you refuse to carry out? Would you shoot a protester, if asked? Horton refused to answer.

The assaults on Wisconsin citizens are legion. We can only hope the response meets this despicable action.