Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, one of the rising stars of the Republican Party, has been selected as a speaker for the Republican National Convention. This will grant him the possibility to consolidate himself, along with Rick Santorum, as one of the nation’s conservative stars.

The Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, who was the former Republican Chairman of Wisconsin, announced during an episode of the Fox News channel program “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren”  that Scott Walker would have a very “prominent role” during the Convention.

Walker is the son of pastor, and grew up in a small Wisconsin town. He attended Marquette University in Milwaukee, and while still in school he worked for IBM. He left school his senior year to work with the American Red Cross.

His political career started in 1993 when he was elected to the State Assembly. In 2002 he was elected for the Milwaukee County Executive, where he spent eight years. During this time he was able to reduce the county’s debt by 30 percent.  He also reduced the county’s workforce by more than 25 percent, and was the author of nine consecutive budgets without raising the property tax levy from the previous year. Milwaukee was one of the counties in the nation that recorded a budget surplus.

On January 3, 2011 Walker became Wisconsin’s 45th governor. During his time in office he has done reforms that have eliminated the state’s $3.6 billion budget deficit without raising taxes. Governor Walker also intends to create 250,000 jobs by 2015. His plan to reduce budget deficit also included drastic measures: like making state workers pay more for health insurance and making payment of union dues voluntary. Because of this Democrats and unions came together to gather nearly 1 million signatures to force a recall election.

But in June, Governor Walker survived the recall election, becoming the first governor in the U.S. history that has survived a recall attempt.With his crucial victory against Democratic Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, Walker won the right to finish his term, and also proved he had the  support of the voters to fulfill his plan to curb state spending.

His victory on the recall election was easy, and the Republicans saw in him a great leader supported by many in his effort to rein in government spending, so he has been given a protagonist role in the convention.

Walker recently expressed his support and the importance of the Tampa Convention, he stated: “We have seen the power of bold ideas right here in Wisconsin. The American people are demanding bold reform and we need to put a leader in the White House who will fight to turn our country around. The Republican National Convention will be an important rallying point for our country and our party and I look forward to sharing our story of reform and officially nominating Mitt Romney as the next president of the United States.”

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Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus has announced five additional speakers which will join the eleven that had already been announced, making the total sixteen. Other additional speakers will be announced in the next days.

The new five speakers that will address the Republican National Convention are:

Riece Priebus has expressed his satisfaction at the talent and leadership each of the speakers announced for the Convention have shown during his or her entire career. Priebus stated,“These five remarkable individuals will bring a diversity of experiences and perspectives to the convention stage in Tampa, where they will voice their support for Governor Mitt Romney. They have each served the public in their own impressive ways, and they all share a dedication to the Republican principles of individual opportunity, responsible government and personal liberty.”

Each of the new speakers has recently criticized President Obama. Pam Bondi chastised him, arguing that the “government take overs coming out of Washington have to stop,” she added that “as an attorney general, we are constantly fighting the federal government back from overreaching and over-regulating – from the EPA to health care.”

Ted Cruz said that with a new President in the White House, they could stop the unnecessary government spending and restore the United States’ Constitution. Luis Fortuño, on the other hand, flattered Mitt Romney for his business experience and said he is the one that could really save the U.S. economy.

Sam Olens stated that “the jobs-killing, unconstitutional policies coming out of Washington, D.C. must be undone.” Most of the speakers have criticized Obama for the way he has handled the economy during his presidency and for the high unemployment rate in the country.

Scott Walker stated that “the American people are demanding bold reform and we need to put a leader in the White House who will fight to turn our country around.” He said he is fully committed to Romney, and will help in everything he can to put him in the White House.

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Since Scott Walker’s win in the Governor recall election of Wisconsin, many Republicans have been declaring Mitt Romney’s victory in Wisconsin already. However, Walker warns that Romney will need to have a better platform if he is to win the hearts of Wisconsinites.

Walker’s recall election was held in the beginning of June and resulted in the only time in the nation’s history that a governor has survived a recall election. Many Republicans and Democrats have questioned the necessity of the recall. Additionally, many individuals from both sides of the aisle have claimed that Walker’s victory signifies the death of the political influence of unions.

Romney made a controversial statement shortly after the recall election stating:

“[Obama] wants another stimulus; he wants to hire more government workers. He says we need more firemen, more policemen, more teachers. Did he not get the message of Wisconsin? The American people did. It’s time for us to cut back on government and help the American people.”

The Democrats were quick to criticize Romney’s statement. R.T. Rybak, Vice-Chairman of the Democratic National Committee claimed this statement proved just how disconnected Romney is from the American middle class. “To suggest that police, firefighters, and teachers aren’t helping the American people and aren’t vital to our communities shows that he has no clue what’s going on in the real world.”

However, the Democrats were not the only ones criticizing Romney. Walker claimed that Romney misinterpreted the message of the recall election results on CBS’s “Face the Nation” with Bob Schieffer on June 10, 2012. Walker stated, “I think it’s slightly different…I think in our case what they wanted was people who are willing to take on the tough issues, not only here in Wisconsin but across the country.” Walker also agreed with Rybak, a Democrat, that the reforms in Wisconsin protected firefighters, police officers, and teachers; they were not the enemies

Walker warned Romney that he needs to be a reformer as well as a Republican and that Wisconsin will not necessarily vote for Mitt Romney unless he has a strong platform. Currently, Walker believes that Romney has been focusing too much at criticizing Obama and Romney’s own strategy and plans have suffered for it. Walker said, “I just hope he takes a page out of President Reagan’s playbook in 1980, where it was not only a referendum on the failed policies of President Carter at the time, it was also something where President Reagan laid out a clear plan.”

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For fantasy fans, Patrick Rothfuss is a man who needs no introduction. The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man’s Fear have earned the Wisconsin author praise from critics and fans alike for his sophisticated storytelling and unique worldbuilding. Recently, Rothfuss was kind enough to take part in an email interview with Toonari Post in which he shared his views on everything from the perils of querying to his disdain for the Badger State’s controversial governor.

Toonari Post (TP): What helps you get into the ‘writing zone?’ For example, do you listen to a particular piece of music or drink a certain drink?

Patrick Rothfuss (PR): Caffeine helps a lot. That and a certain amount of isolation. No music. Silence.

TP: Could you briefly describe your journey from aspiring writer to published author?

PR: Not briefly, no. It took 14 years, after all. It was tangled trail of broken hearts and empty promises.

Actually, that’s a lie. It’s just a pretty boring story. Especially if I do it briefly.

TP: How did you find your agent?

PR: After two years of sending out query letters and failing to get an agent, I made friends with an author, who was nice enough to introduce me to his agent. That got my foot in the door.

TP: Do you have any advice for writers struggling with the dreaded query letter?

PR: My best advice would be to ask someone else for advice. I suck at query letters.

I’m not being modest. I was really profoundly bad at it. Like I said, I sent letters out for more than two years, and failed resoundingly all the while. You don’t want me to help you with that.

It’s kind of a shame, really. Writing a good query letter has very little to do with writing a good novel. But if you can’t write the one, it makes it really hard to get the other published.

TP: Why did you choose to go with a traditional publisher?

PR: Because I wanted people to read my books.

TP: Were you ever tempted to self-publish?

PR: Not really. Because, as I mentioned, I wanted people to read my books.

I know there’s a lot of talk about self-publishing right now. Everyone’s giddy with the possibilities. And I’ll admit that it looks good on paper: sell your books directly and keep a bigger chunk of the profit for yourself. No rejection letters. No hassle with agents. Sounds good, right?

Except nobody knows who you are. And nobody really cares. And your book is mostly crap because you haven’t had a substance-level editor give you feedback and make you revise it a couple of times. And your book is full of typos because you didn’t have a copy-editor read it. And the layout is ugly because you don’t know anything about layout…I’m sure you get the picture.

It’s like the query letter problem that I just mentioned, magnified a hundredfold. You might be good at telling a story, but that doesn’t mean you know anything about marketing. Or layout. Or editing. Or publicity. Or selling your books for foreign markets.

Even if you’re surprisingly good at one of those things, you’re still not going to be as good as a professional. You don’t know the tricks of the trade. You don’t know the right people to call. You don’t know what mistakes to avoid….

Everyone can point to a few examples of people that have done very well for themselves self-publishing. But honestly, those folks are lucky as lottery winners. They’re statistical anomalies. You want to publish with a publisher because a publisher knows how to publish a book. And you don’t. You really don’t.

TP: Reading your books, it’s hard not to be blown away by the amount of worldbuilding you’ve done. How do you keep all the details straight? Do you have any plans to release an official guide to the world of the Kingkiller Chronicles?

PR: I’ll probably do something like that eventually. Right now I have vague dreams of releasing it as a sourcebook for a table-top role-playing game.

TP: Music obviously plays a large role in Kvothe’s life, and you refer to (and occasionally quote from) various songs throughout the books. Have you ever thought about putting all those songs on a CD?

PR: That would be a ton of fun, but it would be a lot of work. I’d also need some serious musicians to help me pull it off. Real musicians with serious craft behind them. So far, nobody like that has dropped me an e-mail.

TP: The Cthaeh is one of the coolest creatures I’ve ever seen in a fantasy novel. What was the inspiration for it?

PR: I didn’t really base it off anything. I made it up. Y’know, out of my head.

That’s what I do. I make things up.

TP: If you could start the Kingkiller Chronicles anew, is there anything you’d do differently?

PR: Not really. The good thing about working on the books for 14 years before they hit the shelves is that I worked out most of the kinks long before they were published.

Barring a few tiny mistakes, I got everything pretty much exactly the way I wanted.

TP: If you were to study at the Arcanum, what would you study?

PR: Probably alchemy and naming. I think I’d make a better namer than Kvothe.

TP: Why do you think so many people in Academia turn up their noses at genre fiction?

PR: I think it’s mostly because they have sad little lives, and one of the rare tawdry joys they possess is looking down on other people. It’s sad, really.

TP: Do you see that changing eventually?

PR: Oh, sure. There’s a lot of folks in academia that don’t have their heads up their asses. You can take classes on the Lord of the Rings, Gaiman’s Sandman, or Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

The smart folks are realizing that if you ignore modern culture, modern culture is going to ignore you right back. And when that happens, you’re going to have to sit all by your lonely self and wallow in your own obsolescence.

But if you open the door and realize things like the fact that Batman is occupying the same narrative space that Robin Hood used to fill 400 years ago, then you have the freedom to ignore the pointless “what is literature” discussion and just talk about stories.

That’s all that really matters in the end. Stories.

TP: What are three books that you think everyone should read?

PR: All Quiet on the Western Front. 1984. The Last Unicorn.

TP: What are the top three things on your ‘bucket list?’

PR: I’d love to get a chance to talk shop with Joss Whedon. That’s pretty high up there on the list.

The other two, well, they’re not the sort of thing you mention in polite conversation.

TP: What do you find most challenging about being an author?

PR: Coming to grips with being a bit of a celebrity. That’s not anything I ever expected to have to deal with in my life.

I mean, if you’re an actor, you know people are going to recognize you in a restaurant. If you’re a rock star, you know people are going to stop you on the street and ask you for your autograph. But as an author? That’s not something I was ready for.

TP: If you couldn’t be an author, what would you do?

PR: I’d be an unpublished author. Also probably a teacher.

TP: You’ve made no secret of your admiration for Joss Whedon. Have you read the comic continuations of Buffy the Vampire Slayer? What do you think of them?

PR: They’re good. Joss is an excellent storyteller. It really doesn’t matter what medium he’s working in.

TP: Speaking as a native Badger, what is your favorite thing about Wisconsin?

PR: Right now my favorite thing is working to recall our absolute shitbag of a governor. He’s been screwing up my state for more than a year. I want him out.

For more information about Pat Rothfuss, check out his website.

Image Courtesy of   Patrick Rothfuss

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Tens of thousands gathered around the Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin on Saturday, March 10 to mark the one year anniversary of Governor Scott Walker’s legislation stripping the collective bargaining rights from most of Wisconsin’s public workers. Chants of “This Is What Democracy Looks Like!” filled the air once again.

The event’s organizers estimate the attendance around 60-65,000 people but the state Department of Administration estimated 25-35,000. Many of those in attendance were public employees who were stripped of those collective bargaining rights. The state chapter of the AFL-CIO organized the event and its president Phil Neuenfeldt called on the protestors to increase their efforts to remove Walker from office.

Walker helped push the law through that stripped most public workers of collective bargaining rights. This law forced the employees to pay more for their benefits and pensions and was essentially a pay cut. Walker and the Republicans said this was necessary to balance a $3.6 billion budget deficit.

The Democrats and labor leaders argued that the purpose of the law was to undermine the unions. The unions are an important part of the Democrats’ constituency. At the time the bill was proposed the Democrats fled to Illinois to stall the vote but the Republican-majority within Legislature maneuvered around this and Walker signed it into law in March 2011.

Moves were made immediately to recall Walker and several Republican senators. In January more than a million petition signatures were submitted to begin the process of recalling Walker, Lt. Governor Rebecca Kleefisch and four senators.

Now a year later the gathering at the Capitol shows the recall movement still has momentum. Lori Compas provided proof of the continued momentum when she held up a memo from the Government Accountability Board. The memo declared the validity of a recall against Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald that Compas organized. At this time she is the only declared candidate in the race against Fitzgerald.

John Nichols, writer and Washington correspondent for The Nation magazine reminded the crowd that during the March 2011 rallies Japan was suffering from the tsunami and nuclear disaster. Nichols spoke of how the rally last year closed with a prayer for the people of Japan because “we never lose sight for the rest of the world.”

He then read an email from Japan’s Trade Union Federation that demonstrated the rest of the world hadn’t lost sight of Wisconsin either. The email said, “We send our greetings to the Reclaim Wisconsin rally. We are watching you…we are following what you are doing because you are giving us the courage to rise up here in Japan and stand for worker’s rights.” Live streaming of the event made it possible for all to see.

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Democrats in Wisconsin fell short of taking majority control of the state Senate. Democrats succeeded in taking two seats away from Republicans but fell one short of their goal during recall elections this week. Republicans are claiming victory even though two of their members are now unemployed.

Republicans throughout the state believe the recall elections are a win Gov. Scott Walker and an affirmation of his conservative agenda and his attack on unions. The Democratic Party of Wisconsin said Wednesday that despite falling short Tuesday night, they still plan to recall Walker next year.

“Barely scraping by on their own turf is an incredible sign of weakness for Gov. Walker and Republicans,” party chairman Mike Tate told the Wisconsin State-Journal. “The historic gains made tonight to restore balance and accountability to our state, and restore Wisconsin values, will continue when the entire state weighs-in on the November 2012 elections — and with the recall of Scott Walker himself.”

Walker told The Associated Press on Wednesday that even though his party managed to retain control of the Legislature, he believes the recall election results show that voters want both parties to work together on jobs and the economy.”People still want us to focus on those two priorities,” Walker said. “They want us to work together.”

Walker reported that he will meet with leaders from both parties to begin working together. Assembly Democratic Minority Leader Peter Barca expressed some doubts over whether that would really happen. “It’s bipartisan action, not bipartisan rhetoric that people are looking for,” Barca said.

Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, who will preside over a 17-16 GOP majority should two Democratic senators manage to win their own recall elections next week, echoed Walker’s talking points. “Republicans are going to continue doing what we promised the people of Wisconsin – improve the economy and get Wisconsin moving back in the right direction,” Fitzgerald said in a prepared statement after the victory.

Democrats and union leaders tried to make the best of the historic GOP wins. There had been only 13 other successful recalls of state-level office holders nationwide since 1913. “The fact of the matter remains that, fighting on Republican turf, we have begun the work of stopping the Scott Walker agenda,” said Democratic Party Chairman Mike Tate.

Phil Neuenfeldt, the president of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO, said voters sent a message that there is a growing movement to reclaim the middle class.”Let’s be clear, anyway you slice it, this is an unprecedented victory,” he said.

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Wisconsin governor Scott Walker conceded that he made a mistake last February in the way he limited collective bargaining power that led to weeks of massive protests in Madison. However, he still defends his policies and believes that ending collective bargaining was somehow a cost-saving measure to the state.

Nationwide, Walker was criticized for trying to end state worker rights. He was also heavily criticized for his bullying tactics that did not allow any debate on the issue, but rather forced the law through.”The mistake I made early on is, I looked at it almost like the head of a small business: identify a problem, identify a solution and go out and do it,” Walker told Reuters at the National Governor’s Association meeting in Salt Lake City.

“I don’t think we built enough of a political case, so we let … the national organizations come in and define the debate while we were busy just getting the job done,” he said.

Walker continues to argue that his extreme policies helped prevent layoffs for state workers, even though restricting collective bargaining has not saved one cent. The political fallout from the controversy is still being felt. Six Republican senators who supported the measure will be forced to defend their seats during a recall election in August. Three Democratic senators are also up for recall. Democrats vow to recall Walker in January after he has served one year in office and will be eligible for recall according to state law.

If Democrats gain just three of the seats at stake in the special summer elections, they will take control of the upper house and have some control at preventing Walker’s draconian slashing measures. But, Republicans will still control the Assembly.

“If the Republican candidates are outspent two to one, it’s pretty difficult,” Walker said of the recall effort.

“Conversely, if things end up being relatively even and the message gets out,” the party will have a better chance of prevailing, he said. Walker said he did not plan to campaign in the contested districts.

Last November, a large majority of states fell to Republican governors who promised to provide jobs to the nation’s long suffering unemployed. However, they have failed to deliver and their approval ratings are plummeting. Walker believes that his poll numbers will improve when voters see improvement in the economy.

But, while Washington fights over the ridiculous debt ceiling and each state is trying to ban abortion and other morality clauses, the unemployment rate stays stagnant. Sorry, Scott but your numbers aren’t going to improve any time soon. Slashing spending throughout the country DOES NOT help jobs.

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Strange things happened in Wisconsin this week. As you are aware of, because of the ridiculousness earlier this year, Wisconsin Democrats organized an astounding recall effort against six Republican state senators. On Tuesday, a group of Democrats were supposed to run against the Republican state senators, likely ousting them from their privileged positions.

However, the Republicans instead decided to stretch out the recalls by exploiting a little known provision in Wisconsin state law and forcing primaries. By forcing a primary election for the Democrats, the actual recall elections will not be held until August 9^th.

And that is not all. The Republicans then recruited “Democrats” to run against the true democrats in the primary.  Wow, they must be very scared. All of these so-called Democrats that the GOP recruited are actually, gasp, Republicans. These fake Democrats were only used to delay the recall elections. They are a collection of party officials and sacrificial lambs.

Three of them are over 80 years of age. One is twenty-five. None have raised any money. There was no dramatic upsets in the race. The real Democrats won handily. Five of the six winners had at least 65 percent of the vote, based on unofficial results. The sixth, Shelly Moore, had 54 percent.

Democratic Party spokeswoman Gillian Morris said she wasn’t concerned about how tight the Moore race turned out to be.”They were campaigning pretty hard there,” Morris said. “That also shows how scared they are of what Shelly Moore can do in a general election against.”

State Republican Party spokeswoman Katie McCallum said the results were an embarrassment for Moore but that ultimately Tuesday’s elections wouldn’t change the approach being taken by any of the incumbents.

I do not understand how anyone could defend the incredible tactics that have been used in Wisconsin since Governor Scott Walker took over. Claiming that terminating collective bargaining was a fiscal matter and then saying it wasn’t while they were still insisting it would save money.

Holding a vote without giving advance warning, defying court rulings, locking down the capital and arresting protesters have all been a part of Wisconsin’s dirty play. And now, they decide to recruit Republicans to mask as Democrats just to delay the inevitable. What the what?

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Despite the media’s obsession with Anthony Weiner’s downfall, there are actual news events happening. Like in Wisconsin where Governor Scott Walker still thinks he is somehow special even as the recalls are ramped up in the state. Both Republicans and Democrats in Wisconsin are gearing up for the summer’s state Senate recall elections that are widely seen as a referendum on Walker’s fight with public unions.

The summer certainly won’t be slow in Wisconsin. The collective bargaining issue may be settled for now by the courts, the issue is still on everyone’s mind in the state and nationally. Six state Republicans are up for recall and three Democrats are also facing recall challenges. Primary elections for the Republicans will be held on July 12.

Americans for Prosperity (AFP), a conservative group, is funding a recall effort against state Democrats. Over the weekend, conservative activists were volunteering at a phone bank to call residents about the recall elections. “It’s called the Wisconsin Freedom Phonebanks,” said Matt Seaholm, state director of AFP-Wisconsin. “It’s set up for citizen identification, asking people where they stand on the issues — just kind of identifying people to see what they think of the recalls going on, but also the governor’s plan on collective bargaining.”

Marjorie Haun, a public school teacher in Colorado, said she was closely following events in Wisconsin and decided to help out at the phonebank because she felt the collective bargaining issue was a national fight. She called about half a dozen people. Two hung up, one was unsure on the issue, and one replied, “I have to think about it.”

“The main question I had was, ‘Do you support Scott Walker’s efforts to balance the budget by limiting the public sector union ability to collectively bargain?’” Haun told The Huffington Post. “I’ve been very concerned about the way that the unions in Wisconsin have reacted to his effort to balance his budget — through not taking away what they have, but through limiting the way that they can take taxpayer money to support their pensions, which are huge and very lavish, especially compared to the one I have in Colorado,” she added.

Nearby, a progressive group was holding a Netroots Nation conference in Minneapolis. Former Wisconsin senator Russ Feingold, labor leaders, and other activists focused on the fight in Wisconsin during the event. On Sunday, Democracy for America (DFA) was busing participants over to Wisconsin to knock on doors on behalf of candidates in the recall elections. According to a tweet from DFA Deputy National Field Director Nick Passanante, about 20 volunteers joined up with them to canvass.

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The Wisconsin Supreme Court has upheld the controversial act that stripped most public sector unions of the right to collectively bargain.

By a 4-3 majority, the Supreme Court ruled that Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi had “usurped the legislative power which the Wisconsin constitution grants exclusively to the Legislature” when she issued an injunction prohibiting the enforcement of the act due to violations of the state’s open meetings laws.  “There is no constitutional requirement that the legislature provide access to as many members of the public as wish to attend meetings of the legislature or meetings of legislative committees,” the court said.

In her dissent from the majority opinion, Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson accused the court’s conservative majority of displaying partisanship in their ruling.  She also argued that the case should not have been allowed to leapfrog the usual appellate process.  “Only with a reasoned, accurate analysis can a court assure the litigants and the public that a decision is made on the basis of facts and law. free from a judge’s personal ideology and free from external pressure by the executive or legislative branches, by partisan political parties, by public opinion or by special interest groups,” she said.

The Secretary of Administration, Mike Huebsch, has said that his office will start implementing the law “when appropriate.”

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In a nod to the holiday classic, the collection of tents that have popped up around the capitol in Wisconsin have been named, “Walkerville.”  Protesters began camping out last week to protest the budget cuts which could be enacted this week, led by Governor Scott Walker. That budget bill may also include the anti-union provisions which passed but then got tied up in a court challenge over the procedures used to pass them.

The Walkerville protest is more organized than the spontaneous marches that erupted in February and lasted for weeks when the state Republicans tried to pass the measure banning collective bargaining.   Organizers have a permit for Walkerville until June 20. David Boetcher, leader of pro-union coalition We Are Wisconsin, which organized the tent city, estimated that about 80 tents and 250 people were camped out over the weekend.   Boetcher said the protests would continue until the state budget is voted on.”This is about changing the minds of the people of Wisconsin,” Boetcher said.

On Monday, at least eight people were arrested during a large protest organized by former Senator and liberal champion Russ Feingold. Thousands of protesters and taxicabs marched around and in the capitol. Despite the recent court ruling that requires the Capitol building to remain open to the public, protesters were arrested for entering the public building. The ACLU successfully sued the Department of Administration after the government attempted to limit access to the building during the February protests. Capitol police officers tackled and arrested reporters in an effort, so it seems, to prevent video of them locking the doors. Another disturbing event happened last week at a Joint Finance Committee meeting.  Protesters engaged in civil disobedience were carried out of the room during the meeting.

At a news conference Monday, Chief Charles Tubbs said Capitol police would be looking to recruit more state law enforcement officers to work in the Capitol in the coming weeks.”We’re looking at all types of security measures,” Tubbs said. The police chief said four people were arrested Monday for disorderly conduct in the Capitol, and one more person was arrested for opening the doors on the first floor of the Capitol that are currently locked. At least three protesters were arrested and ticketed at the rally Monday around the Capitol Square.

Suzanne Tucker / Shutterstock.com

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The controversial collective bargaining law that plunged Wisconsin into weeks of intense protests has been struck down by a judge.

Back in February, Governor Scott Walker introduced a Budget Repair Bill that contained provisions stripping most public sector workers of the right to collectively bargain.  But Senate Democrats opposed the measure and ended up fleeing the state in order to deny Republicans the special quorum necessary to pass fiscal legislation.  With neither side willing to compromise, the legislative proceedings seemed to be at a standstill until, on March 9, the Republican leadership hastily convened a meeting of the Joint Committee of Conference.  The committee stripped the fiscal provisions from the bill, which meant that the collective bargaining provisions could be passed even without the presence of the Senate Democrats.

Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi ruled that the legislature violated the state’s Open Meetings Law by failing to give at least two hours’ notice of the meeting.

“The legislators were understandably frustrated by the stalemate existing on March 9, but that does not justify jettisoning compliance with the Open Meetings Law in an attempt to move the Budget Repair Bill to final action,” Sumi wrote in her decision.

“It is not the court’s business to determine whether 2011 Wisconsin Act 10 is good public policy or bad public policy,” she continued. “It is this court’s responsibility, however, to apply the rule of law to the facts before it.”

Sumi’s decision is almost certain to be appealed to the state Supreme Court.  The high court is already scheduled to hear oral arguments on June 6 relating to an earlier challenge to her authority.

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The Tea Party, the great grassroots movement from a couple of years ago, is dying.   The media, bought and paid for by American corporations, does not want you to know this.  They worked really hard to cultivate the image of a huge uprising of political conservatives.  And many people bought that story line for a long time—even though it wasn’t much truth to it even at the beginning.  Now, there is a genuine uprising of the middle class, but you wouldn’t know that if you watched most American news networks.

The Tea Party rallies have been sponsored by giant corporations who are using middle class folks to further their own agenda of cutting down the middle class.  Many people who attended Tea Party rallies really believed in their cause of small government and lower taxes.  They voted in an overwhelmingly large numbers last election to get their candidates in.  Republicans jumped in the wave of the Tea Party, promising to shrink the size of government.  However, since Election Day, they have done nothing of the sort.  Promising to focus on the economy, the GOP has done essentially nothing but attempt to increase the size of government and attack the middle class.  And people are waking up to it.

A big tea convention was scheduled in Tampa, Florida over the weekend of March  19^th.  The Save America website, who was sponsoring the event, promised 25 guest speakers, including party bigwigs like Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), Fox News Judge Andrew Napolitano, and former GOP Congressman Tom Tancredo.  Seems like a big deal, right?  Not so much.  Only about 300 people attended the event.  Pictures of the event show vast rooms with the majority of chairs empty.  Politics has consequences as some in the GOP are learning.  I just don’t understand why those like Wisconsin governor Scott Walker and the other Wisconsin Republicans think they can do something that is widely politically unpopular and hold on to their jobs.

Speaking of Wisconsin, there is another growing movement in the U.S.  The many states that have tried to attack the middle class and workers have been met with large scale protests and demonstrations.  Take Wisconsin for instance.  The rallies in that state far outnumbered the largest Tea Party rallies.  And the voters in Wisconsin stayed for weeks to make sure their voices were heard.  This is a genuine uprising, one that is not organized by any corporations.  In fact, the opposite is true.  Corporations and the corporate-owned media seek to blackout coverage of the movement.  If the middle class starts to really get mad, corporations might not be able to continue the huge transfer of wealth that they have been organizing for the past 30 years.  No matter what the media forgets to tell you, the facts are clear.  the Tea Party is dying.  Republicans took advantage to get elected and have not even come close to following through on campaign promises.  The middle class and workers in America are finally fed up with the growing attacks from the wealthy.  The real discontent will be reflected in the next election.  Most political pundits will act surprised at the overwhelming loss of the Republican Party.  They will only be shocked because they are not paying attention right now.

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In Wisconsin, the promised recall battle following the state legislature’s insane decision to pass a hugely unpopular anti-collective bargaining bill has delivered its first victim. The first petition with the required signatures was filed for Republican State Senator Dan Kapanke of La Crosse. He is one of the eight Republican state senators that the Democrats want to oust.

Organizers in Wisconsin say that all of the recall petitions are gathering significant support, ahead of schedule, and multiple petitions with the required signatures will be filed in the coming days and weeks.  Election season will come much sooner for Wisconsin voters.  The petitions will first have to be verified but summer elections are likely.

The recall supporters collected 21,700 signatures.  The Government Accountability Board has 31 days to verify the signatures.  The board has asked the court to extend the verification period because of other petitions that will likely be filed. If the Government Accountability Board finds at least 15,588 signatures to be valid then it would lead to the fifth recall of a state official in history of Wisconsin. It would also be the 21ist recall of a state official in United States history.

Republicans are also attempting to target several Democrats in the state for recall, but it is unknown if they will be able to garner the needed signatures.  They are being outspent by the Democrats and Democrats also clearly have the public opinion.

Kapanke has not commented since the recall papers had been filed.  He previously defended his vote, claiming it was a necessary step to balance the budget while minimizing layoffs.

Last month, thousands of state residents protested the anti-union measure that would strip public employees of their collective bargaining rights nestled inside a “budget repair” bill.  Senate Democrats fled the state in order to prevent the measure from being passed.  After three weeks of epic protests in the Midwestern state, the GOP Senate chose to separate the collective bargaining measure from the rest of the bill.  Since it no longer contained fiscal matters, the Senate was able to vote on it without the Democrats present.  Democrats protested that it violated Wisconsin’s open meeting law, which generally requires 24 hours’ notice, and a minimum of two hours, for meetings. The law is currently being challenged in court and is not able to be implemented.

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You may remember that during the heated battle between Wisconsin’s Republican lawmakers and the union supporting protestors, Governor Scott Walker claimed that he was receiving more emails from people who supported his cause than those that were against it.  Walker declared that the majority of emails received by his office supported his union busting measure.  Guess what, Walker?  Emails are public record.

The Associated Press analyzed the emails and it seems that Walker may have misspoken.  For close to a week, according to the AP, the messages in Walker’s inbox were running roughly 2-1 against his plan.  The AP analyzed more than 26,000 emails sent to Walker from the time he formally announced his plans until he first mentioned the emails in public – a span of seven days.  The tide only changed in Walker’s favor shortly after the Senate Democrats fled the state.  The overall results were pretty divided.  Walker received about 55 percent in support and 44 percent against. In the weeks since, Walker has continued to receive tens of thousands of emails on the issue.

Walker made the email comments on February 17^th while tens of thousands of protesters gathered inside the Capitol’s rotunda and the lawn outside.  “The more than 8,000 emails we got today, the majority are telling us to stay firm, to stay strong, to stand with the taxpayers,” Walker said of the emails. “While the protesters have every right to be heard, I’m going to make sure the taxpayers of the state are heard and their voices are not drowned out by those circling the Capitol.”  However, the AP found that several preceding days, the emails of support Walker had received were vastly outnumbered by those opposed to his plan.  A week before when Walker formally outlined his budget repair bill, including the union busting measure, the emails sent to his office ran more than 5-1 against his plan.

The emails were obtained through a legal settlement with Walker’s office, a result of a lawsuit filed by the AP and a weekly newspaper in Madison.  The news organizations sued after the governor’s office did not respond to requests for the emails under the state’s open records law.

“Thanks for the 10% pay cut,” wrote a Department of Corrections employee. “I can’t believe that I voted for you. Get bent.”

After state Republicans used a parliamentary procedure, they were able to pass the controversial bill without the Senate Democrats.  However, Democrats have challenged it in court and a judge has issued a temporary restraining order on the law.

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The standoff in Wisconsin continues.  Into the third week, the Democrat state senators are still outside of Wisconsin. Protesters are still in front of the capital.  And Governor Scott Walker still insists he is right.  Even though the Republicans’ widely unpopular idea of limiting collective bargaining rights has, shockingly, become even more unpopular—there is no signs of backing down from the state lawmakers.

However, Walker is getting some support from other Republicans.  In a press conference on Tuesday, Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) not only defended Walker, he used some pretty strong words to make his defense.

“It’s not just Wisconsin. It’s Ohio. It’s Indiana. You’re going to see these types of actions taken in a lot of states because the states are broke and over the last couple of years the Obama administration, the Democrat controlled Congress bailed out the states where they could avoid making the tough decisions. Well, there are no more bailouts coming from Washington. We’re broke. We’re broke! We don’t have money to dish out to the states so all these Governors are trying to find ways to balance their budgets, which they’re required to do. In some of these states you’ve got collective bargaining laws that are so weighted in favor of the public employees that there’s almost no bargaining. We’ve given them a machine gun and put it right at the heads of the local officials and they really have their hands tied. And I think what you’re seeing in these states is they’re trying to bring some balance to these negotiations that when you look at the pay of public employees today and you look at their retirement benefits they are way out of line with many other working Americans.”

Really?  Only six months after the shooting that left six people dead in Tucson, Arizona and critically injured U.S. congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, Boehner is going to use that analogy. Boehner’s spokesman insists that the speaker’s violent comparison was just part of the political language.   “It’s a common metaphor, similar to when Sen. [Chuck] Schumer refers to a ‘dagger’ or when Sen. [Dick] Durbin said last week that ending the Washington spending binge would be ‘job-killing,’” said Michael Steel.

Maybe that is true.  But, it seemed particularly violent and specific.  And I don’t understand why any politician with any sense would back the lunatic Scott Walker and his really failing attempt at union busting.  No matter what poll you look at, a large majority of Americans support unions and are against what Walker is trying to do.

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