Hello again, friends & family,
I'm writing from Boulder, CO, where I'm visiting with my wonderful old roommates Mark and Melissa. It was painfully hard to leave Madison, but this trip has been planned for a while.
I went to work via the metro bus on Friday morning. While standing and waiting for the bus, around 9:45am (I went in late so that I could catch up on sleep and pack for this trip), about 8 buses, both cheese buses (that's school buses, for you WI folks) and charter buses, passed me, all packed with protesters heading to the Capitol. I figured that my bus would be pretty empty, since it was late...but...it was packed! When the doors open, a woman shouted "Kill the Bill" and most of the people on the bus were teachers heading downtown. Plus, an off-duty Metro driver, who pointed out that if Walker does what he's planning to do, Metro Transit will lose a ton of money and there won't be nearly as much bus service.
As has become my custom, I went down to the Capitol during my "lunch". It was packed, absolutely packed. Inside, the Capitol Police were restricting access to the ground level because it was so full. I went up to the 1st floor, and eventually the 2nd floor, and it was the most full I've seen the building all week. There were plenty of people outside, to - the estimate was 35,000 inside, 5,000 outside. The national AFL-CIO president spoke, as did a bunch of other folks. Sadly, I had to go back to work.
I stopped by after work for a few minutes before catching my bus to the airport. For the first time all week (shocking!) people sang "Solidarity Forever" (well, the chorus) inside the building, and as I was waiting for my bus, I could hear them singing it outside, too.
The Senate Democrats were still in hiding in Illinois. The Repubs called on them to "do their jobs", to which many of us say, "They are doing exactly what we elected them to do". And some of us also add "How come when you left the hearing at 3am on Tuesday night, you didn't listen when we said *you* weren't doing your jobs?"
In the afternoon, several union leaders, including Marty Beil (from my union, WSEU - AFSCME Council 24), and Mary Bell (from the teachers' union) offered to Walker that we would be willing to agree to the increases in health insurance and pension contributions, if we retained our collective bargaining rights. Walker and Fitzgerald (Senate Repub - there are 2 Fitzgeralds, one in the Assembly, one in the Senate, and yes, they are brothers, and yes, they are both horrible) refused to accept those terms. This is being taken by many as a clear sign that the intent of this bill is union-busting.
I'm actually relieved that these terms weren't accepted, because just as this is not about wages, it is also not only about unions. This bill would also grant broad powers to the head of the Department of Health Services (a man who doesn't believe that WI should participate in the federal Medicaid program) and the Governor to create rules regarding Medicaid...regardless of what laws are currently in place. This will result in many people, people who desperately need it, losing their health care. We're talking low-income people, people with disabilities, women, people of color. Basically, the opposite of who voted for Walker.
Plus, those who've been reading the bill carefully (I confess that I have not) have pointed out that it reads:
SECTION 32. 16.765 (2) Except with respect to sexual orientation, the contractor further agrees to take affirmative action to ensure equal employment opportunities. ( http://legis.wisconsin.gov/JR1SB-11.pdf) So, this is about equality in general, and maintaining the rights of a wide swath of people in this state.
The State Assembly decided to take up the bill on Friday afternoon. They were to convene at 5pm. A few minutes before 5pm, all the Republicans assembled, and convened the session without the Democrats (they hold enough majority in the Assembly that this is possible). They began a vote to move the bill towards final passage, meaning no more amendments. The Democrats all arrived at 5pm (as scheduled) midway through the vote, and got a little annoyed. Eventually, the Speaker (Fitzgerald - R, the other one from the one previously mentioned) agreed that they had violated the rules, and adjourned the Assembly until Tuesday at 10am, giving more time for amendments to be offered.
More people spent the night in the Capitol that night, and there was a lot of focus on the need to keep Saturday peaceful. Saturday, today, was when the Tea Party was schedule to show up.
It sounds like there were somewhere between 60,000 and 70,000 people present today, all told, including a few thousand Tea Partiers. Things were kept entirely peaceful - so peaceful, in fact, that the Madison Police Department issued a thank-you press release: http://www.cityofmadison.com/news/view.cfm?news_id=2512
To be sure, the Capitol Police did restrict access to the Capitol today in order to maintain safe limits, but it sounds like they allowed more people in than had been there on previous days.
The theme of the Tea Party rally was supposed to be about "cleaning up", and in response, it sounds like protesters organized into cleaning brigades to make the Capitol building and grounds look spotless. On the downside, there is now a Tea Party effort to recall several Democrat Senators. It's critically important to work with people in those districts at this point, to make sure these recall efforts do not go through, or to make sure there are progressive candidates available.
According to some sources, doctors set up a booth on the square to write medical notes excusing those teachers who were out sick earlier this week (districts have said that unless they can prove medical reasons, they cannot use sick time).
It also sounds like people have organized food, regular cleaning in the building, and a phone bank. I'm pretty impressed, given that it seems like a lot of the people involved are not seasoned protesters. The one thing that seems to really be lacking is a good communications system. There are a number of Twitter hashtags, and a few live blogs, but nothing from any centralized location where rumors can be verified. And the unions, for the most part, don't seem to be much better. I kind of want to volunteer to help my union get more more into the technology that can really drive actions like this. But first, I'll need to learn the twitter :)
Other events of note: On Thursday or Friday, articles started circulating which reminded people that Hitler signs are never okay! Very exciting, since I'm still busy being annoyed by the Mubarak signs. Which are also not okay. More on that, maybe tomorrow.
It has also been pointed out by a number of sources, including Politifact, that the statement that Walker created the deficit is not entirely true. This is partially because many people are assuming that the 1+million in tax cuts to businesses take effect during this budget, but they don't - they aren't active until the 2011-2013 biennium. So, hold the blame on those until July 1 :)
Looking forward:
Tomorrow, Sunday, the weather is expected to get really bad. Snow, wind, rain, cold. The Capitol will be warm, but I'm hopeful that people will bundle up and take care of themselves outside.
Also on Sunday, Disability Advocates will be holding a press conference at 1:00 pm Sunday, Feb 29, 2011
at the Senior Center at 330 West Mifflin St.
On Monday, there is....A STATE MANDATED FURLOUGH DAY!
The timing is brilliant. There will be a multi-union meeting at 10 or 10:30am. I'm not sure quite where, since I've now heard a few different locations. Then a march to the Capitol.
Buses continue to run from all around the state.
Madison teachers have said they will be back at work on Tuesday, but perhaps more of us will walk out? I'm remaining hopeful....
I'm sure I'm forgetting other important things, but this is what I've got now. For those just tuning in, see my previous note at http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=461520893077. That note outlines what exactly is going on, what we're fighting for, and how we ended up in this situation.
Still to come: some actual analysis, rather than just play-by-play.
To keep yourself informed:
The best live feed I've found is at http://thedailypage.com/walker. Click on the "live feed".
There are two major politics sites here: http://thewheelerreport.com/ (has an archive), and http://wiscpolitics.com/
To watch the testimony: Wisconsin Eye is at http://wiseye.org/.
The major #tags seem to be #wiunion, #killthebill, #defendwisconsin, #wisolidarity.
For particular people to catch, Senator Jauch and Senator Taylor have been very eloquent and impassioned.
Local newspapers: http://madison.com/ and http;//jsonline.com. Both have biases, but at least they are on the ground.
Rachel Maddow has apparently talked about us a lot, and said smart things. Check out her show.
Someone named Ed Schultz has filmed his show in Madison a few times this week.
There are tons of great photos and videos floating around the internet.
In closing, I will show you what got me a little teary the other day. I highly recommend watching this. As a reminder, firefighters (as well as police) unions will retain full collective bargaining rights under the Budget Repair Bill...and yet, they are solidly with us, and have been every single day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXHqjOCxPxM
Oh, and one final thing. If you want to support the protesters but you can't come to Madison, you can order us pizza from Ian's Pizza at http://www.ianspizza.com/html/stateStreet.html. They've shut down normal operations in order to provide pizza - they've had orders from all over the US, plus some international orders, including from Egypt.
Solidarity and pizza. What could be better?
I'm writing from Boulder, CO, where I'm visiting with my wonderful old roommates Mark and Melissa. It was painfully hard to leave Madison, but this trip has been planned for a while.
I went to work via the metro bus on Friday morning. While standing and waiting for the bus, around 9:45am (I went in late so that I could catch up on sleep and pack for this trip), about 8 buses, both cheese buses (that's school buses, for you WI folks) and charter buses, passed me, all packed with protesters heading to the Capitol. I figured that my bus would be pretty empty, since it was late...but...it was packed! When the doors open, a woman shouted "Kill the Bill" and most of the people on the bus were teachers heading downtown. Plus, an off-duty Metro driver, who pointed out that if Walker does what he's planning to do, Metro Transit will lose a ton of money and there won't be nearly as much bus service.
As has become my custom, I went down to the Capitol during my "lunch". It was packed, absolutely packed. Inside, the Capitol Police were restricting access to the ground level because it was so full. I went up to the 1st floor, and eventually the 2nd floor, and it was the most full I've seen the building all week. There were plenty of people outside, to - the estimate was 35,000 inside, 5,000 outside. The national AFL-CIO president spoke, as did a bunch of other folks. Sadly, I had to go back to work.
I stopped by after work for a few minutes before catching my bus to the airport. For the first time all week (shocking!) people sang "Solidarity Forever" (well, the chorus) inside the building, and as I was waiting for my bus, I could hear them singing it outside, too.
The Senate Democrats were still in hiding in Illinois. The Repubs called on them to "do their jobs", to which many of us say, "They are doing exactly what we elected them to do". And some of us also add "How come when you left the hearing at 3am on Tuesday night, you didn't listen when we said *you* weren't doing your jobs?"
In the afternoon, several union leaders, including Marty Beil (from my union, WSEU - AFSCME Council 24), and Mary Bell (from the teachers' union) offered to Walker that we would be willing to agree to the increases in health insurance and pension contributions, if we retained our collective bargaining rights. Walker and Fitzgerald (Senate Repub - there are 2 Fitzgeralds, one in the Assembly, one in the Senate, and yes, they are brothers, and yes, they are both horrible) refused to accept those terms. This is being taken by many as a clear sign that the intent of this bill is union-busting.
I'm actually relieved that these terms weren't accepted, because just as this is not about wages, it is also not only about unions. This bill would also grant broad powers to the head of the Department of Health Services (a man who doesn't believe that WI should participate in the federal Medicaid program) and the Governor to create rules regarding Medicaid...regardless of what laws are currently in place. This will result in many people, people who desperately need it, losing their health care. We're talking low-income people, people with disabilities, women, people of color. Basically, the opposite of who voted for Walker.
Plus, those who've been reading the bill carefully (I confess that I have not) have pointed out that it reads:
SECTION 32. 16.765 (2) Except with respect to sexual orientation, the contractor further agrees to take affirmative action to ensure equal employment opportunities. ( http://legis.wisconsin.gov/JR1SB-11.pdf) So, this is about equality in general, and maintaining the rights of a wide swath of people in this state.
The State Assembly decided to take up the bill on Friday afternoon. They were to convene at 5pm. A few minutes before 5pm, all the Republicans assembled, and convened the session without the Democrats (they hold enough majority in the Assembly that this is possible). They began a vote to move the bill towards final passage, meaning no more amendments. The Democrats all arrived at 5pm (as scheduled) midway through the vote, and got a little annoyed. Eventually, the Speaker (Fitzgerald - R, the other one from the one previously mentioned) agreed that they had violated the rules, and adjourned the Assembly until Tuesday at 10am, giving more time for amendments to be offered.
More people spent the night in the Capitol that night, and there was a lot of focus on the need to keep Saturday peaceful. Saturday, today, was when the Tea Party was schedule to show up.
It sounds like there were somewhere between 60,000 and 70,000 people present today, all told, including a few thousand Tea Partiers. Things were kept entirely peaceful - so peaceful, in fact, that the Madison Police Department issued a thank-you press release: http://www.cityofmadison.com/news/view.cfm?news_id=2512
To be sure, the Capitol Police did restrict access to the Capitol today in order to maintain safe limits, but it sounds like they allowed more people in than had been there on previous days.
The theme of the Tea Party rally was supposed to be about "cleaning up", and in response, it sounds like protesters organized into cleaning brigades to make the Capitol building and grounds look spotless. On the downside, there is now a Tea Party effort to recall several Democrat Senators. It's critically important to work with people in those districts at this point, to make sure these recall efforts do not go through, or to make sure there are progressive candidates available.
According to some sources, doctors set up a booth on the square to write medical notes excusing those teachers who were out sick earlier this week (districts have said that unless they can prove medical reasons, they cannot use sick time).
It also sounds like people have organized food, regular cleaning in the building, and a phone bank. I'm pretty impressed, given that it seems like a lot of the people involved are not seasoned protesters. The one thing that seems to really be lacking is a good communications system. There are a number of Twitter hashtags, and a few live blogs, but nothing from any centralized location where rumors can be verified. And the unions, for the most part, don't seem to be much better. I kind of want to volunteer to help my union get more more into the technology that can really drive actions like this. But first, I'll need to learn the twitter :)
Other events of note: On Thursday or Friday, articles started circulating which reminded people that Hitler signs are never okay! Very exciting, since I'm still busy being annoyed by the Mubarak signs. Which are also not okay. More on that, maybe tomorrow.
It has also been pointed out by a number of sources, including Politifact, that the statement that Walker created the deficit is not entirely true. This is partially because many people are assuming that the 1+million in tax cuts to businesses take effect during this budget, but they don't - they aren't active until the 2011-2013 biennium. So, hold the blame on those until July 1 :)
Looking forward:
Tomorrow, Sunday, the weather is expected to get really bad. Snow, wind, rain, cold. The Capitol will be warm, but I'm hopeful that people will bundle up and take care of themselves outside.
Also on Sunday, Disability Advocates will be holding a press conference at 1:00 pm Sunday, Feb 29, 2011
at the Senior Center at 330 West Mifflin St.
On Monday, there is....A STATE MANDATED FURLOUGH DAY!
The timing is brilliant. There will be a multi-union meeting at 10 or 10:30am. I'm not sure quite where, since I've now heard a few different locations. Then a march to the Capitol.
Buses continue to run from all around the state.
Madison teachers have said they will be back at work on Tuesday, but perhaps more of us will walk out? I'm remaining hopeful....
I'm sure I'm forgetting other important things, but this is what I've got now. For those just tuning in, see my previous note at http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=461520893077. That note outlines what exactly is going on, what we're fighting for, and how we ended up in this situation.
Still to come: some actual analysis, rather than just play-by-play.
To keep yourself informed:
The best live feed I've found is at http://thedailypage.com/walker. Click on the "live feed".
There are two major politics sites here: http://thewheelerreport.com/ (has an archive), and http://wiscpolitics.com/
To watch the testimony: Wisconsin Eye is at http://wiseye.org/.
The major #tags seem to be #wiunion, #killthebill, #defendwisconsin, #wisolidarity.
For particular people to catch, Senator Jauch and Senator Taylor have been very eloquent and impassioned.
Local newspapers: http://madison.com/ and http;//jsonline.com. Both have biases, but at least they are on the ground.
Rachel Maddow has apparently talked about us a lot, and said smart things. Check out her show.
Someone named Ed Schultz has filmed his show in Madison a few times this week.
There are tons of great photos and videos floating around the internet.
In closing, I will show you what got me a little teary the other day. I highly recommend watching this. As a reminder, firefighters (as well as police) unions will retain full collective bargaining rights under the Budget Repair Bill...and yet, they are solidly with us, and have been every single day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXHqjOCxPxM
Oh, and one final thing. If you want to support the protesters but you can't come to Madison, you can order us pizza from Ian's Pizza at http://www.ianspizza.com/html/stateStreet.html. They've shut down normal operations in order to provide pizza - they've had orders from all over the US, plus some international orders, including from Egypt.
Solidarity and pizza. What could be better?
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