The weekend was busy and slow: I was out of town, and the weather in Madison was bad. And it was a Sunday. And then it was a Monday, and things were BIG, but I was on a plane. And then I jumped right back in on Tuesday and haven't had any time to collect links, explain, etc.
Sunday: From what I gather, things were slower on Sunday. The weather was bad, so people were mostly indoors. The Tea Party was gone, and didn't come back, though I imagine most of them weren't working (there's this thing called "the weekend" that was invented by the unions, and co-opted by the rest of us, just like we tend to co-opt other union benefits and then get mad at unions for having them).
Monday: Monday was, conveniently enough, a furlough day for many state workers. Madison Metro School District was also closed due to teacher absences, and Milwaukee Public Schools had the day off for some sort of pre-arranged break. It sounds like the action was big, but the legislature wasn't in session. In the evening, one of the leads from Rage Against the Machine played a concert at Monona Terrace, which I was sad to miss...but my flight was delayed (and also, while most people seem to have spent Sunday catching up on sleep & laundry, I did not).
One of the most exciting actions of Monday was that the Firefighters slept in the Capitol. I gather it was about 40 of them, including the president of, I believe, the WI Chapter. As a reminder to those who aren't living this 24/7, police and firefighters are exempt from the collective bargaining sections of the Budget Repair Bill. There are theories about why this is (because they tend to be more conservative? because they supported Walker? because Walker wants law enforcement on his side?), but for all the theories, the important part is that the firefighters union has seen through that. They are aware that they will eventually be targeted. More importantly, they believe that union means standing together. Firefighters have been there every day, in uniform, with bagpipes, with signs identifying where they are from.
Another, less exciting, thing that happened on Monday was The Daily Show. I'd been really hoping that Jon Stewart would pick up on this; he's done some great things with protests in the past. Finally, he sent John Oliver out...and they proceeded to do some sort of section involving a camel. Camels are not Wisconsin-winter adapted. Nor are they props. I'm not sure who the handlers were, but the camel got its legs stuck in a fence and fell, and there is video of the whole thing. I have not yet watched that Daily Show episode, but I believe it aired on Monday 2/21. The video of the camel (please complain to Comedy Central) is at http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=32394.
Another less exciting thing from Monday: News broke that the WLEA (Wisconsin Law Enforcement Association) (http://wlea.org/) issued a statement of regret for backing Walker in the elections. It later turned out that what had actually happened was that the leader had issued a statement, based on a different (non-union) organization. Apparently, the WLEA is going through some in-fighting because some of its members will lose collective bargaining through this bill (state troopers, for example) and others (police) will maintain those rights.
Tuesday: Both the Senate and the Assembly reconvened on Tuesday. In the early morning, police presence was increased at the Capitol - about 600 new officers/state troopers/etc were brought in from around the state. This created a slightly more tense situation between law enforcement and protesters, but as far as I know, no major problems. There *is* an off-site staging area (one reliable source says it is currently at Alliant).
The Senate is able to take up non-fiscal bills - it is only fiscal bills which require a larger quorum. They have said they won't divide the Budget Repair Bill into multiple parts, so that they can vote on the collective bargaining language separately from the fiscal parts, but it's not clear if this will turn out to be true. Several of the bills they took up were minor: a resolution regarding the Packers, the appointment of a new head of DCF (Dept of Children & Families - I haven't done much research, but my understanding is that, like most of Walker's appointees, she is not particularly in favor of some of the government programs she'll be overseeing), and their Elections Committee voted to move forward on a very restrictive Voter ID bill. Oh, and they repealed a Racial Profiling law. So, basically, since they couldn't crush unions or healthcare for poor people, they decided to enforce racism.
The Assembly took up the budget bill. First, though, they put into place some security measures, restricting access to certain parts of the Capitol and setting up metal detectors to enter the Assembly Gallery. They also announced restrictions on behavior in the Assembly hearing room (I'm not sure if these are general rules, or special rules). The announcement is at http://wseusepac.blogspot.com/2011/02/security-details-for-tuesdays-assembly.html.
The Democrats introduced many many many (at least 100) amendments. As of writing this, the Assembly is still meeting (it is 10pm on Wednesday night; they started at 11am on Tuesday morning). So far, many of the amendments have been tabled. One that has, as far as I know, passed, will require Joint Financial Committee some oversight over the sale of the power plants. However, it can still be a no-bid sale.
Another big thing that happened on Tuesday was that the TA Association (TAA)'s protest website (http://defendwisconsin.org/) was not accessible using the state's internet connection. This led to an uproar, which the media and the Democrats seized on. The Department of Administration very promptly had their software vendor unblock the site. As someone who works for the state, I can attest to some of the *weird* workings of the software they use to block websites. I've had some very innocuous sites blocked on me before. DOA's explanation was that their software blocks all new sites. At the moment, I am not able to find the news story that I read about this, but I will try to search tomorrow or later in the week.
On a side note: It seems that we've reached the stage in the protests where everyone is very excitable, and fact-checking and rational brains sometimes get pushed aside until later. This worries me because that's a prime atmosphere for things to boil over - whether internally or whether pushed by the powers that be.
Finally, there was communication from The Government:
The Office of State Employment Relations (OSER) released a Q&A for state workers regarding what's happening to our jobs. It is found at http://oser.state.wi.us/docview.asp?docid=7209. I believe this was the first official communication that explained what will happen to us when our contracts end, and when our collective bargaining ends. It's not about the money...but it certainly is helpful to know what the financial impact will be. (Short version: I can no longer use my health insurance to lure a good spouse).
And, Governor Walker said that if the Budget Repair Bill doesn't pass by Friday, they will begin to layoff 1,500 state employees beginning next week. The initial story is at http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_551d34c2-3e8f-11e0-8f91-001cc4c03286.html. Theoretically, this is because Friday would b the deadline to refinance the state's debt (a major part of the Budget Repair Bill, and one of the pieces I understand the least; financing is confusing enough to me that re-financing just loses me). Today there are more articles about the truth of this, but I'm not up to that yet.
That mostly covers through Tuesday afternoon. I've been writing for way too long, so I'm going to stop. Tomorrow, there will be Tuesday night through Thursday, and I'll try to re-compile some useful links. In the meantime, I've been sourcing a lot from:
http://www.thewheelerreport.com/ (has press releases on EVERYTHING by EVERYONE, as well as tons of legislative links)
http://wiscpolitics.com/ (unfortunately, the archives aren't free, but they do have a great budget blog at http://budget.wispolitics.com/)
http://www.thedailypage.com/walker
See you in the streets! Drink plenty of water, remember to do rumor control, and try to stay calm. We can keep fighting this thing, even though it is multidimensional.
And as usual, feel free to share this, and any other, notes I write about this stuff.
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