After staying up until midnight last night, I hit the snooze button on my alarm at 6:00am, and at 6:15am I turned off the snooze...and at 10am I woke up, very embarrassed to not be at work. I made it in for a half day, but wasn't able to rally at lunch, as has been my habit.
Some other bits from Monday/Tuesday:
Over the weekend, the Medicaid issue finally got some attention. As I mentioned in my first note, part of this bill gives the Governor, in conjunction with the head of the Department of Health Services (a man who believes that the state shouldn't participate in Medicaid) can put into effect rules regarding Medicaid, even if those rules aren't in accordance with current law. There are a few problems with this. The biggest one is, of course, that this will endanger Medicaid coverage for many people. This could come in the form of reducing the income limits (WI is currently one of the stronger programs in the country, from what I hear), restructuring payment to providers, etc. And many of the people most affected are families, people with disabilities, and elderly people. Who are also less able to attend protests than the masses of state workers. The other major problem is that this is a policy, which would place a tremendous amount of power into the hands of very few, with very little legislative oversight. That's scary.
Around the same time, perhaps more on Monday, people "discovered" the section that empowers the Governor to sell the state power plants...with the option of it being a no-bid sale. I work in a federally funded program, and I know that to buy *apples for school lunch*, you need to obtain bids. So this is just fairly ridiculous. At the same time, though, since the Tea Party had just been in town, people started questioning the connection between the Koch brothers and Walker, and then hypothesizing that the purpose of this part of the bill was so that Walker could sell the power plants to the Kochs. Other than the Kochs having been a major campaign contributor, I'm not totally clear where this theory came from...but it became more important later on...
A lot of news sources have been trying to portray this as "Walker sneaking this thing into the bill", which is frustrating, because these things have been there all along.
Tuesday night:
One of the non-highlights of the day was Governor Walker decided to give a "Fireside Chat", in which he basically said nothing new. By saying nothing new, though, he created more of a story than if he'd said nothing at all.
Tuesday night was big for me, because it was my first day sleeping in the Capitol. Also, when I was there earlier in the day, I found that a very seat-of-the-pants first aid station/medic crew had set up on 1st Floor North hallway. I introduced myself, and asked what would be helpful...things seemed chaotic, so I waited until I was back at night. I tried to find a medic who had emailed me, but he wasn't there that night. For a while, I sorted through herbal medicine that was donated, since the other 3 folks had no idea what any of it was for. They sorted through tons of meds, trying to label which were vegan and throw out any that were expired. I spent a long time talking and texting with Eo about the herbs that I didn't know the specifics of. While at home during the early evening, I spent some time chatting with Scott about resources, too. It's kind of fun to be getting back into the medic swing, even though I feel positively ancient around this crew.
I tried to find my friend Benny, who was somewhere sleeping, but couldn't. Luckily, I found Richard, and a nice hallway room to sleep in. But before we went to sleep, it got loud. This turned out to be because the Assembly, which had taken a brief break to caucus, had come back into the hearing room, and they were broadcasting it on the televisions in the rotunda. Any place that was open to the rotunda was incredibly loud, so we moved to a stairwell/elevator area, which was at least a bit quieter. I had a very hard time sleeping, mostly because my brain was firing so fast, and I was trying to make out some of what the debate was about.
This was also the day when some new state troopers from somewhere upstate (I want to say Green Bay) were there. I'd heard from friends who had woken up in the Capitol that morning that the new troopers were a bit more confrontational than the Capitol Police had been. They were more standoffish, for sure, and I wondered what they'd heard before coming down. In the morning, around 6am, they came through and told us we had to leave that wing. I realized that without thinking, we'd ended up in the South Wing, which, as of Tuesday, is one of the wings that is closed to the public during the day.
Wednesday:
Though it was only yesterday, it feels very blurry, so I'll try to keep this accurate.
The first big news of the day was that a blogger named Ian Murphy, upon hearing that no one was able to speak with Governor Walker, decided to see if he would speak to a campaign contributor. So, he called Walker's office, pretending to be David Koch. Walker took the call, and Murphy recorded it. A story with links to the video is at http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_7f7b33ce-3f6e-11e0-b629-001cc4c002e0.html.
A more analytical article is at http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/02/wisconsin-scott-walker-koch-prank.
The Governor's spokesperson issued a somewhat bland and pathetic statement on the issue: http://www.thewheelerreport.com/releases/February11/0223/0223walkerphone.pdf. And then, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin issued *their* pathetic statement: http://www.wisdems.org/news/press/view/2011-02-scott-walker-his-masters-voice.
The major ethical concerns that have been raised are: Is Walker doing political favors for those who gave money to his campaign, and is that an ethics violation? He says he thought about hiring people to make trouble at the protests, which is pretty sketchy. And, he talks about trying to lure the Democrat Senators back to WI.
Now, in the meantime, there has been some back and forth regarding whether the state troopers can legally be sent after the Senate Dems, but the Senate keeps sending them out, anyway. But that falls into Thursday's news.
On Wednesday, the Assembly continued meeting to debate the Budget Repair Bill. This consisted mostly of the Democrats offering amendments, which were then discussed, put to vote, and then tabled. They started at 11am on Tuesday...and were still going strong when Wednesday ended.
Meanwhile, in the Senate, they voted the Voter ID Bill (one of the most restrictive in the country) into final stage, which means it can no longer be amended. They can't take a final vote, though, because it is a fiscal bill, and thus requires at least 1 more Senator present.
Most of the news all day continued to be about the prank phone call and the related ethics issues. It surfaced that the Koch brothers recently increased their lobbying presence in Madison, and a rally outside that office was planned for Thursday. Info about the opening of their office is at http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_7e8aa25a-3ec0-11e0-9923-001cc4c03286.html.
The other major, related, thing that happened on Wednesday was that newspapers started reporting that school districts were being urged to issue preliminary layoff notices. The original directive from the Wisconsin Association of School Boards (WASB) is at http://www.wasb.org/test/assets/URGENT_MESSAGE_FOR_DISTRICT_ADMINISTRATORS_AND_BOARD_PRESIDENTS.pdf. Basically, school districts are required to notify teachers of layoffs for the following school year by March 15th which means that a preliminary notice (15 days before) must be issued by February 28th. Generally, school districts and unions are able to work together to extend this date - since schools want to wait until they know the budget before deciding on layoffs, and unions don't want people getting laid off. It's a perfect example of how unions benefit everyone. With the current budget bills, though, school districts do not know what their budgets will be, nor do they know what their collective bargaining situation will be, so WASB is encouraging them to stick by their deadlines. This has led, on Thursday, to many districts issuing layoff notices for substantial amounts of staff. Newspaper articles are at http://lacrossetribune.com/news/state-and-regional/wi/article_0e2ac9a2-3f53-11e0-9292-001cc4c03286.html and http://www.jsonline.com/news/education/116707129.html.
That's really all I can remember from yesterday. It's getting late, so I'll just write some bullet points about Thursday, to be filled out in a new note tomorrow.
* Lots of districts issued layoff notices, including Fitzgerald's wife
* State troopers sent to retrieve Senate Dems from their homes where they are reportedly returning at night
* Questions arise about constitutionality of sending state troopers after the senators
* Questions arise about the ethics of Walker's phone call with "David Koch"; Government Accountability Board issues statement
* Madison Police Chief expresses concern about Walker's statements about bringing in troublemakers.
* Rally outside of Koch lobbying office
* Assembly continues to debate the Budget Repair Bill - as of right now, they have been going for 58 hours, voting down Dem amendments (eventually, they limited the number of amendments the Dems could submit, and limited the time of debate to about 10 minutes, though often went over). They are currently figuring out whether to vote, I believe.
* Huge day of protest around the state.
There continues to be a strange flow of information: things get really big really quickly, with little substantiation, and then we move on. For example, the statement that the Governor created the budget deficit continues to be brought up in opinion pieces, but is no longer a major piece of the outrage (mostly because it has been largely debunked).
Anyway, that's it for now. Again, WiscPolitics, The Wheeler Report, and the Daily Page Liveblog are your friends. Your very good friends who you are slightly dependent on. As usual, feel free to share this info. it's not my best analytical work, but I'm tired :)
Some other bits from Monday/Tuesday:
Over the weekend, the Medicaid issue finally got some attention. As I mentioned in my first note, part of this bill gives the Governor, in conjunction with the head of the Department of Health Services (a man who believes that the state shouldn't participate in Medicaid) can put into effect rules regarding Medicaid, even if those rules aren't in accordance with current law. There are a few problems with this. The biggest one is, of course, that this will endanger Medicaid coverage for many people. This could come in the form of reducing the income limits (WI is currently one of the stronger programs in the country, from what I hear), restructuring payment to providers, etc. And many of the people most affected are families, people with disabilities, and elderly people. Who are also less able to attend protests than the masses of state workers. The other major problem is that this is a policy, which would place a tremendous amount of power into the hands of very few, with very little legislative oversight. That's scary.
Around the same time, perhaps more on Monday, people "discovered" the section that empowers the Governor to sell the state power plants...with the option of it being a no-bid sale. I work in a federally funded program, and I know that to buy *apples for school lunch*, you need to obtain bids. So this is just fairly ridiculous. At the same time, though, since the Tea Party had just been in town, people started questioning the connection between the Koch brothers and Walker, and then hypothesizing that the purpose of this part of the bill was so that Walker could sell the power plants to the Kochs. Other than the Kochs having been a major campaign contributor, I'm not totally clear where this theory came from...but it became more important later on...
A lot of news sources have been trying to portray this as "Walker sneaking this thing into the bill", which is frustrating, because these things have been there all along.
Tuesday night:
One of the non-highlights of the day was Governor Walker decided to give a "Fireside Chat", in which he basically said nothing new. By saying nothing new, though, he created more of a story than if he'd said nothing at all.
Tuesday night was big for me, because it was my first day sleeping in the Capitol. Also, when I was there earlier in the day, I found that a very seat-of-the-pants first aid station/medic crew had set up on 1st Floor North hallway. I introduced myself, and asked what would be helpful...things seemed chaotic, so I waited until I was back at night. I tried to find a medic who had emailed me, but he wasn't there that night. For a while, I sorted through herbal medicine that was donated, since the other 3 folks had no idea what any of it was for. They sorted through tons of meds, trying to label which were vegan and throw out any that were expired. I spent a long time talking and texting with Eo about the herbs that I didn't know the specifics of. While at home during the early evening, I spent some time chatting with Scott about resources, too. It's kind of fun to be getting back into the medic swing, even though I feel positively ancient around this crew.
I tried to find my friend Benny, who was somewhere sleeping, but couldn't. Luckily, I found Richard, and a nice hallway room to sleep in. But before we went to sleep, it got loud. This turned out to be because the Assembly, which had taken a brief break to caucus, had come back into the hearing room, and they were broadcasting it on the televisions in the rotunda. Any place that was open to the rotunda was incredibly loud, so we moved to a stairwell/elevator area, which was at least a bit quieter. I had a very hard time sleeping, mostly because my brain was firing so fast, and I was trying to make out some of what the debate was about.
This was also the day when some new state troopers from somewhere upstate (I want to say Green Bay) were there. I'd heard from friends who had woken up in the Capitol that morning that the new troopers were a bit more confrontational than the Capitol Police had been. They were more standoffish, for sure, and I wondered what they'd heard before coming down. In the morning, around 6am, they came through and told us we had to leave that wing. I realized that without thinking, we'd ended up in the South Wing, which, as of Tuesday, is one of the wings that is closed to the public during the day.
Wednesday:
Though it was only yesterday, it feels very blurry, so I'll try to keep this accurate.
The first big news of the day was that a blogger named Ian Murphy, upon hearing that no one was able to speak with Governor Walker, decided to see if he would speak to a campaign contributor. So, he called Walker's office, pretending to be David Koch. Walker took the call, and Murphy recorded it. A story with links to the video is at http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_7f7b33ce-3f6e-11e0-b629-001cc4c002e0.html.
A more analytical article is at http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/02/wisconsin-scott-walker-koch-prank.
The Governor's spokesperson issued a somewhat bland and pathetic statement on the issue: http://www.thewheelerreport.com/releases/February11/0223/0223walkerphone.pdf. And then, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin issued *their* pathetic statement: http://www.wisdems.org/news/press/view/2011-02-scott-walker-his-masters-voice.
The major ethical concerns that have been raised are: Is Walker doing political favors for those who gave money to his campaign, and is that an ethics violation? He says he thought about hiring people to make trouble at the protests, which is pretty sketchy. And, he talks about trying to lure the Democrat Senators back to WI.
Now, in the meantime, there has been some back and forth regarding whether the state troopers can legally be sent after the Senate Dems, but the Senate keeps sending them out, anyway. But that falls into Thursday's news.
On Wednesday, the Assembly continued meeting to debate the Budget Repair Bill. This consisted mostly of the Democrats offering amendments, which were then discussed, put to vote, and then tabled. They started at 11am on Tuesday...and were still going strong when Wednesday ended.
Meanwhile, in the Senate, they voted the Voter ID Bill (one of the most restrictive in the country) into final stage, which means it can no longer be amended. They can't take a final vote, though, because it is a fiscal bill, and thus requires at least 1 more Senator present.
Most of the news all day continued to be about the prank phone call and the related ethics issues. It surfaced that the Koch brothers recently increased their lobbying presence in Madison, and a rally outside that office was planned for Thursday. Info about the opening of their office is at http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_7e8aa25a-3ec0-11e0-9923-001cc4c03286.html.
The other major, related, thing that happened on Wednesday was that newspapers started reporting that school districts were being urged to issue preliminary layoff notices. The original directive from the Wisconsin Association of School Boards (WASB) is at http://www.wasb.org/test/assets/URGENT_MESSAGE_FOR_DISTRICT_ADMINISTRATORS_AND_BOARD_PRESIDENTS.pdf. Basically, school districts are required to notify teachers of layoffs for the following school year by March 15th which means that a preliminary notice (15 days before) must be issued by February 28th. Generally, school districts and unions are able to work together to extend this date - since schools want to wait until they know the budget before deciding on layoffs, and unions don't want people getting laid off. It's a perfect example of how unions benefit everyone. With the current budget bills, though, school districts do not know what their budgets will be, nor do they know what their collective bargaining situation will be, so WASB is encouraging them to stick by their deadlines. This has led, on Thursday, to many districts issuing layoff notices for substantial amounts of staff. Newspaper articles are at http://lacrossetribune.com/news/state-and-regional/wi/article_0e2ac9a2-3f53-11e0-9292-001cc4c03286.html and http://www.jsonline.com/news/education/116707129.html.
That's really all I can remember from yesterday. It's getting late, so I'll just write some bullet points about Thursday, to be filled out in a new note tomorrow.
* Lots of districts issued layoff notices, including Fitzgerald's wife
* State troopers sent to retrieve Senate Dems from their homes where they are reportedly returning at night
* Questions arise about constitutionality of sending state troopers after the senators
* Questions arise about the ethics of Walker's phone call with "David Koch"; Government Accountability Board issues statement
* Madison Police Chief expresses concern about Walker's statements about bringing in troublemakers.
* Rally outside of Koch lobbying office
* Assembly continues to debate the Budget Repair Bill - as of right now, they have been going for 58 hours, voting down Dem amendments (eventually, they limited the number of amendments the Dems could submit, and limited the time of debate to about 10 minutes, though often went over). They are currently figuring out whether to vote, I believe.
* Huge day of protest around the state.
There continues to be a strange flow of information: things get really big really quickly, with little substantiation, and then we move on. For example, the statement that the Governor created the budget deficit continues to be brought up in opinion pieces, but is no longer a major piece of the outrage (mostly because it has been largely debunked).
Anyway, that's it for now. Again, WiscPolitics, The Wheeler Report, and the Daily Page Liveblog are your friends. Your very good friends who you are slightly dependent on. As usual, feel free to share this info. it's not my best analytical work, but I'm tired :)
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