Facebook, summed up and/or with links:
11:23am News from WI: Dane Cty files complaint that Conf Cmte violate open meetings. Walker budget increases money for funerals for poor. Threats @ R-Sens = not okay.
Many of us are angry at politicians. We're angry at politicians from both parties. Someone is probably angry at the one independent in the Assembly. Many of us have tried to keep discourse civil. But some of us have risen to provocation, or attempted to provoke. And a scant few have really overstepped the lines of what it means to be a respectful member of the agreements of our democracy. To be clear: Derogatory signs are not okay. Stalking is not okay. Property destruction is not okay. Death threats are not okay. Threatening layoffs is not okay. Republican Senators Kapanke (http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/118173294.html) and Harsdorf (http://www.hudsonstarobserver.com/event/article/id/42158/) have been threatened, in addition to the death threats received the previous week by some others in the legislature. This is not acceptable - humanity needs to come before politics if we're ever to create a system in which people are equal.
The Dane County DA filed a suit regarding the passage of Wisconsin Act 10 (previously the Budget Repair Bill), alleging that it cannot go into action because it was passed in violation of Open Meetings laws. At the same time, Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk removes several legislators from a different suit, because legislators cannot be charged while in session: http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/118171874.html
And perhaps most shockingly, one of the items in the 2011-2013 Biennial Budget is...an increase in funding for the funerals of poor people. http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/health_med_fit/vital_signs/article_1d410eb0-5001-11e0-ad2e-001cc4c002e0.html. There's not really anything more to say about that.
Except that I find it horrifying, because this makes it absolutely clear that the Republicans do know the outcome of what they are doing, and that they are doing it anyway. This isn't a situation where they forgot to do all of the calculations, and didn't realize that cutting Medicaid means more people will be dying. They didn't ignore how many people will no longer have healthcare. They understand exactly what the results will be. But apparently it is cheaper to increase funding for funerals than to maintain spending to keep people alive.
It almost makes me miss the family values of the Religious Right (but not quite).
In more optimistic, and labor related, news, my friend posted this beautiful photo of labor solidarity from Bangladesh: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1927383827706&set=a.1600220608830.116224.1335487603&ref=nf
9:16pm loves living in a state shaped like a FIST!
It is really true. I really love fists, and how they are the same size as both the heart and the uterus. Powerful powerful powerful.
The previous week, Governor Walker (who refused to consider Federal funding for high speed rail, as it was one time money and would leave the state paying the ongoing costs, who has dropped $600k in a federal health care grant, and who is rumored to be reconsidering Title 1 funding) asked the Federal Government for aid for clean-up from our early February blizzard. On March 17, he released a statement: http://www.thewheelerreport.com/releases/March11/0317/0310walkerblizzard.pdf. So, one-time federal money to help clean up our snow is fine, but federal money that provides critical services is not okay? Another link, this time to a news story: http://www.wausaudailyherald.com/article/20110318/WDH0101/103180486/state-requests-aid-February-blizzard?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|WDH-News
And that was a summary of Thursday: as you may notice, I started getting tired towards the end of the week. Five weeks of protesting is a lot!
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