From Wisconsin's Department of Unmitigated Gall

I received a charming little missive in my inbox today from none other than our illustrious guv himself:

E-update from the Desk of Governor Scott Walker
One of the most important duties I have serving as your Governor is to provide you directly with updates related to the operation of our state government. In an effort to improve communication, periodically I will be sending out an e-update to provide you with more information about what is going on in state government.

The e-mail smells like a pathetic effort at damage control. Um, guv? Kinda late, dontcha think? You have the nerve to send an e-mail bragging about your accomplishments? Yeah, right. All over Wisconsin we feel the weight of your many accomplishments: slashed education funding, rescinded collective bargaining rights, less access to health care, voter disenfranchisement, and 15,000 fewer jobs since July. This is like getting a missive from the devil crowing about how it’s even hotter in hell these days.

Then I stumbled on this statement made to Talking Points Memo by the Wisconsin state GOP communications director, Ben Sparks:

The Republican Party of Wisconsin is committed to ensuring that Wisconsin electors are not disenfranchised during this recall process. The Democrats have shown they are committed to preserving the status quo, where a man is able to sign a recall petition 80 times, and their frivolous attempt to intervene in this lawsuit only reinforces their willingness to force this baseless recall on Wisconsin voters at any cost.

Say what?!? There’s enough unmitigated gall in those two sentences to make your eyes water.

The Republican Party of Wisconsin, the same outfit that brought you voter suppression a la mode, is “committed to ensuring that Wisconsin electors are not disenfranchised”? Whoa. I want to hear Sparks say that to the college students, the working poor, the elderly, and every other disenfranchised voter in Wisconsin.

And which “status quo” do you suppose Sparks is accusing the Democrats of being committed to preserving? I’m guessing he was not thinking of the status quo of state workers having collective bargaining rights. Or the status quo of clean, transparent governance. Or the status quo of Wisconsin's great public education system. The people of Wisconsin long for a return to that status quo, Mr. Sparks.

But wait! There’s more! The lawsuit Sparks is referring to is the one brought by the Walker campaign and the Wisconsin Republican Party against the Government Accountability Board asking that the GAB eliminate duplicate or false signatures on recall petitions. Because, of course, it’s not enough that the nonpartisan GAB just do its job as clearly stated in state statutes.

This nonsensical lawsuit actually claims that the guv’s “constitutional rights are being violated by the state’s petition review process.” And Sparks calls the organizers’ request to be involved in the judicial process “frivolous”? Really?

In an interview with Talking Points Memo, Jeremy Levinson, the attorney for the recall organizers, said, “It’s the first time I’m aware of a recall-related lawsuit where only the official who is being targeted for recall gets to be a party, and the folks who are working to recall that official are shut out of the process.” Apparently its frivolous for all the players to ask for a seat at the table.

And who is Sparks to talk about the “willingness to force” anything “on Wisconsin voters at any cost”? This from the people who used every dirty trick in the book to cram their loathsome “budget bill” down the throats of the people of Wisconsin, who repeatedly refused to listen in spite of unprecedented protests and vehement objections. The people of Wisconsin wouldn’t have had any chance to make themselves heard had it not been for the fourteen Democratic state senators who fled the state in February.

Finally, only someone who has never listened to anything the people of Wisconsin have been saying for the last eleven months would refer to the Walker recall as “baseless.”

Obama's Speech

So far, just two things have struck me about Obama's speech today:

Now that our economic recovery is gaining strength...

I'm glad to hear that our economic recovery is gaining strength. I wouldn't have known if you hadn't told me. And I suspect there are many more who are equally unaware. No matter how many times you say this, it won't make it true for the majority of Americans. Even tapping your heels together three times won't help.

Democrats and Republicans must come together...

Really? Must we? Would you please quit trying to come together with these guys, Mr. Prez? Can't you see that they're just not that into you? They don't care how many concessions you make. You could steal every play from their playbook and it wouldn't help. It's the very idea of you that they don't like. You can't force the Republicans to be bipartisan, even if you think that's what most Americans want (or think they want).

If you would spend just a fraction of the time and energy you spend on trying to make nice with the Republicans on working for the Democratic base, Democrats would be so much more enthusiastic about voting for you in 2012. Don't forget who voted you into office. Don't leave us dangling here in the wind. Why you work harder to appease the Republicans than doing the work we elected you to do is beyond me.

Union Yes

Stanley Fish: University faculties need to unionize, so instructors have a voice in increasingly corporate universities.

William Cronon:
"McCarthy helped create the modern Democratic Party in Wisconsin by infuriating progressive Republicans, imagining that he could build a national platform by cultivating an image as a sternly uncompromising leader willing to attack anyone who stood in his way. Mr. Walker appears to be provoking some of the same ire from adversaries and from advocates of good government by acting with a similar contempt for those who disagree with him.

"The turmoil in Wisconsin is not only about bargaining rights or the pension payments of public employees. It is about transparency and openness. It is about neighborliness, decency and mutual respect. Joe McCarthy forgot these lessons of good government, and so, I fear, has Mr. Walker. Wisconsin’s citizens have not."

William Cronon is a professor of history, geography and environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

--TomRW

Conservative? Really?

Can anybody tell me why Republicans like Scott Walker are still being called "conservative"? What exactly are they conserving? The rich, I guess. But really, the policy Walker is trying to push through in Wisconsin is decidedly not conservative. It is one of the most radical, heavy-handed pieces of legislature this country has ever seen.

Walker tried to push his 144-page bill through the legislature with no public comment and essentially no legislative debate in just five days. That draconian move would have unraveled more than fifty years of Wisconsin's finest accomplishments on behalf of working families. It would gut the middle class and ultimately do great harm to Wisconsin's economy.

But Walker's concern is not the state budget. Nor is it the well-being of the people of Wisconsin. His concern is to please his corporate sponsors. And that is all.

So can we please stop calling him a conservative? His policies, his goals, his attitudes are not conservative. They're destructive. They're arrogant. They're un-American.

I know. Let's call him what he is: a plutocrat.

According to Merriam-Webster.com, plutocracy is "1: government by the wealthy; 2: a controlling class of the wealthy."

Plutocrat is a perfectly apt description of Scott Walker. And plutocracy is clearly his goal. Let's call him what he is. Scott Walker, the consummate plutocrat.

Au Contraire, Rachel

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I love you, Rachel, but I think you have this one wrong. Last night in your program, you asserted that what's happening in Madison is a result of Republican efforts to obliterate the opposition, i.e., the Democratic Party. "What's going on right now in the American Midwest is about Republicans versus Democrats. ... This is about the survival of the Democratic Party."

Honestly, I don't give a ripsnort about the survival of the Democratic Party, because it has already been subsumed by the same forces that are trying to bring down the last vestiges of union power in the United States. The assault on the Democratic Party commenced decades ago and has essentially already been successful. The Democratic Party that stood for something died when Russ Feingold lost his bid for reelection last fall. The Democrats who are left have no teeth, no guts, no convictions. They stand for nothing. They are as beholden to their corporate masters as the Republicans are.

Look at what happened with "health care reform." The Democrats held the executive branch and a supermajority in the legislature. But the bill they managed to pass, in spite of overwhelming support for Medicare for Everyone across the country, was a gift, tied up with a bow, for the big insurance and pharmaceutical companies. What the people got out of that was a constitutionally questionable mandate to buy health insurance with few to zero restrictions on cost, quality of service, and the extent of coverage. The people did not triumph; they were set up and railroaded. The Dems proved to be a bunch of namby-pamby wimps, unwilling to stand up for the interests of the people who voted them into their supermajority. This is not what democracy looks like.

The current assault may appear to be on the Democratic Party. But what's going on in Wisconsin is more sinister than that. Who is fighting this fight? It's not the Democrats. Obama is not standing up for the workers in Wisconsin. Obama is treading around this issue so very lightly because he cannot afford to enrage his corporate sponsors. He has even added credibility to the notion of Walker's supposed fiscal difficulties. He only voiced mild support for the protesters in Wisconsin on the fourth day of protests. Pretty slow out of the gate, there, Mr. President. The voices from Democrats in support of the Wisconsin protesters are slow in coming, soft-spoken, and without teeth. No, this is not an assault on the Democratic Party.

This is an assault on the people of the United States. It's an assault on the middle class. It's an assault on freedom and civil rights. The best the Democrats could do was to get out of the people's way, which, thankfully, Wisconsin's Democratic legislators have done. But it's the people who are fighting this fight. And their opponents are not the Republicans, much as we might like to believe that. Their opponents are the terrifically powerful monied interests who won't stop their juggernaut of greed until we have returned to a system of serfs, vassals, and lords.

No, what's going on right now in the American Midwest is about the power of the people versus the power of greed. This is about the survival of the middle class. There's nothing less at stake here than the survival of freedom and civil rights and democracy. And the ones who are on the front lines are most decidedly not the Democrats. They are the ordinary, hard-working, anything-but-radical people of Wisconsin, who have finally had enough bullying from the billionaires' thugs.

Note: If you're reading this on Facebook, click on View Original Post to see the video clip from Rachel's show last night.

Return to a Two-Party System: A Proposal to Overthrow the Corporatocracy

A two-party system is a good idea—give the voters real choice, engage in real civic discourse—those kinds of goodies. Good idea—provided that there are really two parties. What we have now is like a 1.25-party system, and all 1.25 of them are owned and operated by Corporations R Us. Andrew Sullivan points out that the Republican Party "is essentially a regional party now—representing the South in the national discourse. And its rhetoric seems divorced from any desire to actually hold responsible public office."

Moreover, much of the antics on the right amount to mindless distractions. Why, oh why do we spend so much time fulminating about Beck? He's theater without substance. There's absolutely no reason to take him seriously. Why should we give a flying fig about him? Paying attention to him just encourages him. Stop that.

What's really going on, what we're being distracted from, is how the Dems we elected, who supposedly are going to bring "change we can believe in," are backing themselves into their corporate masters' corner. We keep pushing, trying to get them into our corner. And we are having some effect. It remains to be seen, though, whether it will be enough to put them into our corner.

And if that's not enough, the Supreme Court is poised to give the corporations even more power. Monsanto may as well run for office in 2012. In the face of such an all-out onslaught on democracy, what possible significance could a goon like Beck have? We're in serious deep weeds here, people. The corporations are eating our American Dream for lunch and we're whining about Beck? Beck?

At least with the Republicans dancing to the corporations' tune, there's not so much of an ideological disconnect. After all, they believe the rich should be getting richer and that the corporations are the only ones entitled to entitlements and handouts. Right? It's more of a screeching dissonance with the Dems. This is change we could believe in? You're kidding, right?

So here's what I propose. Let's ask the progressives in Congress—Kucinich, Grijalva, Feingold, Frank, and their ilk—to split from the corporate-owned Dems and form their own party. Let's ask them to sign a pledge to pass serious corporate-donation and lobbying reforms and accept no corporate funding.

Think for a minute about an empowered progressive party: real progress on environmental reforms, Medicare for all, economic justice, an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, upholding workers' rights, comprehensive immigration reform, real education reform, and the return of a strong middle class and lessening of the huge gap between the very rich and the rest of us.

Now this would take a lot of work, because, of course, the opposition would make no such pledge. They'd have a lot of money, and we'd have, well, us. The quintessential grass roots. We'd have to be really serious: donating our time, our money, and our brilliance to the overthrow of the corporatocracy. But it would be worth it, wouldn't it, to return power to the people? I think if we really wanted to, we could do it.

Now, who's with me?

Where Is Our Line in the Sand, Mr. President?

According to TheHill.com, the White House is apparently still insisting that it wants a bipartisan health care reform bill. Good luck with that, Mr. President.

The Republicans in Congress have made it very clear that they will not back down on health care reform. They couldn't be clearer if they hacked into the bank accounts of every American and dipped their greedy hands in. These people don't want any reform at all. They are invested in maintaining the status quo. They are committed to the welfare of corporations.

Much of the outcome of health care debate depends on what you do in the next few weeks, Mr. President. We're looking for your impassioned leadership, for your steely determination, for your inspiring and illuminating rhetoric. We're looking for your commitment, not to bipartisanship but to us.

The scoundrels you're making nice with, Mr. President, have drawn a line in the sand. It's time for you to do the same. Don't give them so much power. Don't choose a higher ground that's just going to throw us all off a cliff.

Please, I'm begging you, we did not elect you to make nice with the party we voted against. Did you campaign on promises of bipartisanship? Or change we could believe in? We need to go where those people will not follow.

Draw your line in the sand, Mr. President. Insist on real reform with a public option. Don't back down. We're counting on you. We can do this. Yes. We. Can.

Enjoying the Spectacle

I have to admit that I'm enjoying the scuttlebutt about Republicans falling all over themselves to make nice with the lunatic Limbaugh. This is good entertainment. These Republicans are more spineless than the Congressional Democrats were during the Bush years.

Bob Cesca hits the nail on the head when he says, "Throughout the last several decades, the Republican Party has been careening willingly towards this destiny. Year after year, the Republicans have been magnetically drawn ever closer to the simplistic worldview espoused by far-right talk radio."

Furthermore, this is what happens in the vacuum left when a "unitary executive" leaves his post. The Republicans, without anyone in the familiar bully pulpit, must fill the void somehow. Bush had no more regard for the Republicans in Congress than he did for the Democrats. In fact, he demonstrated only contempt for Congress, as he did for the Constitution, and the American people, and the rest of the planet. His was a unitary position, flanked by his loyal bodyguard, smirky sidekick Dick.

No wonder they're lost. They are used to having a cocky cowboy father figure to tell them what to do, how to act, what to think. I love it that lunatic Limbaugh has stepped up to fill the void. This is genuine entertainment, comedy in the raw, true colors wildly waving in the wind. Apparently the fact that most of the nation loathes the lunatic doesn't figure in the equation. Oblations must be made.

To make it easier for the Republicans to offer their apologies and the requisite oblations, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has provided a handy dandy apology machine. Just pucker up and kiss his hinder here.

And kudos to Rex Babin for this accurate portrayal of the fringe lunatic party paying homage to the elephant god.

And finally, Bob Cesca again hits it out of the park:

No wonder the White House is gleefully winking and nudging everyone in the direction of this Republican clown car of awfulness -- if not for the political advantage, for the sheer spectacle of watching the once mighty Republican Party effectively screwing itself. The Democrats, on one hand, appear to be busily going about the business of cleaning up the mess left behind by three decades of Reaganomics while, on the other hand, the Republicans are duct-taping themselves to the ample bosom of the most self-satirical political sideshow geek in American media history, while also expecting this will help their electoral chances.

I confess to feeling a little guilty--just a little--about enjoying this spectacle when we're all asking where we're going and why are we in this handbasket. The world is indeed going to hell in a handbag. And with so much bleak and baleful news bombarding us day after day, a little levity, especially at the expense of those whose contempt drove us to this precipice, is indeed a delicious if guilty pleasure.