The Wisconsin Republicans have rammed through a bill that strips collective bargaining rights from public employees. The new legislation only allows collective bargaining for wage increases up to the rate of inflation. In other words, public employees will only be allowed to bargain over how much of a pay cut they will take each year.
Isn’t that special.
There are questions about the legality of the conference committee meeting. The brief meeting itself is well worth watching:
A complaint has been filed, which would be unlikely to void the law, but give another cause, and one based on violations of the law, for the campaigns to recall G.O.P. Senators.
And there are also questions about the constitutionality of the legislation. Regardless of the legal challenges, the legislation will probably become, and stay, law. At least it will until Wisconsin no longer has a Teabagger for a Governor with a G.O.P. controlled Senate and Assembly.
Following the Senate vote last night, the cowardly Republicans were whisked away in a semi-commandeered Madison Metro bus, while protesters surrounding the bus screaming, “Shame!” and “Cowards!”:
Recall campaigns are underway for six the eight Republican Senators currently recallable. The first phase is a 60 day signature collection period that has been going remarkably well—roughly 15 percent of the needed signatures had been collected by last weekend.
Greg Sargent has an early release of polls conducted by SurveyUSA in the eight districts:
When asked if they would vote for Hopper or someone else if a recall election were held right now, 54 percent said they’d vote for someone else, versus only 43 percent they’d vote for Hopper.
In Kapanke’s district, the numbers were even worse: 57 percent said they’d vote for someone else, versus only 41 percent who said they’d vote for Kapanke.
It gets even more interesting. The poll was taken yesterday, before last night’s events, and fifty-six percent of voters in Kapanke’s district, and 54% of voters in Hopper’s district, said if their Senator voted for Walker’s plan, it would make them more likely to vote for someone else.
Finally, by all measures, the fundraising for the recall campaigns has been nothing short of astonishing:
As of this morning, according to Ben Smith, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Democracy for America had raised $750,000. As of this afternoon, MoveOn’s ActBlue page for the recall reports around $860,000 of donations from around 27,000 people; the Daily Kos page reports around $340,000 from around 12,500.
As Goldy pointed out, all it takes is money.
The federal government posted its largest monthly deficit in history in February at $223 billion, according to preliminary numbers the Congressional Budget Office released Monday morning.
.
Looks Like Government has no intention on taking any kind of cuts at all..
Oh I think you folks were claiming how wonderful Gary Locke has been in helping trim the fat by 2 Bil.
Wow, otherwise the Monthly debt would have been 225 Billion.
Great Job!
And a stay tune for Friday, I’m sure there will be another record Stock market gain as a result of such a great fiscal policy.
Looks like they had a little trouble getting that bus ride started…
There’s 50 states in the union and all 50 are having to make budget cuts, looks to me like the overwhelming majority of them are managing to make those cuts by working with both both parties, the state employees and their unions. That WI couldn’t lies squarely on the shoulders of it governor.
@1
While there are concerns out there, none of them seem to be the concerns that you’ve brought up. And like I said before this is going to take a long time for us to dig ourselves out of.
Add this one to #3
According to Forbes, a new poll shows 60% of Wisconsin disapprove of how Gov. Walker is doing his job, with 48% strongly disapproving; and 77% support the teachers.
How ironic they chose to get away on a public transit bus. The Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee Commuter Rail project is next on the chopping block. Would link up, and potentially run through to Chicago, with the CHicago METRA Union Pacific-North line at Kenosha. Just a few trains a day terminate at the Kenosha station, METRA practice does not have all trains running through to the end of the line, some terminate at stations further down the line. Then again, since METRA engineers are union, and sort-of public employees, Walker would want to take away their rights.(What I mean by sort-of, because I think the engineers on this line, are employees for Union Pacific, on loan to Metra).
Already the ethics complaints against Walker are pouring in.
http://dailyreporter.com/blog/.....nst-state/
Looking at the article about the semi-commadeered bus, the police asked for it, and usually the transit system complies in public safety situations. Still, the irony of republicans who value buses over trains, and highways over buses, escaping a situation they created, by bus.
I hope the Republicans Senators enjoyed the bus ride, the bill just took away Federal transit funds from some Wisconsin bus systems, including, the Madison Metro. Under the 1964 Urban Mass Transportation Act(the forerunner bill that created the Federal Transit Administration) the FTA cannot disburse funds unless the Department of Labor certifies that collective bargaining rights among the drivers have not been curbed. Milwaukee COunty’s bus system is operated by a private company,(like the way Community Transit’s routes are done). With Madison Metro, the irony is, the city took back operations of it a few years ago, because of strikes!
http://www.jsonline.com/news/s.....84973.html
@6
I think that line was ultimately going to end in Mpls.
Michael, different project. The Milwuakee-Madison HSR’s Chicago leg would have been using the existing Amtrak route via Canadian Pacific’s ex-Milwaukee Road trackage. The KRM was a commuter rail on the UP line. But you are right about the HSR, it would have ended up in Minneapolis, and with Olberstar’s defeat, the connecting service to Duluth is going nowhere as well. Also, Walker was pleading with the HSR train manufacturer to stay, but rumors are swirling that not only they are pulling out of Milwaukee, but Talgo will be relocating to Illinois, where they are building HSR.(Chicago-St. Louis upgrades are underway). After two trainsets for Oregon DOT and 2 for the existing Milwaukee-Chicago Hiawatha service are complete, Talgo will be gone.
Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee line:
http://www.transitnow.org/project-status.html
http://www.midwesthsr.org/wisconsin
@10
It would be a fun little irony if both companies ended up in Illinois. There are a lot of dead and dying towns along that corridor that could be helped by HSR.
Talgo might just do it, although I would love to see them relocate to where the company first gained a U.S. presence, Washington State. I think their US HQ is still here. The Assembly plant in Milwaukee was in a former auto parts plant, that is owned by the City of Milwaukee. The plant will still exist, just empty. For the KRM, rolling stock acquistion could have been easier, Metra often has used equipment for sale, and they have done some good deals recently, with Nashville, and Virginia Railway Express.
The attacks on Public Employee Unions seem to overshadow one case of Union Workers rising to the challenge. The Miracle on the Hudson. Although the ferry operation whose boats ran to the scene was private, their members were Seafarers International Union represented. How did the First Officer repay the help? Well, he lives in the Madison area and showed up at one of the rallies.
http://www.jimhightower.com/node/6852
The Wisconsin Recall is small potatoes, even if all 16 eligible on both sides are involved, compared to what might be going on up in British Columbia. 23 Liberal(and the BC Liberal party is Center-Right) Members of Legislative Assembly are on the anti-Harmonized Sales Tax campaign’s recall list. The Premier was on it, but he stepped aside when his polling numbers hit 9%. He renegged on a campaign promise too. In 2009, he promised he was against the HST, and then after he was reelected, promptly put it into effect. That got a has-been premier of the provincial Liberals predecessor party(Social Credit), Bill VanderZahm out of retirement, to push first a referendum, then the recall, then the court challenge. He was the guy who pushed for the Initiative and Recall in BC back when he was premier.
http://fighthst.com/category/bc-recall/
Shouldn’t the right to unionize be as much a part of the US Constitution as the right ow own slaves once was?
I used to think that in a way, they already are. Mentioned in the Preamble, “In order to form a more perfect union”, and then the First Amendment, Free Speech, Freedom of Assembly. I remember vaguely hearing that in a way, Citizens United might have made unions persons. The talking point last year was that the decisions allowed corporations and unions to spend unlimited. Then again, the 5-4 majority would amend their decision if that was brought up.
@13 The Catholic Church says collective bargaining is “a basic human right.” I’m not a Catholic, and I have some issues with real-world Catholicism (read: top-down management; cover-ups of priest sexual abuse of children, et al.), but the Catholic Church undeniably is a moral force in the world and undeniably influences a sizeable American voting bloc. Translation into English: Walker and his Wisconsin Republicans have screwed the pooch; and, in the process, themselves.
The right to unionize and collectively bargain is a BASIC HUMAN RIGHT. That’s not a talking point, it’s a message I receive from God via the Great Mother Rabbit Spirit, who talks to me in dreams. God is NOT on the side of these Republican motherfuckers. They may tell themselves He is, but they’re deluding themselves.
If you’re a Republican, you’re gonna go to Hell when you die. I’m sorry, but you are. You have my condolences. The GMRS sent me here to tell you there’s a way out. Here’s what you have to do to avoid being dumped into the Eternal Fires of Hell:
1) Accept Christ as your personal savior and believe in Him;
2) Repent your sins against man and God, and ask for forgiveness, which will be freely given;
3) Renounce Republicanism, which is the epitome of human selfishness and anti-Godliness, and vote Democrat; and,
4) Line up a good therapist with experience in deprogramming mentally defective people like you from Republicanism so you don’t lose your grip on Godliness and revert to Republicanism.
Any questions?
@13 Hey, SJ, I have nothing against Jewish culturalism or your personal atheistic beliefs; but, as far as saving America from Republicans goes, I don’t think we can get from here to there with your philosophy. It’s gonna take something drastic, like salvation and repentence and redemption, to save these motherfuckers (and us) from Republicanism. I am, if nothing else, a pragmatist; so, I go with whatever works.
God works; atheism doesn’t. Republicanism doesn’t, either, because it’s founded on a selfishness that flows from a cynical view of human nature that just doesn’t have anything to offer us in terms of a future worth having.
For whatever it’s worth, when I wrote #’s 15, 16, and 17, I was naked, drunk on Old Ezra 101 Proof, and munching on imported Emmanthaler Swiss cheese when I wrote those posts. I never wear clothes around the house. I like going around in the buff and wagging my tool at Mrs. Rabbit. And, for some strange reason I can’t explicate, I do my best work when I’m loaded and chewing on Swiss Cheese. Don’t ask me to explain that, because I can’t. But I’m pretty sure that Republicans, for all their money, don’t know how to appreciate good cheese even when it kicks them in the nuts. Weird how these things work. They steal from the rest of us, and end up with all the money, and yet they have nothing and are nothing. You don’t need money to be something. All you need is heart and stomach. I think I have a lot of both.
If you’re living on a wage-earner’s income, you should always read the unit-pricing labels. Packaging costs a lot of money. If you buy a small piece of imported Emmanthaler Swiss cheese you’ll pay $19.99 a pound for it. But I bought a big block of it for 20 bucks at Central Market (155th and Aurora Ave. North) at $9.99 a pound! That’s half-price. Do you have any fucking idea how HARD I work to double my money in the stock market? Well, getting cheese at half-price is equivalently the same thing. So, always read the unit price labels, and buy the big block for half-price. How you spend your money is just as important as how hard you work to make your money.
I was looking for news about this bill and the bus and streetcar system in Kenosha, seeing if San Francisco was about to get a chance to buy a few used streetcars, and found this op-ed about Walker’s next focus. SB25, going after not just the KRM authority, but regional transit authorities in Dane County, Chippewa County, and elsewhere.
http://www.journaltimes.com/ne.....03286.html
Also during the past month, Maddow has been focusing on something of Walker’s past as Milwaukee COunty Executive. He has done this before, with the Courthouse guards. Fired the unionized guards, claiming budget emergency, replaced them with the contractors. The union challenged, the arbitration ruled in the union’s favor, so the guards are back, with back pay. Plus, Wackenhut security’s guy in charge in Milwaukee turned out to have a criminal record.
http://lacrossetribune.com/new.....002e0.html
I don’t support unionization of public employees or their “right” to collectively bargain. If public employees don’t like working for government, they should give the private sector a try.
Goldy’s Right, all they take is money!
Has any of you spendhappy braindead Liberals tried to get interest on your savings, like CD’s or Bank accounts lately?
Or have you figured out how you are going to handle your 14,300 trillion in debt when interest rates go up?
Just askin!
darryl-
you are a moron. This whole thing is almost as funny as Charlie Sheen! The Wisconsin Unions give nearly 100% of their political contributions (time & MONEY) to DUMMOCRATS!!
dummocrats created this unsustainable gudget mess by giving their union benefactors way too much.
dummocrats got fired by voters.
Republicans are cleaning things up as voters demanded you stoopid SOB!
how difficult is this to understand?
My Wisconsin friends & relatives are outraged by the paid anarchists in the capital.
most of them were bussed in or are poor students or perpetually unemployed.
it’s a joke .
you are a moron darryl
Since cynical has permanently retired from this craphole, allow me to post the recent rasmussen in his honor
Daily Presidential Tracking Poll
Friday, March 11, 2011
Obama is a one term Idiot, who makes Jimme Carter’s economy look like boomtown!
Send the damn spendaholic back to Chicago, I’m sure he has a deal for a cushy job under Rahm, or some Mafia boss.
And yet another down market day!
Unemployment in the tank again (I know, I’m drawing it with a Masters degree in Obamas Economic disaster)
I wonder if Michelle could part with her $1000 purse, I need a barf bag every time I look at my losses in his economy.
@21 I agree with you. The teachers, snowplow drivers, librarians, hospital workers, and all other public workers in Wisconsin should quit their jobs and join the private sector pursuit of greed and selfishness like everyone else. Anyone who elects politicians like Wisconsin’s Republicans doesn’t deserve to have public services.
@22 “Has any of you spendhappy braindead Liberals tried to get interest on your savings, like CD’s or Bank accounts lately?”
Speaking of braindead, who borrowed and spent us into this mess, hey? Have you already forgotten this shit happened on the GOP’s watch? That it was Republicans who squandered billions on no-bid contracts?
Well here’s what you conservative idiots did to yourselves. Banks now pay 1/10th of 1 percent interest on your savings. So, let’s say you’ve squirreled away $1 million for your retirement, your savings are now earning you $1,000 a year. Hey enjoy your “golden” years!
The wingnut answer to Made-In-GOP economic chaos is taking away wages, health benefits, and pensions from anyone who still has them.
And since Republicans are proving to the world that they believe in tearing up contracts and legal obligations on whim, it’s unlikely anyone will ever trust them or do business with them again.
I always knew in my heart that Republicans are closest Bolsheviks who secretly planned to overthrow our system of private property if they ever got power.
closet not closest
@26 It’s not my fault you don’t own Starbucks, which was up $3.43 yesterday. The only thing you’re proving with your whining is that you don’t know how to pick stocks. Maybe you should hire someone who knows what he’s doing to manage your portfolio for you. I’ll do it for 25% of the profits, same as hedge managers get.
LD @ 25 said:
Now for the actual facts, DJIA performance during some recent presidents:
Carter (one term): – 0.87%
Reagan (two terms): +135.13%
Bush I (one term): + 45.57%
Clinton (two terms):+225.37%
Bus II (two terms): – 21.78%
Obama (26 months): + 45.35%
Clearly, the Bush II administration has the modern record (since Herbert Hoover) of being a national economic disaster – and this was after two terms (the DJIA actually lost ground by the end of BOTH of his terms in office).
Of course, ID never is bothered by actual facts, he just repeats the talking points assigned to him daily by his masters.
@25,26…
This stupid motherfucker seems to be channeling the cyniklown.
The teachers, snowplow drivers, librarians, hospital workers, and all other public workers in Wisconsin should quit their jobs and join the private sector.
You want to your road plowed? You gotta pay for it out of pocket. I’m thinking desperation pricing should be about $300. Course it’s not right for the 2nd driver to get the benefit of the first driver paying to have the road cleared, so there will have to be impromptu tolling set up, so slackers and freeloaders don’t use the cleared roads.
Get rid of public library. Go back to pay libraries. You want to belong, pay your library fees. If you don’t have money to get in, then get a job so you can afford to. Just think, all the homeless slackers and poor kids will now be barred from the libraries because they don’t have money. Who ever pays the most, gets to choose the books for the library and keep out any dangerous books.
All schools and teachers should be private. Cater to the parents who have money. The poor get nothing till they pay up. The slow kids better have rich parents.
This is the republican world. Get used to it.
Try Silver Roger, I went all in and its up over 58% in 6 mo because of Obamas massive debt and dollar deflation. Thanks I don’t need your advice, especially on how to balance a budget!
You will all need a 45% increase in the market to pay your 87% Gas increase and your massive food hikes, not to mention every other item no one is buying today…
@36 I don’t use any gas but I own a lot of stock in companies that sell gas, so I’m doing just fine, thank you very much. As for silver, commodity prices can drop just as fast as they can climb — sometimes faster. But I’m sure you know that. I’m sure you also realize monetary policy can’t explain the runup in silver prices. The Fed hasn’t expanded the money supply by 58% in six months. But you can “time” markets and you’ll know when to get out, right? Or do you think precious metals will just go up forever, like housing did?
35.
I wouldn’t and didn’t put my kids in a Public School.
Ones an Eagle Scout, 2nd year in college, the other is a college graduate and working
NONE of them are living off Government Union Bosses! Nor did they learn from them!
Silver is the safest Bet I have in Obama’s Ponzi scheme of massive debt spending.
States are even talking about allowing it back as a form of currancy since the Dollar is worth nothing anymore. You can roll em out and wipe with them they are being produced out of thin air so much.
MY KIDS went to Seattle Public Schools you shithead motherfucker.
I was at parent/teacher conferences with bright, committed, hardworking educators. You clearly don’t know what the fuck you are talking about.
You are simply an asshole. A bigot, a real shithead, a traitor to American Ideals and a miserable excuse for a human being.
My Kids schools taught, they didn’t follow some budget busting Union masters out the door! Thank You!
In fact none of them were union, and I don’t recall a one of them complaining about what they did and what they got paid!
I don’t think they recieved life long pensions for free!
And NONE of my kids ended up Liberal! Thank GOD
Clearly…you really ARE an seriously IGNORANT nman. Seriously ignorant, uninformed…bigoted and closed minded. Why in the world would anyone take a juvenile idiot like you seriously?
So you are not part of the Billions this state is in Debt, gonna put all those unpaid pensions on the back of the taxpayers.
Go for it, WI will be here shortly, in fact I suspect November!
Ones an Eagle Scout, 2nd year in college, the other is a college graduate and working
Congratulations. To continue your theme, did your kids go to a private collage that accepted no government money whatsoever to keep you ideologically pure?
Also, you do realize that there are many many eagle scouts and working collage grads that went through the public school system also? Your path is not the only way.
Thanks for illustrating my point.
received life long pensions for free!
Are you in favor of getting rid of the pension system for the US senate then?
http://www.senate.gov/referenc.....bers.shtml
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.c.....?ref=fpblg
They’re eyeing Washington State in 2012:
http://www.thestranger.com/sea.....id=6987101
Was that “commandeered bus” operated by a union driver? Was that person drugged, or was someone holding a gun to his or her head?
If it had been me, as soon as I realized who the “emergency” passengers were I’d have shut the damn thing down and walked away.
Since Republicans seem to be headed in this direction, I have a quote from Che Guevara that might interest you:
“People must see clearly the futility of maintaining the fight for social goals within the framework of civil debate. WHEN THE FORCES OF OPPRESSION COME TO MAINTAIN THEMSELVES IN POWERAGAINST ESTABLISHED LAW — peace is considerewd already broken.” Che Guevara
And, if you don’t think Guevara was a serious thinker on this subject, there is a Marine survival document written on the priciples Guevara espoused.
LD @ 43
Being liberal requires the ability to think. Your unfortunate children do not have that ability in their DNA.
Gee, I was (am) an Eagle Scout, and have both an undergraduate college degree, and a graduate degree as well. My father voted Republican, my mothter voted Democrat, but politics was a very small part of their lives. They both taught me to think for myself.
I’m happy you are proud of your children, but there are more than one path to that goal. If your pride in your children dissapated based on their political leanings, I would question your priorities.
and the hits just keep on coming….
re 54: It is my opinion that Teabagger types do these kinds of things or sympathize with the perpetrators.
From January of 1995 through July of 1996, more than seventy Black and multiracial churches were burned in the south..
http://academic.udayton.edu/ra.....urn01a.htm
“Fundamental to the problem of racial terrorism is our government’s willingness to constitutionalize hateful speech, which creates an environment that nourishes hatred against Black communities and results in burned churches. By the time a church is burned to the ground the harm has already been done, and in every case the harm is irreparable. Although some may argue that there is a clear difference between cross burning and church burning, given the history of the expressive meaning of both such argument would stand without merit.”
Re: the spate of arsons that hit black churches in the South in the 1990s:
“That decade, 300 churches burned in the South — 300,” he said. “I thought, well, why is that not getting at least the amount of coverage or more? They haven’t found the people that are burning these churches. Why is this not considered a big deal?”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....88284.html
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>:)
Critical thinking clarifies goals, examines assumptions, discerns hidden values, evaluates evidence, accomplishes actions, and assesses conclusions.
Critical thinking employs not only logic but broad intellectual criteria such as clarity, credibility, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, significance and fairness.
I love the way these cretin brag about being assholes.
ps…@54 That was proved wrong, shithead.
Ride the merry go round market up and down we go but where it goes nobody knows…
Oh yes we do know…Stay tune next week!
@26
If you’re going to lie at least try and make it funny.
#59 continued.
Yup our phones are just ringing off the hook with high paying job offers…NOT
re 61: Ignore list — moron.
Really Roger Dumb Rabbit…
Seems you finally found a small point to agree with Roman Catholics. Amazing…
Another non sequitur from Roger Dumb Rabbit.
Roger Roger Roger, while that pathetic weenie is “flopping” lifeless and useless… it’s mimicking your going postal HA posts lately… flopping lifeless and useless… Even other lefties think you’ve lost it. HAHAHAHAHA
The economy started it’s downward spiral when Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid got control of the purse strings in 2007. Do you remember her first 2007 signature moment, blaming the oil and gas companies for oil price hikes? She singlehandedly caused a rise in gas prices in January/February 2007. I wrote about it on this blog. Remember Dumb Rabbit, Congress makes the bills and spends da money per the US Constitution. Get it Dumb Rabbit? Pelosi and Reid.
Then the US economy continued to spiral outta control with Pelosi and Reid jockstrapping Obama and his economic idiots from 2008-2010. $787 Billion and the unemployment would NOT top 8%. Oopsie. Haven’t almost all of those academic economic “geniuses” quit and ran back to academia trying to determine why their “hallowed hall economic theories” epically failed in the real world?
Then your preznit decides to attack the US Chamber of Commerce in 2010 because Obama didn’t like their “politics”. Well the economy is starting to come back a little. And when did that start Roger Dumb Rabbit? When bidness determined the US House of Representatives would no longer be under Nancy Pelosi’s control. They almost got the senate too from under Reid’s dirty thumbs. Obama got his ASS kicked in with one the largest political swings in US history. Yep, it was his own doing. Remember his 2009 rant of not needing Republicans health care ideas Roger Dumb Rabbit? Yep, the US Public remembered.
Obama loses the House and almost loses the senate. Now Obama wants to play nice with the US Chamber so he crosses LaFayette Park to play nice. What a crock. So bidness started slowly hiring. And… now we see bidness hiring more now that Republicans control the purse strings.
So now we all await the “great messiah’s” jobs summit. Great messiah he says. Of course; just channeling Donna Brazile and other loony lefties, from days gone by.
Wait for it… The standard moronic crew will soon appear with ad hominem attacks.
rujax, you channel a bag of gravel and broken cinder blocks. Nothing useful appears from your fingers!
Ummm racist lucy do you really know about the real Che and what he stood for?
Here are two of his “primal” quotes.
You are a real idiot racist lucy. Channeling your Cass Sunstein manipulable useful Homer Simpson idiot again huh?
ArtFart@50, the driver might just have been. Although with Madison Metro fearing the loss of FTA money in the article I mentioned, he probably was.
Wouldn’t that have been great. The bus driver begins to pull away from the crowd, than parks, takes the keys, flips off the treasonous Republicon sh*t f*ks and leaves with the door blocked open so the crowd could get in….
Headline “Cowardly Republicans Not Allowed to Escape”
I just love “conservative” ideology.
Help the rich, and crush the rest. All the tea baggers understand.
Wanna see someone squirm? Ask a tea bagger why a billionaire is paying for his bus ride, and see what he says. I mean after he stops drooling on hisself.
The Secretary of State says he will delaying publishing it until the last possible day, while the court challenge is underway. I guess that might be all that Secretary of State Doug La Follette can do.(Yes, he is related to Fighting Bob, his great-grandfather was Fighting Bob’s brother).
68, I would love to have seen that, but at that moment, the Republican Sentors became his passengers, professionalism took over. Although this is one reason the drivers need a strong union. I have been following a situation off and on between AC Transit and the ATU in California. The grievance the union has? Driver and passenger safety on a route in a crime-ridden part of North Richmond. A bus had a window shot out recently, and gangmembers nearly takeover a bus. I believe taking up safety issues might be considered work-rule negotiations, and for the Madison driver, his union(assuming they had one), just lost the right to negotiate over that.
@57
if its all false, then why are NPR execs “stepping down”
idiot, I will celebrate when that leftist radio station loses its federal funding.
I’m brilliant compared to the bile that appears under your handle.
Turns out, the budget that Walker proposes for next year plans to strip responsibilities from the Secretary of State and Treasurer. La Follette is used to stuff like that, the new Treasurer, a Republican who campaigned on getting rid of his office, does not like being reduced to the status of the Secretary of State’s agency. Various legislatures have taken powers away from the Wisconsin SoS office for years.
http://host.madison.com/wsj/ne.....03286.html
Michael@9, Minnesota DOT seems to not be giving up on HSR to Chicago, they might just bypass Wisconsin, either just the administration in Madison, or the state. One option, is to head south, through Southern Minnesota as far south as Des Moines and Iowa City, then head east to Chicago. I would rather have seen the direct route, but seems there are a lot of obstacles for that so going by Iowa might be better. If that happens, it could be the first passenger rail service some of those towns have seen since the Rock Island’s Twin Star Rocket, which ran from Dallas to Minneapolis w/o going through the Windy City. In addition to upgrading the corridor to St. Louis, Illinois is planning more restoration of service through Rockford to Dubugue, Iowa(the Black Hawk Corridor), and some in Hannibal, MO would like to see one of the two trains to Quincy, Il from CHI cross the Mississippi.(Mixed feelings there, would probably have to rename one of them, the existing trains have great names arleady, Illinois Zephyr and Carl Sandburg, Mark Twain should be in there somewhere).
http://www.twincities.com/ci_1.....ck_check=1