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It’s been really incredible to watch the situation in Wisconsin over the past few days, because it’s taking on the cast of a banana republic. The Secretary of State has authority over publication of the laws. It’s a specific responsibility given to that constitutional officer. He was barred from doing so by a county judge. He has said publicly that it’s not in effect. Nobody else has the authority.
The Walker Administration doesn’t care.
Saturday, DOA Secretary Mike Huebsch said in a written statement: “Upon the advice of my legal counsel, the Department of Administration will begin the process of implementing (the law) as we are required to do the day after a bill is lawfully published. We are mindful that this Act is continuing to be litigated and we will continue to be responsive to the courts as the law begins to be applied.”
An aide to Huebsch said in a text message that the secretary “believes” the budget-repair bill has “been lawfully published.” [...]
Increased health insurance premiums and retirement contributions for state workers were due to take effect Sunday, according to information on the Office of State Employment Relations website.
In addition, the state will no longer automatically deduct union dues, another feature of the bill. The first paychecks affected will be those for April 21.
There’s a hearing today in the court of the same judge who issued the temporary restraining order that was supposed to block implementation of the law. That hearing is happening at this hour. But if the state already ignored one restraining order, who’s to say they won’t ignore another? Huebsch, the cabinet secretary, said that he would follow any court ruling specifically stopping the Department of Administration from carrying out the law, but now we’re playing a semantic game. That enjoinment already exists, Scott Walker simply chose to ignore it.
Even if this gets worked out today, it’s already had a chilling effect.
The Wisconsin school board association advised districts to suspend contract talks given the uncertainty over the law. Many school districts, counties and municipalities had been rushing to reach deals before the law taking away nearly all public employees’ bargaining rights kicked in.
In fact, stalling the talks may have been a feature of this decision, as this wastes valuable time until the legal wrangling plays itself out.
From a political perspective, this will only energize the new class politics that started in Wisconsin and spread throughout the Midwest. But you have to sit back and take stock of the absolute lawlessness occurring in Madison at the moment.
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Don’t they have jails in Wisconsin for officials who are in contempt of court?
Don’t they have police? state troopers?
Is it not a coup d’etat, when the head of the government ignores the other branches of the government and goes ahead with his own agenda? In such a case, where the State Police are also headed by a family member…does the National Government play a roll..in view of “State’s Rights”?
Or does the law allow a State to “go rouge”?
As there are lawyers on all sides here, I would guess that the argument that the non-partisan agency which did publish the law is required to publish by statute and the restraining order which apparently applied only to the Sec’y of State’s office holds some water.
It all goes to show the importance of elections.
“LAWS? We don’t need no stinkin laws!”
On a related note apparently President Bipartisan is willing to cut the budget of 30 billion dollars in stimulus funding. The Republicans are demanding it and who’s he to argue?
So Wisconsin is now a dictatorship?
We’ve become Nigeria with nukes.
while we talk they act.
while we do nothing, they take over completely.
while we watch our country slip away, they watch as they control it all and do as they wish.
they do own the place. and they won’t be happy until we’re all on our knees begging for crumbs.
“Heil Walker!” just doesn’t scan well.
I don’t have much to add but, how very sad this is.
We are watching our county dissolve into chaos.
Even sadder, is that so many are cheering it on.
Do they really think they will be better off with anarchy?
Republicans gave up all pretense about the “rule of law” a long long time ago, and this is the beginning of the much expected and wildly anticipated outcome. Totalitarian fascist dictatorship is coming closer to completion.
Why so-called “Libertarians” who bray endlessly about being self-sufficient cheer on a dictatorship is quite beyond my comprehension, but we certainly see such cosmic dissonance spouted out here on blogs concerning the takeover of WI by T-GOP/Koch-paid for fascism.
On a related note the new Republican teabagger lite Governor of Michigan has cut unemployment eligibility from 26 weeks to 20 weeks. The antisocials want to insure that out of desperation the unemployed working and middle class will settle for flipping burgers at the nearest fast food emporium.
These laws are just annoying A long time ago some people got the strange idea of passing laws that helped/benefited the masses. Well it seems it is high time that these laws were abolished and the peasants be put back in their place. The middle class experiment is officially over, and you can not stop us. We know it, you know it, and just be patient we will be coming after you next, if we haven’t destroyed you already
If O is absolutely lawless, can’t see any reason why Walker shouldn’t be too.
So, will Walker cancel next Tuesday’s elections and make the current state Supreme Court justices justices for life?
Diebold left a message for America, “Fuck You Suckers” and thanks paying Diebold “maintenance fees” for this no less.
The antisocials couldn’t have asked for a more complicit and obliging door mat than President Bipartisan.
His was just the cheapest sellout price.
So…this asswipe can just get away with this??? People are going to let him do this??? Pitchforks and torches….
I’m just going to throw out a hearty WTF?!
If the BushCo era taught us anything, it’s that if your name isn’t Scooter Libby, you’ll get away with it.
Oh, wait. Scooter basically got away with it.
I bet people put up with this just to get the extra tidbit in their paycheck…it’s Walker throwing a virtual arsenic-laced bone to the people.
The Buck stops with Gov Walker so shouldn’t the Judge order the Gov to be held in contempt of court?
Walker is a tyrant…very, very dangerous. Like…I won’t name names.
The words Punk and Bitch also apply but lets not forget Harry, Nancy and all the Blue Dog Dems.
Apparently your president wrote this fuckwad in WI a permission slip to do whatever he wants. Or, courts are trumped by elections that put republicans in charge. It is difficult to decide which by reading the comments.
This was supposed to be in response to Kris @ 20
“Republicans” aren’t a political party, they’re a criminal gang, a fascist mafia.
Waiting for Norske to weigh in on this one.
If Walker gets away with this whats his next move legal or illegal? What does he want and what else has he had trouble getting legally?
Agree. What’s the difference between Obama & Walker: nothing. They’re both bought off by the corporate Elites, and both are just doing their bidding, as the pwnd phone call to Walker *proves.*
This is just the beginning of what’s coming next to the fascist dictatorship of America.
And btw there will be no torches and pitchforks. US populace will go along to get along bc they’ll believe whatever crap the media dishes out.
Same applies to the so-called “Democratic” party. They are “both” just 2 sides of the corporatist criminal gang, imo.
I thought it was a GOP conspiracy to break the Unions but Obama destroyed the GM workers pensions when he destroyed GM stock notice Obama did not do the same with bank stocks.
Walker it could be argued is doing an Obama? Hmmm…the GOP really is not the party of ideas when they have to copy Obama now are they?
Those are only to be used against an unruly working and middle class. They are not to hold the plutocrats accountable but to protect them from the people.
and Obama is paying them protection money? The Republicans couldn’t have asked for a more complicit and obliging doormat.
The U.S. public is by and large kept in a perpetual state of infantilism.
Not that I am advocating this, but ….
Where’s the ==edited by mod==?
“Huebsch, the cabinet secretary, said that he would follow any court ruling specifically stopping the Department of Administration from carrying out the law, but now we’re playing a semantic game. That enjoinment already exists, Scott Walker simply chose to ignore it.”
David, why are you explicitly mischaracterizing the injunction? Just a few paragraphs earlier you accurately described it as an injunction barring the Secretary of State from publishing the law. It’s jarring and bizarre to read your mischaracterization half a page later.
This could have been a very interesting blog post about whether, under Wisconsin law, publication by the Legislative Reference Bureau is sufficient for a law to take effect. Instead you turn it into some bombastic, misleading post that makes it look like the judge issued an injunction directed at anyone other than the Secretary of State.
Just one more example of crappy legal blogging from FDL. This site is great for news and politics, but I hope none of the readers take the legal analysis seriously (excepting, of course, the regularly excellent posts by Masaccio and Cynthia Kouril).
This is terrific news which just broke at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “First recall campaign appears to have enough signatures” Randy Hoppner (R-Fondulac)
This will add momentum to the other recall efforts.
At what tipping point do the people wake up and realize they are in a perpetually evolving fascist-driven series of hand-picked and groomed (by the PTB) dictators, posing as elected officials. What does it take?
The fault lies almost entirely with you.
You’re not contributing enough. DDay is an immensely skilled reporter who routinely is on the cutting edge of dozens of complex stories.
I kick in $240/year to FDL.
How much do you contribute annually?
Identical to ignoring a retraining order. Should have seen it myself.
bombastic. Heh. Somebody has a word of the day desk calender.
Plus Walker’s continued machinations should also help the effort.
Que our one-trick troll to try to get us to play his numbers game.
AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…
Citizen David Dayen:
I want to tell you what is happenin’ in the Norske household and explain that what is happenin’ to us is representative of thousands accross the state. First of all my wife has been teachin’ in this district for 32 years and she was plannin ta retire next year at age 55 even though she didn’t wanna. She is 4 months short of bein 55 years old at the end of this contract so if she were to retire this fall she would be without state or local retirement until January. There are 2 others in Mrs. Norske’s same situation. The district has offered to let them retire on this contract buit they would hafta pay an entire year’s worth of insurance and in Mrs. Norske’s case that amounts to $20,000. The threat is that next year there will be no insurance coverage for retirees and the age to go early will be 62. There is nothing I can do to assuage the anger and grief of this incredible woman and she really has no options. This story is bein played out in tens of thoudands of union households all over the state and the Norske family is in much better shape than most facin this fascist putsch.
I have been tellin my progressive friends for a long time that the fascist game plan is to bankrupt the entire system, nationally and in the major blue states, and shut down government entirely so that it will take at least 10 years just to get back to where we were January 1st of this year…and in the meantime, of course, the banksters and oilagrachs will leave the country with our money so we will never be able to recapture it through taxation. And of course the lives and retirements of thousands of families will be destroyed.
Now for the good news. As I posted yesterday, the recall effort in our very blue city is already 50% over the threshold established by the recall coalition before the clock started tickin’…and we haven’t even started the targeted cancavsing off the Feingold voter lists. If Kloppenberg beats Prosser then the process of undoin this whole thing will get kicked up at least 6 months and by June of this year there will be a new Democratic majority in the state senate and by April next Feingold will be our governor.
BUT…the restoration of union rights and the unwinding of the budget mess the fascists have left everyone will take at least 2 full budget cycles just to get back to where we were last January and of course the money we shoulda been collectin’ to move forward will be gone.
So to those who have been tellin’ me that my rhetoric toward fascists and other lunatics is too violent and vulgar and that I don’t play well with others…to those folks I want to give a big ==edited by mod==. And to those of you who haven’t gotten off your asses yet and joined politics at the local level with your brothers and sisters instead of cryin about Obama and disrespectin people who choose to do politics instead of talk about it, to you folks all I can say is:
KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNTION, PEOPLE ARE DYIN’ HERE FOR CHRIST’S SAKE!!
Gov. Walker blocked a billion-dollar investment from the feds for high speed rail. Today the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published this Gov. Wanker propoganda:
State seeks high-speed rail money for Hiawatha upgrade
AFUCKINMEN!!
Yeah, our election for Supreme Court on April 5 is so important.
If we can win that with very high turnout, it may get the wingnuts in the state Senate to pay attention.
Japan is actually worse in that department. The society had really decayed in the last 10 years. Makes it much easier to kill off a lot of people in those, um, disasters that make the rich-ster speculators so much money.
Well said.
King Rick I is trying to do the same thing here. It’s come out that his chain of medical clinics will be a huge beneficiary if his executive order to drug test all state employees and his desire to privatize Medicaid go into effect. Luckily this has come out early in the game and folks are organizing to fight him. He’s also looking at privatizing all the public hospitals in the state. Nothing like bare-faced avarice.
Norske said:
Badabing!
This is a NATIONAL game plan.
I’d really like to see this handled the way it should be. If you ignore a restraining order in real life, the crew from COPS shows up with some deputies, they haul you out of your trailer, taze you, and take you to jail in your wife-beater, your Budweiser left foaming on the lawn. Where is that equality for Scott Walker? Where’s the shared sacrafice?
Sending David to lawschool would run about $30k a year, and I’m sure as hell not going to contribute that much. How much do you think it would take to get DD to leave the legal blogging to lawyers, and stick with his strenghs (economics, politics, etc. . . )?
sadly been asking that question for ages, and have come to the conclusion that there will be no tipping point. Might be somethings that happen that look like a tipping point, but when the dust settles TPTB will have even more control than before. Look at egypt you think they are going to get real change there? What is going on has been planned for a long time. Dismantling the middle class, disregarding the constitution, the rule of law, DHS and its brown shirt TSA’s, an ever increasing population dependent on the govt to eat, we are in the end game. they have been planning we have not.
1930′s Germany.
Always has been. That’s why activism at the local level has been so important but lots of folks wanted to focus on the national stuff while the local Regressives gained ground because nobody was paying much attention. It’s only now that the good citizens of my county are paying attention after they’ve written folks like me and Norske off as looney tunes for years.
The remedy for the breach of a restraing order is jail time and/or a fine.
I think both are in order here.
I would hate to be the attorney representing the State. He/she is going to have their ass handed to them by the Judge.
I’m no fan of the Democrats, but one brand of corporatist has dropped their cover and are plainly waging war against the people. We need to smash the Rs first and educate the Ds in the process.
Exactly…but we cannot give up…we have to fight back.
National General Strike
I’m no Obot. He pissed away a crucial moment in history. I want him out of the WH, pronto. So who are we running to replace him?
Citizen mswinkle:
“Look at Egypt you think they are gunna get real change there?”
Don’t worry about the Egyptians, we are all fuckin’ Egyptians, the Egyptians in Egypt will fight for their lives and if you want to actually do somethin instead of whinnin’ about the end of the world…well, get off your ass and get organized!
Methinks Joe Hill would have liked you. *g*
Exactly who disregarded the injunction? The SoS? My understanding is he did not publish the law. The Legislative Reference Bureau? My understanding is that they were not enjoined by the court from taking any action.
The problem is that the LRB is not the entity prescribed in the state Constitution to publish laws, the SOS’s office is.
Citizen mgloraine:
Stop pushin’ Monday into Friday…the Obama situation is WAAAAY down the line…take back your local government and join the tens of thousands who are doin somethin about our politics precinct by precinct, town by town and district by distract. If you do that and stay focused on the road in front of you we can give Obama a little history teachin by example and make the Democratic convention of 1968 look like cocktail party with Ms. Manners.
Reference bureau talked to DOJ before publishing law
Nice piece on how Walker and the GOP have already politicized Wisconsin’s Department of Justice. They used it to intimidate the “Reference Bureau,” into publishing.
Yes, and that’s an interesting legal question, whether their publication puts the law into effect (I’m not sufficiently familiar with WI law to opine, so I’m not going to speculate).
Unfortunately, that issue is almost completely ignored by this blog post, and the result is the widespread confusion you see in the comments.
The issue isn’t whether anyone violated an injunction (they didn’t), it’s whether the SoS is the only entity that can give a law effect through publication.
Thanks freddy freeloader.
Be sure to click through the advertising.
How. the fact is whoever controls the money controls the show. bankers, the FED and BIS control it all. They have set up a system that works for them and their corporate buddies. maybe the people in wisconsin might win this one, but there is so much destruction of workers rights and pay going on that it will be a small victory. Reality if more and more people are dependent on govt to survive they have no options but to go along with it. more people in the middle are being pushed into these ranks and those that are not will be given a choice to go along with the system or get pushed further down the ladder.
Did you see maddow’ show last night about the POTUS speech on libya? I had to turn it off. She gleefully went through what POTUS said when he got peace prize, and how it matched up with what he was saying now. She was loving it and making fun of anyone that questioned it as right wing nuts. tuned in briefly to Ed’s show and saw he too was taking this “how great is the potus, and anyone against is right wing nut. Honestly, I don’t think even under Hitler the press in germany was more controlled. ED and rachel are putting out these rah rah pieces, with no real in-depth analysis of the situation, felt like iraq all over again – and they do this with no direct threat on their lives. Imagine what they would cover if the govt did threaten their lives? shudder to think
Citizen SouthernDragon:
Bless your heart Brother Dragonman but Joe Hill lives in each one of us…I tired and I’m angry but I’m not helpless and I won’t let others piss away our birthright without callin’ ‘em out. And where is Brother Raven…tell ‘im ta check in…the Norske clan is gunna be down Georgia way this summer.
I think you’re reading the post differently than I am. DD puts it in simple terms in the first paragraph. The rest of the post pertains to what Walker and his minions did to bypass the Constitution and whether it was legal to do so or not.
You’re the only one with “wide-spread confusion.”
Wisconsin Court of Appeals Denies Department of Justice Request In Collective Bargaining Lawsuit LINK.
Heh heh.
A good read from the past which illuminates the present. Naomi Wolf did a good job on this piece. She missed “eliminating unions” as a step.
I’m in that foul, angry mood that takes over when one loses a loved one so I’m lookin’ for a fight. *g*
Fair enough, I think the text of his post leads people to believe that Walker or the LRB violated the court’s injunction. Specifically, I think the following paragraph is totally wrong:
“Huebsch, the cabinet secretary, said that he would follow any court ruling specifically stopping the Department of Administration from carrying out the law, but now we’re playing a semantic game. That enjoinment already exists, Scott Walker simply chose to ignore it.”
Look at the other comments in this thread, whether DD’s post was accurate or not, it obviously confused a lot of the readers.
Regardless, thanks for your point of view, it’s always possible that I’m just misreading his post and the comment thread, and you could be correct.
Sweet
The last paragraph of the Order stated:
“I do, therefore, restrain and enjoin the further implementation of 2011 wisconsin Act 10. The next step in implementation of that law would be the publication of that law by the Secretary of State. He is restrained and enjoined from such publication until further order of this court.”[empasis supplied]
The first sentence is the key. There is no getting around its clear meaning. Any attorney who tries to do so, is going to get their ass handed to them.
Citizen badgerexpat:
Trolls don’t do well around here…this situation is confused because the fascist governor has pushed the system off the rails and is bankrupting the treasury of the state and the collection of taxes to pay for the services we aren’t getting. The situation is confused and confusing because that’s what people with your politics do…fascists like to blame the messengers and confuse the information to the people, like you are tryin ta do…go back under the bridge.
Read 73 and weep. Fuck all fascists where ever they shit their shit.
I’m not a troll. I’m not a sycophant either, but I’m not a troll.
freddy,
This tone is much more appropriate to what we’re trying to do here.
If you’ll notice fatster at 10:32, Wisconsin’s wingnut AG asked that the TRO be lifted. He never would have done that if he thought the SoS was peripheral.
It won’t signify lessen the damage, but please apologize to DDay for your unacceptable comments above. And don’t do it again.
Part of what FDL does is make legitimately complex stuff ACCESSIBLE to a wide audience.
I think I agree. The Journal Sentinel made it appear the injunction was just directed at the SoS:
“A Dane County judge issued a temporary restraining order preventing La Follette from publishing the measure.”
Then kick in some cash.
This place doesn’t run on air.
If you’re as well educated as you claim, you can read an income statement.
Citizen SouthernDragon:
Awe shit, I musta missed somethin’ here…I’m sorry for your loss, Brother Dragonman, what’s the story?
Well, his post was obvioulsy confusing to at least one person, namely, me. And I still don’t think it was particularly effective legal blogging. That said, it appears I was mistaken as to the scope of the injunction, my apologies for any confusion created by my comments.
Kismet.
Not entirely – Nigeria still has oil.
I don’t think I’ve ever made any claims about my education, or anything else relating to me personally (well, excepting post #81 above).
Far as I know DD doesn’t do in-depth legal blogging. You have to go to Emptywheel’s place for that. This is more about the political machinations of Walker and his minions.
Citizen BooRadley:
Don’t waste time and energy on the trolls, Brother Boo…lotsa things ta do with that energy and time.
Citizen SouthernDragon:
Oh my…I remember somethin about that…God I’m sorry Bro…you got places ta go and stuff ta do so ya don’t break somethin’ or someone?
Yeah, I’m waitin’ for a couple of the regular trolls.
Firepup Freedom Fighters (and visiting trolls):
I’m outta here for the next few days…gotta go ta fuckin’ Austin, Texas ta help my son bring a car back…poor kid (40 years old) hasta spend 4 days of his Spring break doin this and then he goes back and teaches Shakespeare ta high school kids but he’s likin’ it. And our local organizers got a whole buncha stuff planned for the ol’ Norske when we get back this weekend…100 canvasers comin in from a larger city in the district this weekend, whatta trip!!
And remember folks, don’t whine, don’t complain and for God’s sake don’t cry…ORGANIZE!
I am exhausted from sitting back and taking stock of the absolute lawlessness that constantly occurs in this country!!!
Emigration looks better & better!
Not only that, but he’s driving businesses out of business and even making some of them leave the state. So much for his saying that “Wisconsin is open for business!”
On a related note…
Christy Setzer has a great post up.
The Michigan fascist-leaning governor has until July and then he can be recalled.
Ummm…. what are you referring too?
The Obama administration is doing the same thing, in that they were ordered by a Federal Judge to begin issuing deepwater drilling permits, asap..but so far the Feds have issued only 3, all for rigs currently operating in the Gulf. Contrary to the Judges orders, the Obama Admin. has refused to issue permits for new wells to begin drilling..blatantly ignoring the Judges orders…All because of the overuse of the court system and the politicisation of the Judicial system
http://www.houmatoday.com/article/20110218/WIRE/110219433/1292/features12?Title=Judge-orders-feds-to-speed-permits
and now the fascists are going after professors.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/03/29/conservative-think-tank-foias-michigan-labor-profs/
In a country and a state were the public is by and large kept in a perpetual state of infantilism that’s highly unlikely.
to catch the professors using their taxpayer-salaried time to push their policy ideas and opinions
Sounds good to me..if I am paying their salary, they need to keep their opinions, especially “religious and political” opinions to themselves..
So where exactly in Wisconsin are you? Did you go “rally” with your friends the Kochs? If so, surely we can pick you out of the pictures since there were so few of you there. You must have made Faux Noise at least…
I want every e-mail then, no fucking exceptions and how about the republican e-mails every fucking one of them.
waste 1 million dollars going through them.
That’s what you want or do you just wish to smear FASCIST ?
Wisconsin Officials Tell Court of Lawmaker’s Request to Publish Union Law
link.
Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader [one of those darlin' Fitzgerald boys] Admits Motive Was Union Busting LINK.
So it’s okay to censor people on a personal level if they work for the public sector? Cool. Got it.
Indeed, this feature of their attack on Wisconsin’s public unions is the most disturbing feature of the whole episode. In it we can see the difference between “the rule of law” and the “rule by law.” Naturally, members of the Wisconsin GOP and the elected officials among them have not problem with disobeying the law when it is they who are the disobedient ones. But let it be noted that they expect others to obey the laws they wish to support, and will use a militarized police force to impose their will on their opponents.
This distinction and the use of made in Wisconsin reveals the dictatorial intentions inherent in the Republican Party.
Apples and oranges, you ~~~Edited by Moderator~~~.
One, WI, is ignoring a court restraining order from implementing the law and proceeding ahead in blatant violation of it. The other, Obama Administration, is moving carefully on new drilling permits, knowing the clusterfucktasrophie that just occurred in the Gulf, which you so glibly ignore. While a judge in the pocket of the oil industry would like them to move “faster”, that is a all relative term, and they are violating/ignoring nothing.
Frankly, I’m not convinced the judge has a right to order a federal review agency to “move faster” on issuing new oil drilling permits. The best he could hope for is for plantiffs to bring a complaint of injury that they are being denied permits, which they haven’t, nor have they shown harm here.
When the Dems get the majority back in the Senate can’t they threaten to impeach Walker?
“. . . it’s taking on the cast of a banana republic. . .”
That would conjure up “cahones,” no? Perhaps Walker’s strategy is a Jacksonian “then, let her enforce it.” Comment #110 above cited blatancy, which is correct, but beside the point. Rather Walker may be proactively pursuing such and for that reason. A courageous provocation to some, an outrage to others, no?
There is somewhere in nature a push-pull tension between the three branches of gov’t, be it federal or state. In extraordinary circumstances, from time to time, this bubbles to the surface. This time maybe Walker is tweaking to force the WI Supreme Court to get involved. We’ll see. . .