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[Zrk2]

Woah, we never have anything near this interesting in Canada. Are you any closer to a resolution?

[Vactor]

Not at all closer to a resolution, both sides seem to have put themselves into positions that they cannot get out of.

One of the issues is our Governor's sweeping veto rights.  The line-item veto allows the Governor to strike out any portion of a law while signing the bill.  This makes it so there can be no compromise bill that includes the language limiting collective bargaining.  One Senator from the majority party has an amendment drafted that would sunset (end) the collective bargaining restrictions in 2013, however if passed, the Governor would be able to remove any said limitation.  There will also be a great amount of mistrust of any deal after the governor revealed that he would only speak to the missing senators as a way of tricking them into being present at the Capitol in order to obtain the needed quorum.

[Zrk2]

Well, that's really screwed up, good luck!

[Retro]

Woah, we never have anything near this interesting in Canada.

Seriously.

Vactor, have you heard to prank call on Gov. Walker? Someone pretended to be Dave Koch and Walker just started gushing about all the stuff they're doing to rile up the protesters and crush the unions however they can. If you haven't, there's a link to it in its own thread in GD here somewhere. One sec.

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=78146.0 <-- there's two youtube clips, both 10m each

[Nadaka]

I would assume so, since he mentioned the trick to achieve quorum that was spelled out in that call.

[Aqizzar]

They also retracted their endorsement of Governor Walker.

It took them that long?  They seemed pretty solidly against the guy most of the last week or two.

Vactor, have you heard to prank call on Gov. Walker?

There will also be a great amount of mistrust of any deal after the governor revealed that he would only speak to the missing senators as a way of tricking them into being present at the Capitol in order to obtain the needed quorum.

Sounds like it, yeah.  I bet there's boomboxes playing that call round the clock somewhere on the capital.  I don't really know what to make of the whole thing myself, but I'm sure there's been a lot of pissed off people the past couple days.

[darkrider2]

One of the fourteen senators to flee wisconsin asked for Gov. Walker to resign from office.

Sometimes I wish I were older, I would drive down to Columbus myself if I could and participate there.

[Flaede]

Is this thread dead? Because there's still stuff going on about this, and I haven't been able to find another thread about it other than the one specifically a about the 'prank call'.

[Aqizzar]

I suspect Vactor has been a little too preoccupied with his actual job to do much talking about it.  There hasn't been a ton of activity over the weekend though, except for the governor supposedly barring people from reentering the capitol building.  And requiring such stringent ID that a couple House members couldn't get in for a few hours.

Good news everyone, Anonymous is on the case, according to The Escapist, your number one source of news on the Wisconsin state legislature.

[Nikov]

Enter Anonymous. The hacker group discovered a little-noticed clause in the bill proposed by Walker which would allow the state to sell its utilities to anyone it chose, at any price, without the public even being notified. This clause would allow companies like Koch Industries to purchase publicly owned utility plants, and Anonymous believes this is the reason that Koch-funded "grassroots" organizations like Americans For Prosperity, Club for Growth and Citizens United are supporting Walker's plan to rid the unions of their collective power.

So the grand scheme is to allow Wisconsin to sell the Koch brothers state-owned power plants for pennies on the dollar?

It all makes perfect sense now. I renounce regressivism forever.

[Vactor]

Is this thread dead? Because there's still stuff going on about this, and I haven't been able to find another thread about it other than the one specifically a about the 'prank call'.

I've been quite busy with work, so the updates are sparse, if you guys have questions i'm more than happy to explain what is going on.  The restrictions on the public access to the Capitol has gotten quite out of hand, with so many badges, and security queues, and escorting and everything that nobody working the building has a good handle on exactly what is going on.  There were several times when one person who wanted to sit in on a public hearing would be surrounded by about 15 staff, police and sgts staff trying to figure out what the person needed for a pass to attend it.  An injunction was filed against the Department of Administration to open the building to the public, and they went into court over it today around 2:00.  People were flashing copies of the injunctions at us, not understanding that its up to the Governors office to obey the injunction, not the police staff, and especially not the Senate sgts staff, since we really only have power over what happens at the Senate Chambers, and inside senate offices.

I'm leaving out reporting on the things that i read in the news, as it is well known enough that i'd just be rehashing the stuff you've already read, and not really giving any insight.  As far as the sale of power plants, a lot of the facilities in question are heating and power plants built for state government buildings, and hard wired directly to them.  If sold off, the state would then be a captive consumer, and would be forced to lease back from the plant that it just sold off.  These would also be sold at the discretion of the governors office, without bids.  The JFC amended the bill, to allow for the joint finance committee to have the opportunity for passive review, which being a no-bid sale, would not have information available to them to be able to tell if any potential crony-ism is going on.

[Aqizzar]

This definitely needs to be bumped, with some video footage from last night.  While hardly an unbaised website, the video linked here speaks for itself.  A Democratic Wisconsin House Assemblyman was tacked and briefly detained by the capitol building's security, as part of their governor-ordered effort to keep anyone and everyone out of the statehouse without his deign.  This is thing is getting ugly.  I can't wait to hear from Vactor again.

[Bdthemag]

A few days ago I saw some people on the side of the street holding up signs supporting the bill, as I drove by I gave them the bird.

[Earthquake Damage]

A few days ago I saw some people on the side of the street holding up signs supporting the bill, as I drove by I gave them the bird.

Way to change the world.

[Bdthemag]

A few days ago I saw some people on the side of the street holding up signs supporting the bill, as I drove by I gave them the bird.

Way to change the world.

Sorry, it was impulse.