You have to be pretty extreme for centrist WashPost columnist Dana Milbank to label you a “A hooligan governor.” But that’s the headline in his column today on Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI).
On Friday, Think Progress posted “REPORT: Top 10 Disastrous Policies From The Wisconsin GOP You Haven’t Heard About.” I’m reposting the whole piece below since four of those disastrous policies would subject Wisconsin families to dirtier air and dirtier water.
As the standoff between the Main Street Movement and Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) continues for the twelfth day, much of the media coverage “” and anger “” from both sides has focused on Walker’s efforts to strip Wisconsin public workers of their right to collective bargaining. But Walker’s assault on public employees is only one part of a larger political program that aims to give corporations free reign in the state while dismantling the healthcare programs, environmental regulations and good government laws that protect Wisconsin’s middle and working class.
Below, ThinkProgress examines ten of the most disastrous policies the Wisconsin GOP is pursuing:
1. ELIMINATING MEDICAID: The Budget Repair Bill includes a little-known provision that would put complete control of the state’s Medicaid program, known as BadgerCare, in the hands of the state’s ultra-conservative Health and Human Services Secretary Dennis Smith. Smith would have the authority to “to override state Medicaid laws as [he] sees fit and institute sweeping changes” including reducing benefits and limiting eligibility. Ironically, during the 1990s it was Republicans, especially former Gov. and Bush HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson, who helped develop BadgerCare into one of the country’s most innovative and generous Medicaid programs. A decade later, a new generation of radical Republicans is hoping to destroy one of Wisconsin’s “success stories.”
2. POWER PLANT PRIVATIZATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL NEGLECT: The same budget bill calls for a rapid no-bid “firesale” of all state-owned power plants. One progressive blogger called the proposal “a highlight reel of all of the tomahawk dunks of neo-Gilded Age corporatism: privatization, no-bid contracts, deregulation, and naked cronyism” and suggested that the provision will open the way for large, politically connected corporations, like Koch Industries, to buy up the state’s power plants on the cheap. While it’s unclear whether corporations would be interested in buying the plants, a similar proposal was vetoed six years a go by Gov. Jim Doyle (D), who called the plan fiscally and environmentally irresponsible. Many of Wisconsin’s power plants are in violation of federal clean air regulations and desperately need to be upgraded and cleaned up “” not dumped into the private sector.
3. DANGEROUS DRINKING WATER: Republican lawmakers have introduced bills in both the Senate and the House which would repeal a rule requiring municipal governments to disinfect their water. Conservatives have said that the clean water rule “” which went into effect in December “” is simply too expensive. Yet the rule only affects 12 percent of municipalities and the price may be worth it. In 1993, 104 people died and 400,000 fell sick when the Milwaukee water supply became infected. Even two decades later, the Environmental Protection Agency Advisory Board notes that 13 percent of acute gastro-intestinal illnesses in municipalities that don’t disinfect their water supplies are the result of dirty water. Municipalities can keep their water clean for as low as $10,000 per well “” but apparently for the Wisconsin GOP that is too high a price to pay to keep citizens safe from deadly microorganisms.
4. DESTROYING WETLANDS: In January, Walker’s proposed regulatory reform bill exempted a parcel of wetland owned by a Republican donor from water quality standards. But the exemption was more than just an embarrassing giveaway to a GOP ally: environmental groups believe the bill’s special provision would actually affect the entire county, eliminating public hearings on proposed wetland development, short-circuiting approval of development projects, and disrupting the region’s water system.
5. FISCAL IRRESPONSIBILITY: Walker signed a bill this week requiring a 2/3 supermajority in the legislature to pass any tax increase. Republican lawmakers are now reportedly considering a constitutional amendment that would make the rule permanent. A similar constitutional amendment in California has been called the “source of misery” of that state’s crippling budget crisis and has forced lawmakers to “gut public education, slash social services and health care programs, close prisons, and lay off record numbers of public employees.” While claiming to “make a commitment to the future instead of [choosing] dire consequences for our children” Walker and GOP lawmakers are instead putting generations of Wisconsinites in a “fiscal strait-jacket.”
6. DISENFRANCHISING VOTERS: This week, Republican lawmakers moved forward on a bill that would require voters to present a photo ID from the DMV at the polls, making it significantly more difficult for the elderly, the disabled, college students, and rural residents to participate in elections. While Republican lawmakers insist the bill is necessary to prevent voter fraud, there have been almost no documented cases of fraudulent voting in the state. Instead, the Wisconsin State Journal writes, the GOP bill is going “overboard in limiting ballot access in a state proud of its long history of high participation in elections.”
7. CUTTING JOBS, LOSING THE FUTURE: Last fall, Walker killed an $810 billion federally funded high-speed rail project, forcing the Transportation Department to pull its funding. Walker’s decision killed 130,000 expected jobs and forced the Spanish company Talgo to close its Milwaukee factory and layoff its 40 person staff. A spokeswoman for the company told The Daily Reporter that “the state’s decision to back away from the high-speed rail project sends a terrible message to businesses considering locating in the state.”
8. STIFLING INNOVATION: In late January, Walker introduced a bill that would ban wind-powered energy from Wisconsin and exacerbate the state’s dependence on out-of-state coal. If passed, it’s estimated that the law would immediately eliminate $1.8 billion in new wind power investments and jeopardize eleven currently proposed wind projects. After a public outcry earlier this month, Walker’s bill is (for now) dead.
9. “NAKED POWER GRAB”: Earlier this month in a party-line vote, the legislature ceded “extraordinary control” of the state’s rule-making oversight process to the governor. Walker now has complete power to draft agency rules which the legislature must then either approve or reject. The law gives Walker the power to write rules for formerly independent state agencies like the state Departments of Justice and Education “” and most ominously the Government Accountability Board, the state’s ethics watchdog.
10. POLITICIZING STATE AGENCIES: A provision in Walker’s budget repair bill would convert thirty-seven state employees from civil servants to political appointees “” consolidating his power over state government and expanding his power to “hire, fire and move key employees to carry out his agenda.”
Since his inauguration just two months ago, Walker and the Wisconsin GOP have taken unprecedented action to undermine the state’s unions, environmental regulations, long-term fiscal health, social welfare programs and basic democratic structure. As Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) said Tuesday, Walker has stopped acting like the Republican governor of a Midwestern state and has instead “basically taken on the position of a dictator” with a “vision of America that’s similar to somewhere like Nigeria or Pakistan.”
- Kevin Donohoe, in a TP repost.
Previous in TP Climate Progress
Language Intelligence: Lessons on persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga
So basically, Walker is becoming a lesser version of a corporate dictator with his efforts to consolidate power and hand over everything to corporate polluters.
The paranoid and looney Right has always been with us, whether they’re called Goldwater Republicans, Michigan Militia, or Father Coughlin’s minions during the Depression. Joe McCarthy, after all, came from Wisconsin.
This is the first time, however, that Republican Party leaders have completely caved in to them. Opportunists like Romney and Gingrich are kissing their asses instead. Unless the frayed remnants of Republican sanity show up again, we will have to fight these lunatics from the Left, which will increase the probability of a nasty and chaotic future.
Koch Brothers Buy Wisconsin Governor http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZxSDFbw7U8
Kochheads
Scott Walker Anti-Union Stuff Funded by Koch Brothers & Republicans
Transcript.
0:00
And here’s the other thing, by the way, the Koch brothers are the kings of astroturf.
0:04
And I did a little bit of research into this, Scott Walker’s gubernatorial campaign received
0:10
about $43,000 from the Koch Industries PAC during the 2010 election. The PAC gave, to
0:16
give you an idea of who they share company with, they gave a million dollars to the Republican
0:20
Governors’ Association, same people that Fox News, News Corporation famously donated to.
0:26
And in turn, the RGA took $65,000 of that and spent it independently to support Walker.
0:35
They also spent over $3 million on TV adds and mailers attacking Walker’s opponent.
0:41
The Kochs also helped Walker’s GOP allies fight against public-sector unions. There’s
0:48
a group called Americans for Prosperity, very anti-union group. Who are they funded by?
0:54
Koch brothers. There’s a website, StandWithWalker dot com, can you think of anything more astroturfy
0:59
than that? Who’s behind that? The Koch brothers. I mean, I feel like, Louis, I should pull
1:06
out a chalkboard and do a Glenn Beck interconnecting all the bubbles and lines here.
1:11
Louis: I think we can connect the dots on our own.
1:14
David: What other PACs, you might be wondering, trade money with the Koch PAC? The Fertilizer
1:20
Institute, which funds Blue Cross, Blue Shield, we know what their interests are, the Target
1:25
State Victory Fund, which funds Clear Channel, we know all about that, Glaciar PAC, which
1:31
funds Delta Airlines, and what’s Delta Airlines known for, Louis? Being particularly anti-union.
1:38
And it goes on and on and on. But False News– Fox News will claim the White House is behind
1:44
the protest. That’s not grassroots. The DNC, OFA are behind the protests. It’s really pretty
1:52
shocking.
1:53
So my question here is to those who are coming out, even when they have no stake in Wisconsin
1:59
specifically, but we’ll talk to Frank Emspak about what other states things are happening
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-EAVKAp4o0&feature=related
Reason?
President of Fox News “will be indicted…maybe even Monday” for telling employee to lie. (ritholtz.com)
http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/ftpis/president_of_fox_news_will_be_indictedmaybe_even/
Maddow Destroys Wisconsin’s Gov Walker
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7e4bj5rrd8&feature=related
Wisconsin Budget Crisis is Fake, and Scott Walker Created It
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4tVLm2136U&feature=related
Rel Maddow, … Johnny Walker …
How the hell did he elected?
Does he have a goon squad scaring the shit of people making them vote for him?
I would kill a $ 810 billion dollar railway line, even if it was high speed.
I believe the real price tag was 3 orders of magnitude smaller.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK (from The New York Times’ article today, “Drilling Down: Regulation Is Lax for Water From Gas Wells”) …
“I’m not an activist, an alarmist, a Democrat, environmentalist or anything like that,” Ms. Gant said. “I’m just a person who isn’t able to manage the health of my family because of all this drilling.”
After reading – http://dailycensored.com/2011/02/25/fascism-at-your-doorstep-special-emergency-powers-legislation/ – I observe a pattern.
I’m a state attorney in Madison currently serving as an administrative law judge. I’ve worked on the personal staffs of two Wisconsin governors and held senior management positions in both Democratic and Republican administrations. I’ve also worked for the Speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly for six years. In more than 35 years of state service, I thought I had seen it all. I was wrong.
I retire in December. It had been my intention to work almost exclusively on global warming–to find conservative political, media and business leaders that we desperately need at the forefront.
Those plans will be delayed by a few months. The Walker recall campaign starts in January 2012. We’ll need roughly 540,000 signatures (25% of the electoral vote for governor). For the reasons explained in the Milbank article, we might actually have have 540,000 people circulating recall petitions. The organization work has already started. Stay tuned.
[JR: Good luck.]
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/02/koch_execs_respond_to_prank_call_we_will_not_back_off.php
Koch Execs Respond To Prank Call: We Will Not ‘Back Off’
Eric Lach | TPM | February 25, 2011, 9:33AM
So Business As Usual isn’t good enough for Gov. Walker. It’s like Captain Smith of the Titanic stopping the ship and having a second go at the iceberg. After all, he knew the ship was unsinkable, and, if he’d had his way, the decks would not have been cluttered with those useless lifeboats.
When Vatican officials refused to look through Galilleo’s telescope, they did not threaten to hasten the end of the world, even if they slowed up human knowledge a bit. They certainly helped Italy to decline from her pre-eminent position in the Renaissance.
Governor Walker cannot compete with Asia by cutting everything. China is outcompeting us with educated people and they can always undercut us for cheap labor. By cutting education we further hamstring ourselves.
As for attempting to ban green energy, what next? A state law demanding that everyone drive a Hummer at least 50 miles a day? Every citizen could buy their 20 gallons of gas every week. If you can’t burn it all, a video, with proof of date and time, showing you dumping the surplus into a reservoir, river or lake will suffice. Only those with a clean “Walker record,” ie all stamps present, would be able to vote at the next election.
I’m sure that cryptosporidium can look forward to a bright future in Wisconsin. Maybe a more virulent strain will arise from the dairy industry. It should be named Cryptosporidium Walkeri in the Governor’s honor.
Pity. I liked visiting Madison. But once its lakes have been renamed Lake Malaria and Lake MRSA, I’ll stay away.
When I read if this sort of hubris and ignorance, I’m so glad I’m 60 not 16. What a world we are handing over to the next generation!
Anonymous, I wish you success.
Re. 14 Chris Winter.
I bet the brothers are wishing Koch Industries was still “the biggest company you never heard of.” ;)
What is happening in your country, and in ours, too, with a small lag, is inevitable in market capitalist economies. The only parties allowed to govern must be of the Right. Even a smidgin to the left of say, Bill Clinton, or Bob Hawke here, and the entirely Rightwing MSM will destroy you, with hysterical vilification, outright lies, scaremongering, even concocted ‘scandals’. The Murdoch flagship here ‘The Fundament’ (aka The Australian,) has openly vowed to ‘destroy’ the Green Party. The less Rightwing parties in these two-party plutocracies, are, therefore, continually pushed to the Right, by the party apparatchiki, who are rewarded by business, discretely, for their services. The rank and file are treated with undisguised contempt, which has led here to them almost disappearing. As the less Rightwing party moves Right, to satisfy the business money power that is the real governing force, the more Rightwing party moves even further and further Right, in a perverted sort of ‘unnatural selection’ the selection being undertaken by the business patrons.
Public debate is now absolutely one-dimensional. Rightwing think-tanks spew out predetermined propaganda that comes to the same conclusions on every topic-leave everything to ‘the market’ ie the money power of the rich, roll back the state, get out of business’ way, reduce worker rights and conditions, ignore all ecological crises as these do not, in fact, exist, but have all been invented by ‘Green alarmists’. And you end up with Rightwing ideologues so deranged that even the plainest commonsense is beyond their capacities. Ideological fervour, intense misanthropy, utter contempt for the interests of others, absolute lack of human empathy, no scruples concerning lying or giving deliberately false impressions, all in the service of the rich, and against the rest. I mean, would you have imagined even a few years ago that the Right would have descended to vicious attacks on the interests and rights of teachers,police and firemen? And, as the planet’s biospheres collapses, don’t expect these creatures to learn anything-they will just become more and more extreme and dangerous.
Document uncovers details of a planned coup in the USA in 1933 by right-wing American businessmen
View a picture gallery of images related to this edition.
The coup was aimed at toppling President Franklin D Roosevelt with the help of half-a-million war veterans. The plotters, who were alleged to involve some of the most famous families in America, (owners of Heinz, Birds Eye, Goodtea, Maxwell Hse & George Bush’s Grandfather, Prescott) believed that their country should adopt the policies of Hitler and Mussolini to beat the great depression.
Mike Thomson investigates why so little is known about this biggest ever peacetime threat to American democracy.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/document/document_20070723.shtml
http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/ftw2q/til_that_prescott_bush_grandfather_of_ghw_bush/
Being the recycler for a small organization, I know that numerically the most common item we recycle is empty drinking water bottles, made from plastic made from oil. I don’t know how much energy and oil resource is used to produce our plastic water bottles and whether recycling puts a dent in the requirements for new raw materials, but dirty municipal water, while free, will still certainly encourage more people to purchase those plastic bottles filled with hopefully clean water.
I started talking about Walker in an earlier thread and tried very hard to convince another poster that this Governor needs to be stopped. Unfortunately, like many people, this person has been convinced by what is actually a very convincing (or at least appealing) argument from Walker about how Government workers are simply no longer affordable in the current financial climate. Of course, this is just bollocks, and is an amazing bit of prestidigitation by Walker and his ilk. Get everyone to look at greedy teachers on the one hand, while throwing millions of tax-payers dollars at special interests with the other. I am glad to hear the ‘official’ news from Anonymous above that Walker is likely to be recalled.
My wife and I moved to Wisconsin (from Spain) because it was so ‘progressive’. Public transport, environmentally aware, bicycle paths everywhere, and it looked like an ideal place to bring up our soon-to-be new child. We’ve been here less than 6 months and it looks like all hell has broken loose! Several journalists in the area have stated that regardless of whether Walker is successful or not, he has already changed Wisconsin for the worse by causing dreadful resentment between workers, neighbors and even within families. He can only succeed if he is able to continue that atmosphere of resentment – so for that reason alone, I hope he fails miserably.
One positive result of Walker’s brief tenure is that he has woken people up and made them think about politics in a way that has not been managed for a long time. If this is what it takes to get people to realize that politics are not so one-dimensional as some of our leaders paint it to be, then that’s probably a good thing. If it means that some will come to accept that maybe it’s ok for gays to get married if we can keep our jobs (lay-offs still happening country-wide), that it’s worth discussing a compromise on the number of rounds your automatic rifle can shoot in a second if we don’t need to send our children to work (Tennessee is the first State to discuss abolishing child-labor laws), or that it’s worth asking the banks to start paying taxes if it means our teachers are not made to feel like overpaid pariahs (as they are in Wisconsin at the moment). I think change is way overdue, and I think it might be happening here in Wisconsin, even if the bulk of the main-stream media are ignoring it (more than 100,000 protesters in Madison and the press are talking about Charlie Sheen’s personality disorders – pathetic).
I posted this on another thread, but it’s worth re-posting here. It’s an excellent piece from Wisconsin teacher.
http://luminouspage.blogspot.com/2011/02/i-ruined-everything-why-it-was-more.html
C’mon Mulga, the Australian may have decreed but it would appear from the polls that they aren’t being too effective. There are more Greens and greenies everywhere than ever before.
And it is only 4 years since a landslide victory against “Work Choices” which for our non-Aussies was the most draconian, and Orwellian, anti-worker legislation ever envisaged, ME
Re Scott,
Bottled Water Sales A Big Profit for the Oil Industry
Given that 80 percent of the PET produced in the United States ends up in a Coca-Cola, Pepsi or Nestlé beverage container, people should know the connection that these bottled water producers have with the largest oil, chemical and plastic corporations on the planet. Let’s see who is profiting from supplying oil-based plastic to the bottled water industry and how the players in this supply chain are some of the worst environmental polluters of our time.
The process of producing PET plastic bottles involves a number of different stages using multiple producers in the supply chain. Some of the corporations are widely recognizable, while others are more obscure. The important point in this analysis, however, is that the bottled water manufacturers are the end point of a supply chain that contains some of the biggest polluters on the planet.
http://www.knowthelies.com/?q=node/2200
PTA. Terephthalic acid, one of PET’s two primary raw materials, is produced using paraxylene. Paraxylene, which is very similar to gasoline, is derived from crude oil through a refining process at oil and petrochemical refineries.
A number of oil companies in the US produce paraxylene including British Petroleum, ExxonMobil, Chevron Phillips Chemical Chalmette Refining (50/50 joint venture between ExxonMobil and Petróleos de Venezuela S.A.), British Petroleum, ExxonMobil, Chevron Phillips Chemical (50/50 joint venture between Chevron and ConocoPhillips), British Petroleum, ExxonMobil, Chevron Phillips Chemical Flint Hills (owned by private conglomerate Koch Enterprises), and Lyondell. These facilities are all located in the gulf region of the United States.
At this point, the PET plastic bottle supply chain divides into two categories of PTA producers:
1. Companies that make both paraxylene and PTA — In the United States this category is occupied by British Petroleum’s Chemical division, BP Chemicals, and the private conglomerate Koch Industries. In BP’s case its refineries in Decatur, Alabama and Texas City, Texas produce paraxylene which is then turned into PTA at the company’s operations in Decatur, Alabama and Cooper River, South Carolina.
In the case of Koch Industries, its refining division, Flint Hills Resources, manufactures paraxylene at its operations in Corpus Christi Texas while its fiber and polymer company Invista turns paraxylene into PTA. While BP sells its PTA to PET manufacturers, Invista (Koch Industries) uses the PTA it manufactures for its own PET production.
2. Companies that purchase paraxylene and then produce PTA for their own PET production — In this category chemical companies purchase paraxylene directly from the refinery, transport it to their production facility where they will produce PTA either for sale on the market or for their own PET production. This category is occupied by two major players, DAK Americas (subsidiary of private Mexican conglomerate Alfa, 2006 revenue $6.8 billion), and Eastman Chemical Company (2006 annual revenue of $7.5 billion).
MEG. Monoethylene glycol (MEG), PET’s other primary raw material, is also derived from crude oil. In addition to being used by PET manufacturers, MEG is used to produce antifreeze and coolants for the automotive industry.
MEG’s main raw material is ethylene, which is produced in refineries by steam cracking hydrocarbons. Natural gas is also used to make ethylene.
Ethylene is more widely produced than paraxylene and is manufactured by a large number of oil and chemical companies in the United States. The leading ethylene producers in the United States include, ChevronPillips Chemical Company, Equistar Chemical Co., Exxon, Shell and Dow Chemical.
While I mostly agree with this assessment, a couple of the items aren’t too bad. One especially is really needed.
The requirement to provide identification when voting is long overdue. With 33 million illegals in the US (that’s @ 11% of our population)the need to maintain the sanctity of the vote becomes critical.
The democratic party has engaged in a decades long, successful attempt to remove identification at the voting booth. This was explicitly so illegals could vote. Check the minutes of the DNC if you don’t believe me. All the arguments about how this might be difficult for the aged, minorities, etc contain a grain of truth but are just a smokescreen.
Voting is a responsibility and a privelege reserved to citizens and should be defended.
Thanks for your attention.
Thomas
is currently wondering the relative war efforts of reps vs. dems. during the WWII.
Anonymous currently taking down Koch websites (twitter.com)
http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/ftxb9/anonymous_currently_taking_down_koch_websites/
http://twitter.com/anonsdg/status/41981468393750528#
Everyone is familiar with the 1st two tactics of Karl Rove
1) Attack your opponent’s strength from your weakness
2) Accuse your opponent of doing what you’re doing. Just scream first.
But that’s not the whole list. The coup de grace is #3:
Be worse than anyone can imagine.
The public simply won’t believe it.
I’m starting to see the advantage of the federal system, where all US states get a chance to either do something right, or make a complete mess of things.
The Wisconsin voters are getting what they asked for: they did put republicans into a position of near absolute power, didn’t they? If it leads to disaster, maybe the rest of the US can learn from it. Also those voters that thought is wasn’t worth voting last time.
Trying to post links to relevant stories. Comments disappear.
Anonymous are also targetting Glenn Beck in OpGlennBeck.
http://anonnews.org/?p=press&a=item&i=608
The Wisconsin Lie Exposed – Taxpayers Actually Contribute Nothing To Public Employee Pensions
http://blogs.forbes.com/rickungar/2011/02/25/the-wisconsin-lie-exposed-taxpayers-actually-contribute-nothing-to-public-employee-pensions/
The Tea Party is a Koch Party.
Joke making the rounds in Madison:
A public union employee, a tea party member, and a CEO are sitting at a table with a plate of a dozen cookies in the middle of it. The CEO takes 11 of the cookies, turns to the tea partier and says “Watch out for that union guy. He wants a piece of your cookie!”
The Tea Party is a Koch Party.
My Governor is a Koch Head.