Tammy's In!

It just became official. Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin, one of working family's most stalwart and consistent champions in the House, has entered the race for the open U.S. Senate seat in Wisconsin. Blue America added her to our Senate 2012 page, where she joined Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. It's hard to imagine there will be any further additions this year. When Tammy takes the seat, currently held by retiring moderate Democrat Herb Kohl, she will be the first openly gay member of the Senate, though certainly not the only gay member. In 1998 she was the first woman Wisconsin ever elected to Congress and the first person anywhere to ever run for Congress as a gay person and win.

Her first official speech as a candidate touched on the issues most important to Blue America-- her opposition to the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq and her support for the legitimate aspirations of American working families. "It's time politicians looked out for seniors, working families and the middle class-- instead of protecting the profits of big oil and Wall Street," she said. Listen to the video above.

There are a whole gaggle of conservatives who would like to grab the seat-- Mark Neumann (R), Tommy Thompson (R), far right psychopath Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald (R), state Sen. Ted Kanavas (R) and Congressman Ron Kind, a kind of corporate-oriented "Democrat." Here's the statement from Mike Tate, chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party:

"After weeks of watching the Republican Senate candidates engage in a Tea Party horror show where each promises to lurch further and further to the right, and to listen to a smaller and smaller band of corporate special interests and extremist radio talk show hosts, the entry of the Tammy Baldwin into the race is a welcome departure.
 
"While she may not be the only Democrat to enter the race, Congresswoman Baldwin will clearly be a strong voice for Wisconsin's middle class, workers, farm families, seniors, students and less fortunate. Meanwhile, Republicans have made clear that their assault on the middle class will leave prosperity only to those very rich who can afford it.

"Congresswoman Baldwin will turn the debate away from the petty right-wing ideologies of the misnamed 'Club for Growth' of Scott Walker and of Paul Ryan and back to where it belongs: To the creation of family-sustaining jobs and the preservation of our middle class."

Please consider making a contribution to Tammy's campaign on Day One of a race that will proven to be one of the most contentious and crucial in the country.

UPDATE: Ed Potosnak Weighs In For Tammy

Ed is also an openly gay progressive, but he's running for a Republican-held House seat in New Jersey. He's very enthusiastic about Tammy's candidacy, though. "Tammy Baldwin is a champion for working families, retirement security, and job creation, she will make an excellent Senator. Additionally, her candidacy is very important to our nation and all of us in the LGBT community, since when elected Tammy will be the first openly gay United States Senator. I could not think of a better trailblazer and proudly support her election."

Privatize This!

-by Dave Sherbula



Here in Wisconsin, you may have heard, there is an ongoing fight between Republicans and Democrats about the philosophy of big government vs limited government and public vs private sector "solutions."



The Republicans want more school vouchers because they think the government can't run education efficiently or successfully. They want to outsource what were previously government jobs/functions to the private sector which supposedly can do them cheaper and better. They say this is all philosophy driven. Government can't be trusted to do anything right, and must stop interfering with private enterprise. Strict Constitutional interpretation ( when it suits them ).



Let's ask those Republicans if it is the governments place to run a sports franchise? It sure doesn't sound like Rick Perry would be for it. How about Michelle Bachmann? Ron Paul, can you hear me?



If Republicans truly believe in limiting government to certain responsibilities and a narrowly defined purpose, then what the Wisconsin Republicans must do is pass a law outlawing government ownership of professional sports teams. 



That's right. Make Green Bay, Wisconsin sell the Packers to a private party with no strings attached (to get the best price, they could be the LA Packers).



What a win-win situation for the die-hard Republicans! Get government out of the professional sports business (which they clearly should not be in since it is not mentioned in the Constitution) and the residents of Green Bay would each get an enormous payout as part of the deal (since George Bush decided government can't sit on taxpayers money). No real estate taxes in Green Bay for the foreseeable future, and a cash payout to boot! A billion dollars or so would go a long way in Green Bay. That's enough to make a corporate raider green with envy.



Think of all the companies that would be rushing to move to Green Bay to take advantage of the tax breaks! It would be amazing to see. Since that is what Republicans say determines where a company locates.



The Republicans can argue the the team would be better run and more successful in the private sector. Wisconsin is not exactly a big market place in terms of generating the revenue needed to be a Word Champion team. 



Those titles that were won in the past are just flukes. No rink-dink town like Green Bay could possibly be home to a successful sports franchise over the long run. Think of all that potential revenue the team could make in private hands.

 

What, with a government subsidized stadium and a big market, a group of investors could make a killing. And don't forget the investor group/corporation are people to, and would have to pay taxes on all that money they would make. Wealthy investors are just ordinary people who want to own a team too. 



The last selling point is the kicker. The whole Green Bay arrangement smacks of Socialism! "The People" own the team collectively, and it is unionized. This cannot go on. If you allow this, what next? A State owning a Bank to the benefit of it's citizens? Oops! I forgot North Dakota already does that quite successfully. Shhhh, don't let that get around. These Socialist threats must be stopped!



And may I suggest a perfect time to announce this plan? 



How about at the opening day game of the NFL season? At Green Bay with the World Champion Green Bay Packers.



I hear there will be a pregame concert and party outside the stadium. I'm sure Paul Ryan, Scott Walker and the Fitzgerald brothers would be proud to announce this legislation then and there. The NFL would surely accommodate them (since it would be in their interest. They have never been comfortable with the arrangement and do not allow it anymore). I know it is short notice to put a bill together, but when you control the House, Senate and Governors office nothing is impossible. I've seen some of their "out of the box" thinking before.



I can just imagine the response from all those Republican sky box and season ticket holders. I'm sure the atmosphere would be electric with all of them chanting, Sell the team! Sell the team! No more socialism! No more socialism!



This would also be the perfect foil to our (socialist) President Obama's socialist speech he will be giving before the game about Jobs.



Wisconsin has been leading the country lately in Republican ideology. What better way to solidify their credentials than this?



Man up boys, let's see if you walk the walk you talk and talk about.

Two Good Tuesdays In A Row In Wisconsin... And New England

Last night's 2 biggest losers weren't on the ballot in Wisconsin or Maine

Last week Wisconsin Democrats climbed a very steep hill by defeating incumbent state Senators Randy Hopper and Dan Kapanke, two right-wing zombies-- both well Koch-financed, dedicated fascist supporters of Scott Walker's virulently anti-family agenda. The same night, with less national clamor, progressive Democrat Bob Perry won a special election in New Hampshire, winning a Republican legislative seat by beating Honey Puterbaugh, 58- 42%. Similar story this week.



Two Democratic incumbents, Bob Wirch and Jim Holperin, beat back right-wing retaliatory recalls in Wisconsin Tuesday night. Right in the heart of Paul Ryan's house district, Wirch stunned the heavy-spending fascist forces with a powerful 58-42% win, a slap in the face to rightists in Kenosha County, which went heavily for both Walker and Ryan last year. The final count, district-wide, was 25,541 for Wirch to 18,838 for Walker's very flawed GOP candidate Jonathan Steitz. Up in the north country, incumbent Democrat Jim Holperin won 55% of the vote against Kim Simac, a deranged teabagger widely considered Wisconsin's own Sharron Angle or Michele Bachmann. Turnout was heavy and Holperin took 30,321 votes to Simac's 24,813, with landslides in the two biggest counties, Oneida (58%) and Lincoln (60%).



Wisconsin Senate Democratic Leader Mark Miller was jubilant: "Senate Democrats have fought for the rights and priorities of middle class and working families. In historic recall elections across the state the people of Wisconsin have clearly spoken out against the radical, divisive agenda Governor Walker and legislative Republicans have pursued to date." And state Democratic party chairman Mike Tate issued this statement ti summarize what had been accomplished:

“The victories tonight of Senators Wirch and Holperin cap off successful recall elections this summer for Democrats, progressives, moderates and independents. Democrats won more races, recalled two Republican senators, protected every Democratic incumbent, shifted the balance of power in the state Senate away from conservatives, and forced Walker and the GOP to pay public lip service to moderation and bipartisanship for the first time since they took power in January. All of these facts show that voters gave Democrats the overall victory in this summer’s historic senate recall elections.”

 

Facts: 



• Democrats won 5 of 9 recall contests-- an obvious majority.



• Recalls against all three Democrat incumbents failed. No Democrat was recalled for taking bold steps to stand up to the extreme, divisive Walker agenda.



• Two GOP senators were recalled for rubberstamping the radical Walker agenda-- a critical achievement that equals the total number of lawmakers ever recalled in Wisconsin history.



• As a result of these elections, the balance of power in the Wisconsin State Senate has shifted away from the Walker-Fitzgerald agenda. The state Senate as now constituted would NOT have approved Walker’s extreme, divisive assault on the middle class and working people.



• Democratic successes in the recalls have forced Walker and the GOP to change public posture. Only now is Walker-- who has acted unilaterally to advance a staunchly conservative agenda throughout his Administration-- talking about ‘bipartisanship.’ It is no coincidence that Walker’s shift in tone came the day after the Aug. 9th recalls. Overall Democratic successes have forced Walker to moderate his public stance.

And mirroring the big win in New Hampshire last week, Tuesday night saw a special election win for Democrats in Maine against a rightist handpicked by Tea Party Governor Paul LePage. New-comer Kim Monaghan-Derrig defeated Republican Nancy Thompson in the Cape Elizabeth open district, 1,340- 1,164. LePage had rushed to set the election for August 16, before a special legislative session that's set for Sept. 27 to deal with proposed changes to Maine's congressional districts. The state House now has 78 Republicans, 72 Democrats and an independent. Monaghan-Derrig will be a new progressive voice in Maine politics and will help hold back LePage's reactionary lurches into bizarre and demented extremism.

Wisconsin Dems Need 3 Seats To Take Back State Senate. They Have 2... But Vote Thief Kathy Nickolaus Is Holding Back 10 Precincts In Waukesha Co.

Today was supposed to be an accountability day for native fascists who have infiltrated and taken over the Wisconsin Republican Party-- as well as Republican Parties all over the country. Scott Walker's unrelenting class warfare against working families and against democracy itself was responded to by massive grassroots organizing and an unprecedented get out the vote effort. Before the polls closed in Wisconsin, another special election in New Hampshire was won by a Democrat:

"Bob Perry's victory tonight is a complete and total rejection of Republican House Speaker Bill O'Brien's reckless job killing agenda. In a historically Republican district, New Hampshire voters turned out in the middle of summer to send a loud and clear message to the out of control Republican majority. Its relentless attempts to make cigarettes cheaper but college more expensive, slash women's health care, and kill jobs by taxing hospitals must stop immediately.



"New Hampshire voters have seen enough of the radical Free State agenda this year with bills that would allow guns in schools and courts, would remove support for our United States' Constitution out of the oath of office, and would eliminate public kindergarten."

At 8pm local time the polls closed in the 6 Republican Wisconsin senate district seats. AP called it for Republican incumbents in the 2 reddest districts right off the bat: Cowles and Harsdorf, and Fred Clark ran strong against Luther Olsen but missed out. So to win back the state Senate Democrats Sandy Pasch, Jennifer Shilling and Jessica King all needed victories. Shilling was the first Democrat to win, with a 55-45% victory, with big wins in La Crosse and Richland. Soon after, Jessica King beat Randy Hopper thanks to voters in Winnebago who gave victories to Ron Johnson and Scott Walker last year coming to their senses this year. Early on I saw that the uber-corrupt Republican machine in Waukesha-- where stealing elections is what they do as a matter of course-- was holding back 10 precincts there in case Alberta Darling needed them in her close race with Sandy Pasch. Pasch is way ahead and I'll update that race as soon as the results are in. Why Kathy Nickolaus isn't in prison is an affront to democracy.



This morning Greg Sargent started the day by telling Wisconsin activists what they had already achieved. "Dems and labor," he wrote "have already succeeded in one sense: They reminded us that it’s possible to build a grass roots movement by effectively utilizing the sort of unabashed and bare-knuckled class-based populism that makes many of today’s national Dems queasy."



As Chris Bowers pointed out yesterday at Kos, the path the pushback against fascism took in Wisconsin was an especially steep one. These 6 districts are not exactly Democratic-friendly territory.

1. Despite narrowly winning Wisconsin in 2004, John Kerry lost five of these districts. In our top two target districts, currently held by Luther Olsen and Randy Hopper, Kerry lost by 13 percent and 15 percent, respectively.



2. Obama won Wisconsin by 14 percent, but only won one of these six districts by more than 4 percent. Outside of Kapanke's district, even during a landslide, the best Obama could do was 50-52 percent.



3. In addition to these being difficult districts, recalls themselves are extremely difficult. In the entire history of the United States, only 13 state legislators have been ever recalled. Nationwide. Ever. We are trying to pull off three or more in a few months.



4. Finally, while Democrats had a monetary advantage when Obama edged McCain in these districts three years ago, thanks to Citizens United now we are getting outspent. Daily Kos commenter Korkenzieher, who lives in one of the recall districts, explains what the monetary advantage buys for the other side:

Anyway, you wouldn't believe the shitstorm of blatant lies they're hurling at Pasch. She hates veterans. She hates children. She hates the whole community, except, of course, for illegal aliens. These are ads being run on every media outlet in Milwaukee, and this is just for one race in the Milwaukee suburbs. Now consider how much cheaper it'd be to run those same ads in small-town, northwoods or dairy farm Wisconsin. Honestly, Wisconsin is always a battleground state in presidential elections, and the stuff being thrown at Pasch alone exceeds anything the wingnuts threw at Clinton, Gore, Kerry or Obama in the last few presidential elections. It has an effect. It confuses people.

UPDATE: Vote Tampering In Waukesha... Again



Wisconsin Democratic Party chair Mike Tate following evidence of election tampering in the 8th State Senate District race: "The race to determine control of the Wisconsin Senate has fallen in the hands of the Waukesha County clerk, who has already distinguished herself as incompetent, if not worse. She is once more tampering with the results of a consequential election and in the next hours we will determine our next course of action. For now, Wisconsin should know that a dark cloud hangs over these important results."



UPDATE TO THE UPDATE



Tate's changed his mind about taking vote thief Kathy Nickolaus to court! He issued this disappointing statement:

"Though we believe that Sandy Pasch was able to battle Alberta Darling to a virtual tie, on her turf, we will not pursue questions of irregularities. Those heat-of-the-moment statements came in light of the uncertainties that arose from a recent election, known too well.



The fact of the matter remains, that, fighting on Republican turf, we have begun the work of stopping the Scott Walker agenda."

AFTER TONIGHT'S SPECIAL REPORT, "WOODY ALLEN TONIGHT"

RETURNS TOMORROW WITH PART 1 OF "DEATH KNOCKS"

(Barring unforeseen circumstances, of course!)

#

How Right-Wing Ideology Works In The Real World: Post Offices

Yesterday we looked at Drew Westen's analysis of why Obama is such a disastrous disappointment. That's not to say that any Republican wouldn't be incalculably worse nor that Obama has failed to achieve a few modest successes. He's sometimes pretty good around the edges... but forget the hope and change stuff. I had to laugh when I read how Republicans are squawking now because the post offices that they've mandated being shut down are being shut down in their own districts. I'm sure Obama had nothing to do with it but-- good move on his watch! Of the over 3,653 post offices being shuttered (one in 10) to save money (so the rich can have bigger tax cuts), 2,500 are in Republican congressional districts. The offices are being replaced by privatized services which conform with strict right-wing ideology.

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has stressed that politics played no role in determining which sites to shutter, noting that it adhered to a strict methodology for choosing them. The USPS used a computer program to select the offices on a range of factors, including revenue and workload.



The closures would save about $200 million annually for the ailing USPS, which has urged the end of its Saturday service.



Even though the closures would affect more Republican districts, a larger number of Democrats have spoken out against the USPS’ proposal.

Big surprise! Republicans would love to shut down the whole postal system and leave it to private enterprise. Ironically, the post office loses money because they are mandated-- by Congress-- to offer non-competitive rates for bulk mailing and non-profits. Yesterday's Wisconsin State Journal focused on one of the small town post offices being shut down in tiny Sextonville in Richland County. It's a Republican county. Last year it gave Scott Walker 53% of its vote and helped defeat Senator Russ Feingold by giving fanatic right-wing privatizer Ron Johnson 52%. Even the conservative Democratic congressman who represents the area, Ron Kind, was reelected without Richland County's vote. He got 47% to Dan Kapanke's 51%. The county has three state legislators, all Republicans. Get the picture? The residents, who did support Obama in 2008, should be rethinking their right turn about now. There's nothing left in Sextonville but the post office. It's one of the last meeting places for people who live there.

The school, grocery stores and gas station have been closed for years. There is no bar or restaurant, and the church and Odd Fellows Hall have been converted into apartments.



That leaves the post office, located in one of the former grocery store buildings, as the last public gathering spot in Sextonville.



...The Sextonville post office was established in 1849 and is among 41 in the state and 3,653 in the country that could be closed by the financially strapped U.S. Postal Service. The agency lost $8.5 billion last year, in large part because of the continued decline of first-class mail due to "digital alternatives." That's post office speak for more people paying their bills online and sending letters via email instead of in an envelope with a 44-cent stamp.



The Postal Service is studying the list of sites and is looking at revenue, expenses and proximity to other post offices, said Karen Cronin, a post office spokeswoman in Madison. Her agency receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies solely on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations, she said.



"We are looking at all avenues of reducing operating expenses," Cronin said. "There's really no definite time line, but, due to our financial situation, I expect it will be expedited."



The state has 764 post offices. Grant County has four on the study list, including Glen Haven, which has just 20 mailboxes. Woodford, in eastern Lafayette County about 10 miles west of Monroe, has 36 boxes. Others being considered for closure include Morrisonville in Dane County; Lowell in Dodge County; Marquette in Green Lake County; and Rewey in Iowa County.



I didn't visit those communities last week, but it's hard to imagine the feelings being any different than they are in Sextonville. Much like the trend of budget-challenged school districts closing small rural schools, the loss of a post office is also seen as a loss of identity.



If the Sextonville post office were to close, it would mean Randy Wilson, 53, would need to go elsewhere to buy money orders. A coin collector, he buys four or five money orders a week at the post office so he can buy primarily silver coins from sellers throughout the country.



"It's just real convenient," said Wilson, who often is accompanied by his black lab, Gage, on the short walk from his house. "I come up here every day."



Closure would mean residents here would need to put up mailboxes in front of their homes to send or receive mail but travel to an alternative location to buy stamps or other products. The Gotham post office is an almost 8-mile round trip, while the post office in Richland Center is a 14-mile round trip. However, stamps can be purchased at the Walmart Supercenter in Richland Center, which is a 9-mile round trip.



And what about the community bulletin board? Maybe it would remain where it is, on the stoop of the Sextonville post office, but who would take the time to stop if the post office closed.



The tack board last week advertised a flat-bottom boat for sale, a business card for "The Concrete Man," the 2010 consumer confidence report for the Sextonville Sanitary District, offers to baby-sit and mow lawns, and the sale of oak firewood for $75 a face cord-- but they would consider a trade for a lawn mower, with or without a plow.



Judy Loft, who works at Cairns Equipment, a local farm implement dealership on Highway 14, said the business mails 70 to 80 pieces on the 10th of each month and once a year has a mass mailing of 800 pieces. She enjoys coming to the post office but not just to do business.



"I like the people contact," Loft said. "I'm sure they're trying to find a way to save money, but there are other ways."

Perhaps Judy should ask state Senator Dale Schultz (R), and Assemblymen Travis Tranel (R) and Howard Marklein (R). Or maybe Senator Ron Johnson (R) or even Governor Walker (R). They're all enthusiastic proponents of an Austerity regime and are all perfectly happy to see the post office close if it means another nickel off the taxes of the millionaires and billionaires who finance their political careers.

The GOP Will Run On A Kill Medicare/Austerity Platform After All

Here's a reason for this!

Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousands words and the one above, should get across the point we're making this morning. Wednesday night, Sioban Hughes, writing for the Down Jones Newswires, hit the transom with these points from an interview Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor did in that day's Wall Street Journal, the parent company:

--Cantor: Government promises 'aren't going to be kept for many'

--Cantor: Younger Americans will have to adjust

--Cantor: Americans will see current cutbacks as paring back government waste

Republicans will continue a push to overhaul programs such as Medicare, saying in an interview that "promises have been made that frankly are not going to be kept for many" and that younger Americans will have to adjust.

"What we have to be, I think, focused on is truth in budgeting here," Cantor told the Wall Street Journal's Opinion Journal. He said "the better way" for Americans is to "get the fiscal house in order" and "come to grips with the fact that promises have been made that frankly are not going to be kept for many."

His comments suggest that Republicans are committed to overhauling entitlement programs such as Medicare even after President Barack Obama signed into law a debt package under which Medicare recipients weren't hit with direct cuts. Congress left Medicare recipients untouched directly in order to win enough Democratic votes for the debt package to become law.

But Republicans could make a new push to cut back on Medicare as the debt-reduction deal is implemented. The law initially provides for $917 billion in spending cuts over a decade, but a bipartisan committee of lawmakers must come up with a proposal by Nov. 23 to find an additional $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction. The panel's members--half of whom will be Republican lawmakers-- could try again to change Medicare.

"When we came out with our budget, we said, look, let's at least put people on notice, but preserve those who are 55 and older," Cantor said, referring to a Republican-written budget plan that would turn Medicare, now a fee-for-service program, into a program that subsidizes private health insurance. "The rest of us have got ample time to try and plan our lives so that we can adjust to reality here when you look at the numbers. Again the math doesn't lie."

So... voters completely rejected Paul Ryan's plan to kill Medicare-- you'll recall the election of Democrat Kathy Hochul in New York's mostly deeply red district (a district where Obama only managed to win 46%, his worst showing in the state)-- but the Ryan model is still what the GOP wants to hang its hat on going forward.

Or do they? Boehner and Cantor do. Ryan does. But their troops in the field? Tuesday Wisconsin state Senator Alberta Darling, not just a firm ally of Scott Walker's and the author of some of his most notorious anti-family legislation but a loud advocate for the Ryan budget, will be facing the voters in her recall election. She was considered a shoo-in... before she adopted Ryan's kill Medicare talking points. Wednesday she seemed to back away. Questioned by journalists in Milwaukee, Darling, whose polling has been trending down, said she now doesn't know enough of the details of Ryan's plan to endorse it-- though she already did-- but that she supports his "fiscal goals."

This is going to be the great debate that rages between now and 2012. Since Obama is totally conflicted and tied in knots, congressional Democrats have to make their own case that they are NOT the party of right-wing Austerity. Democrats are doing it quite well in Wisconsin. Tuesday will tell us a lot about how the rest of this election cycle plays out.

How Far Will Wisconsin Fascists Go To Win Next Tuesday?

They haven't been held accountable in the past... so why not try it again?

For many of Wisconsin's most vulnerable people, those thrown out of work by the failure of economic bets by Masters of the Universe they had nothing to do with, yesterday's biggest news was another attack on their ability to survive by Scott Walker and his zombie legislature. A week from today, thousands of voters in Wisconsin can go to the polls and turn their state back from Walker's overtly fascist path. That's next Tuesday-- and it's still not too late to lend a hand to progressives like Sandy Pasch running neck and neck with right-wing extremists like Alberta Darling. Yesterday Wisconsin Democratic Party chairman Mike Tate issued this statement:

"The six Republican recall senators need a heart and a lesson. That's because a week is a long time to wait for people who need to pay bills, who are suffering in Scott Walker's unemployment economy, who are up against the wreckage caused by Republican policies of reckless greed. Today, in one of the most heartless acts to have taken place in a season of heartless acts, Scott Walker's lapdogs in the Senate voted to make our state's job seekers wait a week until they are able to receive vital benefits to allow them to feed their families and clothe their children. What these six Republicans did is the ultimate act of kicking the unemployed while they're down."

Hard to imagine the Republicans could simultaneously be doing something even worse... but they are. (And I'm not even talking about burning down activists' headquarters in La Crosse to help the floundering Kapanke campaign.) Last week we mentioned that Scott Walker was on the fontlines-- leading the charge in fact-- in the ALEC plot against democracy itself. This week, his forces were on the rampage. The Koch Brothers' proto-fascist front group, the misnamed Americans For Prosperity, is sending out absentee ballots to Democrats with instructions to return them on August 11-- two days late. Here's what they've been sending to Wisconsin homes with registered Democrats, in order to undermine the campaigns of Shelly Moore and Nancy Nusbaum:


Democratic chairman Mike Tate, again:

"Scott Walker has sought the help of the corporate front group "Americans For Prosperity," and here they come with dirty tricks clearly meant to meddle in our elections and suppress votes against the Koch Brothers' agenda. Wisconsin's election authorities must stop the black hand of the corporate special interests and their front groups who are trying to strangle democracy in our state and support the six Republican senators now facing recall.

These six Republicans must immediately denounce the AFP scheme or it will signal to the public that they endorse the suppression of Wisconsin votes."

They filed a complaint with Wisconsin Government Accountability Board but what about the Justice Department? Does subverting democracy not rise to a serious enough offense for them? Many people think it is:

Americans for Prosperity is funded by David and Charles Koch, who funneled millions of dollars to Scott Walker and his radical allies. Walker’s allies have raised the specter of voter irregularity to further their agenda.

Make no mistake: This is voter suppression-- pure and simple. Americans for Prosperity must be taken to task for this disgusting, immoral, and anti-democratic behavior.

The battle against Big Business dominance is being fought on many fronts, even in Wisconsin. Yesterday, in explaining why he couldn't support Obama's anti-family deal with the GOP, Russ Feingold said "The debt ceiling deal should remove any doubt of the power corporate interests have over our government. That deal, hammered out by the president and Republican Congressional leaders, places the burden of reducing our long-term budget problems on average Americans, while the wealthiest individuals and corporations are given a free pass. Americans are willing to bear their share of the burden of addressing our nation’s long-term budget problems, but those sacrifices should be shared by all." Another front in the class war conservatives are waging against ordinary American families.

TPM speculates this morning that their may be catastrophic unintended consequences for Wisconsin from the abject surrender to the fascists by Obama and the Democrats yesterday.

[T]he perceived progressive failure in DC over the debt ceiling deal could snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in the wild and crazy Wisconsin recalls, leading to the kind of political domino effect left-leaning critics of the debt deal fear most.

Here's how the scenario works: as they're still licking their wounds from a national fight that in the eyes of many Democrats went the Tea Party's way, progressives in Wisconsin will be trying to pull out their voters for a round of recalls on August 9. That electorate could be underwhelmed now, folks familiar with the recalls say. And that could be the difference between flipping the Wisconsin state Senate away from Governor Scott Walker (R) and keeping it in Republican hands.

"There may be some who are sad to the point that they'll stay home," Charles Chamberlain, political director for Democracy for America, told TPM. DFA has spent well over a million dollars on the recall races, and expects to spend a lot more as the get-out-the-vote work begins in earnest.

The trouble is, Chamberlain said, the deal cut by President Obama and the Republicans to raise the debt ceiling has many of the same aspects as union-busting budget Walker passed through the Wisconsin legislature, firing up what has become one of the most active progressive battlefields in years.

"No real protections on entitlements. Dramatic cuts out of education. No shared sacrifice," Chamberlain rattled off. "That's exactly what happened in Wisconsin."

DFA's research has shown voters in the recalls motivated by cuts to programs like Medicare in Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-WI) House budget (which has been the subject of more than one ad the group has run in contest). Behind that, they're moved by the potential for cuts in education programs as well as policies that adversely affect the middle class workers like librarians and teachers.

Progressive critics have said the deal to raise the debt ceiling could have many of the same effects. And the fact that voters just watched Obama get behind the deal could have a chilling effect on turnout.

Or will Obama's Satan Sandwich have just the opposite effect? Or no effect at all. 7 days. Last minute help is welcome.

Will Progressives Abandon Obama... Even With Fascists Burning Down The Country (Literally)?

We have our own brand problems now

Earlier today, Digby started a brilliant post explaining what's gone down in the debt ceiling kabuki by quoting a jubilant George Will:

"Conservatives are saying it's imperfect, to which one must say, the Sistine Chapel is probably in some sense imperfect."

This morning Paul Krugman was on ABCNews with Christiane Amanpour. He'd sure make a better leader-- or poker player-- than Obama. He sees the same thing Will sees, although his reaction is more sympathetic to the victims of Austerity, most of us:

"From the perspective of a rational person-- in other words a progressive-- we shouldn't be talking about spending cuts at all now. We have 9% unemployment. These spending cuts are going to worsen unemployment. It's even going to hold the long-run fiscal picture because we have a situation where more and more people are becoming permanent long-term unemployed... We used to talk about the Japanese and lost decade. We'll look at them as a role model. They did better than we're doing. this is going to go on. I have nobody I know who thinks the unemployment rate will be below 8% at the end of next year. With the spending cuts it might be above 9% at the end of next year. There is no light at the end of this tunnel. We're having a debate in Washington, all about, 'Gee, we'll make the economy worse, but will we make it worse on 90% of the Republicans' terms or 100% of Republicans' terms?' The answer is 100%."

I'm a happy guy; I don't let things get me down. Nothing depresses me. Last night at dinner, 3 savvy progressives asked me what country I thought would be best to move to after the 2012 elections. (I lived in Europe during the Nixon/Vietnam War years.) I ain't movin' anywhere again. This time I'm staying and fighting.

Last night, right after the outline of Obama's complete surrender to the Far Right came out, someone tweeted that the White House was denying that there's a deal. Let me see if I can find it. Ah... there it is: a tiny little hope in the firestorm:


Turns out to be a false hope. As John Conyers pointed out, it was Obama who put Social Security cuts on the table for the corporate overlords, not the Republicans who want it so badly but are too (wisely) scared. And it's been Obama who has been feeding their hated anti-Medicare mania. Another scrap of hope-- a really far-fetched one this time:


Obama didn't win California's 55 electoral votes in 2010 because of the one I, on a leap of faith, cast for him. 8,274,473 Californians voted for him, more than 3 million the number who came out for John McCain. If Obama can't win California without my vote, he's not going to come close to winning in states he needs, like Ohio, Florida, Colorado, Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and New Hampshire. How many more progressive Democrats, like me, have made up their minds to withhold their votes from Obama next year-- not in California, where it is easy to take the high ground, but in the swing states, where an election is decided? Today's NY Times sees a problem with the base if Obama is really signing on to this dreadful deal the Republicans have forced him into. This morning Jackie Calmes wrote about the rightward tilt and the party rift.

However the debt limit showdown ends, one thing is clear: under pressure from Congressional Republicans, President Obama has moved rightward on budget policy, deepening a rift within his party heading into the next election.

Entering a campaign that is shaping up as an epic clash over the parties’ divergent views on the size and role of the federal government, Republicans have changed the terms of the national debate. Mr. Obama, seeking to appeal to the broad swath of independent voters, has adopted the Republicans’ language and in some cases their policies, while signaling a willingness to break with liberals on some issues.

That has some progressive members of Congress and liberal groups arguing that by not fighting for more stimulus spending, Mr. Obama could be left with an economy still producing so few jobs by Election Day that his re-election could be threatened. Besides turning off independents, Mr. Obama risks alienating Democratic voters already disappointed by his escalation of the war in Afghanistan and his failure to close the Guantánamo Bay prison, end the Bush-era tax cuts and enact a government-run health insurance system.

“The activist liberal base will support Obama because they’re terrified of the right wing,” said Robert L. Borosage, co-director of the liberal group Campaign for America’s Future.
But he said, “I believe that the voting base of the Democratic Party-- young people, single women, African-Americans, Latinos-- are going to be so discouraged by this economy and so dismayed unless the president starts to champion a jobs program and take on the Republican Congress that the ability of labor to turn out its vote, the ability of activists to mobilize that vote, is going to be dramatically reduced.”

Borosage is a friend of mine but I disagree with him. Members of he liberal activist base, or at least many of them, are abandoning Obama despite the false threat of BACHMANN!!!!!-- which the Republican Establishment will never let happen. Pawlenty was supposed to knock her out of the primaries in return for the Romney VP nomination. T-Paw turned out to be the biggest political dud since Fred Thompson... so they recruited Texas dullard, Rick Perry-- yes, dumber than Bush-- to do the job for them.

Obama, in his failed effort for greater deficit reduction, has put on the table far more in reductions for future years’ spending, including Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, than he did in new revenue from the wealthy and corporations. He proposed fewer cuts in military spending and more in health care than a bipartisan Senate group that includes one of the chamber’s most conservative Republicans.

To win approval of the essential increase in the nation’s $14.3 trillion borrowing ceiling, Mr. Obama sought more in deficit reduction than Republicans did, and with fewer changes to the entitlement programs, because he was willing to raise additional revenue starting in 2013 and they were not. And despite unemployment lingering at its highest level in decades, Mr. Obama has not fought this year for a big jobs program with billions of dollars for public-works projects, which liberals in his party have clamored for. Instead, he wants to extend a temporary payroll tax cut for everyone, since Republicans will support tax cuts, despite studies showing that spending programs are generally the more effective stimulus.

Even before last November’s election gave the Republicans control of the House, Mr. Obama had said he would pivot to deficit reduction after two years of stimulus measures intended first to rescue the economy and then to spur a recovery from the near collapse of the financial system. With Republicans’ gains in the midterm elections, that pivot became a lurch. Yet Congressional Republicans say Mr. Obama seeks a debt limit increase as “a blank check” to keep spending.

“The Republicans won, and they don’t know how to accept victory,” said Robert D. Reischauer, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office.

...“The president’s proposing cuts to Social Security and Medicare has the potential to sap the energy of the Democratic base — among older voters because of Medicare and Medicaid and younger voters because of the lack of jobs,” said Damon A. Silvers, policy director of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. “And second, all these fiscal austerity proposals on the table will make the economy worse.”

Mr. Obama’s situation has parallels with the mid-1990s, when President Bill Clinton shifted to the center after Republicans took Congress and battled them on deficit reduction and a welfare overhaul. Many Democrats were angered by his concessions, by a sense of being left out of negotiations and by a fear of alienating Democratic voters. Mr. Clinton was re-elected in 1996.

But Mr. Obama is likely to face the voters with a weaker economy and higher unemployment than during Mr. Clinton’s era. Still, his advisers express confidence that voters will reward Mr. Obama either for winning a bipartisan deal, if that were to happen, or for at least having a more balanced approach that does not remake Medicare and Medicaid and asks for more revenue from the wealthy. And they suggest another potential parallel with the Clinton years of divided government: that Republicans risk a voter backlash with their uncompromising stands.

There are going to be a lot of people aliented from "mainstream" politics now, even as the radical-- now fascist-- right turns more and more to crap like this:

Fire officials in La Crosse are continuing to investigate a Saturday blaze that destroyed the regional offices of We Are Wisconsin, a union political action committee (PAC) that has pumped millions of dollars into supporting Democratic candidates in the upcoming recall elections.

The La Crosse Tribune reports that the cause of the fire, which started at about 9:30 a.m., remains unknown. Firefighters thought they had the blaze under control in the afternoon, however, that wasn't the case and it continued into the evening, the newspaper reported.

We Are Wisconsin used the building at 432 Jay St. to oversee its efforts in the 32nd Senate District recall election, which will be held Aug. 9. Incumbent Republican state Sen. Dan Kapanke is being challenged by Democratic state Rep. Jennifer Shilling in that district.

A spokesman for the group told the La Crosse Tribune that the group's office was a total loss.
We Are Wisconsin is a political action committee made up by a coalition of unions that has spent more than $2 million supporting Democratic recall candidates around Wisconsin, according to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

Maine's Deranged Teabaggers Think They Can Be As Fascist As Wisconsin's Scott Walker

While most people were keenly focused on the hysterical games DC careerists and right-wing ideologues were playing with the threat of default, Wisconsin's fascist state government was sneaking through something all fascist state governments dream of-- a tactic urged on them by the Koch Brothers' ALEC-- self-perpetuation. Scott Walker's zombie legislature rushed through a bill to disenfranchise voters without very specific kinds of ID, and Walker signed it before the voters could replace six of his shill senators next month. And then-- surprise, surprise-- he closed down 10 DMV offices that issue the IDs... in Democratic areas.

Last November 38% of Maine voters elected a monkey as their governor, and he often tries finding the worst GOP precedents in other states to try out in Maine. So while Maine's GOP Chairman, Charlie Webster, was accusing Maine students of voter fraud-- ironically at the same time court records were showing how Ohio Republicans stole the 2004 presidential election for Bush using typical GOP election fraud-- it took Maine's longtime Congressman Mike Michaud to call the GOP on their anti-democratic agenda and fascist tactics. And he's decrying yet another Republican play on disenfranchising as many voters as possible, something conservatives have always favored since the founding of our Republic. My best pal, Roland, is from Auburn, so he still stays in touch with what's happening in Maine. He sent me this letter from Michaud Monday:

I wanted to take this opportunity to talk to you about a particularly important effort going on in Maine right now. For nearly forty years, Maine has allowed voters to register throughout the year including on Election Day. In that time, Maine has been among the top five states in voter participation, something we should be very proud of. A healthy, functioning democracy requires participation, and the more the better. A few months ago, the legislature narrowly passed a bill to prohibit registering to vote on Election Day and several days before. I can't say for sure why the legislature felt the need to enact this law, but I do know that in 2010 and 2008 nearly 78,000 Mainers registered to vote on Election Day. Most of these new registrants were un-enrolled, meaning not a member of either party. Under this new system, it doesn't matter how long you've lived in your town, how much you've paid in taxes or if you've even voted before. If you show up to the polls on Election Day and your name is not on the registration list, you will not be allowed to vote. That's not right, and that's not Maine.

There is currently an effort to put this important issue on the election ballot for referendum this coming November. It seems that something as fundamental as access to the ballot and voting rights should not be decided by a partisan vote in the legislature, but should be put before the voters. In order to qualify for the ballot, over 57,000 petition signatures need to be collected. There are teams of organizers across the state working to get the necessary signatures to allow Maine voters to decide. I would encourage Mainers of all political persuasions to get involved in this important effort to restore such a fundamental right for all of our citizens. You can click here to go to www.protectmainevotes.com to get involved. Thank you again for your help, and let's protect the rights of Maine voters.

Paul Ryan Presides Over Quickie Wisconsin Gerrymander To Save 3 GOP House Seats In Wisconsin

Scott Walker and his army of right-wing zombies in the Wisconsin Republican Party were eager to accomplish several things affecting elections before the recall votes expected to end his absolute power in Wisconsin by returning the state Senate to the Democrats. [Last night Democrat Dave Hansen routed Walker puppet David VanderLeest with a 66-34% landslide blowout.] First, they passed legislation that drastically reduces the number of people who will vote, targeting students, African-Americans, seniors and poor people, none of which are GOP constituencies. And now they have rushed through a plan to gerrymander the state's legislative and congressional districts by lumping as many Democrats as they could into as few districts as possible, leaving few contestable districts and as many GOP-leaning districts as they could.

Democrats say it's no coincidence that Republicans are trying to get new boundaries approved before the upcoming recall elections are held in nine state Senate districts.

Six Republican and three Democratic incumbent senators are on the recall ballot in August. If Democrats can pick up a net three seats, they would win control of the Senate.

Approving the GOP plan for legislative boundaries before those recall elections, however, would give Republicans a strong chance to regain control of the Senate in the 2012 elections.

The best example of how that scenario could play out is in the 8th Senate District, a seat now held by Republican Alberta Darling.

Under the Republican plan, the Village of Shorewood, which typically votes Democratic, would no longer be part of the 8th District. Instead, it would be lumped in with Milwaukee and the 4th Senate District, now represented by Sen. Lena Taylor (D-Milwaukee).

Without Shorewood, the 8th District would see a more suburban, more conservative constituency, stretching north into Grafton and as far west as the town of Erin in Washington County.

Currently, the district's western edge includes only parts of Menomonee Falls and Richfield.

The new boundaries should ensure an easy re-election for Darling in 2012 and beyond. And even if Darling were to be defeated by Democrat Sandy Pasch in an Aug. 9 recall election, Pasch would face an uphill re-election battle in the revamped district.

Last week, Pasch and five other Democrats who are running against Republican senators in primaries each faced a "fake Democrat"-- a candidate put up by Republicans to force a primary. That move delayed the general recall election from July to August.

While Republican party officials have said they fielded the fake Democrats to give incumbent GOP senators more time to campaign, Pasch doesn't think that's the case.

She believes the delay was designed to give Republicans the time they need to push through the redrawn legislative map.

“It became quite clear why they would want to delay the general election-- so they would have time to railroad this through,” Pasch said. “The fact that they are doing this in such an incredibly partisan way, without public input or deliberation, should not only be concerning to me but to people across the state.

"The thing I hear when I'm out talking to people is they want the parties to work together, to compromise. They don’t want this incredible divisiveness."

The redistricting would also make it more difficult for Pasch to win her Assembly seat if she fails in the recall election. She would be in a seat currently held by Republican Jim Ott of Mequon, and the new district would include an area that has traditionally voted Republican.

Paul Ryan directed the congressional level efforts and made sure that the 3 GOP-held seats that Obama won in 2008-- his own, Sean Duffy's and Tom Petri's-- would get more GOP areas and shed some Democratic areas.

In 2008 Ryan's district only gave McCain 48% of the vote (down from Bush's 54% in 2004). Petri's district also swung strongly towards the Democrats-- Bush won it with 56% in 2004 and McCain lost it 4 years later with 49%. Duffy's district has always been a blue-tinged district, Gore winning in 2000, Kerry winning in 2004 and Obama trouncing McCain 56-43%. All three districts will now have more Republicans and fewer Democrats. The Republican Ryan decided to leave to the fates is Green Bay based teabagger Reid Ribble, whose traditionally Democratic-leaning district remains so. Gore and Kerry took the district and Obama beat McCain 54-45%.

Ryan directed that Democrats in Duffy's district be dumped into the 3rd CD, which is represented by conservative Democrat Ron Kind, who will be happily unassailable by Republicans, while Duffy-- as well as Ryan and Petri-- will look pretty bulletproof. And with Republicans in charge of all three branches of government in Wisconsin, there is virtually nothing the citizens of that state can do, without a major partisan shakeup-- to put the breaks on this fascist takeover of the machinery of elections itself. The one hope will be an expected recall of Scott Walker in January, although even that will be put into jeopardy by the Republicans manipulating the timing so that the recall date is the same day as the Republican presidential primary.

Leading Wisconsin Dems are leaning towards a plan to ensure that the recall election against Walker is held on the same day as the November general election in 2012. This would ensure maximum turnout among Dems in the state, making Walker’s recall more likely, and provide a big boost in grassroots energy that could help Obama win a key swing state.

But Graeme Zielinski, a spokesman for Wisconsin Dems, tells me that party members have picked up private scuttlebutt from Republicans that they have another scheme in mind-- to ensure that the recall election is held on the same day in April as the GOP presidential primary.

“Democrats have privately spoken with top Republicans who think triggering a spring recall election is their best path to protecting Scott Walker and preserving his agenda,” Zielinski tells me, though he said the party was not publicly advocating for one route or the other.

Here’s the situation, in a nutshell: The date of the recall depends on when signature gathering for the election starts. If it starts this fall, just after the recalls against state senators wrap up, activists will have 60 days to collect the required signatures. If they succeed by the end of the year, Wisconsin officials very well may schedule the Walker recall to coincide with the next big statewide election: The GOP primary.

Yesterday, after the GOP rammed through their gerrymandering bill the state's Democratic Party chairman, Mike Tate, blasted them:

"The redistricting plan, conceived in darkness and bypassing Wisconsin's localities, violates our state's traditions and exposes Scott Walker, Paul Ryan and the rest of the Republican cadres for what they are: Tools of the special interests consumed with drawing all power unto themselves.

"The process and the map itself strikes against the democratic ideals that built our state and spurns more than a century of norms and standards meant so that Wisconsin's communities are represented properly. In their blind desire to accrue all power, this gang in Madison has set a terrible precedent. In less than 10 days, and with an infinitesimal amount of community input, they drew political maps meant to last 10 years.

"This redistricting will void the work already underway in local communities who expected a responsible Legislature, this redistricting will increase the divisive partisanship that has been Scott Walker's calling card, and this redistricting will go one more step into removing people from our government processes.

"The Republican legacy under Scott Walker rule continues to grow in ways that stain and offend our shared history. And today's shabby redistricting power grab should send another shock into the grasssroots recall movement that even now is mustering to take back Wisconsin."

Please visit Blue America's Beyond Recalls page if you'd like to help out our friends in Wisconsin. If last night is any indication, they are using the contributions REALLY well.

Sandy Pasch Pulls Out Ahead In Wisconsin

Early in June Wisconsin state Senator Chris Larson introduced Blue America to progressive Assemblywoman Sandy Pasch. As you can see, 99 of us have contributed to her campaign. Since then she has been steadily gaining on Scott Walker/Paul Ryan zombie Alberta Darling and in the latest polling has even pulled ahead of the longtime incumbent. The GOP threw up an obstacle-- a fake primary where she had to fight off a challenge by Gladys Huber, a longtime official of the Ozaukee County Republican Party, who ran as a "Democrat." Sandy wiped the floor with her, winning 67-33%. But the GOP wasn't counting on winning that one. They were counting on draining Sandy's resources before the real battle next month.

August 9th, Sandy will go head to head with Walker lieutenant Alberta Darling in the race that will decide whether Wisconsin keeps going down Walker's and ALEC's road towards fascism... or not. It's that important.

To keep her momentum going, Pasch needs, desperately needs, to stay on the air with her progressive message between now and August 9th. If you can help, even with $5 or $10, it could make a real difference, not just in Wisconsin's 8th Senatorial District but across America. You can contribute through ActBlue here.

Darling's and Walker's right-wing allies are already inundating the airwaves in the expensive Milwaukee suburbs with negative advertising. A memo from a Democratic strategist in Wisconsin warned, "Past challengers to Darling were doomed precisely because they could not regain their footing, or clear the air of smears, after Darling's preemptive and massive television attack campaign. By smartly choosing to dominate the airwaves early, Pasch was able to eliminate a double-digit gap in the course of less than two months, and establish a beachhead of support. However, this position can ONLY be sustained if Sandy Pasch is able to raise the resources necessary to counter the fury of attack ads that will soon be unleashed by Alberta Darling and her special interest allies."

They come.

Club for Growth, Americans For Prosperity, W.M.C.-- the rogues' gallery of radical conservative special interests understand that Pasch is a direct threat to their agenda, and are, as we speak, plotting to tear down Rep. Pasch in a campaign we have every reason to believe will be conducted through Milwaukee television and will shock the conscience.

That Pasch has been able to come within striking distance of Darling in this District has been a testament to the grassroots fervor that Walker and Darling have spurred, and to the excellence of Pasch's candidacy. But it is also a testament to the effectiveness of Pasch's "strike-first strategy"-- a strategy that has catapulted her into the lead. The resources that have girded the success of Pasch's insurgency, however, have limits. Without immediate assistance a golden opportunity to derail the runaway Scott Walker agenda will be lost.

No less than the majority of the state Senate hangs in the balance. Of all the Republican Senators, Darling is Walker's handmaiden above all others-- removing her from the Senate will be a major victory for us and a crushing blow to Scott Walker. It is our sincere belief that the only hope to sustain the gains achieved by Pasch is an immediate influx of resources.

Sandy Pasch can win. But she needs help to do so. Now.

One more time: the Blue America Wisconsin recall page.

Wisconsin... Microcosm?

Despite a barrage of right-wing money and a relentless robo-call campaign from Republican operatives in Virginia urging Democrats not to vote yesterday and despite Republicans claiming the polls would close early and all their normal voter discouragement schemes, all six Democrats beat the shill candidates the GOP put up against them in the primaries yesterday... by landslides. Despite the tremendous sums of money fascist interests like the Kochs poured into the races, grassroots efforts by ordinary working people pretty much matched or even beat the right-wing onslaught.

Democrat Nancy Nusbaum trounced Republican Otto Junkermann 65-35 and will now face off against recalled state Senator Robert Cowles.

Democrat Sandy Pasch beat Republican Gladys Huber 67-33 and will now face off against recalled state Senator Alberta Darling, the self-professed Paul Ryan wanna be.

Democrat Shelly Moore beat Republican Issac Weix 54-46 and will now face off against recalled state Senator Sheila Harsdorf.

Democrat Fred Clarke beat Republican Rol Church 67-33 and will now face off against recalled state Senator Luther Olsen.

Democrat Jennifer Shilling routed Republican James Smith 71-29 and will now face off against recalled state Senator Dan Kapanke, the incumbent most likely to lose next month. The last poll showed Kapanke trailing by 14 points.

Democrat Jessica King beat Republican John Buckstaff 69-31 and will now face off against recalled state Senator Randy Hopper, a notorious tax cheat (and "family values" adulterer). Take a look at the Hopper ad up top. It's the inspiration for the microcosm idea in the title.

What Scott Walker and his zombies are doing to Wisconsin is exactly what the GOP plans for all of us across the country. Late last night, before the national media was declaring the Republican dirty tricks had backfired and blown up in their faces, I spoke to a jubilant Chris Larson, one of the Democratic state senators who's been out front leading the efforts to stymie Walker's anti-family agenda. "Today," he told me, "was just a distraction by the Republicans in the hope that citizens wouldn't hold them accountable for turning their backs on the middle class. But we've proven that we're more determined than ever to restore the balance in our state. Wisconsin continues to stand up for what's right and we're asking the nation to stand with us on August 9th."

August 9th is the day of the actual general elections and the small contributions from grassroots donors everywhere is what helped the six progressives win yesterday. Please, even if it's just $5 or $10, dig deep one more time for a state fighting for it's life-- and ours.

Wisconsin Recall Voting Starts Tuesday With Fake Primaries

The first phase of voting in the Wisconsin recalls comes Tuesday... yes, this Tuesday, July 12. These will be the primaries the GOP forced by running fake candidates. A good example is in the Green Bay area where Democrat Nancy Nusbaum should be facing off against right-wing Republican incumbent Robert Cowles of Allouez. Instead the GOP has managed to insert former state Assemblyman Otto Junkermann, a Republican, onto the Democratic primary ballot. If Junkermann wins the primary, he admits he'll drop out of the race and give Cowles a free ride. The GOP did this in all six districts where Democrats are trying to replace Walker stooges. The other Republicans running in Democratic primaries are Gladys Huber opposing Sandy Pasch, Issax Weix opposing Shelly Moore, Rol Church opposing Fred Clarke, John Buckstaff, opposing Jessica King and James Smith opposing Jennifer Shilling.

The following week, July 19, voters in three districts held by Democratic senators will vote, one general and two primaries. On August 9 the general elections in the first six races, where Democrats are challenging Republicans, will be held and a week later, August 16, the remaining 2 general elections take place. It's a mess that few voters understand-- which is exactly what the GOP was counting on when they did everything in their power to make it a mess.

In all, there are 6 Republican tools of Scott Walker with enough petition signatures to be recalled and there are also three Democrats with the requisite number of signatures. Neither of the two most hated politicians in Wisconsin are on the ballot, not Governor Scott Walker nor Congressman Paul Ryan. But, as you can see from these brand new videos from Sandy Pasch's campaign (the one up top and this one below), the Walker/Ryan essence is exactly what these elections are all about. Sen. Alberta Darling is an especially vehement supporter of both Walker and Ryan.



August 9 is d-day, though-- the day many Wisconsin voters will decide if their state is going to continue down a fascistic path or turn around and embrace democracy again. Blue America has a page dedicated to that day and our six progressive candidates will need all the help they can get between now and... 30 days from now. Even a $5 or $10 contribution, aggregated with lots of other $5 and $10 contributions, could make the difference. And then we'll deal with Scott Walker and with Paul Ryan after that, Walker with a January recall effort and Ryan when we replace him in November 2012 with Rob Zerban.



UPDATE: More GOP Dirty Tricks

Greg Sargent also covered the Wisconsin recalls today. In his Washington Post column he pointed out that "allies of Wisconsin Republicans are growing so desperate that they’re resorting to sleazy dirty tricks in their last-ditch bid to help the GOP hang on to the state senate." He also pointed out that Republicans are allowed to vote in Democratic primaries and are expected to turn out on Tuesday and vote for the fake candidates.

Allies of one of the top GOP targets in the recalls, state senator Randy Hopper, are circulating flyers in his district trying to get out the vote for the fake Dem in the Democratic primary against his Dem opponent.

You can view the flyer, which was found and passed along by We Are Wisconsin, right here. It urges voters to go out to the polls to vote for one John Buckstaff against the real Democrat, Oshkosh deputy mayor Jessica King, a strong candidate against the vulnerable Hopper.

The flyer is the work of a group that calls itself “Patriot Advisors,” which is registered as an opponent of the real Dem, Jessica King, and an ally of the fake Dem candidate, John Buckstaff, the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board tells me.

Buckstaff, even though he’s running in a Dem primary, is an 81 year old Republican and donor to ... GOP state senator Randy Hopper.

And here’s the real rub-- the flyer is geared towards getting Republican voters to go out and vote in the Dem primary. It does this by claiming that real Dem Jessica King is a union stooge and that Buckstaff will “roll up his sleeves and work with Governor Walker to eliminate special privileges for government unions.” This, in a Dem primary!

For Wisconsin GOP allies, this takes tampering in Dem primaries to a whole new level.

What's the difference between "Republican allies" and Republican scumbaggers? I'm guessing it's just something the Post's lawyers insist on.

Whose Side Is Ron Johnson On?

During his campaign for the Senate last year, Wisconsin right-wing extremist and multimillionaire Ron Johnson made it clear his vision of America was made in China. And, as you can see here, after China itself got one of several senators, Johnson promised the people of Wisconsin to put his finances into a blind trust after news broke that he-- with his massive holdings of BP stock in his portfolio-- had been defending the company on the campaign trail. That was a year ago this week. He still hasn't done so. Instead, he gave himself a $10 million bonus check after the campaign, an arrangement that more than covers, quite illegally, the millions of his own money he spent on his campaign.

But Johnson is far from the first U.S. Senator who has put his own financial interests ahead of his constituents-- nor is he the first right-wing fanatic to put another country's interests ahead of the U.S.'s. As I was flying from Bangkok to Hong Kong this morning, I was reading in Glen Yeadon's Nazi Hydra in America about two right-wing Members of Congress, Mississippi Democrat John Rankin, a dedicated KKK sociopath, and Michigan Republican George Dondero, who served the interests of the Nazis even after the U.S. military defeated Germany! Both were rabid anti-Semites.

First a little background from Yeadon, writing about the demise of the country's intelligence service, the OSS, at the hands of the triumphant Republican rightists in the 1946 congressional elections.

In March 1946 while McCormack struggled for funding from congress, the chairman of the House Military Affairs Committee charged that a person with strong Soviet leanings had joined the State Department. McCormack demanded a retraction. Instead, congress cut the entire appropriation for his unit. The pro-fascist faction within the State Department had convinced enough influential congressmen that ex-OSS officers were far to the left and committed to a socialization of America and the redistribution of wealth on a global basis.

By mid 1946, Donovan’s OSS had been completely dismantled. The United States would be without an intelligence service. At first, it was suggested that private enterprise could provide the government with intelligence. A former OSS Deputy Director proposed to Watson of IBM the formation of a private intelligence service. The two men raised the initial venture capital. The venture was in vain as President Truman and congress created the CIA in 1947.

In the short space of a year, the government had dissolved the OSS only to recreate it under a new name. This wasn’t a case of a vacillating government. If President Truman had not signed the executive order dissolving the OSS, congress would simply have eliminated any funding for it as it did to the remnants of it in the State Department.

The disbanding of the OSS had an express purpose. The leftists within the OSS would serve as the sacrificial lambs to atone du Pont’s new feckless goddess on the altar of free enterprise. Those that had served their country gallantly during war and who were dedicated to stomping out the last vestige of fascism would now become victims to the fascists within the United States. The American industrialists who willingly supported Hitler during the war had to be protected... In 1946, the Republicans gained control of both chambers of congress. The stage was now set for a wholesale purging of the government of leftists who were dedicated to wiping out fascism.

... While there were members like Morgenthau in the Truman administration who carried on the fight for justice, the Nazis had powerful friends in the halls of Congress to protect them. One such congressman was John Rankin. Excerpts from his speech to the House of Representatives on November 27, 1947 follows below:

"What is taking place at Nuremberg, Germany, is a disgrace to the United States. Every other country has now washed its hands and withdrawn from this Saturalia of persecution. But a racial minority, two and half years after the war closed, are in Nuremberg not only hanging German soldiers but trying German businessmen in the name of the United States."

Note Rankin used the words racial minority to refer to Jews in the above quote. Rankin’s racism and pro-fascist allegiance was already presented in previous chapters. Rankin was not alone in Congress in opposing the trials. George Dondero, Republican representative from Michigan, was another. Dondero was a former mayor of Royal Oak, Michigan, before being elected to the House. Royal Oak was the home of the pro-Nazi priest Father Coughlin and a hotbed for pro-Nazi groups. Dondero described the trials as a result of Jewish and communist treachery. He singled out ten lawyers from the I.G. Farben case including the leading prosecutor Josiah DuBois whom he called a known left-winger from the Treasury Department who had been a student of the Communist Party. Dondero became something of an art critic in the late 1940s and 1950s, dismissing modern art as communist inspired. He labored to censor the worked of abstract artists.

Also, based in Dondero’s district was Dow Chemical. Dow had several cartel arrangements with I.G. Farben and feared that the trial could lead to exposing its full collaboration with I.G and the Nazis.

Today Dondero has a high school named after him in Royal Oak, Michigan. He's even better known as a critic of modern art than as an agent of fascism; same mentality though. According to Wikipedia he asserted that "Cubism aims to destroy by designed disorder... Dadaism aims to destroy by ridicule... Abstractionism aims to destroy by the creation of brainstorms" (CR 16 August 1949; 81st Congress 1st Session, Speech in US House of Representatives). In 1952, Dondero went so far as to tell Congress that modern art was, in fact, a conspiracy by Moscow to spread communism in the United States. This speech won him the International Fine Arts Council's Gold Medal of Honor for "dedicated service to American Art." Rankin remained the most outspoken racist and anti-Semitic fanatic in Congress until he was finally defeated by Thomas Abernathy in 1952.

Ron Johnson is just a freshman, but I suspect he will do a lot more harm than either Dondero or Rankin.

As crunch time approaches, don't forget the unfinished business in Wisconsin

No, there's nothing to click here. But if you go to DFA and PCCC's "Call Out the Vote" webpage, you can follow all the above steps. And of course you can contribute to the individual candidates on Blue America's Beyond Recalls page.

Probably a lot of you got this e-mail from Kaili Lambe, political campaign manager
 of Democracy for America (DFA), which has teamed with the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) to support the Democratic challengers in the upcoming recall elections for the Wisconsin state senators who have enabled Wisconsin's ultra-right tsar, er, governor, Scott Walker, to turn the state into the private preserve of plutocratic right-wing benefactors like the Koch brothers. If you haven't read it, I think you should, and if you have, and haven't taken action yet, then let this serve as a reminder. -- Ken

When Scott Walker launched his attack on working families in February, something incredible happened -- people from all over Wisconsin descended on Madison to stand up for their communities. Inspired by their energy, I watched what was happening in Wisconsin and wished I could be there. Did you feel the same way?

Now with several recall elections later this summer, we have the opportunity to show Walker and the Wisconsin Republicans what happens when they attack working families -- we fight back and win.

Democracy for America and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee are launching our Call Out the Vote program this Thursday so that progressives all over the country can talk to Wisconsin voters about the importance of these elections. Will you join me in making calls from your home for two hours this Thursday?

Yesterday, news broke that one of the Republicans challenging a Democratic incumbent failed to collect enough valid signatures to get on the ballot. We have the momentum, but we need to make sure voters know about the election.

Wisconsin was the first of many states to take up anti-worker legislation, but it's not the only one. That's why it's vital we win right now. Because once we stop them in Wisconsin, we'll stop them in Ohio, Michigan, and across the nation.

If we turn out the vote in these recall elections, we will win -- can you help by signing up for a two hour phone shift?

Thanks for everything you do.

Kaili Lambe, Political Campaign Manager

Democracy for America

Yes, I can call this Thursday!
Yes, I can call this Sunday!

I can't make calls this week, but I can chip in $5 to recall the WI Republicans.

AND DON'T FORGET TO CHECK OUT BLUE
AMERICA'S "BEYOND RECALLS" PAGE . . .

. . . to learn more about the Democratic candidates seeking to replace the Wisconsin Senate Republican sludge, and while you're there you can think about contributing to their campaigns.

#