Scott Walker recall takes an unexpected turn.

[kaylasdad99]

@Terr

Do you vote the way you do because of the political advertising you see? Does elucidator? Do you think any of the people who post on political topics on this board do?

If not, then guess what - money neither talks nor votes in our cases.

I do not cast my vote based on political advertising I see. I’m not prepared to offer an opinion on any other specific voters.

However, I am even less prepared to speculate that no one does. Were that the case, the manufacture and dissemination of political advertising material would not be lucrative enough to sustain an industry to the degree that it would even generate much conversation here.

And I don’t quite see what point you’re attempting to make with your “in our cases” qualifier.

[Terr]

@kaylasdad99

I do not cast my vote based on political advertising I see. I’m not prepared to offer an opinion on any other specific voters.

However, I am even less prepared to speculate that no one does. Were that the case, the manufacture and dissemination of political advertising material would not be lucrative enough to sustain an industry to the degree that it would even generate much conversation here.

And I don’t quite see what point you’re attempting to make with your “in our cases” qualifier.

Because this is a typical “big daddy” liberal argument. “I, of course, am not affected by political advertising, but those unwashed masses, they are so stupid and easily swayed, they have to be protected from their own stupid decisions”.

[elucidator]

I’m always affected. Sometimes I laugh, frequently I curse, sometimes I want to reach into Karl Rove’s chest and pull out his heart and feed it to the neighbor’s dog. Hate that fucking dog.

[FE3O4ENAIL]

Driving down highway Y in Sheboygan county yesterday I saw two Walker signs, one on each side of the road. Someone had chosen that exact spot to dump a bag of garbage.

Most garbage is dumped far from country homes, as the worthless weasels who do it don’t want to be caught.

Three cheers for the brave anti-Walker folk.

[FE3O4ENAIL]

While I am praising the people with a better world view, the teachers who called in sick to go protest in Madison deserve mention. “The children” are their main concern. We must do things for the children.

They are given the choice of maintaining the staffing levels at their schools by paying into their pension fund , or cutting staff to keep the paycheck the same.
They choose to not contribute and have staff cut.
What happened to your concern for “the children”?

[Chronos]

They are given the choice of maintaining the staffing levels at their schools by paying into their pension fund , or cutting staff to keep the paycheck the same.
They choose to not contribute and have staff cut.
What happened to your concern for “the children”?

If they starve, the children will be screwed.

Next question?

[FE3O4ENAIL]

@Chronos

If they starve, the children will be screwed.

Next question?

My SIL is a Sheboygan Area School District teacher. She gets over $45 k for nine months of work. Does that sound like starvation level compensation?

[elucidator]

State legislator in Wisconsin makes just shy of fifty grand. Plus perks.

…Representatives elected or re-elected in the fall of 2008 received an annual salary of $49,943.
In addition to their salaries, Representatives outside Dane County may receive up to $88 a day each in living expenses while they are in Madison on state business. Members of the Dane County delegation are allowed up to $44 each in expenses.

Each Representative also receives $75 per month in “out-of-session” pay when the Legislature is in session for three days or less.
Over two years, each representative is allotted $12,000 to cover general office expenses, printing, postage and district mailings…

• Wiki, natch

Just sayin’, is all.

[BrainGlutton]

@elucidator

State legislator in Wisconsin makes just shy of fifty grand. Plus perks.

• Wiki, natch

Just sayin’, is all.

Tax-fattened hyenas! :mad:

[kaylasdad99]

@Terr

Because this is a typical “big daddy” liberal argument. “I, of course, am not affected by political advertising, but those unwashed masses, they are so stupid and easily swayed, they have to be protected from their own stupid decisions”.

:rolleyes:

That’s really all the response that’s appropriate (not to minimize the perspicacity of luci’s comment, of course).

[BigAppleBucky]

The Walker campaign has gone filthy dirty.

From: ‘WI@obamasaliar.com’
Message: Union Puppet Tom Barrett is a Union Puppet who will give Union Thugs everything they want. Call & ask why 414-271-8050.

I have not called the number nor was I the one to receive the dirt-spam text message.

Edit:

Just did a Google lookup of the number - it’s “Friends of Barrett.”

[BrainGlutton]

@BigAppleBucky

The Walker campaign has gone filthy dirty.

From: ‘WI@obamasaliar.com’
Message: Union Puppet Tom Barrett is a Union Puppet who will give Union Thugs everything they want. Call & ask why 414-271-8050.

I have not called the number nor was I the one to receive the dirt-spam text message.

Edit:

Just did a Google lookup of the number - it’s “Friends of Barrett.”

I called it and got a voicemessage: “Thank you for calling Friends of Tom Barrett. We are unable to take your call. Please leave a message.” I didn’t.

[elucidator]

“Union thugs”. The nostalgia. When I was a much younger fool, studying for admission to the penitentiary, the “union thug” was a staple of editorial cartooning. The label would say “Big Labor”, it would depict a swarthy, cigar-chomping and vaguely ethnic character. I’m guessing most of you don’t remember that, since you didn’t go to high school with God. (What a dick, by the way. Didn’t give Him your lunch money, you got smote…)

[BrainGlutton]

@elucidator

“Union thugs”. The nostalgia. When I was a much younger fool, studying for admission to the penitentiary, the “union thug” was a staple of editorial cartooning. The label would say “Big Labor”, it would depict a swarthy, cigar-chomping and vaguely ethnic character. I’m guessing most of you don’t remember that, since you didn’t go to high school with God. (What a dick, by the way. Didn’t give Him your lunch money, you got smote…)

There was a time long ago, and probably before your time or God’s, when American labor unions had thugs; but I think the preferred terminology was “goons.”

[Happy_Lendervedder]

If we actually *had *goons or thugs these days, my job wouldn’t be so dang hard.

[BigAppleBucky]

According to one poster here and Think Progress.Org, the Barrett phone line is tied up indicating this was an organized dirty trick to tie-up the Barrett campaign phone lines to slow down the get out the vote effort.
http://thinkprogress.org/

The Bush 43 White House used a similar tactic against Democrats in New Hampshire in 2002:

White House Implicated in NH Phone Jamming Case

Key figures in a phone-jamming scheme designed to keep New Hampshire Democrats from voting in 2002 had regular contact with the White House and Republican Party as the plan was unfolding, phone records introduced in criminal court show.

Could Americans for Prosperity be behind the effort? Remember this one?
http://www.politico.com/blogs/davidcatanese/0811/AFP_Wisconsin_ballots_have_late_return_date.html?showall

Americans for Prosperity is sending absentee ballots to Democrats in at least two Wisconsin state Senate recall districts with instructions to return the paperwork after the election date.

Republicans talk a good game about playing fair when it comes to scrubbing Democratic voters off registered voting rolls and preventing scarcely ever seen voter fraud, but when push comes to shove, the GOP is by far the leader in dirty tricks.

[BrainGlutton]

@BigAppleBucky

According to one poster here and Think Progress.Org, the Barrett phone line is tied up indicating this was an organized dirty trick to tie-up the Barrett campaign phone lines to slow down the get out the vote effort.
http://thinkprogress.org/

. . . And I went and contributed to the effort. :o

[Chronos]

Americans for Prosperity is sending absentee ballots to Democrats in at least two Wisconsin state Senate recall districts with instructions to return the paperwork after the election date.

I still can’t understand how this isn’t a felony. We don’t need slap-on-the-wrist fines for this kind of behavior; we need jail time.

[BrainGlutton]

@Chronos

I still can’t understand how this isn’t a felony. We don’t need slap-on-the-wrist fines for this kind of behavior; we need jail time.

I think it’s pretty clear by now that RWs/Pubs place little to no civic value on voter turnout as such. They seem to have internalized the narrative of the late Paul Weyrich:

@Paul Weyrich

How many of our Christians have what I call the goo-goo syndrome? Good government.

They want everybody to vote!

I don’t want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people, they never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now.

As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as voting populace goes down.

Anyone care to argue that Pubs/RWs in general have not adopted this attitude? Or that it is a defensible one?

[BrainGlutton]

More on the Walker-Barrett debate:

During this campaign, Walker and his supporters have been harshly critical of those who have sought to recall and remove the governor and his political allies. Though the Wisconsin Constitution is absolutely clear that the reasons for recall elections are to be defined by those who seek them—as opposed to the politicians who would like to restrict the scheduling of accountability votes—the Walker camp has claimed that the recall is an expensive and unnecessary political gambit.

Barrett challenged this spin with a suggestion that Walker is a recall hypocrite.

Referring to Walker during the debate, Barrett said: “He has signed recall petitions, it’s my understanding, against Senator Feingold, against Senator Kohl, not for criminal misbehavior, but because he disagreed with political decisions that were made.”

Walker did not respond immediately. But the next day the governor said, “I have no memory” of signing on for the recall of the Democratic senators when they were targeted in 1997 by anti-abortion groups.

Since organizers of the Feingold-Kohl recall effort say they’re unaware of whether Walker signed, and since the old petitions have been destroyed, this particular debate may remain unresolved.

But there is no question that Scott Walker has spoken enthusiastically about the use of the recall power. Indeed, he attained his previous position as Milwaukee County executive in large part because of a recall initiative. And that initiative clearly delighted him.

Back when he was a state legislator, Walker was an enthusiastic proponent of recall elections—especially in Milwaukee County.

Walker got even more enthusiastic about recalls in 2002, when he became the favored candidate of the group seeking to remove Milwaukee County Executive Tom Ament. After Ament resigned, Walker was elected to replace him.

When he ran for governor in 2010, Walker talked up the 2002 recall drive as an exercise in democracy.

Speaking of the Milwaukee County fight, Walker said: “You know the folks that were angry about this started a recall and they were told they needed to collect 73,000 signatures in sixty days. Well, not hundreds, not thousands, but tens of thousands of ordinary people did an extraordinary thing. They stood up and took their government back. In less than thirty days they collected more than 150,000 signatures. It was at that moment I realized the real emotion on display in my county wasn’t just about anger. You see, if it had been about anger, it would have been about people checking out and moving out or giving up. But instead what happened was really amazing. You saw people standing up shoulder to shoulder, neighbor to neighbor and saying ‘we want our government back’ And in doing so the real emotion on display was about hope.”