Skip to main content

Walker Dictates

Two hours ago Wisconsin's Legislative Bureau published the law stripping collective bargaining rights from most public employees in Wisconsin, a law passed in a session marked by irregularities, and now, even though the law has been placed on hold by a judge until it is reviewed, Wisconsin Republicans are claiming that it's publication means it will take affect.  Wisconsin legal procedures require new laws to be publicized in a legal ad in the newspaper by the State Secretary of State.

The Secretary of State, Doug La Follette has been ordered by Judge Maryann Sumi of Dane County Circuit Court in Madison not to publish the law until hearings on it's legality are held. the same order blocked any further implementation of the law, which by implication could be construed as blocking the publishing of it legislatively in spite of a normal ten day printing rule.

 Public employee union leader Marty Bell said of the Governor and the President of the State Senate,"They're drunk with some kind of power or misconception of reality."  The primary issue on the legality of the law is that the Wisconsin Open Meetings Law requires 24 hours notice before a vote on a bill occurs, while only ten minutes notice was given, and requires the chamber to be open to the public, while in fact the doors of the building were sealed and police kept the public out.  If Wisconsin State government goes ahead with implementing the law tomorrow the stage is set for a head on confrontation with the judicial branch of government, and for another round of protests.  The protests had already grown to over 85,000

Comments

  1. This just in: Also just 3 hours ago another chilling story out of Wisconsin has broken. The Republican Party of Wisconsin has filed an open records request in court for the private emails of a professor, William Cronon, known to highly critical of the Walker regime. These records, should they be obtained, will presumably be turned over to some sort of... well maybe not - they don't have secret police in Wisconsin yet

    ReplyDelete
  2. While we are on the topic of emails, the deputy prosecutor of Johnson County, Wisconsin, Carlos Lam, has resigned after admitting that he sent email to the Gov. suggesting faking violence that could be blamed on unions and there supporters. Kind of life burning the Riechstagg and blaming it on the anarchists.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wither Goes the Corn?

One of the most under played news stories in the national media right now is the potential impact of the mid-western drought on food security in the United States.  According to Forbes 75% of food on supermarket shelves has corn in it.  Having already destroyed, stunted or delayed much of the corn crop, the heat is now working it's way on the soybean crop.  The Agriculture Dept conservative estimate is that food prices will rise by 3-4% this year as a result.  However this is based on the current, incomplete assessment of the drought's impact on corn and other crops.This drought is a new phenomenon-- a global warming drought based on fundamental alteration of weather patterns.  Already about one quarter of the country is in severe drought. Other estimates of potential price impacts range as high as 15% and the latent fear that eventually, for a time, the U.S. may become a net importer of food may play havoc with the crop futures market.  Food inflation ...

Just War and Just a War

One of the thorniest problems man face is when, if every is war justified.  The bible says there is a time for war and a time for peace, but that could be just a bow to the inevitability of war in the fallen world.  If also says that they will beat there swords into plough shares and study war no more.  Dorothy Day, Peter Maurin, William Miller and other Catholic Workers often ascribed to pacifism or near total pacifism face with the near impossibility of every untangling the moral consequences of violence from the ends desired in undertaking it. But St. Augustine, faced with a world where Christians were starting to replace pagans as political leaders and Christians we soldiers in obedience to the leaders tried to come up with criteria by which war could be measured.   Augustine knew that the Gospel question on it was complex.  One the one hand Jesus told people to turn the other  cheek and also told Peter to put away his sword and not defe...