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Scott Walker's Divide-and-Conquer Strategy Is "The New Model for the Country" | Mother Jones

sarahlee310:

Coming soon to your state: The anti-union, education-cutting, free-market-leaning, divide-and-conquer playbook of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.

According to a leading conservative activist, the Walker agenda in Wisconsin is the new conservative game plan for all states in the union. That was the key message delivered at a rally Friday evening in Madison by Tim Phillips, national president of Americans for Prosperity, the conservative nonprofit started with money from the billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch. “The Wisconsin approach to changing and making state government better is the new model for the country,” he said. “You are the model for the country.”

I pray Wisconsin shows the nation that this is not the direction we want our nation to go.

Walker recall election Tuesday:you can help! This is a race that will come down to turnout — The final Public Policy Polling count ahead of tomorrow’s recall election shows a slight Walker lead in a race that’s tightening up in the final hours. […] If the folks who turn out on Tuesday actually matched the 2008 electorate, Barrett would be ahead of Walker by a 50-49 margin. It’s cliche but this is a race that really is going to completely come down to turnout. Needless to say, if you’d like to help out with turning out the vote, you can help out with phone banking here. Today’s the day we need you to help. It’s crunch time, and you can make calls from your own home. It’s easy and simple. This race is winnable, folks. Fire Walker with me. — Balloon Juice
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Walker recall election Tuesday:you can help! This is a race that will come down to turnout — The final Public Policy Polling count ahead of tomorrow’s recall election shows a slight Walker lead in a race that’s tightening up in the final hours. […] If the folks who turn out on Tuesday actually matched the 2008 electorate, Barrett would be ahead of Walker by a 50-49 margin. It’s cliche but this is a race that really is going to completely come down to turnout. Needless to say, if you’d like to help out with turning out the vote, you can help out with phone banking here. Today’s the day we need you to help. It’s crunch time, and you can make calls from your own home. It’s easy and simple. This race is winnable, folks. Fire Walker with me. — Balloon Juice

Romney economics: when a fair wage for American workers is considered ‘greed’

Fox News and Mitt Romney, as representatives for the one percent, rely on the Republican base voters to be not only dumb and uninformed, but self-hating as well. How else do you explain support (by people who aren’t wealthy) for the idea that fair wages and benefits for working Americans is “greed”? This morning, Ed Gillespie, an adviser to Mitt Romney, told Fox News host Chris Wallace that Scott Walker winning in Wisconsin would mean:

“I think the statement to big labor and to big government employee unions, government worker unions is that you can’t be too greedy,” Gillespie explained. “You need to understand that times are tough and a lot of these legacy costs that you imposed are due for some reforms and some restructuring.”

It’s interesting that Romney’s adviser calls it ‘greed’ when unions and workers want to preserve their wages and benefits. Especially when you consider the tactics ofvulture capitalism, practiced by Mitt Romney during his time at Bain Capital, on long-term employees of companies acquired by Bain (fire them, hire some back at lower wages). Support for this kind of thinking will turn us into a third-world economy yet. Here’s proof: the WSJ reported this week that flat wages in the US are helping a manufacturing rebound:

The wage lag is a key factor contributing to the rebounding competitiveness of U.S. industry. A recent uptick in factory employment and the return of some production to U.S. shores from abroad both added jobs that probably otherwise wouldn’t exist. But sluggish wages also are squeezing workers’ incomes and spending. That, in turn, hurts retailers who target middle-income earners and restrains the vigor of the economic recovery. “The U.S. has held manufacturing wages in check while there has been strong wage growth in China and moderate wage growth in Mexico,” says economist Gordon Hanson of the University of California, San Diego, referring to two of the U.S.’s biggest lower-wage competitors.

China and Mexico’s wages are growing while U.S. wages are shrinking. Apparently that’s the only way corporations who got rich on American soil are willing to bring jobs back to American soil. Soon everyone will have a job, if they’re not too “greedy” and are willing to work for $1.00 a day.

Oh, and of course this is not greed.

Scott Walker mistakenly admits that he is a target in the John Doe criminal corruption probe

Walker, in a rare moment of candor, stated to reporters that he would not use the criminal defense fund to pay for the legal defenses of his aides, who have been charged with crimes ranging from child enticement, to theft from veterans and the families of fallen soldiers, to misuse of taxpayer resources to illegally campaign for Scott Walker, and would instead use the funds for himself or his campaign. Wisconsin law is very clear: an elected official can only establish a legal defense fund if they, or their agent, are under investigation for, charged with, or convicted of violations of Wisconsin’s campaign finance and election laws. Nothing provides for an elected official creating a legal defense fund for the sole purpose of campaign compliance, assisting the prosecution or aiding an investigation, as Scott Walker claims he is doing. Since he is not paying for the defense of an agent acting on his behalf, it is now clear that Scott Walker is under investigation. – Wisconsin Politics

  • “I have a police department that arrests felons. He has a practice of hiring them.” — Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Tom Barrett (D),quoted by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, bringing up an ongoing secret investigation of Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) aides in last night’s debate. via 
Maddow: Union-busting about making Wisconsin permanently Republican— “Killing the unions is the strategy for turning Wisconsin red, not just for now, but for generations to come in an irreparable way,” she said. “This is about partisan politics. It is about destroying Democrats’ chances of competing with Republicans.” Maddow noted that while Republican candidates are disproportionately funded by corporate and pro-business groups, Democratic candidates are disproportionately funded by public service unions — the very unions that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker targeted in his budget repair bill. “It’s not about some year’s budget, it is not even about jobs,” Maddow continued. “Since he wiped away union rights in Wisconsin, Scott Walker has racked up the single worst jobs records in the entire country.” – Raw Story
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Maddow: Union-busting about making Wisconsin permanently Republican— “Killing the unions is the strategy for turning Wisconsin red, not just for now, but for generations to come in an irreparable way,” she said. “This is about partisan politics. It is about destroying Democrats’ chances of competing with Republicans.” Maddow noted that while Republican candidates are disproportionately funded by corporate and pro-business groups, Democratic candidates are disproportionately funded by public service unions — the very unions that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker targeted in his budget repair bill. “It’s not about some year’s budget, it is not even about jobs,” Maddow continued. “Since he wiped away union rights in Wisconsin, Scott Walker has racked up the single worst jobs records in the entire country.” – Raw Story

The DNC / @DWStweets responds to complaints about Scott Walker Recall Election June 5 — Following a report that the Democratic Party of Wisconsin is “furious” with the Democratic National Committee for not pouring more money into the Scott Walker recall effort, DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz will visit Wisconsin this month to campaign with Walker’s challenger — but there’s still no indication that the Wisconsinites can expect more help than that. […] “We are confident that they will be here for us,” said Wisconsin Democratic Party spokesman Graeme Zielinski when asked if the visit meant more monetary support from the DNC. — Buzzfeed

(Source: underthemountainbunker.com)

RECALL ELECTION JUNE 5: The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has not invested heavily into the recall elections against Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R), according to an anonymous Wisconsin Democratic party official. […] “We are frustrated by the lack of support from the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Governors Association,” the official said. “Scott Walker has the full support and backing of the Republican Party and all its tentacles. We are not getting similar support.” – Raw Story  Contact the DNC
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RECALL ELECTION JUNE 5: The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has not invested heavily into the recall elections against Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R), according to an anonymous Wisconsin Democratic party official. […] “We are frustrated by the lack of support from the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Governors Association,” the official said. “Scott Walker has the full support and backing of the Republican Party and all its tentacles. We are not getting similar support.” – Raw Story 

Contact the DNC

Scott Walker: divide and conquer

Daily Kos: Tom Barrett gets an Obama campaign assist in Wisconsin recall against Scott Walker – The next election here in Wisconsin is coming up on June 5th — and it’s important to make sure your voice is heard. For the last year and a half, Governor Walker has divided Wisconsin — siding with big corporations and the super-rich at the expense of working, middle-class families. He’s broken our trust in state government: Too many Wisconsin families are out of work, students face crowded classrooms, and working men and women will be hurt by cuts to health care funding.

  • Charles P. Pierce: The microphone is always open, the camera is always on, and Scott Walker, the goggle-eyed homunculus hired by Koch Industries to run their midwestern subsidiary formerly known as the state of Wisconsin, is always saying the wrong thing to the wrong people. In the video in that link there, which you should really watch all the way through, the billionaire Diane Hendricks tells Walker she wants to discuss “controversial” subjects away from reporters…
  • In the video, Diane Hendricks, who owns a roofing wholesale and siding distribution company, asks Walker: “Any chance we’ll ever get to be a completely red state and work on these unions—” Walker: “Oh, yeah.” Hendricks: “—and become a right-to-work? What can we do to help you?” Walker: “Well, we’re going to start in a couple weeks with our budget adjustment bill. The first step is we’re going to deal with collective bargaining for all public employee unions, because you use divide and conquer.” – Daily Kos
  • Walker has said publicly before that he wouldn’t pursue right-to-work.Asked about right-to-work earlier this year by The Atlantic’s Molly Ball Walker had said, “When I was in the legislature, I supported it. It’s not something I’m pursuing right now, nor have any plan of pursuing. Again, private-sector unions have been our partner in the economic revival we’ve had in this state.” — Buzzfeed

(Source: underthemountainbunker.com)

… Romney’s ‘Hero’ Scott Walker Got Rid Of ‘Equal Pay For Women’ Laws – Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) chimed in Sunday on the battle for female voters, making an impassioned case that President Obama’s policies are far better for women than those of presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney. “It’s Barack Obama whose first bill he ever signed was the Lilly Ledbetter fair pay act,” she said on NBC’s Meet The Press. “Mitt Romney? His hero is a governor from Wisconsin who just got rid of the equal pay laws there.” She added Obama has worked to increase economic opportunity for women by focusing on education, pell grants and broading access to health care. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) appeared on the same segment, echoing the Romney campaign’s [debunked] argument that most of the jobs lost under Obama have been women’s jobs.
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Romney’s ‘Hero’ Scott Walker Got Rid Of ‘Equal Pay For Women’ Laws – Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) chimed in Sunday on the battle for female voters, making an impassioned case that President Obama’s policies are far better for women than those of presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney. “It’s Barack Obama whose first bill he ever signed was the Lilly Ledbetter fair pay act,” she said on NBC’s Meet The Press. “Mitt Romney? His hero is a governor from Wisconsin who just got rid of the equal pay laws there.” She added Obama has worked to increase economic opportunity for women by focusing on education, pell grants and broading access to health care. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) appeared on the same segment, echoing the Romney campaign’s [debunked] argument that most of the jobs lost under Obama have been women’s jobs.

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