Thursday, March 10, 2011

Thursday Clips

Wisconsin GOP Gets Lent Wrong

They're already calling it the "Ash Wednesday Ambush" in Wisconsin, but in the Lenten context I thought the betrayal by Judas wasn't scheduled till Maundy Thursday.

I'm near speechless at the naked power grab by Wisconsin Republicans. Perhaps I'm still in denial and bargaining stages, byt 1) this is to some extent going to shake out in court, with the broken open meetings law issue a key, and at the ballot box with a whole lotta recall elections.

Because ultimately what has to happen is a change in control of state government, and 2) Existing contracts may buy some time. As madison.com notes:
Gov. Scott Walker's budget repair bill, now poised to clear the Legislature, would have little effect on Madison and Dane County's union employees, who have wage and benefit deals locked through 2012 and 2014 respectively.

In January, the county finalized agreements with all its unions through 2014.

On Feb. 11, Walker proposed the repair bill, which would make public employees pay toward health care and pensions and erase most collective bargaining. On Feb. 17, the City Council approved new deals with unions that didn't have them through 2012.
Which pushes things to another election cycle.

Other stuff here: A look at the systematic GOP effort to disenfranchise students (don't give the Iowa City council any ideas), along with a thorough debunking of the "voter fraud" problem (sic) in Iowa.

And Julianne Moore is waaaaaaay too good looking to play Sarah Palin.

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