Progressive Thinking

GREEN BAY - Tomorrow, November 15, 2011, is the day the Recall Scott Walker effort will begin in earnest. Throughout the State, citizen groups, led by the group officially named A United Wisconsin to Recall Scott Walker will begin a statewide recall effort working with established groups like the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and labor-affiliated organizations like We Are Wisconsin.

The Democratic Party of Brown County will start signing petitions in Green Bay at its office, 1061 Mason Street, and its Kick Out-Kick Off Party at Stadium View from 4 to 8 pm. Similar events are planned in Fond du Lac, Madison, and Milwaukee just to name a few.

Immediately after his election a year ago, Scott Walker initiated a radical Tea Party social agenda on Wisconsin to strip workers' rights, slash aid to education, cut Medicare for the poor, allow anyone to carry guns in public, and make it more difficult for citizens to vote. All the while, he worked with his Waukesha County cronies in the state legislature to steer our taxpayer money to friends in big business, calling them “job creators”, while the real job creators, Wisconsin's consumers, lost more of their power to buy.

Scott Walker said little about this radical agenda during his campaign for governor last fall. It was the classic bait and switch. Scott Walker deserves to be recalled for this if nothing else.

His supporters will trot out the usual arguments to muddy the waters, that recalls are a waste of money or that no high crime has been proven. But recall is not impeachment and is, like voting, an expression of citizen democracy at work. Recall can be more like firing a new employee who hasn't worked out in his probationary period. Not to be taken lightly, but available for cases of deception on their job application or lack of the expected performance. All of you have probably seen people let go for less cause at your work.

Scott Walker took advantage of the recall craze hatched in Milwaukee County nine years ago to throw out County Executive F. Thomas Ament and what goes around tends to come around. It is almost poetic justice that now it is his turn.

So get down to your local recall rally tomorrow and be one of the first to sign! The time has come.

GREEN BAY – So a few Walker supporters want to to get a jump on fundraising by filing papers so Scotty can raise money from the Koch Brothers before the big recall kickoff on November 15th.

In the Senate recalls last summer, we were treated to a record smashing deluge of big business money trying to beguile the voters into believing that, somehow, cutting education, medical services, and union jobs while giving kickbacks to the super rich is really helping them. One such group, the Wisconsin Club for Growth spent an estimated $3 million to $4 million on “issue” ads for and against candidates in the state’s recall elections.

Not to be blown out again like the first post Citizen’s United Decision election in 2010, Democrats have been raising money hand over foot and fighting back with ads of their own. War is not so much fun when the other guy has a gun too.

But the best way to show the Brothers Koch and other big business money interests that they just can’t swoop in and buy our elections with two weeks of “issue” ads is with our votes. If we turn out, in huge numbers and throw out Scott Walker, we are sending them a clear and simple message that they are wasting their money. In business, that is the only message that really matters.

For those of you who have forgotten, Scott Walker got his big break to win the Milwaukee County Executive seat as the result of a recall drive to unseat then County Executive F. Thomas Ament. It would be poetic justice for his end to come as a result of one as well. If you live by the sword, etc.

The progressive tradition of Wisconsin State Government as well as your very right to vote is being chipped away daily by Walker and his Milwaukee suburban allies in Madison. It is time to throw them out.

Why does Reid Ribble refuse to meet with the folks who sent him to Washington? Instead, Representative Ribble offers an easier alternative, easier for himself. It’s called, Telephone Town Hall Meetings.

GREEN BAY - US Representative Paul Ryan does it. US Representative Tom Petri does it. US Representative Sean Duffy does it. Why won’t US Representative Reid Ribble do it?

The above mentioned, arrange Town Hall Meetings for their constituents to attend. It’s an opportunity to see your Rep; an opportunity to listen, learn, and participate.

Why does Reid Ribble refuse to meet with the folks who sent him to Washington? Instead, Representative Ribble offers an easier alternative, easier for himself. It’s called, Telephone Town Hall Meetings.

Reid Ribble’s Tele Meetings leave much to be desired. You must be available at the opportune time. Your identity has been pre-determined. If you request to ask a question, it will be screened by Reid Ribble’s staff. If you are not calling in support of Rep. Ribble, you will be placed in the unrelenting queue where your voice is certain to remain silenced.

Rep. Ribble spins this scripted engagement as an effective way to reach his constituents. A Telephone Meeting ensures Reid Ribble the certainty that he will not be caught off guard.

We need a Representative in Washington who will listen to all of our concerns. One who will answer all questions, even those questions he would rather avoid.

That Representative is not Reid Ribble.

They are many and we have all seen them. Attempts by the Republican Party and their allies in the media to marginalize President Barack Obama and the Presidency itself. They go from the small, like deliberately calling him “Barack Obama” rather than “President Obama”, to the larger attacks on the prestige of the Office, like the current flap on his address to the Congress and nation on jobs.

When our President wants to call a meeting and address the most important crisis facing the nation, are we too busy to even show up on the night he requests? In Wisconsin, is the Packer pre-game warm-up a more important event to televise than the President?

We will resist the obvious parallels to Jim Crow America and its attempts to diminish the dignity of some Americans. But really, is a political strategy to win back the Presidency in 2012 more important than doing the business of governing?

Like the 1930s, we are in dangerous times and we need to pay attention to the serious job of leading the Country out of the crisis. At the very least, we can make time to listen to the man we have elected to lead us. The election to replace him is more than a year away and we, the people, need to pay attention to our work of self government until then.

It is time for the Republican Party and its leadership to stop playing games and get down to work doing the jobs they were elected to do. And maybe the media should remember the responsibility given to the “4^th Estate” under our constitution to keep the people informed.

Freedom of the Press was not included in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution to make sure we can watch “Dancing with the Stars”.

(If you agree, you might want to call your local NBC-TV affiliate and ask about their programming choice.)