Progressive Thinking

The RECALL is going well...but we are not there yet.  And you know as well as I do that the fight to end here is going to be harder with Christmas and worse weather coming.

I was wondering if all of us could take one cut turf in a highly democratic area in Green Bay and be responsible for it by next Thursday?  We are getting flyers together to drop at doors with office info if no one is there, so this would not be a waste of time if people aren't home.  Labor Temple, Teamsters, GBEA will all be on as potential places for folks to stop by and sign, too.

I know my family will being doing the turf with me...although they don't know that yet.

Please let me know if you can't do this or find someone else to do it.  Otherwise, we can get the turfs cut!

ALSO, there is a wierd thing happening with people unwilling to sign 'Clay-fish' recall.  NO!  I don't accept that from people...I till him she would be a clone of Walker and we have to make sure that she goes, too.

GREEN BAY - Unemployment up in Wisconsin, teachers and public workers villified, state torn apart, concealed carry with NO TRAINING, liquor available for purchase at 6 am, equal pay law overturned, teachers allowed to be fired for test scores. Education at all levels CUT! Stupid when we need re-training programs...  HE ran on creating 250,000 jobs out of that brown paper bag.  He needs to leave office with that brown paper bag over his head.  As soon as possible... He is such a tool! 

Four of us are going to work the mall area in Green Bay for signatures today.  I have collected sixty or so in the last two weeks...it has not been hard.  People want to sign.  My goal is 100 by the middle of next week.  I know two people who are trying to get 1000 just by themselves...

Many on this list are doing the same thing!  Re-energize yourselves folks!  Download a petition at wisdems.org today! Five signatures to turn in once you get it filled.

In green bay at the dem office-- 1061 W. Mason.  La Crosse friends-- I am sure that it is easy to find where to go...

Come help with paperwork...bring some treats for the staff and volunteers...donate to keep offices open!

WE HAVE TO DO THIS TOGETHER!  GRASSROOTS IS CRITICAL GOING INTO 2012.

We must get sanity back in Madison.  This is a middle of the road state--NOT what we are having thrust on us right now!

GREEN BAY - State Rep. Jim Steineke, R-Vandenbroek, has introduced a resolution to rename the Capitol Holiday Tree the Capitol Christmas Tree.

"It is what it is, it's a Christmas tree," Steineke said Tuesday. "I just think that in Wisconsin we called it a Christmas tree for 70 years. We call it a Christmas tree in Washington at the White House. I don't see any harm in calling it a Christmas tree in Madison, Wisconsin."

Sounds simple enough. Or is it?

What if you are not a Christian? Maybe you are a Native American and choose to practice your traditional beliefs. Or a Jew, or a Muslim? What if you just plain don’t believe in religion at all? Many estimate that up to 40% of Americans do not believe in the traditional concept of a god, though most choose to not to talk about it among believers.

Should the State use your tax dollars to ram someone else’s religion down your throat?

When I was with Milwaukee County, we set up a big tree in the courthouse and a variety of little trees in several departments, including Human Resources, at this time of year. The County Executive would come down and make a speech. Several employees would spend hours decorating the tree in our department, usually on a Friday afternoon. Everyone was nice.

But wouldn’t you rather they spent their time processing your job application? Or doing any other kind of real work?  If they wanted a Christmas tree, they were certainly free to set one up at home.

Every year, for our friends in the GOP like Rep. Steineke, the Christmas verses Holiday tree issue provides a perfect opportunity to pander to their base. Here we create another “issue” that sounds simple if you don’t really think about it.  "The governor believes a Christmas tree should be called a Christmas tree," Chris Schrimpf, Scott Walker's communications director, said in an email Tuesday.

But is it that “simple”, or does it only seem so if you believe that everyone should share your particular beliefs. Maybe Scotty and friends are just trying to give their supporters the impression that they are “standing up for them” in Madison. It is certainly easier than doing any real work, like creating more jobs in Wisconsin.

Yes, this is an issue that is not an issue. And the “it’s a tradition” argument has been used too often to support too many practices that should have been forgotten years ago.

Maybe we should just let all the practicing Christians have their Christmas trees at home. Religion is supposed to be an individual preference, isn’t it?

GREEN BAY - Today, the Green Bay/NEWi Progressive joins dozens of grassroots groups across the state in supporting the recall of Scott Walker. We do not begin this undertaking lightly, but Walker has put Wisconsin's way of life in jeopardy with a radical agenda that puts the good of corporations and cronies before the good of the citizens of our state. Massive cuts to education and healthcare have been accompanied by assaults on democratic institutions and the ability of citizens to have their voices heard.

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.