Seems fine

Just regular doings this week.

Georgia Moving Forward With Mass Voter Purge Monday

ATLANTA — Georgia election officials are set to begin a mass purge of inactive voters from the state’s voting rolls on Monday.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in October released a list of over 313,000 voters whose registrations were at risk of being cancelled, about 4% of the state’s total registered voters. Those voters were mailed notices in November and had 30 days to respond in order to keep their registration intact.

Walter Jones, a spokesman for the secretary of state’s office, said the purge would take place overnight Monday into Tuesday. He said the exact number and names of voters removed wouldn’t be known until then and that more information would be made available after.

 

Wisconsin Judge Orders 200,000 Voters Kicked Off Rolls Ahead Of 2020

A state judge on Friday ordered more than 200,000 voters to be kicked off of voter roles in Wisconsin ahead of the 2020 elections — just three years after President Donald Trump won the state by fewer than 23,000 votes.

The voters were initially listed in an October letter from the Wisconsin Elections Commission as having potentially changed addresses.  They would have been purged in 2021, but a lawsuit from the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty argued the date should be pushed up to before the 2020 election, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

Ozaukee County Circuit Court Judge Paul Malloy ordered the government to do so, and rejected calls from the commission and the League of Women Voters to stay his order pending an appeal, according to the Sentinel.

Looking forward to the happy new year

The Louisiana model

So proud to see our state's wildly successful version of "economic development" via klepto-capitalism catching on in other enlightened regions.

The incentive package passed by Wisconsin’s GOP-controlled legislature, during a special session last August, will offer the company $1.5 billion to offset payroll costs and another $1.35 billion for capital expenditures. The state will give Foxconn $150 million in sales tax exemptions on construction materials, and it plans to spend a quarter of a billion dollars on road improvements near the new factory.

 

The town of Mount Pleasant, where the factory will be located, will offer $763 million to help pay for the project, and Racine County gave the company $50 million to acquire the land.

 

In total, Wisconsin, Racine County and Mount Pleasant gave the company nearly $4.8 billion in tax breaks, incentives and taxpayer dollars for improvements. If Foxconn delivers all 13,000 jobs it has promised, that works out to about $370,000 per job.

 

“Foxconn is a great deal for Foxconn and an absolutely terrible deal for Wisconsin,” said Richard Florida, an urban planning expert who heads the University of Toronto’s Martin Prosperity Institute. He called the deal “a complete and total waste of taxpayer money.”

 

See there? Even Richard Florida (who admittedly is claiming to have found religion these days) hates this shit.  The local folks are still super gung-ho, though.

GNO Inc., Louisiana Economic Development and the New Orleans Business Alliance teamed to secure Accruent's commitment. The company is expected to receive Louisiana's digital media tax incentive and a tax break from the state's Quality Jobs program. Both are performance-based incentives, meaning the company only receives them as they create new jobs. The 350 hires are a company goal and not tied to the incentives, according to Louisiana Economic Development.

The digital media perk provides a 25 percent tax credit on qualified payroll for in-state hires and 18 percent for qualified production expenses. Accruent can only receive the tax break for its jobs directly related to digital media.

Other positions not related to digital media production can apply for the Quality Jobs tax break, which is a state income sales tax rebate of up to 6 percent on 80 percent of the company's gross payroll for new jobs. The incentive is good for five years, after which the company can apply for a final five years of eligibility.

Once again, here we are

Today, in Wisconsin, Governor Scott Walker is likely to barely survive a recall election.  You can follow the day's events at First Draft where Athenae has provided a pre-game speech here.

We think this is some insurmountable problem, some terrible divide, that we've never seen before. We have always had people saying sit down, shut up, don't rock the boat, while some slick-talking jerk in a shiny suit was pouring fire and brimstone about how the company was gonna mess you for your own damn good. We have always had the jerk, too, and his bosses, and the company will always be with us. This is how this has always worked. What we haven't always had is an entire pseudo-middle-class establishment media, especially on 24-hour cable news, appealing to ignorant-ass 'necks reinforcing the message to lay back and think of Wall Street, or else they'll come for you next, but even that's not a total excuse.

They're always coming for you, is what I want to tell everybody who's angry and everybody who's scared. The jerk, the company, they're always out there, and the only thing you can't afford is to think they're on your side. When they're done with the teachers and the steelworkers and the cops, they'll come for you, too, and no racist sign or hat with teabags glued on gonna save your soul then. The only thing to fear is fear itself, said the last person who understood this well enough to make a case, so up you get.

But if you're too busy today to watch closely, here's what will happen.  Walker, who has brought this near calamity on himself by pushing through a radical attack on collective bargaining rights last year, is going to very narrowly hang onto his seat. Most national news organizations will spin this as a great victory for the Republicans' austerity agenda and excellent news for Mitt Romney.  One or another Obama surrogate will place the blame squarely on liberals for even bothering to make a fuss of this in the first place.

Soon enough we'll be on to the next radical Republican initiative for consensus Democrats and pundits to legitimize. And on and on like that.

Oh well

Guess the radicals are validated now. As you were, I guess. Will the last person forced out of American middle class life please turn out the lights?

Update: Was it worth it? Views differ!

Game time

It's been a frustrating year in politics. But nobody on the internets gives a better pep talk than Athenae.

Next time we'll write them down on a bar napkin or something

Glorious new age of things with no paper trail.

and nobody can audit them because, and I quote the county clerk, "my office forgot to save the spreadsheet."

Broken

The way we live today is utterly broken. Go read this comforting catalog of things people buy with a billion dollars.

Let's Go Shopping

So you say to yourself, "I want me some of that. I’d like to place the following order, please."

* One Maybach Landaulet for $1 million to drive around in.(Actually to be driven around in.)
* One $100 million yacht for when I want to get seasick.
* One Gulfstream G550 private jet for $40 million.
* One private island for $24.5 million (castle included) for when I want to escape the masses.
* One $8 million estate for when I have to go ashore and mingle with the masses (but not too close.)
* One $5 million watch so I can have one.
* Total: $178.5 million.


My change after paying with a billion-dollar bill is a meager $821.5 million left over. I might be hard up for cash after my spending spree, but I can still stay in a $20,000 room every night for 112 and 1/2 years.

So, as you see, $1 billion is more than enough to really live it up. People today are amassing multiples of billions, paying very little in taxes and using it in ways that harm the rest of us.

The Maybach thing section of this article was fun. I didn't know what one was so I'll excerpt that part too.

This is a Maybach. Most people don’t even know there is something called a Maybach. The one in the picture, the Landaulet model, costs $1 million. (Rush Limbaugh, who has 5 homes in Palm Beach, drives a cheaper Maybach 57 S -- but makes up for it by owning 6 of them.)

Your $1 billion will only buy you a thousand Maybach Landaulets.

Last week, Limbaugh Maybached his way down to his studio to call Wisconsin teachers protesting the threat to their collective bargaining rights "parasites" and "A Bunch Of People Who Feel Entitled To Be Freeloaders"

For a sense of perspective, here's what all that parasitic freeloading amounts to. Depending on how recent your data is and where it comes from, and how it is defined, Wisconsin teacher salaries appear to start somewhere between $25,000 and $32,000 and average somewhere around $50,000. Which is to say an "average" Wisconsin teacher might be able to afford about 1/20th of a Maybach Landaulet.

Update: See also last night's Daily Show segment.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Crisis in Dairyland - Angry Curds
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

The sight of so many bloated right wing media hacks spitting hatred at working people specifically at teachers even is just beyond sickening.

I've been doing Mardi Gras all weekend

Go read First Draft

Whoops, not done yet. Go read Digby too.

Please read

Really Bad Reporting in Wisconsin: Who 'Contributes' to Public Workers' Pensions?

Gov. Scott Walker says he wants state workers covered by collective bargaining agreements to "contribute more" to their pension and health insurance plans.

Accepting Gov. Walker' s assertions as fact, and failing to check, created the impression that somehow the workers are getting something extra, a gift from taxpayers. They are not.

Out of every dollar that funds Wisconsin' s pension and health insurance plans for state workers, 100 cents comes from the state workers.

How can that be? Because the "contributions" consist of money that employees chose to take as deferred wages – as pensions when they retire – rather than take immediately in cash. The same is true with the health care plan. If this were not so a serious crime would be taking place, the gift of public funds rather than payment for services.

Thus, state workers are not being asked to simply "contribute more" to Wisconsin' s retirement system (or as the argument goes, "pay their fair share" of retirement costs as do employees in Wisconsin' s private sector who still have pensions and health insurance). They are being asked to accept a cut in their salaries so that the state of Wisconsin can use the money to fill the hole left by tax cuts and reduced audits of corporations in Wisconsin.

In case you haven't heard yet

Scott Walker is kind of an asshole.

Adding: In light of DOJ's decision not to defend DOMA, Scott Walker now allowed to take calls from "Amanda Hugginkiss"

What's disgusting? Bob Delgiorno

Like a lot of people in New Orleans, I was a bit out of sorts yesterday and so I'm only just this morning reading Athenae's account of Sunday in Madison.

Protesters were fighting to retain the rights of organized labor everywhere, now under siege by the newly elected governor and Republican legislature. Democratic state senators fled the state, avoiding a quorum call on the governor's budget bill, and in their absence the citizens of the state decided to move in. Some carried instruments, a flute, a drum. Others pounded on plastic buckets. A child banged a pot lid and sleigh bell together. "What's disgusting?" they called out during a lull in the music.

"UNION BUSTING!"

Also here's a pretty okay column from Paul Krugman which at least makes the crucial point.

Some background: Wisconsin is indeed facing a budget crunch, although its difficulties are less severe than those facing many other states. Revenue has fallen in the face of a weak economy, while stimulus funds, which helped close the gap in 2009 and 2010, have faded away.

In this situation, it makes sense to call for shared sacrifice, including monetary concessions from state workers. And union leaders have signaled that they are, in fact, willing to make such concessions.

But Mr. Walker isn’t interested in making a deal. Partly that’s because he doesn’t want to share the sacrifice: even as he proclaims that Wisconsin faces a terrible fiscal crisis, he has been pushing through tax cuts that make the deficit worse. Mainly, however, he has made it clear that rather than bargaining with workers, he wants to end workers’ ability to bargain.

This morning, WWL radio's Bob Delgiorno was being as unhelpful as ever for listeners tuning in in search of informative discussion. All of WWL's hosts are bad but when it comes to ignoring facts and talking over and around his guests and callers, nobody does it quite like Bob. A phone conversation this morning with Louisiana AFL-CIO Vice President Robert "Tiger" Hammond went like this, for example. (paraphrased)

Delgiorno: Walker is saying times are tough and everybody's got to make sacrifices to fix this budget. And these public workers have got to be willing to give some things up.

Hammond: But, Bob, the unions have already made these kinds of concessions. But Walker is telling them that's not enough and that they need to give up their collective bargaining...

Delgiorno: (Immediately changes subject to "taxpayer supported union dues" and then moments later returns to) Walker is saying times are tough and everybody's got to make sacrifices to fix this budget.

And this circle was repeated several more times. And it's what DelGiorno does every day. When we allow a shouting doofus like this to serve as a professional information conduit for our community, is it any wonder we have difficulty keeping informed?

"From Cairo to Madison"

I know not a lot of people in New Orleans have been following the attempt by Wisconsin's Republican Governor Scott Walker to crush the state's public employee unions but it's kind of a big deal.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Scott Walker proposed stripping nearly all government workers of their collective bargaining rights. And as a warning shot across the bow, he told Wisconsin reporters Friday that he's alerted the National Guard ahead of any unrest, or in the event that state services are interrupted. Under his plan, which he'll include in his forthcoming budget proposal, most state workers would no longer be able to negotiate for better pensions or health benefits or anything other than higher salaries, which couldn't rise at a quicker pace than the Consumer Price Index.

I don't think I need to explain how fundamental collective bargaining rights have been to the creation and preservation of the American middle class. An attack on anyone's right to unionize is essentially an attack on every individual's equitable treatment by his or her employer with regard to salary, safety, health care, retirement, and just general fairness and human dignity.

Following the sweeping Republican victories in state houses last November, it isn't surprising to see this kind of assault beginning now in several states.

Today Wisconsin is a flash point but it won't be the last. Here's some of what's going on there. (link via First Draft)

Hundreds Turn Out To Protest Bill

Meanwhile, protests and rallies are already taking shape in an attempt to thwart or modify the governor's plans.

Hundreds of University of Wisconsin-Madison students and their teachers told the governor to drop a bill that would strip most public workers of almost all their collective bargaining rights.

Chanting "kill this bill" and brandishing signs with messages such as "From Cairo to Madison Workers Unite." the students and instructors jammed the corridor leading to Walker's Capitol office. They poured valentines on the desk of Walker's office guard, which asked the governor not to break their hearts.

You may find it hokey but I actually like to see these union members frame their protest in the context of the Egyptian revolution. It will be interesting to watch American pundits who love to cheer on foreign human rights movements they aren't very familiar with turn on their own once the news cycle catches up to this.

At least the Green Bay Packers get it.

Present and former members of the Green Bay Packers, all members of the National Football League Players Association, have signed a letter in support of the AFL-CIO's efforts to derail Gov. Scott Walker's plan to cut some union bargaining rights.

The letter was signed by Curtis Fuller, Chris Jacke, Charles Jordan, Bob Long, Steve Okoniewski, Brady Poppinga and Jason Spitz.

The statements reads: "We know that it is teamwork on and off the field that makes the Packers and Wisconsin great. As a publicly owned team we wouldn't have been able to win the Super Bowl without the support of our fans.

"It is the same dedication of our public workers every day that makes Wisconsin run. They are the teachers, nurses and child care workers who take care of us and our families. But now in an unprecedented political attack Governor Walker is trying to take away their right to have a voice and bargain at work.

"The right to negotiate wages and benefits is a fundamental underpinning of our middle class. When workers join together it serves as a check on corporate power and helps ALL workers by raising community standards. Wisconsin's long standing tradition of allowing public sector workers to have a voice on the job has worked for the state since the 1930s. It has created greater consistency in the relationship between labor and management and a shared approach to public work.

"These public workers are Wisconsin's champions every single day and we urge the Governor and the State Legislature to not take away their rights."

The NFLPA's office in Washington is expected to make a statement later Tuesday.

Notice there's nothing in there about buying a second home in Dallas.

Meanwhile, they've apparently scared the Governor out of the Capitol.

MADISON, Wis. -- For the first time in many years, Gov. Scott Walker will deliver his annual budget address in some place other than the state Capitol.

Walker announced Tuesday he will deliver his budget address at Vita Plus, a livestock manufacturer based on Madison’s East Side. A joint session of the Legislature will meet at the plant at 1:30 p.m. next Tuesday.

Link, again, via First Draft where there are further updates and photos from Scout and I expect there will be for much of the day.