This should be a giant free-for-all,

Bullet-pointed, mish mash.

First, Bonnie:  thanks for your v kind comments recently.  I love your blog, too, and have added it to my blogroll.  And friends of fauxluxe should check out Ms McClellan's excellent poetry blog, as well.

This is the crap lackey that the Koch Bros have sent to make you think that Unions ruin our world

• Renee's parents are from Wisconsin.  Da from Oshkosh, Mum from Appleton.  I talked to them recently about what is going on in Madison.  Renee's Dad, Bob, seems to think that Walker, having got the budget through the state Assembly has the upper hand.  He thinks the Dem Senators will cave and I was not exactly sure if he was joking or not but he indicated that he believed the GOP rumor that some of the Senators were coming back home in the dead of night on occasion.  I do not believe that for a second.  I think the Senators are firmly ensconced in Illinois.  I also do not think that Walker and the Koch's have the upper hand at all.  In fact, I see Walker in a world of hurt.  Each passing day seems to bring a fresh new offense or idiocy to the fore.  The big "ace" Walker holds now is the threat of thousands of layoffs.  But does he really think that once the pink slips are issued that everyone will just pack up and go home? Or that the Wisconsin 14 will just give up and slink back towards Madison? That is stupid.  If Walker goes through with his blackmail that will only inflame the workers' passion more; stiffen their resolve, not crush it.  
• "Yeah, well, you know, we considered that." That Walker even considered planting troublemakers at the Madison rallies (which, considering these are Wisconsin folks, natch, have been some of the most polite political rallies in recent history) is reprehensible yet par for the course with Teabagging "public servants" like Governor Walker.  
• Can we please stop with the "liberal media" canard.  This past Sunday, there was one, count 'em, one member from the unions re this issue.  It was a tea-party, John McCain love-fest, non-stop Ayn Rand-asshole celebration.  "If we just let bidness do its' own bidness" (market solves all) thing, everything will be just fine.  
• Natch, the Teabaggers' Astroturfing Overlords sent out their zit-wracked junior lackey to wail about the "lamestream media" and, fuck, I do not even remember whatever else that asshole said, ... 
• Walker's Pink Slip Parade Party changes every day.  It was last Friday.  Then it was yesterday.  Then today.  Walker is in such a world of hurt.  Yesterday a major Wisconsin GOP Senator met with a couple of the Wisconsin 14.  This was portrayed by the TradMedia (and elite liberal blogs) as a concession, fail by the Dems.  Wrong again! There was one of the Wisconsin 14 on Rachel Maddow.  They are holding their ground, damnitt.  
• You know the bastards are losing when they set unnecessary " rules" for behavior and time regulations at a state building like the capitol in Madison.
• Other ways you know we are winning:  the Wisconsin state house and senate passed a bill outlawing prank calls like the one that bit Walker on his ass.  (But not like Lila Rose's crapshit "pimp and hooker" stunts.) Plus, now the GOP reps are fining the Wisconsin 14 $100 a day that they do not show up for quorum.  Sounds like a major fund raising event to me!
• Fox News last night used old aggro Sactown footage to spell out its' (lame and wrong) "Union folks are head busters" storyline.  Oops.  That got caught quick! 
• I will close with a couple of quotes from Molly Ivins:    "Although it is true that only about 20 percent of American workers are in unions, that 20 percent sets the standards across the board in salaries, benefits and working conditions. If you are making a decent salary in a non-union company, you owe that to the unions. One thing that corporations do not do is give out money out of the goodness of their hearts." and:  Another major [Bob] Dole backer is Koch Industries ($245,000), now the country's second-largest family-owned industry, and the Koch brothers are among the wealthiest men in the world (estimated worth: $4.7 billion). Among other right-wing groups, the Koches support the libertarian Cato Institute and Citizens for a Sound Economy, which should be called Rich Guys for Big Bidness. CSE wants to phase out Medicare completely, and Dole's regulatory reform bill---the one that would effectively repeal most of our health, safety and environmental regulations---is straight out of the CSE playbook.
• Do not you get it, America? They want it all.  All the wealth.  All your pension, 401k, all of it.  That is their MO.