In interviews with National Review Online, Koch executives responded to the incident and pledged to “not stop” supporting free-enterprise initiatives, even as opponents attempt to sully the Koch name and the groups that brothers David and Charles Koch, the company’s co-owners, support. They also noted that David Koch and the governor have never met or spoken.
Koch executives are not happy about the use of David Koch’s name by the blogger. “It was a fraudulent call,” says Mark Holden, the general counsel for Koch Industries. “There are serious fiscal issues at play in Wisconsin. Yet our opponents are interjecting us falsely into this story. But our Wisconsin story is about bringing and keeping good manufacturing jobs in the state. It is disturbing that when a blogger calls using the Koch name, it is used as an opportunity to attack the company.”
“Between prank calls & running squealing from confrontation, it’s unclear whether left wants to make policy or attend my 12th bday party.”
Michael Mulvey, a high school algebra teacher in Wauwatosa — the town Walker represented for a decade in the Legislature here — lapped the circular balcony over the main floor with a sign that read, “Scott, I taught your son algebra. My son just turned 5. Does he deserve a good education?”
Yes, the anti-Scott Walker side has its outside agitators. I don't think that necessarily helps the protesters win over the people of Wisconsin. (As I've said.) By contrast, Scott Walker and the GOP legislators have looked like they are focused on the public good, doing what needs to be done for the people of Wisconsin, which I think is a persuasive political message in Wisconsin. You want to switch that to Republicans versus Democrats in a hardcore political standoff? By bringing in your own outside agitators? Is that good Tea Party style? I don't think so!
And if you come in from out of state, I don't particularly want you here, but you need to know — whatever you've read about "thugs" and signs with cross-hairs and Hitler — Wisconsin people are really polite. If you don't understand that and behave extra-well, you will look like a lout — and that's even before the Democratic-friendly media do their usual work of trying to make you look bad.
I hope Wisconsinites do show up today — on all sides of the debate. Be there. I will. Let's be good citizens, interact with each other, try to understand what's going on and who thinks what, who cares about Wisconsin and who's there to take advantage of the spotlight for nonWisconsin purposes. May the greater good prevail.
I, for one, will not work until I am 70 so public employees can retire at 55.
Madison's school district had to close Thursday when 40% of its teachers called in sick. So much for the claim that this is "all about the children." By the way, these are some of the same teachers who sued the Milwaukee school board last August to get Viagra coverage restored to their health-care plan.
Democratic State Senators who protested the budget repair bill by leaving the state have been found.
The lawmakers are in the Best Western Clock Tower Resort in Rockford, Illinois.
According to the Twitter account of Democrat State Senator Chris Larson from Bay View, "For those looking for us, we are right here, standing with the people of Wisconsin."
When asked by TODAY'S TMJ4's Tom Murray why he would not divulge his location, he said "I don't want those details to take away from the message being sent by the people of Wisconsin."
Walker and Republican leaders have said they have the votes to pass the plan.
That didn't stop thousands of protesters from clogging the hallway outside the Senate chamber beating on drums, holding signs deriding Walker and pleading for lawmakers to kill the bill. Protesters also demonstrated outside the homes of some lawmakers.
Outlines of an epic legislative battle emerged Tuesday as DFL Gov. Mark Dayton unveiled a budget that would raise taxes on wealthier Minnesotans by $4 billion while requiring relatively modest spending trims.
Dayton said that under his proposal, nearly 95 percent of Minnesotans would pay no additional tax. Instead, only the top 5 percent of earners — about 138,000 filers — would see an increase in income and property taxes.
“This is about restoring tax fairness in Minnesota and asking our most affluent residents to help us out,” Dayton said, noting that in previous years, high earners have paid a smaller share of their income in taxes than the middle class.
Iranian members of parliament on Tuesday called for the death penalty against several opposition leaders who they say incited the unrest in the country.
At an open session of parliament, pro-government legislators chanted "death to Mousavi, Karroubi and Kahatami," referring to opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi and former reformist President Mohammad Khatami.
More than 220 lawmakers said in a statement that the trio should be held responsible for the unrest. "We believe the people have lost their patience and demand capital punishment" for the opposition leaders, the statement said.
Hardliners have long sought to put high-ranking opposition figures on trial, but the calls for the death penalty signaled an escalation in their demands.
President Obama later today will propose a 10-year budget plan that would increase the national debt by $7.2 trillion over 10 years -- $1.1 trillion less than if it weren't implemented.
The plan shows that Obama will not take the lead on any aggressive measure
to eliminate the nation’s $14 trillion debt. This sets up the Obama administration on a collision course with Republicans, who are calling for serious deficit reduction and spending cuts. On Friday night, House Republicans unveiled a spending bill to fund the government for the next seven months that they say will reduce the president’s requested spending levels this year by at least $100 billion.
The President will today propose a budget for 2012 in which the U.S. government would take in $2.627 trillion and spend $3.729 trillion. The 2012 budget deficit would be $1.101 trillion, less than this year’s projected $1.645 trillion deficit.
Gov. Scott Walker said Friday that thousands of state workers would be laid off if the Legislature does not adopt his budget fix that cuts public worker benefits and takes away almost all union bargaining rights from public workers.
A Walker aide confirmed that the benefit reductions would cost the average state worker thousands of dollars a year, or roughly 8% of his or her salary.
Walker also signaled that in a larger budget plan coming later this month he would trim aid to municipalities and let local officials deal with those cuts at least in part through savings on public employee costs.
Gov. Mark Dayton on Thursday quickly vetoed the first bill to reach his desk, a Republican budget-cutting measure that the Senate had passed just three hours earlier.
No one should have been surprised. The new Democratic governor had signaled for weeks that he opposed the approach taken by the House and Senate Republican
majorities.
The bill would have cut state spending by $901 million over the next two years, making a down payment on plugging a projected $6.2 billion budget shortfall.
Patrick J. Quinn, the governor of Illinois and a Democrat, praised the decision of state lawmakers — in the wee hours of the morning on Wednesday — to raise the individual income tax rate by about 66 percent as a necessity to avert the state’s “fiscal emergency,” which includes a budget deficit of more than $13 billion, about $8 billion in unpaid bills to social service agencies, pharmacies and others, and a sinking bond rating.
The administration appeared as taken aback by Mr. Mubarak’s speech as the crowds in Tahrir Square. The director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon E. Panetta, testified before the House of Representatives on Thursday morning that there was a “strong likelihood” that Mr. Mubarak would step down by the end of the day.Emphasis mine. Think about that for a minute. The head of intelligence is basing his views on media broadcasts? Why bother having spooks at all? All we know is what we get from the news readers on CNN or MSNBC or (heaven forfend) Fox News? Worse still, why would unnamed (natch) "American officials" admit such a thing? Did they somehow think such an admission would make people think better of anyone involved, including the president?
American officials said Mr. Panetta was basing his statement not on secret intelligence but on media broadcasts, which began circulating before he sat down before the House Intelligence Committee. But a senior administration official said Mr. Obama had also expected that Egypt was on the cusp of dramatic change. Speaking at Northern Michigan University in Marquette, he said, “We are witnessing history unfold,” adding, “America will do everything we can to support an orderly and genuine transition to democracy.”
From Tahrir Square in Cairo to the halls of the CIA, Hosni Mubarak's decision to hold on to the presidency of Egypt caught observers by surprise and created deep uncertainty about how that country's transition of power will proceed. CIA Director Leon Panetta was so confident Mubarak was leaving that he told House intelligence committee Chairman Mike Rogers at a hearing early Thursday that there was "a strong likelihood that Mubarak will step down this evening, which will be significant in terms of where the hopefully orderly transition in Egypt will take place."
We have been reminded yet one more time that our “intelligence” experts are operating on the basis of some amazingly politically correct and demonstrably false stereotypes that have very little to do with the often ghastly realities of the real world. Those stereotypes include the (false) conviction that Sunnis and Shi’ites can’t work together, that the root problem of the Middle East is Israeli intransigence, that even the most fanatical Muslims (i.e. the Iranian tyrants) are amenable to reason and “really” want to make a deal with us, and that Mubarak can be overthrown by the news media and demonstrators, especially young ones. The Panetta statement is a form of wish-fulfillment, not serious intelligence. Serious intelligence officers were obliged to tell him, and he was obliged to tell Congress, that we did not know what Mubarak was going to say.
The men and women who are responsible for this latest intelligence failure come from the same bureaux and agencies that fed us the ridiculous National Intelligence Estimate that claimed Iran had stopped its quest for atomic bombs, after all. The latest nonsense is of a piece with the earlier stuff.
But telling the truth about our knowledge of Mubarak’s intentions would have revealed that we lack important sources at the highest level of the Egyptian regime. I hope we’re better connected to the Egyptian Army leaders.
Meanwhile, as I have been saying ever since 9/11, we need a thorough purge of the Intelligence Community. We need fewer analysts, tougher minded officials prepared to deliver accurate news even if their superiors don’t want to hear it, and a system that permits our top officials to identify talented underlings, instead of pushing forward intelligence-by-committee that has proven to be wrong so often.
On the night of 9/11, I stood with my fellow United States Senators and Representatives on the steps of our Capitol to assure our fellow citizens that our government had not shut down, would not shut down, could not be shut down.It is absolutely unthinkable that we would even contemplate doing so here in Minnesota. So, I ask you, legislators; I invite you; I implore you — to join with me now, right here in our Capitol and pledge to the people of Minnesota that we will NOT shut down their government, our government — not next July 1st, not any July 1st, not any day ever.
As astute observers Night Writer and Bike Bubba rightly point out, Mark Dayton is just about the last guy to decry shutting down government. Remember this?
U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton, D-Minnesota, closed his Capitol Hill office Tuesday until after the November 2 election, fearing a possible terrorist attack that could harm his staff or visitors.
However, U.S. government officials said there was no new intelligence concerning a possible attack, and authorities said congressional members have not been advised to close their offices.
"There's no new threat or information pertaining to a threat that's come in. We continue to advise (people) to take caution ... but there's no new information that we've put out," said Sgt. Contricia Ford of the U.S. Capitol Police.
There were 99 other Senators and 435 Members of Congress at the time. Not one shut down his office, although they all were privy to the same information that Dayton had. Just thought you needed a reminder.
On the night of 9/11, I stood with my fellow United States Senators and Representatives on the steps of our Capitol to assure our fellow citizens that our government had not shut down, would not shut down, could not be shut down.Unthinkable? Really? Never mind the non-sequitur of comparing 9/11 to the normal scrum involved in a state legislative session. What Dayton is really saying here is that the government is so important that its imperatives trump all other considerations. Does he really believe that? Do you?
It is absolutely unthinkable that we would even contemplate doing so here in Minnesota. So, I ask you, legislators; I invite you; I implore you — to join with me now, right here in our Capitol and pledge to the people of Minnesota that we will NOT shut down their government, our government — not next July 1st, not any July 1st, not any day ever.
I was working at a dying little dotcom nine years ago. I was reading a Time article on the “new breed of young conservative intellectuals”.
They profiled Andrew Sullivan and his “blog”. I checked it out. I saw the link to Blogger.com.
And when I got home, after dinner, I set the thing up, and it was off to the races.
Granted, the cameraman is trying to get the people to say something outrageous, but he also doesn’t have to try very hard. He asks people at the rally what “we” should do after impeaching Clarence Thomas to get justice for Anita Hill, and he gets some mighty interesting answers: Send him “back to the fields.” “String him up.” “Hang him.” “Torture.” One older woman wants his wife Ginny Thomas strung up as well. A younger and more creative woman wants Justice Thomas’ toes chopped off and forced-fed to him. Thomas isn’t the only one to get the necktie treatment; one protester wants Fox News executive Roger Ailes to get hung as well.
Common Cause’s 40 year history of holding power accountable has been marked by a commitment to decency and civility – in public and private. So we are of course outraged to find that a few of those attending the events around a gathering Common Cause helped to organize Sunday near Palm Springs voiced hateful, narrow-minded sentiments to an interviewer in the crowd.
We condemn bigotry and hate speech in every form, even when it comes from those who fancy themselves as our friends.
Anyone who has attended a public event has encountered people whose ideas or acts misrepresented, even embarrassed, the gathering. Every sporting event has its share of “fans” whose boorish behavior on the sidelines makes a mockery of good sportsmanship; every political gathering has a crude sign-painter or epithet-spewing heckler.
Five anti-government protesters were shot dead in Tahrir Square early Thursday, and hundreds more were injured, as the bloody clashes between demonstrators and government loyalists continued for a second day.And this concerns the perpetually concerned:
The prominent watchdog group Human Rights Watch condemned the Egyptian government for what it called "organized attacks on pro-democracy demonstrators" Wednesday and asked that those responsible be prosecuted.
The statement said Egyptian security forces did not try to stop the attacks by "pro-government provocateurs armed with petrol bombs, sticks, and whips" and called on the United States and the European Union to intervene.
"The events in Tahrir Square and elsewhere strongly suggest government involvement in violence against peaceful protesters," Kenneth Roth, executive director of the rights group, said Thursday. "The U.S. and other allies should make clear that further abuse will come at a very high price."
White House chief of staff William Daley told reporters that Washington had no warning of today's events, which came as a surprise after President Barack Obama's "cordial" phone call with Mubarak yesterday, NBC News' Andrea Mitchell reports.Let's think about this for a minute. Mubarak goes to the airwaves and announces that he's willing to leave at the end of his term. The protesters say no, you need to leave now.
First, it wouldn't surprise me if Judge Vinson is right, but I'm not a constitutional scholar and therefore my views are just that. What I do know is that the folks who drafted the legislation, whoever they are, made it pretty easy for Vinson to strike the whole thing down, as Jennifer Rubin points out in her blog at the Washington Post. She quotes the opinion as follows:
Having determined that the individual mandate exceeds Congress' power under the Commerce Clause, and cannot be saved by application of the Necessary and Proper Clause, the next question is whether it is severable from the remainder of the Act. In considering this issue, I note that the defendants have acknowledged that the individual mandate and the Act's health insurance reforms, including the guaranteed issue and community rating, will rise or fall together as these reforms "cannot be severed from the [individual mandate]."
In other words, as Rubin explains:
Oops. Not some crazy judge, but the administration was the source of the notion that the individual mandate can't be severed from the rest of the law.
But it's not just the administration; it seems Congress did its part to contribute to the invalidation of the whole statute. Judge Vinson observes that "the Act does not contain a 'severability clause,' which is commonly included in legislation to provide that if any part or provision is held invalid, then the rest of the statute will not be affected." He observes that this defect is not necessarily determinative. However, "The lack of a severability clause in this case is significant because one had been included in an earlier version of the Act, but it was removed in the bill that subsequently became law." Oh, now, there's a problem.
It's a problem because judges do look carefully at legislative intent when they rule. They have to, of course -- it's crucial to understanding why a law has been passed. Not surprisingly, because Obama, Reid and Pelosi were in such a hurry to ram the thing through, they got sloppy.
Second, since Obamacare is inevitably headed for the Supreme Court, does Vinson's ruling matter? I suspect it does, since the Supremes will take his reading of the matter into account.
Last, although I'd love to see Obamacare get thrown out entirely, Vison wisely did not halt implementation of it for now. I hate judicial overreach and have been critical of judges who singlehandedly take the law into their own hands. The best guess is that we get an expedited review of Vinson's ruling and that the matter heads for the Supremes soon. And at that point, Anthony Kennedy gets to play divine right monarch yet again. Sigh.
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