DPW Blog

Today, the Government Accountability Board certified our signatures and set June 5 as the recall election date. This election will be the first major battleground of the 2012 cycle, and what happens in Wisconsin has major implications for the direction of both Wisconsin and our great nation.

It is in Wisconsin where we will decide if the halls of power are to be forever hijacked by extreme Tea Party politicians and their powerful special interests or if our democracy is still open to ordinary, hardworking people.

Over the weekend Mike Tate sat down with DailyKos.com for an interview on the upcoming recall elections in Wisconsin. Below are a few excerpts, for the entire interview, visit DailyKos.com:

Rep. Chris Taylor (D- Madison) wrote a hard-hitting editorial this morning highlighting the GOP’s repeated assault on women’s rights.

Scott Walker's latest ad, "Promises Kept," is a retelling of the same distortions and half-truths that Walker and his echo chamber have been pushing for months. Walker and his Koch Brothers-financed friends, Americans for Prosperity and the MacIver Institute, have spent millions to convince Wisconsinites that "Its Working," but with Wisconsin leading the nation in job loss - six straight months of loss – and a Republican Legislature more focused on banning birth control than providing economic relief for working families, its clear Its NOT Working.

After months of hysterical claims, Scott Walker acknowledged last Monday that his campaign failed to produce any challenges to the more than one million signatures our grassroots volunteers submitted to force a recall.

Now, despite Scott Walker's failure to challenge even one signature, he has asked the Government Accountability Board to accept challenges from an extreme, right-wing Tea Party group from Texas called the King Street Patriots, whose supporters believe that registering the poor to vote is "un-American" and will "destroy the country." 

In an effort to keep our readers ever-more informed about the important issues facing Wisconsin, the DPW is beginning a weekly blog roundup linking articles from a few of our favorite political sources from around the blogosphere.

The ad is called "Walkergate" because it highlights the eery parallels between Nixon's Watergate scandal and the criminal investigation into Scott Walker's current and former top-level aides that has already uncovered the theft of more than $60,000 intended for the widows and children of Soldiers killed in action, child sex crimes, secret email networks, illegal campaign contributions, and the abuse of taxpayer resources for political gain. Prosecutors have brought a total of fifteen felonies and three misdemeanors against six of Scott Walker's closest aides and associates -- with one conviction and two guilty pleas to date.

As Braun's victory displays in dramatic fashion, collective bargaining is not merely about wages and benefits, it is the foundation for basic dignity in a workplace, and it radiates outward to all workplaces, whether it be a major league dugout or a welding shop, whether it's a police precinct or a classroom.

Walker and his anti-union defenders who scorn collective bargaining must think that a millionaire ballplayer is not a sympathetic figure to people who work for a living. But that's just not the case. Wisconsin understands that that standing together makes us stronger.

There’s no easy way to say this, so I’m just going to come right out and say it.

This isn’t working. It’s time for us to see other people.

I wish I could say that it was me, not you, but we both know that isn’t true. It’s you.

Remember last year? The Packers had just won the Super Bowl and all across our state, Wisconsinites were united in celebration over the return of the Lombardi Trophy to Titletown, USA. Wisconsin was #1.

Then, Scott Walker "dropped the bomb" on the people of Wisconsin by publicly announcing his secret plan to eliminate the rights of Wisconsin workers and hand over our state to powerful Koch-backed special interests.

Scott Walker's "bomb" tore Wisconsin apart, pitting Packer backer against Packer backer, neighbor against neighbor, and Wisconsinite against Wisconsinite.