Uppity Wisconsin

Not news among veterans’ advocates, but three pieces paint a sordid picture of what our country intentionally inflicts upon our veterans when it makes war.

War tends to produce results dysfunctional to future war-making so veterans and serving military personnel who point to any evidence of this truism risk a hostile government machinery.

Consider what happens when death gives a veteran a problem and the VA can’t make a fraud charge stick when a solider is diagnosed with the resulting Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), here’s an alternative tactic: Ruin a soilder’s career while he’s still in the service and take away as many benefits as possible.

See Army General Improperly Kicks Out Iraq War Soldier Diagnosed with PTSD (Veterans for Common Sense).

Herbert Hoover Walker, the Man Who Would Be Governor, wants to stick it to Milwaukee.

Trouble is, Walker is the Milwaukee County executive, not some two-bit political hack from Elroy, as one of his GOP opponents once called Tommy "Stick it to 'em" Thompson.

Walker's already said county taxpayers shouldn't pay for programs that only help the city of Milwaukee.

In the name of holding the line on property taxes, he's decimated public services in the county, with deteriorating parks, and a bus system being purposely killed by neglect, just to cite the top of the list.

He's vetoed an attempt to ask county voters whether they would favor a half per cent sales tax to reduce property taxes and fill some of the county's financial hole.

Now he's turned his back on potential federal economic stimulus money, too.

The Journal Sentinel reports:

The only federal economic stimuli Walker endorses are tax cuts...

"The last thing you want to do is put money in hands of government," if the goal is to pull the economy from recession, Walker said.

Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson's opponent, Jefferson County Circuit Judge Randy Koschnick, had barely filed his nomination petitions when he began pressing the flesh -- at a gun show in LaCrosse.

Koschnick told WXOW-TV the gun show gave him a chance to meet voters. It was such a good chance he campaigned there two days in a row.

It speaks volumes about the candidate and his candidacy.

And, yes, the gun nuts at the National Rifle Assn. do endorse in Supreme Court races.

If Koschnick doesn't advertise the inevitable NRA endorsement when it comes, the Abrahamson campaign should. The Gableman race notwithstanding, the NRA's track record is pathetic. The vast majority of Wisconsin voters
support reasonable restrictions on firearms, which is why the NRA is so ineffective politically.

Doubt that? Ask Gov. Jim Doyle, who was the NRA's number one national target for defeat when he ran for re-election in 2006. How'd that turn out?

A large part of the U.S. progressive blogging infrastucture was hacked overnight and is currently down or defaced.  Many of the blogs in the 50-State Blog Network are hosted on the SoapBlox platform.  At least one of the SoapBlox servers was hacked overnight, and the sites hosted on that server have been defaced or are down currently.  This includes sites such as

Blue Hampshire
Blue Jersey
Blue Mass Group
MN Progressive Project
My Left Wing (site loads w/o diaries)
Never in our Names
Pam's House Blend
Swing State Project
West Michigan Rising 

Personally I have always thought that having large amounts of the progressive infrastructure hosted with one small company was a mistake, which is why we've developed Uppity Wisconsin on it's own open-source platform, Drupal.  

Our condolences go out to the various sites that are down, and we hope they'll recover soon.

As I am sure you all now by now, Al Franken was recently declared the victor over Norm Coleman for the senate seat from Minnesota.  What you may not know is that at least at one time, Al looked really good in tights.  This is a video from Solid Gold, some time in the eighties, of Al Franken and Tom Davis, impersonating the Stones - I'd like to see Norm Coleman gyrate like this- proving again that Democrats are much sexier than Republicans:
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The continuing economic downturn is having growing effects in many areas.  One of them is the declining revenue most municipalities are receiving from recycling, which is endangering recycling programs across the country.

Most of Outagamie County currently has no recycling at all , since the contracted recycling vendor has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and can no longer afford to handle the county's recyclables.  This could easily just be a temporary oddity, but a continuing decline in recycling revenue could make this a common occurrence, filling our landfills with even more needless junk. 

H/T to TrulyTerrie

President-elect Obama and Congress should charge forward, think big, and run roughshod over Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky).

McConnell is the main obstacle now between enacting a progressive public policy in multiple spheres, promising obstruction and more of Bushism.

Now is not the time for the prevent defense.

That’s a football metaphor for a defensive posture intended to protect a lead that usually allows opponents to rack up yardage and score points, often resulting in losing a game. [My boyfriend tells me football has changed somewhat, but this metaphor still works].

In any event, Obama and Congress should think big, and let us see the uglier side of Rhambo (Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel) and Reid (Senate majority leader from Nevada).

Blasting away every Republican screw-up, and every tool they use to obstruct and lie is what most Americans want.

We got here to fix the disasters of the Republicans and change the country to help people.

So, let’s not pretend that the last election was an electoral mandate for McConnell.

It's the two-minute warning, and it's time to pull out all measures to move.

Wisconsin is home to a multitude of outstanding citizens who have fought for the very fabric of our democratic government against a radicalized Republican Party that has become home to a faction of corrupt, militaristic reactionaries. Here are a few who have fought for freedom and the rule of law:
 
Russ Feingold – Feingold’s dedicated work for the preservation of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights have won him the respect of citizens the world over.
 
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin – In the face of the war on women’s reproductive rights, Planned Parenthood has stood fast in their service to women, and won a landmark legislative achievement for women protecting their right to health care.
 
Attorney Lester Pines and every organization who successfully fought our corrupt Attorney General in the Van Hollen v. WI GAB Voter Suppression Case.
 
Navy veteran Keith Roberts — An innocent victim of the U.S. Dept of Justice and U.S. Dept of Veterans Affairs (VA), Roberts continues his court battles that have made it greatly more difficult for the VA to actually jail our veterans for receiving benefits to which they are entitled.
 

What had been a truce between Israel and the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip seems to have abruptly come to a halt; with the Israelis blaming Hamas and Hamas blaming Israeli oppression of the displaced Palestinians for the simmering hostilities that are now boiling over into military-scale violence.

Before the recent holidays and an immoderate amount of snow buried me in things that could not be done on the computer we had been having a conversation about the strategic importance of our relationship with Egypt. Within that series of discussions we explored the influence of the political opposition, and we considered the fragility of President Mubarak’s hold on power.

We also noted the immediate proximity of Egypt to the Gaza Strip.

Today we’re going to tie all of that together—and the end result of all that tying is that we better keep a close eye on Egypt, because trouble in Gaza has spilled over into trouble in Cairo....and that’s one more Middle Eastern problem we don’t need.

Obama We’re Hopeful (Nelson 2008, tune of “O Come All Ye Faithful”)

Obama we’re hopeful, cautiously believing

you meant when you told us that you’d end this war,

 Sooner than later, let’s get our troops back state-side!

 OBAMA WE’LL BE WATCHING, OBAMA WE’LL BE MARCHING, OBAMA WE’LL BE HOLDING YOUR FEET TO THE FIRE!

Ensconced in the White House, trying to get your bearings,

Oil men and gen’rals whisp’ring in those big ears,

Filling your head with doubts and grim scenarios,

OBAMA WE’LL BE WATCHING, OBAMA WE’LL BE MARCHING, OBAMA WE’LL BE HOLDING YOUR FEET TO THE FIRE!

That could be the theme song* for Camp Hope, which opens a 19-day presence in the president-elect's Hyde Park neighborhood on New Year's Day, also known as Emancipation Proclamation Day. Activities and actions are planned daily in Chicago, ending on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Jan. 19.