Scott Walker claims Little League teams, Girl Scout troops as 'new business'

Wisconsin <strike><a href="http://cognidissidence.blogspot.com/2013/03/scott-walkers-austerity-agenda-is-real.html" rel="nofollow">job-killer</a> </strike>Gov. Scott Walker doesn't like to be called a job-killer, so he invents new businesses out of whole cloth -- Little League and Girl Scout uniforms.<br /><br />Walker had to acknowledge he won't come close to fulfilling his campaign promise to create 250,000 new jobs. (Incredibly, he blamed the protests in 2011.) So he made up 11,000 fictional new businesses instead. The <a href="http://www.uppitywis.org/blogarticle/desperate-walker-claims-little-league-teams-and-girl-scout-troop" rel="nofollow">Uppity Wisconsin</a> blog has the story, which would be hilarious if Walker weren't damaging so many Wisconsin families.<br /><br />Some of the 'businesses' Walker claims to have created are The <a href="https://www.wdfi.org/apps/CorpSearch/Details.aspx?entityID=G003583&hash=495172785&searchFunctionID=dfad5001-2dbf-482d-b67e-aaa701d3adff&type=Advance">Reedsburg Girl Scout troop</a>, <a href="https://www.wdfi.org/apps/CorpSearch/Details.aspx?entityID=M082356&hash=552134662&searchFunctionID=0273b38f-2e79-4bf4-abca-b69a035ee8ba&type=Advanced&nameSet=Entities&q=tennis&textSearchType=ExactPhrase&incDateStart=2011&incDateEnd=2013&includeActiveOrgs=Only&includeOldNames=Exclude&orgTypes=06&=">Madison Ping-Pong Club</a>, <a href="https://www.wdfi.org/apps/CorpSearch/Details.aspx?entityID=W058968&hash=31610602&searchFunctionID=1e81303f-a9b6-4965-9ae6-cfea04c6c9dd&type=Advanced&nameSet=Entities&q=rotary&textSearchType=ExactPhrase&incDateStart=2011&incDateEnd=2013&includeActiveOrgs=Only&includeOldNames=Exclude&orgTypes=06&=">Waupaca Rotary Club</a>, <a href="https://www.wdfi.org/apps/CorpSearch/Results.aspx?hash=1751295331&searchFunctionID=57d39204-8a23-48b1-9847-c44993690573&type=Advanced&nameSet=Entities&q=historical&textSearchType=ExactPhrase&incDateStart=2011&incDateEnd=2013&includeActiveOrgs=Only&includeOldNames=Exclude&orgTypes=06&">Columbus Historical Society</a>, <a href="https://www.wdfi.org/apps/CorpSearch/Details.aspx?entityID=O027541&hash=1368577052&searchFunctionID=2be8ca95-3f30-4a82-9787-1bbf4f98b5a5&type=Advanced&nameSet=Entities&q=jaycees&textSearchType=ExactPhrase&incDateStart=2011&incDateEnd=2013&includeActiveOrgs=Only&includeOldNames=Exclude&orgTypes=06&=">Oconto Jaycees</a>, <a href="https://www.wdfi.org/apps/CorpSearch/Details.aspx?entityID=B071386&hash=1055641428&searchFunctionID=2e9de4aa-67cb-4198-8dd5-e09f1561b505&type=Advanced&nameSet=Entities&q=Club&textSearchType=ExactPhrase&incDateStart=2011&incDateEnd=2013&includeActiveOrgs=Only&includeOldNames=Exclude&orgTypes=06&=">Blue Mound Nordic Ski Club</a>, <a href="https://www.wdfi.org/apps/CorpSearch/Details.aspx?entityID=C078846&hash=577743248&searchFunctionID=4003b66d-e157-47df-b811-19ef35f23e82&type=Advanced&nameSet=Entities&q=Lions&textSearchType=ExactPhrase&incDateStart=2011&incDateEnd=2013&includeActiveOrgs=Only&includeOldNames=Exclude&orgTypes=06&=">Clyman Lions Club</a>, <a href="https://www.wdfi.org/apps/CorpSearch/Details.aspx?entityID=N042119&hash=95443676&searchFunctionID=082a5a15-edbd-454a-89e8-4cd74970e893&type=Advanced&nameSet=Entities&q=bird&textSearchType=ExactPhrase&incDateStart=2011&incDateEnd=2013&includeActiveOrgs=Only&includeOldNames=Exclude&orgTypes=06&=">Three Rivers Bird Watchers Club</a>, <a href="https://www.wdfi.org/apps/CorpSearch/Details.aspx?entityID=F048145&hash=1465211968&searchFunctionID=7e241c64-c025-4138-a4e1-5ee6d863c3f6&type=Advanced&nameSet=Entities&q=Choir&textSearchType=ExactPhrase&incDateStart=2011&incDateEnd=2013&includeActiveOrgs=Only&includeOldNames=Exclude&orgTypes=06&=">Menomonee Falls Choir Association</a>, and Pepin Yacht Club.<br /><br />Here's Uppity Wisconsin:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">...he was judging his accomplishment with his own measuring stick. Most economists will tell you that the most reasonable way to count new businesses would be to use the <a href="http://www.bls.gov/cew/" rel="nofollow">Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages </a>(QCEW) count of new businesses. Walker, in fact, has insisted that QCEW is the "gold standard" when it comes to counting new jobs created and should be the source everyone uses, given the QCEW’s quarterly review of the records of 98% of all businesses in the state. The problem for Walker, though, is that the most recent QCEW's numbers show that he has only created 4,024 new businesses since he took office and that he isn't on pace to hit his pledge of 10,000 new businesses by the end of 2014. Instead of admitting his shortcoming, Walker searched high and low for a different measuring stick. He discovered that the <a href="http://www.wdfi.org/" rel="nofollow">Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions</a> (WDFI) keeps track of something called "business entities" created and... voila! ...found that as of August of this year, over ELEVEN THOUSAND new "business entities" had been created since he took office! Cue the victory lap! </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">The problem with the WDFI numbers is that a great deal of the “business entities” it counts are not, in fact, the "new businesses" that Walker had in mind when he made his pledge. Many are out-of-state corporations that have to file papers in Wisconsin, but have no real physical presense in the state, many are multiple filings for one business, and over 35,000 of the "businesses" Walker is using in his formula are something called "non-stock corporations" which are business-sounding but are actually Little League Teams, Girl Scout Troops, Lions Clubs, and other community organizations or non-profits.</blockquote>Walker, by the way, has actually written an entire book filled with lies, and he's out peddling it. You don't need to read it, but you might enjoy<a href="http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/Scotty_Makes_A_Book" rel="nofollow"> Esquire's Charles Pierce</a> review of what he calls 'a book-like product.' Pierce refers to Walker as the goggle-eyed homunculus hired by Koch Industries to manage their Midwest subsidiary formerly known as the state of Wisconsin. And this:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">Walker certainly is not intimidated by mendacity, prevarication, or by inflating his own ego until they tie a rope to it and enter it in the Macy's Parade in a couple of weeks, I can tell you that.</blockquote>No surprise there. <br /><div><br /></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></span>

Jobs scott walker wisconsin Scott Walker claims Little League teams, Girl Scout troops as 'new business'

Wisconsin job-killer Gov. Scott Walker doesn't like to be called a job-killer, so he invents new businesses out of whole cloth -- Little League and Girl Scout uniforms.Walker had to acknowledge he won't come close to fulfilling his campaign promise t…

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Stink Tanks exposed as front groups for Koch brothers

A national network of <a href="http://stinktanks.org/national/" rel="nofollow"><strike>stink</strike></a> think tanks is quietly pushing the agenda of anti-worker groups with funding from Koch brothers-affiliated organizations, according to a report released today.<br /><br />Today our friends at the <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/" rel="nofollow">Center for Media and Democracy</a> exposed the State Policy Network, which claims to fund 'independent' think tanks in all 50 states. The State Policy Network, disturbingly, is tax-exempt and so are the stink tanks it funds. <br /><br />SPN's stink tanks use 'dark money' from the <strike style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.890625px;"><a href="http://teamsternation.blogspot.com/2011/10/bombshell-kochs-sold-oil-equipment-to.html" style="color: #336699;">Benedict Arnold</a></strike> Koch brothers and their ilk to push an anti-worker, anti-consumer corporate-empowerment agenda in the states -- while pretending to be nonpartisan. <br /><br />If this is sounding a lot like the corporate dating service for state lawmakers known as <a href="http://alecexposed.org/" rel="nofollow">ALEC</a>, it is. Lisa Graves, executive director of the CMD, told Politico the SPN, like ALEC, is part of the <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2013/11/koch-brothers-think-tank-report-99791.html" rel="nofollow">Kochtopus</a>.<br /><br />According to CMD:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">SPN has played a major role in supporting ALEC, serving as a "chairman" level sponsor of the 2013 and 2011 ALEC Annual Conferences and acting as a voting member of several task forces. SPN affiliates push parts of ALEC's agenda in their respective states, and ALEC is also an associate member of SPN. SPN and its affiliates have contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to ALEC. </blockquote><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div>Politico quoted Graves today:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">“These aren’t just little think tanks that are doing nonpartisan research based on what’s happening in the state and really reflective of the culture of those states,” said Lisa Graves....“These are a lot of groups that put together pretty cooked books on the issues they are peddling and have been criticized in state after state for how shoddy their research has been.” </blockquote>In a <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/11/12302/reports-expose-extreme-pressure-groups-masquerading-think-tanks" rel="nofollow">press statement</a>, Graves said,<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">The 'experts' of State Policy Network groups get quoted on TV, in the papers, or in the legislature as if they were nonpartisan, objective scholars on issues of public policy. But in reality, SPN is a front for corporate interests with an extreme national policy agenda tied to some of the most retrograde special interests in the country, including the billionaire Koch brothers, the Waltons, the Bradley Foundation, the Roe Foundation, and the Coors family.</blockquote><br />Teamsters have tangled with these groups before. In Wisconsin, the <a href="http://teamsternation.blogspot.com/2011/04/meet-think-tanks-paid-to-wage-war-on.html" rel="nofollow">MacIver Institute</a> promoted<a href="http://cognidissidence.blogspot.com/2013/03/scott-walkers-austerity-agenda-is-real.html" rel="nofollow"> <strike>job-killer</strike></a><strike style="text-decoration: underline;"> </strike> Gov. Scott Walker's union-busting Act 10 as good for the economy. <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/business/wisconsin-added-24305-private-sector-jobs-in-12-months-ended-in-march-b99106575z1-225348792.html" rel="nofollow">It wasn't</a>.<br /><br />In Michigan, the <a href="http://teamsternation.blogspot.com/2013/01/koch-linked-mich-think-tank-accused-of.html" rel="nofollow">Mackinac Center for Public Policy</a> pushed job-killer <a href="http://www.snyderfails.org/" rel="nofollow">Gov. Rick Snyder</a>'s right to work for less law with the same arguments and the same results. In Missouri, it's the <a href="http://stinktanks.org/missouri/" rel="nofollow">Show-Me Institute</a>. In Ohio, the <a href="http://stinktanks.org/ohio/" rel="nofollow">Buckeye Institute</a>. And so on.<br /><br />If you're getting a whiff of foul odors from your state capital, check out the CMD's new website, <a href="http://www.stinktanks.org/">www.stinktanks.org</a>. If you think it's a stink tank, it probably is.

Kochs Michigan Rick Snyder scott walker stink tank wisconsin Stink Tanks exposed as front groups for Koch brothers

A national network of stink think tanks is quietly pushing the agenda of anti-worker groups with funding from Koch brothers-affiliated organizations, according to a report released today.Today our friends at the Center for Media and Democracy exposed…

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Wisconsin lawmaker -- and Teamster -- fights on to help indebted students

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh0boqPqtVff7eccwU4gvYGaLdVgrJnT9L-wmNstfaJgFAn4ilEKYaT1quYBobpmcxxbhb0hpoeDSpichjZNh5I1W_7x67KPbfBNhDX65S_WLQOWsXOESUHVq3kpPbnWdCGpet9PVuaOuJ/s1600/Hansen_1917666594_n.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh0boqPqtVff7eccwU4gvYGaLdVgrJnT9L-wmNstfaJgFAn4ilEKYaT1quYBobpmcxxbhb0hpoeDSpichjZNh5I1W_7x67KPbfBNhDX65S_WLQOWsXOESUHVq3kpPbnWdCGpet9PVuaOuJ/s320/Hansen_1917666594_n.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Brother Dave Hansen on the right</td></tr></tbody></table>Remember our <a href="http://teamster.org/" rel="nofollow">Teamster</a> brother Dave Hansen, one of the <a href="http://teamsternation.blogspot.com/2012/10/re-elect-wis-fab-14-senator-longtime.html" rel="nofollow">Fab 14 state senators</a> who left the state to block <a href="http://teamsternation.blogspot.com/2013/06/scott-walker-still-kills-jobs-better.html" rel="nofollow"><strike>job-killer</strike></a> Gov. Scott Walker's union-busting?<br /><br />Here he is again, cosponsoring a bill to provide relief for people struggling with student loan debt.<br /><br /><a href="http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/writers/jessica_vanegeren/wisconsin-democrats-pitch-higher-ed-lower-debt-student-loan-relief/article_74d65956-36b7-11e3-a93e-0019bb2963f4.html" rel="nofollow">The Cap Times</a> reports,<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">“Student loans are untouchable, unflexible,” said Sara Graves, 30, who graduated from UW-Eau Claire with $25,000 in student loan debt. The married mother of three works full time and is still paying off her loans. “We are not asking for a bailout. We are asking for more control over our finances.”... </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">On average, these residents graduate college with $22,400 in student loan debt if they leave school after earning a bachelor’s degree. With current interest rates on the federal loans, the graduates will pay $388 a month for the next 18.7 years, or until they are in their 40s... </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"> the student loan authority would be charged to create a system to buy loans — federal or private — and refinance them at a lower rate. </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">The Hansen-Mason bill would also allow the yearly amount paid in student loan debt to be written off as a state tax deduction. Currently, only the interest on the loans can be used as a tax write-off.</blockquote>We learned about the bill from our Teamster brother, Tom Bennett, president of Teamsters Local 200 in Milwaukee. Brother Bennett called Hansen "a good friend of the Teamsters who represents the families of Wisconsin with great pride."

Fab 14 student loan debt wisconsin Wisconsin lawmaker -- and Teamster -- fights on to help indebted students

Brother Dave Hansen on the rightRemember our Teamster brother Dave Hansen, one of the Fab 14 state senators who left the state to block job-killer Gov. Scott Walker's union-busting?Here he is again, cosponsoring a bill to provide relief for people st…

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Wisconsin rebels against the Walker/ALEC agenda

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4JCfS6NBZLfkPwmObK-5O-FuMVBt3nku8rHX89dj4lQoHdGMqgpgT4Rwp9vr1Yr4AOInp77kySGH1cgqq0rTvEv6Wt9DwyT-Jonyy-5-hn7RTOaQyWH8TWr2yA-p3jPyV6x4SpDH4cpz_/s1600/wisco+rally.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4JCfS6NBZLfkPwmObK-5O-FuMVBt3nku8rHX89dj4lQoHdGMqgpgT4Rwp9vr1Yr4AOInp77kySGH1cgqq0rTvEv6Wt9DwyT-Jonyy-5-hn7RTOaQyWH8TWr2yA-p3jPyV6x4SpDH4cpz_/s400/wisco+rally.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Teamsters at a recent rally at Wisconsin's Capitol. </td></tr></tbody></table>Wisconsin activists are stirring again even as North Carolina's <a href="http://www.wral.com/wake-da-offers-deal-to-moral-monday-arrestees/12836949/" rel="nofollow">Moral Monday movement gathers steam</a>.<br /><br />No one should be surprised. Both states have governors backed by radical billionaires. In Wisconsin,<strike> <a href="http://teamsternation.blogspot.com/2013/06/scott-walker-still-kills-jobs-better.html" rel="nofollow">Job-killer</a></strike> Gov. Scott Walker is a stooge for the<a href="http://teamsternation.blogspot.com/2012/02/benedict-arnold-koch-brothers-lash-out.html" rel="nofollow"> <strike>Benedict Arnold</strike></a> Koch brothers. North Carolina Gov. <strike>Art Pope</strike> Pat McCrory is a puppet for greedy billionaire <a href="http://teamsternation.blogspot.com/2013/02/greedy-nc-billionaire-attacks-nc-jobless.html" rel="nofollow">Art Pope</a>.<br /><br />Both governors are pursuing the same agenda, which was handed to them by <a href="http://alecexposed.org/" rel="nofollow">ALEC</a>, the corporate escort service for state politicians. ALEC's aims are to crush unions, eradicate public education, impoverish government workers, suppress voting rights and marginalize women.<br /><br />On Monday, “Women’s Equality Day,” Wisconsin Teamsters attended a rally in Madison to stand with Wisconsin women who are at the mercy of Walker's agenda.<br /><br />“Equal pay for women and the right to organize and join a Union are just a few of the reasons we are here today,” said Tom Millonzi, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 200 in Milwaukee.<br /><br />Joining Millonzi at the rally were <a href="http://www.teamsterslocal200.com/?zone=/unionactive/view_article.cfm&HomeID=310972" rel="nofollow">Local 200</a> President Tom Bennett and Business Representatives Steve Nelson and Randy Monroe. <br /><br />The rally came in the midst of turmoil caused by Walker's heavy-handed crackdown on a group that comes to the Capitol every weekday to sing songs of protest against his union busting. More than a hundred people have been arrested on dubious charges and are insisting on <a href="http://host.madison.com/news/local/crime_and_courts/arrested-singers-request-jury-trials-in-first-court-appearances/article_f06d6e11-e695-5b50-be93-0785f68f30e3.html" rel="nofollow">jury trial</a>s to demonstrate the absurdity of their arrest.<br /><br />The arrests include people who just watch, according to the <a href="http://wcmcoop.com/2013/08/28/wi-capitol-police-crackdown-on-dissent-what-you-wouldnt-know-from-reading-wisconsins-newspapers/" rel="nofollow">Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative</a>.<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">As the arrests at the Solidarity Sing Along continued, the Capitol Police began warning people on the 1st and 2nd floors overlooking the ground floor rotunda that they were subject to arrest if they did not disperse, even when the individuals were not singing or clapping or participating in any way. When news started to spread that simply observing the unlawful assembly was cause for arrest and citation, outrage spread over the Capitol Police assertion that “spectators are considered participants,” many citizen journalists reported on these warnings, with one video of the warning getting over 60,000 views on youtube.</blockquote>The crackdowns are re-energizing dissenters in Wisconsin.<br /><br />Walker, who took away most collective bargaining rights for government workers, now says he'll go after police and firefighters' collective bargaining rights. A firefighter has been arrested at the Capitol and off-duty Madison police have joined the protest, the <a href="http://host.madison.com/news/local/writers/steven_elbow/madison-police-chief-says-cops-at-singalong-aren-t-violating/article_9aa7cf66-87ba-561a-9acc-03746a1c17b3.html#ixzz2dMvm8CNM" rel="nofollow">Cap Times</a> reports.<br /><br />Normal Stockwell wrote in <a href="http://host.madison.com/ct/columnist/norman-stockwell-arrests-here-show-king-s-fight-for-worker/article_56ff2d3c-79b7-5812-9398-5ff94afa5728.html" rel="nofollow">The Cap Times</a> that the Wisconsin protesters who are getting arrested in the Capitol are honoring the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, who was assassinated while supporting Memphis sanitation workers striking for the right to join <a href="http://www.afscme.org/" rel="nofollow">AFSCME</a>:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">Today there is another struggle to recognize the rights and dignity of labor in the state of Wisconsin. Many of the workers who lost collective bargaining rights under Act 10 in 2011 were AFSCME workers, too. Since March of 2011, a loose group calling itself the Solidarity Sing Along has gathered inside or outside the Capitol to sing in solidarity with those workers who lost rights through the passage of Act 10. In recent weeks, arrests of those singers, their supporters and others simply observing have increased. Notable labor activists arrested have included David Newby, former president of the Wisconsin AFL-CIO.</blockquote>

Moral Monday protest wisconsin Wisconsin rebels against the Walker/ALEC agenda

Teamsters at a recent rally at Wisconsin's Capitol. Wisconsin activists are stirring again even as North Carolina's Moral Monday movement gathers steam.No one should be surprised. Both states have governors backed by radical billionaires. In Wisconsi…

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Wisconsin's solidarity singers arrested today

<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/0Nf5VzN1MKg" width="420"></iframe><br />Wisconsin police just arrested 22 people today for singing "Solidarity Forever" in the Statehouse. The singers have been musically protesting <a href="http://teamsternation.blogspot.com/2013/06/scott-walker-still-kills-jobs-better.html" rel="nofollow"><strike>Job-killer</strike></a> Gov. Scott Walker every weekday since March 11, 2011 -- ever since he rammed an <a href="http://alecexposed.org/">ALEC</a> bill through the Legislature to destroy public service unions. The Solidarity Sing Along happens every weekday from noon to 1 pm in the Capitol Rotunda. Dozens of union supporters stand in a circle and sing pro-union songs like, well, "Solidarity Forever."<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcTf7U0hZy7GMoI8_-QLnbqRHHTkDRcPQ7_ShvEujsNXxpffFU1Q3K_b_2zPRlOpD40h9w2MXZhWfIrHjQwF9cMYHhXH1uMuC9ihehQkdGyMShHc-IdFFYPle-MqGAp6iUM0u9xhgvABkU/s1600/wisconsin_80_yr_old_arrested.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcTf7U0hZy7GMoI8_-QLnbqRHHTkDRcPQ7_ShvEujsNXxpffFU1Q3K_b_2zPRlOpD40h9w2MXZhWfIrHjQwF9cMYHhXH1uMuC9ihehQkdGyMShHc-IdFFYPle-MqGAp6iUM0u9xhgvABkU/s200/wisconsin_80_yr_old_arrested.jpeg" width="150" /></a></div>Among those arrested today was an 80-year-old woman.<br /><br /><a href="http://news.wpr.org/post/protest-singers-arrested-state-capitol">Wisconsin Public Radio</a> tells us:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">Capitol Police have been threatening arrests this month, after U.S. District Judge William Conley blocked the Walker Administration from requiring permits for gatherings at the Capitol involving 20 people or fewer, but did not block a requirement that larger groups obtain permits... </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">25 citations were issued today to 22 people for demonstrating without a permit. Three people received a second citation after rejoining the singers after their first citation. The fine amount for a no-permit citation is $200.50. Marquis says one individual received a disorderly conduct citation for spitting on a singer/protestor.</blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4K3GfgBl11Q4Y3D45f9I1RSyAWdOwGT7iyFBuhEKmywlb_LRuRSyw03_w_p3HtaLKkEXPngxG6nbUEzNWzNGLdKQDzbztNzu8MKz_37HtLUqkWFQHfaURofJfBpRBqmQnTXsrWrz5hyphenhyphenU4/s1600/wisconsin_singers_arrested.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4K3GfgBl11Q4Y3D45f9I1RSyAWdOwGT7iyFBuhEKmywlb_LRuRSyw03_w_p3HtaLKkEXPngxG6nbUEzNWzNGLdKQDzbztNzu8MKz_37HtLUqkWFQHfaURofJfBpRBqmQnTXsrWrz5hyphenhyphenU4/s320/wisconsin_singers_arrested.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>The Solidarity Singers clearly drive Walker batshit crazy. He's been trying to shut them down for months, along with myriad other crackdowns on freedoms of speech, assembly and right to petition one's government for a redress of grievances. <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/04/12/1201368/-One-Day-Longer-25-Months-Stronger-the-Solidarity-Sing-Along-Draws-Hope-From-the-Next-Generation">Wisconsin Wherls</a> blogged about Walker's attempt to silence the singers in April. (The post also describes how Teamster and Wisconsin state Sen. Dave Hansen brought 100 schoolchildren to listen to the singing.)<br /><br />We turn to our friend, blogger <a href="http://www.bluecheddar.net/?p=30581">blue cheddar</a>, for some perspective on these persistent protesters:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">I stand by the Solidarity Sing Along (SSA). I do not think the Solidarity Sing Along is detrimental to “our movement”. It is in fact the movement’s most persistent element – the pilot light that you should keep afire. It began on March 11, 2011 as an extension of the occupation and has persisted through the courage of individual Wisconsinites who had to figure everything out on their own and under pressure. It lives in defiance of an autocratic administration that tries to eradicate it. Nobody has allowed it to die out of neglect, “civility”, infighting, or excuse-making. It is free and yet held tightly in common. It is amazing.</blockquote>

scott walker union wisconsin Wisconsin's solidarity singers arrested today

Wisconsin police just arrested 22 people today for singing "Solidarity Forever" in the Statehouse. The singers have been musically protesting Job-killer Gov. Scott Walker every weekday since March 11, 2011 -- ever since he rammed an ALEC bill through…

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