The police state at the Wisconsin Capitol continues, tea party rally a joke

By on March 7, 2011 in Labor

As I wrote about last week, Wisconsin State Representative Nick Milroy was tackled when he tried to enter the Capitol Building on Thursday night. Here’s the video:

This police state environment at the Wisconsin Capitol continues this week. Talking Points Memo is reporting that the key cards of staff AND LEGISLATORS have been turned off, denying them direct entrance to the building. Now all staff must pass through what security checkpoints that closely resemble TSA security checkpoints at airports complete with metal detectors and hundreds of police officers who now literally occupy the Capitol building during work hours.

Milroy has described the situation as an “armed-palace environment” and said that Governor Walker has “basically turned the Capitol into a police state.”

Each legislative office is given eight passes to issue to constituents each day.…


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Homebrew at the White House? How do I get invited???!

By on March 5, 2011 in Barack Obama, President Obama

This story from Obama Foodorama is truly awesome: The Obamas Make History With Homebrewed White House Honey Ale

President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama made culinary history when they served homebrewed White House Honey Ale, made with a pound of honey from the White House Beehive, to guests at last month’s Super Bowl party. They are the first presidential couple to ever charge their chefs with the ancient–and now wildly popular–art of homebrewing, according to White House Curator Bill Allman.

~SNIP~

Yes, President George Washington was a well-known homebrewer. President Washington is also the only president who never lived in the White House.

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A new front in the war against Asian carp in the Great Lakes

By on March 5, 2011 in Michigan

The Chicago locks aren’t the only entry threat for invasive Asian carp entering the Great Lakes watershed:

Yang, 52, the owner of a fish import company, pleaded guilty this week in Windsor to violating the federal Fisheries Act, and was ordered to pay a $50,000 fine. He was stopped Nov. 4 after crossing the Ambassador Bridge into Canada.

Yang paid a $40,000 fine in 2006 for a similar offense.

He was busted for trying to transport “4,000 pounds of prohibited bighead and grass carp apparently bound for consumer markets in Toronto” that he picked up down south via Michigan.

His second offense.…


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Dogs are lazy

By on March 5, 2011 in Eclectalife

This Hara. She is just waking up from her late mid-morning nap and preparing for her noontime nap.

A little later: early mid-afternoon nap, late mid-afternoon nap, dinnertime nap, early mid-evening nap, late mid-evening nap, early late-evening nap, late late-evening nap and then it will be time for bed.

It’s a VERY exhausting lifestyle.

BREAKING UPDATE!!! – The noontime nap is now underway!

Or is this the early mid-afternoon nap? I might have lost track…

I’m just sayin’…

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GOP budget plan will kill Michigan’s workforce development agency

By on March 4, 2011 in GOP, GOPocrisy, Republican-Fail, Republicans

Michigan’s workforce development agency, Michigan Works!, will close its doors if a Republican budget plan passed by the US House of Representatives this week is made into law.

Michigan Works would have to shut down under a budget passed by the U.S. House, though the Senate has not backed the spending cuts.

The statewide work force development agency, which serves some 3 million Michigan residents, is largely funded by the Workforce Investment Act.

House legislation would eliminate more than $3.6 billion in funding for that act after July 1, as well as rescind $175 million for the current year.

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Firefighters were denied access to Wisc. Capitol; live ammo found outside

By on March 4, 2011 in Labor

Last night a judge ordered the Wisconsin Capitol building closed during non-work hours creating an exodus as protesters left the building, ending a 17-day occupation. Governor Scott Walker has instituted draconian security checkpoints that were detailed in great detail HERE.

[T]oday when I went to the capitol to visit my representative, Janis Ringhand, and discuss my concerns about the governor’s proposed budget and its effects on natural resources, I was treated like a common criminal. Instead of walking freely through the capitol building, I was subjected to the myriad humiliations of a woman visiting her husband in federal prison. I was forced to empty my pockets of every dime, expose all my belongings to the scrutiny of a line of officers, even take off my coat so that I could be security-wanded by an officer.…

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President Obama appropriately chooses NOT to be the anti-Reagan

By on March 3, 2011 in Barack Obama, President Obama, unions

In 1981, Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO), the national union representing air traffic controllers, went on strike. After talks collapsed, President Ronald Reagan permanently fired 11,000 of the union members.

The President of the United States of America intervened in a labor dispute in a heavy-handed move that, in many ways, defined Reagan’s legacy and shaped the Republican Party and how it is perceived for decades to come. The labor turmoil in Wisconsin today is a direct result of Governor Scott Walker’s desire (obsession?) to be viewed as the next coming of Ronald Reagan and busting unions fits quite nicely into the frame.…


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Chris Matthews: “Don’t spread false witness about people”

By on March 3, 2011 in Uncategorized

I don’t have time to put up a transcript of this clip from Hardball last night but have a look at it. Chris Matthews nails the odious, racist birther Mike Huckabee to the wall and leaves him there for the rest of us to ridicule and deride. And he deserves it.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I’m ambivalent about Chris Matthews. Half the time I think he’s a jerk, the other half I think he’s spot-on. This is one of those times when he’s spot-on.

If you have an extra 10 minutes, I highly recommend looking at the segment from earlier in the show with David Corn and Joan Walsh.…


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