Wisconsin's Choices

By Jeff Simpson 

In government, money is usually limited(unless Republicans want to go to war).   In Wisconsin it is no different.   After electing a group of spend happy, economically illiterate Republicans for four years we are left with a multi billion dollar deficit.   

Now that we have limited funds,we have to make choices where we spend them.  Wisconsin by electing Scott Walker has made their choice:

In Wisconsin, in order to keep Scott Walker happy we spend millions making sure our LGBT friends do not have the same rights as everyone else:

 The State of Wisconsin's unsuccessful court battle to prevent gay marriage will cost taxpayers more than $1 million, under an agreement released Friday.

State Attorney General Brad Schimel, a Republican, and attorneys for eight gay and lesbian couples reached the agreement after the couples successfully sued to overturn the state's 2006 constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

The couples were represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, which sought $1.25 million to cover its costs because the couples prevailed in their lawsuit. Ultimately, the ACLU will receive nearly $1.1 million, under the stipulation released Friday.

Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond in Virginia who believes bans like Wisconsin's are unconstitutional, said that he wasn't surprised at the cost to state taxpayers and that it could have been worse. Gov. Scott Walker, one of the defendants, and then-Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, both Republicans, opposed the same-sex plaintiffs at every level of the federal court system, he said.

"The state never seemed to appreciate how much taxpayer money is expended on this type of litigation in which it was pretty clear from the outset that Wisconsin was going to lose," Tobias said.

Now that we are paying legal fees from a losing effort, we have to cut somewhere, so here it is:

The University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh says it plans to reduce the number of its sports programs by two, in response to proposed state budget cuts.
The school said Monday it plans to drop the men's soccer and men's tennis teams, after the 2015-'16 school year.
In addition, UW-Oshkosh plans to combine the men's and women's track and field and men's and women's cross-country teams under a restructured coaching staff.
The action will reduce UW-Oshkosh's total number of varsity sports from 21 to 19 and result in the loss of two coaching positions.

Good job Wisconsin, choosing more money to lawyers and less to our kids!  

The ACLU Joins In The Chorus

Surely, the gentle reader is fully aware of the oppression of democracy, freedom and civil rights which are going on in our state capitol.

Unable to tolerate dissent because it sheds the light of truth on their maleficent actions, Scott Walker and his henchman, Capitol Police Chief Dave Erwin, have been stepping on the throats of the Solidarity Singers.  Even worse is that they can't do their evil by the light of day, but wait until nightfall to go to people's homes before engaging in their intimidation tactics.

The violation of people's constitutional rights have become so egregious that fellow officers and deputies from around the state have condemned these actions.

The ACLU also sent a warning to Walker and his thugs, advising them of the Constitution and the rights and freedoms it guarantees.

Instead of backing off, Walker had Erwin step it up by threatening ACLU watchers.  The ACLU responded with amazing restraint and patience.

But that patience has apparently worn thin, for they have stepped into the fray and have filed suit against Walker and his bullying tactics:

The suit filed in Madison Monday seeks to block Capitol Police and the state Department of Administration from requiring permits for demonstrations and fining protesters who don't comply.

The lawsuit says that Michael Kissick, an assistant professor of medical physics and human oncology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, participated in demonstrations in the rotunda until September 2012, but then stopped because of concerns about ticketing and arrests.

“I have always attempted to follow the law while expressing my political views,” Kissick said in a statement. “I resent being treated as criminal for speaking freely in a public forum. This country was founded on dissent, so I view myself as a proud American exercising my rights to engage in the most protected of all speech."

And the lawsuit was filed in federal court, so the corrupt Pat Roggensack and her friends cannot interfere with their political activism.

On behalf of the people of Wisconsin, I thank the good folks at the ACLU for standing up for and with us.

Solidarity Singers Get A Back Up Chorus

Not being able to bear the thought that people might be exercising their constitutional rights, Scott Walker set out to bring in his own version of the Sheriff of Nottingham. Thus he installed Dave Erwin as commandant of the Capitol Police.

So far, Erwin's claim to fame is threatening innocent citizens and advising politicians to hit their constituents.

Commandant Erwin has set his eyes on the Solidarity Singers, a group of citizens who come to the Capitol every day at lunchtime and sing songs of solidarity. Obviously, these fiends must be stopped! After all, how are the Republicans supposed to go about systematically destroying the state if there are people running around exercising their First Amendment rights?!

Now, if the singers wanted to become the Solidarity Shooters and bring in handguns, that's perfectly fine. But singing? No way!

To deter the Solidarity Singers, and everyone else, of their rights, Erwin wants to strictly enforce the draconian permit requirements.

One could just imagine Walker, Mike Huebsch and the Fitzgerald boys rubbing their hands and snarling in delight of the prospect of getting those democracy addicts behind bars where they belong.

Only thing is there is something they forgot about. The law.

They also forgot about another thing - the ACLU.

The ACLU has fired a warning shot over Erwin's bow by challenging his ridiculousness:

Ultimately the ACLU of Wisconsin believes the new rules issued by the Wisconsin State Department of Administration, including the requirement for groups as few as four people to secure a permit for a “rally… for the purpose of actively promoting any cause,” are not reasonable. Particularly if the rules are applied to the Solidarity Sing Along which takes place at a reasonable time (the hours between noon and 1:00 p.m. are defined in the DOA’s rules as not being normal working hours) and place such as in the rotunda, where state of Wisconsin has long allowed the public to hold rallies of all sizes.

“Chief Erwin said the permit process has been in place for decades,” said ACLU of Wisconsin Communications Director Stacy Harbaugh. “However, I have been organizing volunteer legal observers to witness protests at the Capitol over the past six years and it has been my experience that Capitol Police have asked for voluntary compliance in filling out permits and in practice have only required permits for protests that require extra staffing, closed streets, access to building electricity and other logistical needs. There has typically been reasonable accommodation for protests large and small, planned or spontaneous.”

The Constitution allows “reasonable time, place and manner” regulations. But such restrictions on the use of space must be content-neutral. By requiring permits for “rallies” of four or more people, the DOA and Capitol Police must look at the content of the event to determine whether or not a group in the Capitol is a “rally” promoting a cause versus a gathering of four people who want to talk about where to get lunch.

In addition, any restriction must be narrowly tailored to serve a significant government interest. Chief Erwin suggests that permits are required for police to adequately accommodate public safety interests, but it is unreasonable to suggest that a group as small as four would overwhelm the police force. Further, the First Amendment requires and the DOA’s own rules allow for defined, spontaneous events. It is the responsibility of the Capitol Police to have staffing plans in place to have the flexibility to protect the safety of all announced and unannounced visitors to the building.

The participants of the Solidarity Sing Along have worked with the Capitol police and staff to accommodate multiple users of the Capitol rotunda. This relationship can and should continue to meet the needs of police to make narrowly tailored, content-neutral space management decisions.

As for the public safety concerns outlined in Erwin’s letter, we believe it is the responsibility of the Capitol Police to ensure that the Capitol building is both a safe place to work and for demonstrators to engage in peaceful speech activity in the rotunda. To threaten to enforce a permit requirement against peaceful, cooperative protesters on the basis of safety concerns arising from the alleged actions of a few individuals would punish those engaging in protected speech activity. If criminal harassment or intimidation is occurring against Capitol workers or singers alike, it is the responsibility of police to address it, not crackdown on peaceful protest.

Indeed, all Erwin - at the orders of Walker - is doing is trying to act as a jack-booted thug. Perhaps instead of threatening the singers, he should be looking at ways at protecting them from the real criminals.

Erwin might also want to try to help enforce the law by finding and confiscating Walker's secret router. That's what a real law enforcement officer would do.

Another Attack on Civil Rights

I saw this story about another attack on a person's right to comment on events anonymously. The catch is that the comments in question were not on a blog, but through Twitter:

An anonymous blogger critical of Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett plans to challenge a grand jury subpoena ordering Twitter to reveal the blogger’s identity.

“It doesn’t really matter why we are criticizing him,” said ”Signor Ferrari,” one of the two Twitter users targeted in the subpoena from Corbett, who won the Republican gubernatorial primary Tuesday. ”It’s our First Amendment right to criticize him no matter who we are,” Signor Ferrari said in a telephone interview Wednesday. Signor Ferrari uses that pen name on the CasablancaPA blog.

[...]

While those efforts involved civil subpoenas, Corbett is apparently treating his online critics as potential criminals, using his power as the state’s top law enforcement official to issue a grand jury subpoena. The subpoena does not state what kind of crime the grand jury is investigating.

The subpoena to Twitter was dated May 6 and required Twitter to respond by May 14 with all identifying information it has on the Twitter accounts of bfbarbie andCasablancaPA, which is also Signor Ferrari’s handle on Twitter. The deadline had been extended, Signor Ferrari said.

“We have a constitutionally protected right to speak anonymously,” Signor Ferarri said.

So much for the garbage about how the right wingers are all about freedom. They're all about trying to take away our freedoms.

Fortunately for those microbloggers, the ACLU is getting involved to protect their rights.