Category Archive

Yesterday evening, as most of you know, the Republican majority in the Wisconsin State Senate pushed through a bill that would severely limit state employees’ ability to bargain collectively through unions. The bill, which was presented three weeks ago as part of new governor Scott Walker’s first state budget proposal, had been stalled by Democrats in the Senate who had managed to keep that body from obtaining quorum.

Here’s a quick rundown on what happened last night, and what’s coming up today and in the future.

For most legislation, a simple majority is enough to conduct Senate business, but certain financial legislation requires a sixty percent quorum. For the last three weeks, everyone in Wisconsin has been operating from the premise that this bill triggered that sixty percent provision, which meant that the Dems in the chamber (14 of 33 Senators, or 42.4%) could keep the Senate from acting by refusing to show up. But last night the Republican majority met and passed the bill on virtually no notice, while the Democratic Senators remained out of state.

Questions have been raised about the legality of last night’s actions, both on the basis of the quorum requirement and on notice and open meetings grounds. But this morning the bill is moving to the Wisconsin State Assembly, where the Republican majority is taking it up this morning.

There’s a lot more to say, and I’ll be updating this post as the day goes on, but that’ll do for a start.

10:30 Wisconsin Time | Thousands of demonstrators descended on the Capitol yesterday evening, and hundreds camped out in the rotunda last night, but the Capitol has been cleared and locked down in advance of this morning’s planned Assembly session. And when I say “locked down” I mean REALLY locked down — the Wisconsin Daily Journal is reporting that reporters were refused entry to the Capitol this morning when they showed up for a press conference called by the Assembly’s minority leader. Even more bizarre, at least one state legislator has told the WDJ that he was turned away from the building, despite the fact that he is a member of the body that is scheduled to hold a vote in the near future.

10:40 | Correction to last update: The Capitol is currently locked down, but last night’s crowds have not yet been fully cleared. Reports on Twitter say police are physically removing people now.

10:50 | I’m seeing reports of hundreds of students walking out of Madison-area high schools and middle schools this morning, and heading to the Capitol as a group. Will post confirming links when/if I get them.

11:00 | I’m off to teach. I’ll update on Twitter as I can, and I’ll be back with more this afternoon.

11:05 | According to the Cap Times liveblog, police just announced plans to open the Capitol to the public at 11 am.

3:30 pm | Back from teaching. The Assembly has been in session for several hours now, and the Republican majority has rebuffed several Democratic attempts to slow things down in light of last night’s controversies. The vote on the bill is expected soon. More in a moment…

3:45 pm | With twenty members of the Assembly waiting to speak, and Democratic legislators shouting out points of order and other procedural objections, the vote was just called. The bill passed 53-42, with several Republicans defecting to the Democratic side.

Home with a kid with strep throat. Posting will resume later today or early tomorrow.

One student was arrested and a dozen others escorted out of the Georgia State Senate today as they protested cuts to a state scholarship program.

The Georgia State students, affiliated with the activist group Georgia Students for Public Higher Education, were protesting House Bill 326, which would dramatically scale back Georgia’s HOPE scholarship program. Earlier they had demonstrated against HB 326 and House Bill 59, a law that would ban undocumented students from Georgia’s state universities and colleges.

HB 326 passed the Senate in a party-line vote after the students were removed.

From Terry Pratchett’s novel The Wee Free Men:

A few children were waiting on the benches inside the booth for the lesson to begin, but the teacher was still standing out in front, in the hope of filling up the empty spaces.

“Hello little girl,” he said, which was only his first big mistake. I’m sure you want to know all about hedgehogs, eh?

“I did this one last summer,” said Tiffany.

The man looked closer, and his grin faded. “Oh, yes,” he said. “I remember. You asked all those … little questions.”

“I would like a question answered today,” said Tiffany.

“Provided it’s not the one about how you get baby hedgehogs,” said the man.

“No,” said Tiffany patiently. “It’s about zoology.”

“Zoology, eh? That’s a big word, isn’t it.”

“No, actually, it isn’t,” said Tiffany. “Patronizing is a big word. Zoology is really quite short.”

Journalist/professor Nina Power has a great piece on the Guardian’s site today about the role of women in the protest movements that have been rocking Britain in the last few months, and the ways in which critics of the protests have reacted to their prominence.

Some excerpts:

For the usual suspects the participation of so many young women – in the education protests in particular – has given rise to a certain moral panic. See, for example, the hilarious Daily Mail cover:“Rage of the Girl Rioters”.

The attempted pillorying of these young women – accused of “lacking respect” – by the Mail is the latest in a long line of attacks on women who campaign directly against the state: the suffragettes; women involved in the 1926 general strike; the miners’ protests in the mid-80s; those who fought for reproductive rights and against domestic violence. Just as with the attack on “ladettes” in the 1990s, what looks to be a moral criticism frequently masks a deeper political and economic fear – what shall we do when young women are academically successful, economically independent, socially confident and not afraid to enjoy themselves?

…

The past few years have similarly seen an eruption of interest in feminism across the country, with meetings and book launches spilling over with women and men of all ages. Whatever the 1990s tried to tell us was over – from inequality to political commitment – has most definitely not gone away; and the idea that one would simply have a passive, ironic or otherwise disinterested stance towards the brutal and brutalising policies of a government hell-bent on removing any vestige of a social bond now looks historically outmoded.

While there were many women tirelessly campaigning throughout the 1990s and 2000s on a variety of issues – both those that directly concerned women and as part of broader political campaigns – it was with the anti-war marches from 2003 onwards that the kind of street politics we see today came back on the agenda in a more visible way. Many of the schoolkids who played truant to attend anti-war protests have grown into articulate and politically passionate adults, rightly incensed that education is being transformed into something insanely expensive, increasingly exclusive and socially divisive.

…

When young women feel they are no longer held back by their gender, that they can take on any job, that they are more likely to do well in education than their male peers, that they don’t have to think of themselves as wives and mothers first, one outcome is an increase in political confidence. If you tell women they can be and can do anything they want, and then let them down – by taking away their education maintenance allowance, by making university prohibitively expensive, by forcing them to stay in poverty – they, along with their male peers, will make you pay for your lies and hypocrisies.

Go read the whole thing — it’s really sharp.