Michael

In Wisconsin, the state supreme court will shortly rule on the legality of the law that banned unions for government workers but before that one of the conservative supreme court justices (currently 4-3 in favor of conservatives) has to run for re-election. Today was election day and with all but one town counted, the liberal challenger is ahead by 235 votes.

During a mid year election, very few people normally vote and few know how state supreme court justices stand on issues but this election has a record turnout.

If there is a recount, guess who will be doing the recount. Government workers.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...on-kloppenburg

snowbunny

I really hope she wins....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...gg-internships

was interesting. Happens in this country too; parents with good jobs at good companies create internships for their offspring, giving them a leg up.

anotherlimey

Democracy at work, excellent.

Gingerert

This is why Wisconsin is the best state ever.

Jus' sayin'...

Michael

Normally Wisconsin is generally a blue state (eg. Sen Russ Feingold) but sometimes when it goes red, it goes ultra red (1950s Sen. Joe McCarthy and current Gov. Walker) and they overstep the acceptable bounds of decency which leads the country back to the democrats.

I guess everyone can make an occasional mistake just like your next door neighbor Minnesota which is also usually blue (Sen Hubert Humphrey, Sen. Fritz Mondale, Sen. Al Franken, Sen. Eugene McCarthy, Rep. Keith Ellison, and the occasional weirdo like Jessie Ventura) and then somehow produces someone like Rep. Michele Bachmann.

Gingerert

I blame my husband, personally. He's too lazy to vote. If everyone were too lazy then we wouldn't have democracy! This will all change when I become a citizen next year, mark my words...

I couldn't believe it when Scott Walker got in. Incredibly frustrating. Our local representative is Paul Ryan, who's also been kicking up a bit of a stink in Washington. I think the tables will turn come next election.

Michael

Ryan is very conservative but is not a nut job. Check out Joe McCarthy if you really want to see a real nut job.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_McCarthy

Bob

You know what's really funny....the utter nut job the folks in Maine voted in.

His policy was to scrap the department of education because you don't need people running schools and he was trying to scrap unemployment benefits and just boot people out of the state into New Hampshire.

He got in...6 months later or so, people now realise he's utterly mental and need to get a huge number of signatures to get the chance to vote to remove him at the next by-election

Michael

I suspect governors Walker (R-WI), Kasich (R-OH), LaPage (R-Me), and Snyder (R-MI) all thought that they could follow in the footsteps of governor Christie (R-NJ) who did severe budget cutting and remained very popular. Now after the fiasco in Wisconsin with the possible loss of a conservative supreme court justice and several possible republican recalls, I suspect they will all be stepping back to reevaluate their positions.

Gingerert

Oh yeah, I know McCarthy. I know ALL about McCarthy.

Nut job personified.

Michael

Although I disagree with Paul Ryan, I respect his attempt to reform social security/medicare to save about $4.5 trillion over 10 years to try to solve the budget problem when other conservatives are afraid to touch the holy grail but he loses a great deal of credibility when included in his proposal is a $4 trillion tax cut for the rich and corporations getting a total savings of only about $500 billion.

Gingerert

Personally I don't mind Paul Ryan too much. Way back in 2008 when USCIS had me down as being Jose Gonzalez from Mexico (don't ask), it was Paul Ryan's office that stepped in and took care of it, when all other government departments had failed. So while I will never vote Republican, I think we could be a lot worse off.

Still can't believe WI is such big news at the moment though.

Michael

It is all because if the republicans in Wisconsin are decimated by the recalls, it will have a major impact on politics nationally. It is similar to the tea party when they first started where almost everyone thought they were a joke but as they started winning elections, they were taken very seriously.

Gingerert

Yup.

But perhaps I should have been more specific: I can't believe that all this activity is happening in Wisconsin, of all places! Usually we're very dull and fat and just make do with beer and cheese for our entertainment and politics.

Michael

I get you now. Same with Minnesota until Bachmann started opening her mouth. Normally nobody knows where Minnesota is until someone from the state gets the presidential nomination (eg. Humphrey and Mondale) and as soon as they lose, it's back to beer and hot dogs.