Monday morning, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin filed a complaint with the state's Government Accountability Board against Gov. Scott Walker, citing comments Walker made during a prank call phoned in by a Buffalo, NY blogger Ian Murphy masquerading as David Koch, one of the billionaire co-owners of Koch Industries and a top contributor to Walker's gubernatorial campaign.
TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2011, AFTERNOON NEWS ROUNDUP
E-MAILS REVEAL POSSIBLE WALKER CONCESSIONS ON UNION BILL
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Gov. Scott Walker's office released documents Tuesday showing he's willing to give on some points of his union bargaining bill to break the Capitol standoff and bring Senate Democrats back from Illinois.
TWO WEEKS IN MADISON - A TRIBUTE
NEW ETHICS COMPLAINT FILED WITH FOCUS ON KOCH MONEY IN STATE
CMD's Erica Pelzek reports:
Monday morning, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin filed a complaint with the state's Government Accountability Board against Gov. Scott Walker, citing comments Walker made during a prank call phoned in by a Buffalo, NY blogger Ian Murphy masquerading as David Koch, one of the billionaire co-owners of Koch Industries and a top contributor to Walker's gubernatorial campaign.
Madison, Wisconsin -- A new lobbying firm, the Badger Advocates, has opened on Capitol Square.
According to its newly-minted website, the Advocates "are dedicated to supporting the University of Wisconsin-Madison ... [and] will promote greater accountability through enhanced autonomy for this unique institution." This lobbying effort is similar to efforts afoot in other states to use state budget issues to privatize public higher education institutions and put more assets and power at the disposal of powerful corporate interests.
The lobby shop's PR description closely mirrors the title of the Wisconsin Public Research Institute's December 2010 report titled, "Making the University of Wisconsin More Accountable Through Greater Autonomy." WPRI is heavily funded by the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, a right-wing neo-conservative think tank.
12:30 p.m. - AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY TOUR ROLLS INTO MADISON
Mary Bottari reports:
After a disastrous bus tour around the state where protesters regularly outnumbered a small number of participants, the Americans for Prosperity "Stand with Walker" Bus Tour rolled into the Alliant Energy Center in Madison and about three people got off, according to a person on the scene. About a thousand protesters lined the driveway to the Alliant Energy Center with festive signs: "Atlas Shrugged, Workers Mugged" "We Changed our Mind, Now Resign!" "Americans for Plutocracy" and more.
(Updated 3/6/11) MADISON--Responding to claims by the Walker Department of Administration that the cost to clean up the tape from citizens' signs in the Capitol would be $7.5 million, the Center for Media and Democracy today announced that it was willing to clean up the tape on the capitol's walls for a much lower bid, $75,000, although the actual cost for acetone and cotton balls and a little bit of elbow grease could be much closer to $7,500 or less.
MICHAEL MOORE SPEAKS IN MADISON, WISCONSIN: "AMERICA IS NOT BROKE"
"What are the 3 biggest lies of the decade? 1) Wisconsin is broke, 2) there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq 3) the Packers need Farve to win the Super Bowl."
CAUTION! EXTREME VIOLENCE AND PALM TREES.
LAURA FLANDERS INTERVIEWS MICHAEL MOORE ON MADISON PROTESTS
NEW REPORT DEBUNKS "LEAGUE OF AMERICAN VOTERS" ROBO-CALLS FOR WALKER
The Center has issued a new report debunking the misleading robo-calls unleashed in Wisconsin this week and providing readers with information to get off LAV's call list and other actions they can take. CMD/PRWatch has also issued a detailed report on who the DC-based group is and what their connections are to the moneyed interests, including to a FOX "analyst." Click here to read the full report.
On February 21, the New York Times created a stir in Wisconsin by printing a front page article giving the impression that union families supported Governor Scott Walker's attempt to remove collective bargaining rights from workers. On February 26, The Times retracted information related to this article.
The lead of the story, entitled "Union Bonds in Wisconsin Begin to Fray", featured a former Janesville General Motors employee Rich Hahn, who was characterized as "...a man who has worked at unionized factories, [and] a supporter of Gov. Scott Walker's sweeping proposal to cut the benefits and collective-bargaining rights of public workers." In the story reporters A.G. Sulzberger — said to be the son of New York Times Co. Chairman of the Board Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr.— and Monica Davey spend very little time quoting Hahn but a lot of time characterizing him. "He says he still believes in unions, but thinks those in the public sector lead to wasteful spending because of what he sees as lavish benefits and endless negotiations," the story says of Hahn.
Submitted by Anne Landman on
On February 28, the O'Reilly Factor aired a video news segment by Fox Channel reporter Mike Tobin, who was shown reporting from inside the state capitol building in Madison, Wisconsin. "News" footage aired during his broadcast of goings-on outside the capitol depicts an angry, out-of-control, crowd of pro-union protesters yelling and pushing people around. But the protesters in the video are wearing shirtsleeves and standing on a street lined with tall palm trees and other green, leafy foliage -- and that is absolutely not February in Madison, where no palm trees live outside of greenhouses and where temperatures have been well below freezing for most of the winter. Fox clearly used out-of-town footage to depict the "violence" it is hyping as happening in Madison. The segment is two minutes, nine seconds long, and the palm tree footage occurs at the 1:42 mark, as wording on the screen says "Union Protests."
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