Amerikaanse vakbonden onder vuur.

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http://edition.cnn.com/2011/US/02/22/wisconsin.budget/index.html

Madison, Wisconsin (CNN) -- A left-leaning website that union supporters used to rally protesters in Wisconsin was partially blocked as demonstrators gathered in the state Capitol over a controversial budget bill.

The website, defendwisconsin.org, could not be accessed on Monday and into Tuesday morning in the Capitol building, where crowds assembled over proposed legislation that would increase the costs of benefits to public employees and curb their collective-bargaining rights.

Wisconsin Democratic Party press secretary Graeme Zielinski blamed Gov. Scott Walker and Republican lawmakers -- who returned to work Tuesday -- for causing the outage.

"In a direct assault on the First Amendment, Scott Walker's administration is blocking access in the Wisconsin Capitol to opposition websites," Zielinski said.

State Department of Administration spokeswoman Carla Vigue responded, saying, "DOA's security software automatically blocked the site, as it does all new websites."

"No one here at DOA decided to block it or took action to do so," he said. "The website is handled like any other website."

The Capitol internet service, which restricts access to certain websites considered inappropriate for lawmakers, revealed a "blocked page" when users tried to access the site using the building's wireless system.

Users were able to access the site elsewhere.

The outage comes on the heels of a speech by Walker, who defended the budget proposal and criticized unions for squandering state coffers and impeding fiscal reform.

"We're broke," he told reporters Monday. "You really can't negotiate when you don't have money to negotiate with."

Unions have argued that collective bargaining -- a process of negotiations meant to regulate working conditions -- has helped protect wages and health care, enforce workplace safety and serve as a means to arbitrate employee grievances.

The budget-repair bill, proposed by Walker to address a $137 million shortfall through June 30, would increase contributions of state workers to their pensions and health insurance benefits. It requires collective-bargaining units to conduct annual votes to maintain certification. It also eliminates the right of unions to have dues deducted from worker paychecks.

Walker warned that not passing the proposed bill would result in at least 1,500 government employees being laid off in the short term and could result in the layoffs of upward of 6,000 workers in the following budget cycle.

Last week, 14 Democratic state senators essentially boycotted the Legislature and went to Illinois to prevent a quorum from passing the bill. The measure's opponents said they won't allow a vote unless Walker negotiates on the plan to eliminate collective-bargaining rights for everything but wages.

For their part, Democrats need to draw at least three Republican lawmakers to block the bill or otherwise renegotiate the proposal.

The state's protesting teachers -- who had shut down schools across the state -- returned to the classroom Tuesday.

Meanwhile, a bill to limit the collective-bargaining power of some public-sector workers sparked protests in neighboring Ohio, where crowds gathered last week in the state Capitol.

The measure would eliminate tenure as a consideration when deciding on layoffs, require workers to pay at least 20% of their health insurance premiums and institute merit-based pay for some public-sector workers.

Elsewhere Tuesday, Michigan lawmakers approved a proposal to shrink Detroit's troubled school system, while House Democrats in Indiana may have ripped a page out of Wisconsin's book by threating to walk out on a Republican-supported bill that would reduce private-sector union rights.

In New Jersey, Republican Gov. Chris Christie is set to give his annual budget address that many analysts say will likely include big cuts to state services in an effort to avoid raising taxes.

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Op dinsdag 22 februari 2011 21:06 schreef YazooW het volgende:

[..]

/topic

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Like a wind-whipped brush fire, the mass union protests that began in Madison, Wis., last week have spread to the capitals of Ohio and Indiana where Republican lawmakers also are trying to cripple the bargaining power of unions — and ultimately realize a cherished partisan dream of eradicating them. In each case, Republican talk of balancing budgets is cover for the real purpose of gutting the political force of middle-class state workers, who are steady supporters of Democrats and pose a threat to a growing conservative agenda.
Readers' Comments

In Ohio, Republican legislators, backed by Gov. John Kasich, have introduced a bill to end collective bargaining for state employees, in addition to imposing budgetary givebacks. Former Gov. Ted Strickland, a Democrat who was defeated by Mr. Kasich last year, has called the bill a “coordinated attack on the working middle class.” Thousands of union supporters showed up at the Capitol in Columbus on Tuesday, but the party appears to have the votes to pass the measure.

Across the border, Republicans are pushing a bill that would make Indiana what is misleadingly known as a “right-to-work” state. That means workers cannot be required to join public- or private-sector unions or pay dues, starving unions of the money they need to operate. Democrats in the Indiana House left the state to prevent a vote, tying up all legislation for two days. Thousands of workers have rallied on the Statehouse grounds. Gov. Mitch Daniels (who ended collective-bargaining rights for state workers in 2005) has supported the bill’s concept but on Tuesday urged Republicans to drop it because it could interfere with other items on his agenda.

Conservative leaders in most states with strong unions have in the past generally made accommodations with organized labor, often winning support on social issues in return. That changed this year after wealthy conservatives poured tens of millions of dollars into the election campaigns of hard-right candidates like Mr. Kasich and Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin.

As Eric Lipton reported in The Times on Tuesday, the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, who have long been staunch union opponents, were among the biggest contributors to Mr. Walker. (Americans for Prosperity, the conservative group financed by the Kochs, will begin running anti-union broadcast ads in Wisconsin in the next few days.)

Some public sector unions have contracts and benefits that are too rich for these times, but even when they have made concessions, Republican officials have kept up the attack. The Republicans’ claim to be acting on behalf of taxpayers is not believable.

In Wisconsin, union leaders agreed to concessions requested by Mr. Walker: to pay nearly 6 percent of their wages for pension costs, up from nearly zero, and double payments for health insurance. At that point, most governors would declare victory and move on. Instead, Mr. Walker has rejected union concessions and won’t even negotiate. His true priority is stripping workers of collective-bargaining rights and reducing their unions to a shell. The unions would no longer be able to raise money to oppose him, as they did in last year’s election, easing the way for future Republicans as well.

The game is up when unionized state workers demonstrate a sense of shared sacrifice but Republican lawmakers won’t even allow them a seat at the table. For unions and Democrats in the Midwest, this is an existential struggle, and it is one worth waging.

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Earlier today, ThinkProgress published an exclusive report that the law firm representing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a right-wing trade association representing big business, is working with set of “private security” companies and lobbying firms to undermine their political opponents, including ThinkProgress. According to e-mails obtained by ThinkProgress, the Chamber hired the lobbying firm Hunton and Williams. Attorneys for the firm solicited a set of private security firms — HBGary Federal, Palantir, and Berico Technologies (collectively called Team Themis) — to develop a sabotage campaign against progressive groups and labor unions, including ThinkProgress, the labor coalition Change to Win, SEIU, US Chamber Watch, and StopTheChamber.com.

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Op woensdag 23 februari 2011 08:21 schreef vergezocht het volgende:
ts komt van laatst steeds meer met bagger

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Op woensdag 23 februari 2011 09:00 schreef Lambiekje het volgende:

En ondertussen in Canada ga je per Gigabyte betalen.

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Op woensdag 23 februari 2011 08:30 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:
Als we bovenstaande combineren met het Anonymous/HBGary verhaal....

http://thinkprogress.org/2011/02/10/chamberleaks-target-families/

[..]

... dan begin ik een patroon te zien.

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url=http://www.volkskrant.nl/vk/nl/2668/Buitenland/article/detail/1851419/2011/02/23/Ook-in-Indiana-vluchten-congresleden-voor-stemming.dhtml]http://www.volkskrant.nl/(...)-voor-stemming.dhtml[/url]

CHICAGO - Democraten uit het congres van de Amerikaanse staat Indiana hebben zich verstopt in andere staten, om een stemming over minder vakbondsrechten te verhinderen. Zonder de Democraten is er geen quorum voor een geldige stemming.

De Democraten van Indiana volgen daarmee het voorbeeld van veertien partijgenoten in Wisconsin. Die zijn al ruim een week op de vlucht voor een stemming. Ze willen pas terugkeren als een wetsvoorstel wordt afgezwakt dat ambtenaren verbiedt lid te worden van een vakbond.

Kopje kleiner
De Republikeinen gebruiken hun meerderheid in een reeks staten momenteel om de vakbonden een kopje kleiner te maken. De bonden vormen traditioneel een sterke basis voor de rivaliserende Democraten.

De Republikeinen hebben inmiddels in twaalf van de vijftig Amerikaanse staten afgedwongen dat ambtenaren geen lid mogen worden van een bond. Zo'n 22 staten hebben bovendien wetten aangenomen waardoor het lidmaatschap overbodig wordt: ook niet-vakbondsleden profiteren van loonsverhogingen die door de vakbond zijn uitonderhandeld.

Fel verzet
De aanval op het vakbondswezen stuit op fel verzet in het centrale deel van de VS, waar de bonden vrij sterk zijn. In Wisconsin bezetten honderden rumoerige betogers al negen dagen lang het Senaatsgebouw. Net als de demonstranten op het Tahrirplein in het Egyptische Caïro, hebben ze een eigen kamp opgezet. Ze slapen daar 's nachts. Sympathisanten brengen water en pizza.

De betogers in Wisconsin belaagden dinsdag een journalist van de rechtse tv-zender Fox News, toen hij verslag uitbracht over de bezetting. Tijdens zijn hele live verslag schreeuwden de betogers 'Vertel de waarheid!'.

Boete
Ook in de staat Ohio zijn duizenden betogers op de been bij hun Senaatsgebouw, als protest tegen een wet die veel vakbondsrechten schrapt voor ambtenaren. Maar de Democraten in deze staat willen niet de benen nemen, zei hun leider Capri Cafaro tegen tv-zender CNN. 'Dat is voor ons onmogelijk', zei hij, temidden van betogers met borden 'Stop de oorlog tegen werknemers'. 'Ik prijs mijn collega's in andere staten, maar wij proberen hier het debat voort te zetten.'

De Democraten van Indiana hangt ondertussen een boete of berisping boven het hoofd als ze nog langer wegblijven, waarschuwde de Republikeinse voorzitter Brian Bosma van het Huis van Afgevaardigden in Indiana.

quote:

http://www.guardian.co.uk(...)sconsin-prank-called

The Republican governor at the centre of the union-busting protests in the US has been embarrassed by a prank call that he believed was from one of his billionaire backers.

On the recording of the call, which has been released online, the Republican governor of Wisconsin Scott Walker tells a caller impersonating one of the rightwing Koch brothers that he is looking forward to flying to California to celebrate with them once the battle with the unions was won, and jokes about taking a baseball bat to slug Democratic leaders.

Walker is under siege in his office in the state capitol building in Madison, Wisconsin, in a backlash against his proposed legislation to remove unions' right to collective bargaining and cut public sector workers' pay.

Ian Murphy, who calls in pretending to be David Koch, suggests planting troublemakers among the protesters, who have been peaceful through 11 successive days of demonstrations. Walker says he has thought about doing that but decided against.

The prankster says: "I'll tell you what Scott, once you crush these bastards, I'll fly you out to Cali and really show you a good time."

Walker replies: "Alright, that would be outstanding. Thanks for all the support and helping us move the cause forward. We appreciate it and we're doing the just and right thing for the right reasons and it's all about getting our freedoms back."

The Koch brothers have given millions to the Americans for Prosperity campaign group, which has previously campaigned against Barack Obama's healthcare reforms and tightening environmental controls. It is launching a major advertising campaign supporting Walker in Wisconsin.

Records for the state show that the brothers' Koch Industries was one of the largest contributors to Walker's election campaign.

The call can be heard on the Buffalo Beast website.

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Op donderdag 24 februari 2011 19:21 schreef Dagonet het volgende:
Een assistent procureur generaal uit Indiana, VS, heeft een tweet met z'n baan moeten bekopen.
In reactie op protesten in de staat Wisconsin (bezuinigingsplannen van de Republikeinen in de staat leidden tot demonstraties van vele duizenden mensen) schreef hij het volgende op z'n twitteraccount:
[ afbeelding ]

Het ging nog vrolijk verder toen een blogger met hem in gesprek ging:

@AdamWeinstein against thugs physically threatening legally-elected state legislators & governor? You're damn right I advocate deadly force


@AdamWeinstein Political enemies threatening physical violence against legally elected state representatives.

Voor de hele discussie, zie Twitter.

[..]

Bron: USA Today

Niet alleen in Nederland is het dus dat men moet oppassen wat men op Twitter zegt.

quote:

http://www.salon.com/news/wisconsin/index.html?story=/news/feature/2011/02/26/us_wisconsin_budget_the_long_protest

Harriet Rowan was among the first to join the Wisconsin Capitol protest village. That was on Valentine's Day, and it was only the next day when thousands of others began camping out with her in the rotunda that the rumor mill, misinformation and confusion took off as fast as the crowd size.

"I came back on Tuesday night and there was absolutely no organization," Rowan said. "People needed people to go up upstairs and testify all night to keep the building open ... people were going around just waking people up ... it was chaotic."

The University of Wisconsin senior made a snap decision to coordinate protest efforts, producing signs with media talking points and starting a Twitter feed detailing legislative meeting times, union rally locations and details on day-to-day life in the Capitol.

Other Madison residents have opened their doors to out-of-town visitors, offering lodging to anyone friendly to unions. At the Statehouse, pizza, chili and cheese are offered to hungry protesters. Busloads of supporters from Los Angeles and elsewhere arrive to boost the numbers.

Nearly two weeks after the start of widespread protests against Gov. Scott Walker's proposal that would strip nearly all public employees of their collective bargaining rights erupted, a network of volunteers has emerged that keeps the daily demonstrations alive.

The protests began Feb. 15, with 13,000 people attending rallies in and around the Capitol. Crowds peaked at 70,000 a week ago, a few thousand of which were tea party counter-protesters. Since then crowds outside the Capitol have dipped significantly, but those inside the Capitol still range in the thousands and police are bracing for another large crowd Saturday. Smaller sympathy demonstrations are planned elsewhere in the country.

In a third-floor room where the UW-Madison Teaching Assistants Association has based its support operations, a conference table is dwarfed by a mountain of bedding supplies. Posters organizing protests, rides and class coverage for absent TAs line the walls.

"I think in general having a sense of humor in all of this has been important," said Kevin Gibbons, TAA co-president. "You have some students I've been talking to reflecting on it and they say, 'Everybody sort of seems happy, this is a serious protest.' But it is needed to sustain this kind of energy."

The rotunda ground floor is at the heart of the protests, with drums and a microphone attached to a megaphone. The din is deafening. Some drummers wrap their hands with blue painter's tape to avoid injury from the repetitive pounding.

Most of those in the drum circle are unaffiliated with unions or political groups. Most are Madison residents or students, like UW graduate student Tom Bird.

"Friday night, I started slowly drumming a little and talking on the microphone once or twice," Bird said. "Then it just sort of snowballed. On Saturday, Sunday I'm leading massive groups of people in cheers."

The Capitol's north wing became a protester service center. Donated food laid out on tables fuels the villagers.

The morning begins with breakfast cereals and bagels. Later in the day, tables are stocked with tortilla chips, specialty breads and vegan bakery items from a coffee shop. Gallons of soup and chili arrive from a cafe, cheese spreads from several sources and thousands of slices of pizza from a restaurant.

"We teach at the high school and work in community farms and with small businesses," said Mermaid Cafe owner David McKercher. "When the teachers are in trouble and the health profession is in trouble, those are our associates, so we jump in there."

Between empty pizza boxes and steaming teakettles is a makeshift day care center. Kids play and use markers to draw murals on butcher paper. Parents are told volunteers can look after the kids for 15 minutes if they need to use restrooms or get supplies.

At the medical center, street medics and the occasional doctor or specialist -- identified by their red-masking-taped-crosses -- tend to cuts and bruises. The biggest focus is hygiene, with boxes of deodorant, mouthwash, toothpaste and hand purifier lining the walls.

Protesters who don't stay in the Capitol have plenty of options. Paul Adler, who arrived from Washington, D.C., said he didn't know exactly where he was going to stay. But he had enough offers that he could choose accommodations based on proximity to the Capitol.

Capitol police have allowed protesters to stay 24 hours a day and hundreds do most nights. But police plan to end the sleepover at 4 p.m. Sunday, setting up a potential showdown in what has been a relatively incident-free protest.

"I'm pretty sure there will be people unwilling to leave the building on their own two feet," Rowan said

quote:

Here's a pretty good indicator of just how resistant Republicans allied with Governor Scott Walker have become to reaching a compromise of any kind with labor and Dems to end the standoff in Wisconsin over the Governor's proposal to roll back public employee bargaining rights.

I'm told that some Republicans in the state senate were so angry at fellow Republican senator Dale Schultz for proposing a modest compromise with unions and senate Dems that they actually threatened at a private meeting to kick him out of the state senate GOP caucus.

quote:

http://www.rawstory.com/r(...)unched-by-protester/

Fox News has been making a lot of hay about one of their reporters allegedly being "punched" by a protester in Madison, Wisconsin.

Turns out, that didn't happen.

Mike Tobin, reporting from amid the massive demonstration on Friday, claimed that one of the protesters "punched" him in the arm. In another broadcast, he claimed a man threatened to break his neck.

In both cases, supporting evidence for these claims was not broadcast -- yet still, Tobin's reports have been widely cited across conservative blogs that seem eager to depict union workers as hateful and violent.

What's worse, Tobin's allegation that he was assaulted might have slipped past without rebuttal were it not for a camera-equipped bystander, who captured the scene.

Turns out, someone merely touched his shoulder, as evidenced in the video below. The incident he claimed was a "punch" could instead be described as a pat, at most.

That was apparently enough for him to later declare that even after being "punched, he was just too nice of a guy to press charges.

Fox News reporters have been repeatedly shouted down by union protesters, many of whom simply chant "Fox News lies!" every time the network's cameras set up for a live shot.

That repeated reaction led Tobin to complain how there was "hate in their eyes" during the confrontations, leading him to assume that protesters must simply hate reporters and the media in general, or that they're intolerant of alternative viewpoints.

He didn't seem to consider their actual allegation: that Fox News "lies."

The channel's woeful track record for distorting the news aside, if Tobin was seriously asking why protesters object to Fox News, then he must not watch Fox & Friends. Last week the hosts of the network's morning show literally flipped the results of a Gallup poll showing strong support for unions, relaying it to their viewers as the opposite.

As far as we can tell, protesters have not engaged in shouting down reporters for any other networks.

quote:

Enter Anonymous. The hacker group discovered a little-noticed clause in the bill proposed by Walker which would allow the state to sell its utilities to anyone it chose, at any price, without the public even being notified. This clause would allow companies like Koch Industries to purchase publicly owned utility plants, and Anonymous believes this is the reason that Koch-funded "grassroots" organizations like Americans For Prosperity, Club for Growth and Citizens United are supporting Walker's plan to rid the unions of their collective power.

"It has come to our attention that the brothers, David and Charles Koch - the billionaire owners of Koch Industries - have long attempted to usurp American Democracy. Their actions to undermine the legitimate political process in Wisconsin are the final straw. Starting today we fight back," a statement purportedly from Anonymous read.

quote:

http://www.azcentral.com/(...)ess-conferences.html

Senate President Russell Pearce issued a new rule Tuesday prohibiting members of the public from attending news conferences inside the Senate building.

In a memo to senators and staff, Pearce said safety concerns led to the change. The public is free to attend news conferences held outside on the Senate grounds, he said.

Police arrested six people at the Senate last week, four of whom were accused of disrupting a news conference in a Senate hearing room.

Pearce has come under increasing criticism after directing law officers to identify those who participated in a rowdy Senate hearing on immigration last week and asking officers not to allow them back in the building. Pearce has been accused of having a "blacklist," but has denied giving specific names to officers.

"Due to recent events within the Senate building that directly impacted the safety of the public, members and staff, the use of any hearing room for a press conference open to the public is no longer an option," Pearce said in the memo.

Pearce and other Republicans said news conferences traditionally have been held outside, and that's where they should remain. Pearce said law officers believe they can provide tighter security if news conferences involving the public are outdoors.

But Senate Minority Leader David Schapira, D-Tempe, said it didn't make sense to ban the public from a hearing room because it's being used for a news conference while still allowing them to attend committee hearings in the same room.

He said Pearce's recent actions, including conducting budget negotiations in secret, belie his promise to run a more open and transparent upper chamber.

"This president continues to deny the people of Arizona access to what's going on at the state Capitol," Schapira said.

Sen. Steve Gallardo, D-Phoenix, said Pearce was angry about a Feb. 22 news conference that drew dozens of people to the Senate to complain about Pearce's omnibus immigration measure, Senate Bill 1611. Gallardo said he would not abide by the new rule.

"This is so overreaching," Gallardo said. "He does not have this kind of authority. He cannot tell people they can't come into the Senate, or you can't have a press conference inside this building."

Several hundred people filled three overflow hearing rooms Feb. 22 to listen to testimony on SB 1611 and other immigration bills before the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Pearce said the crowd failed to show "proper respect and decorum," cheering and applauding loudly enough to be heard across the hall. Senate security tried to quiet the group, to no avail, and then reported the behavior to Pearce, who directed them to have people identified and photographed so they could later be barred from re-entering the building.

State Department of Public Safety officers arrested Salvador Reza and Anayanse Garza on Thursday when they refused to leave the lobby.

Senate attorney Greg Jernigan said Pearce had the power as Senate president to keep people out of the building.

The state Constitution grants each chamber broad authority to write rules, he said, and Senate rules for decades have given the president responsibility for controlling the Senate building.

Schapira said he didn't understand how applauding during a news conference could be considered a breach of decorum.

"Decorum has become a matter of convenience for the president," he said.

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/(...)s.html#ixzz1FSMeGiaq

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Op woensdag 2 maart 2011 16:34 schreef truepositive het volgende:
Bedankt voor alle updates btw. De HBGary/ Koch brothers link was mij nog niet duidelijk een paar dagen terug, interessante ontwikkelingen