Wormtongue is at it again.

The February wind bites the back of your neck like a feral beast scrounging on the carcass and bones of caught prey.  Upturning the collar of your jacket or the throwing on of your scarf only makes you all the more aware of the acute burning on your cheeks.  As sure as noon follows morning and midnight follows dusk, as sure as the motivated legion of protesters in Madison are to stay committed to a cause battling a totalitarian regime, as sure as the sun rising each day...

...so too is Cullen Werwie prone to talk out of his arse.

AP file photo of Cullen Werwie addressing Wisconsin citizens.

On Wisconsin, part one.

This week, Catalan at Heart presents 'On Wisconsin', a multi-part look at the budgetary imbroglio Wisconsin finds itself in.  By tracing the who, the how, the why and everything between, we will offer a seemingly tangential, always empirical and ultimately definitive look on the crisis.  With snark.

As far as Wisconsin political theatre goes, the drama from fourteen Senate Democrats refusing a call to quorum and escaping to Illinois to avoid a sure-to-lose vote on Governor Scott Walker's "budget repair bill" is without precedent.  While the resulting schism is not starved for analogues to earlier affairs -- race relations, the original turmoil over unions, Bush/Kerry, Laverne and Shirley ending -- the connectedness of today's society has artificially amplified the fervor to a new critical mass.

While feasible to have avoided or compartmentalized earlier affairs, one click of the mouse or opening of a vibrating phone or button press of a remote control assaults one with instant news and faster commentary.  With tweets and status alerts and wall postings now the stuff of nightmares, a relentless force hunting and chasing regardless of the speed undertaken to get away or the tactics performed to elude its clutches.

On progress, continued.

The Godwalker, from Thursday:

I'll always be willing to cooperate and communicate with the Democrats, but that has to happen at the state Capitol in Madison.

Today, by means of a voice vote, Senate Republicans summarily prevented any potential amendments to The Godwalker's bill from even being introduced, let alone voted on.  The same Senate Republicans who take their marching orders from The Godwalker.  It is with melancholy one observes 'always' apparently means 'one day' to The Godwalker.

On... progress?

Here's the thing: The Godwalker's bill was always going to pass the state Assembly.  After a grueling 61-hours of debate that started Tuesday afternoon, the bill's passing just after 1 a.m. on Friday morning was an inescapable eventuality.  With an Assembly of 60 Republicans, 38 Democrats and a lone Independent, not even a U.S. Army Psy-Ops team could have swung the vote enough to prevent its passing.  While the vote was 51-17, four Republicans broke party ranks, siding with each Democrat who voted.  Siding with each Democrat who voted, it is noted, because 28 total lawmakers did not.

28 didn't vote?  On a state bill that dominated national airwaves and the blogosphere much of the week?  What happened?

On contempt for our intelligence.

The Godwalker's been unequivocally talking shit again making public statements today:

I'd do almost anything to avoid laying people off.  We need to avoid those layoffs for the good of those workers.

You see, The Godwalker is more than willing--and one might dare say benevolent--to do anything to avoid layoffs except for the small, "modest" matter of excising the collective bargaining language from the bill that's a self-admitted part of a nationwide plan to marginalize unions.  He'd do anything but accept the concessions he's asked for from the unions for the good of the unions.  After proposing a bill which removes collective bargaining and reduces benefits for those workers, The Godwalker wants to avoid these layoffs for the good of those workers.  That makes sense.

On outright disinformation.

The Godwalker's spokesman, Cullen Werwie, through a statement on that whole switchboard snafu:

Throughout this call the Governor maintained his appreciation for and commitment to civil discourse. The phone call shows that the governor says the same thing in private as he does in public and the lengths that others will go to disrupt the civil debate Wisconsin is having.

Let's go to the transcript:

One man, two chats.

Last night, Governor Walker had what he himself a "fireside chat".  With Checkers on his lap, his wife Martha enkindling the dried wood in the fireplace and polio making sweet love to his central nervous system, The Godwalker honestly addressed Wisconsin citizens with a charisma not seen since Kennedy.  Within two minutes of speaking, virgin women listening across the state found themselves of child, the conception not an immaculate miracle but a run-of-the-mill act by a Republican governor staying the course on a wildly popular, will-of-the-people measure.

His voice smoothed the rough edge of the minority populus with the grace of Nancy Reagan and the passion of one thousand suns.  The fiends, those duplicitous fiends, those evil liberals and public-union supporters, were vanquished like a Tolkein villain.  No elf weaponry needed, no sons of Kings needed to coerce an army of dead, no rotund midgets with thick and foul hair needed to swing an axe.  No, words were the means to the end.

On polls.

No. 1: A We Ask America Poll finding 51.9% of Wisconsin residents oppose The Godwalker's budget-repair bill, with only 43.05% approving.

No. 2: A USA Today/Gallup Poll finding 61% of the national public oppose the drastic measures proposed in The Godwalker's budget-repair bill, with only 33% supporting. 

No. 3: A Rasmussen Reports Poll finding 48% of likely U.S. voters support The Godwalker's budget-repair bill, with only 38% opposing.

Which is not like the other?  A great read from the always excellent Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight:

We’ve noted before that the automated polling firm Rasmussen Reports has had problems with bias in a statistical sense: in the election last fall, its polls overestimated the standing of Republican candidates by roughly 4 percentage points on average.

A somewhat different issue arises today in a poll the firm conducted on the dispute in Wisconsin between Gov. Scott Walker and some of the state’s public-employee unions.

[...]

According to the firm’s statement of question wording, these were the first four questions Rasmussen asked in the poll:

1: How closely have you followed news reports about the Wisconsin governor’s effort to limit collective bargaining rights for most state employees?
2: Does the average public employee in your state earn more than the average private sector worker in your state, less than the average private sector worker in your state, or do they earn about the same amount?
3: Should teachers, firemen and policemen be allowed to go on strike?
4: In the dispute between the governor and the union workers, do you agree more with the governor or the union for teachers and other state employees?

[...]

The issue is clearest with the third question, which asked respondents whether “teachers, firemen and policemen” should be allowed to go on strike. By invoking the prospect of such strikes, which are illegal in many places (especially for the uniformed services) and which many people quite naturally object to, the poll could potentially engender a less sympathetic reaction toward the protesters in Wisconsin. It is widely recognized in the scholarship on the subject, and I have noted before, that earlier questions in a survey can bias the response to later ones by framing an issue in a particular way and by casting one side of the argument in a less favorable light.

The Rasmussen example is more blatant than most.

A polling firm that overestimates nationwide Republicans by four percent cooks a poll to show favour for The Godwalker "staying the course".  Straight to the garbage with you, number three.

On Fox News.

A request, dear reader, to watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAJg8AVRgN8

If you're not one to watch seven minutes of Rachel Maddow tackling Glenn Beck on the strife in Wisconsin, a summary:

-- In 2009, WorldNetDaily publishes a column by Joel Richardson: What Obama and the Antichrist have in common.

-- Richardson is now being booked by Fox News to appear as an expert on the Wisconsin protests... and how there's a menacing, ancient-evil connect with the turmoil in Egypt.

-- "Now, now--especially if you do not watch Fox News, just so you're inoculated as to what you are likely to hear the next time a fervent Fox News viewer tells you what's going on in Wisconsin--now it is important to know what it is that Fox News is telling its viewers about how to understand the protests in Wisconsin.  Because what Fox is telling their viewers involves The Anti-Christ."

-- Beck believes the Wisconsin protests to be the progeny of an Islamic end-of-days cabal. [NOTE: Fox News allows Beck to host a self-titled, hour-long program each weekday at 5pm ET.]

-- Beck having Richardson on his show.

-- Beck saying he "about wet his pants" about doing research on the Anti-Christ.

-- A clip of Richardson claiming to be an end-times prophet.

-- "I say this not just to point and shriek, but because what happens on Fox News and in conservative media really influences how American conservatives think, even when it's so unbelievably out there you can't really believe that anyone would believe it. [...]that when even the craziest reaches of right wing media talk about this stuff, conservatives listen to it."

-- Cut to a New Jersey "conservatives" poll from 2009.  Question: Do you think Barack Obama is the Anti-Christ?  Not sure: 17%.  Yes: 18%.

-- Fox News: effectively "Republican State Television".

-- "I am pointing this out because one of your more gullible conservative friends or relations, sometime soon, is going to come to you and tell you that the Anti-Christ is why Hosni Mubarak was a good guy and the Anti-Christ is why firefighters in your town should not have Blue Cross Blue Shield."

To quote 1984 again:

If human equality is to be forever averted--if the High, as we have called them, are to keep their places permanently--then the prevailing mental condition must be controlled insanity.

Next, another request to watch Bill O'Reilly claim The Moon as existence of a supernatural, super-intelligence, super-knowable consciousness: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyHzhtARf8M

For anyone who fancies themselves a sapient-being capable of rational thought and discourse with other like-minded bipedal mammals,  you really must watch this.  But if you haven't that want:

A question from "David, in Beverly Hills, Florida": What do you mean when you refer to the tides when you are asked about the existence of God?  Science explains the tides... the moon's gravity pulls on the oceans.

O'Reilly, in response:

Ok, how did The Moon get there?  How did The Moon get there?  Look, you pinheads who attack me for this, you guys are just desperate.  How did the moon get there?  How did The Sun get there?  How did it get there?  Can you explain that to me?  How come we have that and Mars doesn't have it?  Venus doesn't have it.  How come?  Why not?  How did it get here?  How did that little amoeba get here, crawl out there, how did it do it?  Come on.  You have order in this universe, you have an order in the universe: tide comes in, tide goes out.  Ok, yeah, The Moon does it.  Fine, how did The Moon get there?  Who put it there?  Did it just happen? Okay, if we have existence, if we have life on Earth, how come they don't have it on the other planets?  Were we just lucky?

Well, I sure believe in God now!

...

...

Ahem.

1984, again:

Even the humblest Party member is expected to be competent, industrious, and even intelligent within narrow limits, but it is also necessary that he should be a credulous and ignorant fanatic whose prevailing moods are fear, hatred, adulation, and orgiastic triumph. 

Flashback to 19 July of last year.  Andrew Breitbart, a self-described Reagan conservative (founder of breitbart.com, Washington Times commentator, guest commentator across cable news, former Drudge Report editor and Arianna Huffington researcher) smears Shirley Sherrod (timeline) and Fox News spearheads the dissemination and propping up of the story.

I believe a theme is emerging.  Not that Fox News has a conservative slant.  If that's news, waking daylight is news.  No, not that Fox News has a conservative slant, but that Fox News, as Maddow stated, is Republican State Television.

Oh, hello,what's this?

“When I first got there back in the day, and I don’t know how they indoctrinate people now, but back in the day when they were “training” you, as it were, they would say, ‘Here’s how we’re different.’ They’d say if there is an execution of a condemned man at midnight and there are all the live truck outside the prison and all the lives shots.  CNN would go, ‘Yes, tonight John Jackson, 25 of Mississippi, is going to die by lethal injection for the murder of two girls.’ MSNBC would say the same thing.

“We would come out and say, ‘Tonight, John Jackson who kidnapped an innocent two year old, raped her, sawed her head off and threw it in the school yard, is going to get the punishment that a jury of his peers thought he should get.’ And they say that’s the way we do it here. And you’re going , alright, it’s a bit of an extreme example but it’s something to think about. It’s not unreasonable.

"When you first get in they tell you we’re a bit of a counterpart to the screaming left wing lib media. So automatically you have to buy into the idea that the other media is howling left-wing. Don’t even start arguing that or you won’t even last your first day.
“For the first few years it was let’s take the conservative take on things. And then after a few years it evolved into, well it’s not just the conservative take on things, we’re going to take the Republican take on things which is not necessarily in lock step with the conservative point of view.

“And then two, three, five years into that it was, we’re taking the Bush line on things, which was different than the GOP. We were a Stalin-esque mouthpiece.  It was just what Bush says goes on our channel. And by that point it was just totally dangerous.  Hopefully most people understand how dangerous it is for a media outfit to be a straight, unfiltered mouthpiece for an unchecked president.”

It’s worth noting that Fox News employees, either current or former, rarely speak to the press, even anonymously. And it’s even rarer for Fox News sources to bad mouth Murdoch’s channel. That’s partly because of strict non-disclosure agreements that most exiting employees sign and which forbid them from discussing their former employer. But  it also stems from a pervasive us-vs.-them attitude that permeates Fox News. It’s a siege mentality that network boss Roger Ailes encourages, and one that colors the coverage his team produces.

Fox News: artificially adding boos to Ron Paul's announced victory of this year's CPAC straw poll, using footage of a Tea Party rally to drum up attendance figures of a Michele Bachmann anti-health care rally, using 2008 campaign footage in attempt to drum up DO NOT FEED THE TROLL drawing large crowds on a book tour, their Washington manager telling reporters and producers to exclusively call the public option "'government-run health insurance' or, when brevity is a concern, 'government option,' whenever possible", presenting Vice President Biden saying "the fundamentals of the economy are strong" in March of 2009 when said clip actually came from Mr Biden in 2008 at a campaign rally quoting Senator John McCain, calling a fist bump between Barack and Michelle Obama a 'terrorist fist jab', claiming President Obama's budget was four times the size of President George W. Bush's largest, pimping false household costs by five-or-ten-fold for cap-and-trade, claiming an Obama administration 'Czar' withheld information on statutory rape, ignoring a gay-rights rally the size of a Tea Party rally they themselves backed,  hired DO NOT FEED THE TROLL, etc, etc.

You know from where:

This process of continuous alteration was applied not only to newspapers, but to books, periodicals, pamphlets, posters, leaflets, films, sound tracks, cartoons, photographs--to every kind of literature or documentation which might conceivably hold any political or ideological significance.  Day by day and almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date.  In this way every prediction made by the Party could be shown by documentary evidence to have been correct; nor was any item of news, or any expression of opinion, which conflicted with the needs of the moment, ever allowed to remain on record.  All history was a palimpsest, scrapped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary.  In no case would it have been possible, once the deed was done, to prove that any falsification had taken place.

With the ban on corporate political spending lifted, with a cable channel that pushes not a side of an argument but a distorted and twisted fiction, with a cable channel whose owner gave one million dollars to the Republican party because they "had a pro-business agenda", with public union campaign contributions having a 95/5 Democrat/Republican split, does it surprise anyone how vehement the attack is on public unions?  The battle in Wisconsin isn't about balancing budgets but the shredding of a Democratic base.

The battle in Wisconsin is blood in the water for the Republican sharks.

Scenes from a Movie: The Godwalker

INT. PRIVATE OFFICE, THE GODWALKER'S MANSION -- DAY

THE GODWALKER, behind his desk, the smoke from the lit tip of his third cigar flowing through the dim lighting and the dark tapestry of the office.

It's a high chair he sits in, one of impeccable velvet finishing.  Across him and from his desk a greedy gnome of a man sits- his hair graying, his eyes shifty and dirty.  This is SENATOR JOHN ERPENBACH, a scheming Democrat from the socialist haven of Middleton, Wisconsin.

THE GODWALKER whispers into the ear of his spokesman, CULLEN WERWIE- just a real weaselly asshole.

     CULLEN WERWIE
The Godwalker will hear your overture now.

Erpenbach clears his throat, then-

     SENATOR ERPENBACH
Godwalker, on behalf of public union employees in our great state, I am privileged to inform you that they have agreed to the monetary conditions of your budget repair bill at both the state and local level.

The Godwalker's gold watch jangles on his wrist as he motions for Werwie to lean in.  The Godwalker again whispers into his ear.

     CULLEN WERWIE
Continue.

     SENATOR ERPENBACH
For accepting your monetary  demands, the public-union employees only ask that their  rights to collective bargain for matters other than wages remain intact and unabridged.  I feel this is a fair and wholly reasonable solution.

 The Godwalker shifts in his chair, considering the proposal- his head tilts back, his chin raises up, he squints in a way of Roman nobility.  His eyes widen- he's reached a decision.

The Godwalker leans forward, stretching the fabric of his impeccably-tailored suit... and begins an enormous coughing fit.  We're talking moments after being saved from drowning.  With one long snort and interior sucking up of the phlegm now in the back of his throat, The Godwalker stands...

...and spits an unfathomable, disgusting mess in Senator Erpenbach's face.

     CULLEN WERWIE
The Governor tells you to go fuck yourself.

On cannabis.

Mr Walker, on 18 February 2011, from Charlie Sykes' radio program, talking about Wisconsin's "strongest civil protections":

Those fully remain intact. Civil service does not get altered by the modest changes we’re talking about here. Collective bargaining is fully intact. You’ve got merit hiring, you’ve got just cause for termination and for discipline. All those things remain.

I have but one word for that: cannabis.  Because no sober mind would dare stating collective bargaining is fully intact.

That or doublethink.  The choice is yours.

This is some Orwellian bullshit.

From Christopher Hitchens' 'Worse than 1984' (Slate, 2005):

In North Korea, every person is property and is owned by a small and mad family with hereditary power. Every minute of every day, as far as regimentation can assure the fact, is spent in absolute subjection and serfdom. The private life has been entirely abolished. One tries to avoid cliché, and I did my best on a visit to this terrifying country in the year 2000, but George Orwell's 1984 was published at about the time that Kim Il Sung set up his system, and it really is as if he got hold of an early copy of the novel and used it as a blueprint. ("Hmmm … good book. Let's see if we can make it work.")

I've really tried to avoid mentioning 1984.  But when seeds of The Party slap you in the face...
 
From 1984, excerpts from the 'The Book' The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism:

War, it will be seen, not only accomplishes the  necessary destruction, but accomplishes it in a psychologically acceptable way.  In principle it would be quite simple to waste the surplus labor of the world by building temples and pyramids, by digging holes and filling them up again, or even by producing vast quantities of goods and then setting fire to them.  But this would provide only the economic and not the emotional basis for a hierarchical society.  What is concerned here is not the morale of the masses, whose attitude is unimportant so long as they are kept steadily at work, but the morale of the Party itself. 

Mr Walker: "If anything, I think it's made the Republicans in the Assembly and the Senate stronger."

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald: “If anything, what’s going on in this building is galvanizing the caucus.  There’s nobody in this caucus that’s soft."

National GOP chair Reince Priebus: “Our party’s all in. We’re going to be all in."

A 'We Ask Ameica' poll "asked respondents if they approve or disapprove of Walker’s plans. According to the poll, 43.05% approved and 51.9% disapproved. 5.05% were uncertain."  Margin of error: ±2%

Even the humblest Party member is expected to be competent, industrious, and even intelligent within narrow limits, but it is also necessary that he should be a credulous and ignorant fanatic whose prevailing moods are fear, hatred, adulation, and orgiastic triumph.

Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio): "Republicans in Congress — and reform-minded GOP governors like Scott Walker, John Kasich and Chris Christie — are daring to speak the truth about the dire fiscal challenges Americans face at all levels of government, and daring to commit themselves to solutions that will liberate our economy and help put our citizens on a path to prosperity.  I’m disappointed that instead of providing similar leadership from the White House, the president has chosen to attack leaders such as Gov. Walker, who are listening to the people and confronting problems that have been neglected for years at the expense of jobs and economic growth."

AP: Walker insisted he was not targeting public employees and that his primary concern was balancing the budget.

jsonline: Walker has said his proposed cuts to employee benefits would save the state nearly $330 million [NOTE: $30 million this fiscal year, $300 million the next two] through mid-2013

Math: $3.6 billion - $300 million = $3.3 billion

Adventures in doublethink: jsonline: But Walker defended his plan, saying the public employee union has “a stranglehold” on the state through tough negotiating that is “like a virus, eating up our budget.”

If human equality is to be forever averted--if the High, as we have called them, are to keep their places permanently--then the prevailing mental condition must be controlled insanity.

From the comments:

Man on GrassyKnoll: Go Governor Walker. The sound you hear outside your window are the howls of spoiled children that have been told NO by there parents for the first time ever. "Honey, our credit cards are maxed out. I can't buy you the $200 jeans. You'll have to buy the ones at the Gap."

Yabecoo: Senators,
Get back to work you gutless wonders! You took an oath to represent all of your constituency not just the ones you agree with! Stop underminding the democratic process and do the job you are payed to do!

WisconsinInNC: What a bunch of COWARDS! Get back and DO YOUR JOB! 

OurVoiceShouldMatter: Stand strong Gov. Walker. More are supporting you than are against you.  The 14 Dems are a disgrace to the state Government.  Liberal cowards!

Yanni: glow1615...where have you been? Didn't you hear, Jesse Jackson and Eugene Kane were protesting a local Dairy Queen for selling more vanilla than chocolate in Madison!

jimslip: To answer the question about whether a union cop would retrieve these awol bureaucrats, the answer is yes. A cop knows that his job is important. Apparently teachers didn't get that memo. No wonder America's education system is failing. Look who is filling these position. Very selfish people.

LibertyFirst1776: Liberals can never win an argument on the facts. They must resort to initimidation, name-calling, and violence. This is a perfect example.

 As told to Winston:

Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.  Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating?  It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined.  A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself.  Progress in our world will be progress toward more pain.  The old civilizations claimed that they were founded on love and justice.  Ours is founded upon hatred.  In our world there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph and self-abasement.  Everything else we shall destroy--everything.

On Walker's editorial board.

Ahem:

Democrats in the state Senate threw a temper tantrum Thursday - essentially they took their ball and went home.

Actually, they didn't go home. They apparently went to Illinois, just out of reach of their obligations.

An editorial board unable to grasp beyond the specious arguments of the lowest-common-denominator of the right.  This bodes well.

The Walker plan is deeply divisive. We're not supportive of some aspects of the bill, either, including those that will make it nearly impossible for unions to negotiate. And we think that police and firefighter unions should not be excluded as they are now. But public worker benefits need to be reined in, and Walker is right to target them.

"make it nearly impossible for unions to negotiate" : "some aspects of the bill" :: The Sun : some aspects of humanity's survival on earth

It is to the board's credit they are opposed to the collective bargaining eradication as well as police and firefighter exclusion, but the manner in which they marginalize these legitimate concerns about the direction and integrity of the Governor's office removes any credit and does so with haste.

This marginalization deserves scrutiny.  To not make note of the selective targeting without a mention of motive is nothing short of puzzling.  Not because a pro-Walker piece would dare to be selective of matters decidedly anti, but because the pro-Walker piece is selective.  Do they find the support of those unions in Mr Walker's election bid to be incongruous to their exclusion from the bill?  Do they believe their exclusion to be justified or coincidental, and that no impropriety exits?  That the relationship between Walker and these unions are a non-issue?  An answer of affirmative to these questions cannot come from a person with appreciation of 2 + 2 = 4.

Granting the editorial board that cognizance--and this is without even tackling the concern of the state-unions that gave up higher wages for better benefits that are now being thrown out--the next question becomes whether the board is driven by anything other than ideology.  The putting lipstick on the pig of impropriety suggests not.

One leading Democrat - Obama was his name, as we recall - put it well after winning the White House in 2008: "Elections have consequences," he told Republicans at the time. Indeed they do. The Democrats' childish prank mocks the democratic process.

Totalitarianism: a political system where the state, usually under the control of a single political person, faction, or class, recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible.

There's been no negotiation on 'the bill' remotely resembling anything in the galaxial neighbourhood of good faith.  Senate Republicans will summarily reject without review any amendments offered by Senate Democrats.  Senate Republicans will introduce no amendments of their own, only those from Mr Walker. To say the action taken by the Democrats "mocks the democratic process" shows either an inconceivable ignorance to both the democratic process and totalitarian rule or an unabashed ideology.

The invoking of 'Obama' also misfires.  The hallmark of Mr Obama's presidency, the health-care bill, is full of what Wisconsin Republicans are unwilling to make even one of: concessions.  To name a few: no public option, no federal money for abortion, no ability for consumers to obtain less expensive prescription drugs from Canada and Western Europe.  Elections absolutely have consequences, but totalitarian rule is not now, ever or will be one of them.  As the Senate filibustered Obama-backed legislation as a means of negotiation, so now do the Democratic Senators of Wisconsin shack up in Rockford, Illinois.  In Illinois not because of ideological opposition but because of championing and defending civil rights and the democratic process in the face of a burgeoning totalitarian Wisconsin regime.¹

Oh, but wait, they didn't show up to work so they're whiny, petulant, cowardly, paycheck-stealing children.

¹ - Unless one considers civil rights and the democratic process to be ideological concerns as opposed to self-evident liberties all of humanity are entitled to.

On nuance.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (via jsonline):

Out of respect for the institution of the Legislature and the democratic process, I am calling on Senate Democrats to show up to work today, debate legislation and cast their vote. Their actions by leaving the state and hiding from voting are disrespectful to the hundreds of thousands of public employees who showed up to work today and the millions of taxpayers they represent.

Commenter Peter Rock:

The democrats are like little children that take their ball and go home when they don't get their way.

 Commenter saveusfromsocialism:

Rotten cowards these liberals and Democrats!

Thank God for Scott Walker; save our state from financial disaster and the regime of Obama and Herb Kohl; our future is at risk!

Commetner WIHoo:

What a shame that these democrats refuse to do their job. It doesn't seem right that they accept a pay check from the state and then run away when the going gets tuff.

If this bill is such a bad idea then the democrats should have no problem showing everyonoe that it is a bad idea.

Democrats: Give democracy a chance!

The above encapsulates the popular narrative thrown out and regurgitated from those on the right: that Senate Democrats are whiny, petulant, cowardly, paycheck-stealing children.

To address the claims, allow this author to propose a rhetorical situation within Any State, USA:

There exists two dominant political parties in said state: Party A and Party B.

Party A occupies the Governor's office and owns a majority of State Senators (19 to 14).

Party B does not.

Party A introduces and successfully passes legislation reducing the state's tax income by $140 million.

Party B sits in chambers, twiddling their thumbs and other appendages.

Not two months later, the state of this exercise finds itself with a budget shortfall of $137 million through the current fiscal year.  And an upcoming shortfall for the next two years projected at $3.6 billion.  The Governor then introduces a bill aimed to reduce these budget problem.

In this bill, does the Governor:

A)  Raise taxes
B)  Think better of his previous legislation.  While it won't fix this year's budget, it won't add unnecessary debt to the upcoming fiscal periods, making the eventual fix easier
C)  Blame state-employee unions

Obviously, the Governor selects 'C'.

In this bill, the Governor looks to eliminate collective bargaining for state-employee unions except for negotiations on wages.  In turn, the Governor will force state-employees to pay half their pension costs (they pay none now) and pay 12.6% of their health-care costs (twice their current obligation).  The Governor, however, does not make this demand of all state-employee unions and only demands this of those who aren't policeman, firefighters and troopers.  This, of course, has nothing to do with those unions being the only state-employee unions who supported the Governor in his election bid.

This bill will save $30 million for the state this fiscal year, and $300 million in the following two fiscal years.

This proposal makes the local newspapers on a Friday.  And on the next Thursday, the Party A Senators will look to pass said bill, having the votes necessary to do so.

What follows is an actual transcription of dialogue between the State Senators of Party A and Party B.

Senator 1A: Hey guys.

Party B Senators: Hey.

Senator 1A: Here's this bill we're passing next week.

Senator 1B: Oh?

**The Party A Senators hand out the bill**

**The Party B Senators read the bill**

Senator 1A: Do you guys have any questions?

Senator 2B: I have one.

Senator 1A: Yes?

Senator 2B: This eradication of state-employee union collective bargaining rights for matters other than wages, this is permanent?

Senator 1A: Yes.

Senator 3B: And these eradications don't apply to the state-employee unions that endorsed the Governor?

Senator 1A: That's right.

Senator 4B: For clarity's sake, you're removing the collective bargaining rights of all state-employee unions--for matters other than wages--that didn't endorse the Governor?

Seantor 1A: Yes.

Senator 5B: And you're serious about this being permanent?

Senator 1A: Yes.

Senator 6B:  A permanent solution to a temporary problem?

Senator 1A: Y-

Senator 2A: I'll take this one.

Senator 1A: Okay.

Senator 2A: Yes, it is permanent.

Senator 6B: Huh.

Senator 7B: So, okay, no more collective bargaining EVER except for wages except for the Governor's endorsers, and this only addresses $300 million out of the upcoming $3.6 billion shortfall?

Senator 2A:  Right.

Senator 8B:  And this doesn't even address a quarter of the current shortfall?

Senator 2A:  Also right.

Senator 9B:  And you're not just doing this to bust unions?

Senator 2A:  We're doing this to balance the budget.

Senator 8B:  Didn't you just say this won't balance the budget?

Senator 2A:  Right.

Senator 3A:  I feel like we're not explaining this well enough.  The benefits that state-employees make are far out of line with the current benefits their private-sector neighbors receive.  As a result of this-

Senator 10B:  But the state-employees gave up higher wages for better bene-

Senator 3A:  As a result of this disparity, we feel it is only fair for the state-employees to pay their fair share.  This isn't punitive in any way-

Senator 11B:  I would've went with 'ideologically hating unions for having the audacity to not want individual laborers tread upon in the name of profit or service', but 'punitive' works too, I guess.

Senator 3A: This isn't punitive, this is just about getting out-of-control spending under control by making things more fair for everyone.

**The Party B Senators huddle and discuss this before addressing Party A again**

Senator 1B:  We don't like this.  We don't like sacrificing more than forty years of union history and the future of these unions just to make a drop in a bucket difference in the current and upcoming shortfalls.  We would like to negotiate on this bill, maybe add a few amendments, maybe do some rewriting... just general changing of the bill to make it more palatable.  I mean, it is silly that blame is being put on state-employee unions for a problem not of their doing.

Senator 3A:  As I said before, this isn't punitive.

Senator 12B:  I'm not sure you know what 'punitive' means.

Senator 1B: That's not helping, 12B.

Senator 12B: I'm sorry.

Senator 1B:  Regardless of the bill being punitive or not, we'd like to negotiate.

Senator 1A:  No.

Senator 1B:  No?

Senator 1A:  No.

Senator 1B:  No?

Senator 1A:  No.

Senator 2B:  No?

Senator 2A:  No.

**THE NEXT WEDNESDAY, A DAY BEFORE THE VOTE IS SCHEDULED**

Senator 14B:  No?

Senator 19A:  No.

Senator 14B:  No?

Senator 19A:  Nah.

At this point, the Party B Senators meet in private to discuss options.  Knowing that 20 members of the State Senate must be present at quorum for voting, they subtract 19 from 20 and see that Party A is 1 short of being able to move on this piece of legislation on their own.

Party B Senators, against a Party A that won't negotiate or propose any new amendments or back any Party B amendments, face a dilemma.  Do they:

A)  Show up to vote, allowing a bill (which everything about and around is totalitarian in nature) to pass 19-14
B)  Answer the call to quorum but not vote, a sign-of-protest which results in the bill passing 19-0
C)  Don't show up, thereby halting the bill in its tracks in an attempt to open up some actual discourse

The Party B Senators choose 'C'.  And this makes them whiny, petulant, cowardly, paycheck-stealing children.

On modesty.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (via jsonline):

It's either a matter of making reductions and making modest requests of our government employees or making massive layoffs at a time when we don't need anyone else laid off.

There is nothing 'modest' about eliminating collective bargaining rights beyond wages.  There is nothing 'modest' about eradicating forty years of procedure and worker's rights.  There's nothing 'modest' about telling a group of workers to either bend over or get pushed off a cliff.