I talked to Rep. Hintz an hour ealier in his office. I took this testimonial from him to YOU! <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N41Ar0IHhM4 >

Republicans tried to rush passage before Dems broke caucus and showed up at 5pm, the time they were notified by the Speaker. THIS is why the Senate Dems are not in Madison!!

The oddity is the Republicans DID pass the bill, but rescinded passage after the Assembly Dem went nuclear, Hintz being the high point. There was some who thought the Republicans might have BROKEN THE LAW. They thus unanimously rescinded the vote. All technical parliamentary moves and from what I heard from Capitol staffers most reporters were confused by the rule acrobatics and didn't capture what had done. Bonus, I did see comments on a conservative facebook page where they call their Republicans cowards.

Support the Wisconsin 14!

Brothers and Sisters,

I've been gone a LONG time from DU, but I'm glad I decided to follow that great, Googled pic from Friday to this thread.

From being on site since last Sunday, the estimates of 30-1 are close, and from my opinion it is generous to the T-bags. But that estimate would have been a peak within a 2-hour window. Their were scheduled to be there for a few hours, but got on their buses and went home, unable to handle the cold. Compared to that Friday night, Saturday afternoon was balmy!

The bulk of the t-bag turnout for a photo-op WAS an epic fail. But then the out of towners and out of staters left (rumors of Virginia buses were high but I think that reffered to funding, not people).

After the buses left there were maybe 40. 40 versus 10s of thousands. Is there something bigger than an EPIC Fail? I'm struggling to describe it. Cops (who support, as they are union) laughed and shook their heads, received protester hugs, and handed out stickers to children. It was a party atmosphere after they left. Now I believe more t-bags MIGHT have been there, but freaked out by the sheer mass of people, I'm sure they discreetly put their signs down and walked around the perimeter. And knowing how freakin' nice we are when you're not trying to fuck over our rights, I'm sure some beers were bought for them. And I witnessed pizza shared with them.

More union supporters slept on marble floors, over night, inside the capitol than attended their rally. Today snow and other factors might temper the numbers, but its also a day off and supporters will come and check it out to say they were there. Monday is a holiday and furlough day, concessions reached for no-pay holidays to control budgets by ... well, not this governor. And Tom Morello and other supporters will be there. Monday will be HUGE. Then the assembly will come back into session Tuesday.

Why do we fight? Why did the Senate leave the state? I urge you to watch my good friend in the assembly set some records straight, glare at the repugs across the isle, and unleash righteous fury. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZsOKNfNkfQ > SHARE and let people know that's how we roll (don't fuck with Wisco)

sorry for typos and grammar
follow me on twitter @billschwulst
youtube : schwuw

I have to leave my home state soon for work, but I am confident two more will replace me

So if he got his undergrad at a school not in the MnSCU system, the private St. John's University, why would he care about student tuition, financial aid and services for others?

To say he is representative of students is like saying Mike Tyson gave out free face massages.

True only if you're willing to bend the truth into a pretzel.

I thought I was promoting your idea which would be contributing to Rep. Kagen (I even provided the mailing address for Dinger). I just wanted to try to get as much of your money, and anyone else's, into the hands of the Congressman's campaign committee. Taking the 3.5 percent quoted by dragonlady, a $10 contribution will result in the Kagen campaign receiving a check for $9.65 from ActBlue. That's not much for a surcharge, but extrapolate that over a 1,000 donors, and that surcharge adds up. Or if a donor double-maxed, meaning they give $2,300 for both the primary and general election, then instead of receiving $4,600 the campaign would get $4,439. I've seen many of these odd amount checks and it's a shame ActBlue doesn't spell out its surcharge policies.

Just trying to get every nickel to the candidate. My apologies if that is not your intention.

Here's Kagen's fund raising link: http://kagen4congress.com/wiki/Contribute+...

the Mail address to send checks (include contact info along with employer and occupation) is:
Kagen 4 Congress
100 W. College Ave.
Appleton, WI 54911

Why not ActBlue you might ask? Because for processing your $10 contribution, ActBlue will deduct a percentage, then will write a check to the Kagen campaign in your name. That check will be less than the $10 you put in. Having worked in a finance office for a federal campaign, the ActBlue checks were a pain, especially in filing with the FEC.

To be fair, using your credit card at the candidate's site will generate a processing fee, unless the campaign was able to garner a bulk processing fee through its vendor NGP. NGP is used by most campaigns because the information you enter is then ready for FEC filing if you have given over $200 (aggregate donations less than that from someone and campaigns do not have to report who gave).

Sending checks bypasses any processing fee, but requires man hours to enter the information to their NGP database and contact people for any missing FEC required information.

There are plenty of "open" forums out on the web for the criticism of Democrats. This has been operating as more of a safe haven for liberals - a place to vent and theorize without being flamed and shouted down by conservative "democrats" and neo-cons.

This was especially comforting in 2003 and 2004 when I didn't reside in the friendly confines of the Twin Cities. (FYI this is my second profile - thus the 2005 join date).

Back then I nearly got my ass kicked at my local bar, by someone I knew no less, for saying Bill O'Reilly was wrong. I returned to that town on a emotional high from the Iowa caucuses in January 2004. Someone approached me for wearing a Kerry sticker and whispered, "you shouldn't be wearing that here." DU helped knit together the few in our conservative region to a vocal presence and lifting the fear of openly supporting Dems.

I used DU to help organize a HUGE Bush protest, spearheading coordinated efforts with the regional peace community and unions. This would be impossible if vocal critics were ever present to poo-pooing ideas and advocating the scuttling plans.

Viva la gatekeepers! I would have waited until the "socialist-libertarian" in question had taken out papers though. Until that moment, it was just discussion heating up from a disgruntled DU'er.

While I hadn't seen the "not hot" designation, I'm guessing it's a reaction to the less than stellar buzz in comparison to 4 years ago.

Ultimately it's the people, not the politicos and they're assorted star-fuckers, that (should) comprise the party. For example, you couldn't get in the room wherever Howard Dean was during the 2003 state convention, then by the next year's convention he was a cautionary tale about the power of viral video online.

However, the people organized better than I've ever seen and won the state for the presidential race and an easy re-election for Sen. Feingold. In other words, keep talking up the party and inviting friends to join.

While 2007 may not make us feel warm and fuzzy because our primary is again at the back of the line, I foresee no reason why Wisconsin won't be targeted as a swing state in the 2008 Presidential.

Considering there will be no Feingold campaign to bolster the Democratic profile, a nasty fight in CD 8 (Kagen v. Gard II I've been told), the possibility of a "moderate" Republican candidate in Romney, Thompson or Guiliani, and Tommy Thompson assuredly stumping for the Republican - let's face it, Wisconsin is the #1 pickup opportunity for Republicans (going from blue to red) in 2008.

We'll get our fair share of candidates and surrogates in 2008 - but maybe not 2007.

Rp and I sat down together after a convention (the one in Appleton I believe) and wrote an after action report, going over what worked and what could be improved. We had some viable things, pretty much everything he mentioned. At the time I was told by some of the DPW staff that "that's not how we do it".

It struck me as a poor response considering we didn't have a majority in either legislative house. Despite the DPW's apathy, people continue to be grassroots activists ... just untrained ones.

I've been all over the country working for Democratic candidates and seeing many different state party set ups. Wisconsin does perhaps the poorest job of a) preparing its local leaders to do their duties and b) involving locals in decision making.

Regarding the latter is the elimination of the DNC regional organizers, replacing them with just a Madison and Milwaukee "assistant political director" and a statewide "assistant director". This leaves the Fox Valley and La Crosse/ Eau Claire area feeling very little love. The effectiveness of the organizers not-withstanding, this only moves further away from actively engaging the locals - the ones who will be subject to begging by campaign workers to "come back". With a more active voice by locals I don't think this would have happened.

Regarding the "preparing local leaders" point, such as getting out the word about upcoming meetings, look at this schedule by the state party in Minnesota for their training series . The Minnesota system was it's drawbacks, but when they are training themselves to "Recruit, Retain and Respect," I think they're on the right track.