Tomorrow (Friday). Reynolds Park. Starting: When people show up. Those who live in the downtown area have probably already seen the chalkings. For those who haven’t joined already, do join the Facebook group “Occupy Madison” (http://www.facebook.com/OccupyMadison?ref=ts). As of this writing, it’s already nearing 4,000 members. It’s an amorphous group that’s behind the organizing, with no [...]

It’s hard to believe, but it seems that in this climate of fear and social conflict, Senate Democrats have decided to make life harder for those most struggling in our state. Targeting immigrants seems to be a bipartisan phenomenon these days, as the text of this bill demonstrates: Under this bill, any company that has [...]

Samuel Johnson’s pronouncement about patriotism being “the last refuge of the scoundrel” has been widely misinterpreted – he was actually denigrating members of the Patriot Party – but nonetheless reveals a deep truth in its accidental wisdom. In our country, especially, the loudest patriots are also the most likely to advocate unenlightened policies. We all [...]

With Chancellor Biddy Martin’s departure to Amherst following the New Badger Partnership fiasco, UW System picked a familiar face to serve as Interim Chancellor. This would be David Ward, who previously had the top job more than a decade ago and retired after a series of tumultous events surrounding the university’s involvement in sweatshop labor. From the [...]

Matt Rothschild has it right: “The mood in Wisconsin is dejected.” It was just a few months ago that the whole country had its eyes on the democracy uprising in Madison. We even witnessed gestures of solidarity from Cairo. What happened? Again, Rothschild knows what he’s talking about: It seems to me that the state [...]

The forces of justice and progressivism are more active than they’ve ever been in response to the Republican state budget. But one issue that has received almost no mention is the assault on animals included in the ruling party’s agenda. Brenda recently posted an email from Ann Emerson discussing the possibility of the introduction of trapping, [...]

Not to drag this issue on longer than it should, but I feel it necessary to more clearly elucidate a few things said in the previous post regarding the series of events which took place during Monday’s protest. I was present for the for the original protest and immediate aftermath. There was much confusion both [...]

Yesterday’s march from Madison’s Fire Station 1 to the Walkerville camp and around the Capitol – stopping by the criminal M&I Bank along the way – was an inspiring spectacle, but things should have turned out better. Among the marchers were dozens of participating vehicles – fire trucks, union cabs, tractors, AFSCME vehicles – that [...]

As Brenda  posted earlier today, protesters interrupted yesterday’s Joint Finance Commitee meeting, reading prepared declarations against the massive cuts to education and elimination of in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants. The scene was largely organized by Voces de la Frontera, although it seems others spontaneously joined in as well. Dozens were forcefully removed by the police, as Jeremy Ryan, among [...]

Advocates for accessible, quality and public higher education should count the recent news as a definitive victory: The Martin/Walker plan to split UW-Madison from the UW system has been removed from the state budget. Public Authority status for the UW-Madison, part of the Walker-driven neoliberal trend toward privatization of state services, had neither the support of [...]

With Judge Sumi’s ruling striking down Walker’s collective bargaining law, it’s worthwhile to recall just how it came to be that the Republicans ended up ramming through this bill. Failing to provide 24 hours notice, the legislative committee responsible for amending the measure broke state law. As we all know, this illegality was part of [...]