January 28, 2012
First some bad news
Our friend Joe Gruber suffered a stroke soon after arriving back in Mississippi to reclaim his condo (destroyed by hurricane).
Keep your fingers crossed. I have walked more picket lines with Joe than I could count. If there was trouble, you would always find Joe there. On Valentine's Day a year ago, Ellen Bravo asked us to picket Walker's plan to gut family leave. We did and the next day the uprising began in earnest.
We love you Joe. See you on the golf course soon.
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Standing on the Capitol steps Wednesday evening to protest the proposed mining bill, I was freezing-- but the hundreds of opponents of the iron ore open pit mine were freezing as well and that made it seem warmer. Patti Loew, no longer constrained by public TV rules against active participation, was the MC and she was great. Mike McCabe, Glen Reynolds and George Meyer all stood in the damp cold night urging common sense in the Legislature.
What is odd is this: Walker speaks for the mining companies and others who stand to make a fortune if the mine is approved. Who speaks for the air and water? Whose idea was this? The notion that Wisconsin should give away our state to a Florida company that promises jobs is loopy. While Mitt Romney claims that corporations are people, what would happen if half-way through the Florida corporation collapses?
Johnny Paycheck sang it for us years ago. You can take this job and shove it...Change "job" to "jobs."
post a letter about this blog »
I have tired of writing letters to the Republicans in our legislature. Not even sure they read them. I know they don't respond. Who do they represent, their constituents or those who gave them money? I fear the latter.
-Pietr Haikuu | Hurley, Wisc. | January 28, 2012
Joe Rose, Bad River Tribal Elder, presented a story that was not sound bites, but how Tribal folks continue to protect the land. Sometimes we forget that even with the cold air, we had a story that could not be told in three minutes, Joe spoke for over 35 minutes. Folks were respectful. Of, course noticed that you did not have a warm hat. Tribal folks with continue to speak for clean water and protect their lands. Peace.
-Richard L. Ackley | Green Bay, Wisconsin | January 28, 2012
None of you so called water and land lovers had one thing to say about Diamond Jim's choo choo train and it's potential environmental impact. Nope you were all ready to go along with ramming the project through. Then when it was killed all you could talk about was the lost jobs. It's too bad all those 1% who were the target riders lost their train. Now who cares about the 99% who not only will work at the mine but also build the equipment. You know like P&H and Cat made here in Wisconsin by Americans. I hate to clue you in but your liberal Utopia of trains, solar panels and wind mills can't be built with hemp. Your going to need steel and manufactures all of which are things you hate. The dillusional idea that you guys represent the working middle class is utterly ridiculous. The only middle class you give two craps about are the ones getting a pay check check from the taxes payers. The rest of us private sector middle class are getting sucked dry by gov't leaches and idiot whacko environmentalists forcing our jobs to China.
-SW | Waukesha WI | January 29, 2012
SW:
Take a good look at a map of Wisconsin sometime. We are smack dab in the middle between Chicago and the Twin Cities. Improving rail service can only help connect us to the region's economic prosperity. Walker turned down nearly a billion dollars in federal help to get the thing going. Consequently he said "no" to job growth and economic prosperity along the proposed rail corridors and for our state.
I bet if the money came from a bona fide railroad baron, Walker would be singing a different tune.
Walker has turned down other federal grant money and assistance, too. Walker is anti anything and everything that can be linked to the federal government or Democrats. He is still, however, pro-Walker.
As for those thousands of promised mining jobs, what are they going to pay? For the lucky few who do get hired, will they be able to support a family with the wages? Skilled miners Wisconsin workers are not. Skilled workers will undoubtedly come from out of state. When the iron market collapses and shipping the ore to China for smelting becomes uneconomical and workers get laid off for months if not years, what are you going to say then, go get a job?
-Franz Fripplfrappl | Madison | January 29, 2012
SW: When everything is measured in jobs of present and nothing is measured in future for our great grandchildren, then we have seriously failed in our jobs as stewards and as humans.
You can't drink money. Check what actually matters in the universe. It ain't money.
-Randy Lee | Ridgeland, WI | January 31, 2012
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