Republican Party

Welcome to the conservative "recovery," where public-sector jobs are being cut in droves

September 2, 2011 by Uppity Wisconsin

At ThinkProgress.org, journalist Matt Yglesias points to a little noticed component of conservative political mantra that's holding back the national economic recovery -- one that's clearly at work right here in Wisconsin: Cuts in public-sector employment that offset private-sector job growth.

Imagine for a moment if Boston, Denver, or Seattle [or, we might add, Milwaukee] — cities of roughly 600,000 residents — simply disappeared. Well, since the recession officially ended, about 600,000 public sector jobs previously held by 600,000 real people have disappeared from the economy — consistently offsetting some of the gains made in the private sector. Indeed, today’s stunner headline that ZERO jobs were created in August was the result of 17,000 new private sector jobs being offset by 17,000 more government jobs being axed.

Yglesias expands on this fact:

Milwaukee Public Radio's odd preoccupation with conservative special interest groups

August 31, 2011 by Uppity Wisconsin

Tune in, tune outIn terms of its news and cultural programming, WUWM-FM in Milwaukee is, like most public radio stations, a reasonably good alternative to the shock-jock, wingnut talkmeister, carnival-realilty programming you get on most commercial TV and radio outlets these days. Milwaukee Public Radio, as the station is also known, is every bit a complement to Wisconsin Public Radio.

But MPR, like WPR, lately has had a bit of a problem with balance. To some extent that's because both entities are surely stressed by the attack of right-wing "kill public radio" types, and their call to de-fund such public outlets altogether. In WUWM's case, a little bit of this problem also may spring from the fact that station manager Dave Edwards is, by several accounts, a somewhat conservative guy, like too many other people in modern American radio broadcasting.

GOP bludgeons labor unions once again in Wausau Labor Day parade dispute

August 31, 2011 by Uppity Wisconsin

Making you work harderThe Marthon County Labor Council has blinked, saying it will now permit Republicans to particpate in Wausau's Labor Day parade.

According to the Wausau Herald, Labor Council President Randy Radtke sent an email late Tuesday saying everyone will be permitted to march in the parade, which is organized by the council. Radtke added, however:

Screw voter ID, Wisconsin needs to clean up its real voting-security problems

August 31, 2011 by Uppity Wisconsin

We are all GOP nowBev Harris of the excellent not-for-profit group Black Box Voting has been doing some serious research nationwide over the past few months on widespread threats to election integrity in Wisconsin and other states. The results of her work will appear in a five-part weekly report to be released on http://www.blackboxvoting.org throughout the month of September. 

Wisconsin Republicans have "fixed" a virtually non-existent vote fraud problem by forcing upon state citizens an elaborate and complex voter ID requirement. Most experts say Wisconsin's recently enacted voter ID law will serve to make it harder for at-risk populations, students and Democratic-leaning voters in general to choose their elected officials.

Wausau makes it official: Wisconsin Republicans are parasites and scavengers.

August 29, 2011 by Uppity Wisconsin

Bloody Pullman StrikeDoes that headline sound overly harsh? Well, it needs to sound that way.

In recent years Republicans around the country have almost made a fetish out of appropriating progressive heroes, martyrs and symbols, using them for their own snively purposes. Newt Gingrich insisted that FDR was really espousing Republican ideals. Later, some Republicans quite baldly insisted that Martin Luther King Jr. was functionally one of their own (he was, actually, pro-labor union). GOP partisans even have claimed John F. Kennedy as kindred, because he once cut taxes (as if Democrats up to and including Obama have never done that before or since).