Saturday, April 7, 2012

Hey! Reince Preibus!
THIS is your damned CULTURE WAR ON WOMEN!, 'right' here!

"Nationally, working families lose $200 billion per year because women are paid less than men for the same work. Wisconsin families lose more than $4,000 per year due to unequal pay. While women nationally earn approximately 77 cents on the dollar compared to men, here in Wisconsin women earn 75% of that earned by males." - WAWH

"What culture War? Where? We're not waging a cultural war on women? Not us...We LOVE Women!" Reince Priebus tells us (paraphrasing here).
"We're just doing this for women's own good in spite of themselves; they don't know what's best for themselves, they can't be trusted with the right to autonomy.   We're doing this in spite of what they say they want, so they can be informed...and....and....and.....and...so we can appreciate their real worth .....and....and....and....yeah, okay... We Republicans and Tea Partiers are just lying.  AGAIN."
That is what Reince Priebus should say. But no, Reince Priebus wouldn't be so honest as to say those words.
THIS IS YOUR CULTURE WAR,  PRIEBUS AND WALKER.
 IT IS REAL.
It is here, it is now.
STOP LYING about what you conservatives are doing.
We fought the feminist war for women, for all people, to be paid equally for equal work.
It is over, done, and we will not fight that battle over again.  Instead, wherever you try this bullshit, in Wisconsin, in Minnesota - yes, you tried it here too - ANYWHERE, we will rise up and throw your sorry ass out of office.
Because you are wrong.  Because you hurt people.  Because you are immoral, unjust and unfair.  Because you are oppressors, because you are dishonest lying greedy bastards.
We are the not-so-silent majority, and finally, we are uniting to vote in our own interests instead of yours and your corporate masters, you damned puppet to ALEC and the Koch Brothers and their friends.
THIS should never have seen the light of day, much less the signature of a sitting governor of any political party in the United States, or in any part of the world.  This specific legislation, and the other legislation that is NOT good for women - not abortion, not homosexuality, not contraception - is the abomination.
We the women of the United States will not be undervalued.  We will not be paid less.  We will not be treated as second class citizens for ANY characteristic or quality of identity.  That is true regardless of whether it is a quality of being human with which we are born - like gender, like sexual orientation, like race, or of qualities of autonomy and identity, like religion.
WE GET YOUR "REAL POSITION" Mitt Romney.  Lisa Murkowski "gets it".  Olympia Snowe "gets it". 
It is EMPHATICALLY NOT that the media has made a mistake.  You started a culture war, and now you are losing it.  You won a few battles, but those wins can be undone; you are losing the larger culture war.  You lost it when Glenn Beck went into well deserved obscurity, you lost it in the backlash against the misogyny of Rush Limbaugh, you lost it in the outrage over transvaginal ultrasound.
YOU are the one who has made the mistake, and you are making more of the same.
Governor Scott Walker doesn't  get it.  Candidate Mitt Romney apparently doesn't get it either.  CLEARLY Republican Chair Reince Preibus from Wisconsin doesn't get it at all; he is just lies boldfaced about waging culture war on women.  CLEARLY he thinks people are so stupid, so blinded by ideology that they will believe anything he tells them.
Perhaps that is true of your low information, gullible conservative extremists.  It emphatically is not true of the rest of us.  Clearly they will believe anything, no matter how ludicrous.
Hey, Reince, yeah you, (how many people with the name Reince are there?) perhaps you need to have it explained to you that the term 'Cheesehead' doesn't really mean the people of Wisconsin have heads filled with cheese instead of brains.  Or do the Republicans and other conservatives have cheddar craniums in your state?
Don't even try your next lie that we no longer need such laws, because women make enough money.  Women still do not have full wage equity, and NO, the progress for equality has not gone far enough yet, and we are not going to have that progress reversed by YOU.
It is time for women to stand up and push back against you.  It is time for every man who is a son, brother, husband or father to stand up for the women in their lives they love, it is time to push back against the people who would do things like this in government.
This is not about representing the women voters in this country.  This is just another example of Republicans like Scott Walker, like Reince Preibus, creating an uneven playing field for fair competition and merit.  This is just one more example of laws which make it legal and easy for corporations to pay workers less, in this case women workers, this is one more example of pro-corporation puppet passed laws that make war on the people of this country.
It is time to recall Scott Walker, Governor of Wisconsin.  It is time to recall his lieutenant governor.  It is time to recall the authors of the legislation legalizing unequal pay for work.  It is time to recall the sponsors of the legislation, and it is time to recall EVERY single legislator who voted for it, and to never let them get into office again.
THIS is the right wing overreach, the one they do every damn time they get into office, instead of delivering on their promises.
IF you think, maybe, possibly, somehow that we might be just a little bit angry at what you have done, you would be wrong.  We are VERY angry.  We are enraged and we are energized.  We will donate, we will march and protest.  MOST OF ALL, WE WILL VOTE IN EVERY ELECTION UNTIL YOU ARE GONE. 
WE WILL VOTE IN EVERY ELECTION UNTIL WE UNDO WHAT YOU HAVE DONE.
I don't think you are hearing us, I don't think you are listening to anyone but your corporate cronies.  You aren't paying attention, not yet.
But you will. 
Oh, yes, you will. 
Because if there was a single mistake you haven't made yet, an act that can unite even more people /AGAINST you, this may be it.  We are coming for you at the ballot boxes and for everyone like you, in every polling place across this country.
I'm sure you will tell us that you are not afraid.  I doubt it, but it might be true, if stupid.  It doesn't matter what you think, it doesn't matter what you feel, it doesn't matter what you do next. YOU don't matter, you will be marginalized, and disgraced in the history books as failures.  Not just as minor failures, you will go down and down and down as epic failures, as liars, as corrupt men aided by a few women.
Here's a hint, and a promise.  Your ALEC allies won't help you, no matter how much money, how many dirty tricks they use for your support.
From the Wisconsin Alliance for Women's Health :

Repeal of Equal Pay Law SB 202 / AB 289

The Equal Pay Enforcement Act became law in July 2009. The purpose of the law is to provide a stronger enforcement mechanism for violations of pay and workplace discrimination by allowing victims to plead their case in the less costly state circuit system rather than having to try to get their cases heard by federal courts. It also provides stronger penalties for employers who were found guilty of discrimination.
SB 202 removes the “enforcement” from the Equal Pay Enforcement Act. This bill would repeal the ability for anyone who’s been discriminated on the job to plead their cases in circuit court.


Authors: Senators Grothman, Galloway, Darling, Lasee, Kedzie, Zipperer and Moulton.
SB 202 / AB 289
SB 202 History /


Equal Pay Enforcement Act SB 165

SB 165 seeks to secure equal pay for the thousands of working families who are denied fair pay due to wage discrimination based on race and gender.
Nationally, working families lose $200 billion per year because women are paid less than men for the same work. Wisconsin families lose more than $4,000 per year due to unequal pay. While women nationally earn approximately 77 cents on the dollar compared to men, here in Wisconsin women earn 75% of that earned by males. (emphasis added is mine - DG)
Wisconsin Women and Economic Opportunity Report (COWS)
Behind the Pay Gap Report (AAUW)
<> From the Journal Sentinel, JSOnlineWalker signs bevy of bills into law

51 pieces of legislation include abortion issues, sex education

Madison - Gov. Scott Walker has signed bills putting new restrictions on abortion, requiring schools that teach sex education to promote marriage and barring those who are discriminated against at work from suing for punitive damages in state court.
Democrats blasted Walker and his fellow Republicans in the Legislature for advancing policies that they say amount to a "war on women."
"He might have thought none of us are watching because it's Good Friday, but all of us women are watching," said former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, one of four Democrats competing to run against Walker in a June 5 recall election.
Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie declined to comment Friday on why the governor backed the four bills, which were among 51 pieces of legislation he signed late Thursday. His office announced the signings Friday.
Walker also signed a bill requiring lawmakers to disclose who is sponsoring budget earmarks and a measure to prevent voucher schools programs from automatically expanding to Green Bay and other cities.
The new laws would:
  • Require schools that teach sex education to promote marriage and tell students that abstinence is the only reliable way to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. The change in law also allows public schools to teach abstinence-only courses, which had been barred since 2010 under a law Democrats approved when they controlled state government.
  • Prevent people subjected to employment discrimination from seeking punitive and compensatory damages in state court.
  • Require doctors to consult with patients face-to-face - rather than via Web camera - when administering abortion-inducing drugs. That measure would also require doctors to speak privately with women seeking abortions to ensure they were not being coerced, and physicians could face felonies for ignoring the law.
  • Prohibit insurance plans offered in Wisconsin under the federal health care reform law from covering some abortions.
The federal health care law, approved in 2010 by Democrats, requires states to set up exchanges that serve as marketplaces for individuals and small businesses for insurance coverage that for some consumers is subsidized by taxpayers. Under the law signed by Walker, plans offered through Wisconsin's exchange could cover abortions only in cases of sexual assault, incest and the health or life of the woman.

Discrimination law changes

Jeff Hynes, president of the Wisconsin Employment Lawyers Association, said the change to the state's discrimination law tells employers who mistreat workers that "you can get away with it every time."
Employees who say they have suffered discrimination can file a complaint with the state Department of Workforce Development to be reinstated to their jobs and receive back pay, costs and attorney's fees.
Democrats in 2009 changed the law to allow employees or the department after that process to sue an employer in circuit court for compensatory and punitive damages. Wronged employees could receive up to $300,000, depending on the seriousness of the claims and the size of the businesses.
The law Walker approved takes away the ability to go to court for compensatory and punitive damages, though people still have the ability to seek back pay.
Hynes said most cases don't involve significant back pay. He said Walker's changes mean there will be no remedy under state employment law for women who are groped at work or repeatedly face sexual advances, as well as for minorities who are subjected to racial epithets.
He noted that late last year, Walker signed a bill that puts limits on the amount of attorneys' fees victims can recover in lawsuits. That makes it even less likely that wronged employees will take their cases to state court because lawyers will be unlikely to accept even strong cases because they won't be able to get more than a fraction of their pay, he said.
"The governor and the Republican leadership in Wisconsin have effectuated a one-two punch with respect to employees' rights to get any meaningful remedy" in discrimination cases, he said.
Tom O'Day, a lawyer who represents businesses of all sizes in employment cases, said the 2009 law led to businesses paying out larger settlements to employees in cases where they did not believe they had done anything wrong because of the risk of having to pay large awards. Walker's action will free up money so employers invest in their companies and create jobs, he said.
"More than anything, this is a jobs bill," he said.
O'Day noted that wronged employees can take their cases to federal court. Hynes, the attorney for employees, said that is prohibitively expensive in most cases.
Sen. Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend), who sponsored the measure, said it puts Wisconsin in line with neighboring states.
"The old law made Wisconsin not competitive from a business perspective," he said. "To give $300,000 in punitive damages when the actual damages might be four or five thousand dollars causes Wisconsin business to pay out additional money to deal with frivolous claims."
Walker also signed a bill that prevents the state's school voucher programs from moving to new parts of the state.
The state allows qualifying students from certain areas to attend religious schools and other private institutions at taxpayer expense using vouchers that are worth about $6,400 a year.
The voucher program has been in place in Milwaukee for 20 years, and Republicans in June included a provision in the state budget that established one like it in eastern Racine County. The budget measure would have eventually allowed similar ones in other school districts such as Green Bay when they met certain criteria.
Some Republicans, led by Senate President Mike Ellis of Neenah, joined Democrats in opposing further expansions of the program, and legislative leaders reached a deal last summer to prevent Green Bay or other new cities from having voucher schools. Walker's approval locks that agreement into state law.
Walker also signed a bill to provide more transparency on earmarks in the state budget. The measure requires the Legislature's nonpartisan budget office to produce a report listing the lawmakers who request the local spending items in the budget along with what legislative districts benefit from those items.

Authors: Senator Hansen and Representative Sinicki

SB 165

History of SB 165

SB 165 Lobbying Efforts

It's not the right wing 'red' state flag you should be flying gentlemen - a term you do not rightly deserve.  It is the white flag of surrender.  But surrender or not, you are losing, you will lose, you will be out, gone and if you're very lucky, forgotten instead of remembered as a figure of disgrace broadly held in contempt.

2 comments:

  1. Do you ever wonder if things would be different if three more states would have approved the Equal Rights Amendment as the 27th Amendment to the Constitution back in the 70's/80's ?
    Then the argument was made by Ronald Reagan that he opposed the Equal Rights Amendment, despite being “for equal rights,” because “the amendment will take this problem out of the hands of elected legislators and put it in the hands of unelected judges.” So now we have "elected legislators" taking away rights.

    This Congress could -and should- approve another Resolution for the States to consider ... the Senate has SJ Res. 21 which Al Franken is a co-sponsor (where is Senator Kobuchar ???) and the House has HJ Res. 69 which has bi-partisan support including Minnesotans Ellison, McCollum and Peterson (where is Representative Walz???). The two-page amendment simply states that equality could not be denied on the “account of sex” and that Congress would have the power to enforce this mandate.

    BTW, your readers should remember Who voted against the Lily Ledbetter Equal Pay Act ... that would include Minnesotans Bachmann and Paulsen.

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  2. I do so wish the ERA had passed. I continue to hope that it might have another go at passage some day.

    I continue to be impressed not only by Klobuchar but especially by Franken. He has exceeded my wildest hopes for how he would perform, and I expect he will continue to do so, for a long career beyond his current term.

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