UPDATE: Seats still full inside Joint Finance Committee hearingPosted: Feb 15, 2011 10:55 AM CST
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Interview with Madison Mayor Cieslewicz on Walker's bill
Walker reacts to protests
Unions protest budget repair bill
Teachers and students protest Walker's repair bill
Statewide protests Sunday against budget repair bill
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March to the capitol
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Madison mayor calls emergency meeting with department heads explaining budget repair bill
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Crowd inside capitol
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Started the rally with the National Anthem at the Capitol
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Students marching toward Capitol
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Protests statewide in response to Governor's budget repair bill
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MADISON (WKOW) -- Seats are still full inside the joint finance committee hearing as speakers continue to come forward.
Lawmakers are expected to vote as soon as Thursday on ending collective bargaining for all state, county and local employees except local police and fire and state patrol. Legislative leaders say Walker now has enough support in both chambers to approve the measure. He says it's necessary to address a projected $3.6 billion budget deficit.
The Department of Administration estimates about 10,000 rallied outside of the State Capitol today, and roughly 3,000 were estimated inside, in protest of Gov. Walkers' budget plan.
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) held a rally Tuesday. Some constituents told 27 News they were trying to talk to their representatives but all the doors are closed and no one is answering the phones.
Roughly 800 students from East High School were among those marching to the capitol, escorted by police.
Five former and two current Packer players are standing behind state union employees. Brady Poppinga and Jason Spitz along with former Packers Curtis Fuller, Chris Jacke, Charles Jordan, Bob Long and Steve Okoniewski have signed a letter supporting the AFL-CIO's efforts.
Members of ASCFME, educators and a handful of University of Wisconsin students chanted "Union Busting has got to go," as the state Legislature's Joint Finance Committee held hearings on Gov. Scott Walker's plan.
Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) and Rep. Robin Vos (R-Rochester) released the following statement on the public hearings, "We welcome public participation in our representative democracy. Unlike two years ago when Democrats did not hold a public hearing for the last budget repair bill, we want to listen to individuals' concerns. Due to the large number of participants, each person will be given up to 2 minutes to address the committee. This will ensure that everyone has their voice heard."
Day two of rallies at the Capitol, hosted by ALF-CIO, is expected to start at 11 a.m. Wednesday.
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– J.L.
I can visualize the political cartoon.
Picture a bunch of fat-cat Wall Street tycoons laughing and smoking cigars; playing poker with piles of thousand-dollar bills. Their pockets bulge with overflowing bills. Mounds of money litter the floor. Bernake crawls around the room on all fours with a leash around his neck like a dog. A Chinese banker tells him to sit.
Outside, local politicians dance around a bonfire of blazing union contracts.
Other wild-eyed politicians stomp on and beat teachers, police officers, firemen, and government workers. Some of the politicians are giants and they dangle public employees upside down, collecting the pennies that fall from their pockets. A giant Cuomo runs around stomping on schools, while a red eyed Arne Duncan forces students to eat one standardized test after another.
In the background, rows and rows of houses are submerged in a tide of foreclosure documents. Others are sinking deeper and deeper underwater. A crowd of exhausted taxpayers, huddled on their roofs, cheer them on. They are about to drown and many are blind. Their seeing eye-dogs are paddling in circles around their heads.
The Wall Street tycoons keep laughing. They laugh as an infirm old woman, who worked for thirty years, is told to return to her job instead of retiring. She is frail and weak. She devoted her life to helping others. They rob her, they beat her, and they laugh louder as they kick her out of a hospital. The politicians shrug and turn their back on her.
She huddles in an alley beside another small business that has closed its doors forever. A cold wind blows and she shivers, coughing up blood. A recently fired worker tries to help her, although there is little he can do. He jumps up and kicks the toe of one of the giant politicians and shouts, “Enough!”
There is still hope for them both. I wish I could draw.
Today, 12:00:42 PM– Flag – Like
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Middle class is finally pulling together, it will spread, we have no choice, we are the majority and once united can clean up, recall/resign political corruption. thousands are uniting, The gov has baracaded the house with police guarding the doors. This is just the first of many, I hope it spreads thoughout the land and changes, in a cultural protest, the majority of americans rule, democracy at it's best.
http://www.wkow.com/Global/story.asp?S=14033423