Monday, February 20, 2012

This Is Definitely "Watch The GOP Week" In Wisconsin

So-called Republican Senate moderates may roll out a mining bill today or tomorrow, and we'll see whether they have included the public hearing process in existing law but which was cut out by the Assembly after closed-door drafting with industry reps, or whether that provision and other environmental protections go by the wayside to please one out-of-state iron ore mining company and their comrades at the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce.

The WMC also hates a tiny per-ton extraction tax for a mitigation fund to make sure there is money lean-up after a mine closes. I think that will be tossed or reduced to a fraction of what could be needed once toxic residues begin fouling streams and groundwater in Northern Wisconsin to the detriment of clean water, good fishing and wild-rice cultivation by the Chippewa people there.

Tuesday is also the scheduled opening of a trial in Federal Court in Milwaukee where plaintiffs want Republican legislators to justify their behind-closed-doors - - see the theme? - - drafting/manipulating of new legislative district boundaries that put GOP incumbency at the top of the drafters' priority list.

And by the end of the week, or perhaps shortly thereafter, we'll see if more shoes drop in the John Doe probe, where prosecutors have already filed charges and unearthed a secret email and campaign-assistance system operated a few feet from then-Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker's office door allegedly by and for partisan operatives and candidates.

February is the shortest month, but could turn cruelly longl for Wisconsin Republicans.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fyi, the Bad River tribal members whom I know, and their spokespersons on this (and much else, from their publicity, websites, etc.), prefer: Ojibwe.

But by any name, thank you for continuing to include them in the public discourse on this issue on this site, at least.

Anonymous said...

Your blog just doesn't load properly, it hangs and freezes up other processes running on visitors computers. The problem isn't your viewer's computer - its something about your blog.

Can you get this taken care of? I would love to visit your site more often and link from my blog/sites to your great posts.

I just cannot do so as long as I know your pages simply don't load right. Please look into this - it is adversely impacting what should be a prominent voice.

James Rowen said...

I will regularly use Ojibwe.

As to the blog loading, I can't address it. Sorry. This is the first time this has been mentioned to me.

Anonymous said...

I'm waiting to see what sort of deal Tim Russell has worked out. I'm sure the expanding bald-spot sitting in the Governor's office is wondering the same thing.

Your blog loads fine on my five year old, wheezing and groaning computer.

RWW said...

With regard to Anony 9:08's loading problems, my anemic old laptop takes a long time to load the initial page, my faster desktop not so much. I suspect the culprits are the photographs from the EPA. In spite of their small footprint on the page, they are actually quite large files.