A well-placed Republican source has let Forbes know that Governor Walker of Wisconsin is preparing to push a financial martial law bill through the Legislature, to allow himself the privilege of 'stress-testing' cities and Counties in Wisconsin and setting aside their elected local governments. Selling their assets to private parties is intended, so as to heal their finances, of course.
The bill is being prepared by the biggest law firm in Wisconsin (Foley & Gardner), and is to be introduced in May. According to reports, it mirrors the law Governor Snyder of Michigan foisted on his State.
Details over the line . . .
Similarly to the Michigan law, Walker's bill would let him put his own person in place to literally do whatever they wanted, including firing elected officials, selling off public property and utilities, breaking union contracts, the works.
According to Forbes --
Walker’s plans give further credence to the notion that the efforts of the GOP governors with Republican majorities in their state legislative bodies are part of a coordinated plan to enforce a right-wing agenda designed to not only destroy state, county and municipal employee unions, but to take control of local governments by replacing elected officials with appointees, both corporate and individual, of the state’s highest executive officer.
The entire article is well worth reading, including comments.
With recall elections coming along for the eight Republican State Senators who are open to recall, will Walker have a problem pushing this through the Legislature?
Or does the GOP have their ideological blinders on so tightly that they cannot look away from their goal of destroying public unions?
Followed by all unions.
Recall elections may begin as soon as June. It is widely surmised that if Walker had to push his currently stalled union-busting bill through the Legislature again it would surely fail. What are the odds on this next bit of Koch sucking?Updated by andontcallmeshirley at Sun Apr 17, 2011 at 07:14 AM EDT
Theft is the goal of these kinds of laws. In Wisconsin it is the energy utilities to be sold to the Koch brothers.
Over in Benton Harbor, Michigan where an Emergency Financial Manager has just taken full control of the Town at the behest of Governor Snyder, the prize for the kleptocrats is the privatization of the Town's gorgeous 105-acre lakefront public park, gifted to the Town in 1917.
The current development plan is to start by carving a 22-acre luxury golf course out of the park (the 22 acres is leased for 105 years from the Town). This has been tied up in the courts, with the latest ruling in February of this year when Michigan's High Court turned down an appeal by Townspeople to stop the golf course.
How long it will take for the rest of the Park to also be leased or to be outright sold by the 'financially stressed' municipality is anyone's guess. The clients of the golf course will need restaurants, condos, malls.
What's happening here isn't the least bit complicated --
Adolf Hitler's favorite political philosopher back in the Twenties and Thirties was Carl Schmitt. You can find him on Wikipedia. He is the jurist who first proposed the Fuhrerprinzip ("Fuhrer Principle"). Which is the notion that in a democracy whomsoever can declare it suspended due to an emergency is the true sovereign, is the one who holds all power.
George Bush declared an emergency in America on 9/14/2001, and it has been in effect ever since. Now GOP governors around the country, starting with swing states for the 2012 election, are declaring emergencies and suspending the right of American citizens to govern themselves.
Exactly what brought the farmers and merchants to Bunker Hill in the first place.