The state of Kochistan, formerly known as Wisconsin, under the rule of Koch Industries employee Governor Scott Walker is on a roll. Charles P. Pierce has been watching with amazement as a state with a long legacy of progressivism descends into corporate ownership. A recent update noted that a long running grand jury had picked off a number of former Scott associates while leaving him unscathed. It went on to note the legislature has come up with a mining bill that raises the bar for sheer brazen giveaway of the state's natural resources.
...Walker got a mining deregulation bill passed that will clear the way for the opening of a massive open-pit iron mine in the northern part of the state. It weakens worker safety rules and environmental protections and, most egregious of all, it transfers the financial responsibility for the mine's infrastructure to dozens of small Wisconsin towns that can barely afford to keep the streetlights on now. Some bills are sweetheart bills. This bill is free mimosas on the balcony at a hideaway in Cancun. And, of course, every effort was made to make the operation as opaque as possible...
But wait! It gets worse!
In a follow-up, Pierce finds:
The legislation was written in such a way as to defang the state's Department Of Natural Resources, provide what is essentially a liability shield for the company, overturn over a century of environmental protection laws for the benefit of a single company, and it even contained a provision repealing a state legal law dating back to the 1880's that prevented Wisconsin land from being controlled by foreign corporations or government, leading more than a few people to wonder exactly who's going to get the 75 kajillion jobs that Walker and his pet legislature insist the mine will provide. In short, despite the fact that polls show substantial opposition to both the bill and the mine itself, and despite the fact that its sponsors admit the destruction it inevitably will cause, the Wisconsin legislature passed a law not only to permit the project to go forward, but to immunize the corporation against any destruction the project might wreak on the state and the people therein. They gave away public lands to this company while arranging that the political entity known as the state of Wisconsin, and therefore the people they ostensibly represent, would be unable to protect themselves from the damage the company will do. Self-government, and the political commonwealth that arises from it, is just something else gouged out of Wisconsin for a buck. This is astonishing. This is something that happens in China.
If you want a text book case for the conservative vision of what America should look like, read the full two articles by Pierce. This is what a Romney White House and a Republican Congress would give us - and good luck looking for help from the Roberts Supreme Court.
It is odd when the NRA talks about the need for citizens to use their 2nd amendment rights to defend themselves from a tyrannical government, they never mention a scenario like the one playing out in Wisconsin.