You all will love this:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
I just completed binge watching all seven seasons of The West Wing on Netflix a few days ago on my nephew Joel's fifteenth birthday, not having seen it on NBC when it first aired and noting the series was now celebrating its 15 year anniversary, having debuted on my parents' Sept. 22nd wedding anniversary in 1999.
So, this morning, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw a message in my inbox from West Wing Emmy-winning heartthrob, Bradley Whitford, with the subject line, "Walk and Talk." My first thought. Is this for real? Or is this what happens when you binge watch a series? You start seeing things in your inbox that aren't really there. Well, the message is real. It's really in my inbox. To me. From Bradley Whitford. Though don't know whether we will be walking and talking soon.
A guy who still calls Wisconsin home despite his Hollywood success, Whitford is stumping for Democratic candidate Mary Burke over incumbent Republican Governor Scott Walker. Never one to forget his Badger State roots, Whitford with a bachelor's degree from Wesleyan and a master's degree from Juilliard, delivered one of the more memorable commencement addresses at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, a stone's throw away from my house in Rockford, Illinois. His opening line, "What's up, Mad City?!" This was a few years before the debut of AMC's wildly popular Mad Men series.
In Democracy for America's email, Whitford says polls show Mary Burke can defeat Scott Walker. "On 'The West Wing,' I was an expert in polling. You also might remember me as a roguish, good-looking man who did a lot of fast-paced walking and talking through the halls of the White House. Scott Walker's fast, too -- at running from his record." - Huffington Post, 10/20/14
Things are getting intense in Wisconsin and Burke is urging voters to vote early:
http://www.thestate.com/...
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke plans to cast her ballot early on Tuesday in Madison.
Both Burke and Republican Gov. Scott Walker are urging their supporters to cast ballots now during a two-week early voting period that ends on Oct. 31. The election is Nov. 4.
Burke held rallies with supporters on Monday to encourage early voting, while Republicans were also holding similar events across the state to get their backers to the polls. - AP, 10/20/14
This is an intense race because Walker has a lot to lose here:
http://www.nytimes.com/...
In June 2012, the morning after Scott Walker became the first governor ever to survive a recall election, the talk of higher office began in earnest.
Some conservatives said his victory instantly placed him in the mix of potential Republican candidates for president in 2016. Then came a memoir, and then a trip with other potential candidates to a meeting widely understood to be an audition before Sheldon G. Adelson, the casino billionaire and top Republican donor.
But that was then.
Now Mr. Walker, 46, finds himself in a political corner, locked in a rough fight to hold on to his job. But as he battles Mary Burke — a Democrat who was once the state’s commerce secretary, appointed by former Gov. Jim Doyle, but barely known statewide until this campaign — Mr. Walker’s day job is not all that is at stake. His currency as a presidential contender will surely vanish if he cannot win a second term as the governor of Wisconsin.
Even as Republicans are buoyed by hopes of retaking the United States Senate, Mr. Walker has his back to the wall. So intense is the fight that the governor, who defined himself by clashing with labor unions, is pressing to get his political base to the polls. In a state that twice has picked Barack Obama, Mr. Walker might have pursued a more centrist strategy. Instead, he is talking tough, as he did the other day here in Green Bay, pacing around a truck garage, laying out his plan to drug test people seeking food stamps or unemployment benefits.
“The American dream isn’t how long you can sit on your couch watching TV or playing Xbox every day when you should be working and you can,” Mr. Walker told a nodding audience of mechanics and local businesspeople, detailing a proposal that would also remove “working-age” people without children from some public assistance after shorter stretches of time.
“Now, in Madison, they howled the other day,” Mr. Walker said of the state’s left-leaning capital. “They said, ‘Oh, the governor is making it harder to get government assistance.’ I said: ‘No, I’m not. I’m making it easier to get a job.’ Isn’t that what it’s really all about?”
The contest here is really all about this state’s sharp right turn over the past four years under Mr. Walker’s leadership, Wisconsin’s economy and Mr. Walker himself. - New York Times, 10/20/14
But the good people of Wisconsin will lose big if Walker is re-elected:
http://www.salon.com/...
For nearly five years, I have been a personal care worker, hired by a profit-making company paid by the state. In my case, my client is my mother, who had a leg amputated 21 years ago and is confined to a wheelchair. I am responsible for everything from making sure she takes her medication to food preparation to bathing to dressing and using the bathroom. Because of the services I provide, the state doesn’t have to maintain her in a nursing home or other institution that would cost a whole lot more.
I love my job, don’t get me wrong. But I am the sole supporter of my family, and think it’s wrong that I’m paid so little that we can’t make ends meet. I get $9.15 an hour, with no sick leave and no vacation. It used to be $9 an hour but then the agency told us a raise was coming. It turned out to be 15 cents, which was just humiliating.
Living on $9.15 an hour means choosing which bill to pay and which one to be late on, even if it means you have to pay a penalty later on. A few months ago, I had to risk getting our lights turned off by not paying the bill so I could buy shoes and clothes for the two grandkids I take care of. My paycheck doesn’t get bigger every year, but my kids and grandkids do.
This month, I’m paying my water bill late. My youngest daughter turned 14, and I had never been able to throw her a birthday party. She wanted to go roller-skating with a few friends and I decided she was going to have her party, even if it meant paying a late fee on the water bill.
My situation is not unique. There are millions of home care workers like me across America. In fact, more jobs will be added in home care in the next 10 years than in any other type of work. It’s the fastest-growing occupation in the country.
We’re not asking to become millionaires. But like workers in fast food and other kinds of low-wage jobs, we believe we should be paid at least $15 an hour. That would help all working people because low-wage workers would have more money to spend at local businesses.
We want politicians like Wisconsin’s Gov. Scott Walker to treat us like they would want to be treated. They couldn’t live for one week on what we are paid, and they shouldn’t expect us to either. - Salon, 10/20/14
So click here to donate and get involved with Burke's campaign:
http://burkeforwisconsin.com/
And while you're at it, click here to donate and get involved with Susan Happ's (D. WI) campaign for Attorney General:
http://www.susanhappforwisconsin.com/