Electoral Bedlam in Badgerland

Yesterday my home state of Wisconsin had an election.
The offices which were slated to be filled with newly
elected candidates included school boards, mayors,
county executives, and a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme
Court. Usually, elections of this sort which occur during
odd-years (or "off years", as political observers term
them) generally provoke little more than a  yawn from
anyone. Voter turnouts are quite paltry. There is certainly
no "fever pitch" over any candidate or issue driving people
to the polls. But with this election ...

Incumbent State Supreme Court Justice David Prosser,
seeking another term on the top bench, was challenged
by JoAnne Kloppenburg. Prosser built and enjoys a
reputation as a thoughtful moderately conservative
jurist, who has always shown independence and integrity
in his handling of cases, particularly those involving
criminals, businesses, unions, and state constitutional
questions. Appointed by former Gov. Tommy Thompson
(R) to fill a vacated seat on the high court, Prosser ran
for a full term. His opponent, Kloppenburg, is an attorney
specializing in environmental law, and has sued many a
farmer and businessman out of business while employed
by the state's Department of Natural Resources. As the
state's environmental law enforcer, she has tried to thwart
increases in local and legislative control in matters concern-
ing homeowners and businesses. Your favorite Peasant's
home state's DNR is regarded by many Wisconsinites as
being arrogant and self-serving, and Kloppenburg has
added much fuel to that fire in her years with them.

But the main reason that Wisconsin's left-wingers back
her candidacy is that they think she'll be a check on Gov.
Scott Walker's plans to reign in both the state budget and
the bargaining power of the public employee unions.The
Wisconsin Supreme Court has a slightly conservative tilt
at present: a 5-4 edge. If Kloppenburg defeats Prosser
for the bench seat currently held by Prosser, the tilt will
go to the liberals by the same margin, and therefore the
liberals could play judicial havoc with Walker and the
GOP majorities in both chambers of the state legislature.
Some political observers think that such a development
would be a thumb in the eye of the people, who voted
Scott Walker and the Republicans into power to do just
what they are doing. With Kloppenburg serving as "point
woman" for the public unions and their allies, the people
will be told that what they want doesn't matter, that their
vote doesn't matter, that they themselves don't matter.

The results of that race, as of this morning, shows the
DNR lawyer leading with a 226-vote margin with all
but one county --- Jefferson County --- reporting their
vote tallies. On local conservative radio talker Vicki
McKenna's show on WISN-AM here in Milwaukee
callers related some bizarre things that they encountered
at their polling places that sound very ominous; one caller
said that at her polling precinct she was told that they
ran out of ballots, and that she and the other voters were
told to write their votes down on a legal pad (?!).
Another caller reported that his ballot was rejected three
times by the machine which takes the completed ballots,
issuing a slip of paper saying that the ballot was rejected
for some sort of irregularities, and that the voters ahead of
and behind the caller had the same problem. The caller
in question said that on the third attempt his ballot was
finally accepted. The most disturbing account came from
a woman who told Vicki and her audience that an elderly
woman in front of her, when receiving her ballot, was
informed by the clerk at the table that she could not tell
the woman how to vote, but the clerk said that she would
stand near but not too near her at the booth and make
a certain sound as the voter moved her pen by the names
of Kloppenburg and other Democrat-backed candidates!
One caller said that a sample ballot given out at his precinct
had the actual names of the Democrats and Democrat-
backed candidates on the form! The law FORBIDS the
printing of candidates' names on sample ballots. Vicki's
advice for everyone finding questionable happenstances
to call the state election audit bureau to report what they
saw and heard.

So, there you have it, my wonderful readers. The Left will
stop at nothing to get what they want. The constitution,
state or national, doesn't matter. The law, so what. The
will of the people, their concerns, their vote, who cares?
A recount is a certainty in the Supreme Court race regard-
less of who ekes out the win. My fellow Wisconsinites,
those of us who voted have already done our part. All
that we can do now is wait, and say a prayer. Democracy
is hanging in the balance in our state, along with our liberty
and our economic well-being.

As for your faithful Peasant, I shall be praying my rosary
today for the preservation of the integrity of our voting
process and for justice to win the day.


MEM

Related articles

• Wisconsin Supreme Court Race Draws National Attention (blogs.wsj.com)
• "It may take more than a month before any recount would even start" in the Wisconsin Supreme Court election. (althouse.blogspot.com)
• Daily Benefactor News - Wisconsin Supreme Court Race Still Too Close To Call, Prosser Has Narrow Lead (thedaleygator.wordpress.com)
• Prosser edging Kloppenburg in votes, recount all but assured (hotair.com)

Geraldine Ferraro, R.I.P.

Friends, this day's offering shall be a tribute to someone
that you may not expect your faithful Peasant to pay tri-
bute to, but this woman left an indellible mark on our
country's political landscape and our country. Former
U.S. Representative and one-time Vice Presidential
candidate Geraldine Ferraro has passed away a few
days ago, aged 75.

A soaunch liberal, she was chosen by the Democrat's
1984 presidential nominee Walter Mondale to be his
running mate to face off against Presdient Ronald
Reagan and Vice President George H. W. Bush.
Ferraro was the first woman in American history
to be a Vice Presidential candidate on the ticket
of a major political party. She and Vice President
Bush had a very testy exchange during their only
debate in the weeks leading up to the electin, but
in subsequent years they gained a respect and
appreciation for each other and became friends.
Despite the bold choice by Mondale, the pair went
down in the biggest landslide defeat suffered by a
presidential pair from a major U.S. political party
since Republican Alf Landon was steamrolled by
Democrat and incumbent Frankiln D. Roosevelt
in 1936.

Ferrraro made national news once again when
she was picked by President Bill Clinton to be
the American delegate to the U.N. Human Rights
Commission, where she concentrated on issues
concerning women and children.

In the following years, Ferraro's liberalism seemed
to fall out of favor with many Democrats, having lost
two bids for the U.S. Senate, losing her party's nom-
ination twice. She was defeated one one occaision by
current U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer, a partisan who
makes Ferraro look like a female William F. Buckley.
A few years ago, she caught flak for comments she
made concerning her party's choice for presidential
nominee Barack Obama, saying that he was given
his status by the party just because he is black. A
curious thing for someone chosen to be on her party's
ticket years earlier because she is a woman. Your
quizzical Peasant does not know, and may never
know, whether Ferraro made her remark because
of her coming to see the folly of identity politics or
for a baser reason. But in her last years, she started
sounding more measured and reasoned in giving her
opinions on the latest political issues, and even made
friends with people whom she vehemently disagreed
with on same.

Women on both sides of the political spectrum have
hailed Geraldine Ferrraro as a pioneer and a trail-
blazer for women seeking to enter politics. And for
her part, Ferraro was openly happy to see women,
conservative as well as liberal, travel along the paths
that she cut through the often testosterone-charged
jungle of the American political landscape. Unlike
so many of her fellow female liberals, Ferraro never
begrudged conservative women this benefit of her
work, as her heart was bigger than her politics.

Happy trails, Geraldine Ferraro.

Related articles

• Palin: On the Passing of Geraldine Ferraro (sarahpalinblog.typepad.com)

The Latest From Mad City

Well, friends, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's budget and
all its provisions is being held up from its publishing and
therefore its activation as law. A Dane County judge has
halted implementation of the budget on the grounds that
a legislative committee violated Wisconsin's Open Meetings
law. Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne filed
suit over the legislation, making the aforementioned argument.
Dane County Circuit Court judge Maryann Sumi (pronounced
"sue me"; her name might well prove quite fitting!) agreed
with Ozanne's argument and ruled in his favor. Ozanne claims
that there has not been a 24-hour notice of the legislation and
therefore its passage was in violation of the state's Open 
Meetings law, and should be held up from its going into effect.

Gov. Walker's budget was passed by the Republican
majorities in both of Wisconsin's legislative chambers, going
around a stalemate caused by the 14 state Senate Democrat
"fleebaggers" fleeing to Illinois to avoid a vote on the measure
that they were sure to lose. The legislation cannot take effect
until its formal publication, and Democrat Secretary of State
Douglas LaFollette announced that he plans to wait the full
10 days allowed for the publishing of a passed piece of legis-
lation and to finally take effect as state law. The Secretary of
State is being a good Democrat team player, working to block
Gov. Walker as well as the people who elected him because
he would craft such a no-nonsense budget.

Now, your thoughtful Peasant thinks that Gov. Walker and
team GOP may well have not given that 24-hour notice of
this legislation. That much could well be true, folks.
But know this: they looked for, found, and implemented
a strategy to pass the budget without the return of the cowardly,
shameful senate Democrats to the Senate to do their jobs.
And Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, in an
immediate appeal, argues that Judge Sumi "has no jurisdiction
over state lawmakers or the Secretary of State, as they 
all have sovereign immunity." Judge Sumi's action also bars 
Sec. of State LaFollette from publishing the new law. He also
asserts that "the (state) Supreme Court has repeatedly held
that a court may not void any act of the Legislature for
alleged failure to follow a non-constitutional rule of legislative
process ... As applied to legislative acts, the Open Meetings
law is such a rule of process." This means that while a rule
calling for a 24-hour notice to the public regarding any
legislation up for a vote in the legislature does exist,
since it isn't part of Wisconsin's constitutional code of law it
cannot be legally invoked to hold up new laws from taking
effect.

Van Hollen, in a separate new release, stated "The court
may not interfere with the legislative process and enjoin
the publication of a bill as the last step in the legislative
process ... Courts may only evaluate whether
constitutional requirements were met."

So there you have it, my fantastic readers; yet another
case of Democrats overreaching in order to either make
laws that they favor, or to block laws that they disdain.
In so doing, the Dems in my home state are also showing
their disdain for the will of the people here, who wanted
appropriate action in the form of the creation of a state budget
that would say "ENOUGH!" to further skyrocketing spending
and accompanying skyrocketing taxes, and elected a governor
who would deliver such a budget. As this post is being typed,
some of the constituents of the fleebagger senators along
with other left-wingers around the state are calling for recall
elections to oust the Republican state legislators to try to regain
the legislature so that they can continue to render Wisconsin
inhospitable for both jobs and people, all the while lining their
pockets with more and more of our tax monies. This is what 
the battle in Madison is about. This is what the battles taking
place in other states are about. This is all part of a war which
we must win in order to take back our government and make it,
at all levels, serve ALL of us, not just a favored few with
loud mouths, thuggish behavior, greed, and hatred for
their fellow citizens.

Our way of life is at stake. Failure is not an option.


MEM

Related articles

• Gov. Scott Walker: "The Wisconsin Way" (riehlworldview.com)
• Judge Temporarily Blocks Wisconsin Collective Bargaining Law (mediaite.com)

A Busy Springtime Looms Large

My dear readers, your faithful Peasant has some important
news to give you. Some wonderful opportunities came my
way; I'll be busy preparing for a change of residence.
I've been wanting a bigger place with more privacy, and
By May 1, shall be living in my new home, and I am now 
in preparation for the big event. Also, I am very close to
landing a wonderful position with a local financial firm;
I had all but given up on a return to my career field, with
what has happened with it in the past three years. A major
recruiting firm called me last Friday to discuss this position
and I now have an appointment to visit the recruiting agent
who saw my resume' online at an career-related website
and made the call. I can tell you this right now: the money
is most enticing!

So with these things and a few others that I won't get into
here, I shall have my hands full for April. I may not be able
to post items of interest for you, my fantastic readers, some
weeks, or at least not on my usual posting day (Wednesday)
some weeks. But I shall make every effort to stay in touch
with you, don't worry!

Keep me in your thoughts and prayers, and send me positive
energy for what all I shall be undertaking in the weeks ahead.
I'll keep you posted on what transpires. Thank you all for your
understanding and your encouragement! You all mean more to
me than I ever will to you! The best lies ahead for us.


MEM

Look Who's Supporting the Madison Protesters

Well, my great readers, the Google software bug is taking a
breather for the time being, so we'll get this day's visit in while
we can.

In a recent post from your favorite Peasant concerning the
hullabaloo in Madison, Wisconsin, I mentioned the visits to
the protesters by well-known left-wingers the Rev. Jesse
Jackson, Michael Moore, and Susan Sarandon, all getting
their precious and much-craved photo-ops showing them
in solidarity with the public union members and their quixotic
cause. Over the course of this siege your diligent Peasant
has discovered some more supporters who have come to
stand in support of the whiners; writing in their webzines
and blogs in common cause have been members of the
International Socialist Organization, the Communist Party
USA (CPUSA), the Socialist Workers Party, and the
Maoist Revolutionary Communist Party, naturally in favor
of the unionized public sector workers' raising Cain over
Gov. Scott Walker's plans to rein in their ability to demand
--- and get --- ever-escalating wages and benefits at the
taxpayers' expense in bad times as well as good.

These radical groups have mimicked the unions' talking
points, such as accusing Gov. Walker of union-busting
and comparing Walker to recently deposed Egyptian
dictator Hosni Mubarak. They also have accused our
governor of waging class war. You know, all of the
standard radical lefty cow chips and pig pies. "Egypt,
whose revolution has been a constant source of inspiration
here, reflected in signs and chants --- and Walker's new
nickname, 'Governor Mubarak', " proclaimed an article
from the International Socialist Organization's web site.

You know, this says more about the politics of the public
employee unions than it does about the far-left groups
that have coalesced themselves around and ensconced
themselves in the unions' gathering. The fringe groups in
alliance with the unions are doing what is par for their
sorry course; the unions, however, have displayed an
alarming shift to the far left in their political demeanor.
George Meany, the AFL-CIO President back when
your beloved Peasant wielded a slingshot rather than a
pitchfork, made it clear that American workers had no
interest in communism, nor any other extreme brands
of politics, and had no desire to overthrow our system
in favor of any other. Unions, and indeed American
liberalism, was much more reasonable and sedate.
And President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a traditional
hero of union members throughout the country for decades,
was himself not a fan of unionized government employees
for some of the very reasons we see manifest in Madison.
I suppose that the reds and their comrades would write
these men off as "class warriors" as well.

Liberalism has slid dangerously far from its past position
on our political spectrum. Liberals let their ideological
camp and its institutions such as the Democrat party,
labor unions, civil rights advocacy groups, and public
interest groups be open to crazies, turning their entire
camp into a veritable insane asylum --- and now the
inmates run the asylum. The public workers' unions
proudly stand together with these poisonous wretches;
can you recall a time, any time, when conservative
activists and political groups, including the Tea Party,
have stood with nazis, fascists, or KKK members?
Can you recall any conservative political group ever
welcoming such horrible people into their ranks?
Do you know what left-wingers would say if we
conservatives ever would do such a thing? Oh, the
hypocrisy and the posturing would be endless!

The public employee unions should learn this maxim:
You are judged by the company you keep. In other
words, the more that the American people see these
workers connected to totalitarian scumbags, then the
more that they are going to side with political leaders
like Gov. Scott Walker and support their efforts to
preserve our states' economies and our liberties.
As far as your optimistic Peasant is concerned, we
have already won the battle in Madison. And we'll
win the war, the war for our country's future.


MEM

Related articles

• More Leftist Union Thuggery, Vandalism And Stupidity In Wisconsin (thedaleygator.wordpress.com)
• American Unions and The Communist Party USA are Marching in Solidarity (votingamerican.wordpress.com)
• Birds of a Feather...Use The Same Idiotic Talking Points (nicedeb.wordpress.com)
• Mob holds Madison, Wisconsin statehouse hostage, but rule of law prevails (panamericanworld.wordpress.com)

More Technical Trouble Plaguing Us

IF YOU CAN READ THIS POST:

My wonderful, loyal readers, I honestly and naively
believed that the technical problems that beset Google
which owns and runs Blogger, the blog site where
"Peasant With A Pitchfork" resides, were solved
once and for all as of last Tuesday. However, this
has proved not to be the case.

I once again apologize to you for any trouble that you
may have encountered in trying to access "Peasant With
A Pitchfork" this week; this is all on Google's end, with
its software bug still affecting thousands of users around
the world. For those of you who were fortunate to have
been able to access PWAP, the Amazon.com ads that
your frustrated Peasant had placed on the right side of the
blog page have disappeared again. I apologize for that as
well. Google has been slow in addressing and rectifying
this difficulty, and they have kept their Google Gmail and
Blogger customers in the dark as to what progress has
been made. I sense a mixture of incompetence and
arrogance, and I have e-mailed my displeasure to Google
on the matter.

Friends, we'll get through this. Let's hang tough, and those
of you who have Google accounts, or just simply visit your
beloved Peasant to enjoy this blog, e-mail Google to voice
your displeasure as well! These people are supposed to be
experts in computer software and internet matters, and
there is NO reason why they should be taking so horribly
long to rectify this bug bugaboo! There's even less reason
why they should not at least keep us up to date on what
they are doing about it! And their bug is keeping us from
getting together for our weekly visits to hash over the
political and economic news of the day!

E-mail, call, or write Google and tell them to get in gear!
We'll resume our weekly gatherings very soon. Thank
you, my fantastic readers, for your patience and
understanding!


MEM

Capitol Combat

My friends, the protest waged by the members of the
public workers' union members and their comrades
against Governor Walker and the people of Wisconsin,
the majority of whom voted for him and want him to
bring state taxes and spending down to reasonable
levels, is still raging after three relentless weeks.
Although the pro-union crowd has not broken out
into riots, despite their claims to the contrary there
has been some violent occurrences.

There have been accounts of some lefty protesters
pushing and punching pro-Walker supporters, who
have shown up to counter the left-wingers with
demonstrations of support for Gov. Walker and
his no-nonsense budget and related reforms. A
television journalist with Fox News was cursed
by the protesters, then punched by one of them
--- all the while broadcasting on the scene. Fox
News is the only TV media outfit that the lefties
hate, because Fox won't give their reporting a
pro-union tilt; Fox is not part of the liberal
establishment media axis, which spews the
statist, elitist line that gives those like the public
employee unions succor.

State Senator Glenn Grothman, one of the
Republican majority in that chamber, was
harassed and pursued by a cluster of the
protesters, and gave his harrowing account
on Milwaukee conservative talk show host
Vicki McKenna's radio show. He had reason
to fear for his life! Yet the union members and
their hangers-on claim that their protest is
absolutely peaceful. Perhaps these hotheads
consider a protest or rally to be "peaceful" if
they don't actually kill anyone.

And the kerfuffle has drawn the attention and the
presence of Rev. Jesse Jackson and Michael Moore.
Yes indeed, these left-wing stooges showed up in
Madison to exhort the public union members and their
cohorts, with Jackson likening Gov. Walker's reforms
which would curb but not eliminate public employee
unions and their bargaining power, to slavery, and Moore
claiming that Wisconsin being broke is a lie. This is
the desperate rhetoric of political hustlers on the make!
Jackson should talk to some of us taxpayers here in
the Badger State and discover how we are forced to
pay higher and higher taxes to hire and pay exorbitant
compensation to state employees, forcing private sector
employment to wane while state government employment
and employees wax! THEN the Rev will know what
slavery is! And the bloated Marxist apologist Moore claims
that just because Wisconsin has a budget deficit that does
not mean that Wisconsin has no money. Is Moore stupid,
disingenuous, or both? Wisconsin is broke because it has
a big debt load! The state has had to borrow more and
more money in order to pay for its increasing government
expenditures over recent years, and has no more money
to pay astronomical wages and benefits to state employees!
Wisconsin could not possibly tax enough money out of the
private sector to cover these costs, therefore the borrowing
spate. But then, such things as facts and truth have never
been tools of Mr. Moore's trade.

Susan Sarandon, that famous Hollywood political fashionista,
also showed up to lend support. After a photo-op the actress
visited a Madison pizzeria to commend it for feeding as many
of the protesters at the Capitol as it could, and there are some
accounts that she had contributed some money to help feed
the hordes. She also took time to call Gov. Walker an"idiot".
Tres chic, my dear Susan! I just KNOW that all of your show
biz pals will be SO knocked out! Good Lord, what other clowns
are going to get in on this circus? Susan is a magnificent actress,
but she is also a magnificent, air-headed, supercilious pain-in-
the-tush! Oh, the First Amendment is a wondrous and won-
drously expansive thing!

Your favorite Peasant shall return soon with more Madison
mischief to pore over. My fellow Wisconsinites, stay strong
and keep the faith!


MEM

Related articles

• Governor Walker warns of imminent layoffs - Catholic Online (news.google.com)
• Of Course: Michael Moore Rallies Wisconsin Pro-Union Protesters (biggovernment.com)