Eyewitness account from WI Assembly Session yesterday

[Jackpine Radical]

(This is a reposting of an email I wanted to share. I'm not the original author, whose identity I have protected here.)


Today Thurs. This will be short as i intend to read the remaining 46 pages of the The Budget Repair Bill before i go to bed
Again i was able to get a seat in the assembly gallery.

Two things.
In the Governors press release tonight, he stated how hard the Assembly was busy debating amendments to this bill. That could not be farther from the truth. This was not a debate!! At NO time did ANY GOP Rep. speak. A number of them acted like they were sleeping only stirring when the speaker said the 10 min. were up and asked for a vote to table the amendment---All 120 amendments were tabled without comment by the GOP. I am in dismay that not even one amendment offered would deserve a comment, question, clarification, opposition or debate. This was NOT A DEBATE.
i watched as amendment after amendment was brought to the floor. Each amendment was only allowed 10 minutes of floor time, (not 10min. per speaker) It was curious that the Speaker (Jeff Fitzgerald) had a smirk on his face through out the entire proceedings.....If you have never been you really need to sit in the gallery, it is an education.

2nd. And this one really bothers me. One of the Dem's introduced a single mom from here district. The woman has 4th stage terminal cancer. Her medications cost $4,600.00 a month. She is the care giver for her wheel chair bound son, who is paralyzed.. Because her son receives social security she is ineligible for Medicaid. She is able to get her medicine because of Badger Care. She will loose her Badger Care under the provisions of this bill. She was honored with a standing ovation, even those of us in the observation gallery were allowed to honor her & her son. NOT ONE, got it, NOT ONE person on the GOP side of the aisle joined in the applause. After mom & son Left, The Lady whose district the mother came from, admonished the GOP side of the aisle for not even one of them looking up or glancing away from their laptops, (or sleeping).
I am still trying to comprehend any persons lack of compassion for someone !!! You know, we have two sides & views across the aisle.but the lack of compassion and or respect i witnessed today will forever be in my mind. It would have cost them nothing..
I AM DISGUSTED WITH HUMANITY. GOOD NIGHT!

EARLE
__._,_.___

[bbgrunt]

1. that is why the dems constantly lose. They are basically

good, compassionate people and assume that their fellow humans are the same. They simply cannot fathom what evil is on the other side.

edited to add: thanks for being a witness to this travesty and for this first hand account.

[Jackpine Radical]

4. I didn't write this; just forwarded it to DU.

[Poboy]

2. Recommend

[PA Democrat]

3. They have no shame.

Thanks for the report. How I wish the media would report on this and question the Republicans on how they can justify turning their backs on people like this woman.

[rasputin1952]

5. For #2...

Typical GOP response...after all they never gave a damn about the sick, the injured or the dying...you witnessed, first hand, a "Death Panel", and they should rot in hell for all the damage they've done, and the damage they want to do.

A few years back in TX, some asshole rammed a "limit bill" on pain and suffering payments, some cap on them. Sadly for this clown's son, the kid was in an auto accident that left him paralyzed, and the legislation this asshole shoved down the throats of the citizens of TX came back to bite him in the ass, as he could not collect for the lifetime his son was facing. He tried to get a "grandfather clause", so he and his son would be exempt from the law that was enacted...and fell flat on his face. He then proceeded to claim how unfair it was. Typical for the GOP goons that haven't an ounce of compassion...until something happens where they are caught in a bind.

Anyone that votes GOP should remember, this is nothing but a party that will do everything it can to abuse a citizen...unless they have a lot of cash that that can flow their way...the R's, quite simply suck and should be crushed into dust as a viable party.

[tblue37]

10. I remember reading an article many years ago about some state

representative somewhere who sponsored a parental notification bill to prevent teenaged girls from getting abortions without first getting a consent form from one of their parents.

Then his own honor roll teenaged daughter got pregnant and didn't want her uptight father to know about it, so she went for an illegal abortion, since the parental notification law prevented her from getting a legal one.

Of course the poor girl ended up dying from a botched illegal abortion, and her grief-stricken father then devoted himself to overturning the bill that he had introduced and worked so hard to get passed.

[rasputin1952]

11. It is horrific situations like that that will have these people see

just whayt they have done.

I'd say that 95%+ of Americans have no idea about the history of abortion in this nation. Very few realize that Pilgrims saw abortion as a gray area, but tolerated it. After they were in the minority, abortion was accepted in the "Colonies", just as it was in Europe, in fact, abortion was legal and unchallenged in this country until some Physicians and theologians during, "The Great Awakening", saw fit to condemn it, not on religious grounds, but because many women were dying from the procedure, which was often done in small rooms where sterility was never even contemplated, and knowledge of anatomy and physiology were cursory at best. The idea behind states putting laws on the books making abortion a crime, was an attempt to save the lives of women; it failed. Women seeking the procedure were forced even further underground, and far more died.

Roe v Wade was backed by the majority of AMA members, when it became apparent that the exact reverse of what was desired under legislation, the number of women dying increased exponentially.

Most people would desire a decline in the number of abortions, but since time immemorial, women have sought ways to terminate pregnancy, something the extreme "moralists" refuse to comprehend. Only since R v W, has abortion become a seriously contentious issue that has had profound ways in how we view women in this society.

I've even heard one person declare publicly that an egg and a sperm each has, "half a soul"; when united, the cells apparently "create" a full soul...:eyes: The level of ignorance and outright stupidity is astounding.

[flamingdem]

6. Jeez how obvious does it have to get

that we're dealing with bullies and authoritarian wannabes.

What tactics remain to put them in their place?

[rucky]

7. This needs to get to Rachel Maddow

[LondonReign2]

8. No, this needs to be shown on the network news

But it never will, of course. Every outlet, including NPR, is reporting the Republican narrative that this is about the budget.

This has zero to do about the budget, but no one wants to actually inform the public about this. No, its MUCH easier to spin the story however the Republcans dictate it than to actually do the hard work -- DO YOUR JOB-- and report the truth.

[deacon]

9. Sheeesh. k + r