Paul Ryan made tasteless jokes about protesters at Rotary Club speech in September 2011 - PLUS: 71-year-old retiree Tom Nielsen, who was brutally arrested during this event, speaks out in interview - See the shocking video of his arrest, plus more clips from the speech and the protests

By Patrick

Mitt Romney should have known that Paul Ryan is a risky choice. Paul Ryan's contempt for the "little man" (the "middle class", so to speak) came to light in a video clip from September 2011 which during the last 24 hours went viral and was picked up by numerous blogs. Already in September 2011, reports about this event were published, for example by Huffington Post - but with Paul Ryan now being the presumptive Republican nominee for Vice President, it is time for a "second look."

71-year-old retiree Tom Nielsen belonged to a group of protesters who bought tickets for a "pay-per-view" speech by Paul Ryan at the Whitnell Park Rotary Club in Greenfield, Wisconsin which took place on September 6, 2011. According to Nielsen, about 20 protesters bought tickets for 15 dollars each in order to listen to the speech. Tom Nielsen, just like several protesters before him, at some point during Ryan's speech started to shout in order to voice his protest against Paul Ryan's views. After a few seconds, Nielsen was forcefully arrested and wrestled to the ground by police, despite letting the policemen know that he he suffered from a broken shoulder just four weeks ago.

Paul Ryan then could not help himself and make an incredibly tasteless remark, after Tom Nielsen was brought out of the venue: "I hope he is taking his blood pressure medication."

Watch the short clip, which went viral:

In order to get a better picture about what happened during this event, I started to search for more clips and reports, and was successful. I found two more videos on news websites, which I now uploaded to youtube in order to make them more accessible. I also found an extensive radio interview with Tom Nielsen, which was conducted after the event.

Here are the other two clips, which give a better overall picture about what happened.

CLIP 1:

  CLIP 2:

What is particularly striking is the fact that Paul Ryan actually made more jokes about the protesters at this event. One of their main points of criticism was that Paul Ryan is mostly available for his constituents at such "pay per view" events, in which Paul Ryan can conveniently hide behind the protection of "private property" and can get protesters removed immediately. Paul Ryan jokes in the first clip from the 2:35 mark that "At least the Rotary Club got 15 dollar out of them" - another tasteless remark by this man who had just explained to his audience that America's biggest problem are apparently the "entitlement programs."

However, even more interestingly, in the second clip he is then asked by a reporter what he thinks about the fact that people had to pay 15 dollars to see him, and he has the audacity to reply: "You got to take it up with the Rotarians" - as if he was suddenly not responsible any more. Isn't that just what America needs right now: A Vice-President who is not keen to take responsibility for his own actions!

More reports about this event at Whitnell Park Rotary Club can be found here, here and here.

Finally, I found an excellent radio interview which Tom Nielsen gave after his arrest. He was a guest at the "Rick Smith Show" - you can listen to the interview at their website.

America now needs to get to know the "real" Paul Ryan. We at Politicalgates will do our best during the next months to contribute to this effort.

Wake Up, America! Deregulation is Bad for You

By Blueberry Tart

What will it take to wake up America to the many threats that currently endanger our health, safety, well-being and even our democracy?

• We see what is happening in the upper midwest and elsewhere to weaken workers' rights.
• We saw what happened in the last election after the Supreme Court, in effect, allowed corporations to buy elections.
• We saw what happened to the media when long-standing rules against monopolies were eliminated.
• We saw what happened in the Gulf of Mexico when weak regulation of the oil industry led to unsafe drilling practices.
• We saw what happened when the financial industry was deregulated, leading to a global financial crisis and the Great Recession.
• We are seeing the consequences of weak oversight of the nuclear industry; safety problems were known in Japan for years and represent a risk to present and future generations; (prior reports documented weak regulatory oversight of the US nuclear weapons program as well) yet the federal government is expanding taxpayer subsidies for the industry.
• We saw what happened in Tucson and Columbine and too many other places because of weak gun control laws and regulations.
• We see how cutting taxes for the wealthiest Americans, another form of the same anti-regulatory fervor, weakens our government and shifts the burden to the middle class.
• And we are seeing the Republicans mounting a major offensive against important agencies that we need to protect our interests, like the Environmental Protection Agency.

What is the common thread? Weakening regulations that protect people.

What is truly amazing and ironic is that the Republican/right-wing's call for further deregulation has gained traction. It should be laughable. It should be a national joke (or a crime) to be able to call for deregulation right now, in the aftermath of the economic crisis, the BP crisis, the nuclear reactor crisis, the mining tragedies, the explosions at chemical plants, the massacres by people who got guns all too easily. Those espousing deregulation should be in full retreat, running with their tails between their legs, in hiding, publicly shamed, wearing a scarlet letter after the multiple disasters have shown how damaging deregulation has been to the people of America and other countries.

Instead, they are playing offense. I guess we should not be surprised at the hubris. Even while the Deepwater Horizon well was spewing millions of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, we heard the Republicans calling to open our offshore waters to more drilling. Today, while we are still in the midst of a major, unprecedented crisis at nuclear power plants in Japan, we are already hearing Republican calls for more nuclear power. This is their MO – they repeatedly deflect attention from the inconvenient truth (“pay no attention to that disaster behind the curtain”), so they can turn the tide of public discourse away from the obviously anti-people outcomes of their deregulatory policies. [I can’t help but observe that on a smaller, personal scale, this is Sarah Palin’s MO too – to double down when caught in a personal failings or disasters, like her "blood libel" reaction to criticism about her violent imagery and rhetoric, or even the idiocy of writing on her hand. Doubling down is obviously part of the Republican playbook.]

It seems that they are in the ascendancy and we progressives are on the defensive. Two years after Americans so hopefully reclaimed Congress and the Presidency, we seem to be in a tailspin, in retreat, defeatest. We need to get out of it. We need to regroup. We need to fight back against the disinformation that leads so many Americans to vote against their own interests. We need to boldly proclaim the truth about how deregulation puts us, and our children and grandchildren, at risk. We need to help our politicians have the courage to do the right thing. We need to organize and strategize.

Enough is enough. It is beyond time to call out the right-wing's outrageous deflection of the truth for what it is – an elaborate scam to deny the truth and weaken protections that we all need. We have regulations to protect the people’s interests. Most regulations did not arise in a vacuum – they were a response to real problems that endangered our collective well-being, whether financial or health or safety or educational or environmental. Think child labor, Love Canal, mine disasters, factory fires, typhoid and cholera epidemics, oil spills, dangerous cars, unsafe toys. These were and are real problems that led to laws and regulations. I'm old enough to remember the first Earth Day, and the time before the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. We need these laws and many others that protect us, and strong, competent, adequately funded regulatory agencies to enforce these protections.

We need a better strategy to build a stronger progressive voice in America. We need to ditch the infighting that always seems to happen. It is obviously not productive to split the vote. We certainly need a way to shift the terms of the debate toward how to protect the interests of the American people. I hear this need in what President Obama is saying. He needs our help to push the envelope. How can we help him, push him, pull him, prod him, strengthen his resolve and his effectiveness, without undermining him?

We also need to welcome disaffected Republicans, independents, moderates with open arms. This means not being dogmatic or absolute. To succeed, we do not have to appeal to the 20% that is farthest right, but we do need to appeal to the center.

And, as many of you know and are doing, we need to support the nascent efforts that are out there, like what is happening in WI and elsewhere. I love that it’s not a one-time protest; they keep coming back! Thank you, Wisconsin! You are so inspiring! Thank all of you who are protesting -- I really hope that you are indeed "waking the sleeping giant." Maybe we need another period of marching, protesting, petitioning, fighting back, not giving up. Hopefully Wisconsin and their friends ARE the wakeup call for all of us, and particularly for college kids to get more engaged.

The people, united, can never be defeated. But the people, divided, can and will be.

****************************************

A note on the assault on environmental protection

I want to call your attention to the efforts to weaken environmental protection. The Environmental Protection Agency is making some progress in reversing eight years of the Bush Administration’s systematic effort to ignore science and weaken environmental regulations. Now EPA is again under attack by the Republican Party. Other agencies that play a role in protecting us and the environment, like the U.S. Geological Survey and NOAA, are also on the cutting block. The House Budget, proposed by the Republican leadership, proposes major cuts to EPA and USGS. This is at a time when the need for EPA’s and USGS' services to protect our air and water and us could not be greater.

In my experience, EPA is a highly professional agency whose management and staff include many smart and dedicated scientists, analysts, educators and managers. In most cases, they are really trying to do the right thing. We need to give them our full support so that they can do more, not less, to ensure that we have clean air and clean water and address global warming. EPA is under assault by conservatives trying to weaken them even further. I urge you to let your Senators know that clean air and clean water are a high priority, and we need EPA to have more resources, not less, to do their work to protect us. Here and here are links on this subject.

Here is some up-to-the-minute information that shows where the Koch Brothers interests lie; this is another reason why we need a strong EPA, and why EPA is under siege.

P.S. I originally titled this post, “Wake Up, America!” and when I was looking for an image to illustrate the post, I found that many ultra-right-wing sites have co-opted that message. Of course; silly me; should have realized. Some of the words on those sites are very similar to mine, yet their understanding of the root of the problem and the solutions we need is diametrically opposite to mine. In the end, I decided to keep the title, as yet another reflection of the Twilight Zone in which we live. And to reclaim the message. And to welcome those who are frustrated and may be open to a different point of view.

Weekly Roundup, March 7-13, 2011 - Will Palin Run, Japan Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Disasters, Battle for Wisconsin + More

By Blueberry Tart

This was an incredibly dramatic week. The right-wing assault on workers’ rights took an ugly turn in Wisconsin, and the coordinated legislative strategy to undo women’s and workers’ right became more apparent. But all other news paled in the aftermath of the devastation in Japan, which is in the midst of a major crisis after a massive earthquake, tsunami and nuclear reactors disaster.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Will She or Won’t She?

It seems so long ago that the week began with Kathleen’s post, looking at Sarah Palin’s recent interview with the BBC for indications of whether she will run for President. Bottom line: “Sarah Palin enjoys playing games with the media. She will continue to bait, taunt and hint at her intentions for as long as she possibly can. Why should Palin make an early announcement one way or other when she can continue to make money and be given a free platform for her extreme views on Fox News? She has the best of both worlds and she knows it and I believe that she will wait until the last minute to announce her intentions.”

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

The Economic Bill of Rights

After my recent posts on neo-con-econ, I wanted to find a clear, inspiring message to counteract the constant right-wing talking points. Turns out that the best message I found was from FDR’s 1944 State of the Union Address. How ironic that it would be at such a time in our history – emerging from the Great Depression and fully engaged in World War II – that Roosevelt would set forth a progressive vision of economic fairness that endures to this day. I’m sure he would have explicitly added the right to unionize and to collective bargaining, except he undoubtedly assumed that those rights were already well established. And they were, until now.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

The Battle for Wisconsin

The charade in Wisconsin was fully revealed, as the Republicans illegally voted 18-1 to “take America back” to the early 1900s, when workers had no right to unionize or to bargain collectively. So, there is no longer any pretense that this bill had anything to do with ANYTHING except union-busting. Rachel Maddow describes the Republican’s end run around the law, and her interview with Michael Moore is must-see; his words are so passionate and moving: “This is a class war leveled against the working people of this country…”

Friday-Saturday, March 11-12, 2011

Earthquake, Tsunami, Nuclear Disaster

Kathleen kept us up-to-date with posts on the Japanese earthquake, tsunami and nuclear reactor crisis with three posts covering the earthquake, then the first reports on the nuclear reactor crisis and another report after the explosion. The level of this tragedy seems to increase exponentially as we watch in horror from afar. Entire communities seem to have been wiped off the face of the earth, as a series of tsunamis have devastated the northeast coast of Japan’s main island. As I write this, the truth about the reactors is still somewhat unclear, but it appears that several reactors are in major crisis mode, including partial core meltdown. That this crisis is occurring at multiple reactors at multiple sites, in the midst of massive devastation from the earthquake and tsunami, makes this completely uncharted territory in disaster response.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Nuclear Power is Not the Answer

This post reflects on my own personal experience opposing nuclear power in the 1970s-80s. The anti-nuke movement was remarkably successful in bringing public attention to the risks of nuclear power, and our warnings were proven reasonable when the Three Mile Island accident occurred in 1979, followed a few years later by Chernobyl. This led to the end of nuclear reactor construction for several decades, but recently the industry is trying to revive itself through new taxpayer-funded subsidies, as well as a PR campaign. Their claim is that, because nuclear power has lower carbon emissions than fossil-fuel plants, we should ramp up the nuclear portion of our energy production. This assumes that the only issue of concern is carbon emissions, and the only solution is large-scale, centralized power generation. I dispute both assumptions. Putting similar levels of funding into improving energy efficiency and promoting alternative, sustainable energy would help make us more energy independent and help build a more peaceful world.

Comments and Links:

Older_Wiser reminded us: The people united will never be defeated.

BinCo found this: "Sarah Palin. You couldn't have invented a plausible character in fiction more outrageous, unqualified and unintentionally comical." -Carl Hiaasen (Miami Herald and fiction writer)

WesinOregon: I always laugh when she says "common sense solutions". She has no common sense so there are no solutions that she can come up with. And she never does. Just a robotic line she spews because in her little pea brain she thinks it's clever and intelligent to say it.

Sunnyjane: I think she's obsessed by [the Trig hoax]... It's like Poe's Telltale Heart. She KNOWS the truth is going to come out, and she can't let it go. Innocent people don't act like that.

Dusty17: "unconventional candidate" must be one who openly lies, is afraid of debate & cannot speak with any semblance of intelligence or empathy

Ltl1: …it's getting harder and harder for the GOPers to claim…that they are out to help the average middle class American…They are not about job creation and balancing budgets. They are about stripping workers of the right to a living wage and the hope of a meaningful retirement. They are about handing the Koch brothers and their corporate cousins giant givaways in the form of tax cuts and freshly privatized utility companies at bargain prices. They are for junkets for themselves.

Actcrabby: Those good people in Wisconsin deserve better than this. I wish I could be in Madison to march with them. Instead I'm stuck here, can't even send money because I'm broke. All I can do is re-tweet, and that's not working for me half the time. The Wisconsinites have been so peaceful, so reasonable, so controlled, they have been an inspiration to the whole world, just as the Egyptians were. I want to see Walker and all his friends behind bars. They have taken off their masks, and they are monsters. From now on, they should not be granted any benefit of the doubt. No more compromise. Stop them, dump them, jail them. There must be a way.

NJFan: Petty, vindictive and polarizing traits do not make a good leader. She's nothing but a cult figure to her "bots" and once they learn she hoodwinked them, boy of boy, will they turn on her with a vengeance. She's a national joke and loves feuding with comedians because she thinks it makes her look strong. She's a dimwitted bulb as a politician and as a human being she fails miserably, no soul, no compassion, no empathy, no brains, no sense of humor, no honor, no honesty and the lists goes on.

Zane1: Who ever thought our comedians would have to lead the way. What a strange world we live in.

Dis Gusted (in response to Palin’s comment about union boss thugs): she should know - Todd was the union rep, and he IS a THUG.

Cheeriogirl had an excellent find about right-wing radio using actors to read scripts while pretending to be callers to talk radio shows; she also pointed us to this on popeater.

ProChoiceGrandma linked to an excellent video comment by John Fugelsang on Grit-tv (a new one on me, and worth the watch).

juicyfruityy posted this encouraging link to politicususa on a new Bloomberg poll showing how far Sarah Palin has fallen.

honestyingov linked to Alternet on the Koch Brothers exposed.

aview999 found many excellent links, including this one on truth-out and this one on TPM.

Maria Maria made my day with this link; don't miss the snark at the end!

There were so many excellent comments and links on both Wisconsin and Japan that I could not keep up with them!

_____________________________________________________________________

BONUS!

It is now 3 years to the day since this photo was taken, showing the supposedly 7½ months pregnant Sarah Palin 5 weeks before the reported birth of Trig. Discuss.

Friday News Links-Wisconsin;Libya;Egypt, The Middle East and USA; Afghanistan - video of Pech District Children's Funerals + More

WISCONSIN:

Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez of Democracy Now interview David Cay Johnston, author of "Free Lunch: How The Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves At Government Expense (and stick you with the bill) ", who exposes Scott Walker's claim that unionized state workers pensions are subsidised by the state. Johnston writing on the blog Tax.com believes that "economic nonsense is being reported as fact in most of the news reports on the Wisconsin dispute" by journalists who have a "lack of understanding of basic economic principles."

Meanwhile Judge John Albert ruled yesterday that free speech must be allowed to protesters but that no one is allowed access to the Capitol building outside of normal working hours. wisn.com video shows that an altercation took place when Dem. state Rep Nick Milroy tried to collect his belongings from inside the Capitol building.

LIBYA:

Al Jazeera reports that the humanitarian crisis in Libya continues as more than 30,000 migrant workers try to flee the country because they are afraid that they will be targeted by either the government or protesters. Since the beginning of the uprisings more than 200,000 are reported to have fled Libya.

EGYPT, THE MIDDLE EAST AND USA:

Al Jazeera published an opinion article on the 24th February which I missed. It was written by Walter Armbrust a Hourani Fellow and University Lecturer in Modern Middle East Studies at Oxford University. In the article Armbrust makes the case that a reinforcement of neo liberalism policies in Egypt, and similar countries in the Middle East, would be a disaster for the pro-democracy movement whose demands for political and social reform were loud and clear. Armbrust writes:

Mubarak's Egypt degraded schools and hospitals, and guaranteed grossly inadequate wages, particularly in the ever-expanding private sector. This was what turned hundreds of dedicated activists into millions of determined protesters.

He also draws parallels with America:

The political economy of the Mubarak regime was shaped by many currents in Egypt’s own history, but its broad outlines were by no means unique. Similar stories can be told throughout the rest of the Middle East, Latin America, Asia, Europe and Africa. Everywhere neoliberalism has been tried, the results are similar: living up to the utopian ideal is impossible; formal measures of economic activity mask huge disparities in the fortunes of the rich and poor; elites become "masters of the universe," using force to defend their prerogatives, and manipulating the economy to their advantage, but never living in anything resembling the heavily marketised worlds that are imposed on the poor.

Unemployment was a major grievance for millions of Egyptian protesters [EPA]

The story should sound familiar to Americans as well. For example, the vast fortunes of Bush era cabinet members Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney, through their involvement with companies like Halliburton and Gilead Sciences, are the product of a political system that allows them — more or less legally — to have one foot planted in "business" and another in "government" to the point that the distinction between them becomes blurred. Politicians move from the office to the boardroom to the lobbying organization and back again.

As neoliberal dogma disallows any legitimate role for government other than guarding the sanctity of free markets, recent American history has been marked by the steady privatization of services and resources formerly supplied or controlled by the government. But it is inevitably those with closest access to the government who are best positioned to profit from government campaigns to sell off the functions it formerly performed. It is not just Republicans who are implicated in this systemic corruption. Clinton-era Secretary of Treasury Robert Rubin’s involvement with Citigroup does not bear close scrutiny.

This article deserves full attention. Read more here.

AFGHANISTAN:

The funerals of the nine young children killed in an air raid whilst collecting firewood have taken place amidst allegations from Afghan officials that "as many as 65 civilians were killed in another raid in February:" General Petraeus has denied these allegations. Warning.The video below includes graphic images of some of the dead children and other disturbing images.

The libertarian attack on America has begun: Wisconsin Assembly votes against collective bargaining rights for public workers in sneak vote

By Patrick

Those who would destroy or further limit the rights of organized labor -- those who would cripple collective bargaining or prevent organization of the unorganized -- do a disservice to the cause of democracy.

Our labor unions are not narrow, self-seeking groups. They have raised wages, shortened hours and provided supplemental benefits. Through collective bargaining and grievance procedures, they have brought justice and democracy to the shop floor. But their work goes beyond their own jobs, and even beyond our borders.

Our unions have fought for aid to education, for better housing, for development of our national resources, and for saving the family-sized farms. They have spoken, not for narrow self-interest, but for the public interest and for the people.

-- John F. Kennedy * August 30, 1960

+++

My German social-democratic heart just raised it's heartbeat: The libertarian attack on America has begun, with the Unions as the first target. Who will win this fight? Well, that's up to the American citizens, but it's already apparent that it will be a tough and long fight. The teabaggers, henchmen of the billionaire Koch Brothers, apparently feel that they have the upper hand right now.

To get into "fighting spirit", please take a look at this excellent speech by Joe Biden from 2007, when he addressed the union IAFF:

Prophetic words!

What happened in Wisconsin today? The progressive blog "blue cheddar" reports:

From the New York Times: “…Debate had gone on for 60 hours and 15 Democrats were still waiting to speak when the vote started around 1 a.m. Friday. Speaker Pro Tem Bill Kramer, R-Waukesha, opened the roll and closed it within seconds.

Democrats looked around, bewildered. Only 13 of the 38 Democratic members managed to vote in time.

Republicans immediately marched out of the chamber in single file. The Democrats rushed at them, pumping their fists and shouting “Shame!” and “Cowards!”

The Republicans walked past them without responding.

Democrats left the chamber stunned. The protesters greeted them with a thundering chant of “Thank you!” Some Democrats teared up. Others hugged.

“What a terrible, terrible day for Wisconsin,” said Rep. Jon Richards, D-Milwaukee. “I am incensed. I am shocked.”…”

Two videos were posted which show the events. First, the moment of the roll-call:

Then, the emotional moments afterwards, with the Democrats shouting "shame":

Huffington Post has an excellent page with regular updates of the events.

From Huffington Post:

After more than 60 hours in which Democrats threw out dozens of amendments and delivered rambling speeches, Republicans halted debate early Friday. In a matter of seconds, they had approved the bill. Only a few Democrats realized what was going on and managed to vote before the roll was closed.

The Democrats rose from their seats and rushed at the Republicans shouting, "Shame!" as the Republicans exited the chamber.

"I'm incensed. I'm shocked," said Rep. John Richards, D-Milwaukee. "What a terrible, terrible day for Wisconsin."

Republicans refused to speak to reporters, though Majority Leader Scott Suder did issue a written statement.

"The vote we took wasn't the easy thing to do, but it was the right thing to do," Suder, R-Abbotsford, said.

The governor has said that if the bill does not pass by Friday, the state will miss a deadline to refinance $165 million of debt and will be forced to start issuing layoff notices next week. However, the deadline may not as strict as he says.

The nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau said earlier this week that the debt refinancing could be pushed back as late as Tuesday to achieve the savings Walker wants. Based on a similar refinancing in 2004, about two weeks are needed after the bill becomes law to complete the deal. That means if the bill is adopted by the middle of next week, the state can still meet a March 16 deadline, the Fiscal Bureau said.

Democratic Sen. Jon Erpenbach said he and his colleagues wouldn't return until Walker compromised.

Frustrated by the delay, Senate Republican Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, Jeff Fitzgerald's brother, ordered state troopers to find the missing Democrats, but they came up empty. Wisconsin law doesn't allow police to arrest the lawmakers, but Fitzgerald said he hoped the show of authority would have pressured them to return.

Erpenbach, who was in the Chicago area, said all 14 senators remained outside of Wisconsin.

"It's not so much the Democrats holding things up," Erpenbach said. "It's really a matter of Gov. Walker holding things up."

If this is supposed to be the new "model", with the "majority" destroying essential worker's rights within days, then there will be very tough fights ahead.

"Think Progress" explains how far the teabaggers are removed from traditional conservative concepts and the "legacy" of Ronald Reagan which is such a popular theme in the speeches of the teabaggers:

As the Main Street Movement of students, workers, and other middle class Americans erupts across America, many conservatives have invoked the legacy of former president Ronald Reagan to demand that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) not back down from his push to end collective bargaining for his state’s public employees. In a prank call with the Buffalo Beast’s Ian Murphy, where Murphy pretended to be right-wing billionare David Koch, Walker himself even fantasized about being just like Reagan.

Yet conservatives may be shocked to learn that their idol Reagan was once a union boss himself. Reagan was the only president in American history to have belonged to a union, the AFL-CIO affiliated Screen Actors Guild. And he even served six terms as president of the organized labor group. Additionally, Reagan was a staunch advocate for the collective bargaining rights of one of the world’s most famous and most influential trade unions, Poland’s Solidarity movement.

In the recent prank-call with Governor Scott Walker, he revealed in which direction things are now supposed be heading:

On the call, Walker said he expected the anti-union movement to spread across the country and he had spoken with the governors of Ohio and Nevada. The man pretending to be Koch seemed to agree, telling Walker, "You're the first domino."

"Yep, this is our moment," Walker responded.

The remarks showed Walker's private relationship with David Koch. He and his brother, Charles, own Koch Industries Inc., which is the largest privately-owned company in America and has significant operations in Wisconsin.

Its political action committee gave $43,000 to Walker's campaign, and David Koch gave $1 million to the Republican Governors' Association, which funded ads attacking Walker's opponent in last year's election.

The Kochs also give millions to support Americans For Prosperity, a conservative business group that launched a $320,000 television ad campaign in favor of Walker's legislation Wednesday.

On the recording, after Walker said he would be willing to meet with Democratic leaders, the caller said he should bring a baseball bat to negotiations.

Walker laughed and responded that he had "a slugger with my name on it."

The caller suggested he was thinking about "planting some troublemakers" among the protesters, and Walker said his administration had thought about doing that, too, but decided against it. Walker said the protests eventually would die because the media would stop covering them.

At the end of the call, the prankster says: "I'll tell you what Scott, once you crush these bastards, I'll fly you out to Cali and really show you a good time."

"All right, that would be outstanding," Walker replies, adding that the standoff is "all about getting our freedoms back."

The public workers in Wisconsin are just about to lose their "freedoms." Governor Walker now fights for the freedom of the Koch Brothers.

Scott Walker Speaks to "David Koch" -- Confirms That He Is The First Domino In The Downfall Of The Unions

By Kathleen

The Buffalo Beast writer Ian Murphy, posing as David Koch, managed to speak to Scott Walker yesterday. He put in the call because he wanted to know who it was that Scott Walker was willing to speak to. Apparently Walker will not speak to Wisconsin State Democrat Senators but he will speak to one of the "Koch Brothers."

In the above second audio Walker appears to confirm that he knew that Andrew Breitbart was sent to Wisconsin on behalf of the Kochs. He also admits that he had considered planting troublemakers in the crowds during the demonstrations but didn't because he might be forced by the public to resolve the situation there.

Here is a link to the post at The Buffalo Beast where you can also find a transcript.

UPDATE

For some reason the links to the Buffalo Beast no longer work. It is possible that the blog is under attack but that is just a guess -- I have no evidence for this.

Here is the original post:

WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO WITNESS IS REAL. NO NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED TO PROTECT THE INNOCENT. THERE ARE NO INNOCENT.
-MURPHY

***

“He’s just hard-lined—will not talk, will not communicate, will not return phone calls.”
-Wisconsin state Sen. Tim Carpenter (D) on Gov. Walker (source)

Carpenter’s quote made me wonder: who could get through to Gov. Walker? Well, what do we know about Walker and his proposed union-busting, no-bid budget? The obvious candidate was David Koch.

I first called at 11:30 am CST, and eventually got through to a young, male receptionist who, upon hearing the magic name Koch, immediately transferred me to Executive Assistant Governor Dorothy Moore.

“We’ve met before, Dorothy,” I nudged. “I really need to talk to Scott—Governor Walker.” She said that, yes, she thought she had met Koch, and that the name was “familiar.” But she insisted that Walker was detained in a meeting and couldn’t get away. She asked about the nature of my call. I balked, “I just needed to speak with the Governor. He knows what this is about,” I said. She told me to call back at noon, and she’d have a better idea of when he would be free.

I called at noon and was quickly transferred to Moore, who then transferred me to Walker’s Chief of Staff Keith Gilkes. He was “expecting my call.”

“David!” he said with an audible smile.

I politely said hello, not knowing how friendly Gilkes and Koch may be. He was eager to help. “I was really hoping to talk directly to Scott,” I said. He said that could be arranged and that I should just leave my number. I explained to Gilkes, “My goddamn maid, Maria, put my phone in the washer. I’d have her deported, but she works for next to nothing.” Gilkes found this amusing. “I’m calling from the VOID—with the VOID, or whatever it’s called. You know, the Snype!”

“Gotcha,” Gilkes said. “Let me check the schedule here…OK, there’s an opening at 2 o’clock Central Standard Time. Just call this same number and we’ll put you through.”

Could it really be that easy? Yes. What follows is a rushed, abridged transcript of my—I mean, David Koch’s conversation with Gov. Walker. Listen to the whole call here.

++++++++++++++++++++++++

UPDATE

Our reader, Bellpeppery, sourced these two tweets from twitter and an article from channel3000.com which all confirm that the article in The Beast is true and that the recorded interview is not a false one:

http://twitter.com/news3jessica/status/40444174641795072#

http://twitter.com/news3jessica/status/40444235941552128#

http://www.channel3000.com/politics/26966427/detail.html

Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie released a statement confirming that governor was the voice heard on the call.

"The governor takes many calls everyday. Throughout this call, the governor maintained his appreciation for and commitment to civil discourse. He continued to say that the budget repair bill is about the budget. The phone call shows that the governor says the same thing in private as he does in public and the lengths that others will go to disrupt the civil debate Wisconsin is having," according to Werwie's statement.

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Update

Mother Jones reports that Jeff Cox, a deputy attorney general from Indiana has called for the use of live ammunition against Wisconsin protesters. Read more here.

wlfi.com reports that Jeff Cox has been fired from the Indiana Attorney General's office. That certainly did not take long -- thank goodness for some sanity.

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Hat tip to Robert!