'The rich have overplayed their hand' Is Wisconsin only the beginning ?

Saturday March 5th, Noon to 4PM, Capitol King Street Entrance: Madison’s We are Wisconsin Rally

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Protesters rally in Wisconsin after governor threatens layoffs

By Jeff Mayers

MADISON, Wisconsin
Sat Mar 5, 2011

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(Reuters) - Thousands of union supporters protested Gov. Scott Walker's budget proposals on Saturday at the state capital, a day after the state's chief executive followed through on his threat to issue layoff warning notices to unions representing state workers.
Joining the crowd was liberal filmmaker Michael Moore, who praised the protesters gathered in the battle over union bargaining rights as joining the history of the American labor movement.
Walker, a Republican, has proposed increased payments for health care and pension benefits for public workers and stripping their unions of most of their collective bargaining rights, a move he says is necessary to address a budget gap of $3.6 billion for the coming two years.
The warning notices, sent on Friday to at least 13 unions, do not represent actual layoffs for the state's 300,000 public employees but take the war of words between the newly elected governor and state Democrats to a new level.
Moore told the crowd, which was smaller than it has been the last two weekends of the ongoing protests, that the nation was awash in wealth, concentrated in the hands of a few, but the public has been cowed into not standing up for itself.
"Madison is only the beginning," Moore said. "The rich have overplayed their hand.
"There was no revolt, until now here in Wisconsin," he added.
The crowd estimate was put at about 12,000 people, smaller than previous crowds that numbered in the tens of thousands.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin reminded the rally of the 1965 voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery.
"What they did was change the course of history," she said. "That is what you are doing today."
Supporting Walker's proposals, meanwhile, the Americans for Prosperity organization was in the midst of a bus tour due to conclude on Sunday in Madison. The tour started on Thursday in Kenosha, with the aim of hitting 10 cities.
Walker's bill remains stalled in the Wisconsin Senate where all 14 Democrats fled to neighboring Illinois two weeks ago to deny the measure the quorum it needs to pass in the chamber.
Dave Hansen, one of the 14, issued a statement on Friday saying: "it has become increasingly apparent that Governor Walker is not interested in compromise, but instead appears intent on prolonging the impasse."
Behind-the-scenes negotiations have failed to produce a compromise. Just one Democrat is needed for a quorum.
The absent Democrats have been threatened with $100-a-day fines and the prospect of being arrested and taken to the Senate if they return to Wisconsin.
With no action expected on the bill, Walker said he will be forced to send out layoff notices to 1,500 state employees, saving some $30 million.

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Wisconsin State Representative Kelda Helen Roys talks about the large rally held today in support of workers' rights in Wisconsin. Governor Scott Walker is trying to take away collective bargaining rights for public employees. She says Gov Walker has abused his power trying to extort Dems in Wisconsin. She says voters are upset with Walker's "bait and switch" tactic he used to get elected. He promised that he would create jobs. But the first thing he did was to kill a federal high speed rail project that would have brought 5,000 jobs to Wisconsin. The federal money for that project was still spent, but on other states.
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Michael Moore at Madison, Wisconsin workers' rights rally March 5, 2011. He says the few that have the most money don't want to pay their fair share of the taxes. "They would rather invest in the gambling casino known as wall street. Betting for or against the stock market or against your home mortgage and the entire population suffers because that wealth has been removed from circulation. What's so cynical about this is the very people who don't pay their taxes crashed our economic system. They created the unemployment which has caused less tax revenue. And states like Wisconsin have ended up with a so-called budget crisis . But Wisconsin is not broke. It's one of the three biggest lies of the last decade. What are the three biggest lies? Let's repeat them. Number one, Wisconsin is broke. Number two, there's weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. And number three, the Packers need Farve in order to win the Super Bowl. The nation is not broke my friends. There's lots of money to go around. Lots! Lots! It's just that those in charge have diverted that wealth into a deep well that sits on their well-guarded estates. They know. They know that they have committed crimes to make this happen. And they know, And they know that someday you may want to see some of that money that used to be yours. So they have bought and paid for hundreds of politicians across the country to do their bidding for them."

"Contrary to what those in power would like you to believe so that you'll give up your pension, cut your wages, and settle for the life your great-grandparents had, America is not broke. Not by a long shot. The country is awash in wealth and cash. It's just that it's not in your hands. It has been transferred, in the greatest heist in history, from the workers and consumers to the banks and the portfolios of the upper-rich." -- Michael Moore

How they did it, and how Wisconsin taught us to fight back, at:

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/america-is-not-broke

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