Although this reporter is having trouble thinking about anything but the ongoing disaster in Japan, there have been developments in the Wisconsin Senate situation that deserve coverage that they are not getting in the mainstream US media.
When last I wrote, the Wisconsin Senate had voted on the union-busting legislation under a very strange and possibly illegal set of rules. Since then, the Wisconsin House has also passed the bill and Governor Scott Walker has signed it into law.
This weekend the 14 Democratic State Senators who had stayed out of state for over three weeks to prevent the Republicans from having a quorum, returned to great fanfare and cheers from an over 100,000 person crowd in Madison, Wisconsin. Unfortunately this gathering in support of the reneage Senators was not covered in US news, which chose to focus on the catastrophic events in Japan. This is understandable, certainly, but a political gathering of this size and scope after such a prolonged conflict is also of note.
Today Wisconsin State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald announced that the Democrats’ right to vote on committees has been rescinded as they have been held "in contempt."
Supporters of a recall effort have gathered almost half of the required signatures to put it into effect in just two weeks of the 60 days they have to reach 25% of the number of voters in the recent gubernatorial election.