Facing Recall Vote, Wisconsin Gov Walker Signs New Abortion Restrictions

Wisconsin governor Scott Walker

Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, facing a tight recall campaign, signed 51 new pieces of legislation into law on Holy Thursday evening. Among the items were new abortion restrictions, conservative nuances to sex education in public schools, and the prevention of plaintiffs in employment discrimination cases to seek compensatory and punitive damages in state courts. Walker's action, and comments on them, were noted in today's online edition of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

One question is who benefits from Walker's action. Those who want to eliminate women's reproductive rights certainly emerged as winners. The sex ed legislation mandates the promotion of marriage and the claim that sexual abstinence is the only certain way to prevent STDs. Good luck explaining those perspectives to hundreds of thousands of horny teens. However, the legislation must have made right-wing religious standard bearer Rick Santorum, campaigning in Wisconsin prior to the state's upcoming GOP presidential primary, smile.

Meanwhile, the right-wing political and ideological agenda marches on. It's a scenario in which concentrated economic power gains greater sway while useful medical programs are eviscerated. The agenda bluntly asserts the imposition of conservative religious beliefs on private behavior. The right-wing offers a return to a dreadful social environment when discrimination, mainly by white males toward minorities and women, is characterized as acceptable behavior, while those opposing sexual harassment and racism are viewed as inconvenient, out-of-step, even deviant personalities.

Intriguingly, the Walker recall vote right now is too close to call. Why that is so, while Barack Obama is well ahead of "Etch-a-Sketch" Mitt Romeny and Santorum in Wisconsin, is a very curious question.

Rare Interview with David Koch Focuses on Right-Wing Politics, Cancer Research

David Koch
(photo from Kansas City Star)

David Koch, one of the two Koch brothers prominent in American right-wing activism, recently talked with a Palm Beach Post health reporter about two topics of importance to the billionaire industrialist: cancer research and politics. The story was noted in a blog post by Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel political writer Don Walker.

In the interview, Koch makes no bones about his support for Wisconsin governor Scott Walker. The Kansas-based industrialist, whose wealth places him in the Top Ten of the Forbes 400 list, strongly asserts his belief that labor unions are inimical to unfettered free market capitalism. Walker's gutting of most Wisconsin public employee collective bargaining rights was something Koch ardently supported, and continues to support. Koch's political front organization, Americans for Prosperity, has supported Walker with TV commercials and other funded initiatives in the current recall campaign against the Wisconsin governor.

Koch's ideology has family antecedents. His West Texas father, according to the Palm Beach Post article, sold technology to the Russians during the Stalin era. That capability was used to help develop the Communist nation's nuclear capability. Koch père's upset over that development has been cited as a reason why he became a founder of the John Birch Society.

Today, David Koch and his brother Charles are visible tips of the right-wing political iceberg. They proudly welcome supposedly impartial Supreme Court justices, such as Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, to events with a clear political and judicial agenda. Discussions from these meetings are divorced from public scrutiny, a stance more in keeping with Communist government practice than transparent democratic ventures.

Wisconsin Governor
Scott Walker

The Koch interview is a timely one, as the recall campaign against Scott Walker is something of a tossup right now. The vote matters greatly to the unions and to the right-wing. The Walker maneuvers leveraged resentment that it has exploited to political gain far beyond the stated goals of overt limitation of union benefits. Liberals need to face the fact that a considerable portion of Wisconsin's electorate backed Walker's campaign and subsequent efforts to attack and ultimately destroy unions. While the Kochs' and their formidable allies are playing to win, one wonders where Barack Obama is on this debate. The president has never really been friendly with the labor unions he will ultimately need to win the Midwest in the 2012 presidential elections. His silence is even more curious as Obama's power base is Chicago, just a short drive from Wisconsin.

Regardless of the Wisconsin recall campaign's results, the Koch brothers fully intend to pursue their push to drive American political institutions and legal apparatus further to the right. They've just begun to fight.

Wisconsin Governor Recall Election Begins

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker

The campaign to recall Wisconsin governor Scott Walker will begin on November 15th. The drive needs to obtain a half-million signatures in order to compel a recall election.

According to a report in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, a Walker recall election would only be the third gubenatorial recall election in the nation's history. It is far from a done deal that the vote will occur. Wisconsin voters have not significantly moved from their political positions; Walker, in some quarters, is viewed as somewhat stronger than at the height of the Wisconsin protests.

Less publicized is a recall campaign against four Republican state senators. In the unlikely event the entire quartet is recalled, the Wisconsin state senate will have a slim Democratic majority.