Wisconsin Poll: Wisconsin Supreme Court Is Too Political

[Scuba]

http://cognidissidence.blogspot.com/2013/03/poll-wisconsin-supreme-court-is-too.html

Two-thirds of respondents to the latest Wisconsin Public Radio-St. Norbert College survey feel the state Supreme Court is too “political.”

Wendy Scattergood is a survey analyst. She says the poll asked if the court is, “too mixed up in politics.”

People were then asked to define what that phrase meant:

“The number one thing people think, 'too mixed up in politics' means is that they feel like the court is really partisan. Seventeen percent of respondents felt that the court is too partisan. Others: similar kinds of things, saying that they're not above the fray, they're not neutral.”

Gee, ya think?

[ladjf]

1. The people had a chance to kick out their crooked Governor but didn't. Why didn't the get

rid of the bastard?

[Scuba]

2. Because the corporate overlords bought every newspaper, TV and radio station in the State ....

... bussed in astroturfers, tried to intimidate our activists and spent a gazillion dollars convincing the uninformed that recalls were a bad idea and Walker was a savior anyway long before we even finished the primary to determine who would represent our side.

Despite that edge, it was close. Despite a well-organized State-wide effort to recount the vote manually, we still don't know how close because only 71 of the State's 72 Counties have provided the legally mandated access to the ballots. One large, red County remains a holdout. Can you guess which one?

[mojowork_n]

4. You mean 1 county (W.) is stone-walling the whole manual recount?

Just went to the Wisconsin Wave site and while there was a link to a really fascinating article on similar cyber-hacking tactics used by both the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Chinese military:

http://www.truth-out.org/speakout/item/15076-chinese-cyber-attacks-on-us-targets-said-to-mirror-us-chamber-of-commerce-cyber-plot-targeting-progressives-such-as-the-brad-blog

... remember the emails hacked by Anonymous in February of 2011 revealing that three U.S. government defense contractors had been working with U.S. Chamber of Commerce attorneys from the Washington D.C. lobbying/law firm of Hunton & Williams to develop a $12 million scheme to target their political opponents --- such as unions and progressive organizations --- by hacking into their computer networks, infiltrating the groups, planting false information in hopes of discrediting them, and using other sophisticated computer tools developed for the "War on Terror" by the three cyber-security firms.

But I didn't see jack about hand count recount results of the recall election.

Quick search turned up nothing more timely than last August. Which sounded like a stand-off between organizers and our old nemesis, Ms. Nickolaus:

http://nomorestolenelections.org/news/brad-blog-gubernatorial-recall-ballots-saved-destruction-waukesha-county-wi-now?page=3

[midnight]

8. I just read Brad Blogs article concerning the preservation of the ballots... Article doesn't

indicate if they were preserved, but I'm sure that with the D.A.and corporate council being aware they were being requested, they wouldn't allow them to be destroyed.

This other link to the Chamber of commerce and hacking and targeting their political opponents back in 2011 is concerning...

[milwaukeelib33]

3. Hosts, can we get a sticky

Answering this question? People constantly pop in here, shit on the floor and leave. They have no idea of the huge amount of work that was put into the recall. After shitting on our floor they poke us in the eye, insinuating we sat idly by and just let this happen.

It's going on a year since the recall and some people apparently still haven't seen the hundreds of posts responding to that question. A sticky would be a great solution.

[ladjf]

5. I apologize if my question struck you as being very negative. I followed the recall process

rather closely and was strongly in favor of the efforts to remove the Gov.

My question was not meant as a castigation of the efforts made by those who opposed the Gov. I simply wanted some more specific information about what happened that I had been able to glean from the reports that were in the news.

I certainly didn't mean to "poke anyone in the eye or anything of that sort.

By the way, what is a "sticky post"?

[milwaukeelib33]

6. Right wing media and turnout

WI is polluted with RW leaning media. The state's largest paper(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) endorsed Walker and many smaller outstate papers are just as bad. AM radio is overwhelmingly RW, and the few progressive voices that are left are being lost or marginalized daily. Two of the larger RW squawk-boxes are located in Milwaukee and their broadcasts conveniently reach into the suburbs the surround Milwaukee. These suburbs are disaffectionately referred to as the ring of fire because they are the reddest parts of the state(even country in certain instances).

This ties into turnout. Repugs in WI have demonstrated as of late that they will show up at the polls even if the damn polling place is burning down. It doesn't matter what time of year, it doesn't matter what the weather, it doesn't matter how obscure the election is. Being whipped up into a frenzy by the RW media only exacerbates their determination.

Elections are won and lost on how the two largest dem strongholds, Madison and Milwaukee, turnout to counter the ring of fire and a few smaller, scattered repug leaning areas.

Madison and Milwaukee are the two largest cities in WI, are densely populated, and overwhelming democratic. A perfect scenario for huge turnout via voter drives and busing voters to the polls is would seem. At times that is exactly what happens- but if the vote doesn't involve the POTUS the results are disappointing to say the least.

WI dems turn out very strong for presidential elections, and the results speak for themselves; WI has gone blue for president since 1984. Polls show there are more Wisconsinites that identify as democrats over repugs so when turnout is good this is no surprise.

This is a big problem that I don't have an answer for, and not just for the recall, but for all other non-president elections past and yet to come. There was a large GOTV effort in Milwaukee for the recall. The volunteers were there, transportation was there, but voter interest wasn't there.

There are a few other smaller contributing factors to the recall not working out: The timing, while somewhat out of our control, was pretty bad. Wisconsinites don't vote in early June. Most students have gone home, and residents and parents minds' are tuned to vacation and enjoying the brief summer. I also believe some people got burnt out over the struggle that by that time had been going on for well over a year. Several more elections had taken place than usual by the June 5th recall election that led even some more to "voter fatigue".

Of course there is no solid consensus as to what exactly went wrong or what could have been done differently to change the outcome. A better candidate perhaps? One that was more closely involved in the protests possibly.

I've spent a lot of time reading and pondering the issue and the above is the conclusion I've come to.

A sticky(sometimes referred to a pinned post) is a post that always remains at the top of a group or forum. Usually they contain forum rules or routinely discussed FAQs. You can see the one at the top of GD that Skinner put up.

[ladjf]

7. Thanks for taking the time to give me this more detailed report and analysis of what happened

during the recall. I hope that WI and the entire Country will soon be able to overcome the difficulties and rid us all of at terrible political situation.