Our reporter on the ground in Madison files his first dispatch.
--Josh Marshall
Did you see Gov. Walker's "fireside chat"? Watch the vid after the jump. Here's our write up, including Walker's claim that the protests are being driven by outside agitators.
--Josh Marshall
Another federal judge upholds the Health Care Reform bill, says arguments for unconstitutionality "ignore reality."
--Josh Marshall
Gov. Walker's "fireside chat" begins at 7PM eastern.
Live Blogging ...
7:04 PM: Now we're on to why he has to "reform collective bargaining".
7:06 PM: The gist so far is that he's not really willing to talk about the only issue on the table -- collective bargaining. Most of the time so far is complaining that the unions won't accept the cuts they've already accepted.
7:08 PM: Walker's new line is that the crowds are made up of outside agitators.
7:09 PM: Now it's the threat to fire thousands of state workers if the Dems don't agree to end collective bargaining for public employees
7:13 PM: Now watching the Dem response. This guy's making a lot of sense but the lighting makes me wonder whether he's being held hostage.
--Josh Marshall
When I was a little kid I used to like watching battles between boffo lizard monsters like Godzilla and Mothra. I was into Rollerball too. Now that I'm older I have more refined tastes. But it's the same basic pattern -- two cartoonish clowns doing battle and the only problem is you don't know who to root for because they're both so ridiculous. Here's Foxbot Gretchen Carlson going head to head with some guy the Fox bookers found named Anjem Choudary, some goof from the UK who wants to hold a protest in front of the White House to call for the establishment of Sharia Law in the United States. Watch.
--Josh Marshall
Inspired by the commanding position staked out by Gov. Walker (R) of Wisconsin, Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) of Indiana has asked Republican legislators in his state to drop a "right to work" law which prompted state Dems to leave the state this morning in an effort to stymie passage.
Also getting on the Walker bandwagon is Florida's new right-wing Gov. Rick Scott who just announced today that he thinks it's a bad idea to strip collective bargaining rights for state workers.
--Josh Marshall
Do Wisconsin voters support eliminating public sector unions' collective bargaining rights?
That AFL-CIO sponsored poll released this morning suggested that Gov. Walker (R) was definitely on the wrong side of public opinion in the state. But that's a poll sponsored by one of the players in the fight. But now there's a nationwide poll out from USAToday/Gallup that says that 61% of Americans oppose the kind of attacks on public employees unions that Walker is putting. That's nationwide. Frankly, I'm a bit surprised it's that high, though I would have expected it to be in the majority.
But I think we now have a growing body of evidence that using short-term budget crises to effectively ban public sector unions is not good politics.
As I said, I don't think this is going well for Walker.
--Josh Marshall
Okay, TPM Reporter Eric Kleefeld, traveling alone, has now crossed the municipal border and successfully entered Madison, Wisconsin. Government forces made no effort to bar him. So it is on. Click here to retweet this twitter notification of Eric's arrival and do your part to contribute to mounting Kleefeld-mania in the state.
--Josh Marshall
I keep hearing the sensible people on CNN and MSNBC talking about a $3 billion budget shortfall that Gov. Walker needs to close with his budget "repair bill". But that's not even true. That's a projection for the next two year budget period which starts this summer. It's actually a significant difference. Because what they're fighting about now is how to fix a dramatically smaller shortfall for the period up until the next budget period. Relatively short span of time. But a big difference since that $3 billion number has nothing to do what's being voted on now. I'd be obliged if people could send me time and name when you see folks on these quality news networks repeating this false claim of the governor's.
--Josh Marshall
Because of the Great Recession, tax revenues are down dramatically and public services costs have soared. Ergo, we have no choice but to permanently eliminate union rights for public employees. Because we're out of money.
--Josh Marshall
Gov. Walker (R-WI) now says, deep six the union or I start laying people off next week.
The key point is that the unions in questions have already agreed to all the benefit cuts Walker has requested in his budget repair bill. So it's only about collective bargaining. If the unions don't agree to terminate their existence, he'll start laying people off. Not even clear it's the same people. But he'll give them pink slips to force an end to collective bargaining.
--Josh Marshall
Qaddafi says he will die at the end of the struggle.
Does that mean the government and the protestors are moving toward a consensus on a path forward?
--Josh Marshall
Working on list of differences between Fox News and Libyan state television. Anybody got any?
--Josh Marshall
Tell me again why none of the first tier candidates are willing to run in 2012?
--Josh Marshall
Scratch Sen. John Thune (R-SD) off the list of GOP presidential hopefuls for 2012.
--David Kurtz
Indiana House Democrats fleeing the state à la Wisconsin? More soon ...
--David Kurtz
Jon Stewart: Is Wisconsin most like Egypt, 9/11, or crack cocaine? Watch.
--David Kurtz
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