This is now my flag

[htuttle]

If California could pass a stem cell research funding initiative, how about us? We have at least as good, if not better, biolabs than California. It could be a huge boon to our state's economy.

I know we're broke, but we need to find a way to keep more of Wisconsin's tax dollars in Wisconsin. We need to find a way to fully fund Badgercare, so it can become a real state health system for all.

We also have a hell of a fight on our hands on the state level. We have our own crazies here, whose attempts at passing theocratic laws have only been stopped by our Governor's pen. We need to reverse the trend in the statehouse.

I feel like saying, 'to hell with Federal politics' at this point. The Federal level is corrupt and compomised, and it feels like we're spending almost all of our energy there. Let's make Wisconsin what we want it to be.

Just what's been going through my head this morning...

[shaolinmonkey]

1. Damn straight. FORWARD!

[Free2BMe]

2. Much luck to you..totally hope stem cell is the wave of the

future...NYS is corrupt and compromised so we are in no better shape because incumbents were reelected...Haven't passed a budget on time in 10 plus years.

[CrispyQ]

3. Here's mine:

[dweller]

4. mine

thanks to Nostamj,

dp

[TheMightyFavog]

5. Let's make LaFollette and the other old progressive proud!!!

WISCONSIN FORWARD FOREVER!!!!

[undergroundpanther]

7. Mine

A Plain black one...,flying alongside a rainbow.

[rockymountaindem]

6. It's happening in Colorado.

I used to hate Colorado because I thought it was conservative. I was wrong; and although I am disappointed in and worried for my country, my state did me proud on Nov. 2. While our electoral votes went for Bush, Colorado Democrats did something very special.

This year there was a huge budget embroglio. We have a law on the books called the Tax Payer's Bill of Rights, which was passed by an asshat transplant from California named Douglas Bruce. It basically forbids the legislature from passing any tax increases. We also have a law requiring education spending to increase by at least the rate of inflation each year. So clearly there is a contradiction here. It was not resolved, and the Republicans were as usual real jackasses about things.

On Nov. 1, the Democrats did not have majorities in either the state Senate or House. As of Nov. 3, we now have majorities in both... for the first time since 1962. If that's not encouraging, I don't know what is.

Furthermore, the state passed every initiative requiring a tax increase, including one for alternative energy supply and for light rail/mass transit expansion.

Now we've got our lame-duck Republican governor in a real bind. He's totally screwed. He's a pathetic excuse for what the Republicans call a rising star. The end of his term is going to be really ugly for him. Not to mention the fact that he and his wife are seperated. You see, she's mad at him for fathering two children with another woman! Some people were talking about him running for President, but you can count him out.

So there's some good news for the future pouring in from across the country. If Colorado can go blue after all these years of assault from fundies and militarists, so can NV, AZ, and probably MO. It's gonna happen.

[rabid_nerd]

8. How about

The 20 states for Kerry?



http://www.usflag.org/the.20.star.flag.html

Pennsylvania stayed BLUE...

(Colonial and Current Flag of Pennsylvania)


http://www.imagesoft.net/flags/i-flag/usa-pa.html

[sybylla]

9. I'm with you.

Hubby and I were thinking about it on the drive home from the election watching party at 1am.

One of the things that strikes us about our rural area is the lack of even the crappiest media attention to political issues. The Madison paper can give great coverage to our local slimeball assembly man and put the truth out there for everyone to see, but it never makes the local weeklies here who avoid any discussion of politics like the plague. So we were thinking we needed to form a relatively local 527 type org that gathers money and does mass mailings to targeted homes. The rural areas I think could be persuaded to vote Dem if they had all the facts. Dave Obey has been elected for 36 years almost exclusively by rural voters so they know a good thing when they see it.

As an example, the hunting orgs and NRA are all over around here peddling lies about Dem candidates wanting to take guns away. We happen to have a list of members for one such hunting org in the state and thought we could put together some more accurate lit on Dems while publishing the real record and actions of their "great" puke representatives. Then, send it out to all the members as an effective counter to all the bullshit.

The Dem party has lists of voters by category, strong dem, weak dem, bipolar, weak puke, strong puke. I don't know if they would sell them to us but we might be able to make a deal where we work to update the list as part of the deal. (they have not been exceedingly accurate)

We could also work on recruiting candidates. Too many seats went unchallenged or underchallenged. Now is the best time to decide to run in 06. You have a solid year to get fundraising to the level it needs to be at to compete with an incumbent while you search for expert volunteers to help run the campaign. It also gives you plenty of time to research the incumbent and put together an effective opposition.

Lots to do, lots can be done. My little puke county barely went for the chimp but went for Feingold for the first time, Kind for the first time, and Obey as well by wide margins. If national media attention, as poor as it is, could persuade my rural voters to go dem for their federal candidates, a steady supply of truth on the local level could very well swing the state house as well and keep Gov. Doyle in another 4.

[RetroLounge]

10. Yes, but how do you unseat the nuts up North?

Guns, God and Gays. How do we deal with that in Rural Wisconin?

We will not be able to count on Milwaukee and Masidon anymore. Large numbers of Hispanics voted for bush*. It was too close.

Waukesha county is growing in leaps and bounds, with Repugs. 90% voter turnout.

But I'm with you all the way...

RL

[htuttle]

11. That's part of what I'm worried about

If we DON'T start concentrating on Wisconsin's state government NOW, while we hold the governorship, we're going to watch it turn into something we really don't like. That would break my heart worse than the national election did.

Now, where to start...? (guess I should start by FRIGGIN LOOKING UP WHOSE IN THE LEGISLATURE! It's sad that I know more about the US Congress than the WI statehouse...have to seriously remedy that)

[sybylla]

13. See my post #9

My representatives are Scott Suder and Dave Zien, the poster boys for reichwing nutjobs in Wisconsin government. Getting rid of them is a problem several people in this area have been thinking about for some time. I think unseating them can be done. The problem is finding courageous opponents to take on their smear machine starting now and giving them the support they need in research, political know-how and fundraising.

Trust me, the Dem party won't do it. We have to find a way to do it without them.

[htuttle]

12. Anyone near Peshtigo?

There's a cover story in the Isthmus this week about John Gard, right-wing Assembly leader. Hates 'Madison elites'. Wants a theocracy. Quite a piece of work.

What do the Assembly districts look like up there?

[TheMightyFavog]

14. We had a guy who could have unseated Gard...

Don Peterlin, a guy full of passion and vigor. He hated the way Gard was screwing us over. He was the type of guy who could appeal to both parties. Unfortunatley, his opponent in the Primary, Bruce Berman, got his signs and his name out earlier, won the primary, and ended up losing to Gard Big time, as we dems usually do in the 89th.

Fortunaley, Dave Hansen and Roger Breske were able to hang on against their repuke challengers in the Senate.

[htuttle]

15. And another thing!

If Wisconsin doesn't find a way to fund stem-cell research here, we WILL lose a lot of biotech industry to California, now that the state of CA is funding it.

But wait, there's more!

Let's take a good, long look at how Wisconsin residents from both sides of the aisle won the Crandon Mine struggle. That effort involved not just progressives, but also duck hunting organizations and 2 Native American tribes. They found common ground and worked together for Wisconsin. I think there's a lot to learn from it.