Enemy at the gates

When Scott Walker released his budget in March of 2011, it was such a radical redistribution of Wisconsin's finances that it was difficult to identify all of the areas of Wisconsin life affected by this agenda.  Over a billion dollars in cuts to education, the worst per capita in the United States.  Tens of thousands of people kicked off of Badger Care.  Increased tax liabilities of the working poor due to elimination of the earned income tax credit.  Devastating cuts to shared revenue for Wisconsin's municipalities, affecting police and fire departments, parks departments, municipal offices, and other vital services.

State of Disgrace

"We cannot afford to differ on the question of honesty if we expect our republic permanently to endure. Honesty is not so much a credit as an absolute prerequisite to efficient service to the public. Unless a man is honest, we have no right to keep him in public life; it matters not how brilliant his capacity"
-Theodore Roosevelt


"The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principles on which it was founded." 
-Charles de Montesquieu.

It's time to recognize the fact that these quotes represent the revolting state of affairs of the Wisconsin government at this moment.  Every day we deny the gravity of the current situation, we lose a piece of what made this state great, and more importantly, we lose a part of ourselves.

Trading the soul of a nation

In my last post, The Plague, I began a discussion of influence of money in politics in our society, particularly in the areas of trade, taxation, and banking policy.  Since my epiphany after watching Dylan Ratigan's impassioned rant, I have read everything I can related to the monumentally important issue of money in politics.  When you are actually looking for it, you see evidence of this influence everywhere.  In this vein, two articles caught my attention in the last few weeks.