Lots of news from Wisconsin and abroad!
First: Wisconsin’s historic recall spawned backlash in a number of ways: perhaps the most insidious is the website http://putwisconsinfirst.com/, which took all of the names and addresses and political donation history of those who signed the recall petition and made all of that public and easily searchable, but MORE, matched them up with court data to list those who owe back taxes, are registered sex offenders, etc. But, as if that wasn’t bad enough, now there is a group calling themselves the “Wisconsin Poll Watcher Militia” who intend to go to heavily-Democratic districts, find people who signed the recall petition, follow them home and call the authorities on them. They swear they won’t go after any Republican voters… so yeah, they’re the “good guys”. *sigh*
On the other hand, Representative Peter Barca (D – Kenosha) is often considered one of the “good guys” in Progressive circles; as Minority Leader in the State Assembly during Scott Walker’s administration, he’s been seen as someone who can be counted on to oppose the machinations of the GOP. Enter activist Miles Kristan, who knew of Barca’s reputation, and wondered why Barca was endorsing a Republican-turned-Dem who publicly supported Walker in 2010. Simply asking the question got Miles arrested. There’s even more to this story, and thanks to Carl Gibson’s reporting, we’ll discuss it.
Then: we commonly see America’s foreign policy as being well-intended, even if sometimes poorly executed. The response to the Ebola outbreak in Africa provides us an interesting and current example of why we need to hold that view of America’s intentions suspect, and we’ll go over all that and more on TMI for Saturday, September 20, 2014, airing live on WSUM FM 91.7 in Madison and streaming live anywhere on http://wsum.org/ – tune in for your Cure for the Common Media!
