People who should (at least) be locked up for February

So it's an exciting time for me.  I'm going to be featuring at Bloombars (my first) at the end of March.  And the Semi-Finals for the Beltway poetry slam are coming up at the end of April.

Probably most important, though, I'm waiting on my Yelp Elite badge.  That's right.  Soon my opinion will matter.

But amidst all this excitement and restaurant-reviewing, you'd think I might pass over an opportunity to foam at the mouth about the idiot du jour of February.  Not so.  I give you, the man who should be at the very least locked up for February:

Governor Scott Walker.

Oh man.  Where to begin with this guy.  Let's do the usual Wikipedia him and find out exactly how pathetic his life is.  Governor Walker, a straight-C drop-out at a college ranked 75th in the country, has always been political.  Back when he was a sophomore, he ran for President of the Student Council.  Not only has Governor Walker always been political, he's always been a scumbag.  He was berated by the school newspaper for campaign violations and mud-slinging.  That's right.  Mud-slinging.  In a fucking student government campaign.

And now he's continuing the proud tradition of conservative politicians by proposing blatant attacks on workers' rights under the guise of the mythical "balancing of the budget".  Nevermind the fact that our debt is mostly due to the actions of Republican presidents.  Or that Republican-backed tax cuts contribute a great deal more to our debt than any of our economic woes.  Or that the Republicans can't even manage their Committee budget effectively.


No.  Republicans are the champions of fiscal responsibility.  Just like Rush Limbaugh is the champion of moderation.  And vodka is the champion of sobriety.


So anyway, Governor Walker's plan is to have teachers, who make around 50k average, take pay cuts and have their unions give up collective bargaining rights.  Meanwhile, he signed a tax cut bill of over $1 million for businesses in Wisconsin.  So that makes sense.


Of course, what's the point of attacking businesses? It's much better we attack the real criminals: Underpaid educators and those evil unions taking advantage of things like free speech and rights to equality.  Or, "wasteful" in the words of Gov. Walker.


But even though Gov. Walker thinks unions are wasteful and should be cut down, this is really all about the budget.  Yep.  Unless you happen to call Walker's office pretending to be Republican industrialist David Koch.  Then he's pretty open (and explicit) on his feelings towards unions.  


Now, Gov. Walker squeezing workers and feeding the pulp to businesses is nothing special.  The unions are in a revolt and in all likelihood, this will blow over, Walker will have lost all support of the people and he'll sit in office the rest of his days collecting on the deals he's made with other, real industrialists.


But THIS is scary.  That there are actually people who DEFEND what Walker is doing.  That people actually think that 50k is TOO MUCH to pay a teacher and that unions really are a bunch of fat cats.  This whole accusing the opposition of PRECISELY what you are doing is sickening.  And it seems like it's actually gaining traction by disguising itself as fiscal responsibility.  I'm sorry, a fiscal conservative is still a conservative and is still responsible for travesties like this.


So anyway.  It won't work and people like Gov. Walker, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, Ohio Gov. John Kaisch are tempting fate by pulling this kind of bullshit in the time of Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions.  Just because we're an ocean away doesn't mean we don't hear the call.


So, Governor Walker, stand firm all you want.  It just means you'll be that far behind when we move on.  Maybe if you finished your degree, you'd know history better.  But for now, you should be (at least) locked up.