Motley Moose – Archive

In Wisconsin, the state whose progressive forebears championed labor rights, a move is afoot to “allow” workers to work 7 days a week.

This is being touted by the Republicans as a “win-win”: businesses don’t have to hire more workers, just add hours! And workers can make more money! What could possibly go wrong? Businesses would never coerce workers into working more hours, they lurves their workers!!!

In 1938, President Roosevelt signed into law the Fair Labor Standards Act:

The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (abbreviated as FLSA; also referred to as the Wages and Hours Bill) is a federal statute of the United States. The FLSA introduced a maximum 44-hour seven-day workweek, established a national minimum wage, guaranteed “time-and-a-half” for overtime in certain jobs, and prohibited most employment of minors in “oppressive child labor”, a term that is defined in the statute. It applies to employees engaged in interstate commerce or employed by an enterprise engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce, unless the employer can claim an exemption from coverage.

People who care deeply about Wisconsin have had every reason to feel despair about what has happened to our great state over the past three years.  But on Thursday, a river won an important battle and that win can lead the way for a return to the values from our past.

This is what a winning river looks like

The Capitol Police have decided to magnanimously allow tourists and others at the state capitol in Madison to watch the Solidarity Singers without fear of arrest.

The arrest earlier in the week of state Rep. Sondy Pope (D-Cross Plains), who was observing the singers, apparently led to a “re-evaluation” of the policy.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge William Conley issued a preliminary injunction blocking the new ALEC Wisconsin anti-choice law from going into affect.

A federal judge on Friday blocked until at least November a state law requiring doctors who perform abortions to have hospital admitting privileges.

It was the fourth time U.S. District Judge William Conley has temporarily blocked the law from going into effect. His 44-page decision placed the law on hold until the November trial that will determine whether the law is constitutional.

The law requires that doctors to have admitting privileges at hospitals within 30 miles of where they perform the procedure. […]

If the law goes into effect, it will close Planned Parenthood’s clinic in Appleton and Affiliated’s clinic in Milwaukee because doctors there do not have admitting privileges at hospitals that are near enough to the clinics. Planned Parenthood’s Milwaukee clinic would operate at half capacity.

In an udder disaster for Dairy State Dairyerres, a Vermont cheese has won the award for Best of Show in the American Cheese Society competition held in Madison WI:

Best of Show

Cellars at Jasper Hill, VT

Winnimere

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R) signed into law the bill requiring transvaginal ultrasounds and effectively closing down two Wisconsin abortion clinics in the dark of night. Well, not quite the dark of night but quietly on a post-holiday Friday.

Under the new Wisconsin law, any woman seeking an abortion would have to get an ultrasound. The technician would have to point out the fetus’ visible organs and external features. Abortion providers would have to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles to perform the procedures.[…]

Walker, a Republican, didn’t sign the bill in public, instead sending out a statement early Friday afternoon saying the bill was now law.

UPDATED: Monday, July 8th Someone was paying attention:

A federal judge has granted a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of a new Wisconsin law that bans doctors who lack admitting privileges at nearby hospitals from performing abortions.

U.S. District Judge William Conley granted the hold Monday evening after a hearing earlier in the day. The restraining order will remain in place pending a fuller hearing July 17.

Or maybe the “Governing as a Right-Wing Tool Has Consequences” Rule?

Republicans are fond of saying that “elections have consequences” … until the consequences are something they don’t like and then they are quick to squeal that Democrats or The Left-Wing Media are being unfair to them.

In yesterday’s spring election in Wisconsin, another Scott Walker judicial appointee was removed from the Dane County Circuit Court.

DANE COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE Branch 16

RHONDA L. LANFORD   52.5 % 42860

REBECCA ST. JOHN    47.4 % 38694