First, the obvious big news. In what is being billed as a victory for the protesters, Dane County court judge John C. Albert ruled that the Department of Administration *has* been in flagrant violation of the law, and has to reopen the Capitol during business hours.

Just not anytime soon:

his allows open access to the Capitol for the public, including protesters, during business hours. Albert gave a deadline of March 8 at 8am (next Monday) for full implementation; if Gov. Walker and the DOA do not comply, they can be held in contempt of court. Albert also said in his ruling that there have been, based on his investigation, “no injuries or damage to personal or government property,” which is a direct shot at the bogus claim of millions of dollars in damages.

However, Albert’s ruling only applies to business hours. Therefore, the Capitol police moved to shut down the building today at 6:00pm. The DOA has the authority to clear out protesters in the Capitol after business hours.

A slight correction; the 8th is Tuesday, not Monday.

Two things. One: Albert has officially stated that the DOA is a rogue agency that has been violating the Constitution. So why, precisely, is he giving them such enormous leniency in correcting their misbehavior? We’re talking about 5, count ‘em, 5 days to… stop breaking the law.

There’s a luxury your average bank robber would kill for. “I’ll return the money.. in five days.. not run to Mexico… sure.”

I’ve heard a lot about this contempt of court idea, but it’s worth noting, nobody was held in contempt for violating the first order two days ago.

So I’ll believe those doors will be open when I see them open with my own two eyes. As I’m walking through them.

From what the twitter tells me all the protesters left peacefully and there was a big celebration and blah blah blah, tonight. This is ridiculously premature. Save the celebrating for when those doors are open. Period.

Before this story broke I was actually in a much better mood. I went downtown and saw some good signs, heard some good speakers, and caught video (uploading now) of an absolutely awesome rally down State Street. Some pictures follow at the end of the post.

Also, encouraging news has emerged from the rumor mill about Walker; he may be caving:

A tweet from the chief of the editorial board for the Wisconsin State Journal adds that union re-certification and dues in paychecks are “on the table.”

This is a significant pullback, actually, though I don’t think it’ll be enough for the unions. Let’s explain. The budget repair bill didn’t only strip collective bargaining rights from public employees. It set up a process where the unions would almost certainly be destroyed. Under the bill, the union would have to be re-certified by its members every year.

…

And now, Walker says he’s wavering on those pieces. This issue has escalated, and he’s trying to figure out a way to get a deal without giving up on stripping collective bargaining. It’s good to see re-certification and dues in paychecks possibly go away, but I’m guessing the unions will say no deal unless they retain the right to collectively bargain.

Still, who’s showing weakness now? Indeed, in a separate tweet from the head of the Wisconsin State Journal, Walker acknowledged he would probably go to bid on the sale of state-owned power plants. Again, a little slippage there, as the bill allows for no-bid contracts.

This is only the first battle, even if we win it; the budget Walker proposed would gut public education in this state forever and cripple the ability of local governments to pay for much of anything. In one fell swoop, he’d turn this state into Galt’s Gulch or some other libertarian delusional fantasy world.

So let’s keep fighting, people. Remember the Zombie Ethos that has kept this movement strong so far, and don’t give up until you get INSIDE the halls of power and have your say. Zombies wouldn’t give up on that goal, and neither should you.

In the meantime, have some pictures:

(from the march up State Street)

(pretty good for an editorial cartoon)

(this may be the prettiest bus in history)

(Fox was right! We *do* have palm trees in Madison)

(You see this old lady around a lot, and good for her)

(Dems have had to meet with constituents outside due to these ludicrous restrictions. Which may continue for, oh, another 5 days)

(Oh, for it to be true already)

The whole set is available here, and the collection of ALL ZRC pictures of the Madison protests is here.

Tags: Madison Protests

This entry was posted by John Sears on Thursday, March 3rd, 2011 at 10:14 pm and is filed under ZRC News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.