As long as being able to spend lots of private money is almost a prerequisite for winning an election, the wealthy people with lots of private money to spend on elections are going to make up a vastly disproportionate number of winners and people with influence in the process.

Walker and Fitzgerald couldn’t take the pressure, I guess. They must have figured the action was already too obvious, and that the recall petitions would succeed anyway. So they might a well get something out of their short-lived majority.

Seeing the specious nature of Bloch’s reply filed on March 3, 2011, the Emptywheel blog got involved and initiated a formal filing with the court. We combined much of the material from the previous blog post on March 1 with new argument directly responsive to Bloch’s Reply, and additional general argument, into a formal sentencing recommendation and filed it with the court. The document was lodged on March 4 and can be seen in full here.

Late last night, after consideration of the various pleadings related to the attempt to withdraw Bloch’s plea, the court filed its decision on PACER. Scott Bloch’s motion to withdraw from his plea, despite the collusive help from the DOJ, is DENIED!

When you talk to political folks in Wisconsin, you realize that transparency and procedure matter a lot. This violation of law is actually but one of the many dubious marks on yesterday’s action, and actually all the action around the budget repair bill and the assault on workers’ rights. Perhaps the open meetings violation could be rectified merely by waiting another day and starting over. But there are all the questions surrounding the content of the bill itself. The whole reason this ordeal has lasted three weeks is that the collective bargaining piece was tied into the budget repair bill, which had a fiscal impact. That’s what triggered the quorum requirement. But the Republicans supposedly stripped out the fiscal pieces and passed a purely non-fiscal bill last night in the Senate, and later this morning they’ll do the same in the Assembly.

What Jane said.

David Koch’s investment pays off.

Morgan Davis — Reefer Smokin’ Man.

Become a member of FDL for as little as $45 per year ✓ Personalized membership card ✓ Discounts from progressive partners ✓ Invitations to members-only planning …and much more! I’ve given money to public radio and teevee before, mostly to get the tote bags, for that sweet toting action. But apparently, national public media is [...]

The Pentagon wants you to ignore some inconvenient facts about the failure of the escalation strategy in Afghanistan.

The latest Petraeus/Gates media tour is under way in preparation for the general’s testimony to Congress next week, and they’re trotting out the same, tired spin they’ve been using since McChrystal was replaced in disgrace last year.

In what is something like the 50th survey to show the same thing, a new Bloomberg poll (PDF) found that by far the top issue for Americans is jobs, and that a clear majority want the federal government to be focused on the priority of creating jobs instead of cutting spending.