As we move forward in the weeks and months ahead, we must do more than express compassion. We must reflect on what conditions make repeated acts of deranged violence possible and take action. The killings we keep witnessing in America are symptoms of a culture that is too tolerant of hatred and too reluctant to restrict access to deadly weapons.
MoJo has the context. Apparently the Feds are considering this a case of domestic terrorism. Would that my fellow citizens would embody tolerance, setting foot in each other’s holy places to learn instead of to shoot. Would that those with powerful megaphones would preach such tolerance instead of ignorance and hate.
About 30 people were inside the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, a suburb just south of Milwaukee, at 11:30 a.m. Sunday when gunfire broke out and at least seven people were killed, including a gunman who reportedly exchanged fire with a police officer. According to police, the gunman was killed and the officer was shot, wounding him critically. At least two other people were also injured. President Obama, Wisconsin governor Scott Walker (statement), and the Indian Embassy in Washington, DC have been briefed on the situation. (via What We Know About the Sikh Temple Shooting in Wisconsin So Far | Mother Jones)
As Peter Dreier points out in Common Dreams, Walker spent 88 percent of the money in yesterday’s recall to get 53 percent of the vote. In 2010, when Walker faced the same opponent for the same office, his campaign spending was a small fraction of what it was this year. In Wisconsin, as in many other parts of the world, austerity may require much more convincing than it did two years ago. In spite of the recall results, Wisconsin may represent less an end than a beginning.
Well I guess since there are no twitpics, this issue will go away.
Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser allegedly grabbed fellow Justice Ann Walsh Bradley around the neck in an argument in her chambers earlier this month, according to three knowledgeable sources.
But a different account of the incident emerged Saturday, and Prosser said the allegation “will be proven false.” The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel quoted sources saying Prosser made contact with Bradley to defend himself after she charged toward him.
Details of the incident, investigated jointly by Wisconsin Public Radio and the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, remain sketchy. The sources spoke on the condition they not be named, citing a need to preserve professional relationships.
They say an argument that occurred before the court’s release of a decision upholding a law to curtail collective bargaining by public employees culminated in a physical altercation in the presence of other justices. Bradley purportedly asked Prosser to leave her office, whereupon Prosser grabbed Bradley by the neck with both hands.
read more
Rock ‘n’ Roll, people!
By SCOTT BAUER and TODD RICHMOND, Associated Press –1 hr 1 min ago
MADISON, Wis. – Wisconsin’s law taking away nearly all collective bargaining rights from most public workers was struck down Thursday by a circuit court judge but the ruling will not be the final say in the union fight that brought tens of thousands of protesters to the Capitol earlier this year.
The state Supreme Court has scheduled arguments for June 6 to decide whether it will take the case. Republicans who control the Legislature also could pass the law a second time to avoid the open meeting violations that led to the judge’s voiding the law Thursday.
read more
JoAnne Kloppenburg did the right thing by demanding a statewide recount by hand in the hotly contested state supreme court seat against David Prosser.
What’s at stake here, in other words, is whether we’re going to have an open national discourse in which scholars feel free to go wherever the evidence takes them, and to contribute to public understanding. Republicans, in Wisconsin and elsewhere, are trying to shut that kind of discourse down. It’s up to the rest of us to see that they don’t succeed.
