News Roundup for 2/17/11

Portrait of any Wisconsin Democrat today

-Headline of the day-
"Democratic lawmakers leave Wisconsin to protest union curbs."

Well, it's not so much a protest as it is a filibuster. But who wants to argue semantics?

See, it turns out that pretty much no one but Republicans and Gov. Scott Walker likes Walker's attempt to bust public employee unions. Turns out that giving away the state surplus, then declaring a budget emergency because of the newly created deficit, and making working people pay the bill strikes a lot of people as pretty unfair.

And some of those people are all the Democrats in the state Senate. So, on the day that Walker and his pet GOP were going to pop the champagne on the success of their heist, Democrats decided to take the day off and go to Chicago for beer and hot dogs... Or something. No one actually knows where they are.

In order for the bill to pass, there have to be 20 members voting. If it's not 20, then there's no quorum. In other words, this thing can't possibly pass today. Or tomorrow. Or anytime until the dems decide to come back from their little vacation. When will that be? A top dem asked the same question.

"The question is when are the Republicans going to sit down seriously with the other side on this issue and try to work something out," asks Sen. John Erpenbach - which is a real name. "When are we going to be reasonable about this and slow things down?"

Republicans need to answer those questions, because -- by wild coincidence -- that's probably when the Democrats plan to get back from their field trip. (Reuters)


-Cartoon time with Mark Fiore-
Hey kids, we've got a special cartoon today. It's educational and it's all about math! Yay!


Click for animation

Don't try that math in school, kids... (MarkFiore.com)


-Bonus HotD-
"Runaway Wisconsin State Senator Wins Internet."

Democrat Lena Taylor updates her Facebook status as "brb," which I guess is some sort of commie code. (Wonkette)