Epic's target richly deserves such treatment; WMC's role in our recent judicial elections was deplorable.So far, so good.
Epic's actions are aimed at silencing political expression and preventing political association.Give me a break. Does anybody actually expect that WMC will be "silenced"? Judging from WMC's own reaction, its True Believers will be energized, if anything. We'll find out soon enough.
And if anybody's trying to "silence political expression," it's Prof. Howard Schweber, who continues to raise implications of illegality on the part of Epic Systems. Could a plaintiff be in the works?
Stay tuned, fans of recreational litigation.
Wow, Buchen's in a lather. When he said "in the Alice in Wonderland world of Madison politics," he meant the bad guys in Madison, not the good guys in Madison, right?
ReplyDelete"Certain Madison-based politicos." His sneer drips with venom! Free speech is under assault from certain factions!
In some less-free countries, I hear you have to pay for entertainment like this.
Oh, wait, we are paying for this... all those WMC dues hurting the bottom line of so many Wisconsin companies! All those CEOs, lured away from their executive suites to a different set of executive suites and lunches in Madison! Productivity is under assault!
I think what he's saying is that only WMC-approved-and-paid-for free speech is the right kind of free speech. Wouldn't it be easier for Buchen to just tell us what kind of free speech is best for us? That would make it so much easier. Hopefully we wouldn't have to pay dues to get that insider info.
The assault on free speech is so stiflingly oppressive, we're barely able to produce nonsensical press releases anymore, let alone have the Isthmus publish them gratis.
ReplyDeleteHoward Schweber, an assistant in the professorial ranks at the U., squeaks and squawks about hair-splitting definitional stuff: primary and secondary boycotts.
ReplyDeleteScrew that stuff. This is war. WMC and its Board (which once included David Wittwer, President of TDS Metrocom and Cullen, the head of JP Cullen Contractors) have a right to organize and spend WMC money and deploy WMC staff around policies and objectives of the group. Both Wittwer and Cullen were members of Board of WMC during the run-up to the recent Supreme Court election. They made policy, spent money, hired an executive to carry out those policies using the appropriated money.
Wittwer and Cullen were not merely a bunch of friends debating issues, like-minded right wing guys. They were leaders of a big, powerful, moneyed gang that set out to work against the interests of working people in Wisconsin, that set out to buy a Supreme Court that they could count on to back their program.
I think I may have been the one to get the "boycott" started last March 13, when I wrote to Wittwer, at TDS. I had been a customer (a very satisfied one, I might add), but I told him he could go take a hike. Why? Because he was making policy, spending money, deploying and directing WMC staff to try to stick it to me. Out there in the political arena.
Wittwer caved in, quit the WMC Board. I stayed with him as a customer. Cullen, apparently did the same thing when he got a vaguely similar ultimatum from Epic. (I admire EPIC's CEO's delicately stated approach to putting the same rhetorical shiv under the chin of Cullen while stating her bottom line requirements).
Different style, but we did the same thing. Perhaps I've seemed bellicose in language here. In fact, I'm a pacifist--fiercely combative, but a pacifist nonetheless. And, I'm a fairly cooperative anarchist, to boot. When I refer to engaging in "war" I'm talking about doing it within non-violent precepts. I don't want to beat them up; I want to respect my clout as a customer with money to spend.
But, war it is. And Howard Schweber can sit on the sidelines squeaking and squawking about nitpicky stuff and the definitions of different kinds of boycotts.
This is war. And we are intent on winning it.