Wisconsin recall webcam so boring it's mesmerizing
Check out the cam
Click here to view the recall webcam.
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This Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, frame grab from a webcam put up by the Government Accountability Board shows Wisconsin state workers in Madison, Wis. processing about 1.9 million petition signatures to recall Republican Gov. Scott Walker and six others from office. The webcam has attracted a following of political junkies, despite there being no sound and no indication of the specific tasks each person is performing.
MADISON — You know you live in a state consumed by politics when a webcam showing bureaucrats silently shuffling around a nondescript room feeding papers into a scanner attracts tens of thousands of viewers.
Such is the case in Wisconsin.
The cam, featuring a live look at the guarded, secret location where petitions to recall Gov. Scott Walker and five other Republicans are being housed and processed, has its own account on Twitter and a growing cadre of followers who've attached nicknames to the workers, pointed out when people mug for the camera and generally mock the entire process.
Live sex shows, it ain't.
It isn't even as interesting as all those webcams that have drawn large followings in recent years to watch pandas give birth or baby eagles take flight.
But this is Wisconsin, after all, a state that's been at the center of the political universe since Walker was elected governor. He immediately turned the state upside down, taking on public sector unions and igniting a protest movement that led to the recall effort. On Tuesday, organizers said they turned in more than a 1.9 million signatures to recall Walker and the others, 3 tons of paper that would extend 66 miles if laid end to end.
And someone has got to deal with all that.
Enter the ultimate in blandly named bureaucratic bodies — the Government Accountability Board — which has the important job of overseeing Wisconsin's elections and determining whether recall elections can proceed.
Its task is to examine every signature and make sure that Mickey Mouses and Adolf Hitlers get caught and discarded, along with any Walker-hater who signed multiple times. But before that can happen, all 300,000 pages must be scanned in to computers.
The Government Accountability Board, or GAB as it's known in these parts, wants to be, well, accountable. So as the work proceeds at the secret location, it's letting the public eavesdrop through the webcam.
When it first got plugged in Tuesday night, the view was straight on at roughly waist level. Viewers got a chance to look at the back of the bald head of one worker and the scanner, presumably humming had there been sound, and the somewhat blank stare of the police officer sitting in the corner making sure security wasn't breached.
By Thursday, onlookers were treated to a new view of their government at work. This time the cam was positioned higher up, offering a bird's-eye view of eight computers and four folding tables arranged together where stacks of paper with post-it notes attached were picked up, moved, set back down, and moved again. All of the action takes place against a stark, white cinder block wall.
Political junkies couldn't get enough. They made observations on the parody Twitter account (at)recallcam.
Much of the debate focused on where in Madison the work was being done.
One tweeter posited it was Osama bin Laden's old compound.
Others comment on what the workers are wearing, noting more sweaters and scarves on a day when temperatures dipped near zero outside.
Still others came up with nicknames for the workers like "Sideburns," "White Glasses" and "Flirty von Flirtenheimer."
Board spokesman Reid Magney, who has made cameo appearances on the cam, said at its busiest when it went online Wednesday around 400 people at the same time were watching it. By Thursday afternoon, after the tantalizing angle change, the webcam had logged 29,308 total visitors. The webcam is a first for GAB and is being provided free of charge to taxpayers by 5Nines.com of Madison, Magney said.
Magney, who acknowledged that watching the cam is as exciting as watching paint dry, was somewhat at a loss about its allure.
"People are interested in watching people do things, I guess," he said.
Part of the attraction is just how boring it is.
Alas, all good things must come to an end and some of the mystery will be revealed in coming days when the board provides more details about what each worker is doing and where the processing is happening.
"We've had some questions from the public like, ‘What's the guy on the left doing?'" Magney said.
But for now, the mystery is fueling the snark, even though the business being conducted is serious and likely to be the subject of multiple lawsuits. And the end result of the work could result in Walker and the others standing for recall elections later this year.
And that will be a spectacle certain to attract far more attention than the webcam at the undisclosed, secure location.
Jan 22, 2012 at 10:02 p.m.
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totellthetruth - you should take the time to actually look into the full truth before quoting someone else's half-truths. Here are the real numbers - please read:
http://www.jsonline.com/news/education/a...
http://www.jsonline.com/news/education/s...
Reality: "Statewide, the school districts' staffs were reduced by a net total of 3,368 - triple the reduction of the previous school year. And an analysis of DPI data indicates 1,608 of those staff reductions were teachers."
"Two out of three responding districts reported that they expect to have as deep or even deeper cuts next school year."
The longer-term effect of a weakened educational system is a rise in poverty and crime in fifteen to twenty years. Who pays for that? Is that the environment you want to live in? There was no requirement to corrode the state's school systems to balance the budget - it was simply a side-effect of a larger scheme to disband organized labor and reduce the strength of adversaries to the Republican agenda. If you really want to live like this, I recommend the deep south - they have already implemented these right-to-work and anti-education ideals and are awash in the resulting poverty and crime. True Red State paradises...
Jan 21, 2012 at 1:40 a.m.
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"This has occurred without a tax increase."
Please show us your source for that.
Is that all school districts? or just what specifically are you referring to?
Or is this a case of numbers can mean anything you want them to?
Jan 20, 2012 at 8:52 p.m.
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Quoted "Of course, this will come at the cost of $20 million in public funds. By every measure, Walker's reforms have borne fruit. According to the Wisconsin State Journal, 1799 more teachers were hired than were laid off or not renewed in Wisconsin schools. 95 percent of Wisconsin schools offer the same amount or more of math, science, and English courses this year as last. 90 percent offer the same amount of art and music schools. This has occurred without a tax increase. In a sane world, this would cause Walker to be a cinch for reelection. Sadly he has to fight for his job instead. "
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Some people are just so bitter that they will cut their entire torso off to remove a mole.
Jan 20, 2012 at 6:27 p.m.
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To even HAVE a site to watch this dribble shows how many people HAVE no life. This was just on channel 15 too. Really? And this is news... why?
Hmmm, slow news day.
Jan 20, 2012 at 6:18 p.m.
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Janesvilean.....cry me a river you poor baby! You have no problem with the recall being funded by taxpayer dollars, but have a problem with verifying the legitimacy of the recall being funded by the the same group?? What a tool....
Jan 20, 2012 at 5 p.m.
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Dont you wish one of the workers would start to break out in a dance just to break up the monotony? Bet they really have to focus on not picking their nose(s) too. Come on people...let's have some fun about the website and quit all this dribble about "my dad is better than your dad" playground babble. Jeesh!
Jan 20, 2012 at 4:57 p.m.
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Feduptaxpayer said, "Live sex shows, it ain't. Great now we are associating the political process with live web cam pornography. On second thought, it might just fit."
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They're just trying to describe the recall processing in terms that conservative Republican family value voters are very familiar with, Feduptaxpayer.
Jan 20, 2012 at 3:56 p.m.
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Live sex shows, it ain't. Great now we are associating the political process with live web cam pornography. On second thought, it might just fit.
Jan 20, 2012 at 3:11 p.m.
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wisladt - an adder here.
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Wisconsin Union Recall Effort Tainted with Corruption, Fraud.
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VOTE FOR WALKER
Jan 20, 2012 at 2:40 p.m.
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Wisconsin Recall Effort Tainted with Corruption, Fraud
http://news.yahoo.com/wisconsin-recall-e...
Jan 20, 2012 at 2:10 p.m.
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You should have explained long ago.
Jan 20, 2012 at 1:45 p.m.
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Live sex shows? Thanks gazette, now I have to explain to my kids what that is...
Jan 20, 2012 at 1:44 p.m.
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Fedup votes for Wa;lker....... as Rick Perry would say "whoops".
Jan 20, 2012 at 1:10 p.m.
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kcole - you have it backwards. Walker is moving the state in the right direction and it is the Union Puppet Masters that are turning it upside down.
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VOTE FOR WALKER
Jan 20, 2012 at 1:08 p.m.
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Mouses - come on - we all are aware of your love of the cheeses.
Jan 20, 2012 at 12:31 p.m.
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My signature will be my vote to re-elect a great Governor in Scott Walker.
Bring your I.D.
Jan 20, 2012 at 12:25 p.m.
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At least we get to watch while taxpayer-funded employees do the work of the Walker campaign.
Jan 20, 2012 at 12:15 p.m.
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The premise in reporting is where media bias is most evident. "(Walker)immediately turned the state upside down taking on the public sector unions and igniting a protest movement.."
A majority of Wisconsins's voters chose Walker to turn the state right side up (it was upside down). Government workers that had not been willing to negotiate changes in contracts to meet changing economic conditions have chosen to put their own interests ahead of the majority of Wisconsin citizens.
Jan 20, 2012 at 11:31 a.m.
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Don't take much to entertain a swiss chick.
Reminds me of a cheese that has been around the block "full of holes".
Jan 20, 2012 at 11:26 a.m.
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Yep! the signatures were weighing me down!
Such strong signatures. Glad your watching though Fedup, might aswell do something with your empty lifestyle.
Jan 20, 2012 at 11:24 a.m.
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Fed - Thanks for my morning laugh!
Jan 20, 2012 at 10:44 a.m.
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Not sure but I thought I saw a little mouse scamper across the background dragging a signature page.
Jan 20, 2012 at 10:04 a.m.
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The gazette shouldn't even print this type of garbage. I mean really, this is just pathetic reporting.
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