"It's gonna take martial law"

... as the great George Clinton said.

Seriously, it's getting hard to avoid thinking that we no longer live under rule of law in Wisconsin. Last week's publication of the anti-union law and the claim that it's now in force, all despite a (repeated) court injunction, would seem to ice that case. And if you read this, you surely long since know that UW History professor Bill Cronon is facing an order from the Republican Party of Wisconsin for the University to release all of his work emails that contain these words (see here and here):

Republican, Scott Walker, recall, collective bargaining, AFSCME, WEAC, rally, union, Alberta Darling, Randy Hopper, Dan Kapanke, Rob Cowles, Scott Fitzgerald, Sheila Harsdorf, Luther Olsen, Glenn Grothman, Mary Lazich, Jeff Fitzgerald, Marty Beil, or Mary Bell.

As a seasoned administrator at the University told me last week, this list of keywords is "the clearest fishing expedition I've ever seen in a FOIA request". Now, I've never dealt with Freedom of Information Act requests, but I'll take their word for it.

A number of people around campus are now putting all those words into their signature files, so that all of their emails include all those terms. Here's one example:

If you would like to correspond with me about any of the topics below, please email me at ---------@gmail.com.

Republican, first amendment, Scott Walker, recall, free speech, collective bargaining, fearless sifting and winnowing, AFSCME, WEAC, rally, union, Alberta Darling, Randy Hopper, Dan Kapanke, Rob Cowles, Scott Fitzgerald, Sheila Harsdorf, Luther Olsen, Glenn Grothman, Mary Lazich, Jeff Fitzgerald, Marty Beil, Mary Bell

Some have suggested making the keywords into poetry. Others are opening it up with the famous Sifting and Winnowing quote. Have fun.