Wisconsin Recall Voters Head To Polls To Kick Out Koch Overlords

The hysterical right wing promised America a front row seat to fire, brimstone, rivers of blood, looting, rampaging, crying babies, sirens, thieves, chainsaws turning on by themselves, ski masks and eternal night in Wisconsin once these recall elections got under way, and probably if you drop enough acid and look very hard, all of those things are happening right behind this kindly hippie bagpipe player standing in the street in Madison last night, which is the "craziest" thing we have spotted so far. Or maybe that is just the fever dream of a Fox News editor who is wishing desperately to run footage of the crazy London riots behind Steve Doocy's aneurism-inducing hate-froth about unions (which may yet "accidentally" happen, and if so, we called it first). Oh well, missed opportunity. Instead, here is the Netroots live coverage of the votes, which are seeking to recall six incumbent Republican state senators who voted for Scott Walker's infamous pro-poverty union-busting bill. 

 Here is another fun photo diary of Wisconsin voters gathering on election eve.

Mother Jones has a piece on the GOTV effort that has been taking place in the lead-up to the recall votes:

Officials with the Democratic Party of Wisconsin (DPW), labor unions, and other left-leaning groups say they never anticipated such an outpouring of energy in an off-year election, in the dead of summer, and in mostly Republican-leaning districts. "We haven't hit our volunteer numbers like this since the Obama campaign in 2008," says Graeme Zielinski, a spokesman for the state Democratic Party.

The numbers tell the story. This past weekend, 8,234 people volunteered for the state Democratic Party to support the Democratic challengers in Tuesday's recalls. Volunteers made contact with nearly 785,000 voters last weekend alone, according to the Dems' estimates. All told, the party says total voter contacts have surpassed 2 million. We Are Wisconsin, the coalition of labor unions that's been a powerful force in the recalls, said it knocked on nearly 200,000 doors over the weekend—40 doors a minute statewide—and deployed hundreds of volunteers. "To have mobilized so many ordinary citizens, many of whom have never been involved in politics, to stand up and take their government back from Scott Walker and his enablers in attacking Wisconsin's working families is nothing short of astounding," says Kelly Steele, a We Are Wisconsin spokesman.

No more free Koch-aine, suckas! [ Dane101.com / Mother Jones ]