The Badger Awakens, Part 5

Conservatives are going full-bore after Wisconsin state university labor relations professors, demanding to see all email related to the Walker union-busting fight.

A free enterprise think tank in Michigan -- backed by some of the biggest names in national conservative donor circles -- has made a broad public records request to at least three in-state universities with departments that specialize in the study of labor relations, seeking all their emails regarding the union battle in Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) and MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, TPM has learned.

According to professors subject to the request, filed under Michigan's version of the Freedom Of Information Act, the request is extremely rare in academic circles. An employee at the think tank requesting the emails tells TPM they're part of an investigation into what labor studies professors at state schools in Michigan are saying about the situation in Madison, Wisc., the epicenter of the clashes between unions and Republican-run state governments across the Midwest.

One professor subject to the FOIA described it as anti-union advocates "going after folks they don't agree with."

Yeah, that level of rancor against university professors is pretty much par for the course. Fits the bill with conservatives going after state university professors who teach about climate change, so anyone that pays attention to Rachel Maddow would of course need to be eliminated as a Red Communist threat to America liberal.

Of course, conservatives are calling the move all about "freedom and transparency". What it's all about of course is payback for news outlets making FOIA requests involving Scott Walker. When you make an FOIA request of an elected Republican official, that's harassment.

Then again it makes perfect sense. Republicans are all about cutting billions from education, from Head Start programs all the way through university programs. The only real education is working as a serf, and the faster you start doing that and not sucking up tax dollars on your "book smarts", the more useful you are to the elite who control the country.

[UPDATE]  The Federal judge that blocked the law in the first place has thrown down the gauntlet again, issuing a second injunction against the law being implemented...complete with warnings of "sanctions" for those who cannot follow the ruling.