This one’s for okjimm.
From THINK PROGRESS:
Tucked into Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) much-discussed budget was a little-noticed provision to overhaul the state’s regulation of the beer industry. In a state long associated with beer, the provision will make it much more difficult for the Wisconsin’s burgeoning craft breweries to operate and expand their business by barring them from selling directly to restaurants and liquor stores, and preventing them from selling their own product onsite.
The new provision treats craft brewers — the 60 of whom make up just 5 percent of the beer market in Wisconsin — like corporate mega-brewers, forcing them to use a wholesale distributor to market their product. Under the provision, it would be illegal, for instance, for a small brewer located near a restaurant to walk next door to deliver a case of beer. They’ll have to hire a middle man to do it instead.
But more noteworthy than the provision itself is how it was enacted. The provision was quietly slipped in the massive budget legislation without any consultation from independent craft brewers, who are justifiably outraged by it. One group that clearly did have input, however, is one of the world’s largest beer makers — MillerCoors […]
…snip…
Joining MillerCoors in support of the provision are industry associations that have an interest in preserving the current business of beer distributors, including the industry’s lobby, the Wisconsin Beer Distribution Association. But craft brewers see the provision as “a power grab” by MillerCoors that is targeted at them.
…snip…
The provision is a classic bit of rent-seeking from MillerCoors, who appear to be seeking to preserve their current market share with the power of the state government.
But why would Walker — who calls small businesses the “backbone of our economy” and has postured himself as their champion — side with a foreign-owned mega-corporation over locally owned small brewers? It may have to do with the fact that MillerCoors, which is joint venture with foreign-owned SABMiller, donated $22,675 to his campaign.
HYSTERICAL RAISINS 
Actually, sounds like a great jobs program. Let people like me, who can’t work regular hours, drive around in a van offering to haul micro-brewers loads around! I could make a MINT! 😀
And just for the record, I’d say this is a brainless bit of legislation, but it’s carefully though out. Gutless, decency-less, moral-less – OH YEAH!
i can’t work regular hours either. i’d work for free, if the job was driving a beer truck over wanker walker (metaphorically, of course, as the raisin does not promote or endorse violence. 🙂 ).
“Doesn’t promote violence”? C’mon, violence to these idiots should be your Prime Directive. “We come in peace, shoot to kill!” Endorse violence? Why not? If others can endorse idiots, you’re just endorsing the other side of Darwinism….. 😀
(Give me a few minutes, I can justify almost ANYTHING! 😉 )
sometimes you want extreme idiots like wanker walker around, if only as a cautionary tale. i’ll bet a lot of wisconsinites will think twice before they vote next time. same for a lot of people who voted the teabagger ticket in a lot of other states.
…And the money dropped by SAB.Miller/Coors on Walker is only a fractoid spent….they dropped a shit too on repub state assemblymen and senators….assholes! Alla them!
…And thanks for the hand up,too!
any time, okjimm! 🙂 thanks for stopping by. how much did the fitzgerald brothers get from millercoors?
it would be illegal, for instance, for a small brewer located near a restaurant to walk next door to deliver a case of beer. They’ll have to hire a middle man to do it instead.
Whatever happened to getting the government off of small businesses’ back? This smacks of the kind of bureaucratic insanity that strangled the economy in the old USSR.
I’ve quit drinking entirely, but if I hadn’t, I’d be boycotting Miller-Coors for supporting this.
I’ll add it to my list of boycotts. Unfortunately, I mostly boycott things that I’d never use anyway. I think I’m still boycotting a closed bookstore in North Carolina, for example. Haven’t shopped there in years.
infidel! i was just over at your place! i don’t drink either. not a life choice, i just don’t find myself in places where i would drink. i was never a big beer drinker, but i’m thinking of taking it up just so i could boycott along with you.
rethuglicans are full of shit when they say they’re always looking out for small businesses. they really mean huge businesses in which only a few people share buttloads of profits.
For a long time, Garelick Farms in New England has advertised that they only use milk from dairies whose farmers have promised not to use Bovine Growth Hormone. They were eventually told that they had to stop doing that, because no one had proven that BGH made milk any less healthy.
There was also some beef producer who wanted to test all of its cattle for Mad Cow Disease. Other beef producers got an injunction against them. In a past life, I ranted about it:
http://1truebeliever.wordpress.com/2008/09/01/not-only-the-cows-are-mad/
Republicans are only against regulations that hurt big businesses. If they cripple small businesses, stifle creativity, or prevent legitimate innovation, then they/’re all for it.
Which makes them anti-capitalist, actually. Kind of weird, that …
bingo!! the things they preach about are the things that they have no interest in whatsoever. family values? oh, puleeze! homos are bad? larry craig, ken mehlmann, david dreier, etc. fiscal responsibility? oil and farm subsidies, war spending. on a smaller scale, teabagging reps spending thousands on car rentals and mailers. homeland security? the first secretary of hs is now a paid shill for natural gas and fracking. how secure would that make your home feel?
Free Markets, Republican Style.
and there are still idiots who actually believe that they’re for a level playing field. 🙄
As you pointed out, this action is inconsistent even with the propaganda they tell themselves. It really shows how much they lie to their own people and who their masters really are.
Also, tweeted and facebooked.
it amazes me that so many people still believe them despite all the evidence that rethugs only care about rich people. maybe it’s because the media continues to carry their water. it’s not just faux news either.
also, thank you, and thank you! 😀
Well Walker is consistent. Consistently out of line & not in touch with the real world.
May he be recalled ASAP.
i so look forward to the wisconsin recalls. i can’t wait!
It’s all about monopoly capitalism. They want to go back to the old “combinations”, which is why they drove TR from the party. They claim divine guidance (Gods Work TM) but worship at that golden calf that Melissa did such a fine rendering of recently. Trouble is, so many buy into this pyramid scheme of instant wealth. What!?!, you’re not rich? Why not? If they can just destroy the government and labor union, especially the UAW, then we will all be rich! Maybe not. (back in Texas, we call Miller beer Fort Worth 40W-that’s forty weight)
i remember when i was a kid, i asked my mother why she was a republican. she said that she registered to vote when she was 21, and back then, she thought that, if she registered as a rethug, she’d be rich one day. of course, she learned that it doesn’t work that way, but apparently, there are a lot of people who still do.
Another vintage piece from one of the web’s best–nice job, Nonnie’! One day my fellow Republicans will be able to lead more by example than the present doctrine of “do as I say, not what I do”. Happy Sunday, Nonnie’!
awww, thanks al! i think, at this point, it might be better to scrap the whole party and start a new one. the rethuglican national committee headquarters is probably stinking with old moldy teabags. 😉
Ah so Walker’s not just a Koch sucker…the little whore!
he’s a kochroach. he scurries when the lights go on.