Ye olde roundup regarding today’s protests and counter-protests…
Professor Althouse was a busy girl, today, and has lots of pix and interesting video; just keep scrolling.
Insty is running an interview with Andrew Breitbart.
Jim Hoft has kept his site up to date, despite attending the rally in Madison (and, IIRC, speaking there). Many photos of the Tea Partiers and the unionistas; keep scrolling.
Kevin B. has suggestions for signs the pro-Walker people should have carried. Troglopundit was at the rally, and has started uploading his pix.
Steve E. scored an interview with a State Senator there. Badger Blogger has the video of potential medical fraud that everyone is talking about. [UPDATE: More medical fraud here.]
Owen discusses mob rule, while Jib alludes to the jittery feelings at the beginning of the rallies today.
McIlheran writes about offering sanctuary to those who don’t need it. Silent E has a wanted poster for the “Badger 14.”
UPDATE: Stacy McCain has a roundup of his own, and there’s minimal overlap between his highlights and my own–so check it out.
UPDATE 2: The Anchoress and Sarah Palin–both fans of union power, when used wisely and in a sustainable way–discuss the need to set limits in these hard times.
UPDATE 3: Moe Lane suggests that “the relevant discussion took place last November.” Indeed.
Also, the Hillbuzz boys call in one of their nice Midwestern lady stringers.
UPDATE 4: Grandpa John has the news from outside Madison, where–quite unaccountably–life goes on much as usual.
UPDATE 5: Lexington Green on how a whirlwind recall election could give the Wisconsin legislature the one more vote it needs for that quorum.
UPDATE 6: FDR took a dim view of public unions; does anyone remember this?
UPDATE 7: WSJ: What’s at Stake in Madison
UPDATE 8: Michelle Malkin weighs in, and suggests that there may be class-action suits on the way from parents who have had to make emergency childcare arrangements, due to the “sick-in” stunt.
UPDATE 9: Lexington Green was actually on-site, and shares his experiences in Madison–along with his thoughts on what it all means.
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Teachers have stolen every poster board, magic marker, yardstick, etc. from every school in Wisconsin. Call in the National Guard.
One thing I have learned from this is that our country is in dire need of good teachers. Honest teachers who will not cheat with a phoney doctors excuse or will not encourage students to skip school and attend a rally that they are ignorant about. They say it is for the kids….think not…fire the teachers now!
From the looks of her, she’s likely never been screwed by anyone before. This, of course, bodes well for the gene pool. 😉
I don’t live in Madison WI or In WI at all, but Ido think, that if the people in the union really cared about the children that they were teaching they would have stayed at school, and as far as Dr.s giving out notes to the sick teachers, they should be brought up before the AMA for lying and disrespecting their profession, right along with the teachers.
I think it is rather interesting that these politicians do little or nothing when unions in the private sector have to give back or take cuts to keep their companies in business, and keep their jobs. However when public sector unions are asked to do the same thing the same politicians now act as if the world is coming to an end. Seems these public sector unions want their cake and to eat too when everyone else is looking at nothing fancier than bread.
Mr. Moishe your point is well taken from a retired, blue collar union member in the private sector.
Now trying to take away collective bargaining is a sin . All working people worked for this in the labor movement. /granted we have incompetent teachers and state government workers but also incompetents in every walk of state and federal employment. Governor Walker should suggest a three year moratorium on raises as well using attrition. Governor Walker and the Republicans have opened up a big can of worms and are creating Labor Strife. Are we going backward to the 1920s and 1930s, where Labor will use a strike as a shut down.?
I am a Republican but workers should be treated fairly. The Tea Party is too far to the right.
The Governor must get together with not only the Democrats in the Wisconsin State Legislature., but with the union leaders as well face to face like grown men and women.
Nobody is suggesting workers shouldn’t be treated fairly. Problem is, how do you define fairly? Is it fair that the private sector (the part of the economy that generates wealth) should suffer and sacrifice while the public sector (the part that siphons it off) continues to live high on the hog? The public sector hasn’t a clue how good they have it.
Kurt, This stuff you say about going backwards to the twenty’s and thirty’s is bogus. I’m not 100% against unions but I am 100% against public worker unions. Unions were necessary to guard against exploitation by companies that produced PROFIT! The public sector does not produce profit! They work for US! We have had no say in any collective bargaining agreements to date. Also, I commend you saying the Governor should meet the Dems like adults would do but the last I heard ALL the Dems ran away. I would like to say ‘they took their ball and went home’ but that would be inaccurate since they LEFT THE STATE! How mature!!!
Excellent round up, LMA!
1st legislative act: $1,400,000.00 tax break
2nd legislative act: pull $1,400,000.00 back from public worker compensation
NET RESULT: No gain on state structural debt of $3,400,000,000.00
Moral of the Story:
1 – Income redistribution Sponsored by your legislature
2 – Trickle down economic theory, problem is, cash flowing up, URINE flowing down
3 – How is collective bargaining related to wage and benefit concessions? It is when a major source of your opponents fundraising comes from labor unions…
Ah, gotta know you’re on the right track when you have the ‘concerned republican’ posters (Kurt) and then drive by talking points full of inaccuracies (mlasee).
Sorry order of the legislative acts is correct, I think there were a few more giveaways that I may have missed… I am sooooo tired of hearing about the poor rich man… They have the means to buy their justice and legislation, and the rest of us get to celebrate when they trickle down their uremic manna. You well know this issue is not about saving any money… Wake up!!!!! This is about a pure and simple snuffing out of campaign contributions to the Democratic Party. I guess the citizens united case was not enough to fill Republican Coffers, then again, I am not surprised, having it all is still not good enough as is evidenced by the top 1% controlling more wealth than at any other time in history. Brief history of the grand Middle Class ripoff:
S&L crisis 1
S&L crisis 2
Enron
World com
Bank bailout 1-100
Iraq war II
(remind me again who went to jail in any of these grand middle class taxpayer ripoff’s???)
I get a kick out of the drive by talking points, no rebuttal? no thoughts? Too difficult to engage in a discussion? I understand it is much easier to let others do the thinking for you, go back to your Koch Brothers, ALEC, Ayn Rand, Rovian, Limbaugh / Beck Programming… I am sure they will solve all of your problems… Keep wishing and hoping to catch a few scraps from their tables of plenty. Keep feeding those “Parasites” but be careful, they are never sated.
How about the trickle down crumbs fron George Soros, Bill Gates, Ted Turner, Hollywood etc.??
How about all the stealing done by “Dems”,= Socialists/Marxists of you party…jackass??
Don’t try to bs us kid, because it won’t work.
GREAT POST!
WE are all over this issue on our blog Common Cents…
http://www.commoncts.blogspot.com
Sorry Steve, I checked out your site, and it appears to be a Hard Core Pornography Site…
I am not really into that sort of thing… Bondage, Torture… Not my “Cup Of Tea” I hope my name is not on some sort of government list now…
Dearest Pepman,
Pig Mouth! Your mother would be ashamed.
Sounds like you have still bought into the now debunked Trickle Down (Uremic Manna) Theory. I am also guessing you may need that “Uremic” word explained, Check it out in the dictionary, (guessing you do not read too many books though, based on your response above).
Also try a spell checker program, it looks like you should have been paying a little more attention in school, or maybe you were not allowed to go to school, because you had to work to support your family… If that is the case my apologies, you should have been allowed to go to school. (BTW thank the labor movement for the “kids” that followed you and were allowed to go to school for at least 12 years).
As far as the stealing comment, take a look at our Budget, and see what we really spend ACROSS THE BOARD. I find it ironic, that you would consider someone that works for a living a someone who “Steals” their PAYCHECK.
You mention Bill Gates? You should be holding him up as a hero for your Uremic Manna love affair… That is the guy that “pulled himself up by the bootstraps” made a boat load of money, and is on the verge of ridding the world of Polio, and Malaria… Yeah he is a really bad guy… I know it must be confusing to you that someone is actually giving money away to help someone else… I am sure it angers you that he is not giving it to YOU.
In Conclusion, I am not a Kid. I am university educated, “payed for it myself” and have been in the workforce since age 6 (I grew up on a farm). Based on your Kid comment I am sure I will always be a little younger than you. I am actually in my 40’s. We call that type of arrogant behavior on your post “Condescension”. It is a simple tactic used by those with “perceived” power born out of inflated self worth, that is employed to push those down that do not agree with their viewpopint. Pretty pathetic if you ask me…
I say “Back to the Pig Pen” with you and your mouth…
“There is, indeed, a projected deficit that required attention, and Walker and GOP lawmakers did not create it.
More on that second point in a bit.
The confusion, it appears, stems from a section in Lang’s memo that — read on its own — does project a $121 million surplus in the state’s general fund as of June 30, 2011.
But the remainder of the routine memo — consider it the fine print — outlines $258 million in unpaid bills or expected shortfalls in programs such as Medicaid services for the needy ($174 million alone), the public defender’s office and corrections. Additionally, the state owes Minnesota $58.7 million under a discontinued tax reciprocity deal.
The result, by our math and Lang’s, is the $137 million shortfall.
It would be closer to the $340 million figure if the figure included the $200 million owed to the state’s patient compensation fund, a debt courts have declared resulted from an illegal raid on the fund under former Gov. Jim Doyle.”
http://politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2011/feb/18/rachel-maddow/rachel-maddow-says-wisconsin-track-have-budget-sur/
Not that anyone’s interested. . .
I find it Ironic that you do not address the $140,000,000.00 Tax Givaway (Decrease in State Revenue = Increase in deficit) to the highest income earners in the state is not mentioned in your post.
I am not offering anywhere in my posts that there is not a State Budget Deficit. I am stating that in these tough economic times we should not be further digging a hole in our Budget by giving tax breaks to the highest income earners in the State of Wisconsin.
However it is Spun… the State Legislature is giving hundreds of millions of dollars to High income earners and shifting that burden to the middle class. You say we have a deficit, I agree and accept PERSONAL INCOME DECREASES, You then GIVE those revenues that were GIVEN UP to a Small Percentage of HIGH INCOME EARNERS. This is Social engineering (which you rail against) of the worst kind. Give to the Wealthy, and take from the middle class, somehow expecting Uremic Manna to trickle down from the highest earners in the State…
Make no Mistake, this is not about getting a fiscal house in order. This is about the cutting off campaign support for anyone that does not agree with the hard core Right Wing Moneyed Lobby and their BANKROLLED LEGISLATURE.
If this was really about getting a fiscal house in order, there would not have been a $140,000,000.00 million givaway to Highest Income Earners. Instead we would NOT have given the revenue away, worked to extract wage concessions, and plowed both sources of money at our Structural Deficit.
I guess it is the best Quadruple Whammy they could come up with… Give Money away to Millionares, Place the burden to backfill the hole created on the Middle Class, Take away a funding source for their opponents, Get rid of collective Bargaining so they can come back for rounds 2, 3, to raise more revenue so they can offset the budget Crisis they Created by giving more tax breaks to Millionaires… All Predicated on the Uremic Manna Economic Theory…