Just a quick thought, courtesy of Bob Beckel on Fox News' "The Five" -- Bob (a die-hard liberal Democrat) points out that, if Michigan's new right-to-work law passes, people who don't pay into the Unions will still benefit from the various benefits and privileges that the Union gets for their paying members -- and that isn't fair.

A quick question for Liberals in general, and Bob in particular: Why is that unfair, but the 47% of Americans who pay no Federal income tax still collect all of the Federal benefits -- and that's supposed to be "fair"?

I'm just asking.

According to The NorthWestern, Oshkosh schools have now joined in a lawsuit against the union-affiliated WEA Trust:

"The Oshkosh school district has joined a lawsuit alleging nonprofit health insurance company WEA Trust, which is affiliated with the state's largest teachers' union, wrongfully denied federal money to districts that dropped the company for different insurers."

This makes a total of 35 school districts that are suing WEA trust, with another 10 districts preparing to join the lawsuit as well.

People ask me why I "hate" unions.  I don't; but some things that they do need to be exposed.  For example:

Rethinking Schools is holding their "25th Anniversary and Fundraiser" on October 15th.  Their guest of honor?  Bill Ayers.

https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=130937313662585Bill Ayers is the unrepentant terrorist who attempted to blow up the Pentagon, and in 2008 famously said about it, “Guilty as sin, free as a bird. America is a great country.”

Other "words of wisdom" from Bill Ayers' life that he may share with them include:

• "We are a guerrilla organization. We are communist women and men ... deeply affected by the historic events of our time in the struggle against U.S. imperialism."
• "Our intention is to disrupt the empire, to incapacitate it, to put pressure on the cracks, to make it hard to carry out its bloody functioning against the ...

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I remember the children's poem, "The greater fleas have lesser fleas upon their back to bite 'em, and these in turn has lesser still, and so ad infinitum ..." -- which is what came to my mind when I saw this story on Legal Insurrection.

In short, when the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC) announced that it was laying off 40% of its' staff (details in this Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story) due to their projected losses now that Union dues aren't being forcibly extracted from state employees -- they in turn are now being boycotted by the National Staff Organization (NSO), a union representing educational union employees.  (details in another Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story).

Apparently, the accusation is that WEAC is violating their contract with NSO, firing employees that they can no longer afford to pay.

Updated 9/14/2011 -- the numbers are now out, and they're not good.  Governor Quinn is asking to lay off 1,900 state employees, and shut down 7 state facilities.  Thanks again to Governor Walker for preserving Wisconsin from this!

According to Businessweek, Governor Quinn will be laying off hundreds, if not thousands, of state employees in Illinois.

"Officials increased the state income tax by two-thirds in January, but almost all the additional money is being soaked up by the higher costs of pensions and insurance for government employees. That leaves almost nothing to pay for the steady rise of other costs, from salaries to office supplies to increasing demand for state services."

Another reminder of how Wisconsin's Governor Walker and his Budget Repair Bill prevented this from happening there.  Isn't it amazing how "taxing the rich" doesn't magically fix a state's profligate spending?  I ...

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According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the county of Milwaukee is paying out $14,000,000 to retiring county employees, in "backdrop" lump-sum payments to 79 of the 115 retirees.

That brings the total paid in backdrops to nearly $200 million in the decade since the controversial benefit was adopted. The county employee exodus has fueled renewed worries about burdensome pension costs, as well as concerns over the county's ability to cover myriad services. About 1,200 of the county's 5,400 workers are eligible to retire.

County Executive Chris Abele warned that pension costs "continue to be a drain on the county budget and are helping drive the need for cuts in services." Taxpayers are contributing some $66.9 million toward county pensions this year, including $33 million to pay down a pension loan.

"It's outrageous that government workers continue to be able to retire with ...

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When the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned Judge Sumi's partisan ruling, they ruled that it was as though her ruling had never happened -- void ab initio.  When a law is passed, the Wisconsin Secretary of State has a legal obligation to publish the law in the newspaper of record, within 10 days.

Despite the Wisconsin Supreme Court's ruling, Wisconsin Secretary of State Doug La Follette has declared that he's going to wait another 10 days before publishing the law on June 28th, according to Madison TV station WISN.

Why is Doug La Follette, Democrat, waiting an additional 10 days, given the Supreme Court's ruling that Judge Sumi's judicial activism effectively never happened?  Some are suggesting that, like the Fleebaggers fleeing the state in an attempt to block the vote on Governor Walker's budget repair bill, La Follette is trying to run out the clock.  Is ...

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Since the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned Judge Sumi's partisan ruling, allowing Governor Walker's budget repair bill to go into effect, protesters have gone to extremes in Madison, vandalizing property and threatening citizens.  Where are the police in all this?

• On Monday, June 13, 2011, police were escorting the protesters to Wisconsin Manufacturers Corporation and back to their tent city (lovingly called EntitledTown), while the protesters committed criminal trespass.  The police protected the criminals, not the land owners
• On Madison radio talk host Vicki McKenna's Facebook page, a citizen of downtown Madison reported how she's being harassed on a regular basis -- and more chilling, how she saw a group of protesters accosting two conservatives on the street, leading to the police arresting one of the conservatives, not the aggressive protesters.
• Protesters have dismantled the barriers to keep them off the lawn at the Wisconsin state capitol, and ...

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I would be remiss in not mentioning that, Tuesday evening, the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned a ruling by Judge Sumi that had kept Governor Walker's budget repair bill from taking effect.  With her ruling overturned, Wisconsin state employees now have their collective bargaining powers severely curtailed.  A few thoughts:

• Judge Sumi's original ruling was severely flawed, according to the Supreme Court decision. Clearly, the Wisconsin legislature did not break any rules when passing this law, causing the 14 Fleebagger legislators to fly back to Wisconsin
• The Unions will not go gently into the night, and the Democrats who benefit from their political patronage will do all that they can to aid them.
• The only short-term remedy that the Unions have is the attempt to recall the six Republican legislators, currently up for recall for the "crime" of voting for the Budget Repair Bill.  As we saw in the ...

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Protesters at the Wisconsin state capitol vandalized Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) in Madison on Sunday night.  On Monday, protesters marched from their "tent city" that critics have labeled as "EntitledTown" to WMC, committing criminal trespass.  Where were the police?

The Madison police were providing an escort, for the trespassers, from the tent city to WMC and back.

Shockingly, no arrests were made.

I'm just saying.

Former Senator Russ Feingold has been making appearances at EntitledTown, trying to keep the dwindling number of protesters energized.  A few thoughts:

• One of the key points from his speech was, "the game isn't over until we win."  And somebody, somewhere thinks that "this is what democracy looks like"
• Viewing the crowds, both in person and in the various YouTube videos, I'm reminded of a question that certain individuals asked about the Tea Party -- where are the minorities in this lily-white crowd?  I'm not accusing the EntitledTown participants of racism -- but others accused the Tea Party of that on less evidence.
• Some people are suggesting that former Senator Feingold, who was ousted from office last November by political neophyte Ron Johnson, run against Governor Walker if a recall is filed.  The response on the right appears to be "Please, oh please, let it be!"

I'm just ...

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According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, protesters who have been arrested during the protests at the Wisconsin state capitol have not yet paid their fines -- and have no intention of doing so.

 

Ryan's attorney, Jim Mueller, said he does not think the Dane County district attorney's office will prosecute his client's disorderly conduct citations.

"I expect most, if not all, of them will be dismissed," Mueller said.

This points to a larger issue -- are we a nation of laws, or a nation of men?  Do we enforce the law equally, or does justice turn a blind eye to certain crimes?  If so, where is the line drawn?  If so, what is the sense of laws and law enforcement?

I'm just asking.

 

According to WTMJ, Governor Walker is expecting a break in the logjam over his Budget Repair bill in the next few days.  It was the restriction of government collective bargaining that caused the 14 Wisconsin Fleebagger representatives to flee the state in an attempt to prevent a vote on the bill.

The Supreme Court is expected to rule on whether they will take up the issue, possibly as early as today.  Governor Walker expects it to be rolled into the budget bill next week if the court doesn't take it up.

So, hopefully, one way or the other the state will move past this stage, one way or the other.

According to Madison.com,

Across the street from the Capitol, protesters had largely abandoned the stifling nylon tents of “Walkerville,” spending the day in the Capitol or in the bars and coffee shops around the Capitol Square.

“I think at night it hasn’t been too bad,” said Sam Jordan, 42, of Madison, who was in charge of watching one of the encampments. “People have been really good about bringing us ice, water and Popsicles.”

Will Gruber, 46, was catching some rays on the grass sidewalk planters where he’s spent the past few nights instead of inside the tents, where temperatures Tuesday registered 102 degrees during the day. “You get a little breeze going out on the grass unlike the tents,” he said.

Though their numbers have dwindled, protesters said they were undeterred by the heat.

According to WTMJ, the Milwaukee Public School board has passed their budget, 

"voted to ask teachers for a 5.8% hike in their pension contributions, which would save more than $19 million and nearly 200 jobs"

Will the Union do this and save teachers jobs?  In a word, no.

Since the original "Zombie Walker" protest had an "enormous" turnout in the low hundreds, this follow-up is projected to number in at least the dozens.  According to this Facebook page:

There will be a die in at the Capitol on the State Street steps to symbolize students being dead to the legislators in the sense that generally students will not be able to vote in the fall primary and generally had road blocks throw in front of them for trying to vote. Students like to Vote, Student want to Vote!

Yes, students will be unable to vote, if they aren't legally old enough, have a criminal record, aren't citizens of the state, or aren't citizens.  The protest is supposedly about Photo ID, which means these students won't be able to vote, since they obviously:

• Don't drive
• Don't drink (in Madison?)
• Don't cash checks ...

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Democrats and Republicans are presenting their arguments before the Wisconsin Supreme Court, who may decide to state once and for all if Governor Walker's budget repair bill was passed properly,  If the Supreme Court rules on the case, Walker's bill will finally become law, reducing the power of the Unions in state government.  This was the supposed cause for the Fleebaggers to flee their responsibilities in the first place.  How does the left deal with this?  By breaching security and storming the capitol:

This is what I would expect in a banana republic.  I've never been more ashamed of being from Wisconsin.

According to the Wisconsin State Journal, 

There’s no need for the state Supreme Court to act next week on an open meetings lawsuit involving the law curtailing public employee bargaining rights, lawyers for two Democratic legislators and Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne wrote in court filings Wednesday.

A motion by lawyers for state Sen. Mark Miller, D-Madison, and state Rep. Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, argues that the case is moot now that Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi issued a final order in an open meetings lawsuit brought by Ozanne.

It's amazing that the Fleebaggers Miller and Barca are afraid of the Wisconsin Supreme Court hearing the case -- since Governor Walker's budget repair bill, which restricts the power of collective bargaining for state employees, are what caused the Fleebaggers to flee the state and try to bring the democratic process to a standstill.  Once the Supreme Court ...

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According to the Wisconsin State Journal, the school district of Middleton has spent $300,000 to fire a teacher guilty of using school equipment for pornography:

"The Middleton-Cross Plains School Board has spent about $300,000 in the last year fighting a grievance filed on behalf of a teacher fired after an investigation found he viewed pornography at school.

Andrew Harris, a former seventh-grade science teacher at Glacier Creek Middle School, along with seven high school staff members and one administrator, were investigated and disciplined after the district discovered porn and other inappropriate adult content, including nudity and sexual jokes, in their email system during the fall of 2009."

Why did it cost so much money -- and take so long -- to fire this teacher?  After all, in virtually any company, viewing pornography on company time with company equipment would lead to an immediate termination.  The answer is, look for the ...

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Early in this year, Madison school teachers engaged in an illegal work stoppage, not only walking off the job and shutting down the school system to force the taxpayers of the state to give in to their commands, they went further and falsely claimed their days off as "sick days" -- so they would continue to collect the pay that they hadn't earned.

According to madison.com, after having received multiple requests to release the names of those teachers, the Madison school district has refused, saying "the release could risk the safety of teachers and students, and disrupt morale and the learning environment in schools."

Where was their concern for the students when the teachers walked off the job?  Where was their concern for morale when those teachers tried to blackmail their community to do what they wanted, or else? Where was their concern for the "learning environment" in schools ...

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