According to Politico on February 18, 2011:House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi came out strongly in support of Wisconsin teachers and students who are protesting Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to public employees of collective bargaining rights.Jesse Jackson also supports the protesters, as does Obama. The Democrats in the Wisconsin legislature have fled the scene in their version of a show of support for the protesters.
Pelosi told reporters Friday that the protests are “an extraordinary show of democracy in action.”
“Wisconsin's workers, teachers and public servants must have a seat at the table to fight for a safe workplace,” she said. “I stand in solidarity with the Wisconsin workers fighting for their rights, especially for all the students and young people leading the charge.”
Ahem. The average annual compensation for a teacher in the Milwaukee Public School System is over $100,000 (videos from MacIver Institute):
Taxpayers' dollars, of course, fund the salaries of these public employees.Many of these taxpayers are already overburdened, and the state's budgets as well as local budgets are in free fall.
Furthermore, taxpayers funding the salaries of public employees lack jobs that offer the level of benefits that public employees enjoy.
The situation is fiscally unsustainable.
One can hardly say that Milwaukee's schools are successful and that the teachers are earning their compensation:
Hardly a success story with regard to educating students!
Milwaukee Public Schools were closed on Friday:
The state's largest school district has joined those that have canceled classes due to teacher shortages caused by union protests at the state Capitol.
Officials say more than 600 of the 5,400 teachers in Milwaukee Public Schools called in sick Friday to attend the protests over Gov. Scott Walker's budget repair bill.
How much do these protests cropping up in the Midwest matter to the rest of America? From this source:...In a time when large and tense demonstrations have become increasingly rare in America, the Wisconsin protests could provide an Egypt-like moment, says Norman Ornstein, a fellow at the nonpartisan American Enterprise Institute in Washington.Read the rest HERE.
"If there's a big tea party demonstration in Madison, we may see a direct clash, just as we had in the streets of Cairo," he says.
One protester's sign at the capitol said, "Impeach Scott Mubarak" – a direct reference to protests that led Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to resign last week....
[...]
...On his radio show Thursday, Fox News commentator Glenn Beck called the Wisconsin union protests "the beginning of the American insurrection."
Also see THIS by Reliapundit of THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS.
Are we truly seeing such an insurrection coming to America?
I don't know about you, but I never thought I'd see the day that we'd see such protests here in the United States, particularly in the Midwest. Of all places!
Please make time to check out this must-read post by Epaminondas of Infidel Bloggers Alliance. As Epa points out:
...If the government cannot [abide] by the vote of majorities of citizens in the state control it’s own financial health, then the survival of a democracy or republic is in fact in control of the most ruthless, critically situated, or powerful grouping.Read it all.
If the unions WIN over the citizens voting in a govt specifically to change this situation, the citizens are not in control. Vocal minorities who can stage a TV event, and intimidate are in control....
Your thoughts as to what's transpiring now in the Midwest?
Video added on February 21, 2011, with thanks to Bunkerville:
the democrats are walking into this arguement like they did the Tuscon shoooting with no facts just a template.
ReplyDeleteThe details are starting to role out as to exactly the pay and compensation packages these folks are getting. You can not defend this stuff in an economy with real unemplyment at 16.1% and most folks who are employed losing benefits and pay, record foreclosures, and now inflation.
You might say Obamas...
Chickens have come home to roost....
I just found THIS over at Bob Mack's site:
ReplyDeleteAs key areas of the world erupt in civil discord throughout the Muslim world, the unrest has spread to the United States, and President Obama and the Democrats stoke the flames. A common thread runs through the entirety of civil unrest throughout the world--labor unions join with Marxists and radical Islam to created chaos. The unions play a key role in the unrest in Egypt, Libya, and other Muslim nations, and their tactics have spread to American states in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, and Idaho, with reports indicating similar unrest is pending in Minnesota. President Obama has thrust himself into the middle of the fray, suggesting that those who wish to stop public school teachers in Wisconsin from striking against the taxpayers are engaging in 'union-bashing.' And the Democratic National Committee has been a central component of the protests....
Note Pelosi's use of Marxist-speak- 'I stand in solidarity'. People just don't talk like that unless they're Reds.
ReplyDeleteI do believe what the teachers are doing is called "a wild-cat strike" and is specifically banned in their collective bargaining agreement. Let' see if the Governor will have the backbone to fire them all.
ReplyDeleteSince Mr. Obama has been horrible at being president, he is now doing what he knows best - community organizing. This is what injecting himself into what essentially is a local affair is all about. The fact that he, Pelosi and Jackson have jumped on the bandwagon only confirms what is obviously the corrupt and deceitful nature of these "protests"
ReplyDeleteGee, wasn't Queen Pelosi the one who made disparaging remarks about average citizens peacefully protesting the administration's polices?
"This initiative is funded by the high end; we call it AstroTurf, it's not really a grass-roots movement. It's AstroTurf by some of the wealthiest people in America to keep the focus on tax cuts for the rich instead of for the great middle class,"
"They're carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on healthcare."
All without proof. In the meantime, hypocrite Pelosi gives a pass to protestetrs who are hurling invective and calling their opposition invectives and slurs like Hitler, Mussolini etc.
As a historian, I can say that the country has not been this divided since 1860-61. Obama is clearly the Great Divider. But that's what community organizers, not presidents, do.
Hi A.O.W.
ReplyDeleteAs you know by know i never trusted him even before he was elected President.
Sadly enough History repeats itself again:The self-identification term, used by exponents of the ideology past and present is National Socialism and adherents describe themselves as National Socialists. For instance the best known organisation expousing this system, the German party led by Adolf Hitler was called the National Socialist German Workers' Party.
Now you have a "Charismatic leader" with union thugs on his side in America.If ever a President needed empeachment it's here and now in order to save America.
Fire them. In this economy, they won't be hard to replace.
ReplyDeletethe very fact that Obama and Pelosi are supporting them should tell us everything we need to know.
Blogginator has it right: the Dems went into this fight with a template, an old, obsolete template. In the past, the Dems have reflectively supported the Unions no matter how outrageous their demands, under the pretense that they are "for the working man." That template doesn't fit this situation -- a strike by overpaid, under-performing state employees, who feed at the public trough to the detriment of the real working men and women.
ReplyDeleteyou know this bunch's motto
ReplyDelete"never let a good crisis go to waste"
I dont think they planned it but they darn sure thought they could play political games.
The thing is Americans are tried of political games and they realize stagflation or worse is just around the next corner.
"Tennessee, the Next Wisconsin?"
ReplyDeleteThe issue of collective bargaining, of course.
AOW: I posted a portion of that article from Don Surber at the Daily Mail yesterday concerning Tennessee, with the caption "Let's hope it's true".
ReplyDeleteTennessee is in debt 2.7 billion, I believe and according to reports the pension is 2.7 billion under-funded. But as one reporter said, those numbers for pensions in most states have been so massages that the reported numbers are probably way low.
I hope all states follow through and we get this discrepancy is 'rights' changed.
In a very disturbing turn, apparently three or more doctors are passing out generic 'excuses for absence' from class for the teachers there, so that they will not be fired for being absent or lying about being sick.
While this may not be illegal (and I'm not sure about that, it could be), my hubby says it is certainly unethical for any physician to sign any document like that without having examined and treated the patient.
According to reports the doctors are simply walking around, asking people's names and date of birth, filling out the one page form, and signing it. What is the US coming to when things like this happen?
I believe those doctors could be in trouble, if in fact they really are doctors.
Debbie
Right Truth
http://www.righttruth.typepad.com
This is a heaping pile of fail. They are so extended here, all the GOP has to do is hold out. The union members are being greedy.
ReplyDeletegreedy is an understatement..wowza.
ReplyDeleteThis is standard for the left - never lose an election. If they lose at the polls, they just ignore the results and refuse to give in.
ReplyDeleteKeep it up, leftists, PLEASE!!! In this economy, they will only engender resentment and create a sorely needed backlash!
ReplyDeleteMy blog got shut down again, and I doubt I'll get it back, so I started a new one at Posterous. Probably just as well. I noticed on Beaks blog you was wondering what happened so I come over to let you know, since Beak sometimes takes two or three days to approve his comments.
ReplyDeletePagan Temple,
ReplyDeleteI'll update my blogroll.
I think every one realizes this is the beginning of the end of public sectors unions. The cronism between them and the politicians is over.
ReplyDeleteBlogginator,
ReplyDeleteI hope you're correct in that last statement.
Right now, I'm watching NBC News. The shilling for the unions is appalling.
Anchors are saying that Obama needs come out more strongly to support the interests of unions and that collective bargaining must not be cut back.
Of course, BHO needs to butt out! The issues being debated at the state level are none of his business as POTUS. Federalism!
There isn't any such thing as collective bargaining with public service unions. Its more like the children presenting a wish list to Santa, (the Government,) and Santa promising the the parents will pay up, (we're the parents).
ReplyDeleteThe more I think about it the more I realize; the phrase, "Public Service Union", must be the grandest example of oxymoron ever created if not an outright example of Orwellian "Newspeak".
Remember that Nancy Pelosi called the Tea Party and Town Hall protests "un-American" and only six weeks ago Obama stood up as the great uniter following the Tucson shooting and warned against the use of inciteful political rhetoric.
ReplyDeleteNow we see the left engaging in behavior that no Tea Party would even consider using and doing so with the full blessing of Obama, Pelosi and the Dems.
Worse still, these teachers engaged in this illegal labor action claim it is in the best spirit of democracy.
Do we need to remind them that there was an election last November in which the same Tea Party tidal wave which swept the country was also a landslide in Wisconsin? Republicans swept state elections in Wisconsin running on a platform of fiscal responsibility.
Odd that Democrats definition of democracy is in fact mob rule by a disgruntled minority.
I wonder if the Dems who are supporting mob rule in Wisconsin will also recognize the democratic demands next time a huge protest of Tea Partiers shows up in Washington demanding the ouster of Obama?
Warren,
ReplyDeleteGreat analogy with Santa!
I'll be posting your comment as "Quote of the Day" tomorrow. Of course, as one of the Grammar Police, I'll make a few adjustments. **smile**
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Computer update: Tonight, I'm taking the tower over to my local guru, Mr. M., the homeschool dad who redid my laptop. I can't shut properly shut down that tower and have to cut the power source every time. Mr. M. is going to see if there's an easy fix or if I need a new machine ASAP. I did manage to print out everything I absolutely must have for my tax accountant and some things for classes -- took me all afternoon.
Mike,
ReplyDeleteGreat comment!
I'm going to put up your comment front and center tomorrow too.
Stogie,
ReplyDeletea strike by overpaid, under-performing state employees, who feed at the public trough to the detriment of the real working men and women
Exactly.
And they think that the pockets of the taxpayers are endless.
Do these protesters not understand that the money can run out, in which case they lose their jobs entirely?
warren good point sort of like calling the government run schools "public schools"
ReplyDeleteUnions kick back campaign funds to democrats and then the democrats give them whatever contracts they want meanwhile...the people can eat cake
Union demonstrations may be coming to a state capital near you. Check the list.
ReplyDeleteA caller on Mark Levin's show last night made an interesting point:
ReplyDeleteThese teachers chose their profession. If they are in it for the money, they chose wrong. If they don't like their already over-generous benefits package, they are free to look for more beneficial work.
I thought they chose to be teachers to help "the Children".
If they are as intelligent as they seem to think they are, why don't they understand that Walker is only asking this small sacrifice to help the entire state of Wisconsin?
This isn't a collective bargaining issue. It's a selfishness and greed issue. Even the lowest paid among them make more than I do, and I'm not whining, but i am looking for a better job.