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The Revolt Spreads to America
Yesterday, thousands of Wisconsin public workers protested the state's plan to cut benefits:
As USA Today notes:
House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan compared the protests in his home state of Wisconsin over Gov. Scott Walker's budget plan to the pro-democracy movement in Egypt.
Ryan, a Republican from Janesville, made his comments on MSNBC's Morning Joe program. In the Wisconsin state capital, teachers and labor union supporters swarmed the Senate chambers today to protest a bill that would strip most public employees of nearly all their collective bargaining rights.
"It's like Cairo's moved to Madison these days," Ryan said on MSNBC. "All of this demonstration ... it's fine. People should be able to express their way."
Mother Jones points out:
For the second straight day, demonstrators have been pouring into the streets of Madison, Wisconsin to protest Republican Governor Scott Walker's anti-union plan to address the state's $137 million budget shortfall, prompting comparisons (and denounciations of these comparisons) to the uprising in Egypt. Walker's proposal would limit the collective bargaining power of many state and local employees, and roughly doubles their health care premiums. It would also give public union members the right not to pay their dues, deflating the groups' coffers. Experts expect that Walker's provisions will be voted into law by the end of the week by the state assembly and senate—both of which are controlled by Republicans.
In response, Madison public school teachers have called in sick for a second straight day. And teachers in over a dozen other school districts have followed suit. Meanwhile, union leaders are picketing the capitol, planning vigils and setting up phone banks to try to block Walker's effort.
***
Protestors say that sounds a little…Mubaraky. They're carrying signs saying things like "Mubarak-check. Walker—?" and "Hosni Walker, Elected Dictator." And local liberal pundits are feeding the flames of anti-MubWalkerism. Liberal columnist Pat Schneider wrote that "[t]he success of a grass-roots uprising in Egypt in toppling strongman Hosni Mubarak was a source of inspiration for many of those who brainstormed Tuesday in Madison about resistance to attacks on US workers in several states." Meanwhile, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) told CNN "it's like Cairo's moved to Madison these days…[h]e's basically saying I want you public workers to pay half of what our private sector counterparts are, and he's getting riots."
AOL News reports:
Walker has upped the ante by threatening to bring in the National Guard if public workers decide to walk off the job or if their protests disrupt services around the state.
Labor activists responded by saying that Walker could ignite a "class war."
And now many are comparing Walker to former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who tried to cling to power while protests roiled his country.
Dylan Ratigan notes that a large proportion of Wisconsin public employees' pension funds go to Wall Street:
The average Wisconsin state employee gets $24,500 a year. That’s not a very big pension. The state pension plan, 15% of the money going into it each year is being paid out to Wall Street to manage the money. That’s a really huge high percentage to pay out to Wall Street to manage the money.
And the Governor has ordered the Wisconsin state police to arrest all of the Democratic State Senators and return them to the Capital, but the Senate Democrats have fled the state.
Conservative writers like Mish and Karl Denninger slam the protesters (they're anti-union).
Indeed, the Democratic National Committee is apparently helping to organize the protests.
But Max Keiser writes:
It’s foolish to say these protests are about ‘labor’ or ‘unions.’ They’re about people getting their wealth stolen by banks. And whether it’s Cairo or Ohio, it’s the same banks. We are witnessing a Global Insurrection Against Banker Occupation.
Another poster writes:
The one good thing that has come out of this is simply the fact that, for right or for wrong, people are getting off their [back sides] and doing something about something.
And in related "Mubaraky" news, Ray McGovern - a 27-year CIA veteran, who chaired National Intelligence Estimates and personally delivered intelligence briefings to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, their Vice Presidents, Secretaries of State, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and many other senior government officials - was bloodied, bruised and beaten for peacefully protesting a speech by Hillary Clinton (Clinton's speech was about the importance of protecting free speech):
As Raw Story points out:
Former CIA agent Ray McGovern, an outspoken critic of US foreign policy, stood silently in the auditorium's center aisle, and turned his back on Clinton.
For his symbolic and otherwise non-disruptive protest, he was quickly accosted by security agents. As they struggled to pull him out of the room, a CNN news camera caught the tail end of the ordeal.
"SO THIS IS AMERICA?!? This is America? Who are you?" the 71-year-old McGovern shouted as he was hauled away.
***
McGovern was being represented by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF).
"It is the ultimate definition of lip service that Secretary of State Clinton would be trumpeting the U.S. government's supposed concerns for free speech rights and this man would be simultaneously brutalized and arrested for engaging in a peaceful act of dissent at her speech," a spokeswoman for the group said in a published statement. [The group also noted that McGovern was "left bleeding in jail".]
US officials came under similar rhetorical fire in December, when they announced plans to host "World Press Freedom Day." The announcement was made on the same day that Sen. Joesph Lieberman (I-CT) declared that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should be prosecuted for espionage over his role in the release of US diplomatic cables.
"When people die because we have hypocrites at the top of our government, that compels me to make a statement in whatever way I can," McGovern later told Rob Kall, who posted the remarks to Op Ed News. "It was not the theme of her speech that I was protesting. It was her war policies and support of Mubarak."
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That pretty much sums it up. But, you say that like it is a bad thing.
Here this we voted in Walker to do just what he is doing. No one funded our retirement or paid our health care this article is garbage.
A democrat rent-a-mob protesting to continue bankrupting state government. Talk abou tone deaf.
Finally, someone is taking on the unholy alliance of public employee unions and their political servants. We need this to expand to all 50 states.
By the way, what happened to being civil??
It went with deficits don't matter governance that refused to met its commitments. So much for that promised balanced budget amendment committed to under The Contract With America.
Exactly. What you have is a union of professional leeches. Every one who missed work and was not sick, who can be found in a video or picture in the state capital, should be fired without recourse. Every teacher who took students out of class to protest proposed teacher benefit cuts should be fired without recourse. There are plenty of people who would be grateful to take those jobs.
End corporate person hood. Amend the 14th amendment of the constitution with the words "natural person" Do this and every thing going wrong with this country ends and providence again smiles upon thee!
That an element. A corporation is a piece of paper, staffed by individuals and a piece of paper does not have the right to life, liberty & the pursuit of its vocation. It's a friggin' piece of paper
But according to the supreme court, corporations have the same rights as a person:
http://www.slate.com/id/2242208/
Ya, they said separate is equal as well. SCOTUS 3/5 real people
paper covers rock foundations
deleted
When the proles riot in America, the police will gun them down without batting an eye.
Quid pro quo will be a bitch.
Oh yeah. And where's all that new found "CIVILITY!" that Mr.Obama has ushered in?
Why are the protesters carrying pictures depicting Walker as Hitler, or Mubarak? Unlike Hitler or Mubarak, he was legitimately elected, by a majority of the WI citizens, and is merely fulfilling promises; he's no dictator...
Why is Obama characterizing this as an "assault" on the unions? That seems like an awful, inciteful, violent way to characterize it, no? Why aren't the usual suspects lamenting the lack of civility?
No. The majority of Wisconsin voters voted "None Of The Above" and refused to participate. Walker, and the remaining members of his party are the product of a no confidence action by the populace of Wisconsin just as are the members of the democratic opposition.
Where did you get that nugget of info from Miles? I'm curious.
And if they chose not to decide, well, isn't it true that they still made a choice?
Oh, they chose to decide all right. Their choice is that the whole ball of crap is .. well .. crap. All of it.
Look at voter participation vs total voting age population (and not the registered voter nonsense that is riddled with folks who moved on or died long ago) for the stats. Reminds me of the "workforce participation" nonsense put out by these same crap ball rollers from the two shades of grey phucknuts.
Adolf Hitler was elected by a general election in Germany; by a majority. I'm not so familiar with Mr. Mubarak history; but I got the impression from the media that he was elected by a majority also; at one time.
Friend, I think you might want to examine the statistics of the election of March 1933.
Political Parties in the Reichstag Mar.1933 Communist Party (KPD) 81 Social Democratic Party (SDP) 120 Catholic Centre Party (BVP) 93 Nationalist Party (DNVP) 52 Nazi Party (NSDAP) 288 Other Parties 23http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERnazi.htm
It appears that the Nazis took only 43% of the vote. So no majority there. The way Hitler took control was through the emergency powers he assumed following the Reichstag fire.
My regards
Wrong. A multiparty system versus a two party system in which 43% of the vote is pretty high - not saying I agree but nevertheless a win.
True, many came before Paulson. The Nazis, of course, set the fire.
Does this mean that it is cool for taxpayers to not show up on tax day? Just cause they want their voices heard? Cool. I thought so. Can't wait.
Absolutely, if they can find their balls. Look to Madison, WI for clues on how it's done.
Ironically, the whining bitches around here are the people who don't have the guts to look in the mirror and see what cheap ass punks they themselves have become. But it sure feels good to sneer at the fools who don't take shit lying down.
Bob - You have got a point. The free-marketeers here, riding the protesting state employees should find the balls to stop paying their taxes into the Ponzi rip-off that Amerika has become.
Otherwise, they're just another pack of whinny couch-potatoes.
I'd rather pay went to teachers in Wisconsin, than pointless wars and bankster handouts.
The patriots like Ole Marty Biel ? the cock sucking whore ?
I remember when tear gas on the mall signalled spring. Now its a "sick" day.
A majority of Wisconsinites elected Walker on the basis of his fiscal responsibility platform. He's following through on those promises.
The teachers use, in some cases, of the schoolkids as "props" in their demonstrations is a shameless ploy; nearly as shameless as the Democratic members of the state assembly bugging out to a resort in Illinois, both ducking their responsibility to their constituents as well as engaging in a sophmoric exercise meant to keep the protests in the public, and especially the MSM's, eye, hoping to use the carefully staged "drama" and the media drumbeat to sway public opinion.
These folks need to face some facts, regarding the voter's opinions on public employee compensation and what it costs their state; and the legislators playing hookey need to do so as well. It's high time that the public employees were given the ability to opt out of the labor union, and in doing so stop the incestuous relationship between "Big Labor's" donations to politicians that would ever expand their numbers, along with the size of government, in return for the unions money-which essentially comes from the public's pocket.
We didn't have a union in the US Navy, and, much like FDR did, I don't believe that government workers, at all levels, should have one either.
I mean, who are they organizing against anyway? The citizens who employ them? Something's wrong with that.
>>>The teachers use, in some cases, of the schoolkids as "props" in their demonstrations is a shameless ploy; nearly as shameless as the Democratic members of the state assembly bugging out<<<
Two Rep. State Senators went missing along the with Dem 14.
Walker overplayed his hand.
Watch more Reps. go missing when he doesn't agree to leave collective bargaining intact.
This could very well be a case of "The Cheese Stands Alone" when more people realize that $137M budget deficit is a function of his $140M giveaway tax cuts to corporations.
And those corps don't give a damn about WI the same way multinationals don't give a crap about the US.
Hey what about that $1.5 Billion owed to the feds for two years of unemployment advances ?
http://badgerherald.com/news/2011/01/26/wis_shifts_into_firs.php
So the inference here is that nothing should be done until there is an actual real-life deficit that everyone can't possibly ignore, which means, never gonna happen.
Why is it that USA is so polarized, so removed from reality? You can't tell in simple terms shit from shine hole. The current problems are the mega combination of private sector rip-off aided and abetted by public sector political czars who are totally devoid of sense of duty to public good. The heart of the disease is the MINDSET. IMPERIAL MINDSET, now gone askew. Whereby people think they are invincible and can get away with anything. Stand back from this mindset, ask yourself how to address this mega combination collusion and you'll start seeing the solution. Before the problem drowns you in total economic vortex or before the oligarchy imposes totalitarian rules ...inevitably, insidiously. Time is running out. Recoup people of america, recoup through debate. Sincere debate.
technically speaking of the proper old saying, you mean "..... from Shinola®", a paste-wax style of shoe polish, color of your choice...
+1
You really have to thank the divide and conquer mentality of the upper 1% or so that have Americans who protest against their own interests and fight for wealthy people in the lottery like hope, they too will be one of them, in a society that is slowly getting class stratified that achieving the American dream is impossible without the background and connections.
There is one issue that Americans could have stood shoulder to shoulder on . That was the total lack of the rule of Law on Wall Street that kicked this mess off. If it didn't happen there it will never happen. People will fight for scraps much to the amusement of those who eat fillet for an after noon snack. If people can't understand something in 5 single syllable words they just stop listening and go to their default position.
Screwy Ideologies , short-term greed, desperation, economic theory and the academics who spout them (who also enjoy the same security as the wealthy and govt workers) has completely wiped out the notion of practical policy where people think through the real world application of ideological driven policy and flat out reject it for something that all can live with. We are too far gone for that.
Where is the public good in a monopoly service where costs increase and service goes down. I am all for the common good but at some point we have to demand excellence from those that reap the benefits...the oligarchs included. The great deflationary equalizer is just ahead and will hit the top the hardest. Nature has a funny way of righting the ship. In the meantime, protest away but dont forget your day job.
Pay attention to the behaviors that are rewarded today. Our culture worships the most salacious liars among us: actors, politicians, musicians. We value artifice above all else as displayed by our fake-ass fractional reserve system propping it all up. "I will win the crowd. I will give them something they have never seen before." ~Maximus
+1.
Why junk the guy who agreed with me, instead of me? Curious.
+1776
Wisconsin has held an antibusiness stance for years and driven away tax revenues for years. Is it really too much to ask that state employees actually contribute to their healthcare package and retirement??? The rest of us have to do so. Go Walker. Teachers, get back in the fuckin classroom and looke forward to your summer off.
buhuhu .. no more collective bargaining.. I'm gonna cry..
these unionistas just don't get it.
THERE IS NO MONEY !
just because Uncle Ben prints ad infinitum doesn't mean the shit is actually worth anything anymore.
higher wages for public service sector unionistas is possible only by selling more state debt to the Fed.
if this was Reagan's era, he would have fired the whole lot and hired deserving individuals who are willing to get graded for their work.
Now that's funny! I was right there with you until the Reagan bullshit.
Reagan has been credited for slaying the union beasts.
I'd use another promininet politician if you name one that took unions head on.
Pol Pot?
Hell yes he did, he paved the way for nafta.
he also began the industry takeover of the FDA and approval of GMOs including sudden asartame approval when the scientists were against. Of course everyone since, clinton and obama included, have sold out to monsanto, gmos and the like
Wisconsin teachers, and public union members everywhere, are going to have to follow their dear leader's advice and start participating in the "shared sacrifice" for the "social justice."
No justice, no peace -- crybabies.
Not impressed with a bunch of "where's mine" union types. Not impressed with a bunch of "where's mine" students complaining about tuition hikes. I WILL be impressed if a couple million show up in DC saying "where's my country".
As long as every group that does stand up reaps condemnation from the bitter losers among the plebes, you'll never see anybody in DC. Except the rich, of course, whom I hear stop by every now and then to collect the rent.
Divide and conquer - has been used before and seems to be working quite well once again.
i live here. as usual, what you are being fed via the news is complete fantasy land. the people of the state of wisconsin are not protesting, nor are they turning against the governor.
the people of madison, milwaukee, and middleton are protesting, as are some state union employees.
outside of dane and milwuakee counties, nobody gives 2 shits about this. the vast majority of people here are tired of endless tax increases + spending.
What you need is a counterrally. Maybe on Saturday. And I don't think you'll need to bus in activists or round up schoolkids. I think the average taxpayer will be thrilled with opportunity to spend a day defending their rights.
The press love shit like this. Good pictures to show as they sell their leftist agenda. I'd be curious to see what they'd do if 5x many people showed up on Saturday to defend their liberty and their governor.
Pity I don't live in Wisconsin. I'd help organize it. I've never even heard of the governor until today, but he needs a public showing desperately if he is going to win the PR battle.