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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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Dude, do you want some (alleged) (rapist)(under what rules)(who didn't use a condom)(therefore, he ... well ... he ... kinda' ... leaked) to be judge, jury, and executioner of a U.S. Citizen?
you gotta' be kidding? Right? Your question answers itself.
and, well, I'm adding "government conspirator" to my list.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umrp1tIBY8Q
- Ned
{and no Hillary supporter at all}
+ thanks
It seems like there are two wrongs here. The GOP deliberately put the budget in the red to give this party a start. The popularity of public sector workers isn't that high. Unless you have children who like their teachers and they are being well taught, for the most part public sector workers arrest you, fine you, tax you, deny you benefits and have an attitude about it. Little ol power trips designed to make interaction with them as unpleasant as it possibly can be. They are in a state of disbelief that the middle class isn't sticking up for them until someone maybe reminds them that they were the ones that broke strikes and arrested people speaking peacefully. Police for the most part don't stop crime, but they sure as well screw up when picking up who is the victim and who the perps are.
My experience has been nothing but bad with municipal workers.I sure as hell don't like paying rent (Property Tax) on a house that I own, to cover the Police and the Teachers. Maybe if they save my life if I have a cardiac malfunction, I'll think differently. But the public sector employees have to hope for a lot of successful interventions of heart attack victims to see even a bit of support. One of the worst was when my car was stolen. The Police found it. The crooks only wanted the wheels. They were real professionals. The rims were on cinder block and they bagged all my personal possessions . They cleaned up the glass. That was the car thieves.
Then the city hauled it to a impound lot where they put cars where people regularly commit crimes and dumped it on a graveled muddy surface with a few inches of water. In order to get it freed, I had to stand in line with all the law breakers ( mainly DUIs) for 3.5 hours and when my turn finally came, the goddamn clerk put a break sign up and didn't come back for 90 minutes.It was one of those commercials you see live and in City grey. It took him 1 Minute to take care of the victim's business...me after he got back and smirked at me. I asked him , had the thought ever occurred to them to have two lines, one for victims and one for perps. He laughed out loud.
Oh yeah, the one where I came to a very slow stop, but apparently not long enough for the Police Officer at the intersection of a deserted 4-way stop. $200 bucks. I didn't say a word. Plenty of steam coming out though.
Then they wonder why people aren't sympathetic to their personal needs. If business have labor problems they call the same city workers who happily clean things up for them with a bop on the head here and kick there. If people come out to peacefully protest some local plan, the police will beat them in plain sight. I saw one where two officers were having problems forcing one man to fall flat on the street. So a 300+ pound officer of the law jumped on the mans back from his head down to force him to the street. His offense? Calling one of them an asshole when he was jerked out of the protest line and smacked with a stick.
Maybe it's just me, but these people should be real happy with just taking a cut. No municipal worker to Fed level worker has any idea what it means to be in the real world these days. That disconnect may very well cost them their bargaining rights. This has been brewing for a long time. However, the Gov did no favors to his cause by doing the German equivalent of blowing up one of their own radio outlets to kick of the war with Poland in 1939. Yet he is more likely to get away with it then the workers who will try to shut things down. There are way way too many people who would think 50% of those benefits and a real job would be manna from heaven.
With all that said, after reading Taibbi's latest in the Rolling Stone about the magical disappearing act of the rule of law on Wall Street, I can't help but think that there are some fucking bankers yucking it all up big time with screaming out loud knee slappers like : I wonder if we could do a bond issue for them that looks like a sub prime adjustable to add another 0 on to that -135 million. HAR HAR HAR. Sex drugs and bonds baby. Yeah.
We got serious fucking problems and now we are seeing trickle down moral hazard economics at work. No one is going to like the way this ends except the bankers who fear nothing because precedent has been established. They don't have to obey the law. The can run world-wide scams and never lose a moments sleep. Thank-you Bush and Obama you turds.
+ 1000 and two thumbs up.
Just got through watching a public affairs program here in Las vegas about the Clark County Firefighter's Union members planning for "sick time" and "overtime" months in advance (for the purpose of pension spiking) with the full knowledge and connivance of management. The abuses were so egregious and rampant that it made the national news.
Comes now the Clark County Commission (after much bluster and finger-pointing), finally admitting that "investigation" of these abuses will likely go nowhere because such chicanery was written into the Union Contract.
Of course I'd like to see these overpaid, underworked so-called public servants cut down to size. But the real problem is that private-sector wages, benefits and job security have been so drastically reduced that the taxpayer has no choice but to take out his frustrations on the public sector workforce rather than on the politicians who made the mess in the first place.
Don't like public sector union abuse? Don't like the willful lawlessness on Wall Street? Don't blame public workers or the banksters...they are only doing what the politicians permitted them to do.
Just sayin'
ding. ding. ding.
We have a winner.
Well stated.
.
What a crock of shit. Where the fuck are the taxpayers - you know, the people who actually pay for the goddamn wages and benefits? Pay the attention to this people, this is how it will start - your fucking neighbor demanding his right to continue, unabated, to reach into your pocket to support his paycheck and benefits while you struggle.
The governer has a mutiny on his hands. Take note people.
Why don't you demand that all the public employees work for free? That is the logical conclusion of your statement.
Take note indeed that this US protest is the exact same as Europes, namely The Parasite Club of the PUBLIC SECTOR out bleating about cuts not taxpayers who pay for this obese ponzi scheme.
The Parasite Club of Big Govt and Big Biz or Big Unions
It's the TAXPAYERS and SMALL BUSINESS that should be PROTESTING.
Not these pampered over-paid and over-pensioned Govt parasites.
Please note business started cutting 6 months into the 2007 recession. Citizens started cutting back just over a year after 2007. And we're over 3 years into recession and the Parasite Club is still increasing spending and only just making a few cuts. The parasites have been living in a pampered LaLa Land for over 3 years!!!
Shove Big Govt, Big Biz (WS and GM) and Big Unions into Chicago, California and Detroit and let the bankrupt parasites sort their own shit out and pay their own grotesque porky bills. The Parasite Club can go fuk itself
False equivalance. First of all there are no "Big Unions" in this country. The unionized workforce is 13%.
Secondly, how can you compare working class people getting $60K a year to WS bankers pulling in hundreds of millions?
+1M
Unions have been demonized in the MSM for years and I can see the results on this post. Do I think that some public sector employees may be taking advantage of certain benefits? Absolutely - but so does my sister who works for gov, has taken around 3 sick days in 20 years and yes still belongs to a union.
Came across an article this morning which touches on this particular American mindset by Paul Craig Roberts:
The elites have programmed, through their control of the media, a large part of the population, especially those who think of themselves as conservatives, to conflate “entitlements” with welfare. America is going to hell not because of foreign wars that serve no American purpose, but because people, who have paid 15% of their payroll all their lives for old age pensions and medical care, want “handouts” in their retirement years. Why do these selfish people think that working Americans should be forced through payroll taxes to pay for the pensions and medical care of the retirees? Why didn’t the retirees consume less and prepare for their own retirement?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27513.htm
+ Me 2 Uncle.
theres a convenient junk button, but no convenient thumbs up/+1 button
+1 remus
>>>your fucking neighbor demanding his right to continue, unabated, to reach into your pocket to support his paycheck and benefits while you struggle.<<<
and your governor creates a fake budget crisis.
>>>The governer has a mutiny on his hands.<<<
Yep, he's got a manufactured mutiny on his hands--he asked for it, so he got it.
Bullshit, the unions manufactured it. Fire them all if the are not at work Monday. Any person indentified protesting while on sick leave should be docked all costs incurred by the state. You want to protest that's great. Get off the taxpayers ass when you do it on their dime. Where the fuck do these freeloaders get off paying zero for their benifits. The state needs to decide what the pay and benifits are going to be and if they don't like it they can find another job. I mean they are just so qualified that they should be able to get another teaching job in another state right away right? What..no. I thought so.
Absolutely correct. I'm sorry to see people junking you; it's amazing how many people don't understand reality. I could write a book exposing "public service" here in Hawaii; it's enough to make a dog choke. The "work rules" and the crazy "sick benefits" alone cost many, many, millions of dollars a year. They're robbing from their neighbors and their fellow citizens. "The State needs to decide what the conditions of employment will be, if you don't like the offer; apply somewhere else." This is it. This is reality. Every state has this problem; now that the gravy train has stalled out; it's time to get real.
So fire all congress people and senators who call in sick on Monday. Challenge! Is there a way to get this information?
So, what exactly don't you understand? What is taking place is called a job action.That means taxpayers are being forced to pay these people sick leave so they can protest about how unfair it is for them to pay more for their benefits. I think they should protest if they want but not at the taxpayers expense. They need to handle this just like Regan and the air traffic controllers.
And they're setting a fine example for the children...don't want to go to school?...just lie and "call in sick", go to where the most cameras are in the state and press your face into them.
Fantastic role models.
We are getting a good look at the playbook though.
I understand what you're saying, but nobody's playing here.
Walker has just screwed himself.
His Rep. majority on the "no collective bargaining" element of the so-called budget repair bill is evaporating.
doesn't matter. Cleaning up this mess is going to cause people to sacrifice their "political job" (which is a public service.. Say, don't we all bitch about how long they're in there anyway? I digress.. They will spill their own blood to save everyone else. I give this guy kudo's for litterally pissing on their shoes.
Fuck those greedy sons of bitches...sideways and 3 times on Sunday with a giant, veiny, dildo..
My gut reaction is yes, he overplayed his hand, and if so why? But, irrespective of all that, the seriousness of this issue across the country means this will get uglier before it gets better. These kinds of protests will be countered, by one means or another.
Perhaps because Wis. is one of the strongest UN anchor states in the country...
>>>My gut reaction is yes, he overplayed his hand, and if so why?<<<
Ambition and hubris. Dangerous combination for someone of limted capabilities.
He would have gotten concession, perhaps significant give-backs.
>>>These kinds of protests will be countered, by one means or another.<<<
Hmmm...Walker will be surprised how very little cooperation he gets from law enforcent and even his own National Guard if he decides to use them for other than filling vacancies of striking state workers.
Notes are being taken on this. Torn loyalties - this is gonna hurt, people. This is how/why brown shirts form.
To the bitter end, and bitter it will be.
Brown Shirts worked for Hitler, but we are different.
Brown shirts, blue shirts, black shirts - all will be blood soaked shirts if goons are turned lose on the population here. I mean, "a well armed militia" spills over to well armed citizens. No where on earth are there so many weapons in the hands of civilians.
Notes and names.
Agreed about the cops and NG--the public employees are bringing a perfect storm to Walker's ass. He thought he could upstage Chris Christie, be a real badass (he's a buddy of Paul Ryan.) Republican Guv's nationwide are all on the same page with this.
You do realize he's doing this to save public sector jobs right?
If something isn't done with state budgets across the country they will start layng people off instead.
Down here (Fla.) Scott just blind sided everyone by telling DC to stick their high speed rail "money" where the sun don't shine. I can't think of one mass transportation system that is self supporting...that is, not taxpayer subsidized...kudos to him!
He wasn't my first choice, but he's kinda growin on me...I'm gonna send him a double headed axe ;-)
I am impressed by each new Governor who refuses to participate in the high speed rail boondoggle.
As for Walker, it's been demonstrated that he himself created the "need" to cut benefits. Of course, it's obvious that there is no need whatsoever to bust the union. He refused to sit down with them from the day of his election.
So what is this about? It's a coordinated assault upon the last remaining obstacle to the complete domination of working people by TPTB, imo.
"It's a coordinated assault upon the last remaining obstacle to the complete domination of working people by TPTB, imo."
Correct me if I'm wrong (I live in Fla. which is a right to work state) but doesn't union dues come out of a workers check whether they belong to the union or not?...that is, they are mandatory instead of voluntary?
Perfection is only a concept. You never find it in the real world. That doesn't make everything equally fucked up as a consequence. I worked in a union shop for about five years and bitched about my dues as well. But moving into a non-union world wised me up but quick.
So I take it the dues are not voluntary for non-union workers, but are extracted from their pay whether they like it or not...maybe this is one of the sources of the public sectors hostility to "change" ;-)
My brush with a union happened long ago...it was a real eye opener for me. I was laid off and went to the local...walked past the union presidents red corvette...asked his secretary I'd like to see him...waited for a half our listening to him goofaw with someone on the phone behind the closed door...finally "admitted" into his presence where he sat behind a big mahogany desk which he had his ostrich skin cowboy boots propped up on.
I told him what was goin on...and he said...well, nmewn (not my real name of course) there's just no work. I said what the fuck have I been paying these union dues for? He said a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.
I told him no shit...and any union would never see another fucking nickel of my money...ever.I walked out, slammed his door sending a picture flying off the secretary's wall and left a big nasty scar on that fucking vette parked outside.
A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do huh?
I've been anti-union ever since...IMO...they are parasites.
The plot thickens, guys.
Everybody has to wonder why the union has to be busted, right? I mean, you can ram whatever terms you like down their throats wtih the union intact. For whatever reason you like. But why bust the union altogether?
The liberal spawn at MSNBC have an interesting theory. The real goal is to gut unions altogether. Why? It's not just to drag state workers into the same financial swamp everybody else is in. It's about politics.
It seems that it is only unions--public employee unions--that contribute significant money to political campaigns. Only three of them made it into the Top Ten contributors in 2010 (positions 5,6 and 9). The rest were groups on the Right. Employee unions support Democrats. The others, of course, support Republicans. It is Republican governors (the same exact thing is going on in Ohio) who are going to battle against the public unions. The wonderful freebie here is that it would swing future elections to the Republicans.
Sounds crazy, maybe? It turns out that when Walker assumed office, he had a $124M budget surplus. He immediately cut $130M off corporate taxes to put the state into deficit. Think about it. In addition to the funny thing about busting the union, which would otherwise seem pointless. Of course, there are also three state employee unions that he is not hitting with cuts--the only three that supported him in the election.
If you're an independent like me, this is a serious problem. A single party system, much as we discount the often superficial differences between the reds and blues, would be worse than what we've got. Add to this the corporate dominance we can expect as a result of Citizens United and you can see that corporate dominance is going to be complete in a short period of time without pesky union money to make things interesting.
If you're a knee-jerk liberal hater, that might seem like a good thing. But be careful what you wish for.
Private employee sector unions are fine...>>>just not for me<<<...as they do in fact, negotiate with those who will ultimately pay for labor from sales for their employees wages & benefits.
Public employee sector unions do not negotiate with the taxpayer who ultimately must pay for their wages & benefits. In fact, all they do is negotiate with yet another government worker.
It's really as simple as that.
I see the problem. See my post above btw. Private sector unions have been decimated by outsourcing and downsizing, often after M&A's.
These guys are the only organized voices of American Labor that are left. That's the big picture.
Sorry you were traumatized by your union experience. Surely you've known other traumas as well in the years since?
"Sorry you were traumatized by your union experience. Surely you've known other traumas as well in the years since?"
Yes, and I've learned from every one of them. Life it seems, can be thought of as a series of events both good and bad, that form the individual into who he or she is at present.
I noticed you did not address the inequity of public sector employees negotiating their wages & benefits with other public sector employees, not the taxpayer who actually pays for the wages & benefits.
There is nothing equitable about public sector unions. I would argue the opposite is true.
JFK's Executive Order 10988 assured us this fight would come one day...now, it's here.
This is nothing but a diversion of attention from the banksters and their minions--and the proles are suckers for bloody diversions.
Honestly, I'm surprised that you haven't stepped back far enough to see it, nmewn. You're the last guy I would expect to get played this way.
"This is nothing but a diversion of attention from the banksters and their minions--and the proles are suckers for bloody diversions."
I'm having a hard time putting the above with this;
"Honestly, I'm surprised that you haven't stepped back far enough to see it, nmewn. You're the last guy I would expect to get played this way."
Are you saying the public sector unions are in the banksta's back pocket?...you're the last one I'd expect to say something like that ;-)
Now it comes out that the average public sector employee is making 90 grand a year...while the private sector employee is making 60 grand.
I spoke of the inequity involved in a public employee negotiating salary and benefits with another public sector employee that would be paid by the a third party, the taxpayer.
You did not respond.
I spoke of the Executive Order that JFK uncomfortably signed to allow collective bargaining into the public employee sector, hardly "democratic", more like by fiat.
You did not respond.
Now you attempt some juvenile guilt/shame trip on me?
Diversion indeed Bob...have a drink on me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUQT4hykPd0
Sorry, nmewn, I didn't realize that was a critical question. Answer: Of course it's a problem. If our elected representatives are not properly handling negotions, we could blame ourselves, but that's too glib. You're right, it's inherently fraught with conflict--like Boards of Directors and Executives of public corporations setting their own pay and bonuses from the corporate coffers. Picture the loss reserve problems at the big bonus banks. It is a problem anywhere you find it.
I see no problem with working out an alternative solution. Perhaps have citizens as members of the negotiation committee. No doubt there are alot of potential solutions for people who want them.
Eliminating collective bargaining is not somewhere I'm gonna go, you know. It's no way necessary.
The JFK reference I simply flew by. I don't recall a link. I was not familiar with the reference. So that's how it started? I heard recently that it was done on an individual state basis, with WI being the first.
Guilt trip? I went back and looked just to see if you might be right. Sorry, I really can't relate. I was trying to simply nudge a guy who has shown impressive scope of intellect while patiently working to debate me at length . . . and this is not the first time. Man, I'm truly perplexed about this. You don't seem to really understand my perspective, much as we trade thoughts.
I think we simply see the issues on this one in profoundly different and unshakable terms.
Thanks for the drink, btw. That was a treat.
http://dpi.state.wi.us/lbstat/newasr.html
lad:
Please distinguish, quite important imho: "union members" vs. "bosses".
Bosses are on a different plane (planet?). Working (union) folk are kinda' screwed into their current positions with all of the promises that they are believing. Bosses are in a different milieu, George S. has some influence there.
I grew up in the highly technical/craftsman/ master artificer northeastern paternalism system (Polaroid, B&L, S&W, etc.) system where unionism didn't take hold. Always wondered about the commentary. Then joined the misguided children for a while and realised that it didn't matter how good or bad a job I dd, it was a whole mess of bureacuracy.
I've been anti-Union BOSS ever since.
They kill their members, contrary to their message, again imnsho- Ned
I thought I had distinguished between the two. Like any bureacracy, it will throw over the weakest to protect the strongest. Consider seniority in it's practice, as opposed to the most productive or any other number of metrics...it is the always the most senior who chooses vacation days, holidays etc. first. It's not value based.
The union boss's vette I spoke of, was paid for out of union dues, as was his ostrich skin boots that he propped up on the dues paid for mahogany desk inside his dues paid for air conditioned office, as he peered over his half glasses at me, with bills to pay, a young sun burned man standing before him, hat in hand, naked to the world.
I, for one, will never lower myself to be placed in that position again.
I've laughted my poor little pig-ass off at the "Union" "Solidarity" "brothers and sisters" situations where everyone takes a skosh haircut for the benefit of the whole crowd. Never happens--well, please provide counter examples of such supposedly "fraternal" behavior.
Lotsa' words, but when it comes to "compassion" with respect to their "brothers and sisters", well, it is sauve qui peut.
- Ned
{I've always been frightened of the phrase "Devil take the hindmost", but here we see the "Union" effort in full effect."
{{How many bus contracts were established to transport the population to Madison (and who goes there in the wintertime?) for this 'event'?}}
{{{What future 'events' are in the works? Where do we go to go "Long Busses"?}}}
Looks like Organizing for America is hip deep in this thing.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0211/DNC_playing_role_in_Wisconsin_protests.html
I'm shocked!...shocked I say, to find socialists protecting statism...LOL.
And the democrat side of the aisle flees to Illinois?...what type of "the Wisconsin's peoples business" are they engaged in there?...time to deploy the Wisconsin National Guard along the border to prevent their return? ;-)
The Koch brothers funded an anti-union campaign that was ready to roll before the unions even knew this bill was coming. Walker attempted to run it through 5 days after introducing it. Minutes later, Koch financed union attack ads hit the airwaves.
They bussed in "conservative" counter-protesters.
You're being had, though you would seem more than willing.
The Tea Party and Republican folks who belong to the union are getting a real crash education, however.
;-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxKk3DSW6Sk&feature=player_embedded
A tactical move born of desperation. They were all completely blind-sided and Walker was ramming it through as quickly as possible to avoid public attention.
Leaving the state obviously looks bad, but under the circumstances it was the only thing they could do to give the public time to be heard.