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  1. #12
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    16 States Going to War on Unions
    The Daily Beast – Wed Feb 23, 11:52 pm ET


    NEW YORK – With Wisconsin locked in a union battle, The Daily Beast looks at the 15 states that could blow up next and crunches the numbers to find whether they're really on shaky financial footing—or playing politics.

    Revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt have toppled despotic governments, while Libyans are on the verge of doing the same. The stakes are not as high in Wisconsin and the 15 other states that have proposed or are expected to propose various levels of de-engagement from both public- and private-sector unions, but the spirit of the demonstrations throughout the Midwest has been as fierce as those in the Middle East.

    At issue in the U.S. are the collective-bargaining rights of unionized public employees. States facing budget shortfalls and high debt payments want to curtail workers' collective-bargaining ability to in part gain flexibility in dealing with financial crises. Protesters in Wisconsin have found plenty of support and will be joined in solidarity Saturday by protests in every state capital. By our count 16 states have proposed legislation similar to the bill cleared for vote last Wednesday by Wisconsin's Republican legislators, which would strip public-sector union workers of the right to bargain collectively about any on-the-job issue besides wages.

    Political action from Democratic legislators and union supporters in Wisconsin, which in 1959 became the first state to allow public-sector collective bargaining, has spread to Ohio and Indiana (whose governor shelved a "right-to-work" bill), and got us wondering whether these states are really on shaky financial footing, or whether this is all so much political wrangling.

    Looking solely at the 16 states that have proposed or are considering laws to trim union rights, we first accounted for 2009 debt-to-GDP ratios, using Census numbers and data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Then we accounted for the percent of pension and health-care liabilities that are unfunded for each state, based on a study by the Pew Center on the States. Finally, because not all workers would be affected by proposed legislation, we accounted for the percent of people in public-sector unions out of total government workers in each state, with data from Unionstats. The average was taken for each category and each state's data were compared to the average, with equal weighting for each of the three categories.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/dailybeast/1...ZzdGF0ZXNnb2lu


    State troopers sent to find Wisconsin Democrats
    TODD RICHMOND and SCOTT BAUER, Associated Press Todd Richmond And Scott Bauer, Associated Press – 45 mins ago
    MADISON, Wis. – Wisconsin state troopers were dispatched Thursday to find at least one of the 14 Senate Democrats who have been on the run for eight days to delay a vote on Republican Gov. Scott Walker's proposal to strip collective bargaining rights from nearly all public employees.

    Meanwhile, after more than 43 hours of debate, Democrats in the state Assembly agreed to limit the number of remaining amendments and time spent on each in order to reach a vote on the union rights bill sometime later in the day.

    The early morning action was designed to force a vote on Walker's bill that has made Wisconsin the focus of a multiple state effort to curb union rights.

    The Senate convened for long enough to make a call of the house, which allows for the sergeant at arms staff to go to missing lawmakers' homes with police. The lawmakers can't be arrested, but Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said he hoped the move would pressure them to return. He would not say how many Democrats were being targeted, but said it was more than one.

    "Every night we hear about some that are coming back home," Fitzgerald said.

    But Democratic Sen. Jon Erpenbach, who was in the Chicago area, said all 14 senators remained outside of Wisconsin on Thursday morning and would not return until Walker was willing to compromise.

    "It's not so much the Democrats holding things up, it's really a matter of Gov. Walker holding things up," Erpenbach said.

    Tens of thousands of people have protested the bill for nine straight days, with hundreds spending the night in sleeping bags on the hard marble floor of the Capitol as the debate was broadcast on monitors in the rotunda. Many still were sleeping when the deal to only debate 38 more amendments, for no more than 10 minutes each, was announced shortly after 6 a.m. The timing of the agreement means the vote could come as soon as noon Thursday.

    "We will strongly make our points, but understand you are limiting the voice of the public as you do this," said Democratic state Rep. Mark Pocan of Madison. "You can't dictate democracy. You are limiting the people's voice with this agreement this morning."

    Democrats, who are in the minority, don't have the votes to stop the bill once the vote occurs.

    Passage of the bill in the Assembly would be a major victory for Republicans and Walker, but the measure still must clear the Senate. Democrats there left town last week rather than vote on the bill, which has stymied efforts there to take it up.

    The battle over labor rights has been heating up across the country, as new Republican majorities tackle budget woes in several states. The GOP efforts have sparked huge protests from unions and their supporters and led Democrats in Wisconsin and Indiana to flee their states to block measures.

    Republicans in Ohio offered a small concession Wednesday, saying they would support allowing unionized state workers to collectively bargain on wages — but not for benefits, sick time, vacation or other conditions. Wisconsin's proposal also would allow most public workers to collectively bargain only for wages.

    In Ohio, Republican Senate President Tom Niehaus denied protests have dented the GOP's resolve, saying lawmakers decided to make the change after listening to hours of testimony. He said he still believes the bill's core purpose — reining in spending by allowing governments more flexibility in dealing with their workers — is intact.

    Senate Democratic Leader Capri Cafaro called the changes "window dressing." She said the entire bill should be scrapped.

    "We can't grow Ohio's economy by destroying jobs and attacking the middle class," Cafaro said. "Public employees in Ohio didn't cause our budget problems and they shouldn't be blamed for something that's not their fault."

    Wisconsin Democrats have echoed Cafaro for days, but Walker has refused to waver.

    Walker reiterated Wednesday that public workers must make concessions to avoid thousands of government layoffs as the state grapples with a $137 million shortfall in its current budget and a projected $3.6 billion hole in the next two-year budget.

    The marathon session in the Assembly was grand political theater, with exhausted lawmakers limping around the chamber, rubbing their eyes and yawning as Wednesday night dragged on.

    Around midnight, Rep. Dean Kaufert, R-Neenah, accused Democrats of putting on a show for the protesters. Democrats leapt up and started shouting.

    "I'm sorry if democracy is a little inconvenient and you had to stay up two nights in a row," Pocan said. "Is this inconvenient? Hell, yeah! It's inconvenient. But we're going to be heard!"

    The Ohio and Wisconsin bills both would strip public workers at all levels of their right to collectively bargain benefits, sick time, vacations and other work conditions. Wisconsin's measure exempts local police, firefighters and the State Patrol and still lets workers collectively bargain their wages as long as they are below inflation. It also would require public workers to pay more toward their pensions and health insurance. Ohio's bill, until Wednesday, would have barred negotiations on wages.

    Ohio's measure sits in a Senate committee. No vote has been scheduled on the plan, but thousands of protesters have gathered at the Statehouse to demonstrate, just as in Wisconsin.

    In Indiana, Democrats successfully killed a Republican bill that would have prohibited union membership from being a condition of employment by leaving the state on Tuesday. They remained in Illinois in hopes of derailing other parts of Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels' agenda, including restrictions on teacher collective bargaining.

    And in Oklahoma, a Republican-controlled state House committee on Wednesday narrowly approved legislation to repeal collective bargaining rights for municipal workers in that state's 13 largest cities.

    ___

    Associated Press writers Ryan J. Foley in Madison and Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report. The Assembly deal was announced shortly after 6 a.m. while the troopers were sent after the Democrats at 7 a.m.


    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_wisconsin_budget_unions
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  3. #13
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    Beyond Unions: 5 New Rules for All Teachers
    Andrew J. Rotherham – Thu Feb 24, 4:50 am ET

    Given their place as the most powerful public employee union, teachers unions are front and center in the debate going on in Wisconsin. But underneath the high-decibel clashes between tea partiers and public employees unions are some contentious education policy issues reformers, teachers unions, and analysts have debated (and sometimes even collaborated to fix) for years.

    Although teachers contracts are often singled out, in practice the rules and regulations most commonly cited as problems by school superintendents, school reformers, and not infrequently teachers themselves, are often found in state law as well. That's why schools in states without teachers unions tend to operate pretty much like schools in places with powerful unions. In Virginia, for instance, where I served on the state board of education, it would be difficult to tell the difference between most of our schools and schools in heavily unionized Maryland. It's also why teachers unions are not the only culprit here. They did not unilaterally create these rules and regulations - omeone signed those contracts or passed those laws. (See who's to blame in the Wisconsin teachers' crisis.)

    So forget the theatrics in Wisconsin, reform doesn't have to mean abolishing collective bargaining. But, if we're serious about having school systems that put student learning first and create a genuine profession for teachers here are five common practices that must change.

    Restrictions on evaluation.

    Provisions in teachers contracts limit who can do evaluations, how often, and even specify how much notice a teacher must be given prior to being observed. In most professional workplaces, by contrast, evaluation is ongoing and both formal and informal. It's the same way in many high-performing schools where evaluation is a regular and continuous part of the improving process. Classroom "visits are not just more numerous but dramatically so" in the best schools says Tim Daly, President of The New Teacher Project, a non-profit that recruits teachers and analyzes education policy. In those schools, instead of "zero one or two [visits] it's 30-40 per year," according to Daly.

    Last in, first out.

    With layoffs looming policies that require "last in, first out" are hotly debated around the country. These rules, which can be found in both state law and union teachers' contracts, require that teachers be laid-off according to seniority only, without attention to classroom effectiveness. In other words, when layoffs happen newer teachers - who in some cases still have several years of experience - are let go first even if they're more effective than the veteran displacing them. These policies would make sense if veterans were always better than newer teachers but abundant research shows clearly that longevity alone is not a great predictor of effectiveness. Last month civil rights groups won a landmark court decision in Los Angeles changing how layoffs and seniority rulers work there but just this week an arbitrator in Hartford Connecticut - a city lauded by national leaders including Arne Duncan as a model for labor-management collaboration - ruled in favor of using "last in, first out" there. Bottom line: In any organization that is serious about effectiveness quality-blind layoffs are nothing short of insane.

    Forced transfers and "bumping."

    Every organization recognizes seniority in different ways. But frequently in education seniority confers a set of powerful rights when it comes to transferring to new schools. In practice this means veterans can bump teachers with less seniority when jobs open up or that principals are limited in who they can choose from when filling positions. In other words teachers can force their way in to a school. When The New Teacher Project analyzed this practice, they found that the policy contributed to newer teachers leaving teaching. But parents don't need a wonky report to get the basic problem here: Shouldn't individual schools get to decide who teaches in them? (See how to fix teacher tenure without the pass-fail grade.)

    Tenure and due process rules.

    Earlier this month an arbitrator in Washington, D.C. gave 75 teachers - including chronically absent and demonstrably low-performing ones - their jobs back over a technical due process issue. Reformers groaned but union leaders applauded. Long considered a "third rail" of education policy tenure is now under attack in a number of states where various rules are found as part of both state law and in collective bargaining agreements. It's hard to find someone who doesn't think teachers, and other workers, should have due process before losing their job. What actually constitutes "due process" is a more contentious issue but even teachers union leaders agree that in many cases the rules are out of hand.

    Inflexible Salary Schedules.

    Today teachers are overwhelmingly paid based on two factors, length of service and degrees. Salaries are based on master schedules with columns for degrees and rows for years of service so a teacher moves across lanes and up the steps as their career progresses. Most professions pay more for experience but there is little evidence that most additional degrees improve teaching. More problematic is what's missing: differentiation based on how challenging teaching assignments are, hard-to-fill subjects like math, science, special education or foreign languages, and how effective teachers are in the classroom. The rules of economics don't stop at the schoolhouse door and school superintendents privately complain about having to pay physical education teachers and physics teachers the same amount even though it's easier to find coaches than physicists. Hard to find a better example of something that works great for the adults in the system but not so well for the kids schools are supposed to serve.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/0859920...V5b25kdW5pb25z
    Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

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    I think now is the time for a law that any elected official who neglects their duty (especially by crossing state lines to 'hide out') should be considered AWOL. They should be stripped of their titles (particularly since they are not performing what the job description entails), have their CC accounts closed, their benefits terminated (health, pension etc) and they should be tar and feathered and then shipped out of the country! (I'm not too sure if any country would want them.)

    Now for Unions....let's remember what their purpose was. They were there to protect the worker who had been abused and taken advantage of. It appears that the unions have now done a reversal and are abusing and taking advantage of all Americans. I see it in my own town. As an example the town sanitation workers must be at work 3 hours per day unless needed for longer. Should it snow and garbage pickup is suspended, they can be asked to plow the roads.....at the cost to the taxpayers of overtime rates since plowing is not their normal job so they get their regular pay plus time and a half for plowing. They happen to make at least $100000 a year (not including their christmas tips which amounts into the thousands). Should a person whose base pay is $75000 get a pension of $150000? Sadly it happens. There was an angry protest of some retired county workers who were told they had to pay into their health cost (the yearly health cost to taxpayers was $2800) whose pension far exceeded many peoples who either did not have health insurance or who had to pay thousands for lousy insurance (and would love to have the county health insurance benefits). Education departments have long abused the taxpayers. Superintendents get hired around here for over $200000 with life time benefits for themselves...and their spouses even if they only work 1 day. We have some great teachers and they are worth what they get BUT there are many out there who come to school to babysit since that takes less energy than have to educate. Pres. Reagan knew how to handle the traffic controllers - he got rid of them and replaced them with those who wanted to work. Maybe we need a little Reaganism!

  5. #15
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    Last in, first out.

    With layoffs looming policies that require "last in, first out" are hotly debated around the country. These rules, which can be found in both state law and union teachers' contracts, require that teachers be laid-off according to seniority only, without attention to classroom effectiveness. In other words, when layoffs happen newer teachers - who in some cases still have several years of experience - are let go first even if they're more effective than the veteran displacing them. These policies would make sense if veterans were always better than newer teachers but abundant research shows clearly that longevity alone is not a great predictor of effectiveness. Last month civil rights groups won a landmark court decision in Los Angeles changing how layoffs and seniority rulers work there but just this week an arbitrator in Hartford Connecticut - a city lauded by national leaders including Arne Duncan as a model for labor-management collaboration - ruled in favor of using "last in, first out" there. Bottom line: In any organization that is serious about effectiveness quality-blind layoffs are nothing short of insane.
    I believe in "last in, last out".

    As for keeping teachers based upon merit/effectiveness....why are we keeping ineffective teachers to begin with? If a teacher is not effective at doing their job, they shouldn't be there, period!, even if we have an abundance on money!!! So therefore, if all we have left are "good" teachers, seniority should rule.

    Now, if we don't do last in, first out....we give an opportunity for those to get rid of the higher paying salaries (i.e. those there longer) just to satisfy a budget. It's not fair for a person who has been in a position for a long time and who has earned salary increases to be fired (laid off) just because their salary is higher. You would think that their position would be more experienced, valued and stable. Mind you, I still think they need to pull their weight, no "free ride" or "guarantee" of their job, just do "your job".
    Mrs Pepperpot is a lady who always copes with the tricky situations that she finds herself in....

  6. #16
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    No bias in this artilce ??

    Wisconsin Assembly passes bill taking away union rights
    Todd Richmond, Associated Press – 2 hrs 50 mins ago


    MADISON, Wis. – Republicans in the Wisconsin Assembly took the first significant action on their plan to strip collective bargaining rights from most public workers, abruptly passing the measure early Friday morning before sleep-deprived Democrats realized what was happening.

    The vote ended three straight days of punishing debate in the Assembly. But the political standoff over the bill — and the monumental protests at the state Capitol against it — appear far from over.

    The Assembly's vote sent the bill on to the Senate, but minority Democrats in that house have fled to Illinois to prevent a vote and say they won't return unless Republican Gov. Scott Walker agrees to discuss a compromise. Republicans who control the Senate sent state troopers out looking for them at their homes on Thursday, but they turned up nothing.

    "This kind of solidifies our resolve," Democratic Sen. Chris Larson said Friday after the Assembly vote. "If we come back, they're going to ram this through without us having a say."

    [Related: What is a labor union?]

    Walker's contains a number of provisions he says are designed to fill the state's $137 million deficit and lay the groundwork for fixing a projected $3.6 billion shortfall in the upcoming 2011-13 budget.

    The flashpoint is language that would require public workers to contribute more to their pensions and health insurance and strip them of their right to collectively bargain benefits and work conditions.

    Democrats and unions see the measure as an attack on workers' rights and an attempt to cripple union support for Democrats. Union leaders say they would make pension and health care concessions if they can keep their bargaining rights, but Walker has refused to compromise.

    Tens of thousands of people have jammed the Capitol since last week to protest, pounding on drums and chanting so loudly that police providing security have resorted to ear plugs. Hundreds have taken to sleeping in the building overnight, dragging in air mattresses and blankets.

    Walker issued a statement Friday praising the Assembly for passing the bill and renewing his call for Senate Democrats to return.

    "The fourteen Senate Democrats need to come home and do their jobs, just like the Assembly Democrats did," Walker said.

    Democratic Sen. Jon Erpenbach said Friday that the Assembly's passage of the bill did not change Senate Democrats' intent to stay away.

    With the Senate immobilized, Assembly Republicans decided to act and convened the chamber Tuesday morning.

    Democrats launched a filibuster, throwing out dozens of amendments and delivering rambling speeches. Each time Republicans tried to speed up the proceedings, Democrats rose from their seats and wailed that the GOP was stifling them.

    Debate had gone on for 60 hours and 15 Democrats were still waiting to speak when the vote started around 1 a.m. Friday. Speaker Pro Tem Bill Kramer, R-Waukesha, opened the roll and closed it within seconds.

    Democrats looked around, bewildered. Only 13 of the 38 Democratic members managed to vote in time.

    Republicans immediately marched out of the chamber in single file. The Democrats rushed at them, pumping their fists and shouting "Shame!" and "Cowards!"

    The Republicans walked past them without responding.

    Democrats left the chamber stunned. The protesters greeted them with a thundering chant of "Thank you!" Some Democrats teared up. Others hugged.

    "What a terrible, terrible day for Wisconsin," said Rep. Jon Richards, D-Milwaukee. "I am incensed. I am shocked."

    GOP leaders in the Assembly refused to speak with reporters, but earlier Friday morning Majority Leader Scott Suder, R-Abbotsford, warned Democrats that they had been given 59 hours to be heard and Republicans were ready to vote.

    "I applaud the Democrats in the Assembly for earnestly debating this bill and urge their counterparts in the state Senate to return to work and do the same," Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald, R-Horicon, said in a statement issued moments after the vote.

    The governor has said that if the bill does not pass by Friday, the state will miss a deadline to refinance $165 million of debt and will be forced to start issuing layoff notices next week. However, the deadline may not as strict as he says.

    The nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau said earlier this week that the debt refinancing could be pushed back as late as Tuesday to achieve the savings Walker wants. Based on a similar refinancing in 2004, about two weeks are needed after the bill becomes law to complete the deal. That means if the bill is adopted by the middle of next week, the state can still meet a March 16 deadline, the Fiscal Bureau said.

    Frustrated by the delay, Senate Republican Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, Jeff Fitzgerald's brother, ordered state troopers to find the missing Democrats, but they came up empty. Wisconsin law doesn't allow police to arrest the lawmakers, but Fitzgerald said he hoped the show of authority would have pressured them to return.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_wiscon...lzYXNzZW1ibHlw
    Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

  7. #17
    Jolie Rouge's Avatar
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    Wis. GOP bypasses Dems, cuts collective bargaining
    Scott Bauer, Associated Press – 18 mins ago


    MADISON, Wis. – The Wisconsin Senate succeeded in voting Wednesday to strip nearly all collective bargaining rights from public workers, after Republicans outmaneuvered the chamber's missing Democrats and approved an explosive proposal that has rocked the state and unions nationwide.

    "You are cowards!" spectators in the Senate gallery screamed as lawmakers voted. Within hours, a crowd of a few hundred protesters inside the Capitol had grown to an estimated 7,000, more than had been in the building at any point during weeks of protests. "The whole world is watching!" they shouted as they pressed up against the heavily guarded entrance to the Senate chamber.

    All 14 Senate Democrats fled to Illinois nearly three weeks ago, preventing the chamber from having enough members present to consider Gov. Scott Walker's "budget-repair bill" — a proposal introduced to plug a $137 million budget shortfall.


    The Senate requires a quorum to take up any measure that spends money. But Republicans on Wednesday took all the spending measures out of Walker's proposal and a special committee of lawmakers from both the Senate and Assembly approved the revised bill a short time later. The unexpected yet surprisingly simple procedural move ended a stalemate that had threatened to drag on indefinitely. Until Wednesday's stunning vote, it appeared the standoff would persist until Democrats returned to Madison from their self-imposed exile.

    "In 30 minutes, 18 state senators undid 50 years of civil rights in Wisconsin. Their disrespect for the people of Wisconsin and their rights is an outrage that will never be forgotten," said Democratic Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller. "Tonight, 18 Senate Republicans conspired to take government away from the people."

    The state Assembly previously approved the original proposal and was set to consider the new measure on Thursday. Miller said in an interview with The Associated Press there is nothing Democrats can do now to stop the bill: "It's a done deal."

    The lone Democrat on the special committee, Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, shouted during the meeting that it was a violation of the state's open meetings law. The Senate's chief clerk said hours later the meeting was properly held.

    The Senate convened within minutes of the committee meeting and passed the measure 18-1 without discussion or debate. Republican Sen. Dale Schultz cast the lone no vote. "The jig is now up," Barca said. "The fraud on the people of Wisconsin is now clear."

    Walker had repeatedly argued that collective bargaining was a budget issue, because his proposed changes would give local governments the flexibility to confront budget cuts needed to close the state's $3.6 billion deficit. He has said that without the changes, he may have needed to lay off 1,500 state workers and make other cuts to balance the budget.

    Walker said Wednesday night that Democrats had three weeks to debate the bill and were offered repeated opportunities to come back, but refused. "I applaud the Legislature's action today to stand up to the status quo and take a step in the right direction to balance the budget and reform government," Walker said in the statement.

    The measure approved Wednesday forbids most government workers from collectively bargaining for wage increases beyond the rate of inflation. It also requires public workers to pay more toward their pensions and double their health insurance contribution, a combination equivalent to an 8 percent pay cut for the average worker.

    Police and firefighters are exempt.

    Walker's proposal touched off a national debate over union rights for public employees and its implementation would be a key victory for Republicans, many of whom have targeted public employee unions amid efforts to slash government spending. Similar collective bargaining restrictions are making their way through Ohio's Legislature, while several other states are debating measures to curb the power of unions in smaller doses.

    Tens of thousands of demonstrators have converged on Wisconsin's capital city for three weeks of protests, some of which prompted school districts to cancel classes due to teacher absences.

    Within hours of Wednesday night's vote, protesters had seized the Capitol's lower floors, creating an ear-splitting free-for-all of pounding drums, horns and whistles. Police all but gave up guarding the building entrances. But Wisconsin teachers unions urged their members to go to work on Thursday rather than join in the re-energized demonstrations.

    Wednesday's drama unfolded less than four hours after Walker met with GOP senators in a closed-door meeting. He emerged from the meeting saying senators were "firm" in their support of the bill.

    For weeks, Democrats had offered concessions on issues other than the bargaining rights and they spent much of Wednesday again calling on Walker and Republicans to compromise.

    Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said earlier that Republicans had been discussing concessions offered by Walker, including allowing public workers to bargain over their salaries without a wage limit. Several GOP senators facing recall efforts had also publicly called for a compromise. "The people of Wisconsin elected us to come to Madison and do a job," Fitzgerald said in a statement after the vote. "Just because the Senate Democrats won't do theirs, doesn't mean we won't do ours."

    Union leaders weren't happy with Walker's offer, and were furious at the Senate's move to push the measure forward with a quick vote. Phil Neuenfeldt, president of the Wisconsin state AFL-CIO, said after Wednesday's vote that Republicans exercised a "nuclear option." "Scott Walker and the Republicans' ideological war on the middle class and working families is now indisputable," Neuenfeldt said.

    While talks had been going on sporadically behind the scenes, Republicans in the Senate also had publicly tried to ratchet up pressure on Democrats to return. They had agreed earlier Wednesday to start fining Democrats $100 for each day legislative session day they miss

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_wisconsin_budget_unions


    "In 30 minutes, 18 state senators undid 50 years of civil rights in Wisconsin. Their disrespect for the people of Wisconsin and their rights is an outrage that will never be forgotten," said Democratic Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller. "Tonight, 18 Senate Republicans conspired to take government away from the people."
    Walker said Wednesday night that Democrats had three weeks to debate the bill and were offered repeated opportunities to come back, but refused. "I applaud the Legislature's action today to stand up to the status quo and take a step in the right direction to balance the budget and reform government," Walker said in the statement.
    >snip<
    "The people of Wisconsin elected us to come to Madison and do a job," Fitzgerald said in a statement after the vote. "Just because the Senate Democrats won't do theirs, doesn't mean we won't do ours."
    The Dems who ran and hid should be fired for refusing to do the job they were hired to do and for abandoning their posts. Imagine if a soldier were to behave this way - they would be facing court martial. Should we expect any less from our elected officials ?

    ---

    It's only fair that politicians should be stripped of their rights to vote themselves raises. Now that would be something!

    ---

    The current salary (2011) for rank-and-file members of the House and Senate is $174,000 per year. In 2006, the average annual pension for retired senators and representatives was between $35,952 to $60,972. More than 90% are millionaires. Enough said???? we need to end ALL retirement benefits for politicians and political appointees. Politics should not be a life long career
    Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

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    Judge blocks contentious Wisconsin union law
    Scott Bauer And Jason Smathers, Associated Press – 10 mins ago

    MADISON, Wis. – A Wisconsin judge on Friday temporarily blocked the state's new and contentious collective bargaining law from taking effect, raising the possibility that the Legislature may have to vote again to pass the bill.

    Lawmakers had approved Gov. Scott Walker's measure last week, breaking a three-week stalemate caused by 14 Senate Democrats fleeing to Illinois. Demonstrations against the measure, which would strip most public workers of nearly all their collective bargaining rights, grew as large as 85,000 people.

    Dane County District Judge Maryann Sumi granted the temporary restraining order in response to a lawsuit filed by the local Democratic district attorney alleging that Republican lawmakers violated the state's open meetings law by hastily convening a special committee before the Senate passed the bill.

    Sumi said her ruling would not prevent the Legislature from reconvening the committee with proper notice and passing the bill again. But Walker's spokesman and Republican legislative leaders indicated they would press on with the court battle rather than consider passing the bill again. "We fully expect an appeals court will find that the Legislature followed the law perfectly and likely find that today's ruling was a significant overreach," Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald and his brother, Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald, said in a joint statement. "We highly doubt a Dane County judge has the authority to tell the Legislature how to carry out its constitutional duty."

    In addition to restricting the bargaining rights, the law would require most public workers in the state to contribute more to their pension and health care costs, changes that will amount on average to an 8 percent pay cut. Walker's spokesman Cullen Werwie was confident the bill would become law in the near future. "This legislation is still working through the legal process," Werwie said.

    Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said the decision will be appealed because the Legislature and the governor, not a judge, are responsible for enacting laws and can't be blocked in a dispute over the procedures under which a law is passed. Assistant Attorney General Steve Means said the Justice Department planned to proceed with the appeal process later Friday or early next week.

    Even if the Legislature is forced to come back and take up the bill again, at least one Senate Democrat will be there. Sen. Tim Cullen said he would not leave the state again. "I think that does great damage to the institution," Cullen said. "I have no regrets about doing it once, but that was in extraordinary times to try to slow the bill down."

    The Senate couldn't pass the bill in its original form without at least one Democrat to meet a 20-member quorum requirement for measures that spend money. With the Democrats in Illinois and refusing to return after three weeks away, Republicans convened a special committee last Wednesday to remove the spending items. The bill then passed with no Democrats present.

    That move is being challenged in another lawsuit brought by Democratic Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, who argues that the bill as passed still should have required the 20-member quorum. A hearing on that was set for April 12.

    Opponents of the law were hopeful the judge's ruling temporarily blocking enactment of the law would lead to concessions. "I would hope the Republicans would take this as an opportunity to sit down with Democrats and negotiate a proposal we could all get behind," said Democratic Sen. Jon Erpenbach.

    The head of the state's largest teachers union said the Legislature should use this as a chance to listen to opponents of the measure, not vote to pass the same bill again. "Wisconsin's educators call upon the Legislature to take this as a clear signal that Wisconsinites will not tolerate backroom deals and political power plays when it comes to our public schools and other valued services," said Mary Bell, president of the Wisconsin Education Association Council.

    Marty Beil, director of the state's largest public employee union, said in a statement, "We are gratified to see some of our so-called `leaders' finally held accountable for their illegal actions."

    Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne filed the lawsuit this week alleging the open meetings law was violated because 24 hours' notice wasn't given for a meeting of the special legislative committee convened to amend the bill.

    Justice Department attorneys argued that notice on a bulletin board posted about two hours before the committee meeting was to start last Wednesday was sufficient under rules of the Senate.

    The judge said DOJ couldn't show the committee was exempt from the 24-hour notice requirement. She said Ozanne could ultimately win the case and ordered Secretary of State Doug La Follette to hold off on publishing the law — the last step before it can take effect. La Follette had planned to publish the law on March 25.

    Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca of Kenosha said the ruling was a move in the right direction. "I'm very pleased," Barca said. "As you know, I felt from the moment they called this that this would be a violation of open meetings law. This is an important first step in this regard."

    The bill was part of Walker's solution for plugging a $137 million state budget shortfall. A part of the measure would require state workers to increase their health insurance and pension contributions to save the state $30 million by July 1. Other parts of Walker's original proposal to address the budget shortfall were removed before the bill passed last week. The Legislature planned to take those up later.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110318/...unions_lawsuit

    "I would hope the Republicans would take this as an opportunity to sit down with Democrats and negotiate a proposal we could all get behind," said Democratic Sen. Jon Erpenbach.
    How were they to "sit down with the Dems" when they refused to come to the table and where in hiding from their responibilities ?

    ---

    Why don't they put this whole thing on a ballot and go on with life. Sounds too easy...

    ---

    none of the lawyers are loosing their jobs and if you add lawyers it gets expensive lets just simplify the contracts with no fine print big bold letters and words of honesty stop feeding the crooks
    Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

  9. #19
    Jolie Rouge's Avatar
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    Labor in full roar again, but it's not the same
    Calvin Woodward And Sam Hananel, Associated Press – Sat Mar 19, 2:25 pm ET

    WASHINGTON – Labor is roaring again, like in the old days. But it's a wounded sound now.

    In the bitter aftermath of a showdown with Wisconsin's governor, and as other states move to weaken public employee bargaining rights, unions and their allies dare to hope they can turn rage into revival. This could be a make-or-break moment for a movement that brought the nation the 40-hour week, overtime pay, upward mobility, a storied century of brawls, progressivism and corruption — and now a struggle to stay relevant in the modern age.

    Not so many answer to the call anymore when labor demands, as it did in the bloody strife of Kentucky coal country generations ago, "Which side are you on?"

    One way or another, the Wisconsin Waterloo and the forces it set loose will fill a chapter in organized labor's history. The dispute mobilized masses, attracted public support on the side of workers and set up a political donnybrook to play out in the months ahead as labor leaders seek voters' vengeance against the Republicans who eviscerated union rights.

    But it was, at the core, a defeat for labor in the one place where it has stayed strong: the public sector.

    Suddenly this redoubt looks like a fat target.

    "I think Republicans smell blood in the water," said Leon Fink, a labor historian at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "Politics is a highly organized game of money ball and this could set back both the unions and Democratic Party power for years."

    Since the heyday of organized labor's influence in the 1950s, when union membership reached its peak at about one of every three workers, unions have fought a losing battle against the steady erosion of membership and clout.

    Last year union membership fell to 11.9 percent of all workers, and just 6.9 percent of the private sector. The number of major strikes in 2009 and 2010 was the lowest on record.

    If you're a labor sympathizer wondering why unions got weak, pick your poison.

    The decline of unions in the private sector mirrored the push to globalization, especially the loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs to other countries and the shift of other factories from the longtime industrial heartland to states less hospitable to organized labor.

    Companies took an increasingly aggressive stance against union organizers, emboldened by the Reagan administration's firing of 11,000 striking air traffic controllers in 1981. That act was taken as a wink to the corporate world that the long-established order was upended and that business, too, could play rough.

    "Labor now gives off an almost animal sense of weakness," Chicago union lawyer Thomas Geoghegan wrote in his Reagan-era ode to the movement — something of an obituary for it.

    In the mid-1970s, when miners pulled off one of their multiple massive strikes, they choked coal production, idled steel plants that were starved of fuel and caused rolling brownouts in New York City. Americans far removed from strikes sharply felt their effects.

    Not now.

    In the 1970s, the nation saw an average of 269 major strikes or lockouts each year. The number has dropped precipitously ever since, to 17 per year over the past decade. The five in 2009 were the fewest since the Bureau of Labor Statistics started counting in 1947.

    When industrial unions negotiated higher wages and better working conditions in more influential times, those advances rippled through the economy, setting a benchmark for union and nonunion workplaces. With less than 7 percent of the private sector unionized now, contracts no longer have the reach to raise all boats.

    Young workers today float from job to job and often have little vested interest in long-term improvements in employee satisfaction at a company. That has made it harder to organize new generations to replace the loyalists of old.

    Nor are communities as cohesive as they once were.

    When 1,900 miners staged an 11-month strike against Pittston Coal in 1989-90 to restore health and other benefits for retirees, widows and disabled miners, their makeshift Camp Solidarity drew thousands from across southwestern Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky as well as from coal towns as far away as Canada. More than 37,000 participated in wildcat strikes throughout coal country to support the Pittston miners in a standoff that ranged between peaceful civil disobedience and ugly confrontation. The United Mine Workers finally won the day.

    And now? It's questionable how much common cause there will be between the public servants whose union rights are at risk and the rest of the population.

    Instead of solidarity, says John Russo, labor studies professor at Youngstown State University, a "politics of resentment" may be in play.

    "There's a sense of hopelessness," he says. "Some people feel like, `If we're not going to go anywhere, I'm going to make sure nobody else is going anywhere.'"

    To be sure, unions have made recent strides in pulling in new members in the service sector and health care industry. Labor remains a powerful political force. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., owes his narrow re-election victory last year to the dogged work of union organizers.

    "There is no institution in America on either side of the aisle that has an infrastructure that gets people to the polls like the labor movement," said Amy Dean, a former head of the AFL-CIO in California's Silicon Valley. "Nobody can put people out on the streets and go door to door like we can."

    Public sector unions have grown in recent decades as labor leaders found less resistance in state legislatures — the first being Wisconsin in 1959 — to granting public employees collective bargaining rights. In 2009, for the first time ever, there were more union members working for federal, state, local and municipal governments than in all of the private sector.

    Now that trend is meeting the budget crunch in state after state, and running into waves of Republicans elected in November. Conservatives see this as an opportunity to show that public-sector unions simply spend dues to elect Democratic lawmakers with the goal of boosting government workers' wages and benefits, even if it means raising taxes for everyone else to pay for it.

    Beyond Wisconsin, Ohio is moving to restrict the collective bargaining rights of roughly 350,000 teachers, firefighters, police officers and other public employees — a wider sweep of the public sector. Efforts to take away union powers continue as well in Florida, Iowa, Tennessee, Indiana and more states with Republicans in charge. The Democratic governors of California and New York also seek concessions from the public- service unions, but without trying to curb their labor rights.

    Now union leaders and Democrats are pinning their hopes on a backlash will spread into next year's elections and help fuel recall efforts to oust GOP lawmakers who backed the anti-union agenda.

    Unions remain a core of the Democratic Party, a reliable source of campaign money and boots on the ground during election season. But without huge membership numbers in the movement, Democrats no longer jump every time labor calls. Democratic President Bill Clinton's push for the North American Free Trade Agreement, against union opposition, was one big signal that the alliance was no longer cast in stone.

    After President Barack Obama was elected with a Democratic majority in Congress, unions pinned their hopes on passing legislation that would make it easier to organize workers. The "card check" bill would have let unions simply have a majority of workers sign cards to support forming a union instead of voting in a secret-ballot election. Unions complain that company managers often intimidate and threaten to fire workers in the run-up to such elections, causing many workers to vote no.

    But the measure stalled in the Senate as conservative Democrats declined to support it. Business spent millions lobbying against card check.

    Indeed, it has been decades since the federal government has advanced collective bargaining rights to any substantial degree, no matter which party had power. Labor might be forgiven for asking Democrats, too, which side they are on.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110319/...r_s_crossroads

    I think that the lawmakers should put any raise they recieve on a ballot and let the public vote on whether they deserve it or what they are making as well as their health care like they do ours...OR let them pay for their health care out of their own pocket since they can not seem to find a reasonable health care plan that we can buy into and they insist that we buy private insurance...SO CAN THEY. We certainly should not be paying for their insurance for their life.

    And lets not forget about these earmark bonuses the govt officials get!!

    --

    It now takes nearly a Billion dollars to win the Presidential election. Did Obama, Bush, Clinton or anyone else get that money from the average American? I think not. So why is it you’re surprised when rich corporations get tax shelters in the Cayman Islands? Why would our lawmakers impose duties and tariffs on imported goods when their biggest campaign contributors have set up factories in other countries with low labor costs and little or no worker rights? Of course if we try to ship products to those countries American products are hit with massive duties and tariffs designed to protect their own economies.

    Wake up fellow Americans, Republicans AND Democrats ALIKE are screwing ALL of us.
    Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

  10. #20
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    Wisconsin union law published despite cou
    Scott Bauer, Associated Press – 31 mins ago


    MADISON, Wis. – Wisconsin officials couldn't agree Friday about whether an explosive law taking away nearly all public worker collective bargaining rights was about to take effect after a nonpartisan legislative bureau published it despite a court order blocking publication.

    The Legislative Reference Bureau's action was noted on the state Legislature's website Friday, sending confused lawmakers and legal experts scrambling to determine what's next for the measure that has brought waves of chaos to the state since it first was proposed by Gov. Scott Walker.

    Legislative Reference Bureau director Steve Miller insisted the action doesn't mean his action will result in the law taking effect Saturday. He says that won't actually happen until Secretary of State Doug La Follette orders the law published in a newspaper.

    "It's not implementation of all," Miller said. "It's simply a matter of forwarding an official copy to the secretary of state."

    But La Follette wasn't so sure, saying it wasn't clear what the action means.

    "I think we're going to have to get some legal opinion on this," he said.

    And Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said the action means the law takes effect Saturday.

    "It's my opinion it's published, it's on the legislative website, it's law," Fitzgerald said.

    A judge last week issued a temporary restraining order blocking any further implementation of the law while the court considers challenges to its approval. The order specifically blocked La Follette from publishing the law.

    But the Reference Bureau said it's still required to publish every new law within 10 working days after it's signed by the governor, on the date designated by the secretary of state.

    Walker signed the collective bargaining measure March 11 and La Follette had designated Friday as the date of publication. But after the judge's restraining order, La Follette had sent a letter to the Reference Bureau saying he was rescinding his setting of that as the publication date.

    Walker's top aide Mike Huebsch, secretary of the Department of Administration, issued a statement saying he had been notified that the law had been published.

    "The administration will carry out the law as required," Huebsch said.

    John Jagler, a spokesman for Republican Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald, said he assumed the action means the law takes effect on Saturday.

    Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne, who filed the lawsuit challenging the law that led to the restraining order, did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

    The new law requires nearly all public sector workers, including teachers, to contribute more to their pensions and health insurance, changes that amount to an average 8 percent pay cut. It also strips them of their ability to collectively bargain for anything except wages no higher than inflation.

    Consideration of the proposal led to Senate Democrats fleeing to Illinois for three weeks in an attempt to block the measure by preventing a quorum. It also spurred massive protests that grew to more than 85,000 people the day after Walker signed the measure. It made Wisconsin the national focus in the fight over union rights.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110325/..._budget_unions

    All politicians in the US need to cut their salaries by 25+% until they get the countries fiscal house in order.

    --

    Americans are frustrated with the direction our country is taking. The sad fact is we are all tired of working harder and not being able to improve our standard of living. Politicians tell you that you are all going to have to sacrifice more for the state. You will either pay higher taxes, or many services will be cut in order to balance the budget. Like it is somehow the average Americans fault that the economy is in trouble . It was the will of the people ! The truth is the politicians not the average American got us in this mess. As Americans we can no longer remain complacent , we must hold our leaders accountable for their decisions. Participate in the political process, attend town hall meetings, write letters, make calls to your representatives and if necessary exercise your right to peaceful protest . That is what democracy is all about .

    --

    No one gets better retirement benefits than politicians. How about term limits and pay caps for all politicians - federal and state. No fully funded retirement or health care; they contribute like the rest of US. We can do this.
    Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

  11. #21
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    MM's column today spotlights the latest attempt by the Left to use campaign finance disclosure as a weapon to intimidate and silence political opponents. Both Big Labor and open-borders forces have scheduled their usual May Day protests this weekend, with a special emphasis on Wisconsin and GOP Gov. Scott Walker.

    Be careful out there. And be sure to support the businesses (H/T Vicki McKenna) that are supporting fiscal responsibility and standing up to the prog mob. http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pi...ckimckennapage



    The Wisconsin Witch Hunt Goes National
    By Michelle Malkin • April 29, 2011 09:31 AM








    On May 1, left-wing vigilantes will target companies across the country that have committed a mortal sin: sending donations to GOP Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin. Rest assured, such intolerable acts of political free speech will not go unpunished by tolerant Big Labor activists. They’re calling for both a national boycott of Walker’s corporate donors and a coordinated sticker vandalism campaign on GOP-tainted products.

    The Wisconsin Grocers Association is bracing for the anti-Walker witch hunt. Anonymous operatives have circulated sabotage stickers on the Internet and around Wisconsin that single out Angel Soft tissue paper (“Wiping your (expletive) on Wisconsin workers”), Johnsonville Sausage (“These Brats Bust Unions”) and Coors (“Labor Rights Flow Away Like A Mountain Stream”). Earlier this week, a “Stick It To Walker” website boasted photos (now deleted) of vandalized Angel Soft tissue packages at a Super Foodtown grocery store in Brooklyn, N.Y. (Screencap above.)

    This destruction of private property is illegal. Not that it matters to anti-Walker protest mobsters, who trampled Wisconsin’s Capitol at an estimated $5 million in security, repair and cleaning costs to taxpayers. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “The identity of the backers of the sticker effort is unknown, although many assume it is being orchestrated by public employee unions. This latest effort follows boycotts organized by members of the Wisconsin State Employees Union AFSCME 24.”

    AFSCME 24 is the same union affiliate that recently disseminated intimidation letters throughout southeast Wisconsin, demanding that local businesses support unions by putting up signs in their windows. The letter threatened not just Walker supporters, but any and all businesses that have chosen to sit on the sidelines and stay out of politics altogether: “Failure to do so will leave us no choice but (to) do a public boycott of your business. And sorry, neutral means ‘no’ to those who work for the largest employer in the area and are union members.” Others on Big Labor’s hit list: Kwik Trip, Sargento Foods Inc. and M&I Bank.

    Walker, of course, has been at the forefront of government pension and budget reforms. Similar measures are being advanced by Democratic governors and Democrat-run legislatures from Massachusetts to New York to California. But union bosses have yet to sic their goons on individual and corporate donors to Democratic politicians imposing long-overdue benefit and collective bargaining limits for public employee unions.

    How convenient, yes? Just as they secured a big fat waiver from the federal health care mandate and tax scheme they lobbied to impose on the rest of America, Big Labor is giving Democratic legislative water-carriers who have been forced to adopt cuts and cost controls a big fat waiver from their organized wrath and vandalism.

    Now, a few hundred or thousand ruined grocery store items may not seem to matter much to the average reader, but this little property destruction campaign spotlights a nasty tactic increasingly employed by the left: campaign finance disclosure as a speech-squelching weapon.

    We saw it last fall when Democratic operatives targeted the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for donating to Obamacare opposition ads.

    We saw it in 2008 when a top MoveOn.org alumnus launched attacks on Republican donors with the express purpose of “hoping to create a chilling effect that will dry up contributions.”


    We saw it when Obama campaign committee lawyers lobbied the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute a GOP donor for funding campaign ads exposing Obama’s ties to Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers.

    We saw it during the Proposition 8 traditional marriage battle in California, where gay rights avengers compiled black lists, harassment lists and Google target maps of citizens who contributed to the ballot measure.

    We saw it when “progressive” zealots smeared Target Corporation and Chick-fil-A for daring to associate with social conservatives.

    And we’re seeing it again this month as the Obama White House readies an executive order that would force federal contractors to disclose all political donations to candidates and independent groups in excess of $5,000 made not just by a corporate entity, but by all of its individual executives, directors and officers.

    Former Federal Election Commission official Hans von Spakovsky obtained the sweeping draft executive order, which — surprise, surprise — exempts unions and predominantly left-wing federal grant recipients from the mandate. http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/leaked-...-disclose-act/

    On Wednesday, GOP senators spelled out the bullying agenda in an open letter objecting to the Obama order: “Political activity would obviously be chilled if prospective contractors have to fear that their livelihood could be threatened if the causes they support are disfavored by the administration.” http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cf...ref=todaysnews Join the club.

    When disclosure’s a bludgeon, all but Obama’s cronies are nails.

    http://michellemalkin.com/2011/04/29...goes-national/

    Here’s the boycott list from the anti-Walker mobsters themselves. http://scottwalkerwatch.com/?page_id=979
    Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

  12. #22
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    June 8, 2011
    Wisconsin protesters disrupt a Special Olympics ceremony!


    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcuqM...layer_embedded

    In front of the Capitol today, protesters dressed as zombies stood between Governor Scott Walker and the group of Special Olympics participants he was honoring.

    Quite aside from the unbelievable rudeness, how can the protesters be so blind about their own public relations?

    http://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/06...t-special.html
    Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

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