Stand strong, Unions! Stand strong.

Ad about Wisconsin

Crisis in Dairyland: Revenge of the Cheese Curds

The protests continue in Wisconsin over Governor Walker's legislation to strip collective bargaining from unions. He says this is necessary to balance the budget, but public employees have already agreed to all the financial concessions he wanted -- higher healthcare premiums and higher pension contributions. Besides the fact that the public unions that cost the state the most -- i.e. the police and firefighters -- are the only two unions exempt from these new policies.

Anyhoo, while I was educating myself about what was "really" going on in Dairyland, I came across this blog post by Jonathan Cohn, who put it all in a new perspective.

But I wonder if this whole debate misses the point. Suppose public workers really do make more than private sector workers. Who’s to say that the problem is public workers making too much, rather than private sector workers making too little?

For example, according to official Labor Department statistics cited in a recent National Affairsarticle, the average salary for a janitor working in government as of 2005 was $23,700, or around $26,700 in today’s dollars, while the average salary for a janitor working in the private sector was $19,800, or around $22,326 in today’s dollars. But does that mean the woman cleaning toilets at a county courthouse was making too much? Or that the one cleaning toilets at a corporate office was making too little?

Perhaps, like Jonathan Cohn says, the real problem is that everyone turns a blind eye to how little private employees are paid. Afterall, some of the most profitable companies pay their CEO's hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars while paying nothing in corporate taxes.

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Public vs. private employees: is one's compensation too high? or the other's too low?

http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-cohn/83884/wisconsin-walker-public-worker-salary-benefit

WI protests continue

"The labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress. Out of its bold struggles, economic and social reform gave birth to unemployment insurance, old-age pensions, government relief for the destitute and, above all, new wage levels that meant not mere survival but a tolerable life. The captains of industry did not lead this transformation; they resisted it until they were overcome. When in the thirties the wave of union organization crested over the nation, it carried to secure shores not only itself but the whole society."

Martin Luther King Jr. (October 7, 1965)

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Defiant governor digs in as Wisconsin prepares to evict protesters

http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/02/27/wisconsin.budget/index.html?hpt=T2

Protests in WI; Republican assault on unions

If you've been living under a rock, you may not be aware of the impending doom going on in Wisconsin right now. Governor Walker, a newly elected Republican, is trying to correct a $131 million budget deficit by having teachers and other public employees pay more toward their own health insurance (12%) and their retirement/pension (5%). But that's not what the protests are about.

The protests are because Governor Walker also has language in this bill that strips unions of their collective bargaining rights with the exception of cost-of-living wage adjustments. How would this provision help the budget? It doesn't. It is simply an attack on unions -- a blatant attempt to bust the unions. For now, firefighters and police are exempt from these changes, but if the law passes, then it will only be a matter of time before they are affected too.

Wisconsin is a stronghold of unions and has been instrumental in union rights for 50 years. I understand why the Democratic senators left the state to prevent quorum from being reached and the Senate from passing the bill. [Both the Wisconsin House of Reps and the Senate are Republican controlled.] And kudos to the state troopers who "can't find" the few dissenters.

All these extreme measures deemed necessary to balance the budget didn't seem to factor in when Governor Walker passed $200 million worth of tax cuts for the rich. Hmm ....

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Walker rejects union offer to accept concessions

http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/116519738.html

Rachel Maddow says WI is on track to have a budget surplus this year

http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2011/feb/18/rachel-maddow/rachel-maddow-says-wisconsin-track-have-budget-sur/

Local business community may be starting to turn against WI Governor Walker

http://thinkprogress.org/2011/02/18/business-community-turning-on-walker/

The short term memory of the American people

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." (George Santayana)

FreedomWorks

The Sarah Palin Network

Political cartoons

I am both happy and relieved that the healthcare bill passed. Access to affordable healthcare shouldn't be a commodity -- it shouldn't be a tool to separate financial classes within the country. For how can people pursue their unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness if they are systematically denied survival by unscrupulous insurance companies? So congratulations to America for taking a step in the right direction, to decree that healthcare isn't a privilege and that changes must be made to our current ineffective system!

And shame on the Republicans who refused to meaningfully participate in the discussions, who used violent language to express their anger and then acted surprised when Democratic offices and homes were attacked, who embraced the Tea Party protesters while some members shouted racist and homophobic slurs at the opposition, and whose tactics relied not on facts and discourse, but on fear-mongering and lies.

Progressive

While I was reading about the House passing the healthcare bill (219 to 212), I came across a progressive quiz. It featured 40 questions that address various topics including war, religion, sexuality, role of government, and taxes. By indicating your degree of agreement on a 0 (completely disagree) to 10 (completely agree) scale, the quiz determines how progressive your views are and compares your views with other political ideologies. As you may have guessed, I am very progressive (score of 275 out of 400) and off the chart seen below. Not surprising is the correlation between education level and political affiliation.

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How progressive are you?

http://zedc3test.techprogress.org/issues/2009/03/progressive_quiz.html

Virginia: A pilot project in theocracy

I was concerned when Virginia elected a Republican governor. I was more concerned when I learned that McDonnell had amended the state's discrimination law by removing "sexual orientation" from the list. So now Virginia is prohibiting that type of discrimination? It isn't enough to say that discrimination of any kind will not be tolerated because racism, sexism, etc. are widely prevalent. The inclusion of the phrase "sexual orientation" provides a legal standing and accountability to employers. Why not remove gender from the list as long as you're at it?

Sicko (the movie)

Did you know that the United States does condone and practice universal healthcare? It is available to the prisoners of Gitmo (hazards to our national security) and the people of Iraq and Afghanistan (because we are fighting a war in their countries). And which individuals have the best options on healthcare after them? Our elected representatives in government, who can choose from over 200 plans and policies. I find it interesting that those against universal healthcare, who insist it is in violation of the Constitution and all that is sacred about America, are the same individuals whose jobs and financial resources protect them from experiencing lapses in coverage or removal from an insurance policy.

The ignorance of the American public

The Two Party System

A nice illustration that explains the core differences between the Republicans and the Democrats.

And more hypocrisy ...

Republicans' big lie about reconciliation

Here's a good article about reconciliation and what it actually means for the healthcare bill. I'm really sick of people using fear-mongering to further a selfish agenda. And Republican politicians have no excuse because they used this same technique to ram Bush's tax cuts (for the wealthy) down the throats of the American people in 2001 and 2003, thereby increasing the country's deficit by 1.7 TRILLION dollars.

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Republican's big lie about reconciliation

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/03/AR2010030303097.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

Food for Thought

"We are different from previous generations of conservatives. We are no longer working to preserve the status quo. We are radicals, working to overturn the present power structure of this country." (Paul Weyrich)

"A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward." (Franklin Roosevelt)

"It only takes 20 years for a liberal to become a conservative without changing a single idea." (Robert Anton Wilson)

"Liberalism is trust of the people, tempered by prudence; conservatism, distrust of people, tempered by fear." (William Gladstone)

"What is conservativism? Is it not the adherence to the old and tried against the new and untried?" (Abraham Lincoln)

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A recently released survey of self-identified Republicans found that 23% want their state to secede from the Union, 34% believe birth control is the same as abortion, and 68% believe gay couples should not receive any state or federal benefits. For more shocking (but not surprising) results, visit the survey at http://www.dailykos.com/statepoll/2010/1/31/US/437 .