Wisconsin Protests

  On 2/22/2011 at 4:48 PM, Smettingham Rutherford IV said:

 

 

you are missing the point. of course me and awe (at least I assume he does) sympathize with what is happening as a downright oppressive, decisively undemocratic act.

 

but your reliance on political kneejerk blanket statements that all people that vote one way can be ticked off a checklist is incredibly dangerous.

 

 

what does kim jong il say? all Westerners are evil. the populous believes that no problem....is this accusation accurate? maybe in some cases, but certainly not all.

 

yet it makes for an incredibly useful population control.

 

the way you are processing this information really worries me, because if some sort of violence broke out in this country it would almost be guaranteed that violent crimes against humanity will be done in the names of BOTH parties....it already has around the world.

First of all, I'm not speaking in hypotheticals, like you are.

This is a real issue.

Did you watch that video? How do you explain it?

Secondly, I should clarify that all republican politicians are evil. Not necessarily all republican voters. They are just stupid.

  On 2/22/2011 at 5:42 PM, jefferoo said:

  On 2/22/2011 at 4:48 PM, Smettingham Rutherford IV said:

 

 

you are missing the point. of course me and awe (at least I assume he does) sympathize with what is happening as a downright oppressive, decisively undemocratic act.

 

but your reliance on political kneejerk blanket statements that all people that vote one way can be ticked off a checklist is incredibly dangerous.

 

 

what does kim jong il say? all Westerners are evil. the populous believes that no problem....is this accusation accurate? maybe in some cases, but certainly not all.

 

yet it makes for an incredibly useful population control.

 

the way you are processing this information really worries me, because if some sort of violence broke out in this country it would almost be guaranteed that violent crimes against humanity will be done in the names of BOTH parties....it already has around the world.

 

 

First of all, I'm not speaking in hypotheticals, like you are.

This is a real issue.

Did you watch that video? How do you explain it?

 

Secondly, I should clarify that all republican politicians are evil. Not necessarily all republican voters. They are just stupid.

I watched the video...why would I respond to your post if I hadn't?

It looks to me like the people in power are looking for any excuse to grab more. Republicans aren't the only people that do that, I hate to say.

*cough*

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION/PATRIOT ACT

*cough*

Like I said. I never claimed all democrats were good.

You can defend republicans all you want for all that I care.

They are still the ones that want our kids ignoring scientific facts and believing human beings were hanging out with dinosaurs.

*edit*

Obama isn't perfect but I'd rather have him than Bush and Cheney any day!

forget i said anything.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/22/opinion/22brooks.html?hp

  Quote

So I’d invite Governor Walker and the debt fighters everywhere to think of themselves as founding fathers of austerity. They are not only balancing budgets, they are setting precedent for a process that will last decades. By their example, they have to create habits that diverse majorities can respect and embrace. The process has to be balanced. It has to make everybody hurt.

they are pretty much rubbing it in. thats a low blow if ive ever heard of one.

Life is too short for this sort of thing, imo. I just don't fucking get it and it makes me really upset.

These guys treat everything like its a game or something.

football season is over

  On 2/22/2011 at 9:32 PM, jefferoo said:

Life is too short for this sort of thing, imo. I just don't fucking get it and it makes me really upset.

 

These guys treat everything like its a game or something.

when you've got millions of dollars and can lose 90% of your wealth and still live more comfortably than the vast majority of america, everything is a game. it's a simple lack of empathy.

A buddy of mine (teacher in Massachusetts) just posted this on facebook, I thought it was worth repeating here:

  Quote

From Mike Soha:

 

Only 5 states do not have collective bargaining for educators and have deemed it illegal. Those states and their ranking on ACT/SAT scores are as follows:

 

South Carolina – 50th

North Carolina – 49th

Georgia – 48th

Texas – 47th

Virginia – 44th

 

If you are wondering, Wisconsin, with its collective bargaining for teachers, is ranked 2nd in the country. Let’s keep it that way.

Those states are also full of bible thumping gun toting dumb hicks.

  On 2/23/2011 at 1:54 AM, luke viia said:

A buddy of mine (teacher in Massachusetts) just posted this on facebook, I thought it was worth repeating here:

 

  Quote

From Mike Soha:

 

Only 5 states do not have collective bargaining for educators and have deemed it illegal. Those states and their ranking on ACT/SAT scores are as follows:

 

South Carolina – 50th

North Carolina – 49th

Georgia – 48th

Texas – 47th

Virginia – 44th

 

If you are wondering, Wisconsin, with its collective bargaining for teachers, is ranked 2nd in the country. Let’s keep it that way.

Is it a coincidence that those states had some of the highest numbers of slaves prior to the Civil War?

I feel obligated to post here merely because I'm a state-level government worker myself. I work for the Legislative Reference Library at the Texas Capitol. The Wisconsin situation is frustrating because their pay and benefits, even after the proposals, are still largely better than those we have here in Texas. So it's a bit aggravating to see teachers holding Mubarak and Hitler signs bitching and moaning about paying into a pension plan, which is something most private sector employees have to do...especially when I live in a state that has already implemented pay/raise freezes and now outlined a cut of 8,000 state government jobs.

But that said, I can't align myself with the union opposition, especially when the anti-union rhetoric is being hashed out by even more corrupt and wealthy corporate lobbyists like David Koch. Disparaissant pointed out the hypocrisy of the tax breaks in Wisconsin, and it's even worse in Texas. Governor Rick Perry (arguably the biggest prick in Texas state office, even many right wingers hate him as much as anyone remotely moderate or left here in Austin) has allocated 150 MILLION DOLLARS to a private corporation and business slush fund called the "Texas Enterprise Fund" and another 20 million in incentives for the video game and film industry. He's planning to cut everything else, including 10 BILLION from our education budget and completely shutting down the State Historical and Arts Commissions for a mere 11 million dollar savings. We don't have a income tax and the state treasury has 8 billion dollars in a "rainy day fund" yet he and many GOP leaders absolutely refuse to look into raising taxes or tapping into reserve funds.

So yeah, I can't sympathize too much with Wisconsin because they're fighting for themselves, as there is no way to equalize union and public worker rights nationwide, but at the same time, I'm hoping they can make a stand in all of the biased and misguided budget cut bullshit nationwide. Oh well, that's my perspective anyway.

The main issue is the collective bargaining issue though.

Without that, what good is a union?

I can't listen to Scott Walker's music anymore, this is serious.

You're correct, but the proposal, while severe, isn't completely removing collective budgeting rights for wages, and in the case of Wisconsin state workers, the benefits are currently being paid by the taxpayers.

And my question/hang-up, is simple, why support the union status quo for public employees in one state and others? If Wisconsin prevails it's not going to eliminate "right-to-work" states where compulsary union membership isn't required. Furthermore, Texas (and I imagine other states) doesn't have teachers on the state payroll, they're paid by local school districts, many of which are cutting hundreds if not thousands of staff.

I'm tangeting here, sorry, so yeah, I'm not disagreeing with you or the protest's main "point," I'm just saying the lack of call to arms to implement these rights equally isn't really being made. In other words, I don' think Wisconsin doesn't seem like an ideal battleground.

  On 2/23/2011 at 8:04 PM, baph said:

I can't listen to Scott Walker's music anymore, this is serious.

lol, union-busting? 30th century man my ass, he would of made mankind working obsolete by now, both in philosophy and using robots.

This is pretty amazing (however, ethically unsound). It sounds like walker actually believes unions to be the threat of communism.

  Quote

Jim Newell — Gov. Scott Walker's Amazing Prank Call with 'David Koch' This is just perfect. Ian Murphy, editor of the Buffalo Beast, prank called union-busting Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker pretending to be industrialist and secret Republican overlord David Koch, whose money has been fueling Walker and state Republicans' ongoing battle with labor. And Walker believed it.

http://gawker.com/#!5768410/gov-scott-walkers-amazing-prank-call-with-david-koch

*edit*

Listening to this guy is like listening to someone who still thinks he is fighting in the cold war.

*edit of edit*

It also sounds like he is giving a lengthy business report to his boss... which he is. Too bad his boss is actually the people of Wisconsin.

FOX gets it right for once.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuuUV94bOW0&feature=player_embedded

OMG!

1:23 ... "Just by telling the facts, you're angering a lot of people".

FOX News is even cracking.

That dude is getting FIRED!

nah. they had alan colmes blasting O'reilly last night.

shit aint changed none.

Oh shit, check this article out: The Koch Brothers REAL End Game in Wisconsin

for tl;dr, it says this is all a smoke screen to pass a section in the bill that would allow the Koch Brothers a monopoly on the state utility companies. that walker will eventually give up the union fight, in exchange for passing the bill, and everyone will be so proud they defeated walker on the unions issue, no one will even notice the section of the bill that allows the koch bros to buy up all the power plants in the state for stupidly cheap.

  On 2/24/2011 at 7:13 AM, jefferoo said:

FOX gets it right for once.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuuUV94bOW0&feature=player_embedded

 

OMG!

 

1:23 ... "Just by telling the facts, you're angering a lot of people".

 

 

FOX News is even cracking.

That dude is getting FIRED!

That's Juan Williams, he was that guy let go/fired by NPR. And experience with NPR is likely why he's the only rational and sane person I can think of currently on Fox News.

  On 2/24/2011 at 8:55 AM, Kcinsu said:

Oh shit, check this article out: The Koch Brothers REAL End Game in Wisconsin

 

for tl;dr, it says this is all a smoke screen to pass a section in the bill that would allow the Koch Brothers a monopoly on the state utility companies. that walker will eventually give up the union fight, in exchange for passing the bill, and everyone will be so proud they defeated walker on the unions issue, no one will even notice the section of the bill that allows the koch bros to buy up all the power plants in the state for stupidly cheap.

Craziness. I'd like to know more about the Koch Brothers. Just yesterday I watched a fantastic Nova documentary that was "sponsored in large part by David H Koch"...

I'll be hiding in my cave if anyone needs me

Very proud of The Buffalo Beast at this moment in time. One of the few good things to come out of that city.

prank calls for a better america!