The Elected Government Of Wisconsin Passes A Labor Bill

That's what elected governments do. They govern, because voters send them to the state capitol to govern.

Even when there is an angry mob screaming at them:

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.

They were screaming at the wrong people. Their advocates had fled the state, and abdicated their duties.

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.

Walker said Wednesday night that Democrats had three weeks to debate the bill and were offered repeated opportunities to come back, but refused.

But, tucked away in the middle of the article is a tiny little gem:

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.

Because now, if the teachers wildcat strike, the local school systems can fire them, and replace them with other teachers, honored to have the job. And not likely to stand with the teachers union.

Now, the union leadership is faced with collecting voluntary dues from the membership, because the obligatory deduction from the paycheck will soon be a thing of the past. This should be interesting, finding out just how many state employees are willing and voluntary union members.

The lower house, the Assembly, will pass the bill on Thursday, and Gov. Walker will sign it. The Dems will certainly attempt to litigate it into the ground, since they always litigate to get their way, especially when they know they don't have the votes to prevail on their own.

Good luck with that...

Joe The Plumber Visits Madison, Until The Threats On His Family From Wisconsin Send Him Home

What a great bunch, our friends at NEA and SEIU.

Sorta' wants to make one stand up and cheer, don't-cha-know?

Actually, Joe's account of his visit was remarkably fair-minded, not a knee-jerk reaction at all.

I went to Wisconsin with an open mind. I wanted to understand exactly what was going between the state and the unions, so I spoke with people on both sides of the issue. While I did so, I recorded our conversations so that the people watching my interviews can make up there own minds.

The first day there I spoke to some great guys who were Correction Officers. They do a tough, dangerous job day in and day out and they do not get thanked enough for the job they do. They are squared away, salt-of-the-earth men; guys I would want to go fishing with and throw back some beers. I honestly believe what they get paid is not near enough for the job they do. Their worries and concerns were genuine.

Steve, a CO in Wisconsin says, “I make 32,000 dollars a year before taxes. How am I suppose to afford the extra healthcare that my family needs”?

This guy’s pay has been frozen for 4 years. That doesn’t begin to seem right.

Then the ugly started...the threatening phone calls to his house, from Wisconsin.

Home again, file the police report, buy another gun, get another dog.

And, still, remarkably fair-minded at the end of the day.

It's a good read, and some good insight.

Perhaps Some Movement In The Wisconsin 14 Standoff

Eventually, the fun of playing hooky wears off.

Fox Nation has learned exclusively from a highly placed source within Wisconsin state politics that the fourteen AWOL Democrats are experiencing "dissension in the ranks." State Sen. Julie Lassa (D) is pregnant and "extremely unhappy" about being on the run. State Sen. Jon Erpenbach (D) has been hit particularly hard by his paycheck being withheld. Wisconsin State Senate leadership is currently negotiating with eight of the fourteen to come home. Gov. Scott Walker (R) has declared today the deadline for action on his budget repair bill and plans to give a budget address at 5 p.m. ET. A deal may be announced around that time.


Here's hoping. The good thing about the sit-ins, rallies, endless debates, etc. in Madison is that no one, anywhere can claim that dissenting voices were not given the opportunity to be heard. The teargas and truncheons were never used on the protesters,(not to mention mounted camel attacks) and great patience was shown when they actually moved in and camped out in the capitol rotunda. The Dems covered themselves in mud with their cursing, littering, pictures of the Governor as der Fuhrer, etc., and with the outright threatening language used by one Dem Assemblyman on a GOP Assemblywoman.

It looks like the Wisconsin Assembly has its very own Charlie Sheen. State Rep. Gordon Hintz, the Democrat bad boy of Wisconsin, earned his stripes by getting arrested in connection to a prostitution sting and then grandstanding on the Assembly floor.

620 WTMJ: Last Friday.... after the Assembly voted to engross the Budget Repair Bill, Hintz turned to a female colleague, Rep. Michelle Litjens and said: "You are F***king dead!"

Hope-n-Change, ya'll!

Hintz later admitted to it, and issued an apology, expressing his chagrin that he had been overheard issuing the threat. Ya'll, is it just me, or does that sound like the sort of language the Mob uses? Unions, Mafia, Mafia, Unions...they have been known to keep company from time to time. Hmm...impossible to say from here, just listening to a conversation from a distance.

In any case, after everyone got a chance to let off steam, and express their dismay that life has irrevocably changed, the math is the math is the math is the math. Including the math that says that Wisconsin elected a GOP governor, and large GOP majorities in each house. In future elections, that math may change, and perhaps the unions can reassert their mojo. But for now, math is math. Wisconsin is broke, and must slash spending, beginning with its overwhelming payroll costs.

Here's hoping...

Scott Walker's Fireside Chat

OS suggests his readers view, and judge for themselves.




On to the day.
Work to do.
Taxes to pay.

Open Letter To Racine County

The thoughts of a newly-minted GOP State Senator in Wisconsin.

Well worth reading, since it is from a direct source.

Pelosi Is Proud Of The Wisconsin Senators Who Booked It To Illinois

Really..can't make it up.

OS woke up this morning to the sound of a radio interview with one of the august senators. The interviewer asked his location, and he said: Chicago.

Whether he was telling the truth is impossible to say. But, in Chicago, he's a needle in the proverbial haystack, and sheltered by the political machine that launched Obama.

OS wonders if we're headed for some manner manufactured crisis, fueled by the White House and DNC...

Let's pray not.

A Memo To All Those Protestors In Wisconsin

It doesn't matter if there are 10,000 or 50,000 of you gathered on the lawn, or if you stay there six weeks or six months.

First salient idea: One incontrovertible fact that will not go away is: Wisconsin is facing a yawning hole in its state finances.

Somewhere between $3.1 billion and $3.6 billion. That's with a 'B', not an 'M'. A tenth of a billion is one hundred million. That's a lot-o-money, honey. Unlike the guy in the White House, who very happy for you to stand in the cold on his behalf, the governor of Wisconsin does not have his own Ben Bernanke to print up shipfuls of Wisconsin dollars.

Second salient idea: To ask you to contribute 5% or so to your pension costs, and 12% of your health insurance costs still gives you one of the best deals going. Ask your neighbors, that is, your neighbors who still have jobs.

Third salient idea: Those clowns in Rockford will come home, eventually. The AFL-CIO bosses will go home. And, sooner or later, you'll have to go home. Remember, as great as it feels to stand in a large crowd and curse the governor, most of the people you live around, attend church with, who go to ball games like you do, drink beer at the pub like you do--those people don't work for the state. They pay taxes, send their kids to school hoping that they'll get a good enough education from the schools. If they perceive that you are a lout who would happily let the state go to hell and become a laughing-stock, just so you and your unions get their way, expect a very chilly reception back home.

Also, if you ever enter the private sector (and you yet may), your prospective employers may not greet your present activities with open arms. They do pay attention, have long memories, and are positively allergic to hiring union/activist types.

Hope ya'll get the memo...

It Appears The Missing Wisconsin Dem Senators Were Located In Rockford, Il

...by members of the Tea Party, who located their chartered bus (chartered bus???) at a local Best Western golf resort.

Once discovered, they booked it back north again to Wisconsin, where, it is understood, the police are looking for them--to transport them back to the statehouse and their elected duties.

This is like a script from a slapstick movie, too funny to fabricate, however. Real life is just soooo much wierder than anything the screenwriters can invent.

And someone obligingly obtained video of two of these selfless public servants climbing in a car in Rockford, claiming they were headed home.