Walker and America Win… Unions and Team Obama Lose Handily

The results are in…

The Democrats fueled by the unions recalled Republican Scott Walker and his lieutenant governor, not of wrong doing, but for doing what he/they said they would do if elected in 2010.

Real Clear Politics:

WAUKESHA, Wis. - Sixty million dollars in campaign spending and 15 months of protests later, Wisconsin voters decided Tuesday that Republican Gov. Scott Walker should keep his job after all. With over 60 percent of the precincts reporting, he held a 15-point lead over Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, 57 percent to 42 percent, and was projected to win by the major news networks.

The victory was the culmination of a heated recall election that began in the corridors of the state capitol and then transformed into a national test of the conservative grassroots and the power of organized labor. Walker's win deals a blow to the latter and energizes the former.

The special election turnout reached presidential levels, yet President Obama did not even visit the state as the recall campaign played out. As the race looked more and more like it would go to Governor Walker and many Democrats called for at least a quick Wisconsin stopover to show some support for Mayor Tom Barrett, the best Obama could muster was a tweet on the last night of the campaign.

The Democrat strategists and pundits and the unions will try to minimize the significance of this victory but in reality it was a significant victory for Scott Walker, Wisconsin, the GOP and America.  It is also the beginning of the decline of the power of private sector unions’ perhaps unions in general, and a huge disappointment for Team Obama.

Based on some skewed exit polls the outcome of this election was gagged to be tight.  Many thought it would be a very late night before the outcome could be called.  Instead, as Sarah Palin said, it will be a late night in Chicago at Team Obama headquarters, where they are no doubt much more worried than they will ever admit.

The Blaze:

MADISON — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker beat back a recall challenge Tuesday, winning both the right to finish his term and a voter endorsement of his strategy to curb state spending, which included the explosive measure that eliminated union rights for most public workers.

The rising Republican star becomes the first governor in U.S. history to survive a recall attempt with his defeat of Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and the union leaders who rallied for months against his agenda.

In his acceptance speech, Walker focused on growth, healing and working together.

Add tonight’s results to a little help Romney has received this week from Bill Clinton… and the Romney Campaign should be energized.

Wis. County-By-County Election Map Shows How Dominating Walker’s Victory Was

Progressives in WI may indeed have something to cry about. - (Via HuffPo)

Related:

Washington Post: Why Walker won the Wisconsin recall election

National Review: What It's Like on the Ground

Forbes: Walker's Victory Spells Doom for Public Sector Unions

Walker: "It Is Time to Put Our Differences Aside"

Marc Thiessen: Vice President Walker?

AFL-CIO: Time to Work Together to Forge a New Path Forward

Protesters: This is the End of Democracy 

NewsMax: Governor Scott Walker Wins Wisconsin Recall Fight

WND: Walker Wins, Will Stay in Office

Palin: Wisconsin Results Mean 'Obama's Goose is Cooked'

Priebus: Obama ‘Left Democrats at the Altar in Wisconsin’

Coulter: The Recall Heard Round the World

WND: Media humiliated over election coverage

MSNBC coverage of the election - Sadness, shock, disappointment, anger are all words that could describe the “forward” leaning hosts of MSNBC last night. It was a rough night for liberal hosts. Glenn, Pat and Stu however had a wonderful evening. It was the one time conservatives could watch MSNBC - not for the content, but the comedy.

The Blaze Fact Checks ‘Weeping Voter’: His Claims Are… This is the end of democracy!

Glenn played the audio on radio this morning.

Howard Dean Echoes Weepy Walker Protester:

"The beginning of the undermining of American democracy." Hmmm….

After Wisconsin Exit Polls, White House Must Wonder If All the Polling is Wrong

Flashback: Scathing New Ad Uses Maddow and Michael Moore to Remind How Important Recall Election Was

June 5th, 2012 was also primary day for CA, MT, SD, NJ and NM

A Growing Trend? Voters in Major Calif. Cities Approve Public Pension Reform

June 5th, 2012 was also primary day for CA, MT, SD, NJ and NM.

Technorati Tags: Scott Walker,Wisconsin,unions,unions lose power,Team Obama,Democrats lose,Democ'rats' deserting the Obama ship,America wins,courage,recalls,Election 2012,politics

Regardless of what they told you in school, FDR sucked

By: Best Selling Author and History Geek Larry Correia
Monster Hunter Nation – Source – the NoisyRoom

Newt Gingrich once said that FDR was his favorite president of the twentieth century, and perhaps of all American history. Newt says he is conservative, so that would be like somebody saying they are Christian, but their favorite angel is Lucifer.

Even if I didn’t know anything else about his history that alone tells me everything I need to know about Newt. Newt is a historian. He’s not stupid. He knows better.

EDIT: This was just pointed out to me, that the soundbyte I heard was Newt talking about “Most Effective Leader” as opposed to “Best”. Fair enough. That said, FDR still sucked and the post stays. Looking online for actual clip now.

Bingo. http://tv.breitbart.com/newt-fdr-was-the-greatest-president-of-the-20th-century/

Yep. Post stays.

However most people don’t know any better. I hate when people who know jack squat about history tell me how awesome FDR was. I can see why though. Any high school history textbook has FDR down as Super President. All students know was that FDR was that nice old man in a wheelchair that had fireside chats, who then kicked Hitler’s ass. Of course, academics are usually on the left, so why would they malign one of their folk heroes with pesky things like reality?

FDR was not a great president. The legacy he left behind was one of bloated nonsense that we are still suffering from today. Like our current president (FDX), he moved in on a crisis, and used it as an excuse to have the country take a massive left turn.

The Great part of the Great Depression was a result of his policies. Everyone else in the world came out of the depression before we did. The Weimar friggin’ Republic came out of it faster than we did. Remember the place with the wheelbarrows of Retenmarks to buy a loaf of bread? Yeah, that place pulled up faster than us. America’s government meddled too much in industry and finance to let a natural recovery happen. We were too busy fixing prices, burning crops, and spending money on make-work projects. (you should have heard my grandpa go off on the W.P.A. It was many years before I learned that it didn’t actually stand for We Poke Along).

FDR was so in favor of freedom, justice, and the American way, that when the Supreme Court began striking his socialist policies down as unconstitutional, he attempted to destroy the separation of powers by stacking the Supreme Court with more of his handpicked justices. The whole purpose of three branches of government was to keep one from becoming tyrannical. Think about that. FDR tried to destroy one of the fundamental elements of our constitutional government.

His foreign policy sucked. Period. FDR personally thought Mussolini was a swell guy. He handled Japan about as well as Obama is handling Iran.

On a personal level, FDR was such a loathsome human being that he couldn’t even keep a running mate, but he was fairly loyal to his mistresses. But on that count, I can’ t really blame him, because from all accounts his wife was a frigid ice queen that was “disgusted by the touch of a man”.

He was known for giving good speeches. Keep in mind that this was at the dawn of radio and he was the first president to ever take advantage of that medium. Americans were so excited by radio that FDR could have read out of a phone book for ten minutes and everyone still would have tuned in to listen.

I’ve written two books set in an alternative 1930s, so I’ve had to do a lot of research into that time period. The worst, most soul sucking, obnoxious part of that research has been listening to or reading anything by FDR. Knowing what we know now, and the results of his experiments in social engineering, make me grind my teeth.

When I mentioned my opinion of Newt’s pick for favorite president on a web forum earlier, someone pointed out that Newt specified that he liked FDR more in some periods than in others… What, the early parts where his big government programs ruined the economy, or the middle part where his foreign policy didn’t do crap to prevent the biggest war in history, or the later part where he threw over a hundred thousand Americans into concentration camps?

Concentration camps.

But remember kids, it is Republicans that are racist and don’t care about civil liberties. Sure, the Democrat’s greatest hero took something like a hundred and forty thousand men, women, and children, ripped them from their homes with no due process or evidence of guilt, confiscated all their homes, property, and businesses, and then interred them in desolate camps in the desert for several years.

The same media that has an absolute come apart over civil liberties because the Bush administration water boarded a couple of terrorists, picks FDR as their Man of The Century.

I used to live next to Topaz Mountain. The site of the old concentration camp is nothing but a barren patch of scrub desert now. It is cold there. Nasty, horrible biting cold. In the winter the wind rips right through you. I can’t even imagine living in a government supplied shack during a winter there. You stand in the middle of this barren patch of sand, and the realization hits you that our government imprisoned innocent Americans here, it punches you in the gut. We did this thing, and it was evil.

If Newt was really a conservative, and he’s as educated and intelligent as he says he is, then there is no way that he would say FDR was a great, let alone the greatest, president.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Teddy Roosevelt’s cousin) was a product of the philosophy of his time. The traditional American idea was that people own the government. FDR believed that the government owns the people. FDR’s fundamental beliefs are the antithesis of what made America great.

Screw FDR.

Related:

A Square Deal in a Round Hole

Did Obama Give Anti-Free Market Speech at Osawatomie for Communist Connection?

The Newt World Order

Newt Gingrich and “the vision thing”

Gingrich Unveils 21st Century Contract With America

Michael Savage Offers Newt $1M to Drop Out of Race

The DNC’s Christmas Gift to Newt Gingrich

Now an Unelected, Unconfirmed Obama Appointee Is Working or Destroy the Secret Ballot

By Rick Manning – It is somewhat odd that one of President Ronald Reagan’s most often used quotes “Personnel is policy”, isn’t particularly eloquent although its alliteration and brevity make it memorable. Perhaps the three word phrase is remembered because it is succinct and accurate, even more so today than even 25 years ago. In the past week, America has gotten a double dose reminder of why this axiom is true through dual National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) actions aimed at forcing unionization on the nation’s private sector.

In one action, the NLRB decided to sue the states of South Carolina and South Dakota because their voters had the audacity to protect their citizen’s right to a secret ballot vote in a union election.

Of course, this offended the sensibilities of the Obama appointees on the NLRB, who first threatened and now are moving forward with legal action against the citizens of these states.

The second NLRB action is all the more outrageous as they are seeking to keep Boeing Corporation from building airplanes in South Carolina rather than in Washington state. You see, Washington state is very friendly to the union that represents Boeing workers, and the workers in the Boeing plant in South Carolina recently decertified that very union. So, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers dialed up Washington, DC, and the NLRB came riding out to right the wrong of a company outrageously choosing to locate a manufacturing facility in the wrong state.

This brings us back to the Reagan quote, “personnel is policy.”

While Donald Trump has been running around Hawaii looking for Obama’s birth certificate, Obama’s unconfirmed appointee to the NLRB has been having his way in launching an official federal government jihad in support of Obama’s big labor supporters, who don’t care where he was born.

The brains behind the NLRB attack on the American way of life, is a formerly obscure lawyer named Craig Becker. Becker’s views are so extreme when it comes to management/labor relations, that his nomination was derailed by a bi-partisan vote in the Senate when it was controlled by 59 Democrats.

In response, President Obama, at the urging of the AFL-CIO’s Richard Trumka, used a backdoor mechanism to get Becker onto the NLRB called a recess appointment, which allows him to serve for a defined period of time without Senate confirmation.

Why was Becker so important that Obama was willing to risk the ire of the Senate to put him in place?

Craig Becker was a top lawyer at both the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and their rival the AFL-CIO simultaneously.

Craig Becker was the intellectual architect behind Big Labor’s plan to coerce workers into membership against their will through denying them the right to a secret ballot election.

This rejected Obama nominee even went so far as to write in the 1998 Fall/Winter edition of the New Labor Forum, “At first blush is might seem fair to give workers the choice to remain unrepresented. But, in providing workers this US labor grants employers a powerful incentive.”

Is it any wonder that this unelected, unconfirmed Obama appointee has in the course of one week led an obscure government agency to put the force of the US government against Boeing Corporation creating American jobs in a state where those jobs are unlikely to become members of a labor union, and against the citizens of states who are attempting to protect their rights to a secret ballot.

Personnel is policy, and Craig Becker proves that a determined virtually anonymous zealot can do incalculable damage to the nation’s economy.

What is scary is that in this Administration, Craig Becker is not the outlier, but instead is the norm.

Rick Manning is the Communications Director of Americans for Limited Government. Also see his story on House legislation to prevent the NLRB from suing South Carolina and South Dakota.

Souorce: NetRightDaily.com

Idaho State Legislation Passes Republican Bill to Curb Union Rights…

Idaho passes Republican bill to curb union rights… after Ohio passed similar bill last week; all the while eyes and attention at on Wisconsin

By Mary Wisniewski  -  Reuters

CHICAGO | Tue Mar 8, 2011 9:02pm EST

(Reuters) - The Idaho state legislature approved a bill on Tuesday to strip public school teachers of many of their collective bargaining rights while protesters in five states rallied against Republican efforts to curb union power.

The Idaho bill, which excludes issues like class size and workloads from negotiations for the state's 12,000 unionized teachers, was given final approval by the Republican-led House and is expected to be signed by Republican Governor Butch Otter.

The bill also eliminates teacher tenure, limits the duration of teacher labor contracts to one year and removes seniority as a factor in determining the order of layoffs.

Idaho is one of several U.S. states to take up Republican plans for sweeping restrictions on public sector unions in what has become a growing national debate over labor union power.

Republicans say the proposals are needed to rescue recession-battered budgets from deficits, but Democrats and union supporters say they are an attack on organized labor that could linger as an issue into the 2012 presidential elections.

Most national attention has focused on the stalemate in Wisconsin over Republican Governor Scott Walker's proposal to curb union rights, which sparked large protests in the capital Madison.

Wisconsin Senate Democrats have fled the state to block a vote on Walker's proposal, but e-mails released on Tuesday showed Walker has indicated he may be willing to compromise on elements of his plan.

The e-mails, released following a Freedom of Information Act request from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newspaper, show Senate Democrats and a senior Walker aide discussed some flexibility on issues such as his demand for annual votes to keep unions in existence.

Protests against Walker's plan continued in Madison on Tuesday. Similar Republican plans to curb public union rights sparked new protests in Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Iowa.

DEATH OF THE MIDDLE CLASS?  -  EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE!

In Indianapolis, where most Indiana House Democrats remain out of state to block a vote on a bill they say is anti-worker, union protesters staged a mock "funeral" for the middle class with a New Orleans-style musical procession in honor of Mardi Gras.

In Ohio, Republican Governor John Kasich touted a plan that passed the state Senate last week to curb collective bargaining rights of public employees and ban them from going on strike.

In his "State of the State" speech, Kasich said the bill, which still must be passed by the Ohio House, was necessary to give local governments more flexibility in their budgets.

"Frankly, folks, the provisions of collective bargaining reform are examples of what we want to do to allow people to control their costs," said Kasich, setting off cat-calls from the gallery in the legislative chamber.

Pro-union demonstrators packed the Capitol rotunda after the speech, shouting, "Kill the bill."

n Michigan's state capital Lansing, hundreds of pro-union protesters jammed the rotunda and gathered outside the Capitol to oppose a bill to give emergency authority to break labor contracts to revive failing schools and cities. The state's largest school district of Detroit is under emergency management.

The Michigan House approved the measure in February. A final vote in the Senate, where Republicans hold a 26-12 majority, is expected on Wednesday.

In Iowa, hundreds of union workers crowded the state House chamber to protest a bill that would prevent negotiations on healthcare benefits for government workers and forbid union workers from negotiating layoff schedules.

The measure will be debated in the Republican-led Iowa House on Wednesday. It is expected to run into trouble in the Democratic-majority state Senate.

Curbing public union power and demands is only the first step, but a critical one to saving America.  Anyone who hasn’t realized that by now is either a radical Progressive or really doesn’t understand economics and capitalism.

Collective Bargaining Is a Privilege, Not a Right

I keep hearing the narrative that somehow, as though it were written in stone, collective bargaining is a right for public sector unions. I would disagree entirely: collective bargaining is a privilege, not a right, for public sector unions. And you know what? About 50 years ago, the A.F.L.-C.I.O. agreed with me. The union’s Executive Council in 1959 said: “In terms of accepted collective bargaining procedures, government workers have no right beyond the authority to petition Congress — a right available to every citizen.”

And it is a privilege that has been badly abused for years; U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics show that public sector employees, many of them unionized, make nearly $40 an hour in combined wages and benefits versus roughly $27.50 for those in the private sector.

So I applaud what Scott Walker is doing in Wisconsin, but I actually feel he didn’t go far enough. All his Budget Repair Bill is doing is addressing the public sector unions’ right to collectively bargain over pensions and health care. I think it would have been nice to address the right to collectively bargain for wages, and here’s why: at the end of the day, the public sector unions are not collectively bargaining for a greater share of earnings, as do the private sector unions. They are bargaining to get a bigger slice of the pie of tax dollars, which the government has taken from the American taxpayer.

Now to be clear: paying a certain amount of taxes is a part of being involved in an organized civilization. If you want to make sure you have roads and national defense, you’re going to have to pay taxes. But that being said, taxes are removed through a threat of force from the taxpayers by the government (yes, I mean force. Try not paying property or income taxes and see what happens). So the government is run off of money earned in the private sector. Government does not create jobs; when there are reports of more jobs, but they’re all government jobs, the government is not creating anything: it is merely funding even more government jobs off the backs of the private sector. Which compounds the problem because by taking capital from the private sector to create government jobs, you’re not creating jobs that create more capital, as private sector jobs do.

So, public sector unions, unlike their private sector union counterparts, are not creating more capital. Do they provide services for the public good? Absolutely. Are they creating capital? Absolutely not.

So here you have public sector unions negotiating for more pay in tough times, soaking more from the already overburdened American taxpayer. I keep hearing this drivel of, “Well if Walker is expecting the unions to make sacrifices, is he going to ask others to make sacrifices by increasing taxes?” Memo to those saying that (Mika Brzezinski, I’m thinking of you): The American taxpayer has been gouged for years, and years, and years, by higher taxes, and I’m not talking just income taxes. I’m talking the hidden taxes on gas, food, etc. Yeah, add up all your taxes sometime and you’ll realize you’re probably paying well over 50%, sometimes 60% or more of your wages, in taxes. So you’ve kind of already done your part.

I’m at the point where I feel like the public sector unions, and their partners in crime, their allied elected officials, are like vampires on the American public, sucking the very blood out of them. Worse, they are dumb vampires.

Smart vampires suck just enough blood out to satiate themselves and then leave the victim alive so they can hit them again for a quick infusion down the road. The public sector unions and elected officials haven’t quite learned that lesson and keep sucking the blood out of the American people. At some point, there ain’t going to be any more blood to suck, and then everyone is dead.

And a word on the unions allied officials. These officials, standing between the taxpayer and the public sector unions, are supposed to serve the American taxpayer. It’s a little something called a government of “We the People,” with power originating from the people. But in fact the elected officials are serving the public sector unions because the unions collect millions off the forced-dues from government employees and then reward the officials, their “bosses,” by funding their reelection campaigns. This is precisely backward from how this country was meant to work. It was originally meant to work like this: power originates from the American people, is given to elected officials, who then manage the bureaucrats and federal employees, on behalf of the people, i.e. taxpayers.

Now we have this bizarre scenario where the public sector unions have the power to dictate to the elected officials, who then dictate to the American people. The only way any of that last scenario makes sense is if you detach yourself from reality and enter a land of unicorns and pixie dust.

Now I know for most, none of this is a revelation at all. But it does defy logic: ultimately what we’re doing by increasing benefits and pay for public sector unions is removing capital from the private sector (i.e. us) via taxes and crushing our economy in a time when we actually need the private sector to create more jobs.

What Scott Walker, and many others are doing is appealing to common sense, especially in tough economic times. I have no problem at all with public sector unions making the equivalent wages and benefits that their private sector counterparts do. Of course that means a shaving down by about 30% on the combined wages and benefits of the public sector unions, but it has to be done. And I applaud those officials who are willing to step up to the plate and do it. The American people are applauding and cheering you on.

by Ned Ryun – @ Andrew Breitbart Presents: BigGovernment

Related:

Throttled by Compliance

Must-Read - Unions vs. Right to Work

The Op-Ed page of the Wall Street Journal has been a bastion of common sense in a world of ridiculously biased print news media. In fact, other than the Washington Times, there is no other national newspaper that contains a shred of the sort of common sense we regularly find on the WSJ's Editorial Page.

Obviously, the same cannot be said for the rest of that newspaper, but at least it's partially good, like Fox News Channel has Glenn Beck, and despite Shep and the rest of the biased, hardcore leftists (and confused 'Progressives' like Bill O'Reilly) working at FNC, Glenn (and sometimes Hannity and Megyn Kelly) is NOT part of the problem; he (and sometimes they) are definitely part of the solution!

Anyway, this Op-Ed discussion unions and the right to work is excellent, as one might expect when one considers the source; I love the subtitle of this article: "Collective Bargaining on a Broad Scale Is More Similar to an Antitrust Violation Than to a Civil Liberty." That is so true! Also, this is a pretty short, but sweet article; great for a short break at work. I think you'll enjoy it:

Unions vs. the Right to Work

Collective Bargaining on a Broad Scale Is More Similar to an Antitrust Violation Than to a Civil Liberty.
By ROBERT BARRO | FEBRUARY 28, 2011

How ironic that Wisconsin has become ground zero for the battle between taxpayers and public- employee labor unions. Wisconsin was the first state to allow collective bargaining for government workers (in 1959), following a tradition where it was the first to introduce a personal income tax (in 1911, before the introduction of the current form of individual income tax in 1913 by the federal government).

Labor unions like to portray collective bargaining as a basic civil liberty, akin to the freedoms of speech, press, assembly and religion. For a teachers union, collective bargaining means that suppliers of teacher services to all public school systems in a state—or even across states—can collude with regard to acceptable wages, benefits and working conditions. An analogy for business would be for all providers of airline transportation to assemble to fix ticket prices, capacity and so on. From this perspective, collective bargaining on a broad scale is more similar to an antitrust violation than to a civil liberty.

In fact, labor unions were subject to U.S. antitrust laws in the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, which was first applied in 1894 to the American Railway Union. However, organized labor managed to obtain exemption from federal antitrust laws in subsequent legislation, notably the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 and the National Labor Relations Act of 1935.
Remarkably, labor unions are not only immune from antitrust laws but can also negotiate a "union shop," which requires nonunion employees to join the union or pay nearly equivalent dues. Somehow, despite many attempts, organized labor has lacked the political power to repeal the key portion of the 1947 Taft Hartley Act that allowed states to pass right-to-work laws, which now prohibit the union shop in 22 states. From the standpoint of civil liberties, the individual right to work—without being forced to join a union or pay dues—has a much better claim than collective bargaining. (Not to mention that "right to work" has a much more pleasant, liberal sound than "collective bargaining.") The push for right-to-work laws, which haven't been enacted anywhere but Oklahoma over the last 20 years, seems about to take off.

The current pushback against labor-union power stems from the collision between overly generous benefits for public employees— notably for pensions and health care—and the fiscal crises of state and local governments. Teachers and other public-employee unions went too far in convincing weak or complicit state and local governments to agree to obligations, particularly defined-benefit pension plans, that created excessive burdens on taxpayers.

In recognition of this fiscal reality, even the unions and their Democratic allies in Wisconsin have agreed to Gov. Scott Walker's proposed cutbacks of benefits, as long as he drops the restrictions on collective bargaining. The problem is that this "compromise" leaves intact the structure of strong public-employee unions that helped to create the unsustainable fiscal situation; after all, the next governor may have less fiscal discipline. A long-run solution requires a change in structure, for example, by restricting collective bargaining for public employees and, to go further, by introducing a right-to-work law.

There is evidence that right-to-work laws—or, more broadly, the pro-business policies offered by right-to-work states—matter for economic growth. In research published in 2000, economist Thomas Holmes of the University of Minnesota compared counties close to the border between states with and without right-to-work laws (thereby holding constant an array of factors related to geography and climate). He found that the cumulative growth of employment in manufacturing (the traditional area of union strength prior to the rise of public-employee unions) in the right-to-work states was 26 percentage points greater than that in the non-right-to-work states.

Beyond Wisconsin, a key issue is which states are likely to be the next political battlegrounds on labor issues. In fact, one can interpret the extreme reactions by union demonstrators and absent Democratic legislators in Wisconsin not so much as attempts to influence that state—which may be a lost cause—but rather to deter politicians in other states from taking similar actions. This strategy may be working in Michigan, where Gov. Rick Snyder recently asserted that he would not "pick fights" with labor unions.

In general, the most likely arenas are states in which the governor and both houses of the state legislature are Republican (often because of the 2010 elections), and in which substantial rights for collective bargaining by public employees currently exist. This group includes Indiana, which has recently been as active as Wisconsin on labor issues; ironically, Indiana enacted a right-to-work law in 1957 but repealed it in 1965. Otherwise, my tentative list includes Michigan, Pennsylvania, Maine, Florida, Tennessee, Nebraska (with a nominally nonpartisan legislature), Kansas, Idaho, North Dakota and South Dakota.

The national fiscal crisis and recession that began in 2008 had many ill effects, including the ongoing crises of pension and health-care obligations in many states. But at least one positive consequence is that the required return to fiscal discipline has caused reexamination of the growth in economic and political power of public-employee unions. Hopefully, embattled politicians like Gov. Walker in Wisconsin will maintain their resolve and achieve a more sensible long-term structure for the taxpayers in their states.

Mr. Barro is a professor of economics at Harvard and a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.

h/t to Jared Law at the 912 Project

Related: 

Organized in Wisconsin  -  You Will Want to Read These!

Organized Fraud in Wisconsin - You Will Want to Read These!!

Obama's Cousin Exposes Dangers of WI Doctors' Fraud vs. Taxpayers & Howard Dean Bribes Wisconsin Fleebaggers to Stay Away and Not Vote

Dr. Milton R. Wolf is not just a Washington Times columnist and a board-certified diagnostic radiologist. He's also the cousin of one Barack Hussein Obama.

This is very informative and I think most of you will be better off for having read this excellent Op-Ed. He says it all, quite succinctly, and he covers things many of us haven't considered; you'll really want to read this:

Organized Medical Fraud in Wisconsin

Government doctors abandon their oath and target the public they serve
By Dr. Milton R. Wolf -The Washington Times | 7:19 p.m., Friday, February 25, 2011

"Primum nil nocere." First, do no harm. This bedrock principle in medicine is a foreign language to most politicians and, sadly, to some Wisconsin doctors, who have violated their oath and the public trust as they have defrauded Wisconsin taxpayers.

Several University of Wisconsin family physicians donned their sacred white coats and were caught distributing fraudulent "sick notes" free for the asking quite literally by the boxful - I wonder who paid for that printing - to teachers and others who skipped work to engage in political protest at the state Capitol in Madison. Whatever the merits of the teachers' protest, there's a word for what these doctors and teachers are perpetrating: fraud.
An army of citizen-journalist bloggers, including Tim Daniels of Left Coast Rebel and Ann Althouse, captured and publicized photographs and video allegedly of publicly funded University of Wisconsin doctors Kathy A. Oriel, James H. Shropshire, Lou Sanner, Hannah M. Keevil, Patrick McKenna and Elizabeth Kvach as they disseminated these fraudulent notes to Wisconsin's publicly funded teachers so the teachers could have a publicly funded day off.

"I'm a doctor. Need a note?" read one sign held high near Dr. McKenna as he openly defrauded taxpayers. "We see a lot of sore throats from speaking out, sore feet from walking, a lot of people kind of chilly, under stress. We say the best thing you can do is be with a large support group," said Dr. Sanner in a pathetic rationalization despite video confirmation that neither he nor his colleagues examined any throats or feet before making their diagnoses and issuing doctor's notes.

Meanwhile, taxpayers and students are paying dearly. According to the Department of Education, two-thirds of Wisconsin public school eighth-graders cannot read at a proficient level. And yet, while the average total compensation of a Milwaukee public school teacher is a staggering $100,005 per year, these entitled teachers demand that taxpayers pay them, quite literally, to agitate for more tax money.

If this degree of financial fraud were perpetrated against health insurance companies, the doctors would face civil and criminal charges. Taxpayers deserve at least as much protection. Concerned Wisconsinites may want to contact the Medical Examining Board at the Department of Regulation and Licensing as well as the University of Wisconsin, which, evidently, has overfunded its family practice department sufficiently to send its staff to political rallies. Finally, medical malpractice carriers certainly recognize the medi- cal-legal liability accepted by these scheming doctors inherent in each of the thousands of new doctor-patient relationships they formed. Wisconsin taxpayers, I suspect, may not think their public university should pay for that liability exposure.

These University of Wisconsin doctors have violated the very core of the Hippocratic Oath: "I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone." Providing blanket diagnoses and treatments without so much as examining a patient is a wild and dangerous departure from the standard of care. These doctors do so, in their own words, to pursue "social activism" rather than patient care.

Dr. Paul Hsieh, co-founder of Freedom and Individual Rights in Medicine, spots an alarming trend: "[A] new form of medical ethics is being taught in medical schools that tells doctors to place the needs of 'society' ahead of individual patients. At best, it forces doctors to juggle the truth and the interests of their patients alongside 'social' considerations. At worst, it will give them license to sacrifice their professional integrity (and their patients' interests) in the name of 'society.' "

Americans should brace themselves for more social activism under Obamacare. Dr. Donald Berwick, President Obama's choice to head Medicare, advocates the alarming notion that "this isolated relationship [between doctor and patient] is no longer tenable" without government intervention. Central planners will decide who is afforded treatment and how much, and their primary concerns will be dedicated to society rather than the patient.
One glaring problem, of course, is that "society" is in the eye of the beholder. The University of Wisconsin's government doctors ordained that the society of government schoolteachers should be served but the society of Wisconsin private-citizen taxpayers should not. And that is the very essence of Obamacare - under which the powerful and connected can divide America into two camps: those who will find favor and those who will not.
Ordinary Americans who play by the rules and don't have special political connections deserve to be a part of "society," too. Thus read one sign displayed by a hardworking American taxpayer on the streets of Madison last weekend: "I would've come yesterday, but I had to work."

Dr. Milton R. Wolf blogs at miltonwolf.com.

Howard Dean Bribes Wisconsin Fleebaggers to Stay Away and Not Vote – NoisyRoom

http://noisyroom.net/blog/2011/02/26/howard-dean-bribes-wisconsin-fleebaggers-to-stay-away-and-not-vote/

Howard Dean Bribes Wisconsin Fleebaggers to Stay Away and Not Vote

From: 1389 Blog – Counterjihad!

Yes, you read this correctly. Failed presidential candidate Howard Dean has collected a slush fund for the express purpose of bribing the “fleebagging” Wisconsin Democrat State Senators to remain in hiding and not report to the legislature to vote.

Without Howard Dean’s slush fund, at least some of those Democrat legislators would find it necessary to return to the legislature to pick up their paychecks in person, thus providing enough State Senators to form a quorum. A quorum is required for voting on the Budget Repair Bill proposed by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker that will require public employee union members to contribute more toward their benefits and restrict their collective bargaining privileges. The Republicans have enough votes in the State Senate to enact that legislation without delay.

A recent article in American Spectator follows the money to expose the flagrant corruption associated with this slush fund. However, like many articles in the media and the blogosphere, it stops short of drawing the necessary conclusion from the facts that it has established. The article talks about this slush fund as though it were nothing more than a campaign contribution that is well over the legal limit in amount. The article even admits that there is no election coming up in the near future for which the “fleebaggers” would need to collect campaign funds. It also shows that the funds are instead being used for lavish travel expenditures, thus rewarding the “fleebaggers” for their gross dereliction of duty.

It is time to stop pussyfooting around and start calling things what they are.

This slush fund is no campaign contribution. It’s naked bribery. Howard Dean is paying the Wisconsin “fleebaggers” to stay away from the legislature so as to block the enactment of legislation that Howard Dean wants blocked.

Free Online Law Dictionary: Legal definition of bribery

The offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of something of value for the purpose of influencing the action of an official in the discharge of his or her public or legal duties.

The expectation of a particular voluntary action in return is what makes the difference between a bribe and a private demonstration of goodwill. To offer or provide payment in order to persuade someone with a responsibility to betray that responsibility is known as seeking Undue Influence over that person’s actions. When someone with power seeks payment in exchange for certain actions, that person is said to be peddling influence. Regardless of who initiates the deal, either party to an act of bribery can be found guilty of the crime independently of the other.

A bribe can consist of immediate cash or of personal favors, a promise of later payment, or anything else the recipient views as valuable. When the U.S. military threatened to cancel a Texas relocation company’s contracts to move families to and from military bases, the company allegedly gave four representatives in Congress an all-expenses-paid weekend in Las Vegas in January 1989, and $2,500 in speaking fees. The former president of the company was indicted by a federal Grand Jury in 1994 on bribery charges for both gifts.

Read the rest.

Note that it is equally blameworthy to give or offer a bribe as it is to accept or solicit it.

The American Spectator: Howard Dean and the $100,000 Wisconsin Slush Fund

By Jeffrey Lord on 2.22.11 @ 6:09AM

You can call them “Dean Dollars.”

Former Vermont Governor and Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, a one-time presidential candidate, is the founder of a group that by mid-day of President’s Day had raised over $100,000 in a slush fund to “back” the on-the-lam Wisconsin Democratic State Senators.

The Dean Dollars are being specifically funneled to the Wisconsin State Senate Democratic Committee (SSDC) — an apparent violation of Wisconsin election law that pointedly says, according to the Wisconsin Election Board’s Legal Counsel in a 2005 decision, that the “SSDC may not accept a contribution of more than $6,000 from a single committee in a calendar year.” (Note: the Election Board is now called the “Wisconsin Government Accountability Board.”)

The money, requested in an e-mail obtained over the weekend by The American Spectator, is being solicited in $14 dollar contributions through the Dean-founded million-member “Democracy for America” grassroots organizing group chaired by Dean’s brother Jim. There are no prohibitions on more generous donations of any amount. The funds are being collected through the left-wing “Act Blue” fundraising website, which identifies itself as “the online clearinghouse for Democratic action.”

The $14 dollar solicitation is symbolic — as in one dollar for every one of the fourteen Democrats in the Wisconsin State Senate. All of whom have now fled the state in a political battle royal over budget cuts and collective bargaining rights for public employees with the newly elected Republican Governor. On Monday, the Huffington Post quoted Senator Tim Carpenter, one of the fourteen, as saying of the decision to remain out of state: “We’ll be here until Gov. Walker decides that he wants to talk.”

Carpenter made no mention of who was paying his expenses.

The slush fund revelation comes on the heels of the discovery by both Fox News reporter Mike Tobin and the Wisconsin-based John K. MacIver Public Policy Institute of an organized effort by some Wisconsin doctors — who were deliberately handing out “doctor’s notes” to teachers feigning illness in order to protest the governor’s legislative plans. Which would be fraud, if proven in court. The Fox report uncovered at least one doctor connection to the presumably taxpayer-funded University of Wisconsin Family Medical Program. The MacIver video, posted over the weekend by my American Spectator colleague Philip Klein, is a particularly stunning depiction of both teachers and doctors quite publicly engaged in what appears to be outright fraud, a question raised by one reporter to an angrily defensive doctor on the MacIver video.

Read it all…

Question for you:

Would it be appropriate to call the FBI and ask them to investigate this matter further?

WHY THE RUSH? WHAT ARE THEY AFRAID OF?

Why is there a mad rush to pass legislation by a lame-duck Congress?  While it appears that they are merely accelerating the pace to ensure that the programs they so vehemently believe in are securely engraved into legislation before their terms are up, in actual fact there is much more to the "rush to legislate."  It is fear that drives them, but what exactly are they afraid of?

In two words:  TEA PARTY.  To a significant extent, the Tea Party is the political manifestation of Ayn Rand's (In the book Atlas Shrugged) all-out "labor" strike by the "Producers" against the "looters,"  i.e., the socialists.  In Rand's book the strike basically turns off the spigot of support by industrialists and other producers, and initiates the collapse of the looters, since they cannot on their own produce anything, except, of course, looting.

While I understand this is a shallow and very basic reference to Ayn Rand's philosophical treatise, nevertheless, the Tea Party is about to carry out what amounts to turning off the spigot upon which today's looters depend for nourishment for their political aims.

The Democrat Socialists' worst nightmare is the cutting off of the funds collected from PRODUCERS in order to fund the socialist agenda and their wide range of programs that are geared to expand government and increase their power.

While the Democrat Socialists want to ensure that the bankrupting of the nation progresses, they wish to maintain the taxing and spending ability of their Socialist government entities in order to continue to govern and to continue their incessant quest to seize even more power.

An entire list of programs will be put into effect by Presidential Executive Decree, or Executive Orders, via existing regulations already on the books, in order to ensure that the balance of power remains in their favor, if any of their legislation happens to fail before the current Congress' term expires.

But essentially the next Congress will have the ability, albeit somewhat limited by the measured wins in the 2010 elections, to shut off the faucets upon which the Socialists so critically depend.  Too often our well-meaning electorate overlooks or ignores that the government they so avidly complain about is to a very great extent, funded by them.

Granted, they are doing so at the point of a gun, through mandated taxes, but as the recent elections have shown, and as the even more recent defeat of the Omnibus Bill so aptly demonstrates, if the Producers/financiers of government, i.e., the Conservative electorate decides to flex its muscle and close its wallet, it can and will do so.

Already the Ayn Rand strike is creating a major upheaval in government.  So much so that the old school Republicans are pretending to be "snookered" by a crafty, conniving President into compromising on key legislation.  The deals are being brokered, and the Rino's are selling out, and there is the business-as-usual back-scratching and nod-and-wink attempts to co-opt and derail the Tea Party electoral mandates.

Be assured:  There is no need to compromise with the looters of your hard earned money, which they have taken at gun-point, by force, under penalty of prison or worse, if you do not comply with handing over your treasure.  Instead, the order of the day should continue to religiously and meticulously turn off the spigot, continue with tax cuts, initiate and expand incentives for production, and initiate the return of commerce, business, trade, entrepreneurship, with the commensurate dismantling of any Socialist vestiges that remain in government.

Moreover the continued fight to systematically eradicate the grasp on American culture by the Socialist parasites should be expanded, with resources created to advance their demise here in the U.S.,  as well as the demise of the foreign enablers that are so obviously in collusion with the traitors to our nation.

It is, at this point, very significantly this:  If the Socialist looters do not have your money with which to oppress you, they are less likely to be able to obtain the means and the power to do so.  And by the way, in case you did not realize it, you can make it illegal for them to borrow from the Fed, from China, or from anyone, and you would be very prudent to make it so. 

(We can also get rid of the Income Tax.  Those pushing the Progressive Agenda realize that time works against them but chaos and created deadlines backed by fear works for them!!)

 

Mix Video! Top 20 Pro-Socialism Sound Bites of Obama, Advisors & Allies

Video:  Top 20 Pro-Socialism/Marxism Sound Bites of Obama, Advisors & Allies

 

Video:  Judge Napolitano –  20th Century Constitution

 

h/t: Song of Truth  & the Blaze

Why Are Union Thugs So Involved at TownHalls for Healthcare??

A massive time bomb ticks away, buried in thousands of pages of legislation.
What happens when it explodes?

The forced unionization of hundreds of thousands (maybe millions) of doctors, nurses and other health care workers; billions of new forced-dues dollars rolling into Big Labor’s coffers; and the union bosses in nearly complete control of your health care.

You see, as bad as what you’ve already heard about President Obama’s health care plan -- the reality may be even worse.

You see, when I saw the videos of union thugs beating down elderly Americans for protesting “Obamacare”, I knew something sinister was afoot.

So I called one of the foremost experts on Senate procedure, rules and process. He worked in the Senate for over 30 years! He was respected by most and feared by his opponents.

Why?

Because he actually read the bills! He knew the inside game.

But what he uncovered and reported back shocked even me.

I wish it was as simple as a sentence that reads “all health care workers must join or pay dues to a union.”

Then, we could trumpet this power grab in a way even the media can’t miss, and take out the offending section.

But the forced-unionism scheme is built deep into the very details of the mechanism for “public option,” “employer mandates” and “cooperative health care associations.”

Simply put, you and I must act now to stop the entire bill.

I’ll try to explain in detail what I’ve uncovered (I’ve checked with top legal minds to be sure I was right), but I hope and pray right now you will trust me by agreeing to sign the Citizen Mandate opposing the “Obamacare” forced-unionization scheme and make a most generous contribution to your National Right to Work Committee.
You see, “Obamacare” is already increasingly unpopular with working Americans and retirees as they come to understand what it will mean for their health.

And when the American people find out the real story -- how “Obamacare” will give Big Labor control of health care (over 16% of the entire economy) forcing hundreds of thousands of Americans to pay billions into union treasuries -- I believe there will be an uproar unseen in decades that will kill this dangerous bill completely.

You know President Obama is demanding action immediately with Congress back in session.

And seeing Americans rallying in opposition, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are eager to get it done before the entire truth is uncovered.

So there isn’t a moment to lose.

That’s why your Citizen’s Mandate and emergency contribution are needed right away.

I know you’ve heard a growing chorus of critics of President Obama’s health care scheme . . .

But what you may not have heard is that a handful of (union-label) bureaucrats would be making health care decisions for all of us . . .

. . . and even that’s not close to the whole story.
Critical health care decisions could be put on hold while a nurse takes her union-mandated smoke break.

The cost of health care would REALLY skyrocket when Big Labor bigwigs pad payrolls with more and more layers of support staff and medical bureaucracy -- all at taxpayer expense.

Government agencies tasked with deciding what care you get would be under the thumb of the union bosses.

And there would be special privileges for union-run insurance plans.

These are just a few of the dangerous elements of the health care bills being debated in Congress, and what will be the law of the land in a few short weeks if you and I don’t act today.

You may have heard how union thugs are now showing up to town hall meetings to silence the critics of this scheme by Big Government and Big Labor.

There’s a good reason for this -- no one would benefit from this federal powergrab more than Big Labor.

And the truth is, now with Big Labor added to the mix, it could be far WORSE than anyone is letting on.

That’s why it’s vital you sign the Citizen Mandate petition TODAY, urging your Congressman and Senators to VOTE “NO” on Big Labor’s “Obamacare” Bill.
The truth is, should Big Labor’s “Obamacare” Bill pass, it would:

*** Force hundreds of thousands of doctors, surgeons, nurses -- and other medical professionals -- under Big Labor’s thumb;

*** Heavily tax small businesses’ health care plans, while exempting Big Labor from these same taxes, corralling even more workers into forced unionism;

*** Virtually hand Big Labor direct access to taxpayer dollars as the medical boards that direct government funding will be stacked with unelected Big Labor bureaucrats.

That’s why it’s vital you act TODAY.

You see, hardly anyone is talking about the massive new powers the union bosses would be granted should their radical “Obamacare” scheme pass.

That’s because union boss puppets snuck these massive forced-unionism provisions deep within the bill at the last minute.

But trust me, the union bosses and their henchman “know the deal.”

In fact, Kenneth Gladney just recently found out firsthand how badly Big Labor wants “Obamacare” at a “town hall” meeting in St. Louis.

For the supposed “crime” of opposing the bill -- and handing out a few “Don’t Tread on Me” flags -- Mr. Gladney was beaten viciously by union thugs.

He spent two days in the hospital recuperating from the union-label attack.

And don’t expect this to be an isolated incident either.

After all, former United Mine Workers boss Richard Trumka, now the brand-new head of the AFL-CIO, isn’t known for reasoned discourse.

In a Labor Day speech several years ago, Richard Trumka very clearly stated his views about how the union’s militants should treat their opposition saying, “Kick the (expletive) out of every last one of them.”

And now, the AFL-CIO’s top brass just announced they’ll be sending more thugs to town hall meetings all over the country “to counter the opposition.”

I don’t know about you, but that sends shivers up my spine.

Worse, Big Labor’s “Obamacare” Bill is at the very top of the White House’s agenda.
In fact, President Obama has said repeatedly that he hopes the current union-label Congress will ram the bill through in the next several weeks.

So there’s no time to waste.

Unless you act today, I’m afraid they may just succeed.

The good news is, the Committee has developed a last-minute, massive program to show folks all over the country exactly what Big Labor’s allies in Congress have hidden deep inside the “Obamacare” Bill.

First, our goal is to flood Congress with petitions like the one I hope I have provided links to in this email.

So please fill out your petition and submit it IMMEDIATELY, so I can deliver yours to Capitol Hill with tens of thousands of others from Right to Work supporters all over the country.

Also, if I have the resources, I’d also like to be able to reach an additional eight million folks from all over the country with mail and phones to alert them to the fight we’re facing and urge them to turn up the heat on their Congressmen and Senators.
But that’s not all.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve had Committee staff busy drafting hard-hitting radio, TV and newspaper ads calling on Congressmen and Senators by name to oppose Big Labor’s “Obamacare” Bill.

And rest assured, we’re busy working the blogs, writing guest editorials and working call-in talk radio shows explaining to folks exactly why Big Labor’s radical “Obamacare” Bill must be defeated.

Now such a massive (and last minute) effort isn’t cheap.

So in addition to your signed petition, I also hope you’ll agree to make a generous contribution to help the Committee fight Big Labor’s “Obamacare” Bill.

The good news is, thanks to the already massive outpouring of opposition to this dangerous legislation, “Obamacare” is becoming more and more unpopular by the day.

Remember, the American people overwhelmingly oppose forced unionism and the expansion of Big Labor’s power. With your help, we can show them this bill is a massive net to trap millions more Americans into paying billions of dollars in forced union dues.
And as soon as folks realize just why it is the union bosses are so intent on ramming this bill into law, we may just win this fight.

But that’s not going to happen without your help -- and your generous financial support.

So please help me fight back against Big Labor’s radical “Obamacare” Bill by signing your petition IMMEDIATELY.

And if you can, please make a generous contribution of $500, $250, $100, $50, or $25 after submitting your petition.

I know, considering the tough times, what I’m asking you to contribute isn’t easy.
But this fight is critical.

Thanks to forced-dues provisions in federal law, the union bosses aren’t hurting for cash.

In fact, they’re marshalling all their ill-gotten “resources” to gain even more forced-dues power by ramming their scandalous “Obamacare” into law.

So please help me fight back with a contribution of $500, $250, $100, $50, or $25 TODAY!
Sincerely,

Mark Mix
President

P.S. Should “Obamacare” pass, it would grant Big Labor massive forced-unionism powers over doctors, nurses and other medical professionals -- not to mention -- giving the union bosses virtually direct access to your tax dollars.

That’s why it’s vital you sign the Citizen Mandate petition IMMEDIATELY, along with a most generous contribution of $500, $250, $100, $50, or $25 TODAY!

Source: The National Right to Work Committee

Posted: Daily Thought Pad