Blogs Feb 16, 2011 at 11:01 pm

Comments

1
Heh... good for 'sconnie. Y'all might be crazy, but some of you aren't completely stupid [/MN snark].
2
Yep. Them unions are really intent on protecting their golden geese. It worked so well for the film unions in LA that it drove half their business to Canada. Of course, the difference here is that it's the Wisconsin taxpayer that is getting shilled, not some mean, nasty film studio.
3
@2, fine. Privatize every public program. See where that gets you. A for-profit education system should turn out wonderfully.
4
I'm not in favor of privatizing everything. What I'm opposed to is a state worker putting in 25-30 years of work and then getting a 30 year pension that's paid for by the tax payers. Bring that in line with what's going on in the private sector. I'm working hard to fund my own retirement. The guy who drove the bus I took today should be doing the same.
7
And of course, the national broadcast media have almost ignored the Wisconsin protests; the same assholes who would make a big deal about two dozen teabaggers out in front of some 7-11.
8
@4 A former colleague and I each had the option to go for a job at higher pay with less job security/fewer retirement benefits in the private sector or lower pay at a public sector job for more job security and slightly better retirement options. He went for the higher pay, I opted for the lower pay in the public sector with more job security - a $13,000 difference when the job started, which after a couple of years became more like a $19,000 gap as my salary increase was frozen several years ago and I lacked any form of bonus (unlike my former colleague in the private sector who brought home $3-4000 in yearly bonuses and even an iPhone one year). This salary gap between private and public for the same job was rubbed in my face for several years, with me being constantly told how wrong my choice was and how stupid I was to be investing in the state retirement system rather than having a 401K. Then the job market went completely south and I kept my job while my former colleague lost his. Now suddenly I am the bad person for still having a job, and my salary and benefits are now considered excessive and HOW DARE I maintain my retirement in the public employees system! Over 6 years, I calculate that this former colleague made at least $92,000 more than me in the private sector doing essentially the same job that I do in the public sector (I actually have more people who report to me than he did). He made the choice to go for more money up front over job security - I opted for less money up front and more job security and better benefits. Why am I now bogeyman whose salary needs to be cut and whose benefits are now considered outrageous, when previously I was the object of scorn for my low pay? I have worked equally hard and brought home less money over the years, knowing that what I lack in salary now will be somewhat compensated for upon retirement. But now I am the enemy? Bullshit. I just wasn't greedy.
9
@4, Unionize yourself, get the same benefits teachers get. You deserve them too.
10
@9

http://exiledonline.com/we-the-spiteful/

...so the djinn says to Ivan "I'll give you one thing---but I'll give your neighbour Pyotr Semyonovich twice as much."

Ivan thinks for a few seconds, and says, "Put out one of my eyes."
11
Didn't Wisconsin VOTE for this asshole? Sounds like they got what they asked for.

Anyone or any state that falls for the lies of the proto-Nazi party and puts them into power DESERVE what they get.
12
I understand your sentiment, #11, but please know that there are quite a few of us here who did not vote for him and were appalled by those who did. One ray of hope appeared yesterday:

http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Russ-F…
13
@11 It sounds like you're absolving the asshole (and his ilk) of all the lies and deceit. Maybe people got hoodwinked. Is this any reason for them to be completely silent as the proto-nazis solidify their position? The protests serve the very public good of warning other states and municipalities what they're in for if they fall for that TEA Party blather.
14
@11, Furthermore, if the unions do get broken in Wisconsin, this strategy is getting exported to the rest of the country. Fuck that, I understand where the "they deserve it" sentiment comes from, but we sure as hell don't deserve it.
15
@10, That's depressing and an unfortunately accurate analysis. America cuts off its nose to spite its face.
16
Why is the title in Polish?
17
I still remember when the teachers, and union, here in Georgia supported Republican Sonny Perdue over the incumbent Democrat Barnes. On of the first things the Gov. Perdue did was to freeze all future teacher's raises. I laughed my ass off. Whenever you elect a Republican, everybody but huge corporations will get screwed. When will the people learn?
18
@16 There was this thing that happened back in 1980 when your parents were in high school....
19
Power to the people. Oh and by the way, people deserving what they get is not a one size fits all.
20
@7 Well you need to actually look. There was a clip about it on the local KOMO news last night, and another report on the KIRO FM this morning. Hell, i just checked USA Today for shits and giggles and its right there in the national section.
21
Diary of an unborn child

September 19:
Today my life began. My parents do not know it yet, but it is I already. And I am to be a girl. I shall have blond hair and blue eyes. Just about everything is settled though, even the fact that I shall love flowers.

October 3:
Some say that I am not a real person yet, that only my mother exists. But I am a real person, just as a small crumb of bread is yet truly bread. My mother is. And I am.

October 7:
My mouth is just beginning to open now. Just think, in a year or so I shall be laughing and later talking. I know what my first word will be: MAMA.

October 9:
My heart began to beat today all by itself. From now on it shall gently beat for the rest of my life without ever stopping to rest! And after many years it will tire. It will stop, and then I shall die.

October 17:
I am growing a bit every day. My arms and legs are beginning to take shape. But I have to wait a long time yet before those little legs will raise me to my mother's arms, before those little arms will be able to gather flowers and embrace my father.

October 27:
Tiny fingers are beginning to form on my hands. Funny how small they are! I'll be able to stroke my mother's hair with them.

November 4:
It wasn't until today that the doctor told mom that I am living here under her heart. Oh, how happy she must be! Are you happy, mom?

November 9:
My mom and dad are probably thinking about a name for me. But they don't even know that I am a little girl. I want to be called Kathy. I am getting so big already.

November 24:
My hair is growing. It is smooth and bright and shiny. I wonder what kind of hair mom has?

November 27:
I am just about able to see. It is dark around me. When mom brings me into the World it will be full of sunshine and flowers. But what I want more than anything is to see my mom. How do you look, mom!

December 8:
I wonder if mom hears the whispering of my heart? Some children come into the World a little sick. But my heart is strong and healthy. It beats so evenly: tup-tup, tup-tup. You'll have a healthy little daughter, mom!

December 12:
Today my mother killed me.

22
@10 Holy shit, what a great piece. I just finished reading the whole thing.

Every single progressive should read that article, print out a copy, carry it around with them, meditate on it, sleep with it under their pillow, and be seen with it in public. It explains everything, including what we need to do to save this damned country.
23
Sorry gang..but I am tired of the voters never being held responsible for their fucking stupid voting record. It's easy to blame the politicians but remember REPUBLICANS ARE ALL FUCKING ASSHOLES!!! What do people think they'll do once in office?!?!? And if people are dumb enough to be tricked into voting for them they tend to get what they have coming to them.

Consider it a learning opportunity. And the other scary side that no one wants to talk about is things will have to get much much worse before the liberals in this country finally pull their heads out of their collective asses and realize that the corporate owned Demcorats are really not that much better than the GOP. Have you read Obama's buget? Have you paid attention to what our own gov. here in Washington is cutting?

And they only had 15,000 people protesting in Madison? They need to add a few more zeros at the end of that number before corporations will take notice.
24
@21 That was hilarious!

Today I'm going to end every email with " Today my mother killed me".

Thanks for brightening up my day!
25
@21 How in the world do you think Unions are remotely the same topic as abortion? Also, how lovely that you focus completely on the embryo and completely disregard the Mother in your pro-life, or should I say, Pro-control-women rant.
26
@21, I wish your mamma had aborted you...or at least swallowed the load you were in.
27
I think that @21's name implies that the child is in Hell, too. Has the pro-life argument become that aborted fetuses go to Hell?
28
@21 The fetus doesn't open it's mouth until week 11, not week 3 as your timeline suggests. Additionally, it is neurologically impossible for a fetus to have consciousness like would be required for this cute little narrative until at least week 20.
29
@26 I'm thinking that one should have been spit out on the sheets...
30
@21: Haha! There's an old recorded version of something like this. It's a grown man talking in a squeaky baby voice, then at the end he sings something like "WHY, WHY did you kill me mommy? Don't you know God made me special?"

I don't feel like Googling "abortion song" at the office, but it's out there.
31
To summarize, fuck the Governor trying to break the unions, and fuck people electing assholes who only care about big businesses and not the American people, and fuck embryo worshippers who use their cloak of Christian Religion to mask their desire to have people to conform versus letting women make the best decisions for themselves in their hour of need.

32
Love all the comments damning Republicans, sideline arguments regarding abortion rights, etc... the bigger picture is we're all pretty screwed. Political parties and abortion rights and other rage-inducing issues and agendas are just distractions to what the man is doing behind the curtain.
33
@21 i didn't know fetuses kept diaries. where did you find this? incredible.

what 7 said. Teabaggers? News! Unions? Who cares...
34
While I'm no fan of the Tea Partiers, the fact is most of us would lose our jobs if we called out sick and then were on TV in a protest march, certainly if we did it several days in a row. That the teachers mostly don't have any fear of this happening, despite the fact they are publicly and clearly not "sick" and are calling out sick, might have something to do with how little sympathy they're getting.
35
Glad I am not the only one who got a huge belly laugh at that mawkish fetus diary horseshit.
36
@34, Maybe if you unionized, you wouldn't have to fear losing your job for exercising your right to peaceably assemble.
37
Wisconsin is a funny state, giving us both Joseph McCarthy and Golda Meir, a communist hunter/fabricator senator, and a socialist zionist prime minister of Israel.
38
And it just got a little crazier:

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/…
39
Oh, and apparently the entire WI Senate Democratic caucus has left the state, thus preventing a quorum to vote on the measure:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/02/17…
40
Is this it? Is this where we start fighting back against the Right? Is this where we remind the corporatists this is our country too?
41
I want the republicans and tea-baggers to get exactly what they voted for. It's going to hurt a lot of innocents*, but at some point these people need to understand how they are voting against their own interests.

* probably including me, since I am a part-time municipal employee in Wisconsin; then again, I have no pension, no insurance, no sick days, etc.
42
Yeah, but do people outside of Wisconsin deserve what Wisconsin voted for? If the unions get broken in Wisconsin, the Right is going to export the tactic to the rest of the country.
43
@40 No, because half the Democrats in office are as corrupt as the Republicans are.
44
@43: Hey, 50% corrupt is much better than 100% corrupt. And I speak as a denizen of the Windy City.
45
@43, I'm not talking concessionist Democratic leadership. It's time to bypass party leadership and start actually ticking things off the Leftist agenda. The Right Wing did it- we can do it too, and we have the advantage of policies that actually work.
46
@37-Don't forget the John Birch Society
47
Their world headquarters is right across the street from my grocery store on Westhill Blvd.
48
Woot! Thanks for covering this. I've been at every one of these protests since Tuesday. The national attention is fun... even though it means I have to listen to slander from Fox News, and even our own Paul Ryan (who called us rioters -- thanks for showing how out of touch you are with your home state, Paul).

Cato @23: Definitely a learning experience. I blame low voter turnout; the people who were out in force last November were the ones riding that anti-incumbent-party wave. This asshattery has done more to mobilize the progressive base than anything our former Democratic leadership ever did. Additionally, I've seen a number of people at the protests with signs like "Can I take back my vote?" Walker has driven away at least some of his base with this nonsense. The firefighters' unions, which (I hear) supported Walker's campaign (and are somehow exempt in this bill... hmmm!), have been out in force, every day, supporting labor rights. Learning experience indeed.
I dispute your argument that 55% of the vote (probably a generous estimate of Walker's margin of victory) means you get carte blanche to stomp on the rights of the other 45% without a fight. Especially in Madison, which is overwhelmingly liberal, overwhelmingly voted for the other guy, and does rallies and protests like other cities do parades and neighborhood barbecues. He should never have expected this to be accepted without a fight. Walker is (however regrettably) governor of all of Wisconsin, not just the corporate interests that got him elected. We're hoping he might learn a thing or two about leadership from this exercise -- it can be a learning experience for him too!

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