You raise hell until the Governor accepts the willingness of the public employees and public school teachers to swallow what will be very painful cuts in their standard of living, and leaves collective bargaining alone in the state that's one of the birthplaces of the labor movement in this country. It is a huge concession by the unions and their members. Then, in a year, you recall the ******* and toss him out on his ear. That's what you do. This is not Texas, Major. It is Wisconsin and the people there are waking up to the fact that they made a huge mistake.
The sick truth. <iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/gcDnKQul_c8?hd=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The Gov has already said he will not compromise, so I guess it is a moot point... but there was nothing in the "compromise" that I read that required the Gov or the Leg to refrain from doing anything while there were no bargaining rights and there would have to be a vote on whether they were reinstated. The whole compromise thing is just silly. Let's say a President wanted to take away the citizenship of people who voted against him during an off year. There would be no election, and it may be reinstated during the next election year. Would you be in favor of that? Sounds like a reasonable compromise and after all, there would be an end point. Dems specifically lose nothing. Labor loses everything. If you cannot see that, we have nothing more to say to each other on the topic. Endgame? How about the Gov dropping it. There was was a similar "endgame" when W tried to screw with Social Security... Dems didn't compromise or negotiate, they just kept him from making his wishes law. It's not a game when one side makes all the rules. You can refuse to play the stupid game. Again, why does there need to be a resolution? It is a "problem" created and defined by one side. Glynch's point was relevant... you are looking at this issue through a set of lenses that allows you to see only one possible outcome. Oh please. You are repeatedly buying into the frame that there has to be a solution that both sides can live with, which really means only something the GOP can live with. There are thousands of protesters every day in Wisconsin. Every day you have that many people pissed at you enough to actually come out and demonstrate takes away from the political capital the state GOP has. This is evident by the half-hearted attempt at a "compromise" by "moderate" Republicans. Every day the Gov cannot pass this and go on about his business with little care from the public at large is worth a huge amount of political capital. The idea that the fight has nothing to do with the budget has gained wide support and Repubs are anxious to fly a "compromise" that would do nothing but alter the PR dynamics. Thankfully, this has failed and the longer it goes the more they will have to recognize that it is a losing battle for them.
Even by losing, Lincoln changed the dynamic and set himself up for future triumphs. Besides, it is better to die trying than live on your knees.
I beat you to it on page 7, rimrocker. It's a great column. http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=200895&page=7&pp=20
If money swayed public opinion Mubarak would still be in power (one of the richest men in the world), Meg Whitman would be governor, and the democrats wouldn't have taken the beating they did in November (they out spent the Republicans by 30%). You are not wrong just because the public does not agree with you, so there is no need for this whiny everyone-is-a-puppet attitude that Krugman displays.
Fail. First, the figures are from before the election, which means all the data is not in. Second, and much more importantly, the paragraph you cite clearly limits the discussion to candidates and obviously does not include outside group spending on behalf of Repubs (or against Dems). Here's a snippet from an article that came out after the election... And that's even from US News and World Report, which leans right.
it's from Oct 26th. the election was Nov 2nd. Yes, I am referring to candidates. Everything else would be very hard to calculate.
And as I noted that is a compromise that Walker won't accept since it defeats the whole point of why he is trying to end collective bargaining. I'm not fully versed on Wisconsin's legislative procedures but I presume that any sort of agreement would be subject to a potential veto by Walker. Now If Wisconsin senators and reps would be willing to overturn such a veto then that might be a solution but the impression that I get is that Walker has the votes to support such a veto. As you know I am considered a moderate who looks at issues from all sides, to the consternation of many, in this situation like this though I really don't see a middle of the road compromise regarding temporary suspension of bargaining rights. Since the compromise will either mean the Wisconsin state gov. can unilaterally renegotiate contracts for that year or that nothing can change for a year and then things go back to the status quo of unions keeping collective bargaining. In both cases one side gets pretty much all that it wants in regard to collective bargaining. As I said before the only compromise that will work from the budget standpoint is the agreement to cut benefits and salary for now while keeping collective bargaining.
Just want to add another thing that is becoming a pet peeve of mine. I just heard Donald Rumsfeld on Letterman repeat the line regarding Wisconsin that the Governor was doing what he ran on as a response to the protest. Yes he did but that doesn't mean that people can't protest. I've heard this several times from various people supporting Walker but then shouldn't that same reasoning have been applied to the Tea Partiers protesting Healthcare reform since Obama and most Congressional Democrats ran on reforming health care? I strongly doubt that Rumsfeld et al were saying the same thing when people were protesting health care.
Finally in regard to collective bargaining rights this song sums up the situation better than I can. <iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/SKWfnO7fhQM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
They have every right to protest. Who said they don't? As for the comparison to the Tea Party; Tea Party rallies weren't obstructive to other citizens' lives. Schools have been cancelled in Wisconsin due to to teachers not showing up, which is a huge problem. What the teachers are doing amounts to a strike, not just a protest, they need to reorganize and figure out a less obstructive way to protest. They are being selfish.
Per the FEC website, the final post-election filing was not due until December 2.http://www.fec.gov/info/report_dates_2010.shtml#general Weak sauce. Thanks to the Citizens ruling, some is difficult for watchdog groups to track... but not all. Did you miss the part of the story in my last post where it says Repub groups outspent Dem groups by $100 million?
<object style="height: 390px; width: 640px"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Y7e4bj5rrd8?version=3"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Y7e4bj5rrd8?version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></object> TL;DW - The motivation for destroying the unions' collective bargaining isn't financial. It's partisan. If it was financial, they'd take what the union is offering (financial cuts, but keep collective bargaining), but they don't. Why? Unions are largely Democratic -- dissolving them can reduce Democratic votes. There's more points/examples in the video.
That video knocks it out of the park. It's not surprising that groups like the state highway patrol and others are announcing publicly their regret at having endorsed Walker.
Seems Mr. Walker is losing the narrative on this whole mess. The republican majority leader of the state senate has now come out and sided with democrats that no state business will get done until the dems return to the state.
