Wisconsin Takes A Stand For Fiscal Sanity

[Wezil]

Of course not. All it takes is teh free market. If not getting sexually harassed by your employer were a reasonable request, people would quit their jobs when their employer harasses them.

I'd take legal action (I'm currently not in a union). Strange how we can do this without a union holding our hand.

[Dinner]

This disregards the power imbalance between private and public sector unions.

Please explain.

[Wezil]

No. I refuse to explain this a third time in one thread. One of my earliest posts has it (1st or 2nd page probably) and I did it again a few pages ago.

[Dinner]

I don't see any power imbalance. What I see is all workers should have the same rights no matter who their employer happens to be.

[Wezil]

Then read the thread. I'm a poor typist and refuse to struggle because you won't read.

[Wezil]

Here you go Oerdin (you lazy bugger )

Collective bargaining in the public sector is a rigged game. If the workers strike the customers have no alternatives for service.

If GM goes on strike I can buy a Toyota. I have an option that places pressure on the GM strikers to resolve their dispute (else lose market share and jobs).

[giblets]

Sorry gribbler - Life intervened.

Oerdin claimed (among other things)



To which you responded:



I actually don't need to go any further into the document as s.16 does indeed cover that. Right at the bottom.

E. Opposes the “Card Check”/Employee Free Choice Act.

Some of it was obviously there.

edit - spelin

Not having card check means a union must hold a vote every year for recertification? Okay, I guess I don't understand card check very well. I thought card check was supposed to change the process for forming a union in the first place, not how unions operate once they exist.

[Wezil]

It's a clear red flag.

If you can infer quorum rules imply fleeing the State is a valid stalling tactic then I will infer the anti-union agenda of the government was obvious.

[Wezil]

s.19

2010 – 19 Privatization

WHEREAS, government is involved in non-regulating area which could be returned to private enterprise; and,
WHEREAS, the public would be better served if these areas of government were put on the open market;
NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Republican Party of Wisconsin, in convention assembled, encourages government at all levels to privatize all appropriate functions.

[Boris Godunov]

Forgive me, but I thought representatives were supposed to represent. If they want to stall and filibuster fine. But don't run away.

How is the stalling tactic of not showing up to deny quorum materially different from any other stalling tactic when it comes to "representing?"

Bull****

"The state faces a looming $2.7 billion budget shortfall." September 12, 2010.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/102748564.html

And you don't understand that Wisconsin has a 2-year budget cycle, and that that projection is for the NEXT budget cycle, not this one. The Budget shortfall of $140 million that has been cited by Walker as the excuse for needing an IMMEDIATE passage of the bill is THE CURRENT cycle, which ends June 30. THIS budget cycle was on path to have a surplus, until Walker gave money away to the rich.

Not that we're surprised you don't know what you're talking about, no.

[giblets]

How is the stalling tactic of not showing up to deny quorum materially different from any other stalling tactic when it comes to "representing?"

The material difference is that it's being done by Democrats. People like HC and BK only object to stalling legislation with parliamentary tricks if it's legislation they like.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

How is the stalling tactic of not showing up to deny quorum materially different from any other stalling tactic when it comes to "representing?"

They have abidcated the responsibility to represent on matters nonfiscal.

If memory serves Walker rejected the thought that carving out the elimnation of the CBA as a non fiscal matter. Others were suggesting it, however. That, however, does not prevent the GOP from pursuing other heinous non fiscal measures while the Dems dither out of state.

http://robertsrulesinreallife.com/2011/02/22/wisconsin-quorum-minimum-varies/

[DinoDoc]

And you don't understand that Wisconsin has a 2-year budget cycle, and that that projection is for the NEXT budget cycle, not this one. The Budget shortfall of $140 million that has been cited by Walker as the excuse for needing an IMMEDIATE passage of the bill is THE CURRENT cycle, which ends June 30. THIS budget cycle was on path to have a surplus, until Walker gave money away to the rich.

Not that we're surprised you don't know what you're talking about, no.

"Despite what you may have heard about Wisconsin’s finances, the state is on track to have a budget surplus this year." - Rated False

[The Mad Monk]

Wis. Assembly passes bill taking away union rights


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Feb 25, 7:42 AM (ET)

By TODD RICHMOND
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MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Republicans in the Wisconsin Assembly took the first significant action on their plan to strip collective bargaining rights from most public workers, abruptly passing the measure early Friday morning before sleep-deprived Democrats realized what was happening.

The vote ended three straight days of punishing debate in the Assembly. But the political standoff over the bill - and the monumental protests at the state Capitol against it - appear far from over.

The Assembly's vote sent the bill on to the Senate, but minority Democrats in that house have fled to Illinois to prevent a vote. No one knows when they will return from hiding. Republicans who control the chamber sent state troopers out looking for them at their homes on Thursday, but they turned up nothing.

"I applaud the Democrats in the Assembly for earnestly debating this bill and urge their counterparts in the state Senate to return to work and do the same," Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald, R-Horicon, said in a statement issued moments after the vote.

The plan from Republican Gov. Scott Walker contains a number of provisions he says are designed to fill the state's $137 million deficit and lay the groundwork for fixing a projected $3.6 billion shortfall in the upcoming 2011-13 budget.

The flashpoint is language that would require public workers to contribute more to their pensions and health insurance and strip them of their right to collectively bargain benefits and work conditions.

Democrats and unions see the measure as an attack on workers' rights and an attempt to cripple union support for Democrats. Union leaders say they would make pension and health care concessions if they can keep their bargaining rights, but Walker has refused to compromise.

Tens of thousands of people have jammed the Capitol since last week to protest, pounding on drums and chanting so loudly that police providing security have resorted to ear plugs. Hundreds have taken to sleeping in the building overnight, dragging in air mattresses and blankets.

With the Senate immobilized, Assembly Republicans decided to act and convened the chamber Tuesday morning.

Democrats launched a filibuster, throwing out dozens of amendments and delivering rambling speeches. Each time Republicans tried to speed up the proceedings, Democrats rose from their seats and wailed that the GOP was stifling them.

Debate had gone on for 60 hours and 15 Democrats were still waiting to speak when the vote started around 1 a.m. Friday. Speaker Pro Tem Bill Kramer, R-Waukesha, opened the roll and closed it within seconds.

Democrats looked around, bewildered. Only 13 of the 38 Democratic members managed to vote in time.

Republicans immediately marched out of the chamber in single file. The Democrats rushed at them, pumping their fists and shouting "Shame!" and "Cowards!"

The Republicans walked past them without responding.

Democrats left the chamber stunned. The protesters greeted them with a thundering chant of "Thank you!" Some Democrats teared up. Others hugged.

"What a terrible, terrible day for Wisconsin," said Rep. Jon Richards, D-Milwaukee. "I am incensed. I am shocked."

GOP leaders in the Assembly refused to speak with reporters, but earlier Friday morning Majority Leader Scott Suder, R-Abbotsford, warned Democrats that they had been given 59 hours to be heard and Republicans were ready to vote.

The governor has said that if the bill does not pass by Friday, the state will miss a deadline to refinance $165 million of debt and will be forced to start issuing layoff notices next week. However, the deadline may not as strict as he says.

The nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau said earlier this week that the debt refinancing could be pushed back as late as Tuesday to achieve the savings Walker wants. Based on a similar refinancing in 2004, about two weeks are needed after the bill becomes law to complete the deal. That means if the bill is adopted by the middle of next week, the state can still meet a March 16 deadline, the Fiscal Bureau said.

Democratic Sen. Jon Erpenbach said he and his colleagues wouldn't return until Walker compromised.

Frustrated by the delay, Senate Republican Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, Jeff Fitzgerald's brother, ordered state troopers to find the missing Democrats, but they came up empty. Wisconsin law doesn't allow police to arrest the lawmakers, but Fitzgerald said he hoped the show of authority would have pressured them to return.

Erpenbach, who was in the Chicago area, said all 14 senators remained outside of Wisconsin.

"It's not so much the Democrats holding things up," Erpenbach said. "It's really a matter of Gov. Walker holding things up."

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20110225/D9LJQ7700.html

I normally edit out Google Ads. Not this time

[MRT144]

Actually, the school my friend taught at is the best public school in Baltimore City.

Again, this isn't any sort of proof that it's like this everywhere, but when a significant fraction of your students have already been in serious trouble with the law you're going to find it difficult to even maintain control, let alone teach anybody anything.

Teachers are generally paid **** wages (especially to start) and have very little control over their curricula, discipline or even classroom policy. Blame it on the union if you feel like it, but in my mind both social conditions and inflexible school bureaucracies are far more at fault.

QUOTED FOR HILARIOUS