Walker Wins
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Unions lost big in Wisconsin showdown
Published June 06, 2012
Associated Press
Gov. Scott Walker's definitive victory.... reverberating in other state capitals. It exposed the shrunken political muscle of the unions that tried to oust him, underscoring their vulnerability to attacks from the right and inability to retaliate.
Republicans in some nearby states where anti-union measures failed this year say they now plan to use Walker's victory to mount renewed efforts in 2013.
"Now it is time for the Maine voters to show support for LePage by striking down the bonds that our legislature passed."
Are they all about building new jails?
Metaphorically speaking. Yes.
Mac
:)
From Walter Russell Mead...writing in "The American Intererst":
......"Scott Walker attacked the American labor movement where it lives: the public sector unions are the only bright spot in the dismal world of modern American unions. They have the growth, they have the money, they have — or they had — the hope"......
......"The left’s problem in Wisconsin wasn’t that the right had too much money. The left’s problem is that the left’s agenda didn’t have enough support from the public...........Wisconsin electorate chewed over the issues........then handed the left a humiliating, stinging and strategic defeat"........
A wonderful, well thought out analysis of what it all means for the future
As Mead points out, and can be clearly seen by this observer, the left has reached it's nadir, and passed over the summit, to the point where the only way to go now.........is down!
I have long said that public employee unions should be illegal, and the biggest, simplest reason is that, because of the influence of public money, on the political system, public employee unions have had the clout to elect those they desire, and pass the laws they desire also. In the end, because of this undue influence on politics, they, in effect, sit at the negotitating table.......and bargain with themselves!.
Between those who spend many years in Ivy League halls, and gain a smug, undeserved, sense of wisdom, beyond that possessed by us "commoners" and those who work for government, and gain an undeserved sense of "specialness and profound arrogance" in the process, the left has built this machine over the past 6 decades. Like those who implode large buildings as a profession, a series of many steps has to take place in order to bring down the building in the proper sequence and to provide the desired end result...... a large pile of rubble to be dragged off to the dust bin of history.
Scott Walker, and the people of Wisconsin have just lit the fuse!
I have nothing personal against any individual who works for the public, in fact I believe that the state of Maine has many devoted employees who give the job their best, every day. I consider myself fortunate in that in the course of my life I have met quite a few of them, devoted to their jobs. Rather it is a criticism of a system, one that even those who are a part of that system, cannot often see, and that system has taken us to a financial precipice where we as a nation, and most individual states, are in danger of financial catastrophe because of the end results of this system.
My father spent most of his adult life in public employ in Maine, and was dedicated to doing his job as best that he could. But during the later years, he could see where all of this was going, and spoke often of how it had to be reformed. He has been gone for 5 yrs now, but if he is in a place where he can see what just happened in Wisconsin, I believe he will be pleased!
I know I sure am!
I believe that government must honor the promises made to employees, to this point in time, as best it can, but from this point forward, the "entitlements" granted to those who benefit directly from this attachment to the public checkbook, must be cut back.....every way they can be, until we get to a point where government, and those who benefit from it, are forced to live within the means available.
WC
Unashamedly stolen from former Senator Fred Thompson's Facebook page:
Despite the blowout, some Democrats in Wisconsin are crying voter fraud.
Apparently some Republicans had been going around locking cemetery gates.
Too danged funny.
Today's poll: LePage vs. unions
Should Gov. LePage pursue changes to public sector unions?
Yes -- 48%
No -- 52%
Total Votes: 986
Yes 48%
No 52%
OK. The PPH and City Hall employees* have voted . .
*Of course PPH employees read the paper. City Hall employees read it on your dime.
One of the more interesting numbers from Wisconsin came out well before the recent election. In an article Peggy Noonan noted that after Walker allowed State employees to stop paying dues to the American Federation for State, County and Municipal Employees if they didn't want to be represented by the union the number of unionized employees went from 62,218 down to 28,785. She said that this shows that some public union involvement is simply coerced.
She also said Obama's presidency is a house of cards and he has become a traveling joke. She commented on his claim that he is the lowest spending President than previous Presidents. She said either he lied - which is a bad thing or, he actually believes it - which is even worse.
We have some contrary financial analysis coming out now, that refutes many of the liberal spending claims:
If once considers the total amounts spent during the Days of Cheesehead Rage on state senate recall elections, Supreme Court elections and so on in 2011-12, the gap shrinks to roughly 1.5-to-1.
... these figures only account for sums legally required to be reported. Rutgers University economist Leo Troy has estimated that actual union political spending is likely several times higher than generally reported.
No, Dems were not outspent 7 to 1 in Wisconsin
I wonder if the Press herald will print a correction to their howler of an editorial, or if Sussman will order them to clamp down on this little bit of news.
Calling Steve Mistler! It's time to "speak truth to power!"
lol.
Latest leftie spin:
"Now that Walker has won his recall, he should moderate his views to bring the state together."
Ummm... no.
Well why didn't the progressives donate? They could have, no one was stopping them. How much did Obama outspend McCain by?
The left pulled their spending back because they knew it was a loser, plus the unions didn't like the Democrat candidate.
Someone needs to tell that to Rachel Madcow.
Oh, they know it, but it's not the spin.
From now until November, all we are going to hear about is "Corporate money stealing elections." Lather, rinse, repeat.
One of the best of these I've seen.
What I find stunning is that Mainers actually voted to have the contractual agreement with the Maine Public Employees Retirement Fund embedded into our constitution. MPERS doesn't exist in our constitution but the contractual agreement with them does. Contractual agreements do not belong in constitutions- which are the underlying principals of our laws and there is a good reason why MPERS is not provided for in our constitution- it is inconsistent with other parts of our constitution. So idiotic to put a payment plan into a constitution. No one knows what the future brings but now we are living it. We have a constitutionalized dept to government workers that we cannot afford.- That is we have a constitutionalized dept to a special interest group in the government sector.
PREAMBLE MAINE CONSTITUTION
Objects of government. We the people of Maine, in order to establish justice, insure tranquility, provide for our mutual defense, promote our common welfare, and secure to ourselves and our posterity the blessings of liberty, acknowledging with grateful hearts the goodness of the Sovereign Ruler of the Universe in affording us an opportunity, so favorable to the design; and, imploring God's aid and direction in its accomplishment, do agree to form ourselves into a free and independent State, by the style and title of the State of Maine and do ordain and establish the following Constitution for the government of the same.
"Common welfare" and special interests groups serve separate purposes. We need to repeal the amendment that embedded a contractual agreement with a special interest group into our constitution.
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"Winning!"