Wisconsin has 2 coasts -- one on Lake Michigan and on on the mighty Mississippi. Beware of the kraken. This word is new to me, and I'm going to use it often. Wisconsin also has lots of Norwegians.
Posted on 06/06/2012 11:38:38 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The year-long saga of the Wisconsin recall is, at long last, over, and Scott Walker is still standing. The low-key Republican governor has withstood a sustained (and expensive) onslaught from the forces of Big Labor and its allies on the Left that featured everything from the coordinated cross-border retreat of intransigent Democratic lawmakers, to the occupation of the state house by a band of radicals, bongo drummers, and high-school truants, to ill-fated attempts to nullify Republican legislative majorities and pick off uncooperative judges. Walker’s enemies did everything but release the kraken.
And yet, he won. Throughout, Walker has stayed even-keeled, evincing—if not exactly cockiness, then something like the fatalism and serenity of an innocent man in the middle of a trial for his life. An equanimity, and a faith that his reforms would be embraced by Wisconsin voters, that turns out to have been fully warranted.
Walker won because his reform program is popular, and because it is working. The governor’s personal approval numbers in Wisconsin hover around 50 percent — not bad for a man whom most Wisconsinites have seen Photoshopped into a Hitler mustache and Nazi regalia at least once in the last year. But more telling is the popularity of Walker’s reforms. According to one recent Reason-Rupe poll, 72 percent of Wisconsinites favor the requirement that public-sector workers increase their pension contributions to 6 percent of their salaries. And 71 percent favor making government employees pay 12 percent instead of 6 percent of their health-care premiums.
Such commonsense measures, which put public-sector employees on a more even footing with the taxpayers who pay their salaries, have already led to over $1 billion in savings across the state, saving public-sector workers from layoffs in the bargain. The reforms’ success has also neutralized them as campaign issues for Walker’s opponents, who were forced to turn away from the very raison d’être of the recall and emphasize instead a grab-bag of non-issues (Walker’s record on women’s rights?) and non-controversies (vague and discredited whispers about a pending Walker indictment and a secret college love child?) in the final weeks of the race.
Walker won because he represented the taxpayer, while his opponent represented the groups whose livelihoods depend on bilking the taxpayer. Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett served as less of an alternative than a vessel for Big Labor’s unmoored wrath. Barrett raised a mere $4 million on his own, while outside PACs did the heavy lifting — We Are Wisconsin raised more than $5.5 million in the last month alone, including seven-figure donations from AFSCME and the AFL-CIO, six-figure donations from the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, and a mere $720 from its three (that’s three) individual donors. The Left will complain that Walker outspent Barrett handily, but this is no vice considering Walker also handily outraised Barrett in individual donations, about three-quarters of which were for less than $50. It was Walker’s strength, after all, that convinced national Democrats to stop spending on a race they didn’t think they could win.
And, most of all, Scott Walker saved his job by being the adult in the room. While Democrats in Washington seem to be relying on their belief that the United States government is “too big to fail” to justify a program of taxing and spending our way out of debt, the states don’t have such a luxury. And so, across the country, in states red, blue, and purple, they have turned to men like Scott Walker — and Chris Christie, and Mitch Daniels, and others — to close structural deficits, stabilize out-of-control spending, and break the death embrace between Big Labor and Big Government. In taking this toxic partnership head on, in a state with a rich progressive history no less, Walker became its biggest target. His enemies spent a year and a half preparing to take their best shot at him. And a combined total of $100 million or so later, they missed. They missed because voters are starting to understand that governing through crisis requires someone willing to make unpopular choices, stand up to entrenched interests, and hold the line against loud and determined opposition.
Quite simply, Wisconsin voters realized that if they no longer had Scott Walker, they would have to invent him.
“Walker’s enemies did everything but release the kraken.”
That was smart. They should save the kraken for coastal battles.
“Walker won because he represented the taxpayer, while his opponent represented the groups whose livelihoods depend on bilking the taxpayer.”
Loved it..May we be sent more strong leaders who can make the tough right decisions...and take the heat.
Comments?
"Do not listen to this sophistry by vested interests. The acceptance of these arguments will build legal plunder into a whole system. In fact, this has already occurred. The present-day delusion is an attempt to enrich everyone at the expense of everyone else; to make plunder universal under the pretense of organizing it." - The Law; Frederic Bastiat 1801-1850
“Socialism Is Legal Plunder”
“But how is this legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime.”
“Then abolish this law without delay, for it is not only an evil itself, but also it is a fertile source for further evils because it invites reprisals. If such a law — which may be an isolated case — is not abolished immediately, it will spread, multiply, and develop into a system.”
Quotes - The Law; Frederic Bastiat 1801-1850
DEFUND socialist collectives, foreign and domestic.
DEPOPULATE socialists from the body politic.
Here is SOME of the damage they have done...
REVERSE the clock.
live - FREE - republic
Bastiat was a brilliant man and every conservative should study his words.
This piece fails to mention that the taxpayers can’t afford apathy for even one election, because it will take many elections to get out of this mess.
That's golden tag-line material from now until the General Election! Get it while it's hot!!!
...”And yet, he won. Throughout, Walker has stayed even-keeled, evincing—if not exactly cockiness, then something like the fatalism and serenity of an innocent man in the middle of a trial for his life. An equanimity, and a faith that his reforms would be embraced by Wisconsin voters, that turns out to have been fully warranted”...
He is a rare creature..A Statesman in the midst of an attempted takeover of our very way of life. The death of freedom is knocking at the door and this man stood firm though he had everything to lose, personally. He did not give into vice or threats..He is rare and he is an example of a shining light on a hill. When people like Scott Walker become visible, the people rejoice. When the leftists take over and begin stealing everything, the people mourn. May Scott Walker’s example inspire and embolden others who understand that we are in a war to save our country.
Wisconsin has 2 coasts -- one on Lake Michigan and on on the mighty Mississippi. Beware of the kraken. This word is new to me, and I'm going to use it often. Wisconsin also has lots of Norwegians.
OOOOOPS — three coasts. I forgot the one on Lake Superior. Kraken lurk everywhere, it seems.
Kraken ping
ping
The worst is over, because the source of funds for left wing political activism has been greatly diminished —dues-paying govt union membership has been slashed.
The benefits could last for generations.
Learn this lesson, RINOs.
A governor, undefeated.
Now you has one.
Based on the large number of public union members who are not mailing in dues money but keeping it for themselves, they must agree with Gov. Walker’s policies, too.
Shame on me thinking the kraken only lived in salt water.
coast [kohst]   Example Sentences Origin coast    [kohst] Show IPA noun 1. the land next to the sea; seashore: the rocky coast of Maine. 2. the region adjoining it: They live on the coast, a few miles from the sea.
Have you ever seen Lake Michigan? Really seen it? It is larger than some bodies of water termed “seas”. So, its shoreline is “coast” to us. LOL.
I’m in CA right now for humanitarian purposes. We crossed South Bay coming in from the SF Airport. The water was grimy and brown. Quite a contrast to our sparkling blue Lake Michigan.
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