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Wisconsin Gov. Walker turns state into battleground for unions
Chicago Sun Times ^ | February 21, 2011 | David Roeder Staff Reporter/droeder@suntimes.com

Posted on 02/21/2011 5:45:42 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife

In barely eight weeks, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a college dropout and Eagle Scout, has placed himself and his state in the center of a national storm.

Walker, a 43-year-old Republican, has divided his own state into partisan camps with his attempt to lower its budget deficit by raising benefit contributions by unionized employees and by erasing many rights under collective bargaining. He has made Wisconsin the focus of a debate over the influence unions should have when state treasuries are tapped out and taxpayers cry that they’ve had enough.

If there’s a lesson in what he’s doing, it’s that voters ought to take candidate positions seriously. Sometimes, politicians really do what they say they will.

His administration has been controversial from its start in January. He turned down an $810 million federal gift for a high-speed rail line because he said Wisconsin couldn’t afford its part of the costs. He partially privatized the state Department of Commerce, forcing some workers to reapply for their jobs.

[snip]

Illinois state Sen. Matt Murphy, a Republican from the Palatine-based 27th District, said Walker is showing courage because “public sector unions are disproportionately powerful in state capitals right now.” Murphy, who has advocated cuts in pension benefits for state workers, said Walker is raising his profile in the party.

“He may want to run his state for a while” and not make a bid in 2012, Murphy said. “But he’s earning a lot of goodwill,” he said.

(Excerpt) Read more at suntimes.com ...


TOPICS: Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: budget; union; walker; wisconsin; wisconsinshowdown
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It appears the Chicago Sun-Times business columnist David Roeder is pitching in to write the paper's political front page "news."
1 posted on 02/21/2011 5:45:46 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

All print media now using the front page, normally dedicated to hard news, into editorials promoting their own liberal agenda.


2 posted on 02/21/2011 5:56:27 AM PST by Carley (WISCONSIN STREET NO DIFFERENT THAN THE ARAB STREET. UGLY AND VIOLENT)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
Here’s Rush on Government Unions

Government unions have a long-standing incestuous relationship with the Democratic Party. In return for massive campaign contributions and foot soldiers for political campaigns, elected Democrats not only reward their union benefactors with favorable contracts, they shield them from the kind of accountability that private sector employees face. That’s one reason our schools are failing. It’s why cities and states with entrenched Democratic leaders are bankrupt. It’s why governments ballooned while millions of private sector employees lost their jobs and even their homes.

3 posted on 02/21/2011 5:58:16 AM PST by Servant of the Cross (the Truth will set you free!)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a college dropout...

Obama, a college graduate... well at least that's what he claims.

4 posted on 02/21/2011 6:00:33 AM PST by MulberryDraw (Turn off the EPA, FCC, Federal Dept. of Education, ...)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
"Wisconsin Gov. Walker turns state into battleground for unions"

Nawww...the UNIONS are turning the state into a battleground for unions...the Governor is just trying to balance the budget.

WEREBROKE
5 posted on 02/21/2011 6:04:05 AM PST by FrankR (The Evil Are Powerless If The Good Are Unafraid! - R. Reagan)
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To: FrankR

To Win, Prepare to Strike Wisconsin!

Feb 20, 2011 [excerpt] There were quite a few signs today hailing the “Fab(ulous) 14,” referring to the Democratic state senators who left Wisconsin in order to prevent a vote on the union-busting bill. But what was most striking about the outpouring on Saturday was precisely that it was not a regimented marching of the troops. Instead there were lots and lots of hand-lettered signs, including quite a few that it is unlikely that the Democratic National Committee approved. A selection:

•“Screw us and We Multiply” (a favorite);
•“Is the National Guard going to teach my class?” (referring to the governor’s threat to bring in the National Guard to break any strike);
•“Welcome to Wisconsin – Leave Your Rights At the Border”;
•“You Can Pry My Union Card from My Cold Dead Hand”;
•“Hey Scott, I Wanted to Screw My Fourth Grade Teacher, Too”;
•“This is Wisconsin, We Love Beer, With Our Unions, At Our Union Meetings, Not Tea-Parties.”
•Another variant: “We Have Keg Parties, Not Tea Parties,” and “No Tea Party, No Klan in Wisconsin.”
•“Aaron Rogers Is a Union Rep” (referring to the star quarterback of the Green Bay Packers);
•“Northern Wisconsin Loves Our Teachers”;
•“Midwife for Labor”;
•“Don’t Balance the Budget on the Backs of Our Children”; and
•“The Workers Revolution Has Begun” (this one carried by a Madison teacher).
There were numerous references to the recent protests in Egypt, several noting that while they had forced out a dictator in Cairo while Wisconsin is still saddled with one. Ian’s Pizza announced it had stopped delivering pies except for orders coming in from as far away as Egypt paying to take pizzas to the square to offer to demonstrators.

Meanwhile, a group of AFSCME moms, dads and kids handed out free hot dogs. (We were famished and they were great.) And in the middle of the Tea Party rally a huge column of yellow Union Cabs circled the square honking their horns in solidarity with labor. All scripted from Washington? As if.

Signs referred to Nazi Germany, citing Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller’s famous lines (“Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak out”). Also, “May 1933, Hitler Bans Trade Unions.” Immigrants’ rights groups mobilized as well, including the Madison-area Unión de Trabajadores Inmigrantes (UTI – Immigrant Workers Union) which marched behind a banner proclaiming “An Injury to One Is an Injury to All!” (At the late-afternoon rally when a speaker tried to get the crowd to chant this classic slogan of labor solidarity, most didn’t know the second line. But in struggle people pick up the language of protest quickly.) [end excerpt]

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/02/20/18672599.php

Other topics:

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drug war
education
en español
environment
global justice
government
health/housing
immigrant
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6 posted on 02/21/2011 6:08:01 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife (Allhttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2122429/posts)
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To: Servant of the Cross

Rush is right.


7 posted on 02/21/2011 6:08:56 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife (Allhttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2122429/posts)
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To: Servant of the Cross
Here's a union film from 1948 condemning Republicans and Big Business:

The Great Swindle (1948)

http://retrovision.tv/freevideo/great-swindle-the-1948

If anyone has a Roku player, you can watch a bunch of old films on the Pub-a-Dub channel.

8 posted on 02/21/2011 6:15:29 AM PST by Caribou ( www.ktok.com Red State Radio free streaming. RIP Mark Shannon)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

A better title:

Wisconsin Governor Walker Stands Up for Taxpayers.


9 posted on 02/21/2011 6:15:56 AM PST by MortMan (What disease did cured ham used to have?)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

No kidding.

Walker is a Man of his Word with principles.

And he is upported by the taxpayers.

Too bad the media doesn’t tell you how one-sided the collective bargaining is for the unions and the system is fixed to support higher wages and benefits for teachers. WEAC (the teachers union) has a strangehold on government, especially when the rats are in charge.

Wisconsin needs to become a Right to Work State.


10 posted on 02/21/2011 6:16:53 AM PST by ADSUM (Democracy works when citizens get involved and keep government honest.)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

You are right. Even the title—Walker is turning the state into a “battleground.” Is it Walker or the unions who started the battle? If the news was reported straight—that all Walker did was propose reducing benefits to a realistic (but still better than the private sector) level—readers would realize just how unreasonable unions are being. Readers would realize that unions have incredible power at the expense of taxpayers and are turning the state into a battleground to keep their privileged position.


11 posted on 02/21/2011 6:16:56 AM PST by Opinionated Blowhard ("The time will come when Winter will ask you what you were doing all Summer" -- Henry Clay)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Actually, it was the teachers union that went to war and is irrationally upsetting the capitol.

The terrorist Richard Trumka did not come to defend, but to attack.


12 posted on 02/21/2011 6:25:39 AM PST by bert (K.E. N.P. N.C. D.E. +12 ....( History is a process, not an event ))
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To: ADSUM

Elections have consequences and tax paying voters spoke loud and clear.


13 posted on 02/21/2011 6:26:07 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife (Allhttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2122429/posts)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
IL: HEAL THYSELF.
14 posted on 02/21/2011 6:28:10 AM PST by JPG (As WI goes, so goes the nation. Thank you, Gov Walker.)
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To: MulberryDraw
...and Eagle Scout

Don't forget the other part of the insult.

15 posted on 02/21/2011 6:31:37 AM PST by tbpiper
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To: Opinionated Blowhard
... Even the title—Walker is turning the state into a “battleground.” Is it Walker or the unions who started the battle? ...

The Left has followed Osama bin Laden's playbook, that called all jihadists to Iraq and Afghanistan to fight their "enemy."

16 posted on 02/21/2011 6:32:22 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife (Allhttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2122429/posts)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
In case anyone needs a Dr's note to take the day off.

Dr, Louis Sanner

Northeast Family Medical Center

3209 Dryden Drive

Madison, WI, 53704

Phone Number: (608) 241-9020

17 posted on 02/21/2011 6:39:03 AM PST by marlon ("They talk about me like a dog" Barack Obama)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

LISTEN to Newsradio 620 WTMJ Milwaukee conservative Charlie Sykes over the Internet!

Click Here http://www.620wtmj.com/home/ondemand/44930432.html


18 posted on 02/21/2011 6:45:28 AM PST by KeyLargo
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To: ADSUM
Too bad the media doesn’t tell you how one-sided the collective bargaining is for the unions and the system is fixed to support higher wages and benefits for teachers. WEAC (the teachers union) has a strangehold on government, especially when the rats are in charge. Wisconsinh needs to become a Right to Work State.

This is exactly right. Since a quorum is needed in the state Senate for passage of bills related to the budget, why not pass legislation on Tuesday in the absence of the whiny demonrats that would make WI a right to work state, make it unlawful for any employers including the state to deduct union dues from an employees paycheck, and eliminate collective bargaining for state employees? These could be passed in their absence as they are not budget related, and it would stop this crap in its tracks.

19 posted on 02/21/2011 6:48:37 AM PST by RobertClark (On a long enough timeline the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.)
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To: marlon

or email him:

lou.sanner@fammed.wisc.edu

I did :)

From:(edited)
To: lou.sanner@fammed.wisc.edu

I hear you’re very sympathetic to people under stress. My husband has worked 3 months out of the last year and didn’t qualify for unemployment. We still have to pay our taxes, which I’m sure will make the school teachers and unions happy, but it’s a little stressful for us. Can I get a sick note and a prescription for Xanax?

Thanks much!

Patricia XXXXX, RN


20 posted on 02/21/2011 6:52:55 AM PST by pops88
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