Tag: scott walker

Wisconsin progressives attack charter school.

Yup, ‘attacked.’  Those locks didn’t vandalize themselves, and they weren’t vandalized by the Scott Walker administration.  That leaves a pretty small list of suspects from which to choose.  Anyway, I’m just putting this video about the protests at Messmer Preparatory Catholic School (via Hot Air) up, without any of the (scathing) editorial comments that I had originally written.

But see if you can guess what the major difference was between the ‘choice’ school kids being protested at, and the screaming vandals doing the protesting.  Hint: if you know anything about the DC school choice saga then you already know what I’m talking about – which is also true if you’re a typical progressive activist.  The only difference there is, you’d rather gargle razor blades then admit that you do know what I’m talking about*. Continue reading Wisconsin progressives attack charter school.

#rsrh WI progressive children’s-book fans behaving badly again.

This time, they have (allegedly, to be sure) filled a primary school’s locks with glue and metal in what will end up being a profoundly futile attempt to keep Governor Scott Walker from reading Oh, the Places You’ll Go! to a bunch of school children.  Also – in what will later be revealed to be related news – it turns out that the sweetheart last-minute pre-election deals that the old Madison city administration made with Big Labor will result in higher property taxes AND lowered services this year for Madison residents!  Including the elimination of the crossing guard program!  Hope those kids are good at broken-field running!

Anyway, I mention this to set up some snark, here: Continue reading #rsrh WI progressive children’s-book fans behaving badly again.

WI Democrats make (illiterate) threats to news organization.

Said threats being made by one Graeme Zielinski, communications director (his title will be funny in a moment; trust me) for the Wisconsin Democratic party – and my, but did he ever communicate!  And more than Zielinski really intended to, methinks.

Background information: there’s a site called WisconsinReporter.com.  They apparently cover Wisconsin local politics – of which there’s been quite a bit lately that’s been of interest on a national level, of course – and earlier in the week the site reported on an interview that Governor Scott Walker did with the Heritage Foundation.  In the process of that article, WisconsinReporter.com noted two things:

  1. Wisconsin reportedly added 9,500 jobs in June.  This is technically the same number as half the net jobs created nationwide in the US (direct comparisons are really sort of… imprecise).
  2. And that Zielinski was – in the process of using language that, while not actually profane, was not exactly professional – touting Illinois’s job-creation credentials, despite the fact that Illinois reportedly lost a net 18,900 jobs in June.

So far, so… not really that much of a thing, is it?  Certainly not something that would spark a threat of going after press credentials.  At least, not something that would spark a threat that would be made by normal people. Continue reading WI Democrats make (illiterate) threats to news organization.

Wisconsin labor union reform: saving jobs, money, schools.

There is a striking (if you’ll pardon the pun) dichotomy taking shape in the Wisconsin public school system right now, and it’s one that should hardly be surprising to anybody who was paying attention to this spring’s labor union reform struggles.  Said dichotomy is as follows:

  • School districts that were able to institute Scott Walker’s & the GOP’s reforms to collective bargaining procedures have generally been able to balance their school budgets for the year without layoffs.  In fact, at least one district that was on the verge of instituting layoffs will be able to avoid that.
  • School districts that were not able to institute those reforms – for whatever reasons – will not be avoiding layoffs.

The Weekly Standard article linked to above lists Milwaukee (354 teachers fired) and Kenosha (212 teachers to be laid off).  The first example is particularly noteworthy because: a), Milwaukee had had to fire an additional 482 teachers in 2010; and b), the Milwaukee school board estimates that it could rehire at least 200 of their teachers if the union simply agreed to instituting employee contributions to their own pensions (5.8%).  The union (in the form of its president Bob Peterson*) refused, of course.  They’re rather defensive about it, too – which is nice; I always like to see admissions of shame and remorse, even if it’s just being restricted to subconscious attitudes. Continue reading Wisconsin labor union reform: saving jobs, money, schools.

Wisconsin school district now stable, thanks to Scott Walker et al.

Oh, that awful Scott Walker and his awful union reform law. It’s been devastating; I mean, look at just one school district affected by the Republican-passed law! The Kaukauna School District was already laboring under a $400,000 deficit; now, ‘thanks’ to Scott Walker and the Republican party, they’re now stuck with a $1,500,000 surplus! That means more work for the hiring department! That means that they’re going to have to gut the average class size!  That means that the school district will probably now be able to get away with instituting the hideously unfair program of… merit pay!

Yes, I’m being sarcastic; this is actually great news.  Most of the savings are taking place from teachers facing a slight increase in their contributions to their health care (still well below the average private sector contribution, mind you) and the institution of a modest contribution to their pension funds. They’ve also had their work week bumped up – to forty hours – and they’re up to six out of seven periods teaching a day, instead of five.  Yes, this kind of fiddling was what Big Labor in Wisconsin went to the wall to to prevent.  Well, that and monopoly pricing: Continue reading Wisconsin school district now stable, thanks to Scott Walker et al.

Gov. Scott Walker (R, WI) balances budget over Democratic protests.

Via Ann Althouse comes this video of a mini-stampede by Wisconsin Democrats, upon hearing that Governor Scott Walker was supposedly leaving the Capitol after signing legislation balancing the budget without raising taxes:

…Oops. Well. Natural mistake. Try this: Continue reading Gov. Scott Walker (R, WI) balances budget over Democratic protests.

This is the way WI protests end.

This is the way WI protests end.
This is the way WI protests end.
This is the way WI protests end.

(Via Instapundit) Not with a bang, but with a bunch of self-indulgent whining as the adults in the room get on with the state of Wisconsin’s business.

Hmm. Doesn’t really scan.

Moe Lane

PS: The entire Wisconsin protest thing would have been a lot more impressive in the old days, before we saw what groups like the Tea Party could do AND SUSTAIN.

#rsrh WI Dems want it both ways on union reform bill.

So, I’m confused.

  • You see, I know that the Wisconsin Supreme Court did a full-force smackdown of Judge MaryAnn Sumi’s incorrect and egregious attempt to subvert the will of the Wisconsin legislature with regard to labor union reform.  That part is obvious.
  • I also know that (Democratic) Secretary of State Doug La Follette is trying to give his party’s Big Labor cronies two more weeks at the public troughs by trying to delay publishing the bill until the 28th.  Like Ann Althouse (and presumably Glenn Reynolds), I’m not sure why La Follette thinks that he can get away with it, but I understand the gambit.
  • What I don’t get is this: if the bill hasn’t been published (and thus not law), why did Big Labor get to file suit against it*?  And if Big Labor can file suit against it, then it’s law – and Secretary La Follette’s wrong about a key aspect of his job, right?

Seriously, while I am not a lawyer, I still don’t see exactly how the Democrats can have it both ways on this.  Either it’s law or it’s not.  If it’s not, then they shouldn’t be able to file a lawsuit.  If it is, then La Follette is ignorant of his responsibilities.  The Left should not be able to pick and choose like this.

Moe Lane

*Frivolously, as Hot Air rightly notes: differential treatment of various types of workers goes all the way back to Taft-Hartley.  Good luck trying to overthrow that one, folks.

PS: Yes, I’ve already had somebody privately tell me that common sense sometimes has very little to do with the law.

Joe Conason lies about PPP WI recall poll.

This is very entertaining, because it takes real skill to muck up reporting this PPP poll about Scott Walker’s chances in a hypothetical recall election; fortunately, Joe Conason is up to the challenge. Let’s look at what Conason wrote (bolding mine):

Asked whether they would support or oppose [Scott Walker’s] removal from office in a recall election, 50 percent said yes and only 47 percent said no.

The same poll found that Wisconsin voters are also apparently sorry that they replaced progressive Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold last fall with a tea party extremist named Ron Johnson. Today, they would re-elect Feingold with a comfortable margin over any Republican…

I’ve already gotten a screenshot of this, by the way. Just in case Truthdig decides to memory-hole the entire thing.

Anyway, again: Conason is reporting that 50% of PPP’s respondents favor a recall of Walker. So far, so good for the Democrats. PPP also reports that in that hypothetical election Feingold would win. OK, piece of data to consider. But what Conason did here – and probably deliberately, seeing as he didn’t link to the original poll – was falsely claim that this means that Feingold would win re-election against Senator Ron Johnson, despite the fact that PPP did not poll that hypothetical match-up.  You see, Feingold was never governor of Wisconsin, so he cannot be re-elected to that position.  The poll is strictly about the Wisconsin recall situation*; not about Ron Johnson.  Perhaps PPP will poll a hypothetical rematch between the two, although why anybody would bother is beyond me completely (it’s not going to matter before 2016 anyway); but until then, it’s dishonest to use polling results in this manner.

Yes, ‘dishonest.’  Remember, we know that Conason meant this poll, because the numbers that he did specifically quote (but not source) are the same; and we know that Conason meant Feingold’s re-election as Senator, because he did specifically use the word “re-elect.” If Joe Conason tries to claim that this was all an innocent mistake – which he undoubtedly will – then said claim should be seen as the calculated insult to his readers’ intelligence that it is.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

*As to the poll itself: yup, pretty harsh.  Guess we’ll see in July how those legislature recall numbers hold up, huh? And the obvious problem that the Democrats face in exploiting their hypothetical advantage is left as an exercise for the reader: I don’t give free hints to the Left unless it suits me.

Scott Fitzgerald auditions for WI-SEN in 2012.

…At least, that’s how I’m interpreting this letter from the Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader to (hiding) Wisconsin Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller, in response to Miller’s request for a face-to-face meeting to discuss a possible compromise that would allow Wisconsin senators to came back home with something roughly approximating their dignity intact.  Fitzgerald’s letter starts as follows:

Sen. Mark Miller
Parts Unknown, IL

…and pretty much continues in that vein for six paragraphs’ worth of what has to be one of the better official political letters that I have read, and I unfortunately have to read a lot of these.  Read it for yourself: it’s a treat.  Then again, any official document where the words and phrases ‘bizarre,’ “We all deserve better than this,” and “I hope you are enjoying your vacation, and your vacation from reality” usually is.

Couple this with Governor Scott Walker’s response – short version: No; slightly longer version: Heck, no* – and you might be forgiven for thinking that the Wisconsin GOP is not going to back down on this issue…

Moe Lane (crosspost)

*With a dollop of implied “We’re talking to Senate Democrats that aren’t you, you know.”