More good news: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14464327
I'm kind of torn between R and D stateside but in this instance I'm very happy.
More good news: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14464327
I'm kind of torn between R and D stateside but in this instance I'm very happy.
Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Allaku Akbar!
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/10/us...wisconsin.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...cJ6I_blog.html
The midwestern union machine brought everything to the table. Money, out-of-state foot soldiers and a vast media operation against the six people up for recall. They failed the first phase and will thus likely fail the second phase (two more recall elections next week).
A victory for reality as well as Obama's famous line that "elections have consequences".
Good to see you twitching again.People need to have hobbies.
I could have had class. I could have been a contender.
I could have been somebody. Instead of a bum
Which is what I am
I aim at the stars
But sometimes I hit London
I wish public union-busting was an actual thing one could do. Well, I guess it is but that's not be. I've sadly contributed nothing to this, but it's been fun to watch.
I just checked Marc A. Thiessen. Not the most unbiased commentator around I'd suspect
I could have had class. I could have been a contender.
I could have been somebody. Instead of a bum
Which is what I am
I aim at the stars
But sometimes I hit London
Alhamdulillah, would be the term to use here.Originally Posted by Dreadnaught
Congratulations America
True, that was an opinion piece. I should have made that distinction more clear.I just checked Marc A. Thiessen. Not the most unbiased commentator around I'd suspect
Fair enough. I was also going to use jazakallah to the voters of Wisconsin (so far).
This is by no means over, but it looks like it's coming to an endgame with a vote to recall heroic Governor Walker in Wisconsin next week.
What I find interesting is that, as soon as the law came on the books that removed mandatory union payments (IE giving employees a choice of paying money to the union), some government union rolls declined substantially. The unions are getting plenty of money from out of state to fight this. But I think it highlights the cynical moneymaking system that has been extorted by government unions.
We'll see how this plays out next week.
Updated May 30, 2012, 7:57 p.m. ET
Wisconsin Unions See Ranks Drop Ahead of Recall Vote
Public-employee unions in Wisconsin have experienced a dramatic drop in membership—by more than half for the second-biggest union—since a law championed by Republican Gov. Scott Walker sharply curtailed their ability to bargain over wages and working conditions.
Now with Mr. Walker facing a recall vote Tuesday, voters will decide whether his policies in the centrist state should continue—or whether they have gone too far.
The election could mark a pivot point for organized labor.
Mr. Walker's ouster would derail the political career of a rising Republican star and send a warning to other elected officials who are battling unions. But a victory for the governor, who has been leading his Democratic opponent in recent polls, would amount to an endorsement of an effort to curtail public-sector unions, which have been a pillar of strength for organized labor while private-sector membership has dwindled.
That could mean the sharp losses that some Wisconsin public-worker unions have experienced is a harbinger of similar unions' future nationwide, union leaders fear. Failure to oust Mr. Walker and overturn the Wisconsin law "spells doom," said Bryan Kennedy, the American Federation of Teachers' Wisconsin president.
Wisconsin membership in the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees—the state's second-largest public-sector union after the National Education Association, which represents teachers—fell to 28,745 in February from 62,818 in March 2011, according to a person who has viewed Afscme's figures. A spokesman for Afscme declined to comment.
Much of that decline came from Afscme Council 24, which represents Wisconsin state workers, whose membership plunged by two-thirds to 7,100 from 22,300 last year.
A provision of the Walker law that eliminated automatic dues collection hurt union membership. When a public-sector contract expires the state now stops collecting dues from the affected workers' paychecks unless they say they want the dues taken out, said Peter Davis, general counsel of the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission.
In many cases, Afscme dropped members from its rolls after it failed to get them to affirm they want dues collected, said a labor official familiar with Afscme's figures. In a smaller number of cases, membership losses were due to worker layoffs.
Tina Pocernich, a researcher at Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College, was a dues-paying union member for 15 years. But after the Walker law went into effect she told the American Federation of Teachers she wanted out.
"It was a hard decision for me to make," said Ms. Pocernich, a 44-year-old mother of five, who left the union in March. "But there's nothing the union can do anymore."
But economic factors also played a role. Mr. Walker required public-sector employees to shoulder a greater share of pension and health-care costs, which ate up an added $300 of Ms. Pocernich's monthly salary of less than $3,100. She and her husband, a floor supervisor at a machine shop, cut back on their satellite-TV package and stopped going to weekly dinners at Applebee's.
Meanwhile, she said, she paid the AFT $18.50 out of her biweekly paycheck and was now getting nothing in return. Her college eliminated one small-but-treasured perk, the ability to punch out an hour early during summer months—and the union was powerless to stop it.
In the nearly 15 months since Mr. Walker signed the law, 6,000 of the AFT's Wisconsin 17,000 members quit, the union said. It blamed the drop on the law.
A Walker victory would have other reverberations. It could put Wisconsin—which President Barack Obama won by nearly 14 percentage points in 2008—into play in this November's presidential contest, requiring his campaign to devote valuable resources to defending it. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has strongly backed Mr. Walker's efforts.
Mr. Walker, 44, has likened his policies to Ronald Reagan's breaking of the air-traffic-controllers union in 1981. He says unions make it difficult to balance budgets while maintaining government services without raising taxes. Backers have poured more than $30 million into his campaign since last year, compared with $3.9 million raised by his opponent, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, who entered the race in late March.
A victory by Mr. Walker "will be a dramatic signal to local and state politicians they can, in the name of fiscal responsibility, tell unions…to come into parity with private-sector workers, especially on benefits," said Michael Lotito, a San Francisco attorney who represents management in labor disputes and has testified on labor issues before Congress.
The Walker law sharply curbed collective bargaining for nearly all the state's public-employee unions except those for police and firefighters. Unions no longer can represent members in negotiations for better working conditions or for pay raises beyond the increase in inflation.
Unions have spent millions of dollars on TV ads campaigning against Mr. Walker. "Unions are putting a lot on the line and if they win, they win big, but if they lose, they lose even bigger," said Gary Chaison, a professor of industrial relations at Clark University. A loss "will be interpreted as a sign of weakness and a lack of public sympathy."
Organized labor's strength has been declining for 60 years, as unions failed to keep pace with globalization, an increasingly service-oriented economy and more aggressive opposition from employers. Today, just one in eight American workers is a union member compared with more than one in three in the mid-1950s.
But that decline has come almost entirely in the private sector, where only 7% of workers today are union members. Public-sector union membership rates have held steady at around 37% since 1979, and the number of members has increased, thanks to growth in government employment. In 2009, for the first time, there were more union members in government than in companies.
The Labor Department estimates Wisconsin had 187,000 public-worker union members last year, but it hasn't updated the data for this year. The Wisconsin affiliate of the National Education Association declined to comment on any membership change.
Public-employee unions are under pressure elsewhere, too, as state and local officials cut spending in the wake of the recession, although the unions have won some fights. Ohio voters last year overturned a Republican law that went even further than Wisconsin's in limiting bargaining rights for public-sector unions by including police and firefighters.
But Republican governors Mitch Daniels of Indiana and Chris Christie of New Jersey have seen their popularity rise after taking on unions, and even some Democratic mayors in big cities—such as Chicago's Rahm Emanuel—have been pressing unions to accept concessions to help balance budgets.
Membership declines could be self-perpetuating, said Mr. Chaison of Clark University. With diminished dues, unions deliver fewer services, making membership less appealing and hampering recruiting.
The fight in Wisconsin has spawned bitter rancor across a state whose divergent progressive and conservative political traditions were long balanced by a culture of political compromise.
After Mr. Walker proposed the law, hundreds of thousands of union members and other labor supporters shut down the state capital for weeks, and Democratic lawmakers fled to Illinois to try to prevent the quorum the bill needed to pass. Union organizers helped gather more than 900,000 signatures to force the recall election.
But the unions also have made mistakes. They spent $4 million backing Kathleen Falk, a labor-friendly former official in Madison, who was crushed in the May 8 Democratic primary by Mr. Barrett.
Meanwhile, collective-bargaining rights for public employees has receded as an issue, with far more people saying in recent polls that job creation is their top priority.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...413999718.html
Fingers crossed that Walker wins.
[Walker's] Backers have poured more than $30 million into his campaign since last year, compared with $3.9 million raised by his opponent, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, who entered the race in late March.
Plus plenty of money from the Koch Brothers, super-PACs, and out-of-state money. I heard the Kochs are funding a huge "bus tour" next week, to ship people in from surrounding states, with free food and other perks, but it's not a "political event"....just a pro-Wisconsin rally, right before the elections.
Why? Simply because of the collective bargaining angle? Do you know anything about Wisconsin's unemployment rates, loss of jobs (including the private sector), or other budgetary....and legal problems? Did you know Walker is the ONLY US Governor with a criminal defense fund?
"Koch Brothers" Yawn. You sound like kathaksung when you go on about them.
Yes, because we all know the unions and the Democratic party aren't bringing in anyone or anything from out out of state. They are the Real Americans after all.
Then perhaps you should read more about the Koch Brothers, their super-PAC or 501-C, and where they decide to allocate their financial influence. They're reportedly prepared to spend $400-500 million between now and November. How's that such a "yawn"?
Will do. Next time I read about the Illuminati, lizard men or tin foil hats.
Is Rand comparing our political landscape to the illuminati? That seems rather dishonest and ignorant
"In a field where an overlooked bug could cost millions, you want people who will speak their minds, even if they’re sometimes obnoxious about it."
Do you?
http://www.startribune.com/politics/153183295.html
MADISON, Wis. - Unemployment rates dropped in most Wisconsin counties and largest cities last month, according to the latest batch of jobs data released Wednesday, less than two weeks before the June 5 recall against Gov. Scott Walker.
Unemployment figures have been a major issue in the campaign, with Walker relying on one set of numbers based on a census of nearly every Wisconsin employer that show the state gained more than 23,000 jobs in 2011.
Walker released those figures last week, a highly unusual move that came before the numbers had been reviewed and finalized by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The numbers won't be finalized until three weeks after the recall.
Walker's opponent, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, said that because those numbers are preliminary, the data that should be looked at to judge Walker are monthly figures based on a much smaller survey of about 3.5 percent of the state's employers. Those figures show the state lost 33,900 jobs in 2011.
In the past, Walker's administration never quibbled much with that survey, leading opponents to accuse the governor of intentionally clouding the jobs picture before the election.
The new figures released Wednesday by the Department of Workforce Development, an agency within Walker's administration, track local unemployment rates and employment figures for metropolitan areas.
The department's numbers show that 30 of the state's 32 largest cities saw unemployment rate decreases between March and April, with Mount Pleasant experiencing a slight increase from 9 percent to 9.1 percent and Brookfield unchanged.
Racine had the highest unemployment rate at 11.2 percent, while Caledonia had the lowest at 3.4 percent.
Every county's unemployment dropped except Iron County, where the rate increased from 12.7 percent to 12.8 percent. Menominee County's jobless rate was the highest at 15.9 percent, while Dane County had the lowest rate at 4.4 percent.
Job increases were reported in four metropolitan areas — Green Bay, La Crosse, Oshkosh-Neenah, and Sheboygan. Job losses were reported in seven — Appleton, Eau Claire, Fond du Lac, Madison, Milwaukee, Racine and Wausau.
No, I'm comparing conspiracy theories that the Kochs are buying the election, to other whacko conspiracy theories.Is Rand comparing our political landscape to the illuminati? That seems rather dishonest and ignorant
It's no less a "conspiracy theory" than unions are bringing in big money to influence voters.
But you didn't answer the question --- Why do you want Walker to win the recall election?
Because he's doing an excellent job and the right thing against tough opposition. Why wouldn't you want Walker to win?
This is why I dislike the notion of Recall Elections in general. I like them superficially, but an elected politician should be able to make tough decisions and then get judged on their record.
I think WI should make that decision, and use the options available between elections if they're dissatisfied. Walker is being investigated for corruption (which he denies), unemployment is up, they've lost jobs in the private sector, so his record hasn't been so "excellent". There's more to doing the job, or making tough decisions, than legislating away collective bargaining -- something that wasn't even on his campaign platform -- unless you're a single-issue voter.
Ohio had an option to recall the legislation against collective bargaining, without having to recall the governor.
I've been wondering about that. This guy seems SUPER-dodgy tbh, not as bad as his aides etc perhaps but even so.
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
Walker adopted a strategy of "Divide and Conquer" (caught on tape saying so), pandering to the Tea Party arm of the Republican party....where concepts like moderation and compromise are dirty words....and put his own political future ahead of fixing the state's problems. He seems to pledge allegiance to a few of his big corporate donors and/or the extreme wing of the RNC, instead of WI's millions of workers and middle class.
This is like a snapshot into how to govern for the future, what's considered a public "investment" when budgets are busted.....and whether Austerity can, indeed, lead to Prosperity, when public services like Education, Health and Safety are the first things to be cut. Should we ask the Eurozone how that's going?
Too bad his "donors" didn't inject that $30 million directly into small business, infrastructure projects, school districts, or job training.
Its such a shame as I have respect for you, but you really are hatefully partisan at times aren't you?Too bad his "donors" didn't inject that $30 million directly into small business, infrastructure projects, school districts, or job training.
When can we expect the result?
Never mind that I'm thinking of misconduct and criminality and other dodginessWalker adopted a strategy of "Divide and Conquer" (caught on tape saying so), pandering to the Tea Party arm of the Republican party....where concepts like moderation and compromise are dirty words....and put his own political future ahead of fixing the state's problems. He seems to pledge allegiance to a few of his big corporate donors and/or the extreme wing of the RNC, instead of WI's millions of workers and middle class.
This is like a snapshot into how to govern for the future, what's considered a public "investment" when budgets are busted.....and whether Austerity can, indeed, lead to Prosperity, when public services like Education, Health and Safety are the first things to be cut. Should we ask the Eurozone how that's going?
Too bad his "donors" didn't inject that $30 million directly into small business, infrastructure projects, school districts, or job training.
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
If there's evidence of that its a matter for the Police, or the electorate at the next election.
Where are you getting this stuff? You're just rambling "he's evil! he's selfish" over and over with zero substance.Walker adopted a strategy of "Divide and Conquer" (caught on tape saying so), pandering to the Tea Party arm of the Republican party....where concepts like moderation and compromise are dirty words....and put his own political future ahead of fixing the state's problems. He seems to pledge allegiance to a few of his big corporate donors and/or the extreme wing of the RNC, instead of WI's millions of workers and middle class.
This is like a snapshot into how to govern for the future, what's considered a public "investment" when budgets are busted.....and whether Austerity can, indeed, lead to Prosperity, when public services like Education, Health and Safety are the first things to be cut. Should we ask the Eurozone how that's going?
Too bad his "donors" didn't inject that $30 million directly into small business, infrastructure projects, school districts, or job training.
Wisconsin's economy has been improving (albeit tepidly, but better than Illinois). Its budget was balanced without tax increases and without massive government layoffs. IE, without "austerity".
Walker has since been contrite about not stopping to properly explain and debate the reforms he got through the legislature. But it doesn't negate the value of those reforms to the people of Wisconsin.
I need to change my underwear.
Walker akbar! Walker akbar! Walker akbar!
June 5, 2012
Walker Survives Wisconsin Recall Vote
By MONICA DAVEY and JEFF ZELENY
WAUKESHA, Wis. — Gov. Scott Walker, whose decision to cut collective bargaining rights for most public workers set off a firestorm in a state usually known for its political civility, held on to his job on Tuesday, becoming the first governor in the country to survive a recall election and dealing a painful blow to Democrats and labor unions.
Mr. Walker soundly defeated Mayor Tom Barrett of Milwaukee, the Democrats’ nominee in the recall attempt, with most precincts across the state reporting results. The victory by Mr. Walker, a Republican who was forced into an election to save his job less than two years into his first term, ensures that Republicans largely retain control of this state’s capital, and his fast-rising political profile is likely to soar still higher among conservatives.
Here in Waukesha, some Republican voters said the result ended the most volatile partisan fight in memory, one that boiled over 16 months ago in the collective bargaining battle and expanded into scuffles about spending, jobs, taxes, the role and size of government, and more. Democrats, some of whom are already pledging to mount strong challenges for state lawmakers’ seats in November, seemed less sure about the meaning of Mr. Walker’s victory.
“We are a state that has been deeply divided,” Mr. Barrett said in his concession speech in Milwaukee. “It is up to all of us — our side and their side — to listen, to listen to each other.”
The result raised broader questions about the strength of labor groups, who had called hundreds of thousands of voters and knocked on thousands of doors. The outcome also seemed likely to embolden leaders in other states who have considered limits to unions as a way to solve budget problems, but had watched the backlash against Mr. Walker with worry.
Some Republicans said they considered Mr. Walker’s victory one indication that Wisconsin, which President Obama won easily in 2008 and which Democrats have carried in every presidential election since 1988, may be worth battling for this time.
“Obviously, Scott Walker winning tonight means that the Republicans are here for real,” said Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee. “Conservatives are here for real.” Mr. Priebus was attending Mr. Walker’s victory party at the Waukesha County Exposition Center, where “We Stand With Walker” signs were all around.
But even with the Republican victory on Tuesday, it remained an open question whether Mitt Romney, the party’s presidential nominee, can assume the momentum of Mr. Walker’s campaign. Exit polls of voters indicated that 18 percent of Mr. Walker’s supporters said they favored Mr. Obama.
Mr. Walker, who raised millions of dollars from conservative donors outside the state, had a strong financial advantage, in part because a quirk in Wisconsin law allowed him months of unlimited fund-raising, from the time the recall challenge was mounted to when the election was officially called. As of late last month, about $45.6 million had been spent on behalf of Mr. Walker, compared with about $17.9 million for Mr. Barrett, according to data from the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, a nonpartisan group that tracks spending.
“What it shows is the peril of corporate dollars in an election and the dangers of Citizens United,” said Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, a school workers’ union, referring to the 2010 Supreme Court decision that barred the federal government from restricting political expenditures from corporations, unions and other groups.
Voters went to the polls in droves, and some polling places needed extra ballots brought in as long lines of people waited. One polling location was so swamped, state officials said, that it found itself using photocopied ballots, which then later to be hand-counted. The final flurry of television advertising — with Mr. Walker outspending Mr. Barrett, seven to one — seemed to have little impact on the outcome. Nearly 9 in 10 people said they had made up their minds before May, according to exit poll interviews, with only a sliver of the electorate deciding in the final days of the campaign.
The recall race carried implications well beyond Wisconsin, particularly in the escalating fight between wealthy conservative donors and labor unions. Many Republican contributors from across the country who have invested millions in the presidential race also sent checks to Mr. Walker, hoping to inflict deep wounds on organized labor, a key constituency for Democrats.
The outcome was also being closely monitored in Boston by Mr. Romney’s campaign and in Chicago at Mr. Obama’s re-election headquarters for a signal of how the electorate is viewing the big issues in the race for the White House. The president kept his distance from Wisconsin, to the dismay of many Democrats in the state, in an effort to avoid alienating independent voters he hopes to win over in the fall.
Mr. Obama currently holds an edge over Mr. Romney in Wisconsin, according to exit polling. Voters in the surveys also said they saw Mr. Obama as better-equipped to improve the economy and help the middle class.
A snapshot of the Wisconsin electorate, gleaned through surveys with voters as they left the polls, found that a majority of men had supported Mr. Walker, while most women had voted for Mr. Barrett. Almost a fifth of the electorate was 65 or older, with only about one in 10 voters of college age. The recall race unfolded against a backdrop of economic uncertainty, with only 2 in 10 voters saying their family’s finances have improved in the two years since Mr. Walker was elected. About a third said their financial situation had grown worse, and more than 4 in 10 said their finances had stayed the same.
In Wisconsin, which was the first state to provide collective bargaining rights to public employees, sentiment for unionized workers remains split. A narrow majority of voters on Tuesday had a favorable view of public unions, according to exit polling, while more than 4 in 10 said they held an unfavorable view.
One-third of voters were from union households, up from one-quarter in the 2010 governor’s election.
The political war in Wisconsin began in February 2011 when Governor Walker, only weeks into his first term, announced that he needed to cut benefits and collective bargaining rights for most public workers as a way to solve an expected state budget deficit of $3.6 billion.
Tens of thousands of union supporters and Democrats protested in Madison, the capital, and the State Senate’s Democrats — who were a minority in the chamber but had enough members to prevent a quorum — went into hiding in hotels and houses in Illinois to try, unsuccessfully, to prevent a vote on the measure.
By January, critics of Mr. Walker delivered more than 900,000 signatures on petitions to recall him, far more than the one-quarter of voters from the last election that state law requires.
The election, which cost local governments as much as $18 million to carry out, has raised another debate over the appropriateness of using a recall vote to remove officials.
“Recall was never meant to be used just because you don’t like the way the other side is governing,” said Jenny Beth Martin, a co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, which made tens of thousands of calls to voters in recent days in support of Mr. Walker.
Monica Davey reported from Waukesha, and Jeff Zeleny from Washington. Steven Yaccino contributed reporting from Waukesha. Marjorie Connelly, Dalia Sussman and Allison Kopicki contributed research from New York.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/06/us...ll-effort.html
What's "partisan" about thinking it's a shame to see those millions of dollars spent on politicians instead of the populace?
I'm not hateful, I'm disgusted...by the amount of money thrown around in our politics. I'm frustrated by the partisan bickering about the role of government, when over $2 Trillion in corporate cash is sitting on the sidelines, corporate profits are at historical highs, corporate taxes at historical lows.....but they're waiting for 'government' to do something that favors them? Their hypocrisy is showing.
I don't buy into their confidence excuse, or the Confidence Fairy. I also don't buy into the myth that taking away workers' rights to collectively bargain is the panacea for public budget problems. I especially don't like it when either party uses tactics to create more division, polarity, or Us vs Them attitudes. Especially when it involves demonizing public school teachers, police, fire fighters.
IMO, unions had less to do with the mess, than legislators beholden to their donors. And I don't think corporatism, or crony capitalism, is a better way to run a state, than it was when labor unions were the biggest donors.
WI decided to give voters an option between full terms and next general elections. It's a form of petition, and redress of grievances, as written in the constitution. Maybe your parliamentary system doesn't have that option (?)
I find it rather pathetic that you'd think the electorate should just suck it up, and wait for the next election, when so many procedural violations and "dodgy" laws were made, forcing through legislation without a quorum, changing the rules as they went along. There really IS more to WI than just your single-issue anti-union point of view.
BTW, there's now reportedly a corruption investigation by the DoJ, and the FEC is looking into charges that Walker's camp made voter suppression robo-calls to (surprise!) registered Democrats, telling them their vote was counted in the primary referendum, and they don't need to vote again.
I've never used the words evil or selfish, where are YOU getting this stuff?
Walker "balanced the budget" in part by mis-allocating federal funds meant for the housing/mortgage mess. He "raised taxes" by removing homestead credits for middle income earners, gave tax credits to businesses and transferred the costs to homeowner property tax payers.
The "reforms" were already agreed to by the public union employees: less benefits, paying larger portions from wages, lower wages, etc. There was no need to write legislation stripping the right to bargain, after the compromises had already been made. He "went rogue" and that's why people got pissed. Everyone knows reform was needed, but how it's done is an important component in governance and diplomacy. Now he's busy "reforming" his image. This is why people hate politicians, become apathetic and distrustful of institutions.
Walker 2016! Walker 2016! Walker 2016!
The fact that you blamed solely one side (the side that is actually providing real jobs to people).
Then why mention the corporate donations and not the union donations?I'm not hateful, I'm disgusted...by the amount of money thrown around in our politics. I'm frustrated by the partisan bickering about the role of government, when over $2 Trillion in corporate cash is sitting on the sidelines, corporate profits are at historical highs, corporate taxes at historical lows.....but they're waiting for 'government' to do something that favors them? Their hypocrisy is showing.
Thankfully WI disagreed with youI don't buy into their confidence excuse, or the Confidence Fairy. I also don't buy into the myth that taking away workers' rights to collectively bargain is the panacea for public budget problems. I especially don't like it when either party uses tactics to create more division, polarity, or Us vs Them attitudes. Especially when it involves demonizing public school teachers, police, fire fighters.
With unions being one of the biggest donors. Good to see that being tackled.IMO, unions had less to do with the mess, than legislators beholden to their donors. And I don't think corporatism, or crony capitalism, is a better way to run a state, than it was when labor unions were the biggest donors.
No it doesn't. In an ideal world I'd like it to, but I'm glad it doesn't in reality - at least in this format. I do not see how it is appropriate to have an election, have one side lose, then the losers need less signatures in their petition than they lost with in the election and get to fight it again. At the very least it should require more than 50% of the last elections voters, not 25%WI decided to give voters an option between full terms and next general elections. It's a form of petition, and redress of grievances, as written in the constitution. Maybe your parliamentary system doesn't have that option (?)
Quorom was never designed to provide the shocking antics of running out of state by the Democrats either, that was a total abuse of the rules.I find it rather pathetic that you'd think the electorate should just suck it up, and wait for the next election, when so many procedural violations and "dodgy" laws were made, forcing through legislation without a quorum, changing the rules as they went along. There really IS more to WI than just your single-issue anti-union point of view.
Sore loser.BTW, there's now reportedly a corruption investigation by the DoJ, and the FEC is looking into charges that Walker's camp made voter suppression robo-calls to (surprise!) registered Democrats, telling them their vote was counted in the primary referendum, and they don't need to vote again.
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote