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An Open Letter to the Tennessee House on Collective Bargaining
There are issues which arise from time to time on which principled adults must take a stand. Collective Bargaining for public sector employees and the impact it has on the various economies of our nation is such an issue. It is not a Labor issue; how states deal with teachers. It is an Economic issue; how states deal with economies and tax bases.
In Wisconsin, this was lost in the emotional Union response. It remains to you, here in Tennessee, to look at the facts and the issues and not be intimidated or manipulated, for or against HB 130, by the emotion.
Stripped of emotion and hype, at issue are two questions: 1) Does Collective Bargaining provide Tennessee with the best teachers at a cost we can afford? 2) If not, what do we do about it?
Every election cycle Education tops the issues list. Education always asks for more money and always gets it. But where is the analysis of why it hasn’t done better with all that “more?” The quality of Public Education has declined for decades. What responsible rationale exists for spending more on failure? Teachers want their budgets changed every year, always going up. But changes that would make them accountable for those increased budgets? Things like vouchers, funding private education options and home schooling; these are changes which cannot be permitted. It’s time Public Education be responsible and responsive to the public which pays for it. Changing the way contracts are negotiated by eliminating Collective Bargaining would be a good start.
Eric Holder Determines Some People are More Equal than Others
This man is the Attorney General of the entire United States and he seems to believe that criminality is now determined by comparing what you experience to what someone else experiences.
For instance, if you only get stabbed twice and die while another person is stabbed 25 times they were murdered but you were not. If armed men relieve you of only $50 while taking $5000 from someone else, you weren’t really robbed, and; if you were only mildly discriminated against because of your race and if you didn’t suffer like blacks did in the 50s you weren’t the victim of racism …
When the highest law enforcement official in the country tells you you weren’t the victim of a crime because other incidents of that crime were worse, there is a problem. I’d suggest you contact that man’s boss. But he works for President Obama …
I guess when it comes to equal protection under the law, some folks are more equal than others …
Crossposted from Blue Collar Muse
2010: It was a very good year
North Dakota is one of those low population fly-over states that a lot of the elites do not know much about or even care about for that matter. This is a shame, because if they pay attention to what is happening in North Dakota they might just learn something.
Federal Government Shutdowns Show People Which Government Workers They Don’t Need
Maybe Democrats and Republicans are cooperating to prevent a Federal Government shutdown so people don’t realize how little their lives change when the Government shuts down.
From Fox News:
The inadvertent byproduct of a government shutdown is that it lets Americans in on a secret — they can do without many federal employees, at least for a short period of time.
Though a shutdown is no longer imminent this week as lawmakers approve a temporary extension of the budget, they are squabbling over the reach of proposed cuts to the federal budget and its potential impact.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/03/01/dc-shutdowns-shed-light-employees-matter/#ixzz1FQ4PSDBb
Media bias hides truth about Wisconsin
Governor Scot Walker (R-WI) is working hard to make sure that government schools can meet their budgets this year, but you’d have to be interested in more than the sound bite if you’re reading the Main Stream Media reports. From USA Today:
MADISON, Wis. — Republican Gov. Scott Walker on Tuesday outlined a $59.3 billion, two-year budget plan that would cut $749 million in aid to public schools over that period and reduce county and municipal aid by $96 million in 2012.
It isn’t until the tenth paragraph that the bias–and the reason for Governor Walker’s stance against public-sector unions–becomes clear:
Walker’s move to end collective bargaining for most public employee unions, said Todd Berry, president of the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, a non-partisan research group, is his way of helping schools and local governments cut costs.
“If you’re going to really slam local government and you have no choice given the budget math,” he said, “then the only way to deliver them some … relief on the other side of the ledger” is to give them ways to cut labor costs.
In other words, the State of Wisconsin needs to cut $3.6billion from its budget over the next two years, and the Governor intends to do that is by slashing State funding for education (among dozens more programs and cost-cutting measures). To make sure that local school districts can afford to pay their bills, he and the Republicans in the state capitol are giving those school districts greater ability to control their labor costs.
The Rolling Stoned Media Who ‘Stare at Goats’ @AmSpec
Has there ever been a more absurd article than the one Rolling Stone has just published? The magazine alleges that at the behest of Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, the Army initiated “psychological operations” against members of Congress in order to get these legislators to support the war in Afghanistan.
As the Washington Times observes in a superb editorial:
From the tone of the article, an unsuspecting reader could conclude that the U.S. military has secret teams of warriors employing Jedi mind tricks, or active units of “men who stare at goats.” Senior military leaders are portrayed as being out to use government resources and martial techniques to dupe U.S. lawmakers.
This is an absurd charge that defies credulity, and which, as I explain over at FrumForum, has absolutely no basis in fact.
Yet tellingly, this tall tale was swallowed hook, line and sinker by the legacy media. CNN, for instance, “flashed up a chyron graphic on the screen alleging a ‘Pentagon brainwashing campaign,’ the Times reports.
Less sensationally, the story was taken seriously, and treated respectfully, by virtually every big media outlet, as well as by influential lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
Why, even Defense Secretary Robert Gates said it was “important to determine the facts before drawing any conclusions,” reports that other newspaper, the New York Times. And so Gen. Petraeus has called for an investigation of the matter.
Nonsense. We know the facts, and they are these: The Pentagon lacks any real ability or desire to conduct so-called psychological operations against U.S. lawmakers.
What Lt. Gen. Caldwell wanted was good public affairs work — this to better ascertain and address congressional concerns. And that is perfectly legitimate and not illegal. Next.
This post was originally published at the American Spectator blog, AmSpec.
John Guardiano is an Arlington, Virginia-based writer and analyst who blogs for a variety of publications, including: FrumForum, the Daily Caller and the American Spectator. You can follow him at Twitter (@JohnRGuardiano) and at his personal blog, ResoluteCon.
Meet Innovate CRNC
Tomorrow morning a new sub site called ideas.innovatecrnc.com goes live on the Innovate CRNC website. I know what you’re saying, “Dude! what’s Innovate CRNC and why should I care?” well I’m glad you asked.
To get to know Innovate CRNC you first need to know who & what CRNC is, if you already know you’re one up on me because until recently I had no idea (this is no doubt due to the fact that I didn’t attend college as I was in the Marine Corps during those years) and was surprised to find out. CRNC is Responsible for overseeing the activity of all College Republicans in the country. Now obviously we’ve all heard of the College Republicans but I guess I didn’t realize that there was a mega independent 527 with an annual budget between 1.5 and 3 million dollars a year behind it. The Organization is one of the largest of it’s kind and serves some 275,000+ active College Republicans.ong others. Founded in 1892, CRNC is the largest and oldest youth grassroots organization in the U.S. and is most known for its election field representative program, which has been operational since the 1980’s. This program consists of field representatives going into states which that have close elections and are tasked with energizing college students on campus and getting them out knocking on doors, making phone calls, and helping Republican candidates win. This past election cycle there were about 23 field representatives in 5 different states (PA, OH, NV, MI, FL). The CRNC is also working on issue advocacy,especially with the national debt through its “Don’t Put it on Our Tab” campaign. Past notable CRs include: Karl Rove, Grover Norquist, Lee Atwater, Rick Davis, Rick Santorum, and President Calvin Coolidge among others.
So now that we know who & what the CRNC is we can concentrate on what Innovate CRNC is…
“Adult Conversation” On The Budget
Adult Conversations only work when the side that’s advocating for them isn’t in the business of deciding what an Adult Conversation is. This sophomoric tactic is in regular use with this administration, remember the Health Care debate in which the president kept insisting he wanted to hear idea’s for Republicans, only to turn around after hearing them, categorize them as “old ideas”, and dismiss them out of hand.
You see, engaging in Adult Conversations requires one to act like and Adult, unfortunately, with this administration… all evidence to the contrary!
The Problem With Education…
…is three-fold. First, unionized teachers. Second, administrators. Third, the politicians who employ them.
OK, got the message on the sign?
We don’t pay teachers enough. At least according to this American Federation of Teachers picket. I’m sure the larger and leftier National Education Association agrees. As does every Democrat elected official or wanna-be-elected-official in the country, given that the NEA and the AFT fund Democrats and in the 2007-08 cycle,
The National Education Association has earned a reputation for using campaign contributions to purchase the loyalty of lawmakers at the federal and state levels.
In the 2007-08 election cycle, for instance, the union, through its political action committees, spent a whopping $56 million on various candidates and state ballot proposals. That ranked the NEA as the largest political contributor in the nation, outspending the second-place donor by more than $12 million.
GOP Governors – Who’s HOT and Who’s NOT
We Currently have a Republican Governor in 29 states, and these states account for 310 electoral votes. The chart below lists these states, Governor’s name and electoral vote.
