The Week in Blog: Selling Pain (Bill Scher & Kristen Soltis)
 

Walker on by
 

In the glib defense of Wisconsin's Republican governor Scott Walker's frenzy to strip collective bargaining rights from some public employees, I note that neither Kristin nor any of the rightbloggers she cites mentioned this: the key word is some. Note that while Walker and his cheering section are delighted to demonize teachers, and more nebulously, "government employees," Walker's attack on public employees' unions does not include, most prominently, the state trooper and police unions. (He needs the cops to frog-march the Democrats in the state legislature, apparently.)

I also did not hear any admission from Kristin (and I wish Bill had pointed this out) that this supposed budget crisis was manufactured by Walker himself as soon as he took office. Amazingly, his tax cuts did not solve all of the state problems. In fact, they caused this one.

A note of appreciation (and a note of hilarity)
 

Thanks for saying this, Kristin. Let us hope you can persuade some of your comrades of this reality.

However, this made me laugh. Have you not been reading the WaPo for the past decade? Fred Hiatt's editorial board is far more often in alignment with the rightosphere than it is the left.

Re: The Week in Blog: Selling Pain (Bill Scher & Kristen Soltis)
 

Best line so far from Matt Welch:

"We are witnessing the logical conclusion of the Democratic Party's philosophy, and it is this: Your tax dollars exist to make public sector unions happy. When we run out of other people's money to pay for those contracts and promises (most of which are negotiated outside of public view, often between union officials and the politicians that union officials helped elect), then we just need to raise taxes to cover a shortfall that is obviously Wall Street's fault. Anyone who doesn't agree is a bully, and might just bear an uncanny resemblance to Hitler."

So fun to see the democrats back to normal regarding hate speech and eliminationist rhetoric now that their false meme regarding Tucson was rejected by the American public.

The reason that the Governor excluded police and fire personnel from the bill for now is because if the cops and firefighters had shown the same blatant disregard for their jobs as the teachers did, chaos (on the order called for by Frances Fox Piven) may have ensued.

Looks like the citizens of Wisconsin aren't falling for the Mussolini/Hitler comparisons and agree with the governor. Imagine (I guess you don't have to, Bjk has already provided a source) teachers being asked to shoulder a portion of their share of the fiscal mismanagement of their state being characterized as 'demonizing' them - lol
Imagine asking public servants to pay a portion of their pay for retirement and medical that brings them in a bit closer to what private sector workers already recognize as reality and then being compared to Hitler....I guess it's not history teachers that are walking out on the kids.

Let's see.....dem representatives hiding in IL, union stooges and thugs being bussed in to protest, teachers walking off the job and protesting with accrued sick pay instead of waiting for a weekend, protesters trashing the capital by leaving behind all their union-supplied protest signage, the president's campaign group doing PR for the hate-mongers....and the president himself being a complete hypocrite on his civil discourse facade and taking the sides of his union benefactors.....

Change You Can Believe In!

Re: The Week in Blog: Selling Pain (Bill Scher & Kristen Soltis)
 

Shorter Harkin: peaceful democratic protest in a pluralistic system sucks. How dare interest groups exist that oppose my political beliefs?

Re: The Week in Blog: Selling Pain (Bill Scher & Kristen Soltis)
 

I seem to remember some here having a problem with TP protests. Were you one?

Re: The Week in Blog: Selling Pain (Bill Scher & Kristen Soltis)
 

You forgot the "Shorter Harkin: The sanctity of contractual obligations only applies when dealing with million dollar bonuses for investment bankers" part.

Re: The Week in Blog: Selling Pain (Bill Scher & Kristen Soltis)
 

Not with the legitimacy of their protests. I happen to think that they were wrong on practically everything, operationalize their political beliefs in ways that are violently at odds with their professed values, and were remarkably poorly informed about the issues they have opinions on, but that's not quite enough to hang a hypocrisy charge upon, now is it?

Re: The Week in Blog: Selling Pain (Bill Scher & Kristen Soltis)
 

Very good point. Just in case anyone is unaware, can I re-iterate that governor Walker created Wisconsin's budget shortfall, that collective bargaining rights in the future have nothing to do with the deficit now, and that Walker is exempting employee unions that are sympathetic to Republican politicians from this union-busting bill. He's got balls, I'll give him that.

Re: The Week in Blog: Selling Pain (Bill Scher & Kristen Soltis)
 

I tend to think it's mostly face, not so much balls.

Re: The Week in Blog: Selling Pain (Bill Scher & Kristen Soltis)
 

Is there a contract involved here?

Re: The Week in Blog: Selling Pain (Bill Scher & Kristen Soltis)
 

In 1987 Lawrence Malkin wrote in his book "National Debt" of the deleteriousness of running large deficits and at that time the N.D. was 2,000,000,000 dollars. Now, it's 7 times that amount. Where to cut? For starters, bring home the 34,000 troops in Japan and the 57,000 troops in Germany.

Re: The Week in Blog: Selling Pain (Bill Scher & Kristen Soltis)
 

I could not agree with you more. Thank you for the thoughtful post, it saves me the trouble.

Down with Public Sector Unions!

Re: The Week in Blog: Selling Pain (Bill Scher & Kristen Soltis)
 

N.B. = N.D.?

000,000,000 = 000,000,000,000 ?

Re: The Week in Blog: Selling Pain (Bill Scher & Kristen Soltis)
 

High speed rail here means > 90mph. The French TGV typically averages 200mph. So if all goes well -- a big if -- the US will catch up with France'1978 in 20 years from now.

Sad to think that the next generation of American kids will have to be flown abroad to be shown what high tech, modern infrastructure looks like.

The only thing high speed in the Republican program is America's flight to banana republic status.

Re: The Week in Blog: Selling Pain (Bill Scher & Kristen Soltis)
 

Clyde Prestowitz in his new book "The Betrayal of American Prosperity" gets into the reasons we don't have bullet trains like the ones I rode in during a stay in Japan over 40 years ago.

Spelling error. Using numbers instead of writing the word makes it appear larger. That's the first time I wrote a number with so many zeros.

Re: The Week in Blog: Selling Pain (Bill Scher & Kristen Soltis)
 

Why would I hang that on someone so eager to hang themself?

Re: The Week in Blog: Selling Pain (Bill Scher & Kristen Soltis)
 

If you can't tell the difference between expressing disagreements with a group of protesters and denying the legitimacy of their protest, then I'm not going to explain it to you.

Re: The Week in Blog: Selling Pain (Bill Scher & Kristen Soltis)
 

I do not know, but I suspect the non wage portion of their compensation was more firmly rooted then a gentlemen's agreement.

Re: The Week in Blog: Selling Pain (Bill Scher & Kristen Soltis)
 

Shorter Starwatcher: "I do not know"

Re: The Week in Blog: Selling Pain (Bill Scher & Kristen Soltis)
 

So, it's your position that the benefits part of their compensation package was based on nothing more than a gentlemen's agreement?

Or don't you know?

Re: The Week in Blog: Selling Pain (Bill Scher & Kristen Soltis)
 

I don't think questions of legitimacy are completely unfounded. I haven't read much about the legal side of this yet, but there's a significant difference between taking your own time to protest and intentionally blowing off your job to protest. There are other people in this equation, like the kids who now don't get to have school (although I'm sure they're thrilled) because their teachers are at a water park in Rockford. (and by the way, anyone from Illinois is going Rockford? really? that's not a place you want to spend time) I'm not saying this makes the protests illegitimate, but it seems like a significant difference either way.

Re: The Week in Blog: Selling Pain (Bill Scher & Kristen Soltis)
 

I think I'm beginning to figure out this www thingy. Here's how it works. Ezra Klein creates a narrative which is pleasing to people like you. Headline... Governor Walker Created Wisconsin's Budget Shortfall and everything falls into place for you in your liberal echochamber brain. Oh there go those nasty Tea Party Republicans again... financed by the Koch Brothers, trying to wring the necks of the middle class union workers of the world.And everyone will spread Ezra's mesaage far and wide. Just google governor Walker created Wisconsin's budget shortfall and you'll find a zillion articles all quoting... wait for it... Ezra Klein! What power!

But what do you say to this article published in April 2010 before Walker was elected which outlines a $10.9 billion pension funding shortfall. OOOPS!

Never mind, I realize the trauma it would cause you to admit you've been duped and manipulated by your idol, Ezra. Hopefully the people in Wisconsin aren't as gullible as you are.

Glib my ass.

A different sense of Rick Scott
 

I'll admit I had trouble paying attention when Kristen was gushing her admiration for the new governor of Florida, but my recollection tells me that she (and whatever rightbloggers she may have cited) are out of step with quite a few other people. Like the Republicans in the Florida legislature, for example.

(Something to do with jobs, I think.)

Re: The Week in Blog: Selling Pain (Bill Scher & Kristen Soltis)
 

It's as if you've never heard of a labor action? Maybe the teachers could have waited till summer vacation? Sure, it would have no effect on preventing the setbacks, but hey, that's when they have that cushy free time. No teachers that I know need to work summer jobs. They're Rockefellers' in waiting.

Yes, think of the children!

Here's some like minded peeps you can harumph

with.

Don't allow the facts to impede the narrative
 

You have yet to show any evidence.
Still? Have you no shame? You have had your hat handed to you repeatedly.
That assertiveness training might need reconsideration.

Re: The Week in Blog: Selling Pain (Bill Scher & Kristen Soltis)
 

Well in the meantime Ezra "Updated" his post.

Re: Don't allow the facts to impede the narrative
 

Well -- inadvertently, of course -- she did get one thing right:

Sadly, yes!

(Confidential to glibhat: No Ezra Klein resources were used in constructing the above link or the post to which it connects.)

Re: The Week in Blog: Selling Pain (Bill Scher & Kristen Soltis)
 

And in another thread on this topic, I recognized my error and retracted part of what I said before. Of course it's still the case that Governor Walker is doing this after cutting taxes on business, and that he's exempting other unions that happen to be his political allies, and that stripping collective bargaining rights from teachers unions will do absolutely nothing about the current budget shortfall.

Re: A different sense of Rick Scott
 

Yes, Rick Scott is so far out of step he was elected governor to a large state a few months ago.

Re: A different sense of Rick Scott
 

Let's not forget, first, that he spent $73 million to buy himself that job, at a times when all anyone had to do was claim to be a teabagger and hate Obama.

And let's also remember that he couldn't even buy himself a majority. And with "just under half of those who voted for him saying they did so with reservations, according to the exit surveys."

But, the main point is, "a few months ago" is not today. However high he never actually got, he's come down a ways since, due to being a bozo.

Re: The Week in Blog: Selling Pain (Bill Scher & Kristen Soltis)
 

Another retraction forthcoming? There are 314 police and fire unions in Wisc. and 4 endorsed Walker while 300 endorsed his Democratic opponent.

You might want to stop working on that hole and instead dig deeper into the talking points handed you by your puppetmasters.

Re: The Week in Blog: Selling Pain (Bill Scher & Kristen Soltis)
 

Is this the same kind of deductive reasoning that had your SAT scores sending you to a school to learn how to cut hair?

Re: The Week in Blog: Selling Pain (Bill Scher & Kristen Soltis)
 

Oh, hello, 'fur! Been a while.

Re: The Week in Blog: Selling Pain (Bill Scher & Kristen Soltis)
 

He's like a video game character that is repeatedly vanquished, only to return to life upon reboot. His avatar may change but his true colors shine.

Re: The Week in Blog: Selling Pain (Bill Scher & Kristen Soltis)
 

Not for someone who can't be bothered to post a link before blathering on about my puppetmasters. Really, I can't figure out why you're still in this thread. Wouldn't it be more fun to go to the local high school and tell the teachers there that they are overpaid and lazy because they bend to government to their will with union thugs in person?

Re: The Week in Blog: Selling Pain (Bill Scher & Kristen Soltis)
 

Do you think it's like a software virus? It may have infected other commenters here. ;)

Re: The Week in Blog: Selling Pain (Bill Scher & Kristen Soltis)
 

Ok sorry, I didn't see the other thread. My feeling is that there is less support for teachers now after what happened with the stimulus. Most of that money went to the states who used it to keep their employees (teachers, administrators etc....) at the same pay level (or avoid furloughs, lay offs etc..). But these are exactly the people with the highest job security in the country. So a stimulus bill that was touted as needed to stop the wave of unemployment actually went to reinforce already strong positions.

Re: The Week in Blog: Selling Pain (Bill Scher & Kristen Soltis)
 

If I provide a link, will admit your error, retract your errant statement, and apologize for twice attempting to put words in my mouth? Do you consider that argument tactic acceptable? I see you are not alone in that regard. The pack mentality here is very interesting. All you need are a few signs.

Re: The Week in Blog: Selling Pain (Bill Scher & Kristen Soltis)
 

Just one question...has Joe Klein lost his mind?