...And democracy dies in Wisconsin.

[BigBadBrian]

Well I'm not a big fan of your avi for starters.

Bears fan, huh? I guess you're just a loser on every level.

[Matt White]

Game on indeed. Recall efforts are also underway for most, if not, all of the Dem-pussy WI state senators that cut and ran from their jobs and hid like little girls in IL. Democrats claimed "elections have consequences" when Obama won, where it was especially said about healthcare reform. They also have consequences at the state level. Don't you guys understand that a lot of states are flat broke with the cost of labor as a major reason?

You sound like FORD with all that Koch "puppet" nonsense. I guess you just don't realize how unions are buying Democrats' votes (where 98% of all union political donations are to Democrats) and how the union-thug leaders are getting wealthy off of their membership. How is that different than businesses and corporations?

For the record, I don't have a problem with unions in the priivate sector, although it could be successfully argued that they've done more harm than good in the last 40 years.

Public employees should not be allowed to be in a union, however. All they do is rape the taxpayer. If unions for public employees are so good, why doesn't your boy Obama support bargaining rights for Federal employees like some of the states have?

True enough...there are recall efforts going against 6 Democrats...started by some group out of Utah...typical astroturf effort....

"Broke"? Really...drop that bullshit...what kind of business model works when you don't collect revenue? 140 million in tax cuts...then hit the middle class up for a 8% cut to thier wages....Tax the middle class to pay for Corporate Welfare....

I thought the Repukes were against "Wealth redistribution"? Just as long as the money travels up....

The Bush tax breaks have been in effect for 10 years...no jobs created...

No Corporate income tax has worked wonders for Ohio.....uh wait...no they haven't

I do like your AV B3....unlike ATOMIC PUNK...nice UNION company your sportin' there!

[Sam42]

Fuck the unions. Nothing more than a welfare program that regular folks have to pay for with more taxes. Let's see, a regular guy goes to work for so many years, retires and gets a pension some where around 2k a month. A union guy goes to work and retires and his pension is around 10k a month, all paid for by the taxes that regular folks have to pay until that fucker dies. Hey all you union fuckers, how about go out and actually do a day of actual work. Stop living off the sweat and backs of regular folks that actually make this country tick. I guess the union idiots didn't give a rats ass that they are the ones, with their collective bargaining that drove the American auto industry into bankruptcy. Fucking lame mother fuckers are the reason why we are paying 10 to 12k more for a truck or car in this country. I know personally for me, it's not my responsibility to take care of the fuckers that don't want to get a job so they can collect their welfare check and it surely is not my responsibility to have to pay for just as lazy fuckheads that don't do shit and get's paid for my hard work i have to pull every fucking day of the week.

[Unchainme]

It's all being done so it can break the way that the DNC is funded partially from the unions in that state and the state of ohio.

They want obama out of the white house, and a GOP candidate in 2012.

I think it's sort of scummy in both ways, so please don't paint me into a particular corner.

Big old chess games folks, big business and big government are using both parties as a way to push what's good for them, and not for the American people.

[PETE'S BROTHER]

and so it begins...

The state Public Service Commission is poised Friday to approve selection of a Louisiana corporation with a history of environmental violations to manage Wisconsin's popular Focus on Energy program.
Shaw Environmental and Infrastructure Inc., a subsidiary of the Baton Rouge-based Shaw Group, was selected by an evaluation committee that included four representatives of Wisconsin's investor-owned utilities.
Shaw also has some ties to Koch Industries, the Wichita, Kan., firm that has been a big booster of embattled Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. But there is no indication that Koch Industries would profit from the deal.

[FORD]

But there is no indication that Koch Industries would profit from the deal.

No, of course not.

[PETE'S BROTHER]

i found that quite lame as well....

[FORD]

Fuck the rich. Nothing more than a welfare program that regular folks have to pay for with more tax "cuts" for these tax dodgers. Let's see, a regular guy goes to work for so many years, retires and gets a pension some where around 2k a month. A rich guy never goes to work and inherits money from his billionare great grandfather, around 10k an hour, all paid for by the taxes that regular folks have to pay until that fucker dies. Hey all you rich lazy fuckers, how about go out and actually do a day of actual work. Stop living off the sweat and backs of regular folks that actually make this country tick. I guess the rich idiots didn't give a rats ass that they are the ones, with their cheap labor outsourcing that drove the American auto industry into bankruptcy. Fucking lame mother fuckers are the reason why we are paying 10 to 12k more for a truck or car in this country. I know personally for me, it's not my responsibility to take care of the fuckers that don't want to pay their taxes so they can collect their corporate welfare check and it surely is not my responsibility to have to pay for just as lazy fuckheads that don't do shit and get's paid for my hard work i have to pull every fucking day of the week.

OK, that reads a little more accurately now.

[LoungeMachine]

Ronald Reagan: "Where free unions and collective bargaining are forbidden, freedom is lost."

[FORD]

Wise words from the former president of the Screen Actors Guild. Too bad he forgot all about that when PATCO went on strike. But at least old Jellybean head had a medical excuse for forgetting things. Not so, for Hosni Walker. Or Obama, for that matter (who seems to have lost his "comfortable shoes")

[BigBadBrian]

I do like your AV B3....unlike ATOMIC PUNK...nice UNION company your sportin' there!

We'll see how much of a union company it really is...locking the doors on the players like any other team.

Watch: Congress will get involved with this eventually.

I suppose you think the Packers are owned by the citizens of Green Bay like FORD does?

[PETE'S BROTHER]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x522548

nice tats

[FORD]

Now that's commitment! Brings a whole new definition to the phrase "Solidarity Forever".

I'll bet Hosni Walker has a tattoo as well. Probably a heart with David Koch's name in it.

[FORD]

Listen to how FUCKING INSANE these KKKoch shills really are.......

[Seshmeister]

It made the UK press...

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/mark-steel/mark-steel-we-need-the-spirit-of-wisconsin-2243891.html

Mark Steel: We need the spirit of Wisconsin
Thursday, 17 March 2011
It must be part of the Coalition agreement that every day every member of the Government has to do the speech full of weird facts about how much debt we're in. So they explain they have to implement cuts like this: "Let me give you some idea of the problem we face. Because Labour overspent, Britain now owes £4 for every molecule in the country. We owe more than the value of Venus, indeed if the deficit was a bee it could sting the whole of Spain. If Jesus came back to Earth he would need seven separate miracles to get rid of the debt, and if the deficit was a cabbage it would be no less than nine cabbages."

So we should be proud, because now the Americans are copying us. In Wisconsin the Republican governor, Scott Walker, passed a law that almost bans trade unions from negotiating wages and pensions, because of "the unprecedented level of debt". But they've always wanted to ban trade unions, whether there's debt or not. Soon the Tea Party will justify all their ideas by saying, "This country owes $50 trillion, so we simply can't afford evolution. Every time a species develops an extra claw or changes colour it costs the state $12bn, and that is a sum that can't be accepted in the current climate so from next Tuesday by law all creatures will be the ones made by the LORD."

They'll declare gun control is impossible as throwing out the nation's rifles would cost the taxpayer $5m in litter bins, and waterboarding must be extended to all criminals because they've received a sponsorship offer, with the rags having "Gasp and choke, then sip some Coke" on them, saving $50m a year in torturing costs.

Somehow, the Republicans don't seem bothered by the bonuses paid by Wall Street last year that came to $89.54bn. Instead they're targeting areas such as the state's firefighters. Presumably the fire department in Wisconsin must be costing more than the bankers. They must slide down a solid-gold pole and put out fires with selected fine wines and perfumes, so when a call comes through they say, "Hmm, there's a warehouse ablaze, I think we should hose it down with a Sauvignon '65, a fruity number that makes the fumes leave a delicate tang on the palate, a wholesome blend of orange peel and ash."

Another detail the governor must have missed is that because of tax breaks offered to companies to move to the state, 60 per cent of corporations in Wisconsin making more than $1m a year pay no corporation tax. I'm no economist, but I wonder if letting companies pay no tax results in the state receiving less money than if they did have to pay some tax. Perhaps it's something their accountants could look into.

US Republicans, like Conservatives here, tend to always look for ways of dismantling trade unions, possibly because unions represent the only defence a workforce has. But the people of Wisconsin don't seem to have believed that, so they've protested in vast numbers. This movement has dominated the US news for some weeks, and made such an impact that rebels in Libya have held placards supporting the Wisconsin unions.

And the Tea Party has been at its best, with supporter Glenn Beck declaring "These protests become contagious. Can you deny that radicals, Islamists, communists, socialists, will work together against Israel, against capitalism." So if a nursery worker says they don't see why they should be sacked to pay off the deficit, the correct reply is, "Oh yes I know what you're after, the destruction of Israel, you anti-Semitic bastard."

In Britain the unions have called a protest against the cuts for 26 March. Given the slow pace the British trade union movement goes at, it's possible this is a protest against the 1981 recession and they've only just got round to organising it. But there ought to be a huge turn-out for this, then we can proudly boast we're on the way to being as defiant as mighty Wisconsin.