What Wealth Buys In Politics: A Crank Call To Gov. Scott Walker

“Walker did not really say much different in private than he would have in public.”
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Yup. Still an arrogant, self-important, not-very-bright @sshole, just like in public.
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Oh and thanks for the bold news that hack politicians take the calls of their billionaire paymasters. Whocoudanode?

They are again on the short end of issues.
Here’s a poll:
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/23/poll-majority-oppose-stripping-govt-workers-bargaining-rights/
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In the end, the GOP, in it’s lust to attack the middle class in lieu of increasing taxes on the wealthy (don’t give me the “we’ll leave” cr@p, ricardo4max), has bitten a dog that may, in the end be much larger.
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And the price?
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2012…

http://www.projo.com/news/content/providence_teacher_layoffs_02-23-11_MCML6R3_v17.1a1cc6d.html
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Is this a “prank” too, Michael?
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“Providence plans to pink slip all teachers”
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PROVIDENCE — The school district plans to send out dismissal notices to every one of its 1,926 teachers, an unprecedented move that has union leaders up in arms.
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In a letter sent to all teachers Tuesday, Supt. Tom Brady wrote that the Providence School Board on Thursday will vote on a resolution to dismiss every teacher, effective the last day of school.
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In an e-mail sent to all teachers and School Department staff, Brady said, “We are forced to take this precautionary action by the March 1 deadline given the dire budget outline for the 2011-2012 school year in which we are projecting a near $40 million deficit for the district,” Brady wrote. “Since the full extent of the potential cuts to the school budget have yet to be determined, issuing a dismissal letter to all teachers was necessary to give the mayor, the School Board and the district maximum flexibility to consider every cost savings option, including reductions in staff.” State law requires that teachers be notified about potential changes to their employment status by March 1.

It gets tired hearing all these trust fund babies handing out tax breaks to their country club buddies to pay for 3rd or 4th mansions and spare yachts while telling working class families in the real world making $35,000 – $40,000 a year to give up what they have earned and bargained for.
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These are the same wealthy pigs that turn around and call Obama an elitest. Yeah the black man raised by a single mother in an apartment complex is the elitest. How does the media get away with echoing these false equivalency talking points? The media acts now solely as an echo chamber for both sides to give out talking points without any checks or verification.

Funny – last week you and Freeinpa questioned my honesty when I pointed out that states are dealing with budget shortfalls by laying off people. Then I was just making that sh!t up, now it’s something you use to attack someone with?
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Ironic.

You neglected to mention this portion, Michael:

Walker: An interesting idea that was brought up to me by my chief of staff, we won’t do it until tomorrow, is putting out an appeal to the Democratic leader. I would be willing to sit down and talk to him, the assembly Democrat leader, plus the other two Republican leaders—talk, not negotiate and listen to what they have to say if they will in turn—but I’ll only do it if all 14 of them will come back and sit down in the state assembly. They can recess it… the reason for that, we’re verifying it this afternoon, legally, we believe, once they’ve gone into session, they don’t physically have to be there. If they’re actually in session for that day, and they take a recess, the 19 Senate Republicans could then go into action and they’d have quorum because it’s turned out that way. So we’re double checking that. If you heard I was going to talk to them that’s the only reason why. We’d only do it if they came back to the capitol with all 14 of them. My sense is, hell. I’ll talk. If they want to yell at me for an hour, I’m used to that. I can deal with that. But I’m not negotiating.

I will, however, give you a B- for trying to spin this to “Governor Deadeyes” benefit, to make it look like he’s not a completely bought-for POS.
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There is, at least, THAT…

That would be “bought-and-paid-for”…

I will, however, give you a B- for trying to spin this to “Governor Deadeyes” benefit, to make it look like he’s not a completely bought-for POS.
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There is, at least, THAT…

This was funny

So can we now drop the pretense that Walker is doing this for budgetary reasons.

Correction: Liberal infested States are laying off people because they have spent like drunken sailors and now have no other choice.
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There, fixed it for ya!!

Well, one billionaire’s tax cut is probably worth all those teachers losing their jobs, I guess.
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Isn’t it?
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I mean, maybe it would be just better for rusty aka Ghaddafi do like they do in Libya.
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It’s get rid of at least a few of those America Hating Brainwashed-By-The-Dems brown individuals too…

It seems like the “hidden agenda” is confirmed.

As the political press is forced to ignore the raging class war, it’s all pretense, all of the time.

jsfox,
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I heard the “thud” when THAT hit the floor days ago.

This is not about the budget, this is about busting unions. The state unions have already agreed to the concessions requested by the Governor, what more does he want? Oh, no collective bargaining, except for salary. Hell, what is the one thing most subject to budget constraints? SALARY!! So no collective bargaining about working conditions, safety issues, things that may matter to the worker, but don’t necessarily bust the bank.

Walker is foolish (or he is crafty like a fox) to believe that union busting will solve his budgetary problems. Collective bargaining rights do not have much of an impact on what states pay their employees. Yes, public employees overall make more than the private sector, but when you factor in education, the average public employee makes 10% less than someone of equal education in the private sector, and when you factor in professionals, the public sector employee makes 25% less.

” In the course of the call, Walker revealed that he was gaming out a bait-and-switch plan to tempt Democrats back to the state for bad-faith negotiations. Once they arrived, they could spend some time arguing with the governor over policy, but at the end of the day the Republicans would have a quorum in the Senate and could pass his legislation with no problem.
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On a conference call organized by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, I asked Miller whether the Democrats were prepared for these sorts of antics.
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“I’ve heard rumors of it. Maybe it reveals something about the governor’s character. The possibility of us having to be dragged back to the Capitol before this bill has had enough public scrutiny has always been a possibility and that’s why we left the state in the first place,” Miller said.”
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http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/02/top-wisconsin-democrat-we-wont-be-falling-for-walkers-prank-call-scheme.php?ref=fpb#
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I doubt they would have trusted Walker to begin with but now the Democrats know that he’ll lie to them.

“Correction: Liberal infested States are laying off people because they have spent like drunken sailors and now have no other choice.
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There, fixed it for ya!!”
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That’s not a fix nor a correction. You were wrong when I mentioned it before and now you’re just arguing that point so you can continue being a @ss about it.
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WTF is wrong with some people.

As righties here argue – Walker is not busting unions and then follow up with 3-4 rabid posts wanting to bust unions. It’s hilarious if it wasn’t such a tragic approach to governing.

Just a thought…
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Pols without principles make the best “puppets” but they cause the most headaches for their handlers when they are forced to (or wander by themselves) off-script, forced to act sans “instructions from above”.

Didn’t say much different in private than he did in public? How about this:

At that point, Murphy posing as Koch says: “I tell you what Scott. Once you crush these bastards, I’ll fly you out to Cali and really show you a good time.”

Walker: “That’s just it. The bottom line is were going to get the world moving here because it’s the right thing to do…Thanks a million.”

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/02/23/6116445-walker-in-prank-call-this-is-our-moment

What’s outstanding is that he got caught out in the baldness of his strategy.

“drunken sailors”
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Now that’s some prime Grade A irony there.

Walker did not really say much different in private than he would have in public.

Whenever someone says, “move along, nothing to see here,” it’s usually because there’s something there that normal folk would pay attention to that the ‘someone’ doesn’t want to those folk to notice.

I really believe this is not going to play out well for Walker in Wisconsin. Even people who agree with the idea of Walkers attempts to limit collective bargaining are going to see him as too willing to kowtow to a corporate master. Plus they are going to see him as not very bright. RWers can spin this all day and until they turn blue, but in the end, it just looks bad.

Who gets INSIDE the White House? SEIU’s Andy Stern. Here’s Andy spewing Marxist lines in a 2007 interview:
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I wonder what he talks to Obama about? Golf, basketball?

The worst recession of the last 80 years, and liberal La La Lands like California were still hiring, still growing government.
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http://blogs.sacbee.com/the_state_worker/2009/01/state-still-hiring-despite-def.html
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Billions of stimulus dollars went to fill holes in the California’s and other state’s budgets.
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http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=711
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States’ current fiscal conditions remain extremely weak even as the economy appears to be moving in the direction of recovery. Indeed, it appears increasingly likely that due to declining federal assistance, fiscal year 2012 will be more difficult than 2010 or 2011. In fiscal year 2011, states have approximately $59 billion in federal aid to assist in closing budget shortfalls that totaled some $130 billion. For 2012, states are already reporting shortfalls that total $125 billion with only $6 billion in federal Recovery Act dollars remaining available. [2] The shortfall amount for FY2012 is likely to grow higher. Figure 2 shows the federal Recovery Act dollars available to states each fiscal year.

The Muslim Brotherhood is and was a major player in the Egyptian revolt. Now, they want to rebrand themselves as “moderate.”
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http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/world/jan-june11/frontline_02-22.html
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Just like Obama is a “moderate.” He calls for the end of Mubarak right from the start, but not Gadafi, Kadafi, or Qadaffi.

Does anyone deny that the Kochs are the most influential non-elected political force in the US?

“The public interest group Common Cause today announced that it has asked the Justice Department to investigate whether Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas should have recused in last year’s Citizens United case because of their alleged ties to Koch Industries, a company described as a “major beneficiary” of the ruling.
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The privately held company, whose owners Charles and David Koch have funded conservative organizations, holds private conferences with business and political leaders and commentators to strategize about countering “the most critical threats to our free society,”…
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..research has revealed that Scalia attended a 2007 Koch conference and Thomas went in 2008, both apparently in the Palm Springs, California area. ”
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http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202478846826&slreturn=1&hbxlogin=1

Koch brothers’ donations to Scott Walker amounted to $43,000 in 2010. Scott Walker collected a total of $11 million for his campaign. Seems like much ado about nothing.

Barack Hussein Obama collected a cool million from Goldman Sachs in 2008. What did Goldman Sachs get in return?

The Kochs’ PAC gave $1 million to the Republican Governors Association. They spent $65,000 on Walker’s campaign and $3.4 million on ads attacking Walker’s opponent, Tom Barrett.

“Americans for Prosperity today launched http://www.StandwithWalker.com where citizen activists from across the country can show support for Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s common sense reform to end union collective bargaining and tackle the state’s nearly $4 billion deficit.
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In addition to signing a petition of support for Governor Walker, Americans for Prosperity activists will travel in buses from across the region to participate in a coalition rally being held at the state capitol in Madison, Wisconsin on Saturday, February 19 starting at noon.
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Participating groups include American Majority, Americans for Prosperity, and several local Wisconsin tea party groups. AFP President Tim Phillips will be a featured speaker.
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Additionally, AFP plans to run radio ads across the state urging senators to support Governor Walker’s plan.”

Read more: http://www.americansforprosperity.org/021911-afp-launches-standwithwalkercom#ixzz1EpULSX3I
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The Kochs founded and funded AFP, David Koch is its Chair of the board of trustees.

…”they” is the RGA..

pintertwo@16.2,
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So? What did you think that the Republican Governors Association was going to do in an election year?
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The Greater Wisconsin Committee spent $4.8 million attacking Scott Walker. Again I ask, so?
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People may use their own money to support any cause they wish. That is what the 1st Amendment protects.

The $43K is the second largest amount any group donated to Walker’s campaign. The $1 mil is, well, $1 mil. And see below (#17). So, it not only buys you unlimited time with the Gov on the phone, but pretty much whatever you want.

pintortwo@16.5,
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And how do we know that Scott wasn’t just going along with the gag? His responses made the impostor look like a buffoon.

pintortwo@14,
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Well, there is George Soros, the Hollywood left, the SEIU and AFSCME, the Teacher’s unions and ACORN.

troubador222@11,
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That until the public learns that the Wisconsin protests are an operation of the AFL-CIO, the DNC, and the White House. The groups most anxious to continue bleeding the taxpayer to reward supporters.

George Soros is a piker compared to the Kochs. Soros donated pretty big during the ’04 elections– he felt Bush needed to be defeated to end the wars and preserve the economy. Since then he’s done almost nothing. He joined, along with about 100 other individuals, the Democratic Alliance to support progressive advocacy- small potatoes, comparatively speaking.
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(mentioning the other groups makes you look silly)
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The Kochs have dwarfed Soros’ donations to right-advocacy groups. They also donated big to re-election campaigns. They out-donated ExxonMobile giving to the House Energy Committee. In addition, they started think tanks, supported about 30 advocacy groups, the started one of the largest Tea Parties in the country (and three others) and gave $12 mil to Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks. They train journalists and advocates. And look at #15. Those are radical actions for Sup Court justices.
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Their investments in political advocacy is unprecedented. It’s not even close.

Face it pint, you got smoked @ 14.1.
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Hollywood and pop culture are the biggest liberal influence around the world. That’s why they hate us so much.

Obama is looking at 400 million in union donations, 27 million from SEIU. No wonder Andy Stern has a bed at the White House AND a seat in the hot tub next to BO.

Actually, meltdown, I think it’s because we keep propping up despots while talking about “democracy for all”.
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That, and the policy of blowing sh!t up for oil and Israel…