Morning Must Reads: Disappointment

This is the beginning of the fight, not the end. Walker will not prevail because he has shown himself to be a radical partisan whose agendas is based purely on political opportunism, not what’s best for the sate or his constituents.
http://www.sunstateactivist.org

Providence’s school board fires city teachers. All of them.

Just a reminder. The Republicans rode in on a wave of discontent caused by unemployment and have no interest in disturbing the gravy train by addressing joblessness. Except of course by exacerbating the problem.

Save us the trouble and let us vomit in peace whenever you do a story on Miss Prissy.

Trumka looks like he is about to eat Geithner.

More like they both had veal scallopini.

Their allies in the Assembly erupted after the vote.

Lack of detail there, don’tcha think?

Then Kramer called the vote. Within seconds, the digital vote system on the wall announced 51 ayes and 17 nays, and voting was suddenly closed. With a total of 96 members, that got to a majority for the bill but left 28 members who hadn’t had a chance yet to vote.
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At that point, the Democrats got up, chanting “Shame! Shame! Shame!” and similar exclamations, as the Republicans filed out of the room.
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There were many Democrats I spoke to and overheard in the chamber, who said they didn’t get a chance to vote, or that they were pushing the “No” button at their desks as hard as they could — keep in mind that a majority of their 38-member caucus was recorded as casting no votes at all. (Interesting to note there were also four Republicans who voted no — after having joined every party-line vote against Democratic amendments. Some Dems speculated that the GOP leadership had allowed some Assembly Republicans in marginal districts to skip the vote or vote ‘no’ on the final tally.)[...]
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Keep in mind that this is not the end of the issue — far from it. The 14 state Senate Democrats remain in exile in Illinois, preventing the state Senate from having the three-fifths quorum required to take a vote on the budget

“…a Three-Part Roadmap for Conservative State Governance.”

There’s a three-prong approach in Governor Walker’s plan that highlights a blueprint for conservative governorship after the 2010 election. The first is breaking public sector unions and public sector workers generally. The second is streamlining benefits away from legislative authority, especially for health care and in fighting the Health Care Reform Act. The third is the selling of public assets to private interests under firesale and crony capitalist situations.[...]
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States will have to deal with their budgets. There are costs coming down the road. But the important thing to understand is that the new wave of governance at the state level isn’t about handling these problems — it’s about changing what the government does in a more reactionary and polarized way. Squeezing regular people to provide benefits will maintain and expand our high levels of inequality. Its about making struggling parties weaker and strong parties richer. Making it almost impossible to raise taxes later is irresponsible and dangerous, but it accelerates this plan. They hoped to handle this all behind closed doors — sadly for them, and lucky for the public, activism and the internet are shining a large spotlight on their actions.

[with chart]

“As the GM bailout goes, so goes the Obama presidency.”

After noting the usual caveats — GM “could still stumble” — Jonathan Cohn added, “[I]t looks increasingly like the rescue of the auto industry was an overall success, saving hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of jobs and bolstering the country’s manufacturing base for years (if not decades) to come. Maybe it’s time to start giving President Obama some credit for it — and recognizing that, when properly managed, the federal government can do a lot of good.”
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Damn straight. Conservative activists got this wrong, and so did their Republican friends in Congress, many of whom literally predicted “disaster.”
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These same folks are now insisting the economy will improve just as soon as the House GOP plan — take money out of the economy, lay off hundreds of thousands of American workers — is approved. Given their track record, perhaps now’s a good time to question their credibility.

Paul Dirks@2,
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Just a reminder. The first Hispanic Mayor of Providence RI, Angel Taveras, is a Democrat.

nflfoghorn@4.1,
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Bet Geithner never got a chance to eat his before Trumka devoured it.

……David Brooks “whines” not pines for a presidential bid by Mitch Daniels.

“Sacramento Kings owners considering moving team”
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Mayor Kevin Johnson, a former Kings point guard, is boyfriend of education-killer Michelle Rhee.
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Payback?

10,776 Notes.

(h/t Eschaton)

Liberals pass around a 2007 video of Obama on the trail that is sure to lead to disappointment
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Not the only one..
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Speaking of assets, a major contributor to PA Gov. Corbett’s campaign was the Marcellus Shale drilling industry. Corbett was opposed to any tax on the industry – as all other states have – because he said it would send them away from PA. No one ever asked him where they would go, as the shale is here and they can’t go to Kansas to drill it. One of the companies paid for several legislators to go to the Super Bowl, but that was uncovered and now they are going to re-pay the companies – likely from campaign funds.
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Wednesday Corbett announced that he was rescinding an order by Rendell that restricted drilling on State lands. Wonder how the hunting community will react next time they want to hunt deer and they find a drillilng rig in their way?

If straight news reporting is lacking, good editorializing is largely absent.

There is no obvious reason that the Fed should feel “forced” to raise interest rates if the core inflation rate happens to edge above 2.0 percent to preserve its credibility. Such an increase in interest rates would mean throwing more people out of work.
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There are already tens of millions of people who have lost thier jobs and/or their homes because of the Fed’s mismanagement of the economy. There is no reason that the Fed should deliberately put more people out of work just because the Post editors and their friends have irrational fears about inflation.

Very cool graphic.

In the following list, members and senators are assigned separate scores for their roll-call votes on key economic, social, and foreign-policy issues during 2010. The senators are rated in each of the three issue categories on both liberal and conservative scales, with the scores on each scale give as percentiles. An economic score of 87 on the conservative scale, for example, means that the senator or member was more conservative than 87 percent of his or her colleagues on the key votes in that issue area during 2010. Composite scores are calculated based on the issue-based scores. Members with the same composite scores are tied in rank. (Note: Several members did not cast enough votes to achieve a composite score.)

http://www.nationaljournal.com/2010voteratings

grape_crush: Bad link? I think this is what you are quoting from?

http://rortybomb.wordpress.com/2011/02/24/walkers-budget-plan-is-a-three-part-roadmap-for-conservative-state-governance/

Thanks for the article. This is the best I’ve seen that brings together all the sources.

OT, but a “1000 Words” would be nice for the weekend. I’d prefer to hijack a thread with a non-serious topic.

Dammit.
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Thanks (yet again). Yes, that’s the linky.
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http://rortybomb.wordpress.com/2011/02/24/walkers-budget-plan-is-a-three-part-roadmap-for-conservative-state-governance/

We can’t get rid of these union workers. They actually get BONUSES….
…so let’s pick on lil ‘ol teachers.

grape_crush: Glad to help in any small way that I can, considering how much I get from your posts. This link has already been sent out to others, just so you know that your good works spread out from here.
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Good to see you back in the mix, BTW. Much appreciated.

I can only guess that Providence’s city budget is tied in with the school system’s. Down here it’s not that way.

I don’t think so. Trumka doesn’t have any sauce on his shirt or tie. A belly like that would undoubtadly have some form of debris on it.

The things, you say | you’re unbelievable

Think about this. You have a big story that claims the military was using propaganda and psychological training on US Senators. If it’s true, it’s a big deal. And the military is logically very upset that the story has been reported and they are busily spinning reporters that the reporter and the publication are unreliable and they shouldn’t be believed. Ok fine.
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But what’s truly amazing about this is that they are apparently selling this as a “national security” necessity since the General who is implicated in this is allegedly the “lynchpin” of the Afghan training program, which I guess we’re supposed to take on faith — and overlook any little unpleasantness like illegally trying to brainwash US Senators. Unbelievable. [...]

In fact, now that I think about it, it might be worth considering whether the military tried out this “psy-ops” program on the American press corps before then unleashed it on the US Senate. It explains a lot.

[...]Oh, I forgot. That last is literally true.

Making it practically impossible to raise taxes for the forseeable future is one of the most irresponsible parts of Walker’s strategy. Starving the beast, indeed. Fees will be allowed to go up, though. Fees = taxes for the middleclass and the poor.

Wow. Swampfilter doesn’t like links to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, apparently.

Guess I gotta go with the WaPo instead of the source.

“I would like to hear more of an explanation from Governor Walker as to what exactly was being considered, and to what degree it was discussed by his cabinet members. I find it very unsettling and troubling that anyone would consider creating safety risks for our citizens and law enforcement officers,” the chief said.

“Crossing Anonymous Is Like Sticking Your P*n*s In a Hornets’ Nest”

Colbert with an overview of the HBGary versus Anonymous confrontation.

And yes, that was an interesting easter egg that appeared briefly on the Colbert report…

Joe Lieberman, to nobody’s surprise, was more conservative than liberal.
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Real liberals are hard to find today.

News footage from Libya.

(video at the link)

People in wealthier countries like to spend more on health care. But the U.S. is an extreme outlier, and we’re not significantly healthier for it:…

That faint sound you’re hearing through the window, Adam, coming from the general direction of New York City, is Stuart Zechman pounding his head against his keyboard in frustration…

This reminds me so much of when the Berlin Wall came down in 1989.
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People seeking democracy overwhelm authoritarian government.
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Now, the big question now is, how will Republican spin doctors find a way to thank Ronald Reagan for this, too. (He, had nothing to do with the Berlin Wall coming down, he was already out the White House, but, somehow, the right wing will thank Reagan for this.)

I’m on the way to Manhattan right now to bring Stuart a band aid in case he hurt himself and a replacement keyboard.
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( I’m kidding, Stuart and I have not met in person – just here in the Swamp)

don’t know much about conservatives do you? tip: they’ve always thought unions, especially public sector unions are terrible for the country. this is not political opportunism. the justifying rhetoric about the budget is dishonest for sure, but the agenda? fairly straightforward and mostly about policy they really do think is best for the country. (i say ‘mostly’ because by excluding polic/fire dept, they’re making it about party prospects as well)

I don’t want to jinx it, but, I noticed that Paulie is alone in far right commentary.

Rusty, Freakinpa, Retardomax, 3Xfire3, WD40 and “Dr” Earl are all absent.
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The silence is deafening, yet, strangely enough, very refreshing.
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I know for a fact that we have not voted them off the island as I proposed (not sure if it is technically feasible or practical ) and have not seen anything on Swampland regarding a change in policy enforcement (personal attacks were never supposed to happen, so it would be a matter of enforcement).
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So, if it’s not WordPress banning them, it must be how often we have been bringing up The Koch brothers and professional trolls ( who could be hired by the dozen by people like the Koch brothers spending less than their annual budget for socks).
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If the later is the case, without moderation, we could (if anybody has the time or inclination) we could post elsewhere and scare away professional trolls by telling the truth about the astroturf movement the Tea Party really is.

Heh.
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There should be a widget on the KochBros website giving us a heads-up on when to expect the trolls:
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Downloading RW Talking Points:
0%……………….50%……………………..100%
Complete!

That website is http://www.buymefakegrassrootscred.com/downloads/talkingpoints

Downloading RW Talking Points:
0%……………….50%……………………..100%
Complete!

I believe the end-graphic of the widget would look something like: http://jcwinnie.biz/wordpress/?p=1057

Until the TARP money is paid back, the “jobs saved” is nothing more than expensive unemployment insurance to a special interest group that supported Obama’s 2008 campaign. And let’s forget to add the “Cash for Clunker” fiasco which was additional tax payer money used to fund Obama supporters while the majority of the country struggled through a recession. The Cash for Clunker also had the added advantage of removing used cars form the system pushin gup the prices of use cars that the low and middle class buy.

Once again the left supporting a few at the expense of many

Swiss,
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That is true. Even long before Reagan, Republicans have held on tightly to the pre-Roosevelt era when labor unions were illegal.
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Conservatives prior to FDR had often made use of law enforcement for holding down unions starting with the Pullman strike:
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On June 29, 1894, Debs hosted a peaceful gathering to obtain support for the strike from fellow railroad workers at Blue Island, Illinois. Afterward groups within the crowd became enraged and set fire to nearby buildings and derailed a locomotive. Elsewhere in the United States, sympathy strikers prevented transportation of goods by walking off the job, obstructing railroad tracks or threatening and attacking strikebreakers. This increased national attention and fueled the demand for federal action.[5]

The railroads succeeding in having Richard Olney, general counsel for the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railway, appointed as a special federal attorney with responsibility for dealing with the strike. Olney obtained an injunction barring union leaders from supporting the strike and demanding that the strikers cease their activities or face being fired. Debs and other leaders of the ARU ignored the injunction, and federal troops were called into action.[6]

The strike was broken up by United States Marshals and some 12,000 United States Army troops, commanded by Nelson Miles, sent in by President Grover Cleveland on the premise that the strike interfered with the delivery of U.S. Mail, ignored a federal injunction and represented a threat to public safety. The arrival of the military and subsequent deaths of workers led to further outbreaks of violence. During the course of the strike, 13 strikers were killed and 57 were wounded. An estimated 6,000 rail workers did $340,000 worth of property damage (about $8,818,000 in 2010 dollars).

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pullman_Strike#The_strike
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For decades more, conservatives have used the excuse of a communist threat to hold down union related and other popular movements using law enforcement.
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In New York, former City Police Commissioner Patrick Murphy traced their origin there to an “Italian Squad” formed in 1904 to monitor a group of Italian immigrants under suspicion[1]. However, it is their association with fighting communism which provides the basis for the name “Red Squad.” They became more commonplace in the 1930s, often conceived of as a countermeasure to Communist organizers who were charged with executing a policy of dual unionism – namely, building a revolutionary movement in parallel with membership in above-ground labor organizations. Similar units were established in Canada in this period, although only the Toronto police under Chief Dennis Draper used the name.

In the late 1960s, as the protests against Vietnam and the general domestic upheaval intensified, the Red Squads augmented their focus, to include dissidents largely outside the labor movement, including therein not just war resisters, but protest movements of all political stripes, including Neonazis, Native American movements, the women’s movement, environmentalists, the civil rights movement, and others. The methods employed ranged from simple surveillance to isolated incidents of assassination.[citation needed] Anti-activist police operations were expanded under the Johnson and Nixon administrations, particularly in concert with, and within the cadre of the FBI’s COINTELPRO surveillance program, but also including domestic spying by the CIA.

After the civil unrest during Johnson’s administration, Watergate during Nixon’s administration, and the public exposure of COINTELPRO by a dissident organization in 1971, widespread criticism of the Red Squads for illegal and undemocratic tactics emerged. In 1975, in the wake of both the Watergate scandal and the exposure of COINTELPRO, the Church Committee was formed to investigate overstepping on the part of federal law inforcement and intelligence gathering agencies. Following the recommendations of that committee, the U.S. Congress passed Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in 1978, placing limits on the power of police and Federal agencies. This ended the official use of Red Squads.

Since 1978, the term Red Squad has resurfaced repeatedly to describe any action by police or Federal agencies that is deemed to be oppressive to a social or political group.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_squad#History
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Yes, even many mainstream conservatives think that the unwashed masses are too corrupt and stupid to elect a fair and reasonable representation .
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The difference being, except for Reagan with the Air Traffic Controllers, it was mostly all talk and a few measures here and there which made organizing a union more difficult.
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I guess the Koch brothers are upset that the good ole days of abusing the powers of law enforcement to shut down popular movements is gone.

“The Cash for Clunker also had the added advantage of removing used cars form the system pushin gup the prices of use cars that the low and middle class buy.”
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Now you, even according your own constant attacks on me, are entering my field of expertise.
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Used car prices were so low that new, reduced prices for gas guzzlers were coming out every month.
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The cars for clunkers program took off the market cars which had almost no remaining book value and stimulated car sales.
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I still know a few people from years ago who are in that business. It was a temporary push upwards.
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Soon the numbers will show that, as mediocre as government control can be, GM and Chrysler managed to find a way to find the world’s least competent CEOs and hand them a fortune for making bad decisions one after anotehr.
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One of the Nissan dealerships I was at was across the street from a Chrysler dealer. From our windows facing each other, we saw, almost nobody go in or out besides the pizza delivery man.
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The other Nissan dealership I worked at, as a joke, used to say that if you didn’t make good enough sales, they’d send you off to the Golag or car sales – American cars like the Chrysler dealership the owners, also, owned.
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Once again, you are repeating fact free talking points.
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I should never have asked where you were.
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To all Swamplanders: If I, in any way encouraged Freakinpa to post here by mentioning his absence, I would like apologize to all of you.

“Now you, even according your own constant attacks on me, are entering my field of expertise.”
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Being a college dropout, failed taxi driver, failed used car salesman and a public service reject leaves you with one expertise—FAILURE

“the Fed should feel “forced” to raise interest rates if the core inflation rate happens to edge above 2.0 percent to preserve its credibility.”
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Contrary to your belief the Federal Reserve can’t wake up one day flip a switch and poof inflation is gone. Raising rates and controlling the money supply has a 12-18 month lag. Why the left likes higher inflation has nothing to do with jobs but its impact to force up labor costs. The dirty little secret is the left fails to tell the low and middle class that their standard of living has dropped.

Mitch Daniels’s management skills are exactly what we need to turn our country around and get it moving in the right direction to create jobs and prosperity for all Americans.
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“Daniels’s Conservative Political Action Conference speech had a serious and weighty tone. He spoke for those who believe the country’s runaway debt is the central moral challenge of our time. Yet within government’s proper sphere of action, he said Republicans have to be the “initiators of new ideas.” He spoke of the program he started that provides health insurance for low-income residents, and the education program that will give scholarships to students in failing schools so they can choose another.
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“Our first thought,” he said, “is always for those on life’s first rung, and how we might increase their chances of climbing.”
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Daniels’s speeches are backed up by his record. Since 2004, the 49 other states in the nation increased their debt levels by an average of 40 percent. Indiana has paid down its debt by 40 percent. Indiana received its first Triple-A bond rating in 2008, and now it is one of only nine states to have the highest rating from all three rating agencies.
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At the same time, the business climate has improved significantly. Infrastructure spending is at record levels. The state has added jobs at twice the national average. For the first time in four decades, more people are moving in than moving out.
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Daniels appointed a bipartisan commission to reform the criminal justice system to save money and make sure incarceration rates actually promote public safety. Another bipartisan commission came up with 27 ideas to modernize local government.”
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Would it not be a breath of fresh air to have a President with substantial management skills in both the public and private sectors of our economy? Experiences that President Obama totally lacks.

I’ve just got this “gut” feeling that “Anonymous” is going to turn out to be more of a pain in the a$$ to the powers-that-be than WikiLeaks ever was.
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By going after Assange to send a message to “whilstle-blowers” everywhere, they’re going to bring down more sh!t than they imagined.

Demonstrators die on Iraq ‘Day of Rage’
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“Security forces have used water cannons and tear gas to disperse thousands of angry protesters in Baghdad as a ‘Day of Rage’ across Iraq left 14 demonstrators dead in clashes with police.
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About 5000 people thronged Baghdad’s Tahrir Square, with angry crowds throwing stones, shoes and plastic bottles at riot police and soldiers blocking off a bridge connecting the site to Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, home to the US embassy and parliament.
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The protest was the biggest of at least 17 demonstrations across the country, some sparking clashes in which more than 120 people were wounded, according to an AFP tally based on accounts by officials.
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Four government buildings were also set ablaze and one provincial governor resigned.”

“:Their allies in the Assembly erupted after the vote.”
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Allies is French for re-distributionist recipients.

Maybe they will buy the Democratic Senators kilts- that way they can run and $hit at the same time

At least I am not a paid troll. That’s two steps below crack dealer and four steps below panhandler.
Spending 77 hours a week trying to make people angry… that’s about as low as you go.
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Besides, Nissans are new cars just to start with, but, at the end of the day, why do I give a flying duck what a paid troll thinks?

“(Indiana’s) business climate has improved significantly. Infrastructure spending is at record levels. The state has added jobs at twice the national average.”
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..sounds good.

Actually, the spin is to praise GW Bush for what is happening in the Middle East. Go figure!

3X,
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In a national election he would be called a RINO:
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INDIANAPOLIS — Gov. Mitch Daniels signed into law a new effort to fix Indiana’s bankrupt unemployment insurance fund, by raising taxes on businesses and cutting weekly payments to unemployed workers.

It was the culmination of a Republican-driven effort to cut the size of a tax increase that lawmakers had passed two years ago by having the unemployed share the burden of repaying a $2 billion federal loan.

The measure had been opposed by labor leaders and Democratic legislators. Daniels said he signed House Bill 1450 to underscore the point that Republicans “are not about to be run off of an agenda that we believe we’ve committed to — a perfectly reasonable and mainstream agenda.”

On average, the bill reduces by $60 a week Indiana’s average $283 weekly unemployment benefit payout.

That helps shrink the size of the business tax increase from the $868 million that was planned to $723 million now. That’s still an increase over the $557 million businesses paid into the unemployment insurance fund in 2010.

Businesses also would have to pay a 13 percent surcharge on the unemployment taxes they pay, which would cover the interest on the state’s loan. And they have to pay an extra $21 per worker in federal taxes, which is the federal government’s way of insuring the loan eventually is paid down.

Daniels said the bill provides a balanced way to fix the unemployment insurance system. He said it is “necessary to have a system in which premiums and benefits (are) in some balance” and that the bill accomplishes this.

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Infrastructure spending (also known by Republicans as a communist plot) as well as tax increases would get him marked as a communist when he seeks the Republican nomination.

“Why the left likes higher inflation has nothing to do with jobs but its impact to force up labor costs.
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Sorry, Freak.
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Inflation causes a drop in real wages and has never been useful convincing anybody that they earn more.
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The profit squeeze brought by higher commodity prices has been tempered somewhat by tame labor costs, which have barely budged since the recession ended.The average employee cost per hour, according to the Labor Department, has risen by less than 1 percent since the recession began in December 2007.

Labor costs are generally expected to remain flat while unemployment remains high; as long as there is a surplus of workers for available jobs, workers will have a tough time getting raises. That’s a big reason that many economists and policymakers at the Federal Reserve see relatively little risk of higher inflation taking hold.

“It’s too early to panic about inflation based on one month’s figures,” said Gault. “The question is whether we are seeing a limited pass-through of commodity price hikes or the beginnings of an inflationary spiral. Wages will be the thing to watch — there won’t be an inflationary spiral unless wage inflation picks up.”

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41625436/ns/business-eye_on_the_economy/
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Since inflation is sometimes the result of increased wages for working people, liberals are tolerant of small amounts of inflation more than conservatives are, but nobody wants high inflation rates outside of those wealth redistributors, communists, illegal aliens and French people who are hiding under your bed.

“Allies is French for re-distributionist recipients…”
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Freak is not a linguist nor one who really knows the meaning of “wealth” nor distribution much less what wealth distribution means.
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3. Economics: Total of all assets of an economic unit that generate current income or have the potential to generate future income. It includes natural resources and human capital but generally excludes money and securities because the represent only claims to wealth. Two common types of economic wealth are (1) Monetary wealth: anything that can be bought and sold, for which there is market and hence a price. The market price, however, reflects only the commodity price and not necessarily its value. For example, water is essential for human existence but is usually very cheap. (2) Non-monetary wealth: things which depend on scarce resources, and for which there is demand, but are not bought and sold in a market and hence have no price. Examples are education, health, and defense.

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http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/wealth.html
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So, Freak, are the Democrats removing Total of all assets of an economic unit that generate current income such as a store with all of it’s inventory from one person and giving it to another person or group of people?
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No.
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So, Freak, are they removing anything that can be bought and sold, for which there is market and hence a price from one person and giving it to another?
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No.
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Are they removing education from your brain and giving it somebody else?
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So, please stop using language you do not understand.
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Speaking of paid trolls Information Week has a story on the Air Force getting bids for a contract on software that allows one person to data mines information on real people so they can create fake people built just for their profile – so that the unsuspecting person will “friend” this fake person.

The program also allows a single person to control several of these fake people to put info out on varies influencers twitter or facebook sites.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/client/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219056&cid=nl_IW_daily_2011-02-23_html

This is all to influence public opinion and keep track of public opinion :

The United States Air Force is taking an unusual approach to cyber-security with a request for bids for “Persona Management Software,” which would let someone command an online unit of non-existent identities on social media sites. The move became a major topic last week following the release of emails from private security firm HBGary, which were disclosed after an attack by Wikileaks competitor and collaborator Cryptome.org.

patricksartor@1.2,
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I love reminding you more liberal folks about this.
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“The process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be translated into the public service.”
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“I want to emphasize my conviction that militant tactics have no place” in the public sector.
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Franklin Delano Roosevelt — 1937

ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – As Libya’s Moammar Gaddafi ordered attacks on his own people this week, thousands of arms sellers from the United States and other countries hawked their aircraft, riot gear and rifles to Middle Eastern buyers at the Persian Gulf’s preeminent arms show.
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The decisions by Britain and France to suspend weapons sales to Libya and Bahrain, where security forces also fired live ammunition at protesters, did little to dampen the fervor of the vendors packing the sprawling Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center for the biennial convention, known as IDEX.
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The business-as-usual, big-ticket fighter jets and armored vehicles on display drew plenty of attention. But interest also appeared to be up this year in less dazzling “nonlethal armaments” of the kind put to overwhelming use recently in Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen and elsewhere.
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- link

Most of us have work to do, unlike the takers here on Swampland.

“At least I am not a paid troll. That’s two steps below crack dealer and four steps below panhandler.”
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Neither am I. Proving that you should stick to your area of expertise FAILURE and and of course one-hand tpying

“Inflation causes a drop in real wages and has never been useful convincing anybody that they earn more”
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I know it causes a drop in real wages you brain dead knucklehead, hence the lower standard of living. But clamoring for higher wages gives the left the illusion they are helping. As always its not what they actually do but their intent. They don’t intend to fail they just do!

Back on the “new civility” front, here is a little ditty from our union brethren.
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http://www.seiu.org/2011/02/the-dropkick-murphys.php
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Not that civil, but a damn catchy tune.

Interesting, in a scary kind of way.
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We can rule out these guys being that professional.
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Freakinpa claims to be a chemical engineer yet posts that he believes that the only reason oil drilling on land in the US is getting more and more rare is because of environmental regulations when a basic understanding of science, business and/or economics will tell you that the only reason that land based oil drilling has dramatically decreased in the US is because we already used up almost all of the easy-to-get oil in the US and don’t get me started on “Dr” Earl who is 39 years old in one post, days later, 37 going on 38 years old a few days later, does not know the basics of medicine…
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At least we know that the Koch brothers are using a discount professional troll service.
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I wonder, do discount professional troll services have coupons in the Sunday paper “order 30 irritating posts and get the next 30 at half price. Offer expires March 31st 2011″?

I don’t consider the Boston based (Quincy borders Boston – pronounced Quin Zee by the locals) Celtic-Punk band an equal in prominence to Sara Palin.
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Song lyrics do tend to be a little dramatic.
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Do you consider this tune offensive:
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…here is a little ditty from our union brethren.
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The Dropkick Murphys are a union? I thought that they were a celtpunk band who have always been strong backers of working-class folks. That song is from their soon-to-be-released album.
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Not that civil…
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More civil than what Walker’s doing up in Wisconsin.

“Neither am I.”
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Please tell us about how you are a chemical engineer who believes that this planet is a giant hollow ball with oil under the surface, that climate change is a 44 year old secret plot to make Al Gore into a movie star and some of your other scientifically illiterate statements.
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Please make sure to remind us how you became a financial consultant to businesses when you do not even know the economic definition of the word “wealth”.
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Then try to explain to me that your claim that you spend eleven hours a day seven days a week on Swampland is just for fun.
.
Please, Freak.
.
If you aren’t paid for this, you are a mental patient who has all day with the computer at the group home to go online since no sane person would call what you do all day every day “fun”.

“As always its not what they actually do but their intent.”
.
Then, according to you, when the government consistently used Keynesian Economics from 1933 through 1981 there was no growth in wages.
.
Actually wage stagnation for the lowest one third began under Reagan.
.

Stagnating Workers’ Wages

In 1979 the American worker’s average hourly wage was equal to $15.91 (adjusted for inflation in 2001 dollars). By 1989 it had reached only $16.63/hour. That’s a gain of only 7 cents a year for the entire Reagan decade.

But wait. Things get worse! By 1995 it had risen to only $16.71, or virtually no gain whatsoever over the 6 years between 1989 and 1995.During the great ‘boom years’ between 1995 and 2000 it rose briefly to $18.33 per hour. In other words, from 1979 to 2000, even before the most recent Bush recession, after more than two decades the American worker’s average wages increased on average only 11.5 cents per hour per year! With nearly all of that coming in the five so-called ‘boom’ years of 1995-2000, and most of that lost once again in the last three years. And that includes for all workers, even those with college degrees.

The picture is worse for workers who had no college degree. That’s more than 100 million workers, or 72.1% of the workforce. For them there was no ‘boom of 1995-2000′ whatsoever. Their average real hourly wages were less at the end of 2000 than they were in 1979! And since 2000 their wages have continued to slide further.
The Great Productivity Swindle

Management is always quick to say in contract negotiations, ‘give us more productivity and we can afford to give you a bigger raise’. But this has been a false promise from 1979 to 2000, and an even bigger lie under George Bush II.

With 1992 as base year, productivity was at 82.2 in 1979. It grew to 94.2 by 1989 and 116.6 by the year 2000. In the past year, moreover, it has exploded, putting it over 120. That’s a nearly 40% increase since Ronald Reagan took office nearly 25 years ago!

The 100 million American workers without college degrees, whose real take home pay today is less than it was 25 years ago, certainly can’t be said to have shared in that 40% productivity gain. And the other 20 million or so with college degrees whose pay rose modestly at best certainly shared in very little of that nearly 40% productivity gain.

So who got all the money?
CEOs & Executive Compensation

Considering just the period from 1989 to the present yields an obscene result. The median executive salary (cash pay and bonuses) of American CEOs rose by 79% from 1989 to 2000�and has continued to accelerate right through the current Bush II recession! And that’s only the median. The average CEO cash and direct compensation growth is even higher than 79%.

But wait! That’s only CEO wage or ‘cash’ compensation. How about management incentives, stock options exercised, the value of new stock grants, special supplemental pensions, etc. etc. The growth of this ‘direct compensation’ of CEOs from 1989 to 2000 was no less than 342%!. 212% of that growth occurred in the ‘boom years’ of the late 1990s.

Put in real money terms, the median pay for an American CEO was $2,436,000 in 1989 and $10,775,000 by 2000.

The growth in CEO compensation has been unstoppable, and is accelerating faster every year. In 1965, CEO pay was 26 times that of their average worker. In 1980, as noted, 40 times. In 1989, it was 72 times. In 1999 it had risen to 310 times, and today, as per the above data from the accounting firm, Towers Perrin, survey it has reached 500 times.

The international comparisons are also interesting to note. Whereas the American worker today earns only about a third more than the average wage of the worker in 13 other industrialized countries, for those same countries the American CEO earns 300%, or three times, as much as his CEO counterpart. No average CEO compensation in any of the other 13 countries is equal to even half that of the typical American CEO’s. For example, the ratio of CEO to average worker’s pay ranges from a low of around 10 to 1 for Japan and Switzerland to a high of around 25 to 1 in the UK and Canada.

As one source has put it, “in 2000 a CEO earned more in one workday (there are 260 in a year) than what the average worker earned in 52 weeks. In 1965, by contrast, it took a CEO two weeks to earn a worker’s annual pay”.
The Falling Minimum Wage

One of the more shameful legacies of the past decades has been what has been allowed to happen to American workers at the lower end of the earnings spectrum. While workers at the top end have become fewer and fewer with the outsourcing and offshoring of high pay-good benefits union jobs, those at the lower end have been suffering their own severe hardship.

We are talking here about more than 10 million American workers who earn the minimum wage. (Contrary to corporate propaganda, only 28% of those getting paid minimum wage are teenagers. Most are single women or men as head of households). The minimum wage in America reached its high point in the late 1960s in terms of real buying power, and thereafter went into a deep and steady free fall of more than 29% decline in buying power under Reagan during the 1980s. In the early and mid 1990s the decline was slowed somewhat with modest increases in the minimum wage legislated by Congress, but has fallen sharply was again since the last increase in the federal minimum wage in 1996, now approaching almost a decade ago.

In terms of 2001 dollars, the minimum wage in 1979 was worth $6.55. It fell to $4.62 in 1989, rose modestly in the early and mid-1990s, but today in 2003 is equivalent to only $4.94 an hour. The minimum wage is 21.4% less today than it was in 1979.
The Legacy of Declining Hourly Wages in American: Working Longer And Harder

The overall picture is abundantly clear: real average hourly ages of more than 100 million of American workers’ are less today than 25 years ago; real wages of college educated workers have risen only modestly in the late 1990s and fallen since under Bush II; and real wages of the 10 million lowest paid workers have declined more than 21%.

Given this irrefutable array of facts, one might ask ‘how has the American worker and his or her family survived the last quarter century under Reagan and Bush’? The answer is by working longer hours�individually and as a family unit�and by taking on more and more household debt�both in lieu of hourly wage gains.

Let’s look at hours worked: The American worker not only works more hours in a year than his counterpart in other industrialized nations, but is the only worker in the 13 major industrialized countries whose hours worked per year actually increased since 1979.

Workers in all the other industrialized countries have enjoyed an actual decrease in their total hours worked per year in a comparable period.

For example, there are approximately 2080 hours of work in a year. In 1979 the American worker individually worked 1905 hours out of the possible 2080. But by 1998 he or she was now working 1966 hours a year. That’s an increase of 61 hours. In contrast, a worker in Germany saw his working hours decline from 1764 to 1562. A worker in France from 1813 to 1634. And in the United Kingdom from 1821 to 1737. The picture is similar in all 13 industrialized countries recently surveyed.

As a family unit, while real wages of male workers as heads of households in the US have fallen, the American family has worked longer hours by adding more family members to the workforce. Since 1973 this increase in family average hours worked is the equivalent of adding 5 months of work in a year to the 2080 hours. Wives in working families have assumed the major share of this increase in total family hours worked, contributing more than 500 additional hours of work per year. But the male worker in the family has also worked more overtime hours, and both husbands and wives have taken on second part time jobs as well. All three developments add up to the 5 additional months of work American workers’ families now work in order to offset declining hourly wages and just to make ends meet.

If it were not for working these longer hours worked, or adding record amounts of family debt (installment, mortgage, student loan, etc), the standard of living of the American worker and his family would have certainly collapsed.

.
http://www.kyklosproductions.com/articles/wages.html
.
Sorry, Freak, as a paid troll you do not know enough about economics to know that from World War II until Reagan real wages went up and during Republican regimes real wages go down.
.
Please tell your employer that posting about real wages is a bad idea for the right wing.

“Please tell us about how you are a chemical engineer”
.
So you want to try and go from one smear to another but in the end you are still a FAILURE (with one hand typing)
.
“Then try to explain to me that your claim that you spend eleven hours a day seven days a week on Swampland is just for fun”
.
Another attempt at smearing by the village idiot who has proof of nothing besides his stupidity. Take your one hand off the keyboard and go annoy the sheep– you have been baaahhhhhhhd

“Most of us have work to do..”
.
Yes, there are a huge number of liberals you wish to discourage from meaningful and interesting dialog.
.
Now, get busy on those other blogs and leave Swampland to real people.
.
Obviously you hate businesspeople if you think of me as a “taker” but I am not even going to go there again.

Rev Jim you are baaaaahhhhhddd

Patricksarto

College drop out- check
.
Failed Used car salesman – check

.
Failed Taxi driver – Check

.
Rejected Civil servant – check

Swampland village idiot – check
.
Proficient- one hand typing and friend to small farm animals
.
All Around Failure- and you prove it every day

fat single (can’t count the sheep) and stupid – you hit the trifecta

Paulie,
.
Roosevelt also interned hundreds of thousands of Japanese Americans without due process.
.
He had many good points, but, he was not a deity.
.
We all know that the only deity in the White House was the Great Gipper.. Nine months after he left the presidency, he flapped his arms and flew from California to Berlin where he huffed and he puffed and he blew the Berlin Wall down.
.
Then despite Alzheimer’s, in 1991 he stamped his feet so hard that he, knocked down the Kremlin.
.
Now, we must get down on our knees and thank the ghost of the Gipper for bringing down authoritarian rule in the Middle east. Apparently Reagan’s policy of controlling those scoundrels including Saddam Husein by sending them massive sums US Taxpayer money was his secret strategy to bring them down.

I’m a commercial real estate agent in Manhattan (but work at home in Queens) and show you my work website and you, who show us nothing make absurd claims that you know so much about science when you clearly display less than a fifth grader’s understanding of science are accusing me of smearing you.
.
Obviously you, also, fail logic and reasoning.
.
To his credit, at least Rusty will tell us, believably, that he worked at mental hospital in some non-clinical job and is retired from it.
.
You being an engineer is zero percent likely.

patricksartor@1.4,
.
Blasphemy! You can expect to be drummed out of the liberal fraternity as persona non grata for dissing FDR.
.
As for the rest of your post, it just seems to be a rambling set of vacant thoughts with no coherence.
.
Are you feeling okay?

patricksartor@13.1,
.
“Real liberals are hard to find today.”
.
You’re just not looking under the right rocks, Pat.

“Blasphemy!”
.
It’s probably hard for you to understand but, unlike you right-wing-authoritarian-following Teatard automatons, liberals don’t treat their leaders like infallible gods.

patricksartor@20,
.
Not to worry. I am an army of one. I can handle this with my eyes closed.

Patrick,
.
“Infrastructure spending (also known by Republicans as a communist plot) as well as tax increases would get him marked as a communist when he seeks the Republican nomination.”
.
Dream on little Patty. I think you will be very surprised by who is the Republican nominee and your next President.

patricksartor@25.1,
.
You misunderstand. I love that song. I can’t stop playing it. Reminds me of union parties that I went to as a kid.

grape_crush@25.2,
.
Did you not notice whose website I linked to for the song? That is the SEIU website. You know, those purple shirted thugs.
.
Gov Walker was elected to do exactly what he is doing. You may not like it, but in a democracy, when you lose, you have to take your lumps and try to come back in the next election.

College drop out- smear
.
Failed Used car salesman – smear

.
Failed Taxi driver – Smear (my license is still here, but I let it expire as I got better work).

.
Rejected Civil servant – smear

Swampland village idiot – smear.
.
Freakinpa,
.
Despite claiming to be an engineer:
.
Claims Climate Change is a Hoax by Al Gore.
.
Claims that land based oil drilling has stopped due to the EPA, not that we already used up the oil.
.
Despite claiming to advise corporations:
.
Missuses the word Wealth constantly.
.
Does not understand second semester Macroeconomics (Keynesian Economics).
.
Does not understand the meaning and significance of infrastructure.
.
Freakinpa: an obvious fraud and liar
.
Patrick Sartor: Manhattan Commercial Realtor earning more than car sales, taxi drivers, cops and professional trolls combined.

shepherdwong@1.6,
.
Really? Than what was all that worship of Obama all about?
The cult that you people created around Obama reminded me of Jim Jones.
.
What the hell did “We’re the ones we’ve been waiting for” mean?
.
And what was that drivel about the seas not rising and the planet beginning to heal? It sounded like a TV preacher revving up the crowd before the collection was taken up.

“You know, those purple shirted thugs.”
.
No.
.
But when I worked security in the Prudential Center in Boston in 2003 I was assigned, unarmed (as I was never armed security) handle about 150, peaceful, lawful SIEU members striking all by myself without incident.
.
I didn’t know I could frighten 150 “thugs” into submission.
.
Those disguises! They looked just like hard working janitors trying to get their pay up to $300 per week.
.
Who knew I could scare 150 thugs into submission?
.
I guess that’s why things didn’t work out for me with the NYPD. There would be no criminals left for the rest of the cops if I joined if I could, unarmed, scare 150 thugs into submission.
.
Those tricky thugs.

“Dream on little Patty.”
.
Little?
.
You professional trolls have to have a meeting to synchronize your insults.
.
Paulie says I can scare 150 thugs into submission Earl says I am morbidly obese and on death’s door and you are calling me little.
.
Go back to the drawing board and at least come up with consistent insults.
.
I had worse in the third grade!

“I am an army of one.
.

Baaahd?
.
Every time you write that, I think of this oldie:
.

“Gov Walker was elected to do exactly what he is doing.”
.
Stop lying, you miserable @sshole.

Walker contends he clearly “campaigned on” his union bargaining plan.
.
But Walker, who offered many specific proposals during the campaign, did not go public with even the bare-bones of his multi-faceted plans to sharply curb collective bargaining rights. He could not point to any statements where he did. We could find none either.

http://politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2011/feb/22/scott-walker/wisconsin-gov-scott-walker-says-he-campaigned-his-/

Tentative Agreement Ends Boston Janitors’ Strike
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
Published: October 24, 2002

A union that represents nearly 11,000 janitors in the Boston region ended a three-week strike yesterday when it reached a tentative five-year contract that provides 30 percent salary increases and health insurance for some part-time janitors.

The labor officials, from Local 254 of the Service Employees International Union, hailed the agreement, saying it was hard to persuade the cleaning companies to grant health coverage to any part-time workers.

.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/24/us/tentative-agreement-ends-boston-janitors-strike.html?scp=1&sq=Boston+Janitors+strike&st=nyt
.
My mistake. It was late 2003 when I, single handedly held down 150 “thugs”.
.
If you right wingers get all scared, just call me and I can hold down the fort while you hide under your beds and cry.

“The cult that you people created around Obama reminded me of Jim Jones.
.
So, you were in Guyana back in the 1970s.
.
How did you switch from worshiping Jim Jones to Rush Limbaugh?

“College drop out- smear”
You attended college- you have no degree–dropout!
.
Failed Used car salesman – smear
You couldn’t earn a living at it – fail

.
Failed Taxi driver – Smear (my license is still here, but I let it expire as I got better work).
.
No it was right before you wee rejected as public servant
.
Rejected Civil servant – smear
Not according to your own words on this site
.

Swampland village idiot – smear.
This is confirmed with every post you make.
.
I notice the one thing you didn’t say was a smear was th sheep. I guess you just confirmed that now too.
Everything above can be shown from you own posting s here when you give us those heart wrenching stories.
.
On the other hand you can prove none of what you write about me — and that is a is smear.

I will spend this weekend and collect some of your smears on me and others and will send them to some of my RE freinds in NYC. (One is a partner is a RE firm) and let them knwo just what you do in your spare time. I am sure Level Group will love the publicity. Seems you already had 3 RE jobs in 2 years well on your way to more failure.

“Everything above can be shown from you own posting s here when you give us those heart wrenching stories.”
.
I work for a living.
.
That’s your definition of ” heart wrenching”.
.
“On the other hand you can prove none of what you write about me.”
.
What?
.
I can prove that you made such moronic statements.
.

On the other hand you can prove none of what you write about me — and that is a is smear.

I will spend this weekend and collect some of your smears on me and others and will send them to some of my RE freinds in NYC.

.
Um, Freak, you, clearly, do not know the first thing about doing business.
.
Let’s go on the outlandish premise that you have a friend and, furthermore, one of them is in NYC and, to top it off, that they are in real estate, you will achieve nothing
.
If your buddy represents a landlord and I have a client, your buddy has two choices:
.
1) Show the pace to my client the same as he would for his best friend in the world, a total stranger or anybody else.
.
Or
.
2) Lose his license for failing to live up to the fiduciary responsibilities of an agent.
.
If your buddy likes his job, he can do nothing.
.
On the other hand, if any realtor of any political persuasion fails to show property to qualified tenants, I will be happy to report them to REBNY.
.
The funniest part is, during the very rare circumstances when realtors talk about controversial topics, nearly all of them in NYC are at least as progressive as I am.
.
In one seminar a very experienced partner in a commercial firm was lecturing us and threw in some conservative politics. I was not among them but nearly half of the class complained about him. (I didn’t, he was not rude, crude, obnoxious and ignorant like you and actually had done something with his life rather than just make sht up online).
.
Enjoy your weekend.
.

“I am sure Level Group will love the publicity.”
.
Sir, NYC is liberal.
.
Nine out of ten New Yorkers would be thrilled to see me tell you to shove it up your ass.
.
But, when you lose an argument, make threats.
.
Once again, have a lovely weekend, and I look forward to this so-called friend you have getting in touch with me.

Patrick: freeper went to the Dr. earljr college of bogus degrees, campus located in Grenada.
Now, I really don’t know their actual education status or professions, but they sure use a great deal of space touting their advanced degrees.

“I can handle this with my eyes closed.”
.
I hope that makes it a little easier to plant your lips on Rush Limbaugh’s @ss

There always threatening to move. The Maloofs hate to part with their own casino money and the voters in the metropolitan area have refused to give them a new stadium. I don’t think most residences would care if they left.

For the crazy reactionary right wing file:
.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/02/gingrich-obamas-doma-move-sounds-impeachable-to-me-video.php?ref=fpblg
.
Gingrich: Obama’s DOMA Move Sounds Impeachable To Me (VIDEO)
.
I guess Gingrich forgot how well that worked out for him and the Republicans last time.
.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/02/24/949001/-Federally-funded-abstinence-group-has-ties-to-Kill-the-Gays-Uganda-minister?showAll=yes
.
“Project SOS, a Jacksonvile-based
abstinence education program, has received more than$6.5 million in federal funding through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services since 2002 — including $454,000 in September 2010. This despite the fact that the group has been cited for teaching false information about HIV and is a supporter of Ugandan pastor Martin Ssempa, one of the most outspoken advocates of legislation in that country that prescribes the death penalty for homosexuals.”

FYI:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/24/catholic-bishops-back-wis_n_827831.html
.
“The U.S. Catholic bishops on Thursday (Feb. 24) threw their moral weight behind the pro-union protesters in Wisconsin, saying the rights of workers do not abate in difficult economic times.”
.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/02/nyt-affidavits-say-roger-ailes-told-employee-to-lie.php?ref=fpb
.
Mystery Solved? NYT Says Docs Show It Was Roger Ailes Who Judith Regan Accused of Telling Her to Lie
.
“..told her to lie about her relationship with Kerik, reportedly in the context of Ailes’ desire to protect Rudy Giuliani’s then nascent presidential prospects.”

….

Hypocrisy?
.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/02/freshman-goper-i-sure-hope-that-transportation-project-i-voted-to-eliminate-gets-restored.php?ref=fpb
.
Freshman GOPer Hopes That Transportation Project He Voted To Cut Gets Restored

A meeting of dumb and dumber.. neither have a good track record and NEITHER actually works.. oh they know a lot.. how to shake down people.. GREAT..

patricksartor@1.8,
,
Unlike the liberal drones who fill the ranks of the Cult of Obama, I was never partial to Kool-Aid. How about you, Pat? I would guess that you are a fan of Cherry flavored Kool-Aid.

shepherwong@20.8,

You are a special case, Wong. You I can handle in my sleep. Which is good because many of your posts are sleep inducing.

patricksartor@20.7,
.
Good one, Pat. But I was thinking more in terms of Jack Webb as a DI.

patricksartor@25.5,
.
You are not a black man so the purple shirts felt no need to give you a beat down as they did with that gentleman in Missouri.
.
I would imagine that in your case, if the union thugs did get rambunctious, the worst that they would have done is give you a wedgie.

shepherdwong@25.6,
.
You were just not paying attention, Wong. The rest of the country was aware that the day of reckoning had arrived on November 2, 2010..
.
The gravy train has derailed and there is no getting it back on the tracks.

“Unlike the liberal drones who fill the ranks of the Cult of Obama…”
.
Let me explain it this way:
.
Did ever get sick? You know, really, uncomfortably, stay in bed, can’t eat, vomiting diarrhea, fever, coughing feel like death sick?
.
Then, a few days later, you not only can eat soup and hold it down, you can have breakfast, you can go out and walk around, you can go back to work and do all of those normal things again. Then just not vomiting, not having diarrhea, not having a fever that makes you light headed and foggy going to work, seeing your friends, and leading a normal feels like you are in heaven for about a day or two.
.
Well, the Bush regime with a stolen election, a false war, an economy going down the toilet and getting worse and worse by the hour, the government gaining surveillance powers not granted to them since before Nixon was that ill feeling.
.
Now that he’s been here, has not attacked the wrong country, stolen elections, driven our financial institutions into the ground, halfway kept most of his promises – even if very watered down to beg for Republican votes- it just feels like day number 100 since that horrible flu.
.
Actually, I had three incidences of mild food poisoning in my life. It was, in each case, about 30 minutes of hell on earth and just getting a little better made the next few hours feel really good… then it became normal.

“I would imagine that in your case, if the union thugs did get rambunctious, the worst that they would have done is give you a wedgie.”
.
They weren’t giving wedgies. They were cheering to slogans in Spanish which translated to “management, listen, we are in a wrestling match” (which rhymes in Spanish).
.
“You are not a black man so the purple shirts felt no need to give you a beat down as they did with that gentleman in Missouri.”
.
You mean that video where two black men, one being a union member get pulled apart and the other starts telling police he got jumped for no reason while witnesses say that the non-union member attacked the union member.
.
Your fellow paid trolls political comrades showed that video over and over despite the fact that there were no injuries and that the witnesses were blaming non-union black man rather than the union black man.
.
Old fake news, Paulie.

“The gravy train has derailed and there is no getting it back on the tracks.”
.
Getting paid for paving the roads is a gravy train.
.
To paraphrase Chris Rock,then, “Pave my roads, dick”.
.
The gravy train doesn’t stop in blue collar neighborhoods.
.
It gets held up and run dry at the CEO’s house.

@ 20.10..Lunatic Fringe, some know your’re out there.

“Let’s go on the outlandish premise that you have a friend”
.
Reputation is all you have this a service business. We’ ll see how long yours lasts! Other than being a arrogant pompous a$$

While it is rare for an administration not to defend the constitutionality of a statute, it happens occasionally. Congress may opt to appoint its own lawyers to defend the law, or outside groups may try to intervene. And while the Justice Department’s lawyers will no longer defend the law in court, Mr. Holder said the administration would continue to enforce the act unless Congress repeals it or a court delivers a “definitive verdict against the law’s constitutionality.”

.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/24/us/24marriage.html?pagewanted=2&sq=Defense%20of%20marriage%20act&st=cse&scp=1
.
Is it just me, or doesn’t somebody else wish to know other cases the DOJ did not defend?
.
I am unconcerned about DOMA since it was made during a time when nobody thought gays even wanted to marry.
.
I am just wondering where an example exists of when this happened before.
.
Bob Bell? Are you there? Is their an attorney in the house?

“Reputation is all you have this a service business. We’ ll see how long yours lasts.”
.
To quote the lord god the great gipper said “Go Ahead – Make My Day”.
.
Freak, I promise you with so many small business owners, advertising firms and creative companies who are very liberal – not to mention fashion, which is very liberal and leases out 20,000 square foot showrooms for twenty year leases at, often $60 per square foot per year - putting me out there as somebody who calls out your Bulls hit would gain business for me with most businesses.
.
You do know that unions have huge union halls of 30,000 to 50,000 square feet and need to pick a realtor who will get them the space.
.
“a arrogant pompous a$$”
.
Which am I, a self deprecating guy who doesn’t mind telling some people that he’s worked some crappy jobs, or a pompous guy?
.
You’ve got to stop making contradictory insults. Pick one lie about me and stick with it!

Patrick,
.
“thank Ronald Reagan for this, too. (He, had nothing to do with the Berlin Wall coming down, he was already out the White House, but, somehow, the right wing will thank Reagan for this.)”
.
Congratulations, you have just proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are a totally ignorant person.
.
Your lack of experience and knowledge of history shows what a totally brain dead person you are. No wonder you and Apr get along so well.
.
Know go Google some left wing site that supports your ignorance and then prove your ignorance by posting it here.

Patrick,
.
“little”
.
I was referring to your mind.

Thanks Patrick. Bobby Darin. “Mack the Knife”. When I was a teenager I had a “dangerous” crush on Bobby Darin.

“Your lack of experience and knowledge of history shows what a totally brain dead person you are.”
.
Actually I was taking international relations classes as a college Freshman when the Berlin Wall came down.
.
It was already common knowledge among diplomats, intelligence agencies and, since those agencies, in reality, leak like sieves, to international relations professors that the Soviet Union was totally bankrupt for the past 20 years it’s hard to imagine that a speech, not the financial insolvency caused the Berlin Wall to come down.
.
The mainstream media made some references the financial ruin the Soviet Union was in, but, both the Soviets and the US didn’t like to bring it up. The Soviets were embarrassed that communism had failed by about 1965 and the CIA and State Department didn’t want to lose public support for the anti-communist efforts.
.
Reagan’s speeches had nothing to do with the fall of the Soviet Union. His negotiations with the Soviet Union played a minor role but, in reality, communism destroyed communism.
.
Please tell me your version of the story. I could use a good laugh.

While you’re here, please explain to our “little minds” why infrastructure spending done by the president is considered evil but, when done by the governor of Indiana is considered glorious?
.
If Obama goes up against Mitch Daniels, it will be just like going against Mitt Romney.
.
Romney is going to try to explain why identical health care bills are different. Daniels will have to explain why identical spending is different.
.
Repairing highways which both create jobs in the short term and help future commerce is what the entire stimulus package was all about.
.
So, bring on Daniels. He’d be lucky to win 40% of the vote.

“College drop out
.
Failed Used car salesman

.
Failed Taxi driver

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Rejected Civil servant

Swampland village idiot
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All still true. ANd you admitted your affection for sheep besides. While your smears against me are nothing but suppositions and assumptions without any fact by a dropout and over all failure.

Keep flinging that’s the liberal way- temper tantrums by mentally unstable people.

I am an army of one.
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You’re not at war, are you?
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I can handle this with my eyes closed.
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Well, quit or you’ll go blind.

Um, Freak… You do know that you are just posting random insults in strange places for no known reason, don’t you?

You may not like them but they are neither insults or random just reality, one thing you refuse to deal.

“Freakinpa claims to be a chemical engineer yet posts that he believes that the only reason oil drilling on land in the US is getting more and more rare is because of environmental regulations when a basic understanding of science, business and/or economics will tell you that the only reason that land based oil drilling has dramatically decreased in the US is because we already used up almost all of the easy-to-get oil in the US”
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Yes easy to get oil. Unfortunately every thing in life is not easy to get which explains your contempt fo rthe successful and wealthy because it is work and you fail at that.
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Extraction methods have changed over the years and yes they are tougher and more expensive but then oil isn’t $6/bbl anymore is it?
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And your argument that environmental regulation denial makes one conclude that maybe you didn;t drop out but flunked out.

patrick,
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paulie trots out this same crap every couple of days or so.
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It’s one of the main reasons I think he’s a paid troll.
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He’s not really listening. Cleverness and chain-jerking for their own sakes.

Freak,
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First you are putting on a thread of somebody else.
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Second. Taxi driver and car salesmen are jobs on takes when pursuing another long term goal, not careers.
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Third I was 37 years old when I got the rejection letter from the NYPD. I was getting too old. That was the main concern by that time.
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Fourth my current line of work, on average makes more than many attorneys and, with enough experience, most doctors, too. So, your randomly calling Pintortwo a failed used car salesman, etc, etc is random.
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So, why don’t you go back to the Koch brothers and ask for a reassignment. Being a paid troll on Swampland is far too difficult for you.

Unfortunately oil is not easy to get which explains your contempt environmental regulation.
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Having had a relative live in Alberta, I know that
extraction methods have changed over the years and are tougher and more expensive which drives up oil prices
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And your argument for climate change denial makes one conclude that maybe you didn’t flunk out of engineering school, but you flunked out of high school.
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Working for the successful and wealthy, which I do as the definition of commercial real estate agent is something you, with your limited understanding of the outside world, is something you could never do, which is why you became a paid troll.
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So, please return to the Koch brothers and tell them that Swampland is far too difficult for you.

Matt,
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“Walker will not prevail because he has shown himself to be a radical partisan whose agendas is based purely on political opportunism, not what’s best for the sate or his constituents.”
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Sorry that I must be the bearer of bad news for you and your liberal friends.
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Walker’s bill will become law in WI for the benefit of WI and a majority of its citizens. Isn’t Democracy a wonder form of government?

Hi Adam Sorenson;

Thanks for the link to the health care chart. It makes me wonder how the other countries manage to do it.

If you read through the comments sections you’ll find this
from the guy who made the chart:

When I first made the chart, without the US, and then added in the US, we were “off the chart”. I had to then alter the y-axis to make the US appear.

So it is worse than it looks. It is a travesty that the US doesn’t have any national health care system.

And, I was kind of disappointed that you did post the video of how the republicans in the WI Assembly passed the kill collective bargaining bill. Rather, we only got the last part with the Democrats reacting in anger.

“Isn’t Democracy a wonder form of government?”
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Yes, democratic organizations like unions, indeedare wonderful but walker’s days are numbered before a recall election removes him.
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Poll: 56 percent of Wisconsinites Oppose End to Collective Bargaining, Even Split on Recall Attempts
Posted Thursday, February 24, 2011 4:27 PM | By David Weigel

MADISON, Wisc. — The Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity sponsors a poll of 500 likely voters in Wisconsin, slightly more Democratic than the election day electorate (Walker won this sample by 1 point, but won the election by 5).

The key questions:

How likely is it that you would support the recall of state senators who left the state to avoid a vote on the budget?

Likely – 47%
Not Likely – 48%

Should Wisconsin’s state employees and public employee unions have collective bargaining powers?

Yes – 56%
No – 32%

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http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/weigel/archive/2011/02/24/poll-56-percent-of-wisconsinites-oppose-end-to-collective-bargaining-even-split-on-recall-attempts.aspx
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I think we live in a wonderful time. From 21 years ago when democracy came to the former communist countries for the first time beginning with East Germany through the Middle East and, if we are lucky, into the United States despite the Koch brother, Fox News and AM radio’s war against democracy.