Peacenik thinks that if public sector collective bargaining can be destroyed in Wisconsin, then public sector collective bargaining can be destroyed anywhere in North America, including Canada. There are lots of movies about the development of unions in North America. Watch one. It was a tough battle. And now after years of having the right to bargain collectively, the right to join a union, and the right to worker safety laws, it is now all at risk. Some wingnut in Missouri is even trying to ban child labour laws. And who is standing up to defend worker rights. Is Obama? Is Bill Clinton? Is Hillary? A lot of common people are, along with the captain of the Green Bay Packers. If the governor of Wisconsin wins this battle, the United States of America will make Libya look like a tea party. Not today. Maybe not tomorrow. But sooner than anyone wants. Collective bargaining is part of the fabric of society. Rip it apart, and watch out.
MADISON - Wisconsin’s Legislative Fiscal Bureau was created in 1968 by a Republican governor, Warren Knowles, and a Republican-controlled state legislature.
The purpose was to establish a non-partisan agency that would provide honest fiscal analysis and information for Wisconsin Legislators. Across more than four decades, the bureau has done just that, earning the respect of legislators from both parties, including a young Scott Walker, who frequently cited the bureau when he served in the state Assembly.
Less than a month ago, a Fiscal Bureau memo reported that the state had a $121.4 million surplus through the remainder of the current fiscal year.
That is a fact that is now under attack by Governor Walker, who the conservative publication Human Events refers to as the “new hero” of the Republican right. Walker argues-- as Republicans and Democrats have acknowledged for some time -- that the state’s fiscal house is not in order and that unsettled issues relating to a payment due Minnesota after the canceling of a tax agreement, as well as rising health care and prison costs, could well create a shortfall before the end of the year.
So it is possible that Wisconsin might need a budget repair bill of the sort Walker has proposed before the fiscal year is finished, as it has in many years.
Read on...
2/19/11
Uncommon Wisdom at the Convenience Store
punditman says..
Punditman recently learned that convenience store owners everywhere toss out more old newspapers than ever before because apparently nobody reads anymore.
Punditman always knew that news industry circulation numbers were faked but the whole thing has become laughable. Call it the Twitterization of the public mind, but surely publishing newsprint is one dying industry. Saves trees anyway.
In any case, contributory negligent deforestation occurs whenever we decide to trade in our strained, screen-reading eyes, for the relaxing and tactile experience one can only achieve through the purchase of a morning newspaper composed of dead trees.
Punditman's local variety store is owned by Afghan Canadians and recently passed hands to relatives or family friends (Punditman is not exactly sure). In his short conversations, Punditman has always found these folks have an uncommon sense of humanity and social justice. No doubt informed by the harshness of earlier life under Russian occupation, they have told Punditman that they are similarly outraged by what NATO forces have been doing to their country for the past decade. Leave the place alone, they insist.
For some reason these fine folks often feel compelled to engage Punditman in a little tete-a-tete. And my friendly shopkeepers have an uncanny way of getting straight to the point— be it sports, business, or world politcs.
As it happened, Punditman walked in yesterday bleary and sleep-deprived as a result of a restless night. Thankfully, Punditman's psyche was abruptly jolted into cognition when the store owner asked Punditman what was going on in Libya. Punditman said there were some protests and riots and he heard on the radio yesterday that some people had been killed. Punditman forgot the name of one of the cities in Libya (Benghazi), where these things were happening. But Punditman did say that he thought the Libyans were emulating what was happening in the rest of the Arab world. The shopkeeper agreed that the Arab world was exploding and that it needs to change and that in fact the whole world needed to change (waving his hands). Punditman agreed (waving Punditman's hands).
As an example, the shopkeeper said that let's say he made 100k and Punditman made 20k, well that it's not right and that has to change, he proclaimed. Was this guy reading Punditman's mind? Punditman finds the idea of a guaranteed annual income a no-brainer as have many big wigs throughout history and though it is gaining traction across the political spectrum, entrenched power apparently doesn't agree. So Punditman nodded again. So there you have it: a straightforward treatise on wealth redistribution from a hard working immigrant and small business owner. Such insights are sadly lacking in the minds of many second and third generation Canadians, Punditman mused. Yep, this guy had more common sense that a sauna full of PhDs. Have a redistributive evening.
PS: This reminds Punditman of Johnny Cash:
Well, we're doin' mighty fine, I do suppose,
In our streak of lightnin' cars and fancy clothes,
But just so we're reminded of the ones who are held back,
Up front there ought 'a be a Man In Black.
I wear it for the sick and lonely old,
For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold,
I wear the black in mournin' for the lives that could have been,
Each week we lose a hundred fine young men.
And, I wear it for the thousands who have died,
Believen' that the Lord was on their side,
I wear it for another hundred thousand who have died,
Believen' that we all were on their side.
Well, there's things that never will be right I know,
And things need changin' everywhere you go,
But 'til we start to make a move to make a few things right,
You'll never see me wear a suit of white.
See the whole video back here.
2/18/11
Radical States: GOP Forcing Their Nightmarish Right-Wing Vision on People Who Elected Them
The scary thing is that these people are getting elected in the first place. The U.S.A. is a very sick place, Culturally, politically and economically. And it may take more that some protesting to cure it. And Canada may not be much better off. Tea Bagger Ford got elected mayor of Canada's biggest city. Ford has already declared war on the cities unions. Can Canada's economy improve without the U.S. economy improving? Peacenik doesn't think so. If Wisconsin can become Egypt, can Guelph become Egypt too. Peacenik thinks so.
When President Obama took office amidst the worst recession in three generations, he immediately focused his energy on enacting a comprehensive plan to revive the nation's economy. Newly elected Republicans, however, have interpreted their temporary rise to power in an entirely different way. Where Obama saw an immediate need to grow the nation's economy, GOP leaders are seizing their moment to force longstanding GOP fantasies upon the people they govern. Several GOP-led states are pushing plans to strip state workers of their collective bargaining rights. Twelve states are considering unconstitutional bills "nullifying" the Affordable Care Act. Arizona Republicans are lining up behind a plan to unconstitutionally strip citizenship from millions of Americans. New Hampshire Republicans have returned to the GOP's favorite pastime of denying gay Americans their constitutional rights. Given the opportunity to lead, far-right politicians have decided instead to ignore the nation's needs and pursue their own narrow, unpopular ideological vendettas.
"What's Disgusting? Union Busting!" Chant Wisconsin Crowds That Swell to 30,000; Key GOP Legislators Waver
This is beginning to look a lot like Egypt. Peacenik knows some rightwing whacko first suggested this but that doesn't mean it is necessarily untrue. Or that there is something wrong with comparing a mass protest in Wisconsin to a mass protest in Egypt. Protests are going to be a way of life around the world very soon. The good news is that the protesters in Wisconsin are not being tasered, and shot at with rubber bullets. This is a beginning in Wisconsin. Regular people are standing up to Tea Party bullies. It is a good beginning.
"I have never been prouder of our movement than I am at this moment," shouted Wisconsin AFL-CIO President Phil Neuenfeldt, as he surveyed the crowds of union members and their supporters that surged around the state Capitol and into the streets of Madison Wednesday, literally closing the downtown as tens of thousands of Wisconsinites protested their Republican governor’s attempt to strip public employee unions of their collective bargaining rights.
Where Tuesday’s mid-day protests drew crowds estimated at 12,000 to 15,000, Wednesday's mid-day rally drew 30,000, according to estimates by organizers. Madison Police Chief Noble Wray, a veteran of 27 years on the city’s force, said he had has never see a protest of this size at the Capitol – and he noted that, while crowd estimates usually just measure those outside, this time the inside of the sprawling state Capitol was “packed.”
On Wednesday night, an estimated 20,000 teachers and their supporters rallied outside the Capitol and then marched into the building, filling the rotunda, stairways and hallways. Chants of "What's disgusting? Union busting!" shook the building as legislators met in committee rooms late into the night.
Update: Chomsky weighs in.
2/17/11
FOX News Creates Fraudulent Video to Discredit Ron Paul
Peacenik isn't a supporter of Ron Paul. Nor is Fox News. But this example shows how blatant the media's manipulation of news is. And meanwhile the CRTC thinks having Fox News, or Fox News wannabes, is ok in Canada. You want to know why most Republicans think Obama is a Muslim? It is because of media distortion/propaganda like this. Follow the link. Watch the video.
As Paul Joseph Watson of PrisonPlanet writes:
In a shocking act of mass public deception, Fox News attempted to skew Ron Paul’s 2011 CPAC straw poll win by representing it with footage from the previous year’s CPAC event, at which Mitt Romney supporters had loudly booed the result, another example of the continuing dirty tricks campaign being waged against Paul by the establishment media.
Congressman Paul replicated his 2010 victory over Mitt Romney by defeating the former Governor of Massachusetts for a second consecutive year at the annual CPAC conference.
However, before anchor Bill Hemmer introduced a segment concerning the story, Fox News played a clip of the 2010 announcement of the poll results, during which Mitt Romney supporters had loudly booed Ron Paul’s victory, passing off last year’s footage as representative of this year’s event.
Hemmer then proceeded to state, “In the end he was the winner, probably not the reaction he was hoping for,” describing the reaction as “mixed applause and boos,” before directly asking Ron Paul if he knew who was booing him.
2/15/11
A 'Dictator' Governor in Wisconsin Sets Out to Cut Wages, Slash Benefits and Destroy Public Unions
My, My, isn't the world an interesting place. While Peacenik is cheering on protesters all over the world, look what is happening in Peacenik's backyard. Organized labour is under a frontal assault all over North America. The people in Tunisia, Egypt, Iran, Syria, etc. all no longer want to be serfs. But in the good old U.S.A. the people are electing rightwing dingbats who are marching the U.S.A. quickly down the road to serfdom. And the serfs are loving it. God bless those patriotic tea baggers. And it isn't much better in Canada. But some of the serfs are doing ok. The publically bailed out General Motors is giving everyone a good old bonus. And Wall Street is awash with bonus money. Peacenik doesn't know what to think. Peacenik is losing track of who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. But Peacenik does know Peacnik is on the slippery slope to something.
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s proposal to strip public employees of most collective bargaining rights, cut pay and gut benefits without any negotiation the most radical assault yet by the current crop of Republican governors on the rights of workers has inspired outrage in a historically progressive and pro-labor state.
With unions calling on members an allies to “fight back” against a “blatant power grab,” tensions are running so high that the governor, who took office in January, is threatening to call out the National Guard in case of industrial action by state, county and municipal employees. “Even if you don’t like unions,” says Rich Abelson, executive director of AFSCME Council 48, the union that represents Milwaukee County workers, “surely we all can agree that anti-freedom attacks that deny public employees the right to negotiate a fair contract…are outrageous and wrong.”
Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI). Walker’s proposal to strip public employees of most collective bargaining rights, cut pay and gut benefits without any negotiation the most radical assault yet by the current crop of Republican governors on the rights of workers has inspired outrage in a historically progressive and pro-labor state. (AP Photo) Even Republicans are unsettled, with a senior GOP legistator, state Senator Luther Olsen, describing the governor’s announcement a “radical” move that threatens “a lot of good working people.”
Walker never discussed ending collective bargaining during a campaign in which he promised to work across lines of partisanship and ideology to create jobs.
Instead, he has chosen to play political games.
The governor’s budget repair bill, which includes the plan to gut collective bargaining protections for public employees, does not seek to get the state’s fiscal house in order.
2/11/11
Mubarak Steps Down, Ceding Power to Military
Peacenik has been trying to follow the Egypt story which has been dragging on for a while now. But Peacenik is confused. The military dictatorship of Murbarak is stepping down in favour of a military dictatorship? How is this an improvement? Why are all those people on TV so happy. Why can I never remember question marks. Until Peacenik sees who steps forth, someone who the people want, Peacenik thinks this may have been an unsuccessful revolution. Peacenik is sure the US is very comfortable with the Egyptian army being in control. Goodbye status quo. Hello status quo. Saudi Arabia is next. Whatever next means, in this case.
CAIRO — President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt resigned his post and turned over all power to the military on Friday, ending his nearly 30 years of autocratic rule and bowing to a historic popular uprising that has transformed politics in Egypt and around the Arab world.
The streets of Cairo exploded in shouts of “God is Great” moments after Mr. Mubarak’s vice president and longtime intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, announced during evening prayers that Mr. Mubarak had passed all authority to a council of military leaders.
“Taking into consideration the difficult circumstances the country is going through, President Mohammed Hosni Mubarak has decided to leave the post of president of the republic and has tasked the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to manage the state’s affairs,” Mr. Suleiman, grave and ashen, said in a brief televised statement.
Read on...
CAIRO — President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt resigned his post and turned over all power to the military on Friday, ending his nearly 30 years of autocratic rule and bowing to a historic popular uprising that has transformed politics in Egypt and around the Arab world.
The streets of Cairo exploded in shouts of “God is Great” moments after Mr. Mubarak’s vice president and longtime intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, announced during evening prayers that Mr. Mubarak had passed all authority to a council of military leaders.
“Taking into consideration the difficult circumstances the country is going through, President Mohammed Hosni Mubarak has decided to leave the post of president of the republic and has tasked the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to manage the state’s affairs,” Mr. Suleiman, grave and ashen, said in a brief televised statement.
Read on...
Foreign Policy 101: Plus ca Change
punditman says...
Punditman is not sure why any student would want to study US foreign policy these days because the course could easily be completed in a couple of lectures. That is if the right prof. is lecturing. Or the student could just survey the internet for a couple of hours to get the ugly truth.
Undoubtedly these courses need to fill the time somehow (commercials are probably the next step in university lectures, just like anywhere else you venture these days outside of your already heavily mediated head space). In any case, punditman assumes these course still contain the obligatory, redundant drivel about the machinations of realists, idealists, triangular diplomacy, and other flopsam and jetsom (yawn), most of which avoids the fundamental point concerning American statecraft: namely, the essence of American foreign policy is not difficult to understand because it is based primarly on elite control, corporate profit, war-making and war-preparing and has rarely changed in substantive ways over the centuries and decades regardless of who the boogeyman is (natives, nationalists, Communists, Islamists, etc.) This goes back to the days of Mark Twain around when the US began its fateful path towards imperial power. Twain knew a thing or two about the corruptions of power and money and wasn't afraid to call it as he sees it. The new posthumous autobiography of Twain is no doubt a great read in this regard.
In more recent times, the same old pattern has emerged from country to country: Support a dictator with money, arms and well wishes for years and years until the people finally rebel. Then preach "stability" while pretending to support people power all the while maneuvering behind the scenes to install your next puppet either overtly or covertly.
It reminds punditman of the following lyrics from "Lives in the Balance," by Jackson Browne (a great American):
And there's a shadow on the faces
Of the men who send the guns
To the wars that are fought in places
Where their business interests run
On the radio talk shows and the T.V.
You hear one thing again and again
How the U.S.A. stands for freedom
And we come to the aid of a friend
But who are the ones that we call our friends--
These governments killing their own?
Or the people who finally can't take any more
And they pick up a gun or a brick or a stone
And there are lives in the balance
There are people under fire
There are children at the cannons
And there is blood on the wire
This article by Philip Giradi, pretty much sums up Punditman's view of the whole scene unfolding in Egypt and how it relates to US foreign policy. It would be nice if the United States lived up to its rhetoric about democracy for once and stopped interfering in other people's countries and put the will of the people above that of elite interests. Then they could actually say and do the right things. Punditman is not holding punditman's breath because punditman does not want to die.
Punditman is not sure why any student would want to study US foreign policy these days because the course could easily be completed in a couple of lectures. That is if the right prof. is lecturing. Or the student could just survey the internet for a couple of hours to get the ugly truth.
Undoubtedly these courses need to fill the time somehow (commercials are probably the next step in university lectures, just like anywhere else you venture these days outside of your already heavily mediated head space). In any case, punditman assumes these course still contain the obligatory, redundant drivel about the machinations of realists, idealists, triangular diplomacy, and other flopsam and jetsom (yawn), most of which avoids the fundamental point concerning American statecraft: namely, the essence of American foreign policy is not difficult to understand because it is based primarly on elite control, corporate profit, war-making and war-preparing and has rarely changed in substantive ways over the centuries and decades regardless of who the boogeyman is (natives, nationalists, Communists, Islamists, etc.) This goes back to the days of Mark Twain around when the US began its fateful path towards imperial power. Twain knew a thing or two about the corruptions of power and money and wasn't afraid to call it as he sees it. The new posthumous autobiography of Twain is no doubt a great read in this regard.
In more recent times, the same old pattern has emerged from country to country: Support a dictator with money, arms and well wishes for years and years until the people finally rebel. Then preach "stability" while pretending to support people power all the while maneuvering behind the scenes to install your next puppet either overtly or covertly.
It reminds punditman of the following lyrics from "Lives in the Balance," by Jackson Browne (a great American):
And there's a shadow on the faces
Of the men who send the guns
To the wars that are fought in places
Where their business interests run
On the radio talk shows and the T.V.
You hear one thing again and again
How the U.S.A. stands for freedom
And we come to the aid of a friend
But who are the ones that we call our friends--
These governments killing their own?
Or the people who finally can't take any more
And they pick up a gun or a brick or a stone
And there are lives in the balance
There are people under fire
There are children at the cannons
And there is blood on the wire
This article by Philip Giradi, pretty much sums up Punditman's view of the whole scene unfolding in Egypt and how it relates to US foreign policy. It would be nice if the United States lived up to its rhetoric about democracy for once and stopped interfering in other people's countries and put the will of the people above that of elite interests. Then they could actually say and do the right things. Punditman is not holding punditman's breath because punditman does not want to die.
2/8/11
Air Force Warns Everyone Is a Criminal for Reading WikiLeaks -- News from Antiwar.com
punditman says...Punditman is speechless:
Air Force Warns Everyone Is a Criminal for Reading WikiLeaks -- News from Antiwar.com
Air Force Warns Everyone Is a Criminal for Reading WikiLeaks -- News from Antiwar.com
2/7/11
It Ain't Just Mubarak -- 7 of the Worst Dictators the U.S. Is Backing to the Hilt
February 5, 2011 | Embattled Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, whose regime has received billions in U.S. aid, has been in the global media spotlight of late. He's long been “our bastard,” but he's not alone.Petitions by Change.org|Get Widget|Start a Petition �
Let's take a look at the other dictators from around the planet who are fortunate enough to be on Uncle Sam's good side.
1. Paul Biya, Cameroon
Biya has ruled Cameroon since winning an “election” in 1983. He was the only candidate, and did pretty well, getting 99 percent of the vote.
According to the country's Wikipedia entry, “The United States and Cameroon work together in the United Nations and a number of other multilateral organizations. While in the UN Security Council in 2002, Cameroon worked closely with the United States on a number of initiatives. The U.S. government continues to provide substantial funding for international financial institutions, such as the World Bank, IMF, and African Development Bank, that provide financial and other assistance to Cameroon.”
Amnesty International details unlawful executions, journalists being thrown in jail and a host of other nasty business.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)