Morning roundup

  This is just as it should be. It appears from reading THIS article at the Ozaukeepress.com website that teachers have a sudden prick of conscience for having skipped school to attend protests, calling in "sick," and leaving their students without guidance or substitutes. 

  Check out this video. In it, some "patriot" waves a Mexican flag at a union rally. Here's the description: Union supporters rallied in Denver February 22, 2011, in solidarity with public unions in Wisconsin. In this video, union activists chant "USA" -- to a backdrop of a Soviet hammer and sickle and a Mexican flag.

  Hey, was that TSA agent rude to you? Do you work in the airport? Shun the TSA agent! Don't  serve "their kind." Turn your backs on them when they come into the restaurant.  (This is called the OJ treatment. As we suggested earlier, if you're simply a traveler, opt for the hand search but be sure to eat beans before you go to the airport.)

  From The Consumerist: "Until TSA agents start treating us with the respect and dignity that we deserve, then things will change for them in the private sector," says the employee.

   Who's surprised that Obama won't defend the Defense of Marriage act?

  It looks like the Repubs in Columbus are backing off their SB 5 after the demonstrations this week. Boy, if that's all it takes, we're not in for much of a ride.

  And, GEEZ, where's The One been during this Middle East crisis? This is incredible leadership....NOT.

Patriots of NW Ohio-Listen to WSPD tomorrow at 6:00 p.m.

Gary Rathbun of Private Wealth Consultants and Dr. Linda Bowyer will be hosting a special "Eye on Toledo" focusing on the government debt, deficits and inflation on Thursday February 24, 2011 at 6:00pm on 1370 WSPD.  We will be taking phone calls and questions so please call in.  And spread the word to your friends and family.  We would appreciate feedback on how you liked the show and suggestions of other topics you would like us to cover  (sent to WSPD@WSPD.com).

Bad Jew! Bad Jew!

Hey, I support Israel when they're not being a#$^oles! And what you are doing is NOT healing the world! (Wait. But SHE is?)

No phone vote: voter ID

Hey, at this point, I'd rather get the voter ID bill through since it also has longlasting effects on the union. JS Online has the story that runaway Dems will not be allowed to vote by phone.

Union: it's about power, not dollars

  Retiring NEA chief legal counsel Chanin admits: It's not about children....It's about power, which we have because we collect millions of dollars in dues. Watch for yourself:

  Then watch as the floods of people wearing the same shirts, who undoubtedly all think for themselves, rise and clap in admiration.
  This is why Wisconsin and ultimately Ohio are so important. It's not about giving up the percentages of their income to cover their benefits: they can bargain for that again later.
  It isn't really about the dollars involved paid to the union, at this point.
  It's about the bill which requires that unions cannot require members to pay dues.
  It's about having to hold annual votes to stay organized, which is essentially the opposite of the way it is now....union members are forced to pay dues. 
  Opt out of a teachers' union, and you pay, rather than, say, $800 a year in dues, $725, because the union claims only a small portion of fees is used for lobbying for liberal causes. 
  From Sunshine review regarding the Wisconsin bill:

The proposal would take away most state and local workers of collective bargaining rights on everything except salary.^[17] Unions would be unable to seek pay increases above those pegged to the Consumer Price Index unless approved by a public referendum.^[5] In addition, unions also would have to hold annual votes to stay organized and would be unable to force employees to pay dues.^[5]

  What unions want is a federal law called card check that would effectively eliminate an employees' ability to vote in private. From the Chamber of Commerce regarding card check:

Eliminating the Private Ballot

Card Check would effectively eliminate private voting.

Under the existing law today, workers have a chance to vote for or against unionization in a private-ballot election that is federally supervised. Under Card Check, if more than 50% of workers at a facility sign a card, the government would have to certify the union, and a private ballot election would be prohibited—even if workers want one.

By forcing workers to sign a card in public—instead of vote in private—Card Check opens the door to intimidation and coercion. Over 70% of voters agree that a private election is better than card check.

  So you see it's not really about the particular dollars. 
  It's about maintaining power long term over union members...the union members who may disagree with their stance. 
  As it is now, the power they wield is wielded against all its members, even those who disagree.
  Shocking photos from the Wisconsin rally at the Daily Caller here.

Is union member Miss Pelling a teacher?

Nice Deb has more civility pictures. Honestly. This is not the way to win friends.

Unionists arrive in Columbus

  Well, they've arrived in Columbus with the mass preprinted signs and identical union colored t-shirts, undoubtedly aided by the numerous schools who were canceled today due to weather. 10tv has an article:

The Ohio Democratic party criticized procedures at the Statehouse on Tuesday, saying that only 750 people had been allowed inside.

"This is the people's house. Ohioans came from all over the state today to make their voices heard," Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern said. "To make them stand in the freezing cold and snow today is an unfathomable and unprecedented step."

Statehouse officials said just after 1:30 p.m. that they would allow 500 more people into the rotunda area.

  They've jammed into the building but are complaining that too many have to stand outside in the cold. Be sure to watch the accompanying slideshow.
  It sure looks like the tea partiers are there too.
  Zip at Weasel Zippers is waiting for the Dems in Ohio to become fleebaggers, in addition to Indiana and Wisconsin.

Suddenly Democrats want to "work together"

  Hm. 
  Very interesting that the Wisconsin union leader Mike Langyel who was just interviewed by Megyn Kelly on Fox is repeating his mantra that all the Democrats and labor unionists want to do is to "work together" with the Republicans.
  Let's just work together on a government that works for all the people, he says. Unions are just trying to "protect the children" (yes, he said that) "from this governor," whom he calls a "dictator" who is "ruling."
  Mike Langyel's goodie list for schools can be found here. He complains that the teachers/unions don't have the ability to shape the conditions under which students learn. The Daily Caller has a few salaries of the teachers and staff protesting.Information has also been released regarding the failure rate of Wisconsin students. 
  MacIver Institute:

Almost one out of every five Wisconsinites who took the ASVAB in 2009 was unable to hit that baseline score of 31 or better. Nearly one of two black students could stake the same unsuccessful claim. Unfortunately, these scores reflect some of the trends that have become starkly apparent in the Badger State. The student achievement here is disparate, and the educational results are mediocre despite high graduation rates.

  While evidence grows that the White House is actively working to crank up the union protests, the dollars that unions spent on Democrats are overwhelming. In fact, Trumka says he talks to someone at the White House every day, and visits 2-3 times weekly.
  Two thirds of Wisconsin 8th graders can't read proficiently. From CNS:

In the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests administered by the U.S. Department of Education in 2009—the latest year available—only 32 percent of Wisconsin public-school eighth graders earned a “proficient” rating while another 2 percent earned an “advanced” rating. The other 66 percent of Wisconsin public-school eighth graders earned ratings below “proficient,” including 44 percent who earned a rating of “basic” and 22 percent who earned a rating of “below basic.”

  Unexpectedly this "working together" meme only seems to be uttered when Democrats lose. 
  We can expect more of this until, of course, Democrats start winning again.
  Then, suddenly, it will be "I won" all over again.
  Hey, weak kneed Republicans, play some hard ball here. You've been elected to do a job.
  Now do it.

TSA scanners don't work...

  And now, the piece de resistance for the TSA scanners.
  They don't work.
  In addition to concern over the safety of some of backscatter xray machines, an issue the FDA has ducked, now comes the fact that they don't work.
  NBCDFW has video and the story:

An undercover TSA agent was able to get through security at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport with a handgun during testing of the enhanced-imaging body scanners, according to a high-ranking, inside source at the Transportation Security Administration.

The source said the undercover agent carried a pistol in her undergarments when she put the body scanners to the test. The officer successfully made it through the airport's body scanners every time she tried, the source said.

Fleebaggers: ya better come back

  Some very clever maneuvering going on today on both sides of the political aisle. 
  While the New York Daily News reports that New York is sending union thugs brothers and sisters to Madison in support, presumably because Wisconsin teachers are supposed to be returning to work today, the Wisconsin Senate is considering passage of a voter ID law, "abhorred by Democrats," according to JS Online.
  Of course, the Democrats are philandering off in another state, avoiding doing their duty, presenting an excellent example to children of how not to do your job, which seems to be a fever going around out there in the Badger state.
  This is an amusing and timely idea, but one has to ask why any voter or legislator would "abhor" a law in which voters actually have to present ID to register official opinion on various state proposals and laws.
  Voter ID laws have been upheld by the Supreme Court. They prove who you are and that you are not lying in presenting numerous alternate identities to vote numerous times.
  Well, one only has to ask why you'd "abhor" such a law only if you're willing to close your eyes to reality, which is apparently the case with some people.
  How anyone could argue that properly identifying yourself is depriving "the poor" from voting is beyond absurd, particularly when the memory of the New Black Panthers parading with nightsticks in front of a polling place is fresh in the memory, even as the DOJ rejects looking into the "problem."
  Powerline has several insightful comments about this apparent disconnect with reality. First, they point out that liberal groups who receive massive flows of cash from political sugar daddies are objecting to conservative groups receiving comparatively modest amounts of support cash from conservative benefactors.
  Powerline:

Certainly not in the world of Think Progress, which is entirely a creature of the billionaire left. One curious feature of today's left is its obsession with "astroturf." There is a reason why lefties who work for billionaire-funded web sites like Think Progress constantly talk about astroturf: it is the world they live in. They are paid by rich liberals, and the demonstrators who are bused in to left-wing protests are generally union members who are paid to attend. No one on the left does much for free. So lefties find it hard to understand that ordinary citizens ("Tea Partiers") will turn out at rallies without being paid, that conservative voters vote on principle, not financial self-interest, and that conservative activists act out of conviction, not because they are subsidized by a sugar daddy. Failing to understand that conservatism--unlike liberalism--is a movement of principle, not self-interest, they are constantly looking for the elusive, non-existent money trail.

  That disconnect with reality was apparent when one of the Democrats, a "fleebagger" who ran away,ran away from providing a quorum to Wisconsin legislators, compared herself to the demonstrators in Egypt on Van Susteren's "On The Record" last night:

TAYLOR: No, what I'm saying in particular, Greta, is that in Egypt, if you look, after they overthrew their ruler, they had some specific rallies and protests, and one of the ones that they had was on workers' rights. How ironic is that, right?

And if you look, even on my Twitter page, there's been an opportunity for you see a sign from individuals in Egypt that says "Egypt supports Wisconsin workers." This is really about making sure that individuals have the right to come to the table and talk about our future. 

  Then again over at Powerline we have the story of the grievously wounded soldier who spoke about ROTC at Columbia the other day. When he spoke about "bad people" wanting to kill Americans, spontaneous laughter erupted from the student body, particularly one young lady who screamed in laughter. Someone cried out, "That's completely offensive," in response to Maschek's contention that bad people who are murderers exist in the world.

  Perhaps the young lady ought to spend some time actually reading the news once in a while, like this pleasant little story of a teacher who was attacke by Muslim militants for doing his job. As Powerline (again) points out, England is shariah friendly. 

  And that's working out really well for them, isn't it.

  The Daily Mail:

Four men launched a horrific attack on a teacher in which they slashed his face and left him with a fractured skull because they did not approve of him teaching religion to Muslim girls.

  So, little gal from Columbia who thought it appropriate to jeer someone who was wounded for you and to little miss who screamed, "That's completely offensive" apparently  to accuse Maschek of being a racist against al Qaeda, maybe you'd better get your president to start fabricating fake software created people on FAcebook and Twitter to support your case, because most of us out here in flyover country don't believe you.
  We think you're a bit pampered.
  And, fleebaggers, it's doubtful your president will risk political capital to come back to support you. Maybe in his next term, he might, but for now, he's busy.
  He's at a WTF meeting in Cleveland.
  Too bad about that Cleveland weather today. Might depress turnout.

More violent speech from the left

Ugh. This is so sickening as to be difficult to watch.

There are more details over at Activists and Airplanes.

Tell the truth!

Intolerance on the left is something we have come to expect these days. This video is a perfect example of leftist "tolerance." Being rude seems to be the fashion, even/especially for "professionals" these days. As the teachers scream repeatedly, "Tell the truth!" their goal is to block an interview of someone they do not like. Rather than stand quietly by and ask to be interviewed to present their points of view, they find it preferable to scream opposition.

What Wisconsin means to Obamacare

  While we thought the passing out of fake doctors' notes to "stress" ridden teachers, was as bad as it gets in medicine, another ominous development has emerged on the skyline.
  Apparently the whole "social justice" movement hit medicine a while ago. Along with the QALY based on a person's usefulness to society, medicine is intent on bring "justice" to the people, which apparently means that your MRI will be determined by the color of your skin, your lack of insurance, and your ability to pay, meaning the "haves" will have to fork over their right to proper health care to the "have nots," although those two nomenclatures are increasingly becoming difficult to decipher, based on the government's determination that regular hard working non-unionized people have no right to the result of their work product, AKA money.
  So the whole "You're not a Democrat so, no, no MRI," thing really might happen, only based on whether your new young doctor, who has been trained by the government, received loans from the government and who determined what specialty you'd be going into and even where you'd practice will go along with the social movement of making sure the poor get better care than YOU do.
  Read over at Pajamas Media:

In 2002, the American College of Physicians proposed a charter in which the three guiding ethical principles for physicians would be: patient welfare, patient autonomy, and “social justice.” In 2007, the AMA ITME (American Medical Association Initiative to Transform Medical Education) reported on the importance of training medical students to be better advocates for “social justice,” and proposed changes in the medical school admissions criteria and curriculum to address this perceived inadequacy.

As a result, medical schools are now increasingly admitting students based not on competence in the sciences, but rather on their commitment to “social accountability.” Medical school ethics courses are thus increasingly emphasizing “social justice” over traditional notions of ethics — or the individual patient’s welfare. But “social justice” is frequently just a euphemism for a socialist political agenda of leftist politics, redistribution of wealth, and heavy state controls over the marketplace.

  Relax. It's called the "new medical ethics."
  And it becomes apparent that we've been fighting for a great deal more than just who runs the government. 

Gov. Walker: give 'em what they want

  Working Families Tour has come to Northwest Ohio in defense of SB 5. A special meeting in Toledo is scheduled for tonight. From Glass City Jungle:

COLUMBUS – Assistant Ohio House Minority Leader Matthew A. Szollosi (D-Toledo) will host the Working Families Town Hall Tour in Toledo on Monday, February 21, 2011 at 7 p.m. at the Conn-Weissenberger American Legion Post on Alexis Road.

This town hall meeting will focus on Senate Bill 5, which proposes to eliminate collective bargaining rights for teachers, police, firefighters and all state employees.

   Numerous Organizing For America, the Obama grassroots group, meetings are scheduled to try to beat back 5. 
  The war against the Wisconsin budget goes on.
   In just the right twist of the knife, the New York Working Families Party has this on their website, apparently unfazed by the results of the election in Wisconsin:

“Why teach my children about ethics if the elected officials who are supposed to look out for their best interests…do not practice it themselves?”

These words come from one of hundreds of New Yorkers who have written a letter to Governor Cuomo urging him to include publicly financed, voter-owned elections in his promised ethics reform legislation.

  Maybe that admonition only works when elections go the way they want. They have a new initiative called VOE, voter owned elections. Perhaps what they REALLY mean is OWNED elections.... be watching for more on VOE. It's the new push to run crooked elections.
  Note what the Google search for Working Families reveals:

  Organizing for America IS an extension of Barack Obama's campaign.
  Quick! Everyone drone! CHANGE! CHANGE! CHANGE!
  Meanwhile, back in Wisconsin, the teachers have defied their union commands and called in "sick" again; school is canceled today.
  Boy, are they getting themselves in a whole heap of trouble.
  Here's a suggestion, Governor Walker.
  Go ahead and let them keep their salaries, their cushy health care plans, just the way it is now.
  Then fire the 12,000 workers who the state will no longer be able to afford.
  Why worry about the consequences? The workers obviously do not care about 12,000 in their midst.
  There's no more money. You're trying to save jobs for people who obviously are more concerned about keeping what they have than the future. You're agonizing over a decision that should be pretty cut and dried, at this point, as it becomes obvious that cooperation is not forthcoming.
  There're too many workers, many of whom do not appear to want to work anyway, apparently, costing the taxpayers around $12 million.
  So give 'em what they want.
  Fire 'em.
  Then watch the backstabbing begin as they turn on one another. 
  This is what they're asking for, so give it to them.

Fire 'em

  As someone pointed out earlier today, state employees/teachers, etc, are paid with taxpayer dollars.
  Some of them are using school buses to get to their protest locations.
  Some (many?) have acquired fake doctor's excuses to get off work, claiming "sickness,' and undoubtedly will be stupid enough to try to use them.
  Unfortunately, the DNC, OFA and our president are on the WRONG SIDE OF HISTORY on this issue (not mentioning the many other issue on which they're on the wrong side).
  So let me get this straight.
  Because of your behavior, you have run out state legislators in fear of their lives, damaging state property.
  You are misusing state property, like the snow trucks that circled in solidarity in Wisconsin.
  You are lying about why you aren't at work and seen on television obviously not ill.
  You aren't planning on returning to work any time soon, as the clients for whom you are responsible will suffer.
  You are planning on clogging the Capitol of your state in protest.
  Result?
  You should be fired.
  H/T Ronald Reagan

Real American Heroes

  So who are the REAL AMERICAN HEROES?

  According to this fellow, it's the union.

photo by Althouse

  Yes, in case you didn't know "Unions=Real American Heroes."

  Well, according to the left, that's probably true. 

  To them, this dude dress in too tight pants and Nazi boots is a hero. (Whoever complained about tea party costumes ought to just shut up, from here on out.)

  Other Americans might think the over 15000 tea partiers who showed up in Wisconsin yesterday with one day's notice might be heroes. As Gateway Pundit says, they paid their own way too.

  According to Fox, about 70,000 people were in the capitol of Wisconsin yesterday.

  Maybe it's the folks who are trying to figure out how to get a quorum by replacing one weak Democrat senator with an alternate using a recall petition. From Chicagoboyz:

So, the total time to get a recall election scheduled is the time to gather the signatures in Wisconsin Senate District 12 plus six weeks. Call it two months or so total if the GOP made a serious effort, which is late April.

Could the GOP get a campaign going in Holperin’s district to recall him, have the election, and get a shenanigan-proof 20 seat guaranteed quorum before Memorial Day?

  Maybe the heroes are the Democrats who turned tail and ran who gallantly exited the state to prevent the Republicans from having a quorum.

  As one of them said on the news this morning, "We just want people to slow down the process, be reasonable, work this out in a clear minded and fair fashion. Treat people with respect."

  Ooooo, that's funny.

  Isn't that what tea partiers said about Obamacare? Like, read the bill? Like, respect our presence here in the Capitol? Like, let us be a part of what's going on?

  What's good for the goose....

  Anyway, that sounds like a losing strategy.

  Or, wait, maybe the heroes are the doctors who signed fake slips for the protesters UPDATE...because, after all, isn't there a possibility they too are sacrificing their careers for their "just cause"? And if this is a harbinger of Obamacare, (fake drs excuses for free paid time off) what MORE can we expect from that monstrosity?

  What remains to be seen is the reaction of the general public to these shenanigans, when it's reported that the average teacher, with benefits, makes over $100,000 a year as the nation struggles with lost jobs and homes.

  From a Wisconsin Teachers' Code of Ethics:

A CODE OF ETHICS FOR TEACHERS

1. The school room is not the proper theater for religious, political, or personal propaganda. The teacher should exercise his/her full rights as a citizen but he/she should avoid controversies which may tend to decrease his/her value as a teacher.

2. The teacher should not permit his/her education work to be used for partisan politics, personal gain, or selfish propaganda of any kind.

3. In instructional, administrative, and other relations with pupils, the teacher should be impartial, just, and professional. The teacher should consider the different interests, aptitudes, abilities, and social environments of pupils.

  We'll just have to see what happens when the dust settles.

  Methinks the real heroes have already been revealed.

Step right up! Fake dr's excuses for ya

  Things are all working out really well in Wisconsin, with 'doctors" working the crowd and dispensing "doctor's excuses" for being too ill to work since Wednesday. 
  This might be because school districts are threatening to punish teachers who chose not to work the last few days and instead protested.
  From MacIver Institute, who have really been on top of this situation.
  This looks convincing.
  Right?

Patient’s name______

Date of birth ____/_____/_____

To Whom it May Concern:

This is confirm I have seen and evaluated the above named patient.

Please excuse from work/school due to a medical condition from

____/____/____ through

Please contact me at badgerdoctors@gmail.com if additional information is needed. Thank you.

  But remember! We're professionals! 

Give it a rest

  The long knives are out Criticism is flowing for Governor Kasich as he has taken a stand on collective bargaining in Ohio.
  As early supporters of Kasich, we do not jump at any criticism of him lobbed by the press and left wing bloggers.
  Video has emerged of Governor Kasich criticizing a police office by using the term "idiot" as he describes an incident in which he was ticketed for not giving a stopped officer wide berth on the highway.
  To support criticism of Kasich, one website mentions the death of an officer whose death led to the passage of the law in Ohio. The mother of the deceased officer was contacted, and her comments critical of Kasich have led to an uproar in the press, as these sort of things usually do.
  It was intemperate of Kasich to have voiced his opinion the way he did.
  But let's be honest.
  The root of this criticism is union objection to HB 5.
  It really is tiresome to use the same modus operandi in trying to defeat one's opponent.
  Couldn't we do this based on legitimate political disagreement?
  Couldn't we make the argument on philosophical grounds?
  Do we HAVE to manufacture a crisis, yet another crisis, in which the perpetrator is biased/intolerant/discriminatory against some popular left wing pet peeve?
  Do we HAVE to drag out the aggrieved relative? 
  Do we HAVE to cut the video at just the right point, and then go on television, whining about the intolerance of the right, as opposed to the liberality of the left, who would work not at all, pay for everything and tolerate absolutely everything?
  Kasich has admitted that he shouldn't have called the officer who ticketed him an idiot.
  Being human, it's pretty natural to flail against the system, when caught in  regulation that requires ticketing.
  Unfortunately, this discussion is extending into the collective bargaining issue in Ohio. Use whatever you can, is the logic, to defeat your opponent.
  Kasich, as requested, apologized face to face to the officer.
  It shouldn't have happened.
  We can't wait to see how much behavior has to be erased from the web of the younger generation when they choose to run for office. They'll have to change their names.
  Meanwhile, give it a rest.
  Let's talk about the issues and let the other stuff go.
  If we can excuse Robert Byrd for being an exalted cyclops of the KKK, I think we can move beyond this.
  Doncha think?