Wisconsin senate passes union-busting bill

Well, folks, the Wisconsin state senate has officially crossed the Rubicon...

Quote :

Wis. GOP bypasses Dems on collective bargaining

MADISON, Wis. – Republicans in the Wisconsin Senate voted Wednesday night to
strip nearly all collective bargaining rights from public workers after discovering a way to bypass the
chamber's missing Democrats.

All 14 Senate Democrats fled to Illinois nearly three weeks ago, preventing the chamber from having
enough members present to consider Gov. Scott Walker's so-called "budget repair bill" — a proposal introduced to
plug a $137 million budget shortfall.

The Senate requires a quorum to take up any measures that spend money. But Republicans on Wednesday split from
the legislation the proposal to curtail union rights, which spends no money, and a special conference committee of state
lawmakers approved the bill a short time later.

The lone Democrat present on the conference committee, Rep. Peter Barca, shouted that the surprise meeting was a
violation of the state's open meetings law but Republicans voted over his objections. The Senate convened within minutes
and passed the measure without discussion or debate.

Fuckers anyway.

Governor Walker will probably have to call out the National Guard before the week is over.

FFFFUUUUUUUUUUU--

...My gawd he is dumb. He wants riots or something?

What a dick.

Governor Scott "Mubarak" Walker is a knuckle-dragging douchenozzle who needs to be hung by his toes, naked, in the public square and have his salary, retirement, and health benefits stripped from him.

So...the Senate deemed a bill that Governor Walker claimed for the last three weeks was central to his budget plan as "non-fiscal" in order to get it passed without the 14 AWOL Democratic legislators?

Does he honestly think we're all idiots?

You guys do realize Ohio's proposed legislation is worse, don't you?

..Thank God I live in Washington state, where we just voted in a measure that strengthens collective bargaining.

Kasich.....how the hell that creep was elected is beyond me. "Could care less about politics"? Really? Shitty grammar aside these little soundbites only make me hate him more.

I hope that we do follow the citizens of Wisconsin more. If at least to make people know just how this really jives with the voters.

Oh Lord, as an Ohio native, don't get me started on Kaisch. So many things piss me off about him, especially the fact that he killed our Amtrak plan. As someone without a car and with no money currently to buy a car, a clean, efficient, and fast train linking me to Columbus and Cincinnati would have been fan-fucking-tastic, but noooooo, he had to go around screaming about "mah tax dollahs!". And now he's trying to kill our unions as well?

You know what? Screw it--the majority of morons living in my state deserve everything they get for voting Kaisch into office. The only people I'm concerned about are the poor bastards that are suffering from a politician they neither wanted nor needed.

This is...horrifying. I hope our government doesn't get ideas like this.

It's scary how blatant they are about it. Like they know the sheeple will bleat loudly but then go back to talking about Charlie Sheen in a week. I sent $25 to the AFL-CIO to fight which is more than most people do, but I'll wait to see what the Wisconsinites do. After all they were responsible for electing these gargoyles. Walker's nutty union busting record was there for all to see. They can't say they didn't know.

We public employees in California are standing in solidarity with the workers of Wisconsin, Ohio, and everywhere else. There's a rally in Temecula on March 19, and I'm gonna be there.

There's a douchebag Republican in California who wants to curtail public employees' union rights, but his bill probably doesn't have an iceberg's chance in hell of passing (knock on wood), since the California legislature is controlled by Democrats and the governor, Jerry Brown, is a Democrat (thank God Nutmeg Whitman wasn't elected).

There've been quite a few protests over this issue here in the Bay State too; the biggest ones so far have been in Boston and Cambridge.

Lapin wrote:

...My gawd he is dumb. He wants riots or something?

Americans haven't been capable of getting worked up enough to start a riot for years now.

TheHedonist wrote:

Lapin wrote:

...My gawd he is dumb. He wants riots or something?

Americans haven't been capable of getting worked up enough to start a riot for years now.

Nah, we riot every once in a while. We're just not terribly effective at it.

Case in point, in response to the CUNY tuition hikes, there was a mob at city hall like a year or so ago. You didn't hear about it at on the news, because the guys that organized it (I had a crush on my TA that was one of them, so I attended a couple of meetings) were more focused on MAKING WAVES than EXPLAINING WHY WE'RE MAKING WAVES.

Seriously. One time, they held a protest that the news ACTUALLY showed up to for once. Not one person went to the cameras and explained their platform.

So basically, we riot, but our riots are pathetic.

Peaceful protests don't work unless the opposition is losing and the Federal government is called in to solve the problem. And the feds wont act unless the 'general welfare and domestic tranquility' is threatened. At this point I don't see that happening. Walker and his repugnican cronies havent violated any hard federal laws yet. When the first Molotov Cocktail is thrown, the first live round is fired into a crowd, the first republican representative's car or house bombed, the first assasination attempt of a state governer, or union rep who dies while under arrest, THEN the feds will pay attention. Until then the best you can hope for is a mass strike that will cripple the state and force violent response from Walker and force the law to attack the people. The Wisconsinites have long played an easygoing moderate game until now. That's over. We're in class warfare now. There is no middle ground. Time to take sides. You're for the people or for the corporations. How many people think about Gabby Gifford anymore?

Quote :

We've been in class warfare since the dawn of civilization.

FTFY

Lexin wrote:

This is...horrifying. I hope our government doesn't get ideas like this.

Not much chance the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will...this state's been a hotbed of pro-union sentiment since the days when Woodrow Wilson was in the White House.

Jesus. wrote:

TheHedonist wrote:

Lapin wrote:

...My gawd he is dumb. He wants riots or something?

Americans haven't been capable of getting worked up enough to start a riot for years now.

Nah, we riot every once in a while. We're just not terribly effective at it.

Case in point, in response to the CUNY tuition hikes, there was a mob at city hall like a year or so ago. You didn't hear about it at on the news, because the guys that organized it (I had a crush on my TA that was one of them, so I attended a couple of meetings) were more focused on MAKING WAVES than EXPLAINING WHY WE'RE MAKING WAVES.

Seriously. One time, they held a protest that the news ACTUALLY showed up to for once. Not one person went to the cameras and explained their platform.

So basically, we riot, but our riots are pathetic.

Awwww, maybe you need a group of seasoned rioters to come in and teach you the solid basics? A demonstrator to help you demonstrate? Attending a football game is an excellent beginner course.

I'd offer some of ours, but unless you're interested in learning how to throw beer bottles and tell old ladies to 'go back where they came from', we can't help.