It’s a death trap
I think the Wisconsin labor situation will end up helping Democrats, and, as with many important issues, this isn’t easily measured by public opinion polls. In most opinion polls, for example, Americans favor reproductive rights, but the majority of people who make their vote solely on the basis of reproductive rights are opponents of reproductive rights. Immigration plays out the same way; the people who really care about the issue are immigrants and their families, which represent only a small fraction of the population.
I don’t think there’s that many “independent voters” who hate unions so much that they’ll base their vote on which candidate busts unions harder. But I think there are plenty of center and right-center union members who will vote against a candidate who seeks to end collective bargain rights. Not many people outside of Georgetown and Bethesda give a flying fuck what wealthy, union-hating scum like Joe Klein or Richard Cohen thinks about much of anything. In fact, Villager opposition to unions can be used to our advantage as proof that union-busting is an out-of-touch, elitist past-time (which it genuinely is, in fact).
The right is trying to portray the protests as being led by Obama (here; here) with some wingers even suggesting that Obama’s involvement is an impeachable offense. That’s a sign of fear.
Tomorrow I’m going to try to assemble a list of ways to get involved in this struggle—a struggle we will win, decisively, if not now then within a few years. For now, I’m just giving another link to that Atrios page for the Wisconsin State Senate.
This was a big miscalculation by the right and we’re going to make them pay.
Remember which side you’re on and they’ll never keep us down.
UPDATE. Order pizza for protesters here.
UPDATE UPDATE. Solidarity rallies here. General food/organization supply fund for Madison protesters here.
February 21, 2011 8:38 pm
Posted in: Free Markets Solve Everything, Fuck The Middle-Class, The Math Demands It
90 Comments
Monday Evening Open Thread
This is why there has never been and never will be a joint meeting of the Balloon Juice front-pagers.
What’s everybody got on for the evening?
February 21, 2011 6:13 pm
Posted in: Open Thread
122 Comments
US Intervention in Libya
After decades of botched meddling in other nations’ domestic affairs, American foreign policy reached fever pitch during the Bush administration. More often than not, our meddling has resulted in backlash or terrible unintended consequences, from the installation of right-wing dictators in South America, to the Iranian Islamic Revolution. This doesn’t even take into account the various foolhardy wars we’ve stumbled into, from Vietnam to Iraq. So I come at foreign policy from a very cautious position. I’m not quite full-on pacifist, but I’m close.
All that said, reports out of Libya are disturbing to put it mildly – the violence against Libyan protestors is truly horrendous. For all the defections of air force officers and diplomats, there are is report after report of slaughter. Qaddafi’s special forces are attacking protestors with snipers, artillery, tanks, and from the sea and air. They are dropping bombs from helicopters. Hundreds are dead, though we have no way of knowing the actual deathtoll.
Aziz Poonawalla writes:
It’s rare for me to advocate something as direct as a military action – but a no-fly zone is something we must as a nation do, and do immediately, if we are to do anything to help bring about a new golden age of democracy in the Middle East. After Egypt, all Arab leaders feared their people; after Libya, the people will again fear their tyrants. All the progress will be lost, all the potential will be wasted.
This is the moment that must be seized. And only we can do it.
I don’t know. I’m conflicted. This is one of those many moments I’m glad to not have Obama’s job.
I suppose I still come down on the non-interventionist side, no matter how horrible the actions of the Qaddafi government may be. There are rumors that the military might still turn on Qaddafi – let’s hope there is truth to these. And it’s important that the Libyan people own this revolution. I don’t wish death on anyone, but this is not our fight, no matter how much we wish we could step in and do something. If there are other actions the US and international community can take to aid the protestors there – including aiding defecting Libyan troops, setting up border hospitals, and keeping communications as open as possible, I think we should exploit these as much as possible.
All that being said, I don’t often write about foreign policy because there’s an element of armchair general inherent in it that I like to avoid. I don’t have the facts to say with certainty what sort of response is appropriate at this point. But I hope the killing stops soon, and that Qaddafi is brought to justice.
February 21, 2011 6:12 pm
Tags: Libya, Qaddafi, revolution · Posted in: Foreign Affairs
250 Comments
The fight spreads
Wisconsin remains the main battleground for the broader assault on worker’s rights. But elsewhere in the Big Ten states and across the country, these battles have moved forward. In Ohio, Gov. John Kasich is pushing pretty much the exact same bill as Scott Walker in Wisconsin. Known as SB 5, the bill would strip collective bargaining rights from Ohio public employees. SB 5 is a piece of legislation, so Kasich isn’t trying to implement this under the cover of a budget bill. However, he has said that if he doesn’t get what he wants out of SB 5, he will put those items into the next budget bill. Alternatively, this could go to the ballot. So SB 5 won’t be the last showdown. The Governor, aping Scott Walker, claims this is a fiscal issue, but nobody can explain how much money SB 5 would save.
Use the thread to describe what’s going on near you if anything is. This is a nationwide battle.
February 21, 2011 4:29 pm
Posted in: Free Markets Solve Everything, Fuck The Middle-Class, The Math Demands It
152 Comments
Kindergarten is Over-Rated Anyway
New Hampshire, which has become a laboratory for crazy the past few months, is upping the ante:
New Hampshire’s House is scheduled to vote this week whether to repeal a law requiring public schools to offer kindergarten.The House Education Committee is recommending keeping the requirement, but a minority on the committee is fighting to repeal the law. State Rep. J.R. Hoell, a Dunbarton Republican, argued the bill isn’t about eliminating kindergarten but about giving local voters the control over whether to offer programs.
Why stop there?
February 21, 2011 4:05 pm
Posted in: Teabagger Stupidity
110 Comments
American beauty
Some plain talk from the executive director of the National Nurses Association, RoseAnn DeMoro, on the notion that the DNC is closely involved with the protests in Madison:
This is such a DC insider insipid analysis. Of course the DNC didn’t lead this, it was a protest.
This DC insider perspective is not the shared perspective with the rest of the US who are clearly not into the two party faux bipartisan neatly constructed box. As for DC progressives, I agree with Cornel West, Obama has domesticated them. But I think that you might be surprised at the absolute contempt everyday people (outside of the beltway) have for this beltway bullsh**. The outrage is real. It is spontaneous and if the DNC disappeared, it wouldn’t matter.
I don’t agree that Obama domesticated DC progressives—they were neutered at least 20 years ago—but otherwise, more of this, please.
February 21, 2011 3:50 pm
Posted in: Fuck The Middle-Class, Fuck The Poor
21 Comments
We don’t need no education
John is definitely onto something about the fact that police are real Murkins because they carry guns. The military analogy goes even farther: Joe Klein’s dick gets hard when Michelle Rhee gives him tours of inner-city “war zone” schools, the same way it does when David Petraeus tells him stories about fighting bad guys in Iraq and Afghanistan. The teachers’ unions stand in for Al Qaeda in this parable, so it’s important to ignore all the facts and just go with the gut feeling that we’re fighting for freedom when we shit on teachers’ unions.
There’s other reasons to target teachers and janitors. I would argue that people like Megan McArdle, Charles Lane, and David Brooks are hostile to the entire modern educational project. Between the three of them, they’ve hit every Republican cliche about higher education, from the evils of teh liberal bias to dangers of wild relativism. Their hatred of public high-school education comes from the same place.
Until educators at every level move away from the evils of science and literature and start force-feeding their students a Rand, Burke, and Reagan based diet of right-wing propaganda, they deserve the wrath of all good American people.
February 21, 2011 3:17 pm
Posted in: Fuck The Middle-Class, Our Failed Media Experiment, We Are All Mayans Now
68 Comments
They Carry Guns
I think in addition to the fact that these unions endorsed Walker, which is why he may have exempted them from his current union-bashing scheme, there are other obvious reasons why teachers and janitors are so much more fun to pick on. With all the buzz about pensions and deficit reduction and shared pain at the national level, no one ever seems to mention the very generous pensions given to military retirees for a mere 20 years of work.
Police, military, corrections officers- it’s almost like they share some common element that makes them different from teachers and sanitation workers who are traditionally a much more fun target for wingnuts who like to trash people. I wonder what it is?
February 21, 2011 1:54 pm
Posted in: Domestic Affairs
107 Comments
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels Part Deux
Ed at Gin and Tacos gets into the less-discussed weeds of Scott Walker’s budget [pdf].
Apparently, governor Walker likes his union-busting to come with a side of crony-capitalism:
16.896 Sale or contractual operation of state−owned heating, cooling, and power plants. (1) Notwithstanding ss. 13.48 (14) (am) and 16.705 (1), the department may sell any state−owned heating, cooling, and power plant or may contract with a private entity for the operation of any such plant, with or without solicitation of bids, for any amount that the department determines to be in the best interest of the state. Notwithstanding ss. 196.49 and 196.80, no approval or certification of the public service commission is necessary for a public utility to purchase, or contract for the operation of, such a plant, and any such purchase is considered to be in the public interest and to comply with the criteria for certification of a project under s. 196.49 (3) (b).
Ed writes:
If this isn’t the best summary of the goals of modern conservatism, I don’t know what is. It’s like a highlight reel of all of the tomahawk dunks of neo-Gilded Age corporatism: privatization, no-bid contracts, deregulation, and naked cronyism. Extra bonus points for the explicit effort to legally redefine the term “public interest” as “whatever the energy industry lobbyists we appoint to these unelected bureaucratic positions say it is.”
In case it isn’t clear where the naked cronyism comes in, remember which large, politically active private interest loves buying up power plants and already has considerable interests in Wisconsin. Then consider their demonstrated eagerness to help Mr. Walker get elected and bus in carpetbaggers to have a sad little pro-Mubarak style “rally” in his honor. There are dots to be connected here, but doing so might not be in the public interest.
I wonder if Walker was hoping all these protests would deflect scrutiny from the rest of the budget?
PS – hat tip commenter SiubhanDuinne in the comments to my last post.
Also, more at Rortybomb.
February 21, 2011 12:48 pm
Tags: organized labor, Scott Walker, wisconsin · Posted in: Domestic Affairs
76 Comments
Charles Lane has lost it
This anonymous comment from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel’s excellent Web site makes the point far better than I ever could:
Go back to work, teachers. Your union has already sold you down the river. They have agreed to the givebacks that affect YOUR paychecks, while using you to fight against the parts that will affect THEIRS. Did you get to vote before they gave away your benefits? What patsies you all are.
February 21, 2011 12:06 pm
Posted in: Good News For Conservatives, We Are All Mayans Now
66 Comments
The far right cannot hold
Republicans are breaking rank in Wisconsin.
The Wall Street Journal reports that one moderate Republican, state Sen. Dale Schultz, has proposed changing the budget proposal supported by Walker slightly but fundamentally: instead of losing their collective bargaining rights in perpetuity, as the governor wants, they would only lose the right to negotiate for benefits through 2013.
The unions shouldn’t take this either, but it’s a start.
If you want to give to Wisconsin Democratic Senators, you can do so here.
Suggest other things people can do to help in the thread. I’m going to write a letter to my newspaper, something I rarely do. This issue is a hill to die on.
February 21, 2011 11:48 am
Posted in: Fuck The Middle-Class, Politics
48 Comments
The Season of Revolution
I’ve seen reports that Qaddafi (or however you spell it) has fled Libya- still not sure what to believe because the reports are so sketchy. I do, however, want to state again, that I find the almost celebratory reactions by Americans on twitter to be odd. Not to be an old fart, but the fear of the unknown is just too much right now. While I’m all in favor of people being able to democratically choose their own future, I’m also cognizant that a lot of these people might choose to go with leadership that will make life very difficult for the United States. Like I said before, free societies mean societies that are free to hate us.
We really don’t know what is going to happen, and that should be unsettling for everyone. For all we know, these repressive regimes might be replaced with even more repressive regimes with the veneer of Democracy. I just don’t know what is going to happen.
February 21, 2011 11:21 am
Posted in: Foreign Affairs
156 Comments
They Are Also After Americorps
It isn’t just PBS and Planned Parenthood, btw- they are also after Americorps.
At some point, people need to recognize that we are dealing with dangerous radicals, and there literally is nothing they care about other than what you do with your vagina, making the baby Jeeebus happy, and how they can amass more wealth for their corporate masters.
February 21, 2011 10:17 am
Posted in: Decline and Fall
83 Comments
Look For the Union Voter
The Republican attempt to end collective bargaining, which will turn unions into little more than social clubs, has clearly upset union members in Wisconsin. The obvious question is whether that will make a difference in the 2012 elections.
Historically, union families are more likely to vote for Democrats, but it’s not overwhelming. The historical average is about 57% of union households voting for Democrats, versus 46% of the overall population. That’s consistent with the overall exit polling for 2010, and the “oh noes” reporting that attempted to show that union votes pushed the Republicans over the top in 2010 ignores the fact that 40-something percent of union family members consistently vote for Republicans, despite the conventional wisdom that unions families are a solid Democratic bloc.
If union voters are ready to vote against Republicans who want to limit collective bargaining, as seems likely from the reaction of unions in Wisconsin, then perhaps 2012 will be a year where far fewer than the average 43% of union households vote for Republicans. About 25% of US households have at least one union member, so a (say) 20% swing in voting habits among them could swing an election by five percentage points. That’s obviously very significant, especially if union members and their families are energized to vote for Democrats as protectors of union rights.
What’s also significant is the effect of union get-out-the-vote campaigns. Some recent research in Los Angeles shows that any type of contact from a union member during voter canvassing increases the likelihood that that voter will vote, especially for Latinos. I hate to use the word “synergistic”, but in this case, it seems like there could be some collateral benefit to Democrats if union members are more likely to participate in GOTV efforts.
February 21, 2011 9:23 am
Posted in: Politics
58 Comments
The Inexplicable Conservative Assault on Collective Bargaining
Gets curiouser and curiouser…
First, (and thank you to commenter morzer for this) Governor Walker seems to be spreading some confusion on collective bargaining:
And yet on the morning of Feb. 18, 2011—a day after Democratic state senators fled to Illinois to prevent a vote on the bill—Walker made a startling declaration in a Milwaukee radio interview. Walker then added: “Those fully remain intact. Civil service does not get altered by the modest changes we’re talking about here. Collective bargaining is fully intact. You’ve got merit hiring, you’ve got just cause for termination and for discipline. All those things remain.”
Collective bargaining would remain “fully intact”? But let’s take a look at what was said.
In contending that collective bargaining would remain fully intact, Walker mixed civil service protections with collective bargaining rights. They are not the same.Walker himself has outlined how his budget-repair bill would limit the collective bargaining rights of public employees. To now say now say collective bargaining would remain “fully intact” is not just false, it’s ridiculously false.
On to Ohio, and the excellent Ohio political site, Plunderbund. Walker’s proposal really is radical, which may be why he’s spreading misinformation about it.
The Canton Repository, a newspaper that endorsed Kasich:
The collective bargaining process in Ohio isn’t broken. It does need to be tweaked. But state employees don’t need to be stripped of collective bargaining rights.
The collective-bargaining law has been an asset in providing a vehicle for settling disputes that many times had turned ugly. Now the law requires updating and repair. Must that include the elimination of collective bargaining at the state level? Proponents still haven’t offered a persuasive answer. Take such steps, and the impression builds of a party more interested in ideological warfare than responsibly solving a problem.
A bill on a fast track in the Ohio Senate would outlaw the use of binding arbitration to resolve contract disputes that involve police officers and firefighters, who are legally barred from striking. John Kasich and the General Assembly are using the bare cupboard in the Statehouse as a pretext to roll back decades’ worth of labor law
Cleveland Plain-Dealer, another paper that endorsed Kasich:
That said, it’s unfortunate the GOP approach has been to set a maximalist tone on an issue that should be looked at carefully —-before discarding a system that has brought decades of labor peace to the public sector, just as it was intended to do. On one front, the Jones bill is incontestably radical. It would flat-out abolish collective bargaining for employees of the state government and of state-aided colleges, and would abolish longevity pay and “step” increases.
“Decades of labor peace”. So why launch a preemptive assault, conservatives? What’s going on here?
Conservatives in the Ohio legislature cannot make a rational argument that connects their actions on collective bargaining to the budget. Ohio has a long history with collective bargaining, and the negotiation process works. They cannot explain why they refuse to sit down with workers, or why they seek to write the negotiation process out of law permanently and deny employees a seat at the table. Until they can do that, I have to assume they have some national political objective that is unrelated to the state budget. I wonder when they’ll get around to telling Ohio newspapers or their state constituents what that national objective might be?
February 21, 2011 9:06 am
Posted in: Blatant Liars and the Lies They Tell, Domestic Affairs, Education, Enhanced Protest Techniques, Free Markets Solve Everything, Fuck The Middle-Class
41 Comments
