Wisconsin Budget Battle Over. Republicans Win. Chaos in Madison. Updated Continually, Union Violence, Damage to Capitol.

[IUSB Vision Editor’s Note – Sometime down the road. A few months or a couple of years from now, these videos from recent weeks will be replayed in the elite media and attributed to the Tea Party.  I will bet lunch. Any takers? Our previous Wisconsin roundup post is HERE. ]

UPDATE March 28, 2011 – Fleebagger Democrats finally come home. It is about time.

 

 

The leftists react.

Democrats who left the state are having a fit. Just so you have story straight. The Democrats abandoned their constitutional duty to engage in unusual and illegal tactics to reverse the will of an election. So the GOP used a much less unusual and perfectly legal procedural tactic and oh no THAT is unfair the Democrats are claiming.

It seems to me that someone is upset because they got “out tacticaled” (I know it is not really a word but it sounded cute). They got “out-tacticaled” by a bunch of noobsauce Republican freshman.

If the unions are protesting for freedom, why do they want to strip people from having the right to choose to join one? IF they are what “democracy looks like” as they claim, why are unions pushing to take away worker’s right to a secret ballot?

The facts: 22 states and the federal government have far more restrictions on collective bargaining than what Wisconsin is proposing and Indiana has had the same thing since 2005. The world did not burn, the sky did not fall.

More:

Since when does a private organization (union) have a RIGHT to have a monopoly on govt labor/hiring? Aren’t monopolies bad?

When the govt union “negotiates” with a Dem governor it is not adversarial, and as a result “the man” becomes the tax payer. Make no mistake, it IS the taxpayer unions are protesting.

Democrats have promised the govt unions the moon for those big donations and leave a future governor holding the bag to pay the bill.

Gov Christie in New Jersey went to the union halls and told them the truth, [paraphrasing] “The guys before me who promised you all this stuff lied to you, they knew we couldnt afford it. Don’t boo me, I am the first guy who is telling you the truth, but if we reform it now we can get you more than if the system crashes” – Video –

Talk to the voters like adults. really they can take it. You just have to make the case.

UPDATE I – Governor Walker Speaks in WSJ – LINK

While it might be a bold political move, the changes are modest. We ask government workers to make a 5.8% contribution to their pensions and a 12.6% contribution to their health-insurance premium, both of which are well below what other workers pay for benefits. Our plan calls for Wisconsin state workers to contribute half of what federal employees pay for their health-insurance premiums. (It’s also worth noting that most federal workers don’t have collective bargaining for wages and benefits.)

For example, my brother works as a banquet manager at a hotel and occasionally works as a bartender. My sister-in-law works at a department store. They have two beautiful kids. They are a typical middle-class Wisconsin family. At the start of this debate, David reminded me that he pays nearly $800 per month for his family’s health-insurance premium and a modest 401(k) contribution. He said most workers in Wisconsin would love a deal like the one we are proposing.

The unions say they are ready to accept concessions, yet their actions speak louder than words. Over the past three weeks, local unions across the state have pursued contracts without new pension or health-insurance contributions. Their rhetoric does not match their record on this issue.

UPDATE II – Wisconsin Lawmakers Get Death Threats – Bomb Threats.  WTMJ:

Please put your things in order because you will be killed and your familes (SIC)
will also be killed due to your actions in the last 8 weeks. Please explain
to them that this is because if we get rid of you and your families then it
will save the rights of 300,000 people and also be able to close the deficit
that you have created. I hope you have a good time in hell. Read below for
more information on possible scenarios in which you will die.

WE want to make this perfectly clear. Because of your actions today and in
the past couple of weeks I and the group of people that are working with me
have decided that we’ve had enough. We feel that you and the people that
support the dictator have to die. We have tried many other ways of dealing
with your corruption but you have taken things too far and we will not stand
for it any longer. So, this is how it’s going to happen: I as well as many
others know where you and your family live, it’s a matter of public records.
We have all planned to assult (SIC) you by arriving at your house and putting a
nice little bullet in your head.

UPDATE III – Gateway Pundit

Protesters have penetrated the inner assembly hallways.  Assemblymen are trapped in their offices with their doors barricaded. Protesters are trying to break into their offices.

The Wisconsin fleebaggers are still hiding out in Illinois.

MORE… John Jagler, spokesman for Jeff Fitzgerald, on phone with Fox. They are trapped in his office.  Had to literally step over protesters outside his office.  Protesters waving signs.  Go limp when police lift them for removal.  They are pounding on glass and doors, jiggling locks.   They are “vowing to hold this ground”.

Wisconsin Capitol police just announced: “Capitol bldg is on lock-down until it is secured”.

UPDATE IV – Capitol is unsafe – LINK

MADISON – State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald says the situation at the Capitol is “unsafe.”

Fitzgerald appeared on Newsradio 620 WTMJ’s Wisconsin’s Morning News.  He’s concerned about the ability for business to take place inside the Capitol.

“Law enforcement is doing the best they can, but they’re just undermanned,” Fitzgerald said.

Protesters forced their way into the Capitol following the senate vote Wednesday night.  Fitzgerald says many of those protesters had help getting into the building, claiming “When the Democrat staffers opened the windows for protesters to get in…that’s not how democracy is supposed to work.”

UPDATE V – Indiana not Urbana!

Indiana legislators make a new song about fleebagger Democrats. On the left is our friend Tim Wesco. This is the only time you will see him on the left. Our pal Greg Dudeck comments, “Wesco has some good pipes.”

Listen to the lyrics carefully. Hilarious.

UPDATE VI – Death threats – 

UPDATE VII – Presidential Candidate Herman Cain on Wisconsin

UPDATE VII – Police escorted legislators out of the capital due to threats.

UPDATE VIII – Megyn Kelly with Jesse Jackson – Democrats lied, Gov Walker did make concessions on expanding collective bargaining in other areas.

Notice how Jackson speaks in platitudes that could not stand 10 minutes of serious examination.

If this was a Tea Party protest Jackson would be saying,  “Awe look at these oppressed white folks. I would say poor but since even after this is passed they still have a sweetheart deal which leaves them paying less than half what others pay for their benefits and with wages that are much higher than the state average. Give me a break.”

UPDATE IX – Ann Coulter vs Sean Hannity on how Gov Walker handled the PR Campaign.

Ann is right. If it wasn’t for some debate on Fox, talk radio, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and smarter politicians in other states, the Wisconsin GOP would have been destroyed in the public image much worse. Even if Gov. Walker would have someone of my profession to help him out he would have been much more effective. Heritage provided some great talking points which are accurate, so have many bloggers and yet very few of these are being used. There is no excuse for it. The GOP communications machine lets its constituency down repeatedly. The talking points I wrote would best any argument form the other side.

UPDATE X – More Death Threats Via Boots & Sabers

Found under Glenn Grothman’s office door today:

UPDATE XI – Andrew Klavan: Behold! Your Public Sector Unions at Work.

UPDATE XII – Wisconsin House Passes Amended Bill.

UPDATE XIII – Indiana State House Worker Assaulted by Union Thugs

Adventures in the left’s “new civility”.  IndyChannel:

INDIANAPOLIS — A state worker told police she was assaulted by three men during Thursday’s union rally that brought thousands of people to the steps of the Statehouse.

The 33-year-old Department of Child Services employee said she was taking a smoke break at the west end of the Indiana Government Center South building just after 12:15 p.m. when she was approached by three men who asked her to use her electronic pass to let them in the building.

When she refused, directing them toward the public entrance, she said the men pushed her, causing her to fall backward, off the sidewalk, and hit her head.

The woman flagged down a Capitol police officer to report the assault. The officer said the woman had a bump on her head and that her clothes were muddied from where she fell onto the ground.

UPDATE XIV – Speaker Bosma Statement

I sincerely support the right of every Hoosier, and even their out of state colleagues, to appear at the Indiana Statehouse as they did today, and to have their say.  But the misrepresentation of the Republican proposals before the General Assembly – even by our Democrat colleagues – continues to amaze me.

No reasonably informed person can honestly state that our desire to transform public education is an effort to destroy it.  In fact, our hope is just the opposite – to make outstanding education options, whether public or private, available to every Hoosier family regardless of their income or zip code.

Likewise, no reasonably informed observer can honestly state that our proposals are designed to “eliminate the middle class” or drive workers to “the minimum wage for life.”  Our goal is just the opposite – to create high skill high wage jobs for every Hoosier worker, whether those jobs are union supported or non-union supported jobs.

This is the clear agenda House Republicans ran on in November, and this is what we continue to stand for today.  We will continue to advance these proposals at every opportunity, if only our Democrat colleagues will return from Illinois.

UPDATE XV – Half of Indianapolis protesters bussed in from out of state (Via Hoosier Access)

Here are the numbers reported by the Indiana State Police

Here are the states where the buses were from:

60 – Indiana

48 – Illinois

7 – Kentucky

2 – Michigan

1 – Florida

At its peak, law enforcement estimated 8,000 people.

UPDATE XVI – POLITIFACT: The MacIver Institute says average annual salary and benefits for Milwaukee Public Schools teachers tops $100,000 – TRUE!   LINK

UPDATE XVII –  Herman Cain on the courage of governors

[youtrube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-4VazQ3tS8]

UPDATE XVIII – Ayn Rand on “Collective Rights”

UPDATE XIV – Pamela Gorman – When You Watch MSNBC and it looks like there is a huge crowd of protesters…

UPDATE XV – NewsReal: Seven Child Molesters Protected by Teacher’s Unions  LINK

UPDATE XVI – WTNJ: Businesses receiving threats from unions – LINK.

UPDATE XVII – Iowa passes limits on collective bargaining – LINK.

UPDATE XVIII – Conservatives Fight for Taxpayers with New Ad!

UPDATE XIX – O’Reilly Blasts Left for Death Threats & Elite Media for Ignoring It

UPDATE XX – Average Government Union Wages in Wisconsin, Comrades!

By Bob Schneider

The Wisconsin Taxpayers have been raped for a very long time:

2010 Wisconsin Teacher Actual Wages

AVERAGE WAGE AND BENEFITS (remember this is for about 9 months of work)

TEACHERS:

Milwaukee                   $86,297

Elmbrook                     $91,065

Germantown               $83,818

Hartland Arrwhd      $90,285     (highest paid teacher was $122,952-lowest was $64,942)

Men Falls                      $81,099

West Bend                    $82,153

Waukesha                    $92,902

Sussex                          $82,956

Mequon                       $95,297

Kettle Mor                  $87,676

Muskego                      $91,341

STAFF:

Arrowhead – Bus Mng – Kopecky –                                      $169,525

Arrowhead – Principal – Wieczorek –                                 $152,519

Grmtwn –  Asst Princ – Dave Towers –                                $123,222

Elmbrk  –  Burliegh Elemetary – Principal Zahn-           $142,315 (for a primary school!!)

Madison – Asst Principal – McGrath –                                $127,835

UNIVERSITY of WISCONSIN STAFF (2009 salary alone):

Michael Knetter – Prof of Bus  –                                      $327,828

Carolyn Martin – Chancellor Mad –                              $437,000

Hector Deluca – Prof of Nutritional Science –          $254,877 (really??)

(source: Madison.com -as the UW removed salaries from being posted online in 2007- why if they are so low?)

How about some other “public servant job” ???  What do they make?

Madison Garbage men (2009 salary only):

Garbageman, Mr. Nelson earned                        $159,258 in 2009, including $109,892 in overtime and other pay.

Garbageman, Greg Tatman, who earned         $125,598

7 Madison garbage men made over                  $100,000

30 Madison garbage men made over               $70,000

MILWAUKEE CITY BUS DRIVERS (salary only):

136 Drivers made more than         $70,000

54 Drivers made more than           $80,000

18 Drivers made more than           $90,000

8 Drivers made more than             $100,000

Top Driver made                                $117,000

(Source WTMJ)

(In contrast, the average private bus driver makes $9 to $13 an hour (about $20,000 yr) with no pension, or healthcare.)

Source of Data:  http://host.madison.com/

UPDATE XXI – The Oppressed Teachers Speak! – Teachers Union Leader Calls WI a Revolution, Wants To Learn From Socialists, Says Republicans Evil.. (See the chart above)