Politiks As Usual: In The News 9/17/12

Rahm Emanuel To Striking Teachers: See You In Court

GOP to Romney: Why Aren't You Winning?

Obama’s Middle East Delusions

A Look Back At The Rise and Fall of Occupy

The Liberal National Media Admittedly "Culture of Like Minds"

Incest and Pedophilia, the New Frontier

Islam’s Media Apologists Keep Excusing, Ignoring Violence

Scott Walker Vows to Fight Ruling from 'Liberal Activist' Judge

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand Files False Tax Return, New York Times Not Interested

Netanyahu Slams Obama, Says Iran Months Away from Nuclear Weapon

Waiting Till the Wedding Night – Getting Married the Right Way

Can Obama Get Reelected Losing the Independent Vote?

In Wisconsin, the Left Picked a Fight—and Lost

TheAtlantic.com:

It's important to remember, as Democrats cope with their failure to topple Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in Tuesday's recall, that this was a fight they chose. 

Unlike the vast majority of elections, which occur on a regular schedule, the recall was a fight the left picked on purpose. They picked it because they thought they could win. And they were wrong.
It wasn't even close. In the final tally, Walker led his Democratic opponent, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, by 53 percent to 46 percent. 

The idea behind the recall effort was to send a message: a warning to conservatives across the country that there was a line not to be crossed when it came to messing with the hard-earned gains of public worker unions. By losing, however, the consortium of unions, progressives and Democrats that worked so ardently to send Walker packing may have sent the opposite message. If Walker can survive, what's to stop any other right-leaning governor from pushing the envelope? 

"This really is a test case. The far right made Wisconsin its petri dish," said Robert Kraig, executive director of Citizen Action Wisconsin, a grassroots progressive group that supported the recall effort. Walker's win, he said, will embolden the Koch brothers and other national conservative funders to get ideologically sympathetic Republicans to push their agenda across the country. 

"Wisconsin will not be the high water mark of the attack on unions, public employees, and the middle class," Kraig said. "You will see more Walker-like politicians elected in other states, and you will see more current governors taking this type of attack." 

When I interviewed Walker a couple of months ago, that was his prediction, too, though he naturally didn't put it in quite those terms. If he prevailed in the recall, he told me, "It suggests to other elected officials that you can tackle tough issues, you can face the wrath of organized special interests like the public employee unions, and ultimately prevail," he said. "They're not going to be able to bully and intimidate people who are trying to act in the best interest of the taxpayers." 

It's not only Republican governors, Walker noted, who are pushing to reform the pension, benefit and pay privileges enjoyed by public workers. He pointed to the efforts of Deval Patrick in Massachusetts, Lincoln Chafee (a liberal independent) in Rhode Island, Andrew Cuomo in New York and Jerry Brown in California, all of whom have approached the issue of public sector pension reform, if in less inflammatory manner. 

The results for the labor movement, of which the public sector is now the backbone, could be dire. Already, there are signs Walker has succeeded in crippling Wisconsin's unions, whose membership has sharply declined since his reforms made it easier for workers to opt out and harder for the groups to gain recognition. In just over a year, the union representing state workers has seen its membership drop by two-thirds, while the American Federation of Teachers has lost more than a third of the 17,000 members it formerly claimed in Wisconsin, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

RELATED: Ed Schultz Demands Union Members Voting For Scott Walker Explain ‘Why The Hell You Did That’

Scott Walker Wins Wisconsin Recall

Damn, he even exceeded his 2010 vote total. Now the question is whether or not this election makes a difference in November:

Wisconsin GOP Gov. Scott Walker wakes up Wednesday knowing he’ll get to finish out his term, after voters by a wide margin sided with him in a recall election that had gained national attention and divided much of the state, from opposing political parties to neighbors and even family members.


However, several key questions remain unanswered, including whether Wisconsin now can move past the recent acrimony -- and how much impact the recall results will have on the presidential election just five months away.


“Now is the time for us to come together,” Walker told supporters after claiming victory. “Tomorrow we are all Wisconsinites.”


Walker’s Democratic challenger, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, made a similar plea in his concession speech late Tuesday night, urging supporters residents to put aside their differences.


“Now we must look to the future,” said Barrett, who also lost to Walker in 2010.


Walker led Barrett in the official count 53 percent to 46 percent with 99 percent of the 3,424 precincts reporting. Walker’s lieutenant governor, Rebecca Kleefisch, also was projected to survive her recall election.


The recall effort began when the first-term governor and Republicans in the state legislature rolled back what they considered excesses in the collective bargaining agreements of public-employee unions -- an effort to cut Wisconsin’s estimated $3.6 billion budget shortfall.


Wisconsin went for President Obama in 2008, but the recall results give Republicans hope that their presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, can win there in November.


“Governor Walker has demonstrated over the past year what sound fiscal policies can do to turn an economy around, and I believe that in November voters across the country will demonstrate that they want the same in Washington,” Romney said.


Republicans see Walker’s win as evidence voters across the country want their elected officials to keep government living within its means. They said this paves the way for Romney to become the first Republican candidate to carry Wisconsin since Ronald Reagan in 1984.

RELATED:  Progressive Pundits Lay Groundwork To Blame Obama If Wisconsin Recall Fails

Politics As Usual: In The News 6/4/12

George Zimmerman Surrenders, Is Booked Into Florida Jail

Nigeria Seeks Answers To Fatal Crash

The False Promises Of Modern Liberalism

What's This? Obama Longs For GOP Rival Like McCain

Pelosi Predicts Scalia, Alito, Thomas or Roberts Will Side With Administration on Obamacare

Lori Lolo Jones says No-No To Sex, ‘Infuriates’ Entertainment Media

Gulp: Bloomberg’s Stunning Nanny State Overreach

Remember When the National Media Despised Recall Elections? California in 2003

Faith Leaders: Obama Losing Religious Vote

Assad: Syria Massacre Carried Out By 'Monsters'

Grading On A Curve

Bush and Obama at the White House: Why the yukfest? (+video)

New Poll Shows Scott Walker Up 6 Points Amidst Job Gains

Wisconsin adds 33,000 jobs under Walker, which makes the libs trying to get rid of him really angry:

Republican Gov. Scott Walker released better 2011 jobs figures on Wednesday in an attempt to rebuff a central argument of those trying to recall him from office that Wisconsin's economy has suffered under his leadership.

Walker faces a rare recall election June 5 spurred mostly by anger over his successful push to strip most public workers of collective bargaining rights last year, but also by his stewardship of the state economy.

Walker swept to office on the promise to add 250,000 private sector jobs during his first four-year term, and initial figures gleaned from monthly employment surveys suggested Wisconsin actually lost 33,900 jobs last year, which would rank it last among the 50 states.

The initial figures gave Democrats and their candidate, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, powerful ammunition with which to attack Walker's record. Then on Wednesday, the governor took the unusual step of releasing fourth-quarter data due out in the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' June 28 national employment report that show Wisconsin added 23,300 public and private sector jobs last year.

The new numbers are a more accurate reflection of what's happening, but they still show very slow job growth for the state, said University of Wisconsin-Madison economist Andrew Reschovsky. Since they're being released early, it's impossible to tell how Wisconsin compares to other states, he said.

"The real story is the picture of anemic job growth in Wisconsin over 2011, very far from the goal that the governor set," Reschovsky said. "They tell us the economy, if it is growing, it's at a slow pace."

RELATED:  New Wisconsin poll: Walker by six among likely voters, Romney tied with Obama at 46

Politiks As Usual 4/23/12

George Zimmerman Released On Bond, MSNBC Cheerleading For Conviction

John Edwards Criminal Trial Starts Monday

Mitt's 'McCain Impression'

Gun Industry’s Economic Impact Skyrockets During Obama Years

1 In 2 New Graduates Are Jobless Or Underemployed

Obama's Real Hilary Rosen Problem

Schumer: Citizens United Worse than Racial Segregation Case Plessy v Ferguson

Scott Walker to Newsmax: Obama's Machine Spending $60 Million to Defeat Me

John McCain, the 2008 Election, and Civil Unrest

Video: Marion Barry Explains Racism Culturism To You All

Politiks As Usual: In The News 11/7/11

White House Counsel Slams House Panel's Solyndra Subpoena

Moderate Lawmakers Lead Insurrection, Urge Super Committee To Defy Leadership and Go Big

Rudy Giuliani: 'Obama Owns Occupy Wall Street'

Rice: The Government Of Iran Has "No Legitimacy Left"

Media Fawn Over 'Groundbreaking' Gay Wedding On Late Night Comedy Show

Nancy Pelosi: Without Obama Stimulus, Unemployment Would Now Be 15%

Santorum Right About Morality And Economy

Personhood Amendment: Exposing The Myths

CNN Runs More Stories on Cain 'Scandal' in Six Days Than it Did Obama's Ties to Ayers, Rezko and Wright Combined

Wisconsin Democrats Chafe as Walker Donor Files for Recall

In Praise Of Capitalist Inequality

Justin Bieber Will Take Paternity Test And Then Sue Mariah Yeater: REPORT

Scott Walker's Collective Bargaining Law Will Save Milwaukee Millions In Health-care costs

WeeklyStandard.com:

"Milwaukee gains more than it loses in budget bill," reads the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel headline. And so you understand why unions are in such a rush to hold recall elections before voters see the benefits of Wisconsin's new law:


Despite early criticism from city officials, new figures show Milwaukee will gain more than it will lose next year from the state's controversial budget and budget-repair legislation.


The city projects it will save at least $25 million a year - and potentially as much as $36 million in 2012 - from health care benefit changes it didn't have to negotiate with unions, as a result of provisions in the 2009-'11 budget-repair measure that ended most collective bargaining for most public employees.


That saving would be partly offset by about $14 million in cuts in state aid to the city in the 2011-'13 state budget, down from earlier estimates of more than $17 million.


As a result, the city would come out with a net gain of at least $11 million for its 2012 budget, slicing into the "structural deficit" created by costs rising faster than revenue, and reducing the spending cuts that Mayor Tom Barrett and the Common Council must impose.


That outlook contrasts sharply with Barrett's initial comments in March, after Gov. Scott Walker and the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau released figures on the extent of the aid cuts in Walker's budget.


At that time, Barrett said the combination of aid cuts, rising expenses, a property tax levy freeze and exempting public safety workers from health care and pension benefit changes "just makes our structural deficit explode."

RELATED: Recall Elections To Determine Wis. Senate Control

Politiks As Usual: In The News 4/11/11

Donald Trump Pushes For Obama's Birth Certificate

Gaddafi Accepts Peace Plan But Rebels Say He Must Go 


GOP, Obama Make 'Historic' Dead To Avoid Government Shutdown, Debt Cut


Texas May Ban Courts From Considering Foreign Laws


You Can Slaughter Christians, But You Can't Burn A Koran


J. Crew Pushes Transgender Child Propaganda

'Make No Mistake: I Oppose This Negotiated Dead,' Says Bachmann


Federal Judge Rules Against Anti-Gay Protesters, Gays Allowed To Adopt In Arkansas


Why No Outrage Over Democrat Saying Republicans Want To Kill Women?


Gov. Walker Vows: Unions Won't Steal Prosser Election Win


Why Conservatives Must Lead On Education Reform

Wisconsin Union Law Published Despite Court Order

ABCNews.com:

Wisconsin officials couldn't agree Friday about whether an explosive law taking away nearly all public worker collective bargaining rights was about to take effect after a nonpartisan legislative bureau published it despite a court order blocking implementation.


The head of the Legislative Reference Bureau that made the move, as well as a nonpartisan attorney for the Legislature, said the action was merely procedural. But Republican legislative leaders, who encouraged the bureau's action, insisted it meant law would take effect Saturday.


Gov. Scott Walker's office, meanwhile, would issue only a vague statement saying simply that the administration planned to carry out the law as required.


The move is just the latest in a series of parliamentary and legal maneuvers employed over the past six weeks to enact a bill that prompted Senate Democrats to flee the state to block a vote and brought on waves of Capitol protests that grew larger than 85,000 people as Wisconsin became the center of a national fight over union rights.


Ultimately, the law's fate likely will be up to the state Supreme Court to decide. A state appeals court earlier in the week asked the Supreme Court to take up one of several lawsuits challenging its approval.

Just like the lamestream media to portray these union protesters as peaceful despite the facts.

Radical Leftist Wisconsin Protesters Teach Kids To Chant Against Governor Scott Walker

Despicable. Indoctrination at its lowest.

Source: Althouse

Governor Scott Walker Gives Missing Wisconsin Democrats an Ultimatum

Newsmax.com:

Republican Governor Scott Walker Monday gave absent Democratic lawmakers an ultimatum to return to Wisconsin within 24 hours for a vote on a proposal to reduce the power of public sector unions or the state would miss out on a debt restructuring.


Walker stepped up the pressure on Senate Democrats as he prepared to unveil on Tuesday a two-year state budget that he said cuts $1 billion from funding to local governments and schools.


The 14 Democrats have been absent from Wisconsin since Feb. 17 when they said they were left with no choice but to flee to avoid giving the Senate a quorum need for vote on the union bill. It was approved by the state assembly last week.


What began as one small state trying to rewrite the rules of labor relations has blown up into what could be the biggest confrontation with American labor unions since then President Ronald Reagan fired striking air traffic controllers in 1981.


For the second time since the controversy erupted, President Barack Obama weighed into the debate Monday criticizing the Wisconsin plan without mentioning it by name.


"I don't think it does anybody any good when public employees are denigrated or vilified or their rights are infringed upon," Obama told the nation's governors gathered in Washington.


Wisconsin's Walker immediately issued a response, saying: "I'm sure that President Obama simply misunderstands the issues in Wisconsin."

RELATED: Indiana Democrats Refuse To Return

Wisconsin Unions vs. The Tea Party: A Classic Double Standard

WSJ.com:

Loud protests by Wisconsin public employee unions against a budget reform proposal from new Governor Scott Walker have drawn considerable national network news attention since Thursday, the day Democratic state senators fled the state in a last-ditch gambit to prevent the bill from becoming law. A story-by-story analysis by the Media Research Center shows the Wisconsin protests are a perfect case study in the media's longstanding double standard favoring left-wing causes while demonstrating much more hostility to the Tea Party and conservative protests.


Last March, as thousands protested on Capitol Hill in the days before the passage of ObamaCare, CBS's Nancy Cordes slammed it as "a weekend filled with incivility," while World News anchor Diane Sawyer painted the Tea Party as a violent gang, with "protesters roaming Washington, some of them increasingly emotional, yelling slurs and epithets." In August 2009, ABC anchor Charles Gibson complained how "protesters brought pictures of President Obama with a Hitler-style mustache to a town hall meeting," failing to mention that the signs were produced by Lyndon LaRouche's wacky fringe movement, not the Tea Party or conservatives.


Over the past several days, the liberal demonstrations in Wisconsin (bolstered by the national Democratic Party and President Obama's Organizing for America group) have included signs just as inflammatory as the ones that bothered the networks during the health care debate, including several showing Governor Scott Walker as Adolph Hitler. Others have likened Walker to Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin ("Scott Stalin") and recently deposed Egyptian autocrat Hosni Mubarak ("Walker = Mubarak").


Another protest sign drew a cross-hairs over a picture of Governor Walker's head, with the caption "Don't Retreat, Reload; Repeal Walker" — an obvious parallel to a Facebook map posted by Sarah Palin last year, although that much-criticized graphic placed the target sights on maps of congressional districts, not any politician's face.


Yet none of these signs in the hands of liberal protesters have drawn the slightest complaint from network journalists. MRC analysts examined all 53 ABC, CBS and NBC morning and evening news stories, segments and anchor briefs on the Wisconsin protests from Thursday, February 17 (when they first drew major national coverage) through Monday, February 21. While eight of the 53 stories (15%) visually displayed one or more of the signs described above, none elicited a single remark from the network correspondents.


Instead, network journalists actually suggested the "Walker = Mubarak" theme of some of the more inflammatory signs. On Sunday's This Week, for example, ABC's Christiane Amanpour linked Wisconsin to the uprisings against oppressive dictatorships: "Populist frustration is boiling over this week, as we've said, not just in the Middle East, but in the middle of this country as well." So did NBC's Brian Williams on Friday's Nightly News: "From the Mideast to the American Midwest tonight, people are rising up. Citizens' uprisings are changing the world." NBC's on-screen caption: "The Uprising at Home."


ABC's Diane Sawyer opened Thursday's World News by empathizing with the protesters:


Today, we saw America's money trouble meet a reality, a human reality, as teachers, nurses, tens of thousands of state workers took to the streets in this country, protesting cuts by the governors, saying to these governors, a promise is a promise. One lawmaker looked out at the crowds gathered in the Wisconsin capital today said it's like Cairo moved to Madison.


The only time network journalists fretted about the Wisconsin protests getting out of hand was when their favorite bogeyman, the Tea Party, became involved — as ABC's Barbara Pinto did on Saturday's Good Morning America: "Today, those demonstrations are expected to get more intense and more polarizing — we're watching police officers arrive here this morning. And that is because the Tea Party is staging a counter-demonstration of its own today."

Liberal Blogger Ian Murphy Hates the Troops, Fantasizes About Killing Republicans

The real story behind the Left's newest darling is quite ugly:

Since lefty blogger Ian Murphy prank called Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker on Wednesday, various media outlets have devoted significant coverage to the prankster. None have seen fit to mention some of Murphy's more colorful antics - proclaiming "f**k the troops," for instance, or pretending to be autistic to gain access for a story.


CNN has been out front covering the prank and its perpetrator. The channel named Murphy its "most intriguing person of the day" in one segment, and devoted an article on its website to Murphy's wild claims - that Walker is "delusional," as CNN's headline blared, and that market economics amounts to a "fairy tale."


In reaching out to Murphy for comment, however, CNN did not see fit to ask him - or even mention in its multiple stories about the prank - that he is not just a "liberal website editor," but is in fact a radical, foaming-at-the-mouth leftist whose work includes fantasies about killing prominent Republicans and other far-left memes popular during the Bush years.


For a taste of Murphy's style, observe this excerpt of a 2008 article in the Buffalo Beast headlined "F**k the Troops":


So, 4000 rubes are dead. Cry me the Tigris. Another 30,000 have been seriously wounded. Boo f**king hoo. They got what they asked for—and cool robotic limbs, too…


The nearly two-thirds of us who know this war is bull***t need to stop sucking off the troops. They get enough action raping female soldiers and sodomizing Iraqi detainees. The political left is intent on “supporting” the troops by bringing them home, which is a good thing. But after rightly denouncing the administration’s lies and condemning this awful war, relatively sensible pundits—like Keith Olbermann—turn around and lovingly praise the soldiers’ brave service to the country. Why?


You get the idea.


Many of Murphy's writings perfectly channeled the attitude of the frantic anti-war left during the Bush years. "If Rove is Bush’s brain," he wrote in another article, "may the 43rd president be lobotomized before we string him up."


But don't worry, Murphy has at least a few qualms with murdering elected officials. "Do I often fantasize of jamming a rusty shiv into the Vice President’s eye socket and twirling it around until he passes out from shock and slowly bleeds to death? Of course," he wrote in 2007. "Would I do it? No. This author does not torture." He does, however, engage in some pretty sick homicidal fantasies.