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The Spectacle Blog
Over at NRO, Jay Nordlinger makes an incredibly good point: Barack Obama should be urging calm in Wisconsin, no matter WHAT side of the underlying issue he is on. It is not just unpresidential of him, but despicable, for him in effect to be urging on the mass demonstrations. But as J. Christian Adams, Justice Department whistle-blower extraordinaire, reminded me in an email accompanying this post of his, these are not only the tactics always favored by the left in general, but specifically the sorts of tactics Obama himself was trained in — AND exactly what I myself warned about (as Christian reminded me) in my very first post-presidential election column in 2008.
And, always, a few carefully calibrated street demonstrations, splashed with just the right headlines across the East Coast newspapers and captured by just the right camera angle on CBS News, will be used any time, on any issue, to make the point that civil unrest would be the price of resistance to the benevolent desires of the Obama regime.
In that same column I rightly warned that the Obamites would find a way to finagle the 60th vote needed in the Senate for a filibuster-proof majority. I warned: “Watch what Michael Barone called the Obama ‘thugocracy’ use the Justice Department to stifle dissent.” And: “Provision after provision giving favors to the trial bar so it can sue enemies into submission. Copious new regulations, especially environmental, to be used selectively to ensnare other conservative malcontents.” And so on.
These tactics come right out of Saul Alinsky’s playbook.
These are dangerous times. The Obama left will not go quietly into that good night. And they will not let their targets sleep quietly at night. They want their targets — in the Wisconsin legislature, and at Speaker Boehner’s house, and, watch, in other places as well — to feel fear of the mob.
I have news for them. We don’t fear them. We think they are beneath contempt, these rabbles of rabid radicals. In America, we are above these hoodlums, and we transcend them. We are a society of ordered liberty, and we have endured worse than these pathetic paraders will muster.
They have Saul Alinsky. We have James Madison and George Washington. We win, they lose.
View all comments (85) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Quin Hillyer
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/02/17/obama-wants-wisconsin-mess
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Jeff Perren | 2.17.11 @ 11:24PM
Special elections should be held in Wisconsin by the end of next week to replace any elected official who refuses to report for work.
Similarly, any teacher who misses a week of class without a doctor's note should be fired.
If I walked off my job for a week without a VERY good reason, I'd be fired.
Fire them all.
beebop| 2.18.11 @ 5:31AM
Because they have "protected" jobs, they can up and go to these staged events. Those of us who work, contribute to civilization and pay their damn salaries? Yeah. I can just see me calling in sick and then attending a protest.
louis tully| 2.18.11 @ 9:15AM
agree, fire them.
Bob K.| 2.18.11 @ 12:02AM
Given the time and opportunity the left will overplay their hand here. But does the Wisconsin Governor have the guts to raise and wait them out? Who will fold first? If the left can't stay on the table in Wisconsin they might as well cash in their chips. If any are left.
J.C.Eaton| 2.18.11 @ 12:43AM
These are BAD people we need to confront. My guess is that Walker is for keeps. They got 8000 calls/e-mails today in support. They'll get more."If they mean to have a war, let it begin here."
Liberal Reader| 2.18.11 @ 2:30AM
If you were here, you'd see these aren't bad folk. Police officers, teachers, fireman. Bad people? What's your definition of a bad person, exactly?
And just so you know. I can hear them from where I'm writing. I'm here. I've been in the Capitol for three days -- before Glenn Beck even knew what the capital of Wisconsin even is.
Get informed before giving opinions on things you know nothing about, jackass.
NoLib| 2.18.11 @ 2:48AM
You one of the screaming scumbags we've seen mugging for the camera?
Robbins Mitchell| 2.18.11 @ 3:28AM
My definition of 'bad folks' are teachers who pull an illegal wildcat strike and who criminally encourage mass truancy by dragging their airhead students along to the protest to swell the crowd size....duhh...solidarity man...all power to da peepul
beebop| 2.18.11 @ 5:32AM
What is it with you liberals? Is Glenn Beck the only conservative you are familiar with? Try expanding your horizons and your credibility.
MikeD| 2.18.11 @ 7:39AM
If they were not 'bad folk' as you state, then they'd be at work doing what they're being paid for. And, while there may be a few police and firemen, the vast majority are lazy, overpaid teachers who are responsible for the destruction of our educational system and the ruination of two generations of our youth. Every one of them who left their jobs, and especially every one who took kids out of school, should be fired and arrested. The time is now to get some sanity in our country.
Kitty| 2.18.11 @ 8:06AM
PICTURES of the protesters with their signs:
http://hotair.com/archives/201.....-teachers/
big bob| 2.18.11 @ 9:04AM
Whoa there pardner.... What was not informed? Those teachers taking kids to this...I'd say they're bad people. The legislators who ran like cowards rather than fulfill their jobs? fire 'em , they're bad people. I didn't see any comments about police or firemen. Why? Well since you are the ignorant Jack Ass, it's because they are exempted from this discussion. Oh yeah, "exemption" means they are NOT included.
louis tully| 2.18.11 @ 9:16AM
and fire this commie nutbag while you're at it
David W| 2.18.11 @ 9:31AM
Wow, after all the liberals like you have come out requesting civility in politics you call JC a jack***. I would ask if you do not see the irony in your side calling for civility while at the same time your side feels that it doesn't have to abide by their own request - but I don't think liberals understand irony.
As other comments indicate, a "bad" fold/person is someone who walks away from their job (lying about being sick - and no, I've never done that in my 25+ years of working, in fact I've worked when I've been sick), who is unwilling to share the sacrifice that others are having to make and instead want more and more, regardless of the impact on those who either pay their salaries or who depend upon their services (which, by the illegal walk out they are not providing to the students. Though, given how poorly our education seems to be working I guess the students aren't missing that much).
You must have plenty of money if you have been in the capital for 3 days and not working at a real job (or are you one of the underemployed outside agitators brought in by the marxist DNC?). I guess you would be willing to thus give a fair share (on top of what you already give) to help pay for the teachers' salaries and help prevent Wisconsin from declaring bankruptcy? No???
J.C.Eaton| 2.18.11 @ 9:43AM
Cops are there huh?Doubtful, they are exempted from the bill. Jackass! These "protestors" are greedy, self-absorbed,overreaching, insouciant to their charges, ungrateful frauds.
. In my book, those are bad characteristics for anyone to have...especially these self-styled altruists. Don't prattle to me about how I need to be there. I AM there...the lib media takes me there. As a Wisconsinite paying through the shorts in property taxes, I'm actually financing this cluster----. Jackass! Dip your sclerotic big toe into the cool, bracing waters of reality....we're BROKE...JACKASS!
Liberal Reader| 2.18.11 @ 10:26AM
Wrong. The police and fireman were exempted from the bill BUT THEY STOOD IN SOLIDARITY WITH US DESPITE THEIR EXEMPTION.
Get the facts, jackass.
J.C.Eaton| 2.18.11 @ 10:45AM
Who woulda thunk it, now you've roped in coppers to your meretricious production. You are actually a bit of a tramp, aren't you?
Dennis Wasserman Schultz| 2.18.11 @ 11:01AM
Pink slip yet? There's one with your name on it.
Robbins Mitchell| 2.18.11 @ 11:58AM
I see ...so the local cops turned a blind eye to teachers engaging in criminal conspiracy to aid and abet truancy.....very nice
Oldefarte| 2.18.11 @ 12:21PM
You're the JACKASS! They are paid [by taxpayers] to DO THEIR JOBS AS TEACHERS, POLICEMEN AND FIREMEN, not to protest/picket over their personal matters [and certainly not to drag everyone's children, who should be in school learning and being taught, into a hostile labor-picketing environment]. Anyway, your BS about who they are is ludicrous since probably most of these people are paid labor agitators from Washington DC [and are not residents of Wisconsin and certainly not as you state teachers, firemen and policemen]!!!!!!!
wukong| 2.18.11 @ 10:45AM
I suppose you see nothing immoral about calling in"sick" when you are not. Could you explain at what point a lie makes one a liar.
Oldefarte| 2.18.11 @ 11:45AM
Before you label someone a JACKASS, you should get your head out of your rear end, MORON! These TEACHERS, POLICE OFFICERS, FIREMEN should be DOING THEIR GD JOBS AS SUCH [THAT THEY ARE BEING PAID TO DO BY THE TAXPAYERS OF THIS COUNTRY], INSTEAD OF PICKETING/PROTESTING IN WISCONSIN, DUMBARS! We taxpayers are their EMPLOYERS/BOSSES, got it MORON, and they are neglecting their jobs and not protecting us taxpayers and teaching our children AS THEY ARE BEING PAID TO DO......got that??????
Patty| 2.18.11 @ 12:52AM
A Wisconson State Senator being interviewed on Fox said citizen phone calls were 2 to 1 against the Republican legislation until the shouting and screaming union mobs showed up at the Wisconson Capitol--then the phone calls were 2 to 1 FOR Governor Walker's legislation!
As usual, the liberals left the place a filthy mess like they always do. Pigs.
Liberal Reader| 2.18.11 @ 2:53AM
As someone who is across the street from the Capitol building right now, and who has been at these rallies for three days, I am writing to inform you that you are full of shit.
There is no mess; no litter; protesters aren't even wandering off the sidewalks onto the grass. All polling being done in this state shows that people who actually live in Wisconsin and send their children to public schools and depend upon policemen and firemen and appreciate prison guards are favoring the unions by a strong margin.
NoLib| 2.18.11 @ 2:59AM
BS. I saw pics from a Freeper guy who was there and the steps to the Capitol were covered in trash. The toilets were overflowing into the halls, too. You hippy liberal dirtbags have always been pigs and you know it.
Public opinion is against you and you better get used to it.
As usual, troll--you lie.
Robbins Mitchell| 2.18.11 @ 3:33AM
Lie much?...how long have you been a paid union whore anyway....not a damn one of those teachers who walked out and forced the schools to close had parental permission to drag their students to the protest...but thanks for showing all of us that you endorse and encourage criminal behavior on a massive scale
Kitty| 2.18.11 @ 7:17AM
Here are the pictures of the mess:
http://althouse.blogspot.com/2.....-show.html
Johnny Beigler| 2.18.11 @ 8:06AM
You've been at the rallies for three days? Need I say more?
wukong| 2.18.11 @ 10:51AM
"I am writing to inform you that you are full of shit."
You won. This is the trump card of the argument.
Eric Cartman| 2.18.11 @ 11:05AM
Send Liberal Reade some soap on a rope. He may not use it, but it will help with the smell.
Oldefarte| 2.18.11 @ 12:24PM
Instead of being across the street from this picketing, WHY IN THE HELL AREN'T YOU AT WORK EARNING A FINANCIAL LIVING [or maybe you're being paid by the DNC like the protesters that you're now comingling with?????
DRed| 2.18.11 @ 12:55AM
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
Apparently, Americans exercising their constitutional rights are now a rabble of rabid radicals worthy only of your sneering contempt. How dare these hoodlums criticize their rulers? I wonder what James Madison and George Washington would have to say?
Patty| 2.18.11 @ 1:37AM
Sneering contempt? You mean the obnoxious liberal reaction to the Tea Party rallies?
Sorry, your porcine squealing won't work this time, hypocrite--we've had enough of your duplicity.
What would Washington and Madison say about the chickensh!t democrat legislators who neglected their sworn duties as elected officials and ran away to a resort in Illinois? Nothing good, I'm sure.
You democrats are a joke.
Robbins Mitchell| 2.18.11 @ 3:36AM
Their 'rulers' are the taxpayers,you lower class reactionary clown...go back and get your GED before you make an even bigger fool of yourself on this board
DRed| 2.18.11 @ 9:01AM
haha-I've certainly never been called a reactionary before. You might want to look that one up.
Robbins Mitchell| 2.18.11 @ 12:07PM
I did..a reactionary is one who wants to limit freedom and concentrate power in fewer and fewer centralized hand....this goes against thjs truly progressive trend of the last few centuries which expanded liberty and freedom and which saw a trend away from centralized power in the hands of a small handfull of unelected autocrats....so take your reactionary mentality back to Lower Classville where it belongs
beebop| 2.18.11 @ 5:35AM
I didn't think I could dislike unions any more than I already am inclined to do. When they weep for the cameras regarding "giving back their rights" I want to kick each of them into the private sector where there are no damn guarantees nor full summers off doing absolutely nothing. They are a disgrace to everyone who goes into the classroom with an intent to focus on TEACHING.
NVA Patriot| 2.18.11 @ 6:37AM
I believe is says peaceably assemble - which excludes all the behavior of the Wisconsin,-bussed-in-from-Chicago Union thugs sitting on the lawn of Wisconsin legislators, vandalizing a beautiful capitol, and attempting to intimidate John Boehner’s family in Ohio -
I believe it places all the people who stormed the capital on the wrong side of 'peaceably'
You must be a highly paid, super Sr, high quality government school teacher...
You see the country no longer accepts the premise that the left is the people working for the good - you are seen as working for destruction of America.
You did not understand why Barak was elected. He ran as a moderate. We knew McCain was irrational. Barak gave us an opportunity to forever take the race card out of politics. Now that the race card is gone from the deck - you are left with name calling and substance about the proper role of government. The proper role of government is NOT feeding unions with every tax dollar taken from a hard working, honest populace trying to build a future in a nation under God.
You have unleashed something you do not know nor understand - a liberty loving people on the warpath to restore our country to a Constitutional Republic and forever banish regulatory thuggery as created by the left.
9/12 2009 was the warning - 1M patriots all deciding - ENOUGH and STOP. You did not heed the warning. NY-23 was our first engagement - we learned; NJ & VA elections were our next engagement, we won - then came Scott Brown - we won, next came 2010 - we won, 2011 are the VA elections where it is our objective to remove every Democrat from higher office and effectively have NO progressives in state office in VA.
More is coming in 2012 - 12 Dem Senators will lose - 12 for 12 in 2012.
You will look around and wonder what happened and then we will come back in 2014 and finish it. All leftist power will be gone and we will have prosecutors installed who believe in Judeo Christian Constitutionalism. Your law breaking will be rewarded with Jail time and law and ordered liberty will be restored.
Deborah D | 2.18.11 @ 8:03AM
Wow! I'll stand with you any day of the week and twice on Sunday, NVA Patriot! God bless you!
NVA Patriot| 2.18.11 @ 9:32AM
I stand with you and we will stand together, with our friends and families and send these thugs to hell - their hell of no power or ability to use the law to steal and create envy; to kill through abortion; to smear and bear false witness against our fellow citizens - We are NOT Egypt or Europe and they will not makes us so.
We are Americans and America is more than a country; it is an ideal expressed in the discovery of our God given talent to do good and preserve true freedom in ordered liberty.
They will lose because the absence of good is evil and an absence can never win.
9th ID| 2.18.11 @ 10:54AM
One of the major rights that makes our republic stronger than the sheeple governments we see in Europe and the rest of the world is the 2nd Amendment. The left and their union thugs fear it most of all...
DRed| 2.18.11 @ 8:58AM
Oh my god, they're sitting on lawns! Somebody send in the national guard to stop those thugs!
And please, if you get so angry by the sight of people exercising rights guaranteed them by the constitution, stop ranting about how much you love liberty and "Judeo Christian Constitutionalism", because it's apparent you don't know what you're talking about.
Dennis Wasserman Schultz| 2.18.11 @ 11:03AM
Another socialist nitwit whose got a pink slip coming.
Tim the Enchanter| 2.18.11 @ 11:09AM
If someone is sitting on a lawn that's private property, that's called "Criminal Trespass". Please note the "Criminal" part. The Constitution protects private property, among other things. It does not protect thuggery. What part of "Peaceful Assembly" do you not understand, as well. Run along and play, now. Come back when you are grown up and can behave yourself.
DRed| 2.18.11 @ 11:40AM
The lawns that NVA 'Patriot' was referring to (I think) are those of the Wisconsin capital, which aren't private property. It's funny how you liberty loving, constitution worshiping conservatives react when a group of people you disagree with exercises their own constitutional rights. They're suddenly all 'thugs' and 'criminals', you start fantasizing about jailing people, sending them to hell, ominously muttering about the second amendment-it's enough to make a man think you're not sincere when you talk about loving our freedoms.
Patriot| 2.18.11 @ 3:54PM
You are thugs, just like the Community Organizer in Chief. We're going to kick him out of office, too.
Ellios Wyatt| 2.18.11 @ 9:30AM
Collective bargaining is a benefit, not a right. These leaches have run out of other people's money and it is time they join the rest of us in reality.
I suspect the real issue is the fact the bill will allow people to opt out of the union, which many will do, and there will be less income for the unions to confiscate. This is the change we have been waiting for.
Booger | 2.18.11 @ 12:57AM
We also have Charlton Heston's enduring legacy.
Liberal Reader| 2.18.11 @ 2:30AM
Dementia?
Deborah D | 2.18.11 @ 8:27AM
Lowlife?
Liberal Reader| 2.18.11 @ 2:26AM
I live in Madison WI. In case any of your readers are interested, there are no thugs here. None. There are teachers, nurses, fireman -- hundreds of fireman, some playing bagpipes even as I write this -- plumbers, and thousands of others union employees who work hard and who are protesting the governor's cancellation of collective bargaining. If you were here, you'd see what I mean.
NoLib| 2.18.11 @ 2:54AM
Dude, your state is broke. The Democrat governor before Walker left Wisconson 3 billion dollars in debt. Why demonize Governor Walker for trying to get your state out of the mess you liberals have created?
Liberalism is a mental illness, and your denial is proof of it.
beebop| 2.18.11 @ 5:36AM
What? No more RICH PEOPLE left to pay for this?
Robbins Mitchell| 2.18.11 @ 3:38AM
Any teachers who forces their students to participate in an illegal wildcat strike is a thug by definition..and since you endorse and encourage that,that makes you little more than the thugs' butt boy
MikeD| 2.18.11 @ 7:49AM
I wonder what you'd be saying if the rail or trucking workers went on strike to get the taxpayers to pay for their fat pensions and benefits. You'd be screaming and crying. Get over it! The time has come for fiscal sanity regardless of your liberal fantasies and self centered demands that the taxpayers owe you. We are out of money, primarily because public employee unions think they're so much better than the rest of us.
big bob| 2.18.11 @ 9:09AM
Teacher salaries are not included in this discussion. And neither are the firemen or police. So by definition, it is NOT the cancellation of collective bargaining. it IS the end of the fleecing of taxpayers. It's like putting my 14 year old on a budget. Oh, the whining we have to put with...
wukong| 2.18.11 @ 10:59AM
I can never understand why the teachers unions are so dead set against vouchers. If they are as good and dedicated as they claim they are, they should be able to score extremely well in a free market.
Oldefarte| 2.18.11 @ 12:37PM
No, none of us here are INTERESTED in what you have to say [or correctly NOT SAY]. The point is that these unionized governmental workers have jobs [when others in the private sector are unemployed], and they are now being asked to PAY FOR A SMALL PORTION of their healt insurance premiums and their future pensions [also like private sector employees have to do]. Why should they receive completely paid for [by their employer-the taxpayers] pensions and health care when non-governmental employees have to pay part of their costs? These unionized governmental workers get theirs free because of their labor unions corrupt activities and the taxpayers have to pay the price for same!!!!!!!!!
Oldefarte| 2.21.11 @ 11:34AM
LR: Obviously you don't understand the POINT that these policemen, firemen, and teachers have their salaries paid for BY THE TAXPAYERS OF THIS CONTRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kenny| 2.18.11 @ 6:11AM
Today's unionistsx, especially in the teachers union by choice are indeed bad people.
And they're terrible teachers to boot.
Get rid of 'em.
beebop| 2.18.11 @ 6:46AM
I believe that they don't contribute to Social Security. I suggest we roll over their pension contributions to SS and GUARANTEE them the same benefits most Americans receive at retirement time. Watch. Their contempt for all of us will be apparent in two minutes!
gsr| 2.18.11 @ 6:47AM
The president is a street agitator, who's pappy was a Marxist-Muslim. Is there any wonder why Barry behaves the way he does?
He will be removed in Nov. 2010. For proof, look at the only nation-wide election we've had since Barry reached his throne. Last November, Barry was rebuked big-time.
The majority of the American people know who and what he is. The media and the government-dependent class are his only supporters.
Boston12GS| 2.18.11 @ 6:52AM
I believe police and firemen are excluded from the proposed changes, yet the libs keep referring to the unionists affected as "policemen and firemen". Perhaps the libs posting here, and our own President, should understand the proposed law before commenting? Or perhaps they DO understand, and choose to deceive? Hmmm . . . .
stu| 2.18.11 @ 7:04AM
Hey lib reader check out the DNC website and fearless leader's "community action" website. Oh wait, the truth doesn't matter to your side....
MikeD| 2.18.11 @ 7:55AM
The silver lining in this whole thing is that, once again, the democrats show their true colors: lawbreakers, crybabies, cowards, as in Wisconsin State Senators slinking across state lines to avoid doing their jobs. What part of "THIS IS WHY THE WHOLE COUNTRY WENT REPUBLICAN IN NOVEMBER" don't these thugs and criminals get?
Deborah D | 2.18.11 @ 8:12AM
I read something on another website that makes perfect sense: "Democrats believe in democracy -- except when they lose."
They get it. They plan to fight and intimidate their way to a win. Remember Clinton's words when they were on the losing side of the Lewinsky story? "Well, we'll just have to win then."
That's the only thing they care about...not democracy, not election results, not truth, not the country...winning is all. And, they care not how they do it. That's the left.
Pecos Pete| 2.18.11 @ 7:50AM
Liberal Reader: Well, it is nice to have you explain the peaceful and constitutional nature of the protests in Madison. Thank youl
Where were you when the protests by citizens against higher taxes and Trillions in debt occurred? Ah, I know ... those protests were racist. And unconstitutional. Right?
martin j smith| 2.18.11 @ 7:55AM
liberal reader is full of itself. Obama is showing more folks--except those who knew all along --who Obama really is--THUG IN CHIEF. But here is the deal--GOVERNMENT UNION--ASTROTURF--THAT IS WHAT IS OUT THERE !!!!!!!!!!!. They will bus in from neighboring states you betcha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think there are many grounds for impeachment of Obama not the least of which is incompetence and I will add willful incompetence at that !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
One m,ore point: The Wisconsin Democrat Socialist Party has also shown thei true colors-RED WITH A HAMMER AND SICKLE !!!!!!!!! They are worse than cowards. They are trash and should be rejected except of course GOVERNMENT UNION THUGS AND THEIR ALLIES.
Oldefarte| 2.21.11 @ 11:37AM
Martin: IMO you're being TOO KIND to these TAXPAYER-PAID public employees, possibly!!!!
JimH| 2.18.11 @ 8:36AM
Release the hounds.
9th ID| 2.18.11 @ 10:57AM
"Cry Havoc and let slip the dogs of war!"
Tim the Enchanter| 2.18.11 @ 11:12AM
Woof!
clayusmcret| 2.18.11 @ 9:06AM
I take issue with only one comment. "They have Saul Alinsky. We have James Madison and George Washington. We win, they lose." This is true only if we stand up against the thuggery going on in Wisconsin and Ohio. Otherwise, Madison and Washington are merely historical figures of a time long past.
Historians can mark their calendars. We are now officially a third world country where on 17 February 2011, the President of the United States endorsed ongoing public union strikes, demonstrations at Senators' homes and union orchestrated shutdowns against the Wisconsin state government, while democrat Wisconsin Senators fled to Illinois to stall voting until a much larger Egyptian style protest could be orchestrated on Monday. This is what happens when a country is run by a socialist community organizer instead of an American leader.
Add to that union protesters on the streets of Ohio as well as others that will pop up this weekend in support. When does support for this socialist leadership end? When unions are protesting in Raleigh or Winston-Salem or Boise?!
Liberal Reader| 2.18.11 @ 10:29AM
"Thuggery," "Hoodlums." That's JUST how fascists used to talk about unions.
wukong| 2.18.11 @ 11:06AM
As a union member, I have no problem with a teacher strike. However, I do believe in fairness and equity. The taxpayer should not be obligated to pay a government worker that is picketing the employer for a "job action."
The misuse of "sick time" is nothing but theft.
Tim the Enchanter| 2.18.11 @ 11:17AM
"As a union member..." You have my deepest sympathy.
Tim the Enchanter| 2.18.11 @ 11:16AM
We happen to be discussing their behavior, which is Thuggish. They ARE behaving as Hoodlums do. Or, under your tyrannical philosophy, are we not allowed to use accurate terms in our discussions?
Oldefarte| 2.18.11 @ 12:44PM
Labor unions served a useful purpose during the industrial revolution when employer abuses were rampart and there were no laws on the books to combat same. Currently, that is no longer existent, and there aren't any logical/moral reasons for the necessity of labor unions [other than to enrich themselves at the expanse of others, mainly the memberhshiped employees that they brainwash and take financial advantage of]. All labor unions should be disbanded and outlawed!!!!!!!!
Oldefarte| 2.21.11 @ 11:39AM
No MORON, the FASCISTS were the THUGS and HOODLUMS in 1933's Germany!!!!!!!
Yosemeti Sam| 2.18.11 @ 10:36AM
" ... Barack Obama should be urging calm in Wisconsin, no matter WHAT side of the underlying issue he is on ...."
Um, Egypt is still heavy on his mind. He cannot multitask so cut this street organizer 2012 clock-watcher some modicum of slack.
George S| 2.18.11 @ 11:44AM
The right of the People to peaceably assemble and petition the government for a redress of grievance... ah, yes indeed, all along meant to protect the Bureaucratic State.
The purpose of that clause is to make the government accountable to the people. It is to uphold a basic freedom -- the right to be able to voice objections to acts of government that can impact freedom without being sanctioned or subject to violence. Without that basic guarantee, the first Tea Party gathering would have resulted in a replay of Tianamen Square. Or Budapest 1956. Equating that with government workers complaining about contributing to their retirement benefits belies the thinking process of a small child (no disrespect intended towards small children).
These employees are not being fired. They are not being forced to work in Chicago meat packing conditions. They are not even having their pay cut. They are being forced to contribute more towards their pensions. Hardly the stuff to make James Madison vomit. This is not what the First Amenedment set out to protect -- the government itself. These public employees are the very essence of goverment; the spectacle of them engaging in civil unrest to protest the People exercising their Power to curtail the growth of the very same government they have delegated power towards creating is not only instructive, but very frightening.
There is no right to a government job. If you disagree with the terms of your employment, you go elsewhere. But where in the private sector can a business offer a retirement plan that is guaranteed with the backing of legalized violence, property seizure or imprisonment? Nowhere. The notion that this is what the First Amendment intended to uphold is not only laughable but pathetic -- pathetic that we have degraded into a two-class society of government and citizens. And government feels that they need to redress grievances against the People for denying the government their "right" to exist in any way shape or form they wish.
Robbins Mitchell| 2.18.11 @ 12:37PM
"A strike of public employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to obstruct the operations of government until their demands are satisfied. Such action looking toward the paralysis of government by those who have sworn to support it is unthinkable and intolerable"
~Franklin Delano Roosevelt~
Oldefarte| 2.18.11 @ 12:50PM
Great comments, most [except Liberal etc]! As myself, Quin and many others knew pre-November of 2008, the election of this man as president was going to result in a multitude of depressing events for this country, all instituted by him. As Quin said, his/our predictions have come true, and sadly, the worst is possibly yet to come [for there are two more years left to his term]. The conclusion should be for everyone to look futuristically beyond the current events and make a personal vow to vote for the Republican candidate in November of 2012 [and to encourage everyone you know to do likewise]!!!!!!!!!!!