If you are not among the top three percent of the money earners in the United States, why would you vote for a Republican? It has been borne out by their actions that this is the only segment of the population they want to help.
Around here a lot of small business people feel they should support the Republicans because, after all, they support business. They are correct. Republicans support BIG business. They view small business as a gnat buzzing around their head, a minor nuisance at best. It is no longer the Eisenhower Republican party. The Republicans left Ike as well as Reagan many years ago.
I don’t understand why unions are being so vilified. I have been involved with the building trades unions both as a journeyman tradesman and an employer for the last 40 years. It has been, overall, a good relationship.
Of all the benefits to all workers, nonunion included, that unions have brought us, there is a benefit most people are not aware of.
In 1962 the Asbestos Workers international, pipe and boiler insulators, contributed much needed funding to Dr. Irving Selikoff’s research on asbestos related disease. As a direct result of this research, asbestos in building materials was taken off the market in 1974. This union funded research saved many thousands of people from cancer and mesothelioma.
There have been many other beneficial union funded projects in the workplace. We must stop this mindless union bashing and pause for a moment to reflect upon how the unions have improved all of our lives.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
For My Wisconsin Friends
I think we all learned from the last election that voting counts and that not voting counts equally. I believe a lot of liberals and independents did not show up to vote last election and that is the reason we’re in the fix we currently find ourselves.
If you want to restore some sanity in Madison, please get out and vote for Shelly Moore on July 12h. This primary is every bit as important as the recall election itself. We must show the right wingers that we will not tolerate these attempts to confuse the voters with a fake candidate, who by his own admission, will not even be in the state after the primary to run a campaign.
The right wing extremists in Madison are being fairly quiet until the recalls are over. They have to slow down their radical agenda lest we be reminded of why they need some checks on them and their national puppet masters. These people don’t care about us. They do care about the Koch brothers, Karle Rove and the Koch sponsored right wing think tanks that are setting their agenda. If they prevail in these recalls it’s going to be “Katy bar the door”. You ain’t seen nothin yet!
These people are selling our state to the highest bidder. Please vote for Shelly Moore so we can start to take Wisconsin back from the out of state special interests. I don’t want to live in Fitzwalkerstan, I want my state back!
Remember, if you are a registered voter, you do NOT need state approved voter ID for this election. Anyone who tells you otherwise is misleading you.
Your vote counts more now than ever!
If you want to restore some sanity in Madison, please get out and vote for Shelly Moore on July 12h. This primary is every bit as important as the recall election itself. We must show the right wingers that we will not tolerate these attempts to confuse the voters with a fake candidate, who by his own admission, will not even be in the state after the primary to run a campaign.
The right wing extremists in Madison are being fairly quiet until the recalls are over. They have to slow down their radical agenda lest we be reminded of why they need some checks on them and their national puppet masters. These people don’t care about us. They do care about the Koch brothers, Karle Rove and the Koch sponsored right wing think tanks that are setting their agenda. If they prevail in these recalls it’s going to be “Katy bar the door”. You ain’t seen nothin yet!
These people are selling our state to the highest bidder. Please vote for Shelly Moore so we can start to take Wisconsin back from the out of state special interests. I don’t want to live in Fitzwalkerstan, I want my state back!
Remember, if you are a registered voter, you do NOT need state approved voter ID for this election. Anyone who tells you otherwise is misleading you.
Your vote counts more now than ever!
Monday, June 27, 2011
Wisconsin Bile
Why do Republican politicians continuously need to set an enemy before us? Why do they always have a target for frustrated people to hate? Why do they always try to make us afraid? Why are they trying to make us so mean spirited, uncaring, and selfish?
The new enemies de juor are the union teachers. They paint them as lazy, overpaid drains on our economy. Really? The person who has the biggest positive influence on our children other than parents are their teachers! We have a wonderful education system in Wisconsin with smart, dedicated, caring professional teachers. Most of these people could have done much better financially in the private sector. No one gets into teaching for the money. It has always been a calling. These people are heroes every day, teaching our kids critical thinking. That is just a part of their job. How about teaching respect for others, nonviolent behavior, athletic and academic competition, guidance toward their individual talents? Preparing them for the next level in their education? Spending extra time outside of the classroom to help someone who didn’t understand something?
Why should teachers tolerate being vilified and publicly abused daily by politicians and those who buy into the bile and hatred they’re selling?
Why, with the internet at their fingertips, do so many Americans choose to continue their ignorance?
The Republicans are trying to privatize our schools and this hate mongering is just the first volley in the fight. Quit allowing these evil people to influence you! Use the critical thinking you were taught in school to recognize this for the scam that it is. The only ones who benefit from privatization are the wealthy. The rest of us lose.
The new enemies de juor are the union teachers. They paint them as lazy, overpaid drains on our economy. Really? The person who has the biggest positive influence on our children other than parents are their teachers! We have a wonderful education system in Wisconsin with smart, dedicated, caring professional teachers. Most of these people could have done much better financially in the private sector. No one gets into teaching for the money. It has always been a calling. These people are heroes every day, teaching our kids critical thinking. That is just a part of their job. How about teaching respect for others, nonviolent behavior, athletic and academic competition, guidance toward their individual talents? Preparing them for the next level in their education? Spending extra time outside of the classroom to help someone who didn’t understand something?
Why should teachers tolerate being vilified and publicly abused daily by politicians and those who buy into the bile and hatred they’re selling?
Why, with the internet at their fingertips, do so many Americans choose to continue their ignorance?
The Republicans are trying to privatize our schools and this hate mongering is just the first volley in the fight. Quit allowing these evil people to influence you! Use the critical thinking you were taught in school to recognize this for the scam that it is. The only ones who benefit from privatization are the wealthy. The rest of us lose.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Test Tube
The Republicans are testing us to determine whether they have dumbed us down to the point where we will believe the most outrageous lies they can think of.
Wisconsin is nothing but a petri dish for Scott Walkers rich, elitist right wing Overlords. They are playing him and his minions, the Fitzgerald brothers, for suckers. They are blindly carrying out their latest strategy for destroying our democracy and creating a one party ruling class. If they should fail, the Overlords will steam role right over them on their way to find a few more suckers to try the next ploy to take our democracy away. Scott Who?
I, for one, do not appreciate being the subject of experimentation by Scott Walker and his right wing, Overlords.
Right wing Republicans do not care one whit for the concerns, or for that matter, the wellbeing of their constituents. They look upon us with great disdain, as if we were a bothersome child tugging at their pant leg for attention. They just shake us off and go about the business of their out of state Overlords.
Whenever the Republicans are howling the loudest about what the Democrats are doing, that is what the Republicans are doing. The old diversionary tactic of pointing in one direction and when you look, they stab you in the back with their other hand.
Just a reminder. The voter ID law is NOT in effect for the recall elections. If you are a registered voter, YOU WILL NOT BE REQUIRED TO PRESENT ANY STATE APPROVED IDENTIFICATION DOCUMENTS. The poll workers may ask you but you are not required to produce any.
Wisconsin is nothing but a petri dish for Scott Walkers rich, elitist right wing Overlords. They are playing him and his minions, the Fitzgerald brothers, for suckers. They are blindly carrying out their latest strategy for destroying our democracy and creating a one party ruling class. If they should fail, the Overlords will steam role right over them on their way to find a few more suckers to try the next ploy to take our democracy away. Scott Who?
I, for one, do not appreciate being the subject of experimentation by Scott Walker and his right wing, Overlords.
Right wing Republicans do not care one whit for the concerns, or for that matter, the wellbeing of their constituents. They look upon us with great disdain, as if we were a bothersome child tugging at their pant leg for attention. They just shake us off and go about the business of their out of state Overlords.
Whenever the Republicans are howling the loudest about what the Democrats are doing, that is what the Republicans are doing. The old diversionary tactic of pointing in one direction and when you look, they stab you in the back with their other hand.
Just a reminder. The voter ID law is NOT in effect for the recall elections. If you are a registered voter, YOU WILL NOT BE REQUIRED TO PRESENT ANY STATE APPROVED IDENTIFICATION DOCUMENTS. The poll workers may ask you but you are not required to produce any.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
The Good Old Days
Right wing conservatives have a dream. Their dream is for a cheap and fearful workforce without a voice. They sigh and pine for the “good old days” when coal miners lived in company housing, bought at the company store and went to the company doctor for their healthcare, only to die physically broken and in debt to the company. How about the “good old days” in the garment industry when women worked sixty to seventy hours a week in horrible conditions and maybe got Sundays off. Ahhhhh, if only they could get back to the “good old days” when 13 year old children were forced to work sixty hours a week. They can only imagine how wonderful it must have been before OSHA came along with all those troublesome safety regulations. It was so much easier to replace a dead or maimed worker than to provide a safe workplace. Back in the “good old days” the rabble was so much easier to control when education was for only those who could afford it. If only they could send American Muslims to intern camps like they did to Japanese Americans during WW II in the “good old days”. They yearn for the “good old days” when there was no pesky internet. The right wing wants working people to be just like they were during the Great Depression...broke, sick, hungry and scared.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Scott Walker Giving Wisconsin Away
Wisconsin governor Scott Walker has included in his new budget proposal the optional selling off of the state owned steam and electric generating facilities to private enterprise without even a bid process. His reason? “It will save us money.”
What we’re talking about here are mostly steam generating facilities for the university system and other state owned buildings. Walker wants to sell these boiler plants, most of which are in the middle of campuses, to private owners. The state doesn’t even have to go through the bid process, thereby not getting the highest price for these plants.
Currently, the state entities that use the steam for heating and cooling their buildings are getting this energy for cost. Many of the boiler plants have been paid for long ago. There is of course, operational maintenance and employee costs.
If the state sells these facilities, let’s say to Koch Industries, they must have a return on investment or ROI. This means that they have to charge enough for their product to pay for the physical plant they just purchased and earn a reasonable profit. This is basic business 101.
The beauty of this for the business is they have a guaranteed captive customer who has nowhere else to go to purchase their energy.
Let’s take this to its logical end. After years of letting these plants fall into disrepair while ignoring maintenance to increase profits, big business will conveniently walk away at the end of their contract and leave the taxpayer holding the bag for the repairs needed to keep these facilities running.
Does this sound anything like “saving the tax payers money”? Going from purchasing their energy at cost to lining big business pockets? This is an insult to the taxpayer’s intelligence. How dare the Governor take them for such fools!
What we’re talking about here are mostly steam generating facilities for the university system and other state owned buildings. Walker wants to sell these boiler plants, most of which are in the middle of campuses, to private owners. The state doesn’t even have to go through the bid process, thereby not getting the highest price for these plants.
Currently, the state entities that use the steam for heating and cooling their buildings are getting this energy for cost. Many of the boiler plants have been paid for long ago. There is of course, operational maintenance and employee costs.
If the state sells these facilities, let’s say to Koch Industries, they must have a return on investment or ROI. This means that they have to charge enough for their product to pay for the physical plant they just purchased and earn a reasonable profit. This is basic business 101.
The beauty of this for the business is they have a guaranteed captive customer who has nowhere else to go to purchase their energy.
Let’s take this to its logical end. After years of letting these plants fall into disrepair while ignoring maintenance to increase profits, big business will conveniently walk away at the end of their contract and leave the taxpayer holding the bag for the repairs needed to keep these facilities running.
Does this sound anything like “saving the tax payers money”? Going from purchasing their energy at cost to lining big business pockets? This is an insult to the taxpayer’s intelligence. How dare the Governor take them for such fools!
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Hatred is the Badge of the Ignorant.
For some strange reason, ignorant people get elected to public office and somehow end up on the national stage. They first get media attention by making outrageous statements. The more attention, the more outrageous they get. They then start to believe their own hateful bile as other ignorant people come out from under whatever they live under and loudly support these radical positions. These politicians carry around a pocket copy of the constitution but only quote the parts they can twist into supporting their radical positions, all the while shouting out angry divisive speeches and trying to keep us scared of one another.
Many Republican politicians today, Newt Gingrich, Michelle Bachmann, there are many to pick from, will try to convince us to be afraid of or hate something. It doesn’t really matter what, Death panels, Acorn, as long as we are afraid of it. They need something to rally us around and picking a virtually harmless entity and vilifying it is both intellectually lazy and harmful to the fabric of our Nation. They don’t have the ambition or the intelligence to embrace the problems of the day and try to find solutions. They just want to keep us afraid and hateful.
Are we a nation of cowards flocking under the wing of some spiteful, hateful, fear mongering ignorant politician mindlessly following wherever they lead us?
We have very serious problems in this country. Problems that can be solved by serious, intelligent people. I want them to be smarter than some “Joe Six Pack” In order to best solve the issues that face this Nation every day.
All of this hatefulness and fear mongering is nothing but a distraction and a waste of valuable time. We must absolutely stop electing these unpatriotic fools who don’t have a plan other than dividing us and making us afraid.
Democracy is not easy. We must put our shoulders to the stone and take our country back from those who would destroy it with fear and ignorance.
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