Free Republic

MADISON, Wisconsin—Scott Walker loves the haters. In recent years as Wisconsin has moved further to the right, the mild-mannered preacher’s son has become in the eyes of his opponents an icon of all that is evil—and he seems to relish it. On the stump, the governor is fond of talking up the fact that he’s “the No. 1 target in America of the labor unions and many others on the left,” and the hecklers that seem willing to follow him to the ends of the Earth give him a chance to flex his conservative muscles. They feed the perception that...

A month ago we asked if, perchance, the BLS had simply forgotten to add any of the job losses in the energy sector in January, when it reported a drop of just 1900 jobs in the entire Oil and Gas Extraction space, compared to 18K actual announcements, and 21,300 job cuts in the sector as reported by Challenger. Moments ago, the latest Challenger data is out, and we really hope the BLS finally reads it because things in the energy sector are getting worse by the day, if only for its well-paid workers. According to Challenger, the February total...

Some senior buyers are already gone. Vice presidents, too. But for 13,000 other Target Corp. employees in Minnesota, there's fear that the bull's-eye is on their backs. Target jolted the Twin Cities on Tuesday when it said "several thousand" corporate staffers will be laid off in a cost-cutting move. Executives didn't say who, when or where -- although the buzz is the ax will swing freely next week. Since the news broke, reaction to Target's $2 billion cost-savings plan has been split, especially by street. On Wall Street, analysts mostly liked the plan. Target stock touched an all-time high Wednesday...

".....Economists and others who study the issue say it's too soon to draw conclusions from either state about what effect right-to-work is having.But that hasn't stopped proponents from pointing to job growth in Indiana, and detractors highlighting union membership slides in Michigan,as possible outcomes headed Wisconsin's way.Under right-to-work,private-sector businesses cannot enter labor contracts that require workers to pay union dues. Supporters say that it's about worker freedom and that right-to-work will make Wisconsin more attractive to businesses looking to move in or expand.But opponents say the goal is to destroy unions,which they argue will hurt the economy,lower wages and endanger...

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a frontrunner in many 2016 GOP presidential polls in recent weeks, has come out swinging against the deal House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell just cut with congressional Democrats to fund President Obama’s executive amnesty. The basis of his opposition to the deal is twofold. First, he doesn’t agree with the way it surrenders Congress’ power of the purse to Obama through at least the end of September, the current fiscal year. Second, Walker is furious that Democrats who publicly stated many times they opposed the president’s actions didn’t follow through and...

Emwazi did not join the Islamic State because he did not have a job. He didn’t need one. He was a proud member of the family business that consisted of leeching off the state Deputy State Department spokeswoman, Marie Harf, became a household name a couple of weeks ago when she took to the airwaves to state the real reason young people become jihadists and flock to join the Islamic State. They do so because they don’t have jobs. If only they could be gainfully employed, they wouldn’t have any wish to join ISIS where they can spend their days...

Another day, another missed data point. ADP Employment data shows 212k jobs added in February, which modestly missed expectations of 219k and is the weakest monthly gain in 6 months. This despite a strong prior revision, pushing the January number up from 213K to 250K to catch up to the BLS runrate. Despite the miss, that showed large businesses adding by far the fewest jobs, Mark Zandi as usual remains optimistic: "jobs growth is strong but slowing," and expects the economy "will return to full employment by mid-2016."  Another miss... The breakdown: More irrelevant, goalseeked charts:Change in Nonfarm Private Employment Change in Total...

When it comes to the number of new jobs created in Michigan, 2014 was the best in 20 years. The number of unemployed people dropped by 71,000, or 17.2 percent, from 2013 to 2014. Total employment rose by 98,000, or 2.3 percent. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does two monthly unemployment surveys. The Current Population Survey (CPS) is known as the “household survey” and the Current Employment Statistics (CES) survey is known as the “payroll survey,” because it surveys businesses. University of Michigan economist Don Grimes says the “payroll survey” has been shortchanging Michigan of jobs in its initial reports,...

<p>AUSTIN - Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick unveiled key portions of the upper chamber's education agenda on Tuesday, reviving proposals long unpopular with teacher groups that Patrick said would empower parents and help students leave poor-performing schools.</p> <p>"We'll be talking about school choice and pre-K at a later date," Patrick said at a morning press conference in the Capitol, flanked by members of the Senate Committee on Education. "But reforming education is more than a single shot. It is a comprehensive plan that takes in every area of the state, takes in every student, every parent and every teacher."</p>

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker delivered his budget address in February, presenting a $68 billion, two-year spending plan that he said would “assist small businesses and farmers.” .... watch Walker’s speech

President Barack Obama’s government is inviting many repatriated illegal immigrants back to work in the United States under a deal approved approved this week by a federal judge. The deal was finalized by Obama’s deputies and their ideological allies in the American Civil Liberties Union, via a courtroom negotiation under the supervision of an Obama-app0inted judge. The deal also provided $700,000 to the ACLU for the lawyers’ fees. The lawyers had claimed that illegals were unfairly and unlawfully pressured to sign so-called “voluntary return” documents as they were being deported. The illegals should have been invited to fight repatriation via the courts, said...

"...What was missing from CPAC? Any sign of the intellectual ferment in conservative think tanks about how to address the stagnant incomes of the American middle class. Most speakers stuck to more traditional fare: smaller government, lower taxes, less regulation. There are new ideas in the Republican Party, but this, it seems, was neither the time nor the place..."

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) is doubling down on claims that the strongest foreign policy move in his lifetime was former President Ronald Reagan's decision to fire 11,000 air traffic controllers. In 1981, almost 13,000 air traffic control employees walked off the job when contract negotiations between the federal government and the controllers union stalled. Reagan claimed the strike was illegal and demanded the air traffic controllers return to work; when some 11,000 did not, he fired them. Walker, who has long idolized Reagan and previously lauded the former president's standoff with air traffic control, on Saturday called it "the...

Josh DiNatale (left) and Zachary Burns, St. Joseph's University students and members of their College Republicans chapter, get ready to pose for a photo with a cutout of Sen. Rand Paul at CPAC 2015. The Conservative Political Action Conference, held this week in Washington D.C., is prime time for 2016 Republican presidential hopefuls trying — yes, already — to win over a key part of their base. Former Gov. Jeb Bush, Sen. Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, Gov. Scott Walker and others paraded on and off the main stage, trying to fire up the crowd with their ideas for America's next,...

The Republican-dominated Senate in Wisconsin passed a bill this week to weaken the state’s private-sector unions. Similar to “right-to-work” laws in 24 other states, the bill would prevent unions from requiring dues or other fees from workers they represent in collective bargaining, a crippling constraint. The Republican-run State Assembly is expected to pass the bill next week, and Gov. Scott Walker, who stripped Wisconsin’s public employees of collective bargaining rights in 2011 and is now eyeing the Republican presidential nomination, has said he would sign it. In a nation where the long decline in unions has led to a pervasive...

BAGHDAD - Islamic State militants in northern Iraq have destroyed a collection of statues and sculptures dating back thousands of years, according to a video published online in the name of the radical Islamist group. The video showed the statues, some identified as antiquities from Iraq's 7th century BC Assyrian era, being toppled, smashed and broken up by sledgehammer. A man shown in the video said they were being destroyed because they promoted idolatry. "The Prophet ordered us to get rid of statues and relics, and his companions did the same when they conquered countries after him," the unidentified man...

Since 2001, the British authorities have systematically shifted the spotlight away from its foreign policy and its security agencies by placing blame for violence at home and abroad solely on Muslims. British security services have systematically engaged in the harassment of young Muslims, rendering their lives impossible and leaving them with no legal avenue to redress their situation. A Washington Post correspondent contacted CAGE regarding a story she was working on. CAGE Research Director, Asim Qureshi met with the journalist, where she inquired about the name Mohammad Emwazi. Qureshi went away with that information and checked CAGE’s files, revealing that...

First-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits rose by much more than expected in the week ended February 21st, according to a report released by the Labor Department on Thursday. The report said initial jobless claims jumped to 313,000, an increase of 31,000 from the previous week's revised level of 282,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to edge up to 290,000 from the 283,000 originally reported for the previous week. The Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving average also climbed to 294,500, an increase of 11,500 from the previous week's revised average of 283,000. With the increase, the four-week...

ISIS militant ‘Jihadi John’ unmasked as middle-class Brit By Yaron Steinbuch February 26, 2015 | 7:16am The infamous masked ISIS madman seen in gruesome videos beheading Western hostages was identified by media outlets Thursday as Mohammed Emwazi — a middle-class Briton with a degree in computer programming. The BBC reported that the Kuwaiti-born Emwazi is in his mid-20s and from West London. British authorities chose not to identify him earlier for operational reasons. “I have no doubt that Mohammed is Jihadi John,” one of Emwazi’s close friends told the Washington Post. “He was like a brother to me. . . . I...

"You fight the good fight against Walker and he beats you," said Seth Markgraf, a 34-year-old construction worker from Arlington, Wisconsin. "They beat us in the recall and they beat us in another general election. It's just apathy. How do we beat Scott Walker?" TRENTON, N.J. — New Jersey's Chris Christie and Wisconsin's Scott Walker are getting ready to run for president, but they've still got day jobs as governors — and face another round in the ring with organized labor. For Christie, that means trying to reach a deal to fix New Jersey's underfunded pension system by working with...