Free Republic

The vexatious wave of de facto strikes by absentee Wisconsin public school teachers and Illinois-bound state legislators that has greeted newly-elected Badger State Governor Scott Walker’s vigorous attempts to rein in unsustainable public spending inevitably summons to mind the case of a once-obscure, first-term Massachusetts governor and a more overt public employee strike of nine decades ago. The governor in question: the famously taciturn Silent Cal Coolidge. The work stoppage in question: The Boston Police Strike of 1919.

Since it broke yesterday, this story has been igniting the internet and blogosphere. Multiple doctors have been reportedly handing out phony "doctor's notes" in order to prolong and enliven union rallies in Wisconsin. While unethical and underhanded by itself, these fake notes also break several "rules," as pointed out by this physician: Is it really his position that he is conducting medical examinations in the midst of thousands of people while attaining a right to privacy? One of the most important things in a genuine patient/physician interaction is honesty and this [man] is dishonest!The question is, what should happen to...

The War in Wisconsin is, due to its relative simplicity, perhaps the clearest yet demonstration to the American people of three key facts, most of which everyone knows deep down but only a small subset (often called "conservatives" or those evil "libertarians") actually believe: • Democrats care more about protecting union wealth and power than any other political goal. • Democrats care only for outcome, not for rules, process, or even democracy itself if the people inconveniently elect Republicans, and • The media is made up of partisan Democrats in a way that makes them a reliable source of propaganda...

The "Madison Uprising" is the beginning of the end of the incestuous relationship between government and the unions. That fact has been recognized by the public sector unions and the Democratic Party and is why they have pulled out all the stops and reverted to their 1960's playbook in order to maintain the status quo. However, it is a battle that the unions and the Democratic Party will lose regardless of the immediate outcome in Wisconsin. The Democratic Party has sold its soul to the public sector unions. In the 2010 mid-term election, the American Federation of State, County and...

The state of Illinois hopes to issue $3.7 billion in bonds, next week. The funds will be used to pay this year's pension payments. Writes NYT, which is starting to get the picture of the serious problems in the muni market:

Warning: Don't drink anything while watching this or it will come out your nose.

Godwin's Law: When you compare your opponentto Hitler, you lost already. Isn't calling Scott "Hitler", even a tiny bit hateful? We don't hate people.We just don't like Unions sucking us dry.And "rape"? Because WI wants you to pony up a small percentageof the benefits we private citizens pay so dearly for?Please. Doing EXACTLY what they accused us of doing.Except worse.That's no surveyers mark over Scotts face.Those are true crosshairs. Riiiighhhht.You see, Scott Walker isn't a duly elected governor.He's a 30-year dictator.Liberalism truly is a mental disorder. More of the same insanity from the Union Communist Movement.

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...

Behind closed doors, Scott Walker, the Republican who has been governor for about six weeks, calmly described his intent to forge ahead with the plans that had set off the uprising: He wants to require public workers to pay more for their health insurance and pensions, effectively cutting the take-home pay of many by around 7 percent. ... Scott Fitzgerald, the Republican leader in the State Senate, slipped out of the Capitol Wednesday morning with his sunglasses on, head down. Protesters had gone to his home earlier in the week, forcing his family (including his wife, a school guidance counselor)...

Since Wisconsin teachers called in "sick" and later appeared at political rallies at the statehouse and appeared on TV, haven't they violated criminal statutes and shouldn't the governor have criminal charges brought against them, and have them fired. Forthwith? Isn't it against the law for a civil servant to make a false health claim and absent ones self from one's place of work? Criminal malingering.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Public workers jammed the Statehouse Thursday as the Ohio Senate continued to hear testimony on a bill that would eliminate collective bargaining rights for state employees and change the rights of local government employees. The workers, many wearing bright red T-shirts, filled the Statehouse atrium and rotunda while others milled about outside. They voiced their opposition loudly, sometimes echoing into the Senate hearing room and competing with the speakers testifying in support of Senate Bill 5. The Highway Patrol estimated the crowd at 1,800.

Just when Chicago's fiscal problems looked they couldn't get much worse, a new study shows that the city now faces nearly $23 billion in unfunded pension liabilities, the Chicago Tribune reports. Chicago's unfunded pension obligation has increased 600% since 2000, according to the report, released by the city's Civic Federation. When combined with state pension debt, unfunded liabilities on public employee pensions would now cost each Chicago resident more than $11,934. Much of the blame rests with Illinois' pension code, which allows local governments to avoid paying their contributions to public employee pension plans. This problem is exacerbated, the report...

MADISON, Wis. — Gov. Scott Walker will propose removing nearly all public employee collective bargaining rights to help plug a $3.6 billion budget hole, a Republican briefed on the governor's plan told The Associated Press on Thursday. Walker will propose a change in state law to remove public employees' ability to negotiate on any issue except salary, according to the person, who was in Walker's closed-door briefing with members of the state Senate on Thursday but spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to release the information. The Republican governor also will refinance state debt to...

The Columbus Dispatch and the Cleveland Plain Dealer report that Ohio lawmakers introduced a GOP-backed bill yesterday that would eliminate collective bargaining for all state workers, potentially one of the first major changes to public-sector union law in the state in nearly 30 years. Collective bargaining would be abolished for state workers and reformed for employees of local governments under the proposed bill, which would also overhaul policy governing teachers' contracts and benefits, bargaining timelines, layoff procedures, and binding arbitration rules for police and firefighters. Ohio Gov. John Kasich and other supporters say the reforms will give state and regional...

According to Newsweek's Jonathan Alter, the president recently told friends, "All I want for Christmas is an opposition I can negotiate with." Well, he had one, briefly, so long as he was willing to cave in to its demands to bust the budget with a massive gift of more than $130 billion in tax cuts to the wealthiest 2 percent of the country and the gutting of the estate tax. That cleared the decks for other "victories" and "compromises" and led to widespread insider approval of Obama's ability to "make the system work." Like 13-year-olds at the movies, pundits love...

Wisconsin's public-sector unions are worried to the point of snarling. You could say it's because taxpayers remembered they already have a state mascot -- the badger. The new governor, Scott Walker, is determined to cut the budget and plainly not intimidated by the unions -- not even by their claim that a fat public payroll is a symbol of Wisconsin's progressive tradition. That we treat public-sector unions as beloved pets, those unions intimate, is the gauge of our compassion. It's pure poppycock -- and it exposes a fallacy exploited by public-sector unions everywhere. Walker, a Republican, spent eight years as...

The nonpartisan Little Hoover Commission meets today to hear testimony about public pensions, aiming to dispassionately analyze the impact of retirement costs on governments and then, if needed, suggest changes. Heaven knows we need a dose of level-headed analysis, given the wide-open rhetoric that "pension reform" provokes. Unions see such efforts as a call to arms, "an attack on public employees," union lobbyist Dave Low once told The State Worker. Last year when it looked like an initiative might make the ballot to cut benefits for future government hires, Low warned it would provoke a "nuclear response" from labor. Context...

Many say that the situation in Greece is a harbinger of what is coming to the United States. They are right. But first it will come to states like New York, California and Michigan, which are stretched way beyond their means and deeply in debt. Until now, the problems in these states have been papered over by federal aid. Essentially, Washington has relieved these states (and the local governments they fund) of their constitutional obligations to balance their budgets by giving them welfare checks in the nick of time. Barack Obama now seeks to pass $50 billion in additional welfare...

The Senate is moving closer to passing legislation that would require states to grant public-safety employees, including police, firefighters and emergency medical workers, the right to collectively bargain over hours and wages. The bill, known as the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act, would mainly affect about 20 states that don't grant collective-bargaining rights statewide for public-safety workers or that prohibit such bargaining. State and municipal associations, as well as business groups, oppose it, saying it will lead to higher labor costs and taxes, at a time of budget deficits. The bill, backed by at least six Republicans in the Senate,...

LOS ANGELES—Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa once organized for a teacher's union here, and later ran a branch of the American Federation of Government Employees. That makes him an unlikely advocate for cutting the benefits of the city's workers. The Union Delegate Conference in Los Angeles. But with the city facing a budget deficit that could drain its reserves by summer, Mayor Villaraigosa wants to re-open contract talks with 45,000 cops, firefighters, librarians and other city employees in hopes of persuading them to contribute more to their pensions and health-care costs. His deputy chief of staff, Matt Szabo, puts it bluntly: "Unions...