I'm the kind of guy for whom the glass is half full, rather than half empty, but the glass had better contain a nice sauvignon blanc, preferably from the Loire Valley.
So let's just celebrate that one-third of Madison's public school teachers are honest. Hey, more than we thought.
According to the district, 1,769 out of 2,655 teachers took time off during the four days without a legitimate excuse, the WI State Journal reports today. Interestingly, e-mails to the district ran 2-1 against the illegal, union-coordinated teacher sick-out.
The squire blogged the smoking gun of the teachers union's illegal sick-out on April 11. Blaska's Blog is actively soliciting plaintiffs and lawyers to bring union ringleader John Matthews to justice.
Meanwhile, sincerely do we salute the honest one-third. Professionalism in the face of peer pressure. Well done, good and noble public servants. Courage!
True or not, mission accomplished
You may have missed the story but Dan Kapanke was fully exonerated of ethics charges lodged against him by the hyper-partisan Mike Tate. The majordomo of the State Dems lodged the complaint against the Republican state senator in the midst of his run for U.S. Congress last fall, which he lost by only 3 percentage points. Could the allegations of wrongdoing, since debunked, have played a factor?
It's an old Democrat(ic) party trick -- use ethics standards in an unethical and partisan manner. But no matter who does it, always, always, always be deeply suspicious of any ethics complaint filed during an election campaign.
Sob stories about s.o.b.'s
A staple of uninspired news reporting is a weeper on the plight of the noble victim -- no matter how self-sourced the malady. Now we must spray some salt for the caring and wise teacher, forced to hang it up prematurely, to quit the job he loves, due to that awful man in the Capitol, Scott Walker.
Do inquiring reporters ever ask how it is possible to "retire early?" Can the average non-public employee quit at 55 to pursue his muse?
Huzzah to the WI State Journal's Chris Rickert for, in the most gentle way possible, calling out his own newspaper for being sob story suckers.
All veteran teachers risk by working a few extra years past the (still questionable) enactment of Walker's anti-union bill are the ability to rack up more sick days and get paid for not working. [Don't cry for teachers who choose early retirement]
Et tu, Massachusetts Dems
At least they were not asked to bring vuvuzelas. The governor of Massachusetts is scheduled to talk at a Democratic Party Founders Day dinner tonight in Milwaukee and that does not sit well, Edith, with our Progressive acquaintances. (For they ARE ...)
"Wisconsin Dems should tell Deval Patrick to rethink labor stand," thunders The Capital Times in Friday's editorial.
Patrick and his legislative allies have been promoting a plan to limit the ability of public employees and their unions to bargain with municipalities over their health care benefits.
Yes, it's true. Why the WI State Journal will not broach word one of the development in the blue state to the east is a misery. Massachusetts House legislators voted overwhelmingly this week to strip police officers, teachers, and other municipal employees of the ability to bargain over health care, saying the change would save millions of dollars for financially strapped cities and towns.
The push in Massachusetts was led by Democrats who have traditionally stood with labor to oppose any reduction in workers' rights. Unions fought hard to stop the bill." [Boston.com: 04-27-11]
Fighting Ed is, well, fighting mad.
Now, with Mass. pulling a "Walker" the question arises, why is Deval Patrick speaking at a Democratic Party event in Wisconsin?
He must not be heard. Shout him down, Ed! It only takes one leather-lunged totalitarian to drown out speech with which we disagree, although banging a drum would help. While WI Dems are engaging in their one-way dialogue in Milwaukee, how about confronting U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin with the same issue. Why aren't federal employees allowed to bargain their health care bennies.
For that matter, do Capital Times employees bargain their health care benefits? Just asking. (Spoiler Alert: the answer is no.)
The Left's war on free speech, cont'd
In the Left's never-ending war against free speech, Paddy Mac exposes a university (of course) outfit devising "new strategies to promote accountability through regulatory pressure points," among other things.
Nice wording: "regulatory pressure points." That's the same phrase used in the Tehran Police Academy Interrogation School's nightstick course.
It's all about the Citizens United case, of course. Lefties loathe the Supreme Court decision because, as Patrick McIlheran explains: "not really grasping that 'corporation' includes nonprofit political activist groups (like the anti-Hillary one at the heart of the case), they figure it means Wal-mart is free to sell elections cheap."
Violating the public space (and the pubic space)
Doug Moe struck a nerve with his column on a drum lady at the State Street side of the Capitol, driving office workers and others to distraction. Like a lot of the protestors, her attitude is to hell with the public good, I'm getting mine.
Aggressive panhandlers and peeing vagrants are excused as victims. Teenaged fools with their pants on the ground have "rights." The Isthmus news editor excuses naked bike riders waggling their shortcomings in front of little girls. The orange jumpsuit guy wins the "right" to blow his piccolo all the live-long day on the Library Mall. That seems to be the Madison ethos: I can abuse the public spaces because I got my rights, y'know.
It's the other way around, folks. You can do a lot of things in the privacy of your own home, windows closed and shades drawn, that should never be done in public. Weren't we taught to put on our company manners in public?
Please tase him, bro' -- A kid in Kansas refused to hike his Dockers and got tased, bro. Hopefully not on his frank and beans. There, I just used up my week's allotment of compassion.
Make croutons, not war
My guess is that the illegal product tampering campaign organized by the Left against grocery stores and their employees for Sunday, May Day, has pretty much been extinguished. Even Phil Neuenfeldt, state AFL-CIO boss, is disowning it.
Nancy Mistele of Founders Compass suggests, "If you see a product that has been defaced, please let the store manager know, take a picture, but most of all, buy those products that are being targeted. A "buy-cot" instead of a boycott, if you will. Besides, doesn't a family cookout with Johnsonville Brats and Miller/Coors beer sound like a good time anyway?"
Alternatively, if you see anyone plastering stickers at your grocery store, Bipper-Cewf* says bust them over the head with a loaf of French bread. Pretty sure it's legal to carry bread in Wisconsin. Make croutons, not war.
Speaking of stickers; I have a bumper sticker that says, "Prosser Won; Get Over It." Waiting for just the right liberal's Prius on which to stick it.
* Blaska Policy Research Center and Experimental Work Farm.
