Michigan’s Republican governor and Legsilature are cutting unemployment benefits with an “up is down” strategy:
The measure, passed by a Republican-led Legislature, took advocates for the unemployed by surprise: the language cutting benefits next year was slipped quietly into a bill that was originally sold as way to preserve unemployment benefits this year.
You may have heard about the Maine governor’s attempt to erase labor unions from murals at the Maine Department of Labor, which is bad enough, but my friend sent me this report indicating that he’s even renaming meeting rooms, including the César Chávez Room and the Frances Perkins room. I assume they’ll be the John Galt and Dagny Taggart rooms, but that hasn’t been decided yet.
The notion that Republicans were the friend of the working man and woman was always hollow pretense, but it still managed to bamboozle a fair number of voters. The actions of the current crop of extremist governors and legislators make their real agenda crystal fucking clear to even the most casual observer.
Jamie
Will the last person to leave Michigan remember to turn out the light.
jibeaux
When that dipshit in Maine loses re-election, I hope the new governor paints a big-ass Che up in the Department of Labor. Escalation, bitchez.
Morbo
@Jamie: We’re going to make up for everything with tourism. Yeah, that’s the ticket. No, seriously, tourism advertising seems to be the only government spending Snyder approves of.
cleek
lettuce hope.
dmsilev
And in Wisconsin, the Republicans have announced that Walker’s union-busting law is now in effect, despite the court order and despite the lack of any appellate court overturning said order. Because apparently “shut up, I said so” is now a legally binding statement.
dms
The Political Nihilist Formerly Known as Kryptik
Sadly, way too many folks believe that this is how it should be, especially if the Union Hippies get punched like they should.
Seriously, how the fuck are we even here? And why the fuck do so many fucking lies, myths, and failed policies not only persist but fucking thrive now? I mean…we have Birtherism given a national stage once more thanks to Donald Hump, the total victory of trickle-down economic theory as not only the dominant, but ONLY ‘serious’ theory in the US despite it being a proven failure, you have cut after cut after cut being made that do so precious little to actually even dent the deficit making the cut advocates the “serious deficit wonks” while anyone who even mouths the word “tax” is a gigantic fucking commie who needs to be shunned and burnt at the stake…
I mean…guh.
I’m just too tired to even get mad anymore. I just feel totally limp and powerless.
debit
@dmsilev: Oooooh! I hear that judges like it when you ignore their rulings! They like it a lot. I can’t wait to see what happens next when the judiciary goes, “Oh, okay then, never mind, our bad.”
Morbo
I heard LePage has asked for submissions for art that shows the relationship between labor and business in Maine. This sounds like the perfect job for /b/ if you know what I mean.
The Political Nihilist Formerly Known as Kryptik
@debit:
Don’t worry, if Prosser gets to keep his chair, I’m sure the WI Supremes will decide precisely that, and call Judge Sumi a harpy and a whore to boot.
@Morbo:
I’m sure a mural called ‘The Triangle Shirtwaist Tragedy’, wherein harpy workers purposely immolate themselves to spite their godly Galtian employers and destroy their livelyhood, is being commissioned right now.
tkogrumpy
That’s my governor, proudly leading us back to the nineteenth century and beyond. There is a saying, as Maine goes, so goes the nation. I used to be proud of that, but…….
Omnes Omnibus
@dmsilev:
@debit:
The preliminary hearing on the WI “law” is going on right now. Started at 8:30 am CDT.
lllphd
1. lepage actually removed the mural over the weekend; nice. i saw where his comment was something like “get over it.”
2. someone here, can’t recall who (omnus??) had said earlier that sumi was holding a hearing at 8:30 this morning (as in, now) for the walker bill madness. where do we go to find out what’s happening? anyone there? liveblogging?
The Political Nihilist Formerly Known as Kryptik
@tkogrumpy:
I wish I could assure you that it’s not the case, but…yeah, it’s sadly the fucking case apparently.
bleh
I don’t actually think this is likely to penetrate to most of the voters. They don’t pay attention. They swallow what is spoon-fed to them.
I’d like to be proved wrong. But nothing will happen until the people who are getting screwed over wake up and take action in their own interests.
“Democracies get the governments they deserve.”
lllphd
ah! just found this:
request for sumi to extend TRO to the LRB
which would put it on hold, at any rate. smack down; that decision is going on right now…. anyone have connections?
Roger Moore
@dmsilev:
Not letting the Republicans do WTFTW would violate the state’s rights under Article 4 Section 4 of the Constitution. You can look it up. Every state is guaranteed a Republican government, so letting the Democrat party do anything is unconstitutional.
lllphd
@Omnes Omnibus:
yeah, so anyone there? is anyone liveblogging?
i know, such the luxury. but thought i’d ask. if i were in madison, i’d sure try it.
someguy
Why don’t we just declare war on michigan because they’re inhumane, lob in a couple hundred Tomahawks against major economic hubs, then leave?
Don’t knock it. This approach works for solving all our other problems. Plus I think the Republicans already did that to Detroit.
OzoneR
@bleh:
Considering ABC refused to air the President’s speech on Libya unless he did it before Dancing With The Stars, and a CBS affiliate in Florida cut out of the speech for commercial, I’m not sure how it would penetrate even if they did pay attention.
Bulworth
The anti-Francis Perkins jihad is especially galling. But I suppose if the conference names and murals and history are hurting our business people’s feefees then they must be banished.
The Political Nihilist Formerly Known as Kryptik
@someguy:
I don’t think Michigan has enough brown people per capita to get the Republicans to jump at that. Maybe Detroit specifically, but not Michigan at a whole.
Southern Beale
Speaking of anti-worker dickishness, we have an update here in Tennessee on one of those glorious “small businesses” we’re all supposed to bow down to. This one was hiring Mexican workers on the H-2B visa program and treating them like slaves, confiscating passports and not paying them.
Dept. of Labor didn’t like it. And there are civil lawsuits as well.
Assholes.
Yevgraf (fka Michael)
@jibeaux:
Behind the dais in the legislature as well.
Nicole
The GOP are so blatant now that I think they must be A) really stupid B) secure in the knowledge that America isn’t paying attention or C) confident in Diebold and Voter ID laws handing them future elections. And I really have no idea which one it is.
Redshift
@Morbo:
Not art that shows the relationship between labor and business, “artwork that depicts the cooperative relationship that exists between Maine’s job creators and the workers who power Maine’s economy.” Seriously.
These dickheads never miss an opportunity to push the Randian propaganda that business owners just create jobs out of the goodness of their hearts, not because they need workers to do the actual “producing” that gives them their profits, so the rest of us should be grateful for whatever we get.
Omnes Omnibus
@lllphd: No chance of getting in. I haven’t seen any live blogging.
For those who are concerned about the fact that the LRB “published” the law, let me quote from the TRO
The “restrain and enjoin the further implementation” language is the key. The specific order to the SoS is a detail.
Dave
Well, if there is one silver lining to LePage’s high-school presidency in Maine (of which I am a resident), it is that his insane budget won’t pass as presented. Unless it was voted on in the next 48 hours or so (and it won’t be), it will require a 2/3 majority to pass. And since the GOP doesn’t hold that kind of advantage in either chamber, they’ll have to deal. And since 2/3 is also a veto-proof majority, there is dick-all Governor 39% can do about it.
dr. bloor
And yet, it will remain completely opaque to your Average Republican Voter.
lllphd
@Omnes Omnibus:
you know what the TRO says, I know what the TRO says; why the hell can’t the damn republicans figure this one out??
sorry; purely rhetorical ranting there.
Montysano
Is it just me, or is the removal of the murals in Maine uncomfortably similar to the Taliban’s destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan?
To quote Frank Zappa: “I’m telling you, my dear, that it can’t happen here”. Miss ya, Frank, also too.
lllphd
and just to ask another rhetorical question about walker in particular, didn’t he manage milwaukee recently? just ran across this in salon: it’s the most segregated city in the US.
why does that fit somehow?
Alwhite
The operative word here being “observer” too many of the morans vote without observation, without consideration and certainly without contemplation.
This is not a new phenomena either. Back in the ’80s polls consistently showed that the majority of American’s opposed the policies of St. Ronnie yet the elected and re-elected the himbo and his enablers in Congress.
Omnes Omnibus
@lllphd: He was Milwaukee County Executive. Tom Barrett, the Dem. Gov. Candidate, is Milwaukee’s Mayor.
jwb
@Roger Moore: Awesome!
Yevgraf (fka Michael)
Something dawned on me last night – used to be, it was all about welfare. Now its about work.
If they get to take down labor, next thing they’re going to pull is on the white collars.
jwb
@Southern Beale: And see that just proves that government doesn’t work, so we should just defund it. That would solve the problem.
Alwhite
@Nicole:
D: Control the media
E: All of the above
eemom
@Omnes Omnibus:
but the SoS is in contempt then, isn’t he? Aren’t the plaintiffs asking the judge to hold him in contempt and send some marshalls out to arrest his ass?
shortstop
@lllphd: They keep choosing to double down on the assholishness, don’t they? Every single move they make now is “Fuck our critics!”…to their daily detriment in the polls. It’s almost like they’re not very smart, trapped in a bubble of like-minded folks and blinded by their own authoritarian hatred. Almost.
jwb
@Nicole: I vacillate between A and C. A—not that the Gooper powers that be are totally stupid, but that they are finding it extremely difficult to ride the teatard beast they have unleashed. C—not just Diebold and voter ID laws, but media ownership and Citizen’s United as well. Speaking of conspiracy theories, if I was evil master of the world and believed I could actually get minions to shut up as they pulled off massive voter fraud, I would create a number of polling firms like Rassmussen to produce bogus polls, create a number of media outlets to broadcast them, get laws passed (and court rulings) to allow me to spend massive amounts of money on political advertising to make sure my message was inescapable, and then I would rig the voting machines to give me exactly the numbers that were being fed into the media by the Rassmussen-like polling firms.
Ajay
It was clear to everyone who had any common sense what Rs are about based on recent history.
However, all this will only embolden people to vote for them. The liberal bogeyman is the reason enough for people to vote against their interests.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@dmsilev: Oh, to be a fly on the wall in Judge Sumi’s courtroom today. I’m eagerly awaiting some inside Madison scoop from Omnes.
jayjaybear
@eemom: The SoS, LaFollette, is a Democrat and is in compliance with the TRO. The LBR, who did publish the law on the state website, did so at the command of Scott Fitzgerald, the Senate majority leader, bypassing the SoS. LaFollette ordered the LBR to NOT publish on Friday, which they ignored in favor of Fitzgerald.
Getting back to the state of the nation, in general, I’m worried that the mid-20th Century, from about 1933 to the present, was an anomaly and will prove to be a temporary reprieve from plutarchy. The track record of civilization prior to Roosevelt isn’t very bright.
shortstop
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Me, too. Ignore your clients today, OO. We’re just more important.
Barry
@Yevgraf (fka Michael): “If they get to take down labor, next thing they’re going to pull is on the white collars.”
You’re about 20 years too late; that movement started a while ago. Immiserating blue-collar workers was 70’s and 80’s (with a continuing purge of all remaining comfortable blue-collar workers, whenever they are found).
What’s new are the openness, speed, savagery and the clear intent to seriously purge the remaining middle class.
Omnes Omnibus
@eemom: The SoS did not publish. The Legislative Reference Bureau put the language up on its website. The LRB insists that this is a purely ministerial act and does not serve as “publication.” The WI SoS is a Democrat who delayed publication as long as legally allowable to give people time to file their lawsuits. BTW he is a LaFollette, grandson or great grandson of Fighting Bob.
bemused
The Republican party is nothing but a bunch of whining, sniveling, chicken-shit freaks.To get whatever they want, they have to resort to bullying, crying like two year olds, sneaking stuff into bills by subterfuge and force and childishly smothering any signs of views (Maine labor murals) other than their own. It’s a cowardly victory when you have to shut down differing voices to get it. Absolutely pathetic.
btw, what happened to the Maine murals? Could they be removed without harming them? I wouldn’t be surprised if they defaced them while they were at it.
The Political Nihilist Formerly Known as Kryptik
@jayjaybear:
Yeah. As much as I really really want to believe in the idea that the wheel always turns toward justice over time, reality doesn’t seem to bear that out anymore.
shortstop
@bemused:
I haven’t checked this out, but I’d assume they were WPA work, making them particularly valuable (and especially dear to my heart — I love WPA art).
Omnes Omnibus
The court in ordered the State to hire independent counsel to represent the SoS because of a conflict of interest between SoS and AG. Link.
PurpleGirl
@shortstop: Sorry, they weren’t WPA vintage. The murals were painted by Judy Taylor in 2007, as a commission after responding to call for art from the Maine Arts Commission. See her web site. From her description of the panels being MDO board, it should have been possible to take them down without damage.
http://www.judytaylorstudio.com/mural1.html
Bulworth
All three.
shortstop
@shortstop: Not WPA. It wouldn’t kill me to do my homework before commenting.
Sentient Puddle
Hey, guess what! Now Michigan universities are getting FOIA’d by Republicans too!
Scott P.
Emancipation, women’s right to vote, anti-trust legislation, food safety laws, child labor restrictions, 8 hour workday — don’t knock our accomplishments before 1933. It’s been a long, hard effort, but we’ve been working at it.
Failure, Inc.
@Redshift: I would go for something along the lines of “guy in a hardhat, nude, with kneepads on”, except I think the Village People already got that one for an album cover.
shortstop
I think Nicole’s good list needs a D: confident that tribalism trumps all for these idjits. At this point, voter suppression efforts are really just additional safeguards; the willingness to self-immolate to stick it to liberals will do all the heavy lifting.
lllphd
@Omnes Omnibus:
ah, right. hm. none of it will ever make any sense, but hopefully sumi smacks these guys down.
ricky
I don’t know about anyone else, but the thought of not having a meeting room named after Cesar Chavez in a government building in Maine keeps me figting the good fight in all things class warish. And that fact that its removal gives one tormented soul peace of mind, increased self esteem and a sense of accomplishing a governmental purpose helps the overall human development of the planet.
Redshift
@bemused:
I’d think so too, except that the teabagger-in-chief and his minions would never get their hands dirty doing manual labor, and I doubt the actual workers doing the removal have the same sentiments.
shortstop
@Redshift: Good point, but a team of very white and very angry and very young and very unlabory LePage office staffers was probably assigned to this job.
justanotherjones
@shortstop:
They looked more modern to me than WPA, although the style was similar. But I’d like to know for sure.
I’m wondering if LePutz has the authority to just remove public art. Doesn’t it belong to the public?
Bullsmith
Apparently the ACLU is putting out tweets from the hearing in Wis this morning. Found a link in a recc’d diary at the Great Orange Satan.
http://twitter.com/ACLUMadison#
Omnes Omnibus
@shortstop: Almost? I would say that is exactly it.
Dave
@shortstop: Either that or he hired more of his relatives to do it.
justanotherjones
OK, the murals were created in 2008 with a $60K federal grant.
lllphd
@Yevgraf (fka Michael):
one would think. except the white collars tend to be their base, so that doesn’t fit with the agenda.
the agenda appearing to be destroy whoever votes dem. simple.
i’m particularly appalled with the brazen way they’re going after the black voters by trying to paint pro-choice as an intention to abort black babies! very similar to using black voters to go after gays. see the pattern?
what i’d like to see is a bunch of black dems to put out some way hip ads that attack this nonsense directly, for instance, sayin’ we ANGRY BLACK LADIES can think for ourselves and make our own decisions about our own bodies, thank u very much.
shortstop
@Omnes Omnibus: Was weak joke.
justanotherjones
@justanotherjones:
EDIT: Sorry about the link to The Blaze, I didn’t realize what it was. The comments should be entertaining, though.
kdaug
@Yevgraf (fka Michael): Ding. Line’s $400M.
To quote Carlin(RIP): “There’s a club. And you ain’t in it.“
shortstop
@lllphd: Not that you’re wrong in any way about their nasty little divide-and-conquer intentions, but the “Abortion is black genocide!” stuff is at least a couple of decades old and comes around cyclically. This latest round is especially noisome, though.
lllphd
@shortstop:
i believe the mural was installed in the last five years or so. very recent. but still, great art.
and totally expensive to dismantle and store. so much for watching the bucks for the budget!
Chyron HR
@ricky:
I don’t know about anybody else, but when I hear that Republican legislators think their highest priority is waging war on César Chávez, the first thing I think is “HAW LOOKIT DA STOOPID LIBZ”.
ed drone
The murals are in storage, I heard somewhere yesterday. No one said they were ripped from the walls (not that they wouldn’t have, but people were watching, so there is a limit to what they can do in that regard).
Ed
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
I’m in Texas, where the only thing unions have ever done was cause everyone to wonder where Jimmy Hoffa’s body is. Unions have never done anything useful, so most of the people around here, if they knew what was going on in Michigan and Wisconsin, would be cheering.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@jayjaybear:
I don’t think we will ever again experience the sort of economic expansion this nation enjoyed during the height of our Keynesian spending on WW2 and in the first decade of the post-war period when most of the manufacturing capacity of our industrial competitors was still being rebuilt from bombed out rubble, and at a time when many highly educated people from war torn Europe and Asia had recently migrated to the US, providing us with an immediate boost to our domestic R & D without the long investment in our own educational system which otherwise would have been needed to create that intellectual capital.
Labor is going to have to take back its fair share of our national productivity from Capital without the tailwind of an expanding manufacturing economy, and that makes the task much harder than it was back in the 1940s and 1950s.
Master of Karate and Friendship
Wow, I wonder what it’s like to support someone who poses as a friend of the working man, but really isn’t.
Sen. Sanders Blasts GE’s Immelt on Jobs. . . This time it comes from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who put out a statement saying he hopes the administration’s appointment of Immelt to replace former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker as head of an outside White House economic advisory panel means Immelt “has reformed his thinking.” Specifically, the Vermont independent says in a statement that the GE chief executive has been outspoken about job growth, “not in the United States but in China.” The Senator notes in his statement that GE has been steadily moving its manufacturing plants overseas.
One thing’s for sure, though: those Republicans sure are dupes!
Bowing to growing budget concerns and months of Republican political pressure on federal pay and benefits, President Obama today announced he would stop pay increases for most of the two million people who work for the federal government.
lllphd
@ricky:
yeah, what an inspiration. in fact, almost as incongruous is a statue of chavez in TX! but, as it happens, there is one in austin. just a beautiful project, truly amazing. (somewhere there’s a video of the unveiling which is very moving, all these hispanic kids shedding tears that one of their own finally gets deserved attention.)
(warning, name dropping here. the sculptor is pablo eduardo, a remarkable artist in these parts; doing a little modeling for him of late.)
justanotherjones
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
Are you saying that ironically, as in that’s what most Texans think? Or do you believe that yourself?
Odie Hugh Manatee
I hate to say it but things just aren’t bad enough for most Americans to care much more than to pay lip service to their own concerns. People still have roofs over their heads, food on the table, a computer, the internet and American Idol. Sure, people know that things are bad but they really don’t care enough about it to find out why that’s the case. They need more pain to get their attention and the Republicans are just the ones to bring the pain to them.
Problem is that if these preoccupied Americans have to quit their distractions then they will probably respond like spoiled, petulant children, meaning that the results may not be what will be needed to turn things around.
We like our scapegoats, especially if they are brown-skinned or ‘not one of us’.
PurpleGirl
@ed drone: Ten to one, the murals were taken down by evil state workers, who maybe liked the murals and took them down carefully. I don’t imagine the governor would dirty his hands doing MANUAL work, do you?
lllphd
@justanotherjones:
wow; excellent point! amazing how quickly it was removed. you’d think someone, even the artist, would have taken some form of legal action already.
but, don’t know the ME guv’s power limits. and i daresay, neither does leputz (like that one).
Villago Delenda Est
@dmsilev:
This is the sort of mindset that eventually leads to tumbrel manifests being drawn up, and the cloaking device on the “violence inherent in the system” coming off.
The Rethugs are backing this society into a corner where desperate measures will come to be seen as a viable way to address the situation.
This will not end well.
Zifnab
@justanotherjones:
Texas is a right-to-work state. So unions are basically useless. They can’t contract or collectively bargain in any court-enforceable way and participation is purely optional.
We have a “Teacher’s Union” in the state, but it’s more like a glorified PTA. Beyond that, I don’t know of anything remotely resembling a union.
On top of that, we have a large number of illegal or quasi-legal workers from across the border. Unionizing citizens is hard enough. Unionizing people who can be deported on a whim or as fodder in a political muscle-flexing competition is damn near impossible.
So if people are completely clueless to the value and merit of unions in the state, its absolutely no surprise. Blue collar jobs are primarily Hispanic. City and other public jobs are primarily African American. Engineering, medical, and finance jobs are primarily White. The white people don’t think they need unions, because they get paid very comfortably. And neither hispanics nor blacks have the political capital to rally labor. Anti-unionism is an outgrowth of racism and classism. It’s all cut from the same cloth.
evinfuilt
Please let this be enough overreach, I’m afraid its not. I fear that in the next election another bunch of republicans will get voted in just like this set, all from people who will say “these Republicans are different and would never do that here.”
4 more years, its not just a mantra for more Obama, its a mantra that I hope we survive the next 4 years, because I swear it will take that long for the rest of the nation to realize Galt loving rethuglicans aren’t good for them.
If we can just survive 4 more years of these suicidal republican governors, this country can have a chance.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Villago Delenda Est:
Sadly, I suspect you are correct on the ending. And that exactly what the extremists are doing, painting our society into a corner. Their strategy of divide and conquer is causing such deep rifts that, well, it will not end well, as you noted. Sigh.
bemused
I am eagerly waiting to see what LaPage puts on the walls to ‘honor’ business. Scaled down tasteful highway billboards or stadium advertising or perhaps he could use federal or state funding to commission businesses to create some lovely company murals. If LaPage had the courage of his bidness convictions that is what he should do. I’m betting he will wimp out and put up photos of Maine scenery or past conservative legislators.
p.a.
Welfare Queens! Illegals! NonProductive Members of Society!
You are now at 30% of the electorate. Add the 10% who benefit from he destruction of the middle class, and the 12% who think they do, and our “most casual observer” is now in the minority getting steamrollered.
lllphd
@shortstop:
yeah, very noisome; some of the billboards – especially the one with obama’s face in ‘fairy’ art mode – are loathesome.
arguingwithsignposts
@Zifnab: as the stepchild of a union electrician in Texas, the union did a lot of good where they could in the petrochem industry. and they even struck at times. wages were good when the plants were there, before they discovered they could fire everybody and hire contractors to hire the union labor for half the price.
There are no “Right to Work” states. There are Right to Get F’d states.
lllphd
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
um. all those hispanic workers in TX?? you don’t think chavez helped those folks with his unions?
go to the UofT in austin and check out the gorgeous statue of chavez there. pretty awesome.
beltane
@Villago Delenda Est: You raise an important point. Once the concept of Rule of Law is discarded all things become possible. Without rule of law, what is to stop the have-nots from one day demanding that their overlords go Galt at gunpoint? The day will come when all their propagandizing will come to naught, because the Republicans have forgotten the simple lesson that was learned thousands of years ago in the first city-states of Mesopotamia: a hungry populace will not be appeased by lies alone. It’s bread and circuses, not scapegoating and circuses.
It is also important to note that virtually all successful left-wing revolutionaries were children of the upper-middle class who felt themselves or their families thwarted in some way by the ruling class. Squeezing the middle class is therefore likely to produce some unintended consequences in the long-term.
Failure, Inc.
@Master of Karate and Friendship: Awesome. When Republicans aren’t kneecapping labor the President steps up helpfully to the plate.
Berial
I’m firmly of the belief that conservatives believe the following no matter what happens:
1) Republicans always lower taxes. Democrats always raise them.
2) Lower taxes or higher taxes don’t matter to government spending because things will always be ‘the way they are’.
3) Republicans get rid of government ‘waste’ by eliminating government jobs that really weren’t needed anyway. Besides its not like government employees are real working people anyway (like me). <–This is even believed by conservative government employees, the rule just doesn't apply directly to them.
4) Unions are made up of lazy, greedy, almost unemployable slobs that should just shut up and do their jobs instead of causing cars to cost more because corporations have to pay them more.
Nothing, NO-THING, will convince them that the above isn't true. Always.
If you try to prove any of the above untrue or question some of the beliefs you are a obviously a Democrat party saboteur, and can safely be ignored. Therefor only Fox is ever 'telling the truth'.
lllphd
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
thinking on your comment further, it seems clear the white noise machine got to you, if you believe unions never did anything in TX.
from wiki:
shortstop
@lllphd: Yes, but contrary to Republicans’ oft-demonstrated belief, black people, in this case black women, are not suggestible fools who are unable to detect when they’re being hamhandedly exploited.
The number of women who’ve fallen for this one through the years can probably be counted on one hand. The GOP’s inability to figure this out simply leads to more wasted time, effort and money on their part, in addition to increasing the black community’s contempt for them.
Baron Jrod of Keeblershire
@bemused: I’m thinking a nice mural of the Ludlow Massacre would be appropriate. The National Guard shooting up a camp of union strikers and burning children to death at the behest of big business would do a good job of demonstrating the cooperative spirit of labor and business.
Sly
This is perfectly in keeping with the report Boehner circulated last week, though it generated little buzz (economics is for nerds!):
I’ll just let that sink in.
lllphd
@shortstop:
i’d love to believe you’re right in this assessment, but i’d prefer to see some numbers. the only reason i say that is that the numbers on the black approval of gay marriage were pretty high; this is the group the mormons really courted for prop 8 in CA last year.
so on some level, something worked with that. but the gay thing can get connected to the bible, which i suppose one could do with the abortion issue, as well.
bottom line, tho, is that there is just no low to which the repugs will not stoop. and then out-stoop themselves.
Howlin Wolfe
@lllphd: lepage actually removed the mural over the weekend; nice. i saw where his comment was something like “get over it.”
Sort of like the Taliban in Afghanistan when it destroyed the Buddhist statuary.
lllphd
@Bullsmith:
wow!! thanks so much for this!!
it’s totally awesome; everyone should check out the aclu twitter feed bullsmith linked us up with.
(up with which bullsmith linked us?)
lllphd
@Howlin Wolfe:
yeah, but i have to say, as lovely as the mural is (was?), the antiquity and craftsmanship of the buddha statues were stunning. that was the moment “taliban” became a symbol for fundamentalist insanity for me.
shortstop
@lllphd: Apples and oranges for several reasons, one of which is the propensity of many human beings to tell other human beings how to run their sex lives while claiming sexual and reproductive freedom for themselves; another is the fact that black evangelical churches have never been strongly anti-abortion in the main.
If you want numbers, the ones to look for are whether there were measurable decreases in black abortions tied to each iteration of this “genocide” campaign by anti-choicers. So far as I know, the answer is a resounding “no.” Let me know if you find out differently; until then, I’m going to assume this latest attack will have as little effect as previous attempts.
lllphd
@shortstop:
sorry; missing the apples/oranges disconnect on the first point (seems what you say applies to both gays and abortion, so not apples/oranges?); got it on the second.
assuming that’s true; i’ve never heard anywhere that black women held back on abortions, especially tied to these ad campaigns.
Ash Can
@lllphd: I’m not signed up on Twitter, so it let me refresh only a couple of times before it cut me off. I don’t have the time or inclination to jump through any Twitter hoops right now, so if anything good shows up on the feed, would you be so kind as to pass it along here? Many thanks.
ed drone
@PurpleGirl:
Oh, the governor has dirtied his hands, but not through actual labor, you can be sure. And the state workers who removed the panels surely treated them with care — they are public property, after all.
Ed
patrick II
I am going to be sure to vote republican again because of their strategy of lowering labor costs is the key to increasing economic vitality. So I will support union destruction, financial theft, and loss of manufacturing jobs, so that as soon as my salary spirals down to zero the economy will be infinitely healthy and we’ll all be rich.
The logic is irrefutable.
Perfect Tommy
Watching the pro-labor mural come down in Maine reminded me of the first time I heard of the Taliban, when they dynamited the ancient Buddhas of Bamiyan.
That will teach me reload and read before I post : )
bemused
@Baron Jrod of Keeblershire:
Ha, just a tad extreme but I have no doubt that LaPage and his fans would love it although secretly. They are too chickenshit to be totally open about how they really think.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@justanotherjones: Being ironic. I’ve had people complain about how unions are ruining everything and then in the same breath talk about going on vacation and being able to earn vacation time while they are on the beach.
(sorry I couldn’t answer quickly, had to go to a meeting.)
Southern Beale
mistermix:
That was no attempt. Mission fucking accomplished. Over the weekend, no less. Chickenshit.
Jamie
When will our liberal media realize that these Governors aren’t our parent’s conservatives?
tkogrumpy
@bemused: I’m sorry to say, you are wrong about that. the management thug Lepage says exactly what he thinks. That is why he is so popular. Every one loves to punch hippies.
bemused
@tkogrumpy:
Not totally honest. He hasn’t openly said he’s in favor of liberals being murdered, at least not yet.
Jim Pharo
Why won’t icky unemployed people just go away? They’re ruining everything!
rikryah
they are rotten, evil mofos, through and through.
mds
Great. Combine that with government shutdowns because Democrats refused to balance the budget**, and the by-no-means certain effort to get seniors a COLAish Social Security increase that will still be more than eaten up by Medicare premium increases (which is of course the fault of the ACA**), and 2012 should be awesome.
**Yes, I am being sarcastic.
lllphd
@Ash Can:
i’m so not on twitter either, but have been able to follow this without trouble on my laptop (you might be on a cell?).
at any rate, just quickly, the main things so far are that the repugs’ request to withdraw their suit was denied (no do-overs), and the sos is requesting an independent lawyer b/c – sooprise sooprise – the doj’s lawyers are not representing him well. sumi sympathizes; says he should have a new one at state expense, so one is brought in. at one point, the doj said the gov should appoint independent counsel. lol; wonder if that got an open laugh in court.
all i got. i’m actually having to shut off wireless in order to get work done. but you should go to that link when you can do it later from a laptop and just follow it thru; interesting blow X blow.
ciao.
lllphd
@Ash Can:
also, you can go here for some good coverage at kos. though i’m quite sure there will be plenty of places to find the skinny.
Ash Can
Many thanks! And no, I’m not on a cell, I’m on a laptop too. Just lucky, I guess.
Wolfdaughter
@Nicole:
How about all of the above?
lllphd
@Omnes Omnibus:
you’re likely done here, but wondered, if you wander back ’round, if you can tell me why the DA put barca as a defendant on the lawsuit? because he was present at the committee meeting? i don’t quite get that. and it appears he’s not asking to be removed? what is that about?
clearly confused.
Omnes Omnibus
@lllphd: I am not sure of that myself. I only have what I got from the ACLU tweets to go on, so I am a bit factually depreived (not to say that the ACLU people did not do a good job; they did).
lllphd
@Omnes Omnibus:
oh wow!! you’re so nice to reply; thanks!
yeah, agreed, aclu did a great job. but barca as a defendent was something that i could not get my head around at all, tho, and for a while was concerned i was getting all the various players confused. but once that tape played, i remembered him just as i’d thought, the brave guy who stood up in that committee meeting and told them they were breaking the law.
it was a sight to behold; inspiring.
hope we find this piece out soon. thx again.
lllphd
@Omnes Omnibus:
fyi, found this on the madison newspaper site:
and later it said barca was “added” to the lawsuit last week. does ozanne want to keep this squeaky clean on the committee’s make-up, etc.? would dropping barca look partisan?
curious; but then, the whole thing is just whacky.
lllphd
good round up at tpm on today’s WI hearing:
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/03/judge-blocks-wisconsin-anti-union-law-again.php?ref=fpblg
and i’m done.
Ruckus
@Nicole:
D) all of the above.
Wolfdaughter
@Sentient Puddle:
Talk about witch hunts combined with needle-in-a-haystack. An obvious attempt to interfere with free speech rights of professors.
If the UofM isn’t able to get this FOIA declared void, I hope the University charges them bigtime for the documents, pointing out simultaneously that for people who claim to want to make things more efficient, this is an egregious waste of time!