Democracy Replaces Mobs At Madison Capitol Andy Breitbart Speaks Reality

Democracy Replaces Mobs at Madison    This article is from PowerLine.

Thousands of demonstrators are rallying at the Wisconsin Capitol this afternoon in support of democracy, fiscal sanity, fairness, Governor Scott Walker and the Republican legislators who will begin reining in the bloated power of the public employee unions, as soon as the Democrats come out of hiding. Here, Herman Cain addresses the demonstrators:

More to come.

UPDATE: These photos were sent in by a reader. I like this sign; click to enlarge:

More good signs; this one conveys some sense of the size of the crowd. One emailer writes that pro-union demonstrators surrounded the Capitol “and were walking in a moving cordon attempting to prevent anyone from entering or leaving the area.” Nevertheless, a lot of people turned out to support Governor Walker and Republican legislators:

Nevertheless, a lot of people turned out to support Governor Walker and Republican legislators:

Andrew Breitbart addresses the crowd

Click here for his speech:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5t49OQxIri4&feature=player_embedded

Most “Labor” Unions ARE Corrupt and Always Have Been: NOW IS THE TIME TO CLEAN THEM UP!

Unions had better get used to concessions

 by Ed Morrissey

A couple of union-busting pundits put pen to paper to tell the public-sector unions in Wisconsin — and everywhere — that the days of wine and roses ended long ago.  In a time of fiscal crisis at the federal, state, and local level, the public cannot be expected to float Cadillac pensions and benefit plans, nor to have public policy and governance to be held hostage to union bosses.   Unions have become the antithesis of democracy in Wisconsin, says … Time Magazine’s Joe Klein?

Revolutions everywhere–in the middle east, in the middle west. But there is a difference: in the middle east, the protesters are marching for democracy; in the middle west, they’re protesting against it. I mean, Isn’t it, well, a bit ironic that the protesters in Madison, blocking the state senate chamber, are chanting “Freedom, Democracy, Union” while trying to prevent a vote? Isn’t it ironic that the Democratic Senators have fled the democratic process? Isn’t it interesting that some of those who–rightly–protest the assorted Republican efforts to stymie majority rule in the U.S. Senate are celebrating the Democratic efforts to stymie the same in  the Wisconsin Senate?

An election was held in Wisconsin last November. The Republicans won. In a democracy, there are consequences to elections and no one, not even the public employees unions, are exempt from that. There are no guarantees that labor contracts, including contracts governing the most basic rights of unions, can’t be renegotiated, or terminated for that matter. We hold elections to decide those basic parameters.

Klein calls the demonstrations in Madison “the hemlock revolution,” and says that the unions want to continue an ‘egregious” imbalance in public policy:

But we’ve had far too many state legislatures, of both parties, that have been cowed by the political power of the unions and enacted contracts that force state and city governments to be run for the benefit of their employees, rather than for their citizens. This situation is most egregious in far too many school districts across the nation.

However, at CNN, reliable liberal commentator Roland Martin backs the union play 100%.  Right?  Er …

The feud between Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and that state’s employees has all of a sudden become ground zero in the battle between efforts by the GOP to shut down unions as they exist, and those same union workers desperate to hold on to long-fought-for wages and benefits.

This pitched battle is clearly a precursor to the 2012 elections, but it is also the latest shot across the bow of union purists who are relentless in waging a war against government and business for the benefit of their members. …

Walker wants public employees in Wisconsin to pay more for health care benefits and to contribute to their pension plans. Frankly, those are reasonable requests.

Just a few weeks ago, unions called those requests “slavery.”  Now they want to concede those points in order to avoid a bigger issue:

Where he has largely run into trouble is the effort to end the collective bargaining rights of the various public employees.

That’s inaccurate.  What Walker and the GOP have proposed in the bill is to require all public-sector unions (except police and firefighters) to conduct annual recertification votes, to limit collective bargaining to wages only — not policy and work environment issues — and to end the “closed shop” in the government sector.  Union dues would become voluntary, and the unions will have to collect them rather than have the state do it for them.  Government employees would still have the right to collectively bargain salaries, and could still choose a union to represent them.  Walker’s proposal would set those terms statewide so that each local jurisdiction would operate from the same rules, allowing them more flexibility to trim costs and bring more efficiency to the public sector.

Martin says this comes down to “basic economics” and that unions face a rather stark choice:

No one likes to lose benefits. We all want what was promised years ago. However, it is simply not going to happen. As long as these budget deficits are staring taxpayers in the eye, unions are putting themselves in a difficult situation by thinking they will not have to give something back.

Otherwise, union workers will end up like the police and firefighters in Camden, N.J.; playing hardball, only to see a mayor slash their jobs and leave half of the cops with no jobs, no health care and limited future choices.

These budgets will get cut one way or the other.  Either unions can get on board and protect their membership as much as possible in the transition, or they can lose big chunks of their membership — and still lose the overall battle.  When Roland Martin and Joe Klein admit the obvious, the unions are in a very lonely place indeed.”

Comment:  Read the title of this article again.  We don’t know that statement to be true……yet.   Someone has to have courage to do WHAT IS RIGHT AND GOOD FOR AMERICA.   For once in a quarter century someone has to come up with courage as did Ronald Reagan in the Air Trafficers crisis.

At this time in American history,  these teachers who are  AWOL from their schools, should be given a directive by the Superintendent of Schools of each district with School Board directives…..That by such and such a date, (such as day after tomorrow) you will be at your station or you are fired!   In addition every teacher who was not in  classrooms this past week must provide a medical statement by a  licensed physician to give reason for their absence.   If they will not, their contract will be terminated.   Or the school boards may decide to dock them for their absence, depending on their degree of leniency.  Those teachers who brought their students with them joining  the mob at the Wisconsin state capitol, should also suffer temporary suspensions or lose their tenure for a year.

Labor unions are usually ripe with fraud.   If any teacher is caught using one of these phony medical forms passed out by these corrupt public employee unions, the teacher as well as the union should be sued for fraud.

Either anarchy or civilization wins in battle such as these.   THIS IS THE TIME FOR COURAGEOUS ACTION.

Wisconsin Madness: Fire the Teachers Who Are AWOL

The following  article was written by Phil Boehmke at Pajamas Media, published at HotAir:

Yesterday a good friend who lives in southeastern Wisconsin sent me an email telling me how embarrassed she is to be from Wisconsin. The recent protests and the pathetic escape of the Senate Democrats to the nearby People’s Republic of Illinois have both angered and shamed my friend Margaret. She simply cannot believe that while she and her neighbors have been financially crippled over the past two years, these supposed public servants continue to grow fat while feeling no ill effects of the Obama recession. No longer basking in the glow of the Green Bay Packers Super Bowl victory, my friends on the other side of the border are positively beside themselves at the insane behavior of their public servants.

Another friend could only shake his head in disbelief. He wondered why Governor Walker’s “budget repair bill” has triggered so many clearly un-civil protests in the state capitol. As an accountant he understands that the Wisconsin Constitution requires a balanced budget and that union concessions would prevent massive layoffs. With the economy in shambles, isn’t it better to make a few concessions than sacrifice several thousand jobs? “It just kills me that we are expected to make so many sacrifices to pay for these people who don’t care one bit about us,” he added.

This morning I spoke with a co-worker named Jason who hails from the Dairy State. He said that “Walker should do like Reagan did with the air traffic controllers and fire their a**es!” His anger was focused on the Madison and Milwaukee public school teachers who called in sick to attend the protests at the capitol which caused the cancellation of classes in their districts. Wisconsin’s public school teachers are well compensated and receive lavish health and retirement packages that far outpace what similarly educated citizens could earn in the highly competitive private sector, a point not lost on Jason, who struggles to make do on half that amount while buckling under the weight of an oppressive property tax bill.

The general consensus among those people I spoke with is that they fully support Scott Walker and the Republican legislature and they appreciate their willingness to stand up to the public sector unions and endure the rhetoric and angry crowds that have assembled in Madison. To a person, there was no sympathy for the public school teachers who they regard as overpaid and unproductive. Unlike Mr. Obama, who is not familiar with the proposed legislation, the Wisconsin residents whom I talked with know that the proposed “budget repair bill” does not affect either police or firefighters, nor do they bear any animosity towards those public servants.

The appearance of AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and fellow agitator Jesse Jackson in Madison on Friday merely served to prove to my friends and co-workers that Governor Walker and the Republican leadership were doing the right thing for the state and its overburdened taxpayers. My friend Bruce said: “If Rev. Jackson and that union thug Trumka are going to fire up the crowd, they must be scared.” Jason added: “Jack-ass Jesse Jackson? That proves we’re right. I just hope Walker doesn’t cave.”

There has been talk of veiled threats against Governor Walker, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, and other members of the Republican leadership. This has elicited a strong sense of outrage in the wake of Mr. Obama’s post-Tucson call for civility. Signs depicting Scott Walker as Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and the recently deposed Egyptian President Mubarak were prominently on display during the protests as the angry mob paid no attention to President Obama’s political dictate. Perhaps Mr. Obama’s quick embrace of the union mob in Madison suggested that civil discourse is not meant to apply to movements which are given the White House seal of approval.

My friend Rodney who is a fellow Tea Partier from Kenosha was outraged that Mr. Obama was sticking his nose into a Wisconsin matter and said: “I heard OFA and the White House are sending bus loads of union thugs from all over the country to Madison for this ******* protest. That can’t be legal, can it?” All I could say is that if the U.S. Constitution and court orders can be ignored by the current administration, why would they be concerned with interfering in a Wisconsin budget issue any more than they were concerned about border security in Arizona?

The actions of the 14 Democrat members of Wisconsin’s Senate didn’t elicit any particular anger on the part of my friends and associates. It seems as though the antics of these elected buffoons merely added a bit of much needed comic relief to a tense situation. No one seems to think that the delay caused by the frantic flight of the 14 fools to Illinois was a matter for concern.

For my friends in Wisconsin I can offer a bit of comfort during these embarrassing days: no matter how bad things get, at least you don’t live in Illinois.

Phil Boehmke is a lifelong conservative and student of history and political science. He has a B.A. from Northeastern Illinois University.

House Republicans Pass Spending Cuts

House Republicans win spending cuts after

marathon funding debate

By Molly K. Hooper    at The Hill

In a rare Saturday morning session, the House voted to cut more than $60 billion in spending for the federal government for the remainder of the year.

At 4:40 a.m., lawmakers voted 235-189 to send the so-called continuing resolution to the Senate. Not one Democrat voted for the bill that would cut at least $61 billion, from 2010 levels, in spending for federal programs and agencies.

Three Republicans, Reps. John Campbell (R-Calif.), Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Walter Jones (R-N.C.), opposed the bill that would pay for government operations on March 4, when the current funding is set to expire.

For the past four days, lawmakers in the people’s house debated the stringent spending cuts, submitted by GOP House leaders who pledged to cut at least $100 billion in federal spending from the president’s 2011 budget request.

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) insisted on an “open process,” in which lawmakers were allowed to offer unlimited amendments to the base bill.

After whittling down more than 500 amendments submitted to the measure, the House voted on nearly 70 amendments and rejected just over 50.

On Friday, the House held a series of lightning-round votes on the scores of amendments – approving items that would defund the president’s healthcare law, portions of the Environmental Protection Agency, Planned Parenthood and other federal programs.

Following passage of the CR, Boehner issued a statement calling on Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) to schedule an immediate vote on the bill that the Speaker said contains “the largest spending cuts in American history.”

“For the good of our economy and our democracy, I call on Senate Majority Leader Reid to allow it to come to an immediate vote.

“Cutting federal spending is critical to reducing economic uncertainty, encouraging private-sector investment, and creating a better environment for job creation in our country,” Boehner said in a statement.

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) attacked the Republicans’ bill, which she contends will “destroy jobs.”

“Congressional Republicans have spent the last six weeks ignoring jobs and refusing to offer a plan to grow our economy. Today, they have made matters worse – passing a spending bill that destroys jobs, weakens the middle class, hurts schools and young adults, eliminates assistance to homeless veterans, and diminishes critical investments in our future,” Pelosi charged.

Congressional Republicans face an uphill climb to reach a compromise on a CR with a Democratic-controlled Senate and a presidential veto threat of the bill that the House approved on Saurday.

With little more than two weeks before the current continuing resolution expires, Congress will likely have to pass a stopgap spending bill to fund government operations while the House and Senate negotiate a deal on spending levels for the remaining seven months in the 2011 fiscal year.

Late Friday, House Democratic leaders introduced a temporary funding bill that would freeze current government levels until March 31 “to prevent any interruption in vital government services.”

As Democratic leaders submitted their temporary funding bill, Boehner, engaged in conversation with a gaggle of reporters, revealed that details of a stopgap measure acceptable to Republicans to avert government shutdown on March 4 will be ready “soon enough.”

Members of the House GOP’s majority-making freshman class of 87 lawmakers have indicated their opposition to even a short-term, two-week extension of funding at current levels. According to several frosh members, the class of 2010 believes they were sent to D.C. with a mandate to shrink the size of government and rein in spending.

Boehner said that he had not talked to the White House about the as-of-yet-unseen GOP stopgap measure.

Asked if he had discussions with Reid, Boehner wouldn’t say. Putting his hands up, Boehner shook his head: “Stop, stop, stop … I just came out here to say ‘hi’ and thanks for covering” the fourth long day of freewheeling debate that unfolded on the House floor over the GOP’s austere funding cuts.

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• Boehner: Stopgap measure details will be ready ‘soon enough’

Boehner’s revelation of a short-term measure came little more than one day after pundits seized on a comment he made that seemed to raise the specter of a government shutdown.

“I am not going to move any kind of short-term [resolution] at current levels,” he said at a press conference on Thursday, a statement that set up a potential standoff with Democrats that could end in a government shutdown.

On Friday, Boehner pushed back on talk of a government shutdown, however.

“The only people in this town rooting for a government shutdown are Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. There’s not one Republican talking about government shutdown. Our goal is to cut spending because it will lead to a better environment for job creation in America,” Boehner said.

The Senate won’t start work on the funding bill until after Congress returns from the Presidents Day recess, on Feb. 28 – only five days before current government funding is set to expire.

Boehner told reporters who followed the lengthy debate late Friday night that lawmakers were happy to remain in session, well after the intended Thursday recess target, to have a chance to debate on the House floor.

The Ohio lawmaker said that there was “a lot of pent-up demand” for open debate on the House floor, after years of restrictions placed on House members to offer amendments to legislation on the floor.

He added that the unprecedented debate on the floor over federal spending was the first of many battles to come in the next few months.

“It’s going to be fascinating here over the next few weeks and months as we work our way through this, but these are going to be the most important two, three, four months that we’ve seen in decades,” Boehner said.

Comment:   “A penny saved is a penny earned.”

Stop the Wisconsin Corruption: FIRE THE TEACHERS ON AWOL

Madison, WI] As tens of thousands of public employees skipped work this week to attend protest rallies outside the Wisconsin State Capitol, many wondered if they would face any disciplinary action for unexcused absences.

On Saturday, a group of men and women in lab coats purporting to be doctors were handing out medical excuse notes, without examining the ‘patients.’

“I asked this doctor what he was doing and he told me they were handing out excuses to people who were feeling sick due to emotional, mental or financial distress,” said Christian Hartsock. “They never performed an exam–he asked me how I was feeling today and I said I’m from California and I’m not used to the cold, so he handed me a note.”

Another woman, who wished to remain anonymous, said they were handing out excuses like they were leaflets.

“I asked if they were handing out doctors’ excuses and a guy said yes and asked me if I needed one,” she said. “When I told them I needed one for February 16 and 17th, he wondered if I wanted to come back here for the protests next week.”

What happened next?

“I said, ‘sure,’ and I received a doctor’s note for the 16th through the 25th of February, without a medical exam.”

The notes read

Feb 19, 2011

Patient’s name______

Date of birth ____/_____/_____

To Whom it May Concern:

This is confirm I have seen and evaluated the above named patient.

Please excuse from work/school due to a medical condition from

____/____/____ through

Please contact me at badgerdoctors@gmail.com if additional information is needed. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Physician  Signature:

Physician Name

WI license number

Based on an examination of the signature and medical license number provided, one of the men handing out these notes was purporting to be James H Shropshire MD, a  Clinical Associate Professor at the University Wisconsin Madison.

At this time, MacIver News Service is attempting to contact Dr. Shropshire to see if indeed he was the one handing out the notes on the Capitol Square.

20% Unemployment and the Depression You’ve Never Heard Of

President Obama has recently been trying to style himself as Reaganesque in order to fool Americans that he knows how to handle our economic woes.  Here is a lesson Obama would be wise to remember:  Reagan was a great admirer of Calvin Coolidge and he styled his approach to economics after Coolidge’s.  In fact when Ronald Reagan first moved in to the White House, one of his first actions was to move the portrait of President Coolidge to the main cabinet room so that it could hang next to those of the founding fathers.

The following is taken from the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation:

On March 4, 1921, President Woodrow Wilson relinquished the office of the presidency to Ohio Senator Warren G. Harding. The state of the union was poor. “With the exception of Lincoln, probably no president in our national history has taken office with as pressing a burden of unresolved questions.” Those were the words of the Nation of February 1921. The national economy was in the depths of a depression with an unemployment rate of 20% after a runaway inflation.

On April 12,1921, President Harding went before a contentious Congress and presented his program for economic recovery which he called “A Return to Normalcy”. Harding’s normalcy program consisted of the following measures.

1) A call for a national budget program (which was vetoed by his predecessor).
2) National debt reduction
3) Tax reduction
4) An emergency tariff to protect American industry and farm commodities.
5) Farm relief legislation (farm bankruptcies were up 20% from 1914).
6) Immigration restrictions to protect American jobs.

President Harding pushed hard for his program and got it passed by Congress in 1921. By late 1922, the economy began to turn around. Harding did not live to see it, but his normalcy program proved to be the foundation that Coolidge prosperity was built on. Harding’s successor, Calvin Coolidge had the wisdom to stay the course and build on Harding’s program. The American people were the beneficiaries of the unprecedented prosperity of the 1920′s. Unemployment was pared from its high in 1921 of 20% to an average of 3.3% for the remainder of the decade. The misery index which is a combination of unemployment and inflation had its sharpest decline in U.S. history under President Harding. The Gross National Product averaged 7% from 1924 to 1929. Wages, profits, and productivity all made substantial gains during the 1920′s. Harding slashed federal spending by two billion from Wilson’s last year and Coolidge maintained that spending level of 3.3 billion per year for the rest of the decade. The Harding-Coolidge tax cuts produced increased revenue that went to cut the national debt left by Wilson by one-third.

The 1920′s saw the tax burden of middle Americans decrease while most lower income Americans were relieved of their tax burden altogether. By 1930, their was a sharp increase in the number of Americans who could afford what were then middle class luxuries such as ranges, ice boxes, radios, vacuum cleaners and other household appliances. There was even an increase in the amount of time Americans found for recreation and entertainment.
The 1920′s saw the tax burden of middle Americans decrease while most lower income Americans were relieved of their tax burden altogether. By 1930, their was a sharp increase in the number of Americans who could afford what were then middle class luxuries such as ranges, ice boxes, radios, vacuum cleaners and other household appliances. There was even an increase in the amount of time Americans found for recreation and entertainment.

Many of our historical elite like to characterize the 1920′s as the decade of greed and Harding and Coolidge as symbols of greed. This is simply not the truth. During the 1920′s, neighbor still helped neighbor and charitable organizations still cared for the poorest of our lot. Few events more characterized the generosity of the American people than the joint private- government

The Orwellian “Newspeak” Dems Demanding “Obamacare” Is a Slur Word

No joke: House Dem objects to use of “ObamaCare” as a disparaging

term

 by Allahpundit              These Marxists prefer “Affordable Healthcare”  in Orwellian.

“Not the first time that this idiotic charge has been leveled, but it might be the first time that the idiocy has reached the floor of the House itself. To this day, I have yet to hear a coherent explanation of why “ObamaCare” is any more or less derogatory than “Bush tax cuts” or “Reaganomics.” Yes, granted, the term’s typically used by the law’s critics, but so what? “Reaganomics” has been used by liberals to try to draw a distinction between Reagan’s policies and sound economic theory, but the term itself is perfectly polite. “CrapCare” or “BoondoggleCare” or “We’llNeverPayForThisCare” would qualify as disparaging (and true!), but “ObamaCare”? If Debbie Wasserman-Schultz seriously finds that derogatory, it’s only because the law is now such a heavy albatross politically for the left that the mere act of reminding voters of its provenance feels like a low blow. Pathetic.”

Click on the video below as House Republicans Defund Obamacare or in Marxese, Affordable Healthcare.

http://hotair.com/archives/2011/02/18/no-joke-house-dem-objects-to-use-of-obamacare-as-a-disparaging-term/

See the Movie, “Iranium” Here!

 

View the film, Iranium, here: http://www.hulu.com/watch/213052/iranium

Democrat Lawmakers Flee From Republicans in Madison

Wisconsin governor: If the fugitive Dems don’t come back, I might have

to cut funding for their staffs; Update: Assembly forced to recess due to

threats

 by Allahpundit  at HotAir

“The protesters have every right to have their voices heard, but I’m not going to be intimidated into thinking I should ignore the voices of the five-and-a-half million taxpayers,” said Republican Gov. Scott Walker…

With no end to the standoff in sight, Gov. Walker said that if the Democratic senators do not return, he’d consider cutting the funding that pays for their staff.

“If they’re not here, it begs the question whether or not they need to have staff,” he said. “They’re not performing their functions.”

Someone e-mailed me the Wisconsin statute governing “misconduct in public office” earlier this afternoon. Hmmmmm:

946.12 Misconduct in public office. Any public officer or public employee who does any of the following is guilty of a Class I felony:

946.12(1)
(1) Intentionally fails or refuses to perform a known mandatory, nondiscretionary, ministerial duty of the officer’s or employee’s office or employment within the time or in the manner required by law; or

946.12(3)
(3) Whether by act of commission or omission, in the officer’s or employee’s capacity as such officer or employee exercises a discretionary power in a manner inconsistent with the duties of the officer’s or employee’s office or employment or the rights of others and with intent to obtain a dishonest advantage for the officer or employee or another;

The “dishonest advantage” in the last part refers, I assume, to lawmakers using information they’ve gleaned from government briefings for, say, insider trading. Section (1) is more promising, but it would raise the issue of what qualifies as a “mandatory” duty of a state legislator and whether there’s any time required by law. If you skip a legislative session because you’re on the trail fundraising or, say, because you’re attending some function for one of your kids elsewhere in the state, technically you might be in violation yet no one would regard that as misconduct. The state AG, in prosecuting them, would have to articulate an “obstruction” argument and hope that the courts are amenable. And even then, putting them on trial would be dicey politically.

Speaking of hardball, here’s what (almost) happened tonight in the lower chamber:

In the Assembly, Republican leaders had called lawmakers to the floor at 5 p.m. to take up Walker’s bill to repeal union bargaining rights for public workers. But they quickly began business just before that hour, when Democrats were not yet on the floor.

Democrats charged into the chamber and shouted to stop the action as Republican staff urged leaders to “keep going, keep going.” Republicans took the voice vote, putting the bill in a stage that prevented it from being amended in that house. Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) called the move an “illegal vote” and demanded that Republicans rescind it.

“Unbelievable!” Barca screamed. “Unprecedented! Un-American! Not in keeping with the values of the state! You should be ashamed of yourselves.”

Yes, it’s true, there really was a Wisconsin Democrat accusing Republicans of behaving in a shameful, unbelievable, unprecedented manner. The vote was later canceled, the GOP majority leader insisting that he thought Democrats had planned to walk out of this one too. Quote: “Democracy isn’t pretty all the time.”

Two minutes below from Walker talking about democracy tonight. He’s the new BMOC inside the GOP, as you might expect.

Update: The “what if conservatives did it?” line of attack can get old, but really — imagine the reaction if a tea party protest got so raucous that it forced a state legislature to shut down over security concerns. A surreal moment in modern U.S. political history:

Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald said he decided to adjourn the Assembly this evening because Gov. Scott Walker called minutes before lawmakers took the floor to tell him to get his caucus members and staff out of the building because their safety could no longer be assured…

The GOP Assembly leadership — Speaker Fitzgerald, Majority Leader Scott Suder and JFC Co-chair Robin Vos — have issued a statement reaffirming their commitment to pass the bill next week.

“The leadership of the Assembly has decided to recess due to security concerns. We will reconvene on Tuesday morning and are confident that the security concerns will no longer exist. We are committed as ever to pass Governor Walker’s Budget Repair Bill and will do so next week,” the statement reads. “Millions of taxpayers spoke in November and we will not let them down. We have a fiscal crisis that can’t be ignored. We have the votes to pass the bill; it is only a matter of time.”

Meanwhile, recall petitions are being launched against some of the fugitive Democrats. Thanks to Steve E. for both links.

“Is This How a President is Supposed to Act?” Matt Welch Asks

This article was found at RealClearPolitics.  Matt Welch is at Reason and writes:

The president’s political machine worked in close coordination Thursday with state and national union officials to mobilize thousands of protesters to gather in Madison and to plan similar demonstrations in other state capitals.

Their efforts began to spread, as thousands of labor supporters turned out for a hearing in Columbus, Ohio, to protest a measure from Gov. John Kasich (R) that would cut collective-bargaining rights.

By the end of the day, Democratic Party officials were working to organize additional demonstrations in Ohio and Indiana, where an effort is underway to trim benefits for public workers. Some union activists predicted similar protests in Missouri, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. [...]

The White House political operation, Organizing for America, got involved Monday, after Democratic National Committee Chairman Timothy M. Kaine, a former Virginia governor, spoke to union leaders in Madison, a party official said.

The group made phone calls, distributed messages via Twitter and Facebook, and sent e-mails to its state and national lists to try to build crowds for rallies Wednesday and Thursday, a party official said.

Just think–there once was a time (for more than a century, actually), when the president of the United States thought it too imperious to deliver the State of the Union via a speech to a joint session of Congress, since that would smack of telling a co-equal branch of government what to do. Now we have a president not just taking rhetorical sides in a state issue, but actively mobilizing his political organization to affect the outcome(s), even though (to my knowledge) nothing that Gov. Walker or any other belated statehouse cost-cutter is doing has a damned thing to do with federal law.

I have written in the past about how libertarians are pretty lonely in the political scheme of things in terms of constantly being challenged to defend themselves against the “logical conclusion” of their philosophy. But I think it’s time to amend that. We are witnessing the logical conclusion of the Democratic Party’s philosophy, and it is this: Your tax dollars exist to make public sector unions happy. When we run out of other people’s money to pay for those contracts and promises (most of which are negotiated outside of public view, often between union officials and the politicians that union officials helped elect), then we just need to raise taxes to cover a shortfall that is obviously Wall Street’s fault. Anyone who doesn’t agree is a bully, and might just bear an uncanny resemblance to Hitler.

The president’s heavy-handed involvement, along with House Republicans’ refusal to sign off on any new bailout of the states, means that this may very well be America’s biggest and most widespread political fight in 2011. It’s a cage match to determine first dibs on a shrinking pie. A clarifying moment.