Wisconsin Democrat Tea Party to Confront Republican Lawmakers

Police carry protesters out of Wisconsin capitol

 

 by Ed Morrissey

Earlier today, a debate erupted on Twitter about whether police in Madison would stand aside and let demonstrators overrun the capitol in sympathy with the public-employee unions that planned another massive protest after last night’s vote in the state Senate.  So far, it appears that police have instead acted professionally, as they have begun to clear the capitol building of protesters that broke in last night:

Demonstrators were carried out of the Assembly by police Thursday as a new standoff shaped up at the Capitol as Gov. Scott Walker’s administration has again closed the building to the public.

As protesters said they were willing to risk arrest to block an Assembly vote on Walker’s bill on union bargaining, police began escorting or dragging some of them out. There is still a sizable group inside, however.

“Shame! Shame! Shame!” demonstrators shouting.

Taylor Tengwall, 21, of Duluth, Minn., said, “They grabbed me by the shoulders and took me out.”

Law enforcement gave early indications that they would play it down the middle.  First they decided to keep the building closed instead of opening it on time.  When “hundreds” of demonstrators demanded that the police step aside, they held their positions instead. Shortly after that demand, Madison police shut down the roads around the capitol building to cut off traffic.

As I argued on Twitter earlier, the police in Wisconsin have signaled their sympathy to the unions, but have conducted themselves professionally during the three weeks of the crisis.  At least thus far, they continue to do so. The demonstrators have a right to assemble on the Capitol grounds and protest, and the police are going to allow that, but they appear ready to secure the building and allow the legislature to meet.

It’s a good thing, too, because death threats have begun pouring into the state capitol, aimed at Republicans. Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald released the text of one through spokesman Andrew Wellhouse that threatened to “assault” several elected Republican officials at their homes:

“We have received several more threats over the past few weeks as well, and protesters have actually gone so far as to go up to (Fitzgerald’s) house and bang on the windows at 6 a.m. demanding that he come out,” Welhouse said.

Tim Donovan, a spokesman for the Department of Administration and Capitol Police, had no immediate comment Thursday morning.

Here’s an excerpt of the email provided by Welhouse:

“This is how it’s going to happen: I as well as many others know where you and your family live, it’s a matter of public records. We have all planned to assault (sic) you by arriving at your house and putting a nice little bullet in your head. However, this isn’t enough. We also have decided that this may not be enough to send the message. So we have built several bombs that we have placed in various locations around the areas in which we know that you frequent…”

The Assembly convened late, as its Majority Leader Jeff Fitzgerald was asked by the Capitol Police to hold off until they could secure the chamber. According to the live feed, which cuts in and out, they came into session a short while ago.

Update: Actually, it appears that the Assembly still has not come into session.  Several Democratic lawmakers in orange T-shirts had been milling around, but the Republicans want to wait until the police secure the building.  They are still milling around as of now (12:15), but appear to be taking seats.

Hate Crime Increase Against Muslims is another Marxist-Democrat Lie

Democrat Party Progressive reporters progressing to Marxism have often printed that hate crimes are a real issue in America and in Western Europe.

What are the facts?

“New Study on Hate Crimes against Muslims Contradicts Claims of Islamophobia in America

Washington, DC, March 9, 2011 — The Center for Security Policy today released a groundbreaking longitudinal study, Religious Bias Crimes against Muslim, Jewish and Christian Victims: American Trends from 2000-2009, based on statistics reported by the FBI. The study contradicts the false assertions that hate crimes against Muslims have increased, and that the alleged cause is widespread “Islamophobia” in America. In fact, the study shows that hate crimes against Muslim Americans, measured by the categories of incidents, offenses or victims, have remained relatively low with a downward trend since 2001.

For example, in 2009, Jewish victims of hate crimes outnumbered Muslim victims by more than 8 to 1 (1,132 Jewish victims to 132 Muslim victims). From 2000 through 2009, for every one hate crime incident against a Muslim, there were six hate crime incidents against Jewish victims (1,580 Muslim incidents versus 9,692 Jewish incidents). Even in 2001, total anti-Muslim incidents, offenses and victims remained approximately half of the corresponding anti-Jewish totals.

The study provides hard data that disproves the counter-factual statements made by a small number of highly vocal Muslim lobbying groups, many linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as leftwing activists. Citing these false assumptions concerning America’s alleged “Islamophobia” and a supposed rising trend in hate crimes against Muslim Americans, these organizations have argued against the March 10, 2011 House Committee on Homeland Security hearings on Muslim American radicalization. The study shows that these arguments against the hearings are not based on facts, but rather on a political agenda.

Frank Gaffney, President of Center for Security Policy remarked:

This report is important because it exposes a false belief perpetuated by a few vocal groups that religious bias crimes against Muslims are on the upswing. The truth is quite the opposite. These arguments, unsubstantiated by hard factual data, are corrosive to community relationships at every level of American society, and a potential threat to national security.

The full text of the white paper, and accompanying excel tables and charts, can be found at www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org.

For more information and to schedule an interview, contact

Travis Korson tkorson@securefreedom.org (202)-719-2421 or
David Reaboi dreaboi@securefreedom.org (202) 431-1948

Below are some excerpts from the full report:

Religious Bias Crimes against Muslim, Jewish and Christian Victims: American Trends from 2000-2009

Clare M. Lopez, Roland Peer & Christine Brim

Introduction

Misperceptions about religious bias hate crimes in America are widespread. This study is a longitudinal comparison of religious bias hate crimes, as reported by the FBI, from the pre-9/11 year of 2000 through 2009, the most recent year for which statistics were available. The assertion that religious bias hate crimes against one group in particular, Muslims in America, have proliferated in the years since the attacks of September 11, 2001 has gained acceptance within media and government, thanks to a steady drumbeat of assertions to this effect from a small but vocal group of advocacy organizations.

Internationally, the most aggressive of these is the 57 member state Organization of the Islamic Conference, with its so-called “Islamophobia Observatory.” In the U.S., the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) have taken the lead in issuing claims that discrimination and religious bias hate crimes against Muslims are increasing. These organizations have also asserted that “Islamophobia” and statements critical of Islam, Shariah law, or political Islamist organizations such as the Muslim Brotherhood may be linked to the alleged rise in hate crimes. Alternatively, counterterrorism expert Steve Emerson has suggested “In advancing the notion that government policy has resulted in an undeserved backlash against ordinary Muslims, CAIR seeks to muster opposition to the anti-terror laws it finds objectionable.”

To inform this public debate about religious bias hate crimes in America, the Center for Security Policy analyzed data from 2000 through 2009 for three FBI-identified victim groups: Jews, Muslims, and Christians (a combined statistic for the purposes of this whitepaper, combining separate FBI data for Catholics and Protestants). The source of all the religion bias crimes information cited in the following report is the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program, which collects crime statistics on an annual basis and presents them online. Appendices B-T at the end of this report present those official FBI statistics in tables and charts showing the comparative incidence of religious hate crimes for Christians, Jews, and Muslims from 2000-2009.

The results may prove surprising to those who took CAIR or MPAC spokesmen at their word. For example, in 2009, in totals for a combined five categories of hate crime, from Simple Assault to Crimes Against Property, Jewish victims of hate crimes by religion outnumbered Muslim victims by more than 8 to 1 (1,132 Jewish victims to 132 Muslim victims). Nor is 2009 an anomalous year in terms of these numbers. Across the decade, from 2000 through 2009, Jewish victims of hate crimes by religion outnumbered their Christian and Muslim counterparts, with the exception of a nine-week period following the 9/11 terrorist acts for two categories of bias crimes: simple and aggravated assaults statistics. From 2000 through 2009, for every one hate crime incident against a Muslim, there were six hate crime incidents against Jewish victims (1,580 Muslim incidents versus 9,692 Jewish incidents).

The Center for Security Policy presents this study to inform the dialogue surrounding religious bias crimes in the U.S. and to provide a fact-based resource that analysts, researchers, and citizens can use for a reality check.”

Article from Gates of Vienna.

DNI Clapper Crowds President with another Stupidity… says Libyan Rebels will Lose!

Department of National Intelligence Chief  James Clapper has done it again….Not long ago he testified that the Muslim Brotherhood was a peaceful good civics neighborly type group.   Today he says:

Gadhafi likely to survive revolt, U.S. intelligence chief

says

By the CNN Wire Staff

//

National Intelligence Director James Clapper appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

NEW: U.S. sending “purely humanitarian” teams into eastern Libya

NEW: U.S. ambassador spoke with rebel military chief

Intelligence chief warns Gadhafi has the upper hand

Read a day-by-day account of the battle for control of key areas of Libya at http://www.cnn.com
/interactive/2011/03/world/libya.civil.war/index
.html. And for the latest on what’s next for Libya, the opposition and Moammar Gadhafi, tune in to “AC360º” at 10 p.m. ET Thursday on CNN.

Washington (CNN) — The United States plans to send “purely humanitarian” disaster relief teams into eastern Libya, where rebels battling longtime strongman Moammar Gadhafi may be losing ground in that country’s civil war, top U.S. officials said Thursday.

White House National Security Adviser Thomas Donilon told reporters that the U.S. Agency for International Development teams will be sent into monitor the delivery of humanitarian aid and should not be viewed as a military operation.

“It can in no way shape or form be seen as military intervention,” Donlion said. The teams will assess that humanitarian aid is being delivered, he said, adding, “This is purely humanitarian to better assist in a humanitarian way the people of Libya.”

Donilon’s announcement came as officials in Washington, Europe and the Middle East are debating whether to aid rebel forces, who have been battling to topple Gadhafi since mid-February. But in a blunt assessment to Congress, National Intelligence Director James Clapper said Gadhafi’s advantage in military force makes him likely to survive the revolt.

RELATED TOPICS

• // Libya
• // Moammar Gadhafi
• // James R. Clapper

Clapper told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the rebels are “in for a tough row” against Gadhafi, who still commands warplanes, an air-defense network and loyal army brigades against the opposition forces. He cautioned that the situation is “very fluid,” but added, “I think, longer term, the regime will prevail.”

“I do believe Gadhafi is in this for the long haul,” Clapper said. “I don’t think he has any intention, despite some of the press speculation to the contrary, of leaving. From all evidence that we have — which I’d be prepared to discuss in closed session — he appears to be hunkering down for the duration.”

The comment led to a call for Clapper’s firing by a member of the committee, South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham. In a statement issued after the hearing, Graham said the remarks were “not helpful to our national security interests.”

But Clapper’s assessment was backed up by Lt. Gen. Ronald Burgess, the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Burgess told senators that Gadhafi “seems to have staying power, unless some other dynamic changes at this time.”

At NATO headquarters in Belgium, meanwhile, Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Thursday the allies are moving to beef up their naval presence off Libya to provide better surveillance and have discussed “initial options” for imposing a no-fly zone over the country in the event the U.N. Security Council approves one.

But Clapper warned that the Libyan network of radar and anti-aircraft batteries is “quite substantial,” though some of the equipment has fallen into rebel hands. Libyan forces also have a large number of shoulder-fired missiles, “And, of course, there’s great concern there about them falling into the wrong hands.”

The Obama administration has called on Gadhafi, who took power in a 1969 coup, to step down. France recognized the newly created Libyan opposition movement as the sole representative of the country on Thursday. And Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a House committee that Washington is “suspending” its ties to the Libyan Embassy and reaching out to opposition leaders “inside and outside of Libya.”

The move effectively orders the embassy to close, though it stops short of breaking U.S.-Libyan diplomatic relations, a senior administration official told CNN.

“This is recognition that Gadhafi is no longer the legitimate leader of Libya, and therefore his representatives should leave,” said the official, who was not authorized to speak on the record. Libyan Ambassador Ali Aujali abandoned Gadhafi last month, and the United States has not recognized his replacement, the official said.

Aujali met Thursday with Clinton, telling reporters afterward that they discussed whether the United States should recognize the Libyan rebels — a move he said would “give us room to move, and to act, and to explain our views and to be received by different countries and different officials.”

U.S. recognition is “very, very important,” he said adding that Washington “needs “to stop Gadhafi and his family from killing our people.”

Clinton plans to meet with some of those figures during a visit to Tunisia and Egypt next week, she told the House Appropriations Committee. And at the White House, spokesman Jay Carney said the United Strates is still assessing opposition group “to find out what their vision is, who they represent, what their ideas are and where they would take Libya in a post-Gadhafi future.”

The U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Gene Cretz, apparently spoke to the head of the opposition’s military council sometime after the revolt began, according to a recorded conversation played on Libyan state television Thursday. An opposition spokesman, Khaled Alsayeh, told CNN the call was intended to lay the groundwork for future communications, but the caller — identified as Gen. Omar Hariri — hung up before Cretz asked what equipment or support the rebels needed.

A U.S. official, who would not talk on the record because of the sensitivity of the issue, confirmed the authenticity of the call to CNN, but there was no indication when it was recorded. The State Department shuttered its embassy in Tripoli and evacuated U.S. diplomats in late February.”

Comment:  According to the current guess work, Clapper’s job will soon be without James Clapper.

What the Left Prints That’s Fit to Print about Governor Walker……..

…………..because he did his job he was elected to do!!!

Lefty from Salon, Robert Reich…”Governor Walker’s Coup d’etat.”

This piece originally appeared at Robert Reich’s blog

“Governor Scott Walker and his Wisconsin senate Republicans have laid bare the motives for their coup d’etat. By severing the financial part of the bill (which couldn’t be passed without absent Democrats) from the part eliminating the collective bargaining rights of public employees (which could be), and then doing the latter, Wisconsin Republicans have made it crystal clear that their goal has had nothing whatever to do with the state budget. It’s been to bust the unions.

That’s no surprise to most people who have watched this conflict from the start, but like any coup its ultimate outcome will depend on the public. If most citizens of Wisconsin are now convinced that Walker and his cohorts are extremists willing to go to any lengths for their big-business patrons (including the billionaire Koch brothers), those citizens will recall enough Republican senators to right this wrong.

But it’s critically important at this stage that Walker’s opponents maintain the self-discipline they have shown until this critical point. Walker would like nothing better than disorder to break out in Madison. Like the leader of any coup d’etat, he wants to show the public his strong-arm methods are made necessary by adversaries whose behavior can be characterized on the media as even more extreme.

Be measured. Stay cool. Know that we are a nation of laws, and those laws will prevail. The People’s Party is growing across America — and the actions of Scott Walker and his Republican colleagues are giving it even greater momentum. So are the actions of congressional Republicans who are using the threat of a government shutdown to strong-arm their way in Washington.

The American public may be divided over many things but we stand united behind our democratic process and the rule of law. And we reject coups in whatever form they occur.”

Comment:  Robert Reich, former Labor Secretary, assures readers that “The Peoples’ Party” is just around the corner……a euphemism for the Marxist Party if readers are old enough to remember.

Marxist-Democrat “Tea Party” Gathers in Madison

Up-to-the-moment pictorials available here:

Jesse Jackson, Democrat Party Presidential Candidate and Riot Manager

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/03/10/jesse_jackson_in_wisconsin_were_going_to_escalate_the_protests.html

Michael Moore, Democrat Party Icon presents:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/03/09/michael_moore_reacts_to_wisconsin_union_vote_this_is_war.html

Rachel Maddow, MSNBC presents:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/03/09/protesters_descend_on_wisconsin_state_capitol_after_union_vote.html

Democrats’ Islamist Allies May Permit Women to Drive in Saudi World

Saudi prince questions ban on women driving

(“The Islamist protectors in America, the Leftwing of the Democrat Party have not  announced their stand on this Muslim controversy in Saudi Arabia.   It is expected that C.A.I.R. might risk pressures from the male  masses of militant Islam before it makes any policy changes….ghr)

* Saudi women should be allowed to drive, senior prince says

* Royal family is facing calls for change

By Ulf Laessing

RIYADH, March 9 (Reuters) – A senior Saudi prince questioned the need for a ban on women driving on Wednesday and said lifting it would be a quick first step to reduce the Islamic kingdom’s dependence on millions of foreign workers.

The Gulf Arab state is a monarchy ruled by the al-Saud family in alliance with clerics from the strict Wahhabi school of Islam. Women must be covered from head to toe in public and are not allowed to drive.

But the ruling family has been facing calls from activists and liberals, empowered by protests across North Africa and the Middle East, to allow some political reforms in the absolute monarchy that has no parliament.

Using social media, activists have called on King Abdullah to allow women to participate for the first time in municipal elections expected later this year.

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a nephew of King Abdullah and advocate of his reforms, said the kingdom could send some 750,000 foreign drivers home if women could drive.

“A lot of Saudi women want to drive their car in line with strict regulations and wearing a headscarf. But now they need a driver … This is an additional burden on households,” he said.

“The Saudi society wants fewer foreign labourers … so why the hesitation, why this hesitation (with women driving cars)? I want answers,” he said.

A ban could only be lifted by the government in consultation with the country’s top Islamic scholars.

Saudi women are subject to a male “guardianship” system which requires they show permission from their guardian — father, brother or husband — to travel or, sometimes, work.

Religious police patrol the streets regularly to ensure gender segregation and that women are dressed modestly.

The rulers of the world’s top oil exporter have wrestled with the issue of moderating the country’s strict adherence to an austere version of Sunni Islam.

King Abdullah, a reformist, has replaced hardline clerics with moderate ones but must balance their needs with those of the religious elite who helped found the kingdom in 1932.

He unveiled handouts worth $37 billion last month in a bid to insulate the kingdom from Arab protests reaching the kingdom’s borders in Bahrain, Yemen and Jordan, but has given no hint whether the ruling family will allow political reforms.

Saudi Arabia’s huge oil wealth has provided a high standard of living compared to many neighbours, and it was widely thought to be immune from spreading unrest, but the rumblings of discontent from the Shi’ite minority have alarmed Riyadh.

More than 17,000 people have backed a call on Facebook to hold two demonstrations this month, the first on March 11 but activists say it is impossible to say how many will defy a ban on protests.

Protests by a disgruntled Shi’ite minority in Bahrain are being closely watched in Saudi Arabia, where Shi’ites make up about 15 percent of the population.

(Reporting by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Elizabath Fullerton)        Article is from HotAir.

Big Labor Shaved a Bit in Wisconsin…..Stubble Remains for Future Growth

from the Daily Caller:        Wisconsin Democrat Senators receive startling news:  Governor Walker couldn’t wait for them to join the party.

Democrat Party icon,  Michael Moore  announces:   “This is War”             click below for Mr. Moore’s complete tirade.. …”This is class war against the working people!”

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/03/09/michael_moore_reacts_to_wisconsin_union_vote_this_is_war.html

Scott Walker, Wisconsin Win Battle to Limit Public Sector Union Power in Badger State

A Big Victory for the People and their Democratic Institutions!

The following report comes from Guy Benson at Townhall.com:

“In an end-run around the fleebaggers — whose claims that they were being totally stonewalled were exposed as pure rubbish earlier today — Wisconsin Senate Republicans executed a legal maneuver that left much of their controversial budget bill intact,* but technically allowed them to pass it without a super majority — or any Democrats, for that matter.  They stripped the budget bill of its appropriations language, which rendered it no longer explicitly revenue-related, and therefore open to a simple majority vote.  No Democrats were present for the vote — and for that, they have no one to blame but their own truant selves.  *(See Update V below).

Just like the Assembly’s late-night, surprise vote on Gov. Walker’s budget late last month, this one was over in a flash:

In 18-1 vote, Wis. Senate approves bill to strip public employees of collective bargaining rights.

Presto, the most divisive elements of Walker’s proposal now await his signature into law.  Wow.  That, my friends, is what we call political hardball.  I wasnt sure Republicans had it in them.  I stand corrected.  More to come…

UPDATE – The Weekly Standard’s Stephen Hayes clarifies that what this isolated collective bargaining bill does, and does not, do:

WI budget repair bill does NOT separate collective bargaining and fiscal issues. Just separates $30 million from this fiscal year.

UPDATE II – Allahpundit asks a delicious question of Democrats who are gnashing their teeth over this power play:

Don’t you hate it when irregular procedures are used to destroy a de facto filibuster of an unpopular bill?

Heh.  Indeed .

UPDATE III – Governor Walker applauds the action:

“The Senate Democrats have had three weeks to debate this bill and were offered repeated opportunities to come home, which they refused. In order to move the state forward, I applaud the Legislature’s action today to stand up to the status quo and take a step in the right direction to balance the budget and reform government. The action today will help ensure Wisconsin has a business climate that allows the private sector to create 250,000 new jobs.”

Democrats are calling the move “illegal” and a “naked abuse of power.”  I’m not sure if this is a naked abuse, but Democrats were certainly caught with their pants down on this one.

UPDATE IV – Irony alert: “What Republicans did was an affront to democracy,” tweets a furious Democratic State Senator…who literally ran away from the Democratic process to avoid a vote. 

UPDATE V – Important: John McCormack has the scoop on what the freshly-passed bill accomplishes.  Short answer: Pretty much everything Gov. Walker wanted in the first place.

The legislation being voted on tonight has few changes from the bill as initially proposed. It would save just $30 million less than the original budget bill by stripping out a refinancing provision. But it would still save the state $300 million over the next two years by requiring state employees to contribute about 5% of income toward their pensions and by requiring state workers to pay for about 12% of their health insurance premiums. It would also save $1.44 billion by requiring public employees in school districts and municipalities to pay 5% of their salaries toward their pensions and by removing collective bargaining for benefits, thus giving school districts and municipalities the option of requiring their employees to pay about 12% for their health insurance premiums.

“We are not splitting the bill. It’s an an amended bill,” says one source, who explains that the state’s non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau has said that such a vote could take place without a three-fifths quorum required for some fiscal bills. ”It still has a fiscal impact, but doesn’t appropriate money,” which is why the senate can vote on the bill with a simple majority present.  “All the collective bargaining and everything else is the same as the original bill.”

UPDATE VI – Your hysterical, wildly inaccurate headline of the day, courtesy of Reuters: “Wisconsin Senate Passes Public Sector Union Ban.”  Journalism.

UPDATE VII -  The fleebaggers are headin’ home:

Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller (D-Monona) said they would be back by Thursday. They had been able to block a vote on the bill for three weeks because 20 senators had to be present to vote for it. Republicans control the house 19-14…

…Or maybe not?  Dem Sen. Leader Miller puts out one sentence statement: “We will not be back tomorrow.”  Well, Illinois is gorgeous this time of year.  Meanwhile, the Left is freaking out:

“This is a violation of law! It’s not a rule!” Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) bellowed.

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) ignored Barca and ordered the role to be taken. Republicans voted for the measure as Barca continued to plead with them to stop the vote.

Republicans have not yet given an explanation of why they believe the committee could legally meet.  Minutes later, the Senate took up the bill and passed it without debate.  “Shame on you!” protesters cried from the galleries.

Protesters were chanting, “Shame!” “This is not democracy!” and “You lied to Wisconsin!”

UPDATE VIII – Some union folks are apparently calling for a general strike (ie, all unions) tomorrow….which is illegal, and could allow Gov. Walker to start firing no-show state workers.  Oh my.  After what just happened, do you really want to call that bluff, guys?

UPDATE IX - Multiple first-hand accounts on Twitter indicate that union members and supporters are flooding into the Capitol, and that police are having trouble controlling the situation.  This could turn very ugly:

DOA Spokesman: “Windows and doors have been broken.”

Video from inside the rotunda, via @news3jessica:

UPDATE X – According to eyewitnesses, there is no security to speak of at the Wisconsin Capitol at this hour, and that protesters are locking the doors from the inside using metal handcuffs.  If true, this is outright lawlessness and a major, dangerous fire hazard.

Remember when peaceful Tea Party protests were treated as violent, angry, threatening mobs by the media?  What, pray tell, is this?

Chaos:

Following the vote on the bill, GOP senators were hustled out of the Capitol via an underground tunnel that takes them to a government building across the street.  For the past few days, senators have made this walk and been loaded onto a bus that takes them to their cars parked in a remote area.  Yet after the vote, protesters had apparently caught wind of this process and surrounded the bus full of senators.  One witness told me he had seen protesters surrounding the bus and trying to rock it back and forth.”

Comment:   For years and years Republicans whether in Washington, Minnesota,  or in state capitals nearby,  Republicans almost always played RINO and became tag-alongs chasing for Liberal approval back home.   They never dreamed that American values needed to be taught generation by generation. I, too, wasn’t sure Governor Scott Walker and his conservative buddies would have the guts to hang in their and serve the people rather than some special political interest.    

I was trained by ghosts of Republicans past, such as by my own  district’s  House of Representative,  nice man, Jim Ramstad, playing tootsie with the socialist movement for 18 years with voters never knowing which  vote he might cast.   He enjoyed being liked.  

Daily Kos Covers Walker Statement Limiting Public Union Bargaining Power

Wed Mar 09, 2011 at 10:27 PM EST

Wisconsin: Walker statement on successful union busting

by Barbara Morrill

Governor Scott Walker has issued a statement on tonight’s successful stripping of collective bargaining rights for public employees by his Republican Senate:

In order to move the state forward, I applaud the legislature’s action today to stand up to the status quo and take a step in the right direction to balance the budget and reform government.

Really, Gov. Walker? If this new bill removed all fiscal elements so it could be crammed through, how can it be a move to balance the budget?

Meanwhile, thousands of protesters have stormed the Capitol:

Thousands of protesters rushed to the state Capitol Wednesday night as word spread of the hastily called votes that sent Gov. Scott Walker’s controversial bill limiting collective bargaining rights for public workers speeding through the Legislature.Shortly after 8, hundreds of protesters chanted outside the locked King Street entrance to the Capitol, “Break down the door!” and “General strike!”
Moments later, police ceded control of the State Street doors and allowed the crowd to surge inside.

It’s not clear why police abandoned the doors, but Department of Administration spokesman Tim Donovan said “windows have been broken” to get in. He said he could not immediately provide specifics.

Comment:   Governor Walker and the Republicans did not Union bust, as any fair and honest American would recognize.   It would be more accurate to report that the Power of the Public Sector Unions was shaved a bit.   The stubble is still there.

Mark Steyn Explains the New ‘Physical’ America

SEX AND THE SILLY

Wednesday, 09 March 2011

Ross Douthat, the token conservative at The New York Times, is, tonally, the very soul of moderation. For those of us of a more foamingly right-wing bent, he can, indeed, be excessively mindful of his readers’ sensitivities – and a fat lot of good it does him. So this week he writes about some of the consequences of the sexual revolution – all very sober, very measured. At the Times website, the commenters immediately retreated to the most cobwebbed tropes: bozack of dc thinks “nonmarital sex is an unalloyed good thing, a part of personal fulfillment”, and that any suggestion to the contrary is all about social conservatives “wanting to control women’s sexual decisions”. A reader from Seabeck, Washington thinks we need “public sex workers or educators” to come up with “new ideas about how humans can live in groups and still fulfill the biological desires that sex entails”. Etc.Out in the wider blogosphere, meanwhile, they just cut to the chase:CWalz: Speaking as one of those “sluts” I found virginity highly over rated. Ross is just afraid that some of us “experienced” women will find folks like him woefully inadequate in the sack if we have someone to compare him to. Sukabi: I think Douchehat’s wife is a very unsatisfied woman, and when she complains about his random poking in the sack, he calls her a slut and proceeds to write one of these columns… DrDick: I am still not convinced that Ross is not still a virgin. I have seldom encountered someone as anti-sex and pleasure in my life.  As you’ll have gathered, these are the educated types – sophisticated middle-class liberals who read New York Times columns. But what’s going on in the wider world? I’ve written previously about the celebrification of family life: The story of the last 30 years is the mainstreaming of rock-star morality: instant gratification, do your own thing, whatever’s your bag. Jodie Foster and her turkey baster are rich enough to weather any unintended consequences of their fling, but the evidence suggests that, for the general population, defining celebrity down is more problematic. ‘Oops! I Did It Again’ is easy for Britney to say, less so for Kaylee at the hair salon.   But the new school soldiers on, arguing that chastity, fidelity, monogamy, etc, are mere social constructs: We’ve been indoctrinated into them by repressed cultural hierarchies. Sexual promiscuity is part of our nature: You should be getting it on with that hot chick at Number 27. And her husband. And get your wife in to video it. Screwing whatever you want whenever you want in whatever combination you want is as natural as wearing a mammoth pelt and sitting round the cave rubbing two sticks together – and the way the economy’s going we’ll all be doing that soon enough. Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá wrote a rather laborious book on the subject, Sex At Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins Of Modern Sexuality, that demonstrates by frequent recourse to biology, anthropology, ethnography and primatology that the idea of lifelong heterosexual marriage is a crock imposed on the world by party poopers. Your hunter-gatherer was the king of the swingers, the jungle VIP. At this point in the argument, it’s customary to bring up bonobos. No, not the bloke from U2. He loves Africa, too, but not in that way. The bonobo is some kind of chimp that lives south of the Congo River, and is apparently the closest extant relative to humans. And, like us, he’s a bi-guy who can’t get enough casual sex. So, if he’s hip to it, why have we got so many hang-ups? “Moderate” Republicans such as Arnold Schwarzenegger like to boast that they’re fiscal conservatives and social liberals. But the social liberalism always ends up burying the fiscal conservatism. As Congressman Mike Pence put it, “To those who say we should simply focus on fiscal issues, I say you would not be able to print enough money in a thousand years to pay for the government you would need if the traditional family collapses.” But the collapse of the traditional family is already well advanced. In the midst of an essentially economic argument, Jim Manzi writes: In 1965, almost no mothers with any level of education reported that they had never been married. Today, this still holds true for mothers who have finished college: Only 3% have never been married. But that figure stands in stark contrast with the nearly 25% of mothers without high-school diplomas who say that they have never been married. In fact, last year, about 40% of all American births occurred out of wedlock. And about 70% of African-American children — as well as most Hispanic children — are born to unmarried ­mothers. But this situation obtains for low-wage, non-­college-­educated whites as well: It is estimated that about 70% of children born to non-Hispanic white women with no more than a high-school education and income below $20,000 per year were born out of wedlock. The level of family disruption in America is enormous compared to almost every other country in the developed world. Of course, out-of-wedlock births are as common in many European countries as they are in the United States. But the estimated percentage of 15-year-olds living with both of their biological parents is far lower in the United States than in Western Europe, because unmarried European parents are much more likely to raise children together. It is hard to exaggerate the chaotic conditions under which something like a third of American children are being raised — or to overstate the negative impact this disorder has on their academic achievement, social skills, and character formation. There are certainly heroic exceptions, but the sad fact is that most of these children could not possibly compete with their foreign counterparts.  Entire new categories of crime have arisen in the wake of familial collapse - like the legions of daughters abused by their mom’s latest live-in boyfriend. Congressman Pence’s doomsday scenario is already here: Millions and millions of American children are raised in transient households and moral vacuums that make not just social mobility but, as Manzi says, even elemental character formation all but impossible. In a post-prosperity America, those sophisticated New York Times readers won’t even be able to afford to buy them off with bigger welfare checks. In a land of fewer jobs, more poverty, more crime, more drugs, more disease and growing ethnocultural resentments, the shattering of the basic social building block will have consequences in the years ahead far beyond the healing powers of “public sex workers or educators” attuned to your “biological desires”. You want to live like the bonobo? Be careful what you wish for. Mark Steyn writes at SteynonLine.