Organized Labor In School Classrooms?

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Back in March, I wrote my thoughts about business executives and chambers of commerce activists attending Janesville High Schools under the auspices of Junior Achievement in an effort to restore lost confidence due to corporate scandals in the business world. Junior Achievement felt it was vital to rethink what and how children are taught in order to succeed in a global economy. Apparently though, organized labor is not included among the vitality's of a U.S. global economy.

A bill proposed by Sen. Dave Hansen, D- Green Bay, would require every school district to add organized labor history to their curriculum. The bill of course has its opponents.

Thonline Excerpt:
But groups representing school boards and administrators don't want the state micromanaging their curriculum.

Who exactly are these people representing our taxpayer school board representatives and administrators? And not surprisingly, the GOP also stands against introducing labor ethics and history to school kids.

Since corporatists and globalists have been given the welcome mat in our schools, I see no reason why organized labor leaders and union officials can’t even the score and offer organizational seminars and labor friendly educational sessions in an effort to prepare and inspire our children for the global future, and restore lost support and confidence in worker rights and collective bargaining.

In order to make organized labor the future, the very idea of the audacity of hope must be taught in schools - not something to reminisce about in history books.

Corporate Populists Want Freedom To Monopolize Media

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Kevin Martin, George Bush's hand-picked FCC Chair, is trying to ram through new rules which would further consolidate media ownership and give big media even more power. Last week, the Chicago Tribune, one of the Big Media populists pasted a column on the subject.

Tribune Excerpt:
WASHINGTON - A Senate panel on Tuesday approved a bill that would put the brakes on a plan to let broadcasters own a newspaper in the same media market.

Who are they trying to kid with the title and opening sentence? The Senate actually surrendered to the corporate populists by confirming the Act in a voice vote which would merely delay ownership rules for 180 days and even after that it only wants to study the effects of media consolidation - after the damage is done.

Tribune Excerpt:
However, the vote might be too little, too late for opponents of media consolidation. The FCC is expected to vote Dec. 18 on a proposal by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin that would eliminate the ban on one company owning a radio or television station and a newspaper in the same community in the nation's 20 largest markets.

This is written like it’s a done deal. People need to call their legislators now!! or e-mail the FCC and tell them we need more than one voice when it comes to local information, opinion and news.

Sign On-Line Petition. Time is running out!!

Watch Media Consolidation Video. Warning: Some bigoted and discriminatory language on display from vicious right-wing commentators and columnists - for educational purposes only.

Your Job Participating In Health Care Revolution

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Three stories, all with the central theme of health care were laid out in 1-2-3 fashion in the Saturday’s edition (December 8) of the Janesville Gazette. The issue seemed to be one of those “agenda” drives designed in an ever so subtle way to steer the reader into a defensive frenzy over taxpayer funded benefits of teachers and local public employees.

The front page began with the headline title “Insurance looms in talks,” followed by the sub, “Teachers oppose paying part of premiums.”

JG Excerpt:
Evert said the board agrees that the district’s self-funded plan costs less than most school district plans in the state.

And…….

JG Excerpt:
Evert said that although the board is firm on premium sharing, it is willing to compromise in other areas of the budget.

The Gazette steadfastly perpetuates that the school board, in it’s efforts to protect the taxpayer is the agreeable party in the teacher negotiations. Flip the page over to the next one and on page 3A, the top headline was “Hiring freeze shrinks Milton police force,” sub-titled with “Union, city could face showdown over health benefit for retirees,” once again pitting taxpayer against the public wage earner over the cost of health care benefits, in this case over “gap” insurance to cover early retirees. The health care crisis it seems, is never directed at the health care sector, but only those who can’t afford it. But just turn over the page to the next one and the Gazette continued to pump up the same theme again with yet another top-page bold headline with the title “County might alter mid-level contracts.” This one snuck up a little differently because the reader had to at least read the first paragraph to get the gist of it all.

JG Excerpt:
Any mid-level manager thinking of working for Walworth County may have a decision to make: take the county’s health care insurance or take an annual $5,000 stipend.

The brightest spotlight is on the front page teachers negotiations in Janesville, and then finished off by the supporting cast of other top page headline players. The message of course seems to be that teachers shouldn’t feel singled out as the only victim of a hi-jacking, they are not alone. They need to go along to get along. All employees of the public and private sectors are being forced to forfeit or trade wages, benefits and protections for any sense of job security. The revolution is not in health care and it’s not being televised.

RipRap

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Government Health Care's Worst Spokesman

Why, weeks later, was Bush warning about Iran's nuclear weapons program possibly leading to World War III? That's …..misleading at best.

After seven years people still don’t get it. Bush IS OUT OF THE LOOP……always has been. It’s Cheney, the guy who wouldn’t be alive if it weren’t for socialized medicine - who is running the show. NOW I KNOW WHY the Heritage Foundation, Cato and the rest of the unmedicated Clinton-hating neo-cons blame socialists for this fine mess.

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It’s the home loan that was unaffordable
"When do my husband and I get a break? We were responsible and bought a house that we could afford," a Los Angeles reader named Ann wrote among the nearly 500 comments on CNNMoney.com's blog. "Bitter, you better believe it!"

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Bush battling name-calling addiction

"There's a group in the opposition party who are willing to retreat before the mission is done. They're willing to wave the white flag of surrender." -- Bush Link

"The Democrats are the party of cut and run ...They talk tough on terror, but when the votes are counted, their softer side comes out." -- Bush, who's not into name-calling

"The most disappointing thing about Washington has been the name-calling. And I've tried hard not to do that. I've tried to be respectful to all parties." -- Bush Link

NOT name-calling should come easy to someone in the position of president of the United States, but some things don't come easy for Bush.

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Abducted and Gang Raped - God Willing

Tribune Excerpt:
An analogous controversy has erupted in Saudi Arabia, where a court has seen fit to sentence a rape victim to some 200 lashes for being in the company of a man to whom she was not related. She was abducted by seven other men and gang-raped. Again, the Saudi court and its apologists have attempted to justify this travesty on religious grounds, citing "Islamic law" and values.

Good ol’ religious values and the seperation of church and state…………oh, never mind.

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Money Trumps Peace

Transcript:
"One, many companies are fearful of losing market share in Iran to another company. So I spend a fair amount of time trying to convince our counterparts that they need to convince the private sector folks that it is in their interests and for the sake of peace that there be a common effort to convince the Iranians to change their ways, and that there's a better way forward. -– George W.Bush 12-4-07

Isn’t Iran labeled as a terror state, axis of evil, etc.? What are American companies doing there? If Iran is such a major threat to America – why is Bush so concerned about the profits or safety of foreign companies?

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Clinton Losing Traction?

Clinton Iranian Diplomacy Vote:
Clinton said her vote was aimed at encouraging diplomacy and deterring the administration from using military force against the Iranians. She sharply objected to Edwards's characterization of the vote. "I understand politics, and I understand making outlandish political charges, but this really goes way too far," Clinton said. "Having designated the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization, we've actually seen some changes in their behavior."

Exactly what changes? It certainly wasn’t the scuttling of their nuclear weapons program. They supposedly scrapped that in 2003, four years before the questionable senate vote. What Iran proceeded to do was call a parliamentary session of their own and label the CIA and U.S Army as terror organizations. How's that for encouraging diplomacy? It’s one thing gravitating toward the center to get support but this vote by Hillary appeases only apocalyptic right-wing neanderthals – Clinton doesn't need their support to win.

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Fear This
An Observation: I do a lot of image searching on Google and it seems no matter what keywords I use with "cartoon", the image of the turbin-wearing bearded guy with the bomb seems to show up. It might not be on the first page, but its there one way or another. For instance, I searched “doctors nurses convention cartoon” and it was on the second page. Of course the message is - this guy is everywhere and that’s what someone wants you to know. Talk about spreading fear.

GM, UAW Targeting Health Care

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If it's not a misplaced title, then it's a misleading one:
GM, UAW Set To Spark Health Care Revolution

JG Excerpt:
“We’re viewing it as an opportunity to work with the union leadership and their retired members to design a better mousetrap that keeps them healthier, have a better standard of living and reduces the cost of providing that,” Carter said.

If you really want to reduce health care costs for UAW union workers and retirees – you’re talking to the wrong people, they build cars. However, if your goal is to design a business model to cut employer health care obligations, reduce employee benefits to boost dividends and adapt an American labor union to compete with unregulated global labor practices and compensation - I guess it could be called a revolution.

Congress redesigns the automobile with CAFE, auto manufacturers
reform? health care, and mortgage lenders won't charge high interest rates ONLY IF borrowers can prove they can't afford to pay the high rates. Is the world upside-down or just sideways?

With Or Without Nukes - Iran Has Oil

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The latest report from the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) concluded Iran scrapped their nuclear weapons program in 2003.
Here's the bizarre closing statement by Bush at the Tuesday morning press conference.

Press Conference Transcript
Bush: It makes it -- the NIE makes it clear that the strategy we have used in the past is effective. And the reason why we need to make sure that strategy goes forward for the future is because if Iran shows up with a nuclear weapon at some point in time, the world is going to say, what happened to them in 2007? How come they couldn't see the impending danger? What caused them not to understand that a country that once had a weapons program could reconstitute the weapons program? How come they couldn't see that the important first step in developing a weapon is the capacity to be able to enrich uranium? How come they didn't know that with that capacity, that knowledge could be passed on to a covert program? What blinded them to the realities of the world? And it's not going to happen on my watch, Mark. And so, kind of Psychology 101 ain't working. It's just not working. I understand the issues, I clearly see the problems, and I'm going to use the NIE to continue to rally the international community for the sake of peace. Thank you very much.

Despite the findings by the NIE, President Bush said it did not change his mind about Iran, and that they still pose a threat. His reasoning was similar to this………Germany invaded Poland and bombed England during WWII, they can do it again. Once Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, what’s to say they won’t do it again? So the theory goes that since Iran at one time pursued nuclear weapons, they too can do it again.

The rhetoric of fear promoted by the president leaves the door open for another attack based on flawed logic as he verbally demonstrates that once we invaded a country on false pretenses – we can do it again.

The flip-side: Was Bush Behind Report? Bombing Iran, it seems, is now off the table. At least that’s what the Bush Administration wants Iran to think. Did Bush just reconstitute the element of surprise for an imminent attack against Iran?

This one press conference was riddled with enough Bushisms and corporate/war/country disinformation and partisanship and to keep a guy like me busy for months.

Watch Iran question video: Bush: Nukeless Iran Remains Dangerous

When They Say "Reform" They Really Mean "Cuts"

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In one of my early postings from last year about education, I wrote that the quality of a public school and it’s teachers in Madison, Wisconsin should be no different than the schools and teachers in Biloxi, Mississippi. For this, only the Federal government, acting as a great equalizer can make up for the differences and shortcomings in local wealth and taxes collected. The goal of course is that every child no matter what race or economic class, would have access to a good education. The GOP followed by the club for growthers, various so-called citizen taxpayer watch-dogs and school choice advocates would like nothing better than to cut off this federal funding – under the guise of “reform.”

On the other hand and particularly here in Wisconsin, I feel the local property taxpayers could use a solid 50% reduction in the school district portion of their property tax bills – not resulting from cuts in spending – but a reduction replaced by a durable corporate tax. I feel that corporations should be at least half responsible for the education of their future employees. Again, a school tax reduction in property taxes is often promised by GOPers as property tax “reform” only to really mean “cuts” in school spending. Poor schools + poor teachers + lousy curriculum = dumb kids.

I believe Federal dollars are being systematically cut off in all categories of discretionary spending, with schools, the environment and security getting shortchanged the most. The tax cut mantra during the presidential national campaign has snowballed to the point where some people are seriously looking at a sales tax or flat tax system over the current sliding scale income tax system we now have. This is dead wrong. The Fair Tax promoted by some GOP presidential candidates including Mike Huckabee not only would force huge cuts in discretionary spending, thus endangering the country, it’s an income-blind tax that would raise the cost of living tremendously to anyone earning less than $200,000. More accurately this idea should be called “Fat Tax” and it shouldn’t be given more than a fat chance to survive. It’s a dream killer.

I bring this all up because as I was watching the CNN/GOP Presidential debates, one of the questioners asked the candidates, “What are the top three Federal programs they would CUT?” to reduce discretionary spending. Only three Republicans were brave enough to entertain the question.

CNN Debate Transcript:
“But my point is that we're going to have to reform Social Security, we're going to have to reform Medicare…..” -- Fred Thompson

“I would like to change Washington, and we could by cutting three programs, such as the Department of Education -- Ronald Reagan used to talk about that -- Department of Energy, Department of Homeland Security….” -- Ron Paul

“… the first thing that I would get rid of would be the Internal Revenue Service…. “ -- Mike Huckabee

Two things here, presidential candidates talking like this a few years ago would be laughed off the stage and called anti-American. Secondly, people are so desperate for something different, they seem willing to accept any kind of talk of change, radical or not so long as it's different. However, the reforms and cuts these three spoke of actually illustrates the philosophy of the same direction our country has been heading in over the past fifteen years. They explained little will change if you elect them.

The FDA: Just another safeguard duty of the government in a long list of federal programs underfunded well before Thompson, Huckabee or Romney and company commit to doing the same thing.

Annette, You're No Georgia

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State Supreme Court Justice Annette Ziegler's case of judicial misconduct moved ahead as a special panel of judges heard arguments. Presiding Judge Ralph Adam Fine did not say when a decision was expected. But he suggested Ziegler's punishment would not be harsh, saying her misconduct did not compare with cases involving other judges who were reprimanded.

Leniency For Ziegler:
"It seems to me, Justice Ziegler's case is not even, forgive me, a blip on the screen compared to those cases," he said.

This sounds eerily familiar.

Georgia Thompson Acquitted:
I have to say it strikes me that your evidence is beyond thin," federal Appeals Judge Diane Wood told prosecutors. "I'm not sure what your actual theory in this case is."

Ziegler’s attorney, James Troupis, said she did not know she had been violating the code and has already been punished. And when you add this to the mix......

Leniency For Ziegler:
He questioned the timing of the allegations, which surfaced during Ziegler's successful campaign to defeat Madison attorney Linda Clifford in the April election. "Had there not have been a political campaign, there would not have been this scouring of everything and this finding in the first place," he said.

And there you have it. They’re practically painting Annette Ziegler up to be Georgia Thompson, the innocent victim of a political vendetta.

Read More Opinion: Ziegler Should Quit Bench

And it's always worth remembering the Janesville Gazette disendorsement of both candidates for the Wisconsin Supreme Court at election time. If the choice is between an irresponsible and unethical candidate whose actions have broken the public trust, or a liberal candidate with a clean record - vote no one.