After a number of weeks watching this mess in Madison, Wisconsin.....I want to offer five observations.
First, since day one....folks have noted that the plan to toss out union rights was simple to carve from the fiscal plan. Everybody knew this. It was repeated by CNN, the Wall Street Journal, and just about everyone who had insight into this. So I'm kinda amazed that everyone acted with shock this week when the Republicans in the Wisconsin senate did exactly what had been predicted three weeks ago.
Second. Imagine a union in existence and the top boss makes almost a million a year....the regional union bosses make $250k a year, and school teachers are generally pulling in $80k in pay and benefits a year. And they refer to themselves as middle-class....working class? If only these pizza delivery idiots were unionized.....then they'd all make $45k a year, and our pizzas would all cost $35 each for a medium pepperoni pizza.
Third. Over the past three weeks...I've noticed the use of the term "unfair" being used about 2,675 times. I've watched over thirty hours of media chat with CNN, ABC, MSNBC, and Fox News.....and "unfair" comes up almost every three minutes by someone in Madison, Wisconsin connected to the union or by some analyst. Frankly, when you hear "unfair" that often in real life....it's associated with a 8-year old kid when asked about school, the teacher, or homework. For some odd reason....I'm not seeing much difference here.
Fourth. Folks are watching all this violent stuff in the past twenty-four hours and hostile commenting. If I were coming up to an election season....I might think long and hard about avoiding that identification because it doesn't carry well in the real world.
Fifth and final....recall. The governor can't be recalled until January of next year (I checked the rules). These Republican state senators? They could be recalled now and the unions are talking about this being the goal. Best guess? Five or six guys will be targeted. You have to present roughly twenty-five percent of the signatures of folks, from the last election in that district....to recall the guy.
The problem is that you end up with guy getting sixty people at some mall entrance to sign the petition at lunch....and twelve don't even live in the district....and another twelve aren't even registered voters.
So when you present this and think things are great.....the odds are against you. Someone will review the names.
I'm guessing four guys will be recalled. Here's the problem....the unions have to bring in at least $10 million to run election campaigns in these four districts against the Republicans. The Tea Party is prepared to stand up and support the fight against the Democratic candidate.
If you only win one of these four elections.....it was a total flush of funding. You need to win all of these races to influence your followers and keep the spirit up. If you only win one.....you really hurt the spirits of the guys greatly. I would pause and be very careful how you precede.
The funny thing is that we are now getting an entire summer of hot politics in Wisconsin....when it'd normally be baseball, hay, and painting season. It'll be curious how things end up.
Friday, 11 March 2011
Flushing the Money Toilet
The GAO went out and did some analysis. They added up the total amount that various federal offices/agencies had put down in 2009 for homelessness. The total? $2.9 billion, via twenty programs.
To put this in some sense....that a guy from Bama could appreciate....you could have bought 4,800 house-trailers (at $60k each).
You could have gone out and bought 16,100 RV trailers for one massive homeless trailer park.
The GAO guys came to admit that the $2.9 billion really didn't change much of anything but keep folks lined up for another day...another week....another month....another year.
This is the stupidity of this game of allowing various agencies to pump money out and never realize that dozen other government agencies are doing the same thing.
Am I suggesting a Secretary of Homelessness and an entire government agency to do this job? No. That would be extremely unwise. But someone....like a President....ought to stand up and point to one group and just say that your job is to funnel money to anything related to homelessness....and everybody else should just shut up and do your regular job.
Sadly, I doubt that we will see something like that. And, another $2.9 billion or more will be poured out in 2010, 2011, and 2012.
To put this in some sense....that a guy from Bama could appreciate....you could have bought 4,800 house-trailers (at $60k each).
You could have gone out and bought 16,100 RV trailers for one massive homeless trailer park.
The GAO guys came to admit that the $2.9 billion really didn't change much of anything but keep folks lined up for another day...another week....another month....another year.
This is the stupidity of this game of allowing various agencies to pump money out and never realize that dozen other government agencies are doing the same thing.
Am I suggesting a Secretary of Homelessness and an entire government agency to do this job? No. That would be extremely unwise. But someone....like a President....ought to stand up and point to one group and just say that your job is to funnel money to anything related to homelessness....and everybody else should just shut up and do your regular job.
Sadly, I doubt that we will see something like that. And, another $2.9 billion or more will be poured out in 2010, 2011, and 2012.
Apples and Oranges, in the Real World
Yesterday....in the midst of discussions on Homeland Security and Islamic terrorists.....Congressman Al Green, a Texas Democrat, decided to stand up and try to reshuffle the debate (defending the Islamic guys to some degree) by suggesting that the Ku Klux Klan should be considered a terrorist organization.
I sat there this morning....pondering over this commentary.
I looked for evidence of the Klan folks having flown planes into buildings....but I have yet to find any examples.
I looked for examples of Klan mass subway bombings....but I have yet to find any examples (other than a couple of church bombings, I will admit).
I looked for examples where a Klan guy walked into a crowd and blew himself up......but I have yet to find any examples of that.
I looked for examples where a Klan guy got on a plane with a bomb in his underwear.....but I have to find any examples of that.
I looked for examples where a Klan guy wanted to be a martyr but I've yet to find an example of that.
Frankly, your typical Klan guy is a high school graduate with a limited view of the world, and mostly wants to blame his issues on a couple of key groups. If he were a bit violent....he'd have this golden rule of living and not being dragged off to jail.
Putting Klan guys and Islamic terrorists in the same group.....might ought to be examined a bit before you start to repeat this as a practical idea. I'll admit the Klan aren't the folks you want as neighbors....but they haven't exactly put themselves into a five-star category of bad guys. Toss in the fact that Klan guys typically live quietly and don't usually get positive media attention....which is a bit odd when you consider that Islamic folks always get a decent media spin and live with their lifestyle in full view.
For the good congressman from Texas....I'd advise him to go back and ask his handlers for a better example to use. You might even want to use radical environmentalists instead.....just a suggestion.
I sat there this morning....pondering over this commentary.
I looked for evidence of the Klan folks having flown planes into buildings....but I have yet to find any examples.
I looked for examples of Klan mass subway bombings....but I have yet to find any examples (other than a couple of church bombings, I will admit).
I looked for examples where a Klan guy walked into a crowd and blew himself up......but I have yet to find any examples of that.
I looked for examples where a Klan guy got on a plane with a bomb in his underwear.....but I have to find any examples of that.
I looked for examples where a Klan guy wanted to be a martyr but I've yet to find an example of that.
Frankly, your typical Klan guy is a high school graduate with a limited view of the world, and mostly wants to blame his issues on a couple of key groups. If he were a bit violent....he'd have this golden rule of living and not being dragged off to jail.
Putting Klan guys and Islamic terrorists in the same group.....might ought to be examined a bit before you start to repeat this as a practical idea. I'll admit the Klan aren't the folks you want as neighbors....but they haven't exactly put themselves into a five-star category of bad guys. Toss in the fact that Klan guys typically live quietly and don't usually get positive media attention....which is a bit odd when you consider that Islamic folks always get a decent media spin and live with their lifestyle in full view.
For the good congressman from Texas....I'd advise him to go back and ask his handlers for a better example to use. You might even want to use radical environmentalists instead.....just a suggestion.
From My Neighborhood
We have an episode brewing here in DC. Back in October of last year....the mayor's race was underway. You had the sitting mayor who had done a decent job but certainly not a four-star job who was running against the top dog on the city council. The city council guy was trying hard to be seen as a positive influence. Then you had a couple of other guys who were just third-tier runners in the race. Amusing enough....you had some guy who came out bashing the mayor on a daily basis and got down into the likely neighborhoods where the mayors support was questionable.
Election day came....and the old mayor lost. The city council guy won by a couple of points and that was it....up until about three weeks ago.
Strange thing....this dude who had been the outsider running and bashing the old mayor during the race? He'd been picked up by the new incoming mayor to work in the administration. Normally....you'd stop and ask stupid questions there. It was a $100k a year job.
Funny thing....a few weeks into this job....the basher dude was fired.
Another funny thing....the basher dude came up and admitted all of this to the public.....went to the TV outlets and got this elevated to a huge level. The new mayor is shocked and wants 'transparency' in everything....thus saying he's totally innocent and wants to get to the bottom of this.
Another funny thing....there's phone records between the basher and the campaign staff....with text messages indicating shuttling of funds to help in the basher's election race.
This week.....the basher and the Federal Attorney General's office came to admit they are talking between each other.
The new mayor? He's doing public appearances but I suspect that he's talking to his staff and wondering who will take the fall and how much he has to pay for that fall (hire six relatives maybe?).
It's kinda the way that things run in DC politics. And the interesting part? The top four people around the new mayor? All women....from the Mayor Berry and Williams eras. Kind of interesting...they were all part of those administrations.
Finally, the Basher? Well....that's another funny thing. He has continually bumped against the law but never been in real trouble. He's the guy who never figured out the best roads in life and got into some stupid episodes. Just two or three years ago....as a security guard....he was putting the moves on some teenage girl whose mom put out a restraining order to stay away. The guy was over thirty....and the girl was just a teenager.
Yep, I just can't make this stuff up.
Election day came....and the old mayor lost. The city council guy won by a couple of points and that was it....up until about three weeks ago.
Strange thing....this dude who had been the outsider running and bashing the old mayor during the race? He'd been picked up by the new incoming mayor to work in the administration. Normally....you'd stop and ask stupid questions there. It was a $100k a year job.
Funny thing....a few weeks into this job....the basher dude was fired.
Another funny thing....the basher dude came up and admitted all of this to the public.....went to the TV outlets and got this elevated to a huge level. The new mayor is shocked and wants 'transparency' in everything....thus saying he's totally innocent and wants to get to the bottom of this.
Another funny thing....there's phone records between the basher and the campaign staff....with text messages indicating shuttling of funds to help in the basher's election race.
This week.....the basher and the Federal Attorney General's office came to admit they are talking between each other.
The new mayor? He's doing public appearances but I suspect that he's talking to his staff and wondering who will take the fall and how much he has to pay for that fall (hire six relatives maybe?).
It's kinda the way that things run in DC politics. And the interesting part? The top four people around the new mayor? All women....from the Mayor Berry and Williams eras. Kind of interesting...they were all part of those administrations.
Finally, the Basher? Well....that's another funny thing. He has continually bumped against the law but never been in real trouble. He's the guy who never figured out the best roads in life and got into some stupid episodes. Just two or three years ago....as a security guard....he was putting the moves on some teenage girl whose mom put out a restraining order to stay away. The guy was over thirty....and the girl was just a teenager.
Yep, I just can't make this stuff up.
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