American Idol #2

Thank God that Wisconsin Governor has pinpointed the main problem in the United States today - reasonably well compensated teachers, firefighters, police officers, and government workers.

Governor Walker's tax cuts for Wisconsin businesses have left his current budget with a $137 million deficit -- and what better way to pay for these tax cuts than socking it to public sector employees and their unions! Talk about killing two birds with one stone! With $$$ from the Koch Brothers and their out of state oil industries (soon to be cherry picking Wisconsin businesses with a sweetheart deal with the Governor), Walker is standing firm like Muamar Ghadaffi in Libya against the thousands and thousands of demonstrators fighting for their rights. Even though the unions have agreed to his wage and benefit concessions, Governor Walker will not rest until collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin are severely limited. He refuses to take yes for an answer.

And he has bravely done so despite the direct challenge to Ronald Reagan's revered place in the Republican Party: "These are the values inspiring those brave workers in Poland ... They remind us that where free unions and collective bargaining are forbidden, freedom is lost." —RONALD REAGAN, Labor Day Address at Liberty State Park, 1980.

How brave Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker truly is. He is willing to risk Wisconsin's ACT/SAT scores for his principles! Destroying collective bargaining has long been the province of the private sector and Scott Walker campaigned to run Wisconsin like a business.....so there you go. No surprise there.

Only 5 states do not have collective bargaining for educators and have deemed it illegal. Those states and their ranking on ACT/SAT scores are as follows: South Carolina -50th; North Carolina -49th; Georgia -48th; Texas -47th; Virginia -44th. If you are wondering, Wisconsin, with its collective bargaining for teachers, is ranked 2nd in the country.

Wisconsin clearly has an ACT/SAT cushion that will allow for thousands of teachers to be laid off and for future teachers to be paid less and less to help fund business' tax breaks well into the 21st century. ACT/SAT scores can safely drop into the middle of the pack before he will worry too much. Why be above average when you don't need to be.......

The Republican Governor's association is even purchasing TV ads in Wisconsin defending their brother in the battle against education.....

Meanwhile, Republicans in Wash, DC, are continuing their efforts to cut as many jobs as possible from the nation so they can run on their Jobs, Jobs, Jobs message so successful in the last elections. Three studies now including one from Goldman Sachs have suggested the budget cuts sought by the Republicans will slow the economy by two full percentage points and eliminate 400,000 to a 1,100,000 jobs across the nation. "So be it," says Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner. The Republicans continues to focus on reducing government spending on the poor and middle classes, women, children, education, the environment, the arts, peacemaking, energy independence. "So be it," says Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner.

With Republican Governors proposing Draconian cuts in many state budgets across the country, eliminating collective bargaining wherever possible, undermining health insurance reforms as best they can, continuing their culture wars against gay rights, women's reproductive rights, gun control, Mexicans, Muslims, unions, etc., etc., this next two years will be interesting if nothing else.

A public union employee, a tea party activist, and a CEO are sitting at a table with a plate of a dozen cookies in the middle of it. The CEO takes 11 of the cookies, turns to the tea partier and says, "Watch out for that union guy. He wants a piece of your cookie."

It's all pretty depressing.

On the brighter side of the news, a small nuclear war could be a good thing: "Scientists from NASA and a number of other institutions have recently been modeling the effects of a war involving a hundred Hiroshima-level bombs, or 0.03 percent of the world's current nuclear arsenal, according to National Geographic. The research suggests five million metric tons of black carbon would be swept up into the lowest portion of the atmosphere. The result, according to NASA climate models, could actually be global cooling."

And freedom movements are gaining steam in the Middle East and North Africa -- if only their freedom didn't mean my $4 per gallon gas at the gas pump. I was heartened to see that Libyan oil fields have resumed exporting oil, except that it was to China.

The coordinated Republican strategy of keeping our economy in the doldrums, breaking unions, and fighting the culture wars will be a challenge for President Obama and Democrats. I have a theory that the reason Republicans so revere President Reagan is that he is the only President they have to elevate to iconic status. GWB, no. Nixon, no. Gerald Ford, no. Herbert Hoover, no. Abraham Lincoln, yes, but Lincoln would be a Democrat today. So they overlook his budget busting spending, his negotiations with terrorists, and his many tax increases. The current crop of Republican candidates is long list of has beens and never weres.

So with nobody who can chew gum and walk at the same time including a number who can't string together a coherent set of words into sentences ( I didn't even need to say the name, did I?), their strategy is to misrepresent, lie, lie, attack, undermine, posture, and dissemble.

I saw a report this morning that Fox News can't get a license in Canada to broadcast because Canada has a law that prohibits lying on the air. That's too funny.

I'd better go grade papers.


Later, Bud