Saturday, February 19, 2011

I Heard It Through The Jokeline 2



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. And it seems to me that Governor Scott Walker's basic requests are modest ones--asking public employees to contribute more to their pension and health care plans, though still far less than most private sector employees do. He is also trying to limit the unions' abilities to negotiate work rules--and this is crucial when it comes to the more efficient operation of government in a difficult time. When I covered local government in New York 30 years ago, the school janitors (then paid a robust $60,000 plus per year) had negotiated the "right" to mop the cafeteria floors only once a week. And we all know about the near-impossibility of getting criminal and morally questionable--to say nothing of less than competent--teachers fired.


John Cole wrote a post responding to Andrew Sullivan that I believe applies as well here:
3.) The fundamental thing you need to understand when talking to deficit hawks is that when they say something is painful or that cuts will hurt people, you need to recognize that what they really mean is that the cuts will be painful TO SOMEONE ELSE and hurt people THEY DON’T KNOW AND WILL NEVER MEET. That’s why it’s so easy to be a condescending asshole about the budget. That’s why it takes nothing to suggest raising the retirement age for Social Security. That’s why, after taking a month off from writing on the internet to recover from a cold, he can tell people who work back-breaking manual labor every day of their god damned lives for much less money than he or McMegan earn that they should “contribute” more to their health care costs.

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14 comments:

M. Bouffant said...

What? No mention of the Koch Bros. financing the whole thing when you're leaving notes for Joe?

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

Frankly, I would have questioned my stance if Joke had agreed.

The only thing worse is when Bill Kristol agrees.

Substance McGravitas said...

We all know about the near-impossibility of getting criminal and morally questionable--to say nothing of less than competent--pundits fired.

Mandos said...

That's John Cole. Juan Cole writes at Informed Comment.

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

Thanks, Mandos. Fixed.

S McG, exactly.
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ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

Thanks, Mandos. Fixed.

S McG, exactly.

ZRM, after taking a month off from writing on the internet to recover from a cold... counts for a couple of cuss words in my book.

;)
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Glennis said...

In a democracy, there are consequences to elections and no one, not even the public employees unions, are exempt from that.

Apparently, the Democrats and the president who won in 2008 don't have the right to enjoy that. wonder why Jokeline didn't start writing this in 2009?

And fucking give me a break. He didn't write about any $60K a year janitors thirty years ago. What a fucking liar.

Randal Graves said...

Well gee, maybe if all you 60k/year unionists don't like it, you can start your own bloated gasbag service. Enter the free market of ideas, lazy bums, compete with the inscrutable genius that is Joe Klein.

Dr.KennethNoisewater said...

Kudos for the GIMPing. It's pretty darn funny.

Kathleen said...

nice comment thundra

Kathleen said...

Frankly, I would have questioned my stance if Joke had agreed.

keep that stance narrow!!

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

In a democracy, there are consequences to elections and no one, not even the public employees unions, are exempt from that.

Well, Walker didn't come out and say that he'd be eliminating collective bargaining when he was running for office. If he had, he'd never have one. Lying ass dog!

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

Uh, "won"... where's my brane today?

Nice comment, Thunder, you ripped him a new one.

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

However, Walker pulled the same stunt while County Executive.
Cost us upwards of half-amill, and he bailed just in time to take the Big House in Madison.

It was obvious what he is, but since the only people yelling about him came from that Bad Old Big City (as a state that is 90% white, anything relating to dusky skinned people is routinely ignored), he was installed by the intervention of the Cock Brothers, as thundra noted.

I think I may need to re-program our robot to give him a metallic enema.