By If you have any links or comments you would like to share here is your chance.
By the way what does everyone think about what is going on in Wisconsin? I just find interesting that after all the talk about toning down the political rhetoric after the shooting of Congresswoman Giffords that you have a bunch of people rabidly protesting with signs saying KILL THE BILL!, calling the governor Hitler, Mubarak, and other dictator terms. So much for that new tone.
12:44 am on February 20th, 2011 1
The official unemployment rate is over 9%. The real unemployment rate (including those who have quit looking for work) is around 20%. Teachers are among the most generously compensated white-collar employees in the United states–teachers in Wisconsin on average make twice what the average Wisconsonite in the private sector earns. In short, the unions are robbing the citizens of Wisconsin, and those protesting the governor are a bunch of parasites. They work for the taxpayers, and the taxpayers are suffering right now. Time to shut up and start sacrificing a little just like everyone else.
2:20 am on February 20th, 2011 2
I sure get some stupid replies from the American Embassy, they recently catagorized Americans into different catagories in this way…"While English teachers make up a large percentage of American in Korea, there are also U.S. soldiers, Department of Defense employees, other U.S government employees (who do not work for the Embassy), and employees working for private companies."
Notice "American" should've been "Americans." I'm not surprised they don't know the difference between the singular and plural.
Their reply was to my question as to why the Embassy has basically ignored English teachers despite the S. Korean media's depiction of them negatively(to put it mildly) at least 239 times in 2007, 182 times in 2008, and 351 times in 2009.
The Embassy said they don't(care about the "pissy" English teacher in my opinion) "have the facilities for 130.000 Americans in S. Korea." Surprisingly, the Embassy of Canada was able to provide and listen to 75 English teachers(including Americans or anyone else) yesterday, Sunday, Nov. 20th about the perceptions of English teachers in S. Korea.
For those who are new to Korea, there has been a shift in negative depictions of Americans/foreigners in S. Korea from the American soldier to the English teacher. The American Embassy is like duh…Really!!!! They don't care about English teachers in S. Korea or believe anything and everything Koreans write and say.
Does anyone get the American Embassy "newsletter" provided by the embassy and if so, has it ever mentioned anything about the hundreds/thousands of negative or untrue/racist stories on English teachers in the past 3-5 years?
2:48 am on February 20th, 2011 3
Of course the right-wingers declare anyone in the middle class as "parasites" if they desire and negotiate through unions to make a decent living with benefits for retirement. But, these same people say it's the "American way" if executives earn outrages incomes, are set for life in retirement, don't pay their fair share of taxes, still want more tax cuts, and their corporations get hundreds of billions in "Corporate welfare" subsidies from the government. I'm not sure on the math of Robert Reich in the following statement, but it sure makes a person wonder why all of the tax loopholes are geared for the top 2% of earners. Yes, I know anyone can own stocks, bonds and other investments, and get the same rate on capital gains. However, the top 2% own most of the individual stocks (outside of retirement plans). Also, hedge funds are reserved for those that can sink in millions:
This-from Robert Reich, Bill Clinton's Sec of Labor.
"Last year, America’s top thirteen hedge-fund managers earned an average of $1 billion each. One of them took home $5 billion. Much of their income is taxed as …capital gains – at 15 percent.
If the earnings of those thirteen hedge-fund managers were taxed as ordinary income, the revenues generated would pay the salaries and benefits of over 5 million teachers.
2:48 am on February 20th, 2011 4
the media is basically democrat, so they control the message and language is depicted as hate, racist, etc. when repubs or the Tea Party are up in arms and patriotic protesting when dems/libs are doing the same thing or worse.
3:07 am on February 20th, 2011 5
A commentary that is hard to dispute, from a lefty blog about a Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel article:
Scott Walker, the Governor of Wisconsin who is spearheading the GOP effort to crush collective bargaining, lavished relatively large salary increases on his staff when he was chief executive of the Milwaukee County Board. Walker surreptitiously did this in 2008 – without the approval of the county board itself and at a time that the county was facing a fiscal deficit, and Walker was about to lay off a large number of union workers. In addition, 700 county positions had already been left vacant due to budgetary pressures.
According to a 2008 Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (MJS) article,which exposed Walker's illicit personal staff raises, one aide was to achieve a 26% increase – solely initiated and approved by Walker – even though the staffer, Tom Nardelli, was to receive tax-payer funded pensions that would exceed $35,700 a year. A member of the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors called Nardelli's salary increase "obscene," according the MJS.
As with the current "budget crisis" in the State of Wisconsin, Walker was helping to create a budget deficit, while using the situation he is responsible for to try and break the unions.
According to a February 18 New York Times editorial, "Just last month, he [Walker] and the Legislature gave away $117 million in tax breaks, mostly for businesses that expand and for private health savings accounts. That was a choice lawmakers made, and had it not been for those decisions and a few others, according to the state's Legislative Fiscal Bureau, the state would have had a surplus."
It's appropriate then to backtrack to 2008 and Walker's history of gilding the lily for his cronies while trying to break the back of working families becomes illuminated.
According to the MJS article entitled "Walker Issues Hefty Raises to Top Milwaukee County Aides":
Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker wants a 26% pay raise for his chief of staff, former Ald. Tom Nardelli, while bypassing traditional County Board approval in quietly issuing large pay raises over the summer to several other top aides.
Nardelli would get the biggest pay increase of top-tier county officials, a nearly $20,000 raise to $95,000 a year. Seven county administrators also scored increases of up to 12.5%.
Some supervisors are upset about being left out of the decision-making process for many of the raises and say Walker's timing couldn't be worse. Heavily rewarding a few top managers while Walker puts final touches on a 2009 budget that's expected to call for scores of layoffs of union workers sends a message of callous disregard, critics of the raises say.
Among the other big winners among Walker's top aides was Mitchell International Airport Director Barry Bateman. His pay rises $13,595, or 11%, to $136,299 a year. Facilities Management Director Jack Takerian got an $11,771 (12.5%) raise, to nearly $106,000.
One of Walker's highly questionable claims in his Koch Brothers' efforts to squash unions by first going after public worker collective bargaining is that the union benefits are higher than in the private sector.
Yet, in 2008, the MJS reported:
Orville Seymer, field director for Citizens for Responsible Government Network, said the raises for Nardelli and some other Walker aides appeared excessive.
"I just think all these people are overpaid" and unlikely to command such salaries in the private sector, Seymer said.
In his stand-off as the point man for the Koch Brothers, Dick Armey, and the national Republican Party, Walker is doing in 2011 what he did in 2008: enrich his cronies and the well-off at taxpayer expense, create a budget crisis, and then using the budgetary problem that he is responsible for to crush the unions.
History repeats itself, doesn't it – and so does the hypocrisy that threatens the existence of the American working family.
5:55 am on February 20th, 2011 6
It really scares me what is going on there. The demonstrators do not seem to see that there is no money to continue what they had. They also do not seem to see that the majority of their fellow citizens in Wisconsin do not support them. Nobody is opposed to them earning a fair living, but when the private sector is suffering, and they are growing wildly, ill will is bred.
I am nearly certain that there will be bloodshed over this. I do not see the governor ordering in the National Guard until he has no other option, but at this point it appears that the demonstrators will soon give him no other choice. And as long as opposition groups are also demonstrating, the chances for violence remain huge. Unfortunately, I see this happening with the country at large when we finally get around to dealing with entitlements. We are basically at the point where small changes to Social Security will not be enough. My generation cannot afford to support my parents' generation from age 65 to their 80s and 90s as people are living now. Fortunately, due to their size, they were able to support their parents from age 65 to their late 60s and early 70s even. But that is gone now, thanks to better medicine. If only government policy could have kept up.
6:46 am on February 20th, 2011 7
A small fix will take care of Social Security. The real problem is health-care costs.
9:49 am on February 20th, 2011 8
The recent heavy snows may have ended the Wis demonstrations…
4:42 pm on February 20th, 2011 9
So who compared Madison, Wisconsin to Cairo? Why it was Republican Congressman Paul Ryan! That implies a comparison of Republican Governor Scott Walker to former Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak. And Ryan is a brilliant man, so he must understand that implication.
5:19 pm on February 20th, 2011 10
Fire the Teachers. Dissolve the union. They obviously have little knowledge to pass on if they believe Walker and Hitler have anything in common. They are easily replaced with Teachers that just might be happy to have their jobs.
5:30 pm on February 20th, 2011 11
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/13/wee…
Glans might be on to something.
7:05 pm on February 20th, 2011 12
this happened just up the road today. Pretty rare for Korea.
A 64-year-old man shot three people, killing two, including his lover, at a farm in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, at around 11:20 a.m. Monday.
The man, Son, went to the blueberry farm with his shotgun and fired some 20 shells at random, killing a man and a woman.
Another man in his 70s was injured, but escaped the scene and reported it to the police. He was transferred to a hospital with a non-life-threatening injury.
Son surrendered himself after an hour of confrontation with police at the crime scene.
The farm was run by a 41-year-old woman, surnamed Shin, who was Son’s lover, according to villagers. Police suspect Son went on a jealous rampage after suspecting Shin of dating another man.
Police are investigating the exact cause of the shooting and plan to seek an arrest warrant against Son on murder charges.
IN OTHER NEWS:
It seems the Libyan protesters have a hard on for Koreans. What's the deal there?
12:00 am on February 21st, 2011 13
I found my kiiiiill…
on blueberry hiiiiill…
12:07 am on February 21st, 2011 14
@#9, I don't know how you could have missed all the Mubarak signs among a host of other nasty signs the protesters were holding if you watched the news? There is even a mini-Mubarak website set up to protest against Gov. Walker. A number of people in the media have bashed Gov. Walker as being a pharaoh and Mubarak like.
The bottom line is that if Tea Party protesters were doing this you would be bashing them for hate filled political rhetoric. Heck even Joel Klein from TIME magazine has sided against the Wisconsin protesters now because they are obviously anti-democracy.
12:07 am on February 21st, 2011 15
Billy G,
These people aren't "middle class," they are the "government class" who feel that they should be better compensated than the taxpayers that earn less money, have fewer benefits, and have to go to work the entire twelve months out of the year. The unions automatically deduct their dues from the worker's checks and use that money to buy politicians–left wing politicians–who in turn lavish the unions with money through legislation.
Scott Walker is going to break the unions incestuous relationship with politicians, and he's going to remind the government-class employees that they work for the citizenry of Wisconsin and not the other way around.
2:21 am on February 21st, 2011 16
12, There are many medium-small sized Korean construction companies building housings in Libya. Gaddafi seems to have promised people that these housings will be released to the public and the protesters think that if they place a claim now they will somehow get to keep the housing later on. This was an explanation posted on
http://www.hankyung.com/news/app/newsview.php?aid…
IMO maybe a Korean diplomat who was arrested in Libya last year for spying has something to do with it.
3:08 am on February 21st, 2011 17
Well, looking at this situation in Wisconsin, I can't help but shake my head. The mentality is so different. So much for the superior western system.
3:31 am on February 21st, 2011 18
17, you are correct Tom. America is going thru a dark time. The Socialist have been found out.
They are angry. Their power (money) grab is slipping away. Interesting times!
5:59 am on February 21st, 2011 19
>a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/19/sports/autoracing/19nascar.html?_r=1&src=twrhp">House Votes to Continue Army Sponsorships in Nascar
Since they are tracking the numbers, maybe they should first determine what percentage of those 46,000 leads could actually pass the ASVAB.
6:01 am on February 21st, 2011 20
Screwed up the link there.
House Votes to Continue Army Sponsorships in Nascar
8:47 am on February 21st, 2011 21
#19 I don't see it either. All these costly sponsorships seem more like status symbols than recruiting tools. I suspect that if the four services requested NASCAR and/or teams to put some stickers on their cars they would do so for free. You know, to support the troops. But a full sponsorship?
I do not get it. I do not see that the US Armed Forces have a branding problem. Everyone knows about the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. They are in the news all day, every day.
11:01 am on February 21st, 2011 22
GI Korea 14, two points:
I. I do not bash tea partiers.
II. Mubarak was an ally of the United States and of Israel. Your professional colleagues participated in joint exercises with his forces. So are you telling my now that it's nasty to be compared with our friend?
1:35 pm on February 21st, 2011 23
@21- I was probably to rash to say you would bash Tea Party people for holding such signs but many on the political and media left bashed tea party protesters for the very same behavior going on in Wisconsin right now. Now the left is calling this "democracy in action" which is ironic considering that the Democratic state Senate personnel fled to Illinois in an effort to stop democracy. Could you imagine what the left would be saying if the Republicans fled DC to avoid the health care vote?
In response to your second point, that is a pretty lame response considering any rational person would conclude that legitimately elected political figures like Gov. Walker shouldn't be compared to dictators. Do you think it was okay to compare President Obama to dictators during the health care protests? I'm sure you realize that these protesters in Wisconsin are in the wrong with their signs thus your response trying to change the subject.
By the way I actually attended a military school that had an Egyptian officer in my class. He was one of the biggest dirtbags I have ever met. I even liked the Saudi officer better than him which is saying a lot.
2:10 pm on February 21st, 2011 24
With a hat-tip to http://www.eschatonblog.com/ here's more about Wisconsin Governor Walker's budget repair bill. He wants to sell state−owned heating, cooling, and power plants without solicitation of bids. Can you say "crony capitalism"?
GI Korea 22, I've worked with American veterans, commissioned and non-commissioned. They are some of the finest people I've known.
4:30 am on February 22nd, 2011 25
For you sports fans, the Pirates just defeated the Padres… four to two in overtime.
This shocking upset is really going to change the game.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/02/22/501364/…
8:17 am on February 22nd, 2011 26
It's strange how Gov. Walker is saying he wants to balance the budget, and yet when the unions agreed to the financial concessions portion of the bill, he refused the offer and continues to insist on eliminating collective bargaining. So it's not so much about the budget, it's about busting unions. He's using the mantra of higher pay and benefits of public employees to drum up support for his actions.
The thing is, 50% of all government employees have advanced degrees, which in turn will assist a person in attaining a higher level of income – just like people in the private sector. Many people without higher degrees in the government really don't make much more than their civilain counterparts. Insurance and savings programs are better, but because they don't make as much, many lower paid government employees aren't able to take advantage of them. It's also interesting how he excluded the unions that supported his election.
Marcus #15: I noticed you mentioned an incestuous relationship between unions and politicians. How about his incestuous relationship with the Koch Brothers? Other than teachers, how many public employees do you know that only work 9 months out of the year? Teachers don't get paid for 12 months, they get paid for 9. They have the option of having their pay spread out over 12 months if they want. What are your feelings on the portion of the bill that says he will be able to sell off public utilities WITHOUT any oversight? Would you support selling off those utilities to one of his cronies for a lower bid than what it's worth, especially with the financial state that Wisconsin is in? Also, when you said teachers make twice what the average Wisconsite makes, are you comparing them with ALL workers, or just those with masters level degrees in comparable professions?
I agree, these are hard times and things are going to occur that will require some sacrifice from all of us. The governor in my state, Michigan, wants to start taxing retirement pensions. I'm retiring in August and really don't like the idea. But my state is in worse shape than Wisconsin, so I guess we all have to do our part. It's just that Walker has an agenda cloaked in the rhetoric of overpaid public employees that he and his buddies, the Brothers Koch, are using to emasculate the unions. Once that precedent is set, they will go after the rank and file of civilian unions. Just watch.
As far as comparing him to Mubarak, I read a story today that said a website was blocked at the capitol that was being used as an organizing site for the protesters. I've got nothing to cofirm that, though.
And… as far as who is carrying what sign saying this about that – so what! Just file it under the First Amendment and let it go. The only people who complain about signs are the people who don't agree with the viewpoint. It'll all flip-flop at the next rally/protest/demonstration, etc.
8:27 am on February 22nd, 2011 27
Unions and the protesters who take taxpayer money while protesting (as opposed to taking a vacation day) are nothing but thugs.
There ought not to be public employee unions. When was the last cave in at the teacher's lounge? How about those underage children forced to work long hours at school? Oh, wait, they're not the teachers…
We need to get away from school administrators who make millions, too; but first put the money back in the classroom, not into the pockets of the unions.
11:57 am on February 22nd, 2011 28
@26 – You are just repeating the standard union talking points. Gov. Walker has been saying repeatedly why he wants to take away the collective bargaining rights of the government union workers:
Gov. Walker has been up front about what he intends to do and the unions have been claiming he hasn't in order to portray him negatively. I think Gov. Walker is right in regards to giving people a choice to join a union. Why should Wisconsin teachers be forced to pay $1000 a year to a union they may not want to be part of? Democrats are supposed to be about choice accept when it comes to unions. It is wrong when a teacher that may lean Republican is forced to pay $1000 a year to fund Democrats. I'm with setnaffa that government employees should not be part of a union. It is not right to have parts of the government using mandatory union dues to fund a political party. The government should be apolitical like the military. What would Democrats say if the military formed a union with mandatory dues used to fund Republican candidates every election?
Back to the Wisconsin issue, the unions there had the past two years under a Democratic governor and state legislator failed to reach a deal and now at the 11th hour they say they are prepared to deal. They just want to play delay games and give up as little as possible until they can get a political advantage again to keep the union gravy train going. They got pummeled in the 2010 elections and like the Korea mad cow 2008 nonsense this is a similar attempt by political opponents to prevent the election winner from governing.
The bottom line is that Gov. Walker has been up front that he is trying to balance the budget and reduce the power of the unions in Wisconsin in order to bring business back to the state which means more jobs.
12:18 pm on February 22nd, 2011 29
Will Governor Walker suppress the unions that support him, the police and firefighters?
12:45 pm on February 22nd, 2011 30
Gov. Walker is making a political calculation by not starting his attempt to reign in the power of the government unions by confronting the police and fire personnel who the public would be naturally more sympathetic to. Plus could you imagine the chaos if the police and fire personnel didn't show up to work like these teachers? He had to start somewhere and he started with the teacher union.
Like I have already said I don't think any of these government entities should have a union. That puts me in agreement with Democratic icons like FDR and LaGuardia.
2:17 pm on February 22nd, 2011 31
I hate unions.
Whatever their stated intention and purpose, they quickly degenerate into corruption and greed.
Instead of fighting for fair pay and fair working conditions while supplying an easy-to-manage quality workforce, unions become dogmatic in their support of substandard workers while constantly demanding more pay and benefits and wanting less actual work.
They reduce innovation, promote substandard production, and kill industries.
They involve themselves in politics and chase agendas for reasons other than supporting their members.
And there is no excuse to REQUIRE union membership. A good product sells itself… and a correctly-run union that limited itself to making sure its members got fair treatments would attract everyone as a member.
That all being said, unions are pretty much the only thing standing in the way of the growing American oligarchy as the corporate-government alliance shifts more and more real power into the hands of the corporations.
So… what to do?
4:07 pm on February 22nd, 2011 32
@31
Oh yes there is. The unions only real trump card is having the whole department go out on strike. If you had a union nonunion mix in any department then the nonunion people would be forced to hold down the fort until the strike was resolved. Furthermore if you allowed nonunion people to enter the same department then management would hire nothing but nonunion people for obvious reasons.
My question is, what happens if the Gov can't balance the budget? Can a state still operate? Does the Federal Gov step in or something?
4:57 pm on February 22nd, 2011 33
"The unions only real trump card is having the whole department go out on strike."
Absolutely.
But why would someone not want to join a union if its goal was protecting the income and rights of the workers in the short-term while considering the long-term health and direction of the company?
It could be that forced membership, just like much else counter to a free market, discourages competition and innovation, encourages corruption and complacency… and allows leadership to pursue agendas, engage in politics, and support positions that may not be acceptable to their forced members.
I have never had any dealings with unions… but I'm not blind to many of their actions and I understand how things evolve in organizations when there is a lack of freedom… so, my position hasn't changed.
I could be convinced otherwise… but I'm not yet.
5:33 pm on February 22nd, 2011 34
GI Korea 30, you may think you're defending Scott Walker, but you're condemning him. If your analysis is correct, he's a double-dealing backstabber. If he's supporting the fire-fighters' and police unions only until it's convenient to smash them, he deserves to be compared with notorious dictators.
ChickenHead 31 and 33, you've identified a real dilemma. The unions, with all their flaws, are the last opposition to plutocracy. Every department of the government, including the military, has corruption, but we don't abolish it. Corporations have corruption, but we don't abolish them. But unions are different. If some union, or just some union official, is corrupt, then all unions are to be abolished! Why? Because they're the last opposition to plutocracy.
10:59 pm on February 22nd, 2011 35
So Scott Walker is a dictator because he wants to give people the choice of whether or not to join a union?
The standards of being a dictator are quite low now a days. Using your logic I guess President Obama is a dictator to since he won't give people the choice of whether or not to buy health care insurance.
1:11 am on February 23rd, 2011 36
Before the baby is thrown out with the bathwater, let's not forget why we have unions in the first place: Forty hour work weeks instead of slave labor, child labor restrictions, minimum wage, workplace safety regulations, pensions.
Without unions: All those people lost in mining collapses last year? The response would have been "C'est la vie." … No government employees should be unionized? Does anyone believe the 911 rescue workers would have finally gotten their healthcare compensation bill passed if they didn't have a union pushing for it?
Like the peope who say they don't need healthcare insurance until someone in their family gets cancer, it's too easy to say you don't need a support system until sh!t happens.
1:15 am on February 23rd, 2011 37
"Using your logic I guess President Obama is a dictator to since he won't give people the choice of whether or not to buy health care insurance."
AHhhh hahahahahaha!
ROFLMAO
That's why I like to read this blog GI Korea. I'm going to use that line in the future.
4:34 am on February 25th, 2011 38
It is good to see our troops on the battlefield will finally get the training they need to save lives and accomplish the mission.
Why past administrations didn't make this a wartime priority, I will never know.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/feb/24/c…
4:57 am on February 25th, 2011 39
GI Korea #28, I really don't believe that Gov. Walker wants to eliminate collective bargaining in order to make more money available to the rank and file workers. It's more of an issue of reducing funds available for democratic programs, candidates, and issues. If concessions were made on pay and benefits in order to save money, what's the big deal about collective bargaining? Other than pay and benefits the only major thing remaining would be working conditions, safety, etc.
Just because someone works for the govt., why shouldn't they at least be able to voice their opinion on working conditions? It's not totally about saving money. It's more about limiting the voice of the opposition. Once the precedent has been set by a governmental agency of union busting, it will result in the same tactics being used in private enterprise. Business vs. Unions. It's a system of checks and balances. Business will never put the welfare of employees at the top of the agenda. If it did, there would be no need for unions. If it did, major American companies would not be employing children in sweat shops overseas.
Did you see the story of the blogger who posed as one of the Koch Brothers while talking w/ Walker on the phone? It's fairly obvious that he is on a mission to break the unions and dry up a source of donations for the democrats, yet he has no problem accepting financial support from the likes of the Koch Brothers.
Governmental unions aren't that strong anyway. You can't strike and if the government doesn't pass a budget, you are required to work anyway – without pay until it's passed. I work for the VA and in the mid 90's when a budget wasn't passed, we continued to work for almost a month without a paycheck.
I'll be the first to say that a lot of unions have become money making businesses unto themselves, and some seem to have lost sight of what their core mission is. But they are the only thing that stands in the way of turning the clock back a hundred years.
I'm pretty sure that by now most people understand that sacrifices will have to be made at all levels of employment and society and I fully support his attempts to balance his budget. It's just that his tactics and agenda are so blatant and premeditated.
5:23 am on February 25th, 2011 40
GI Korea, I put little stock in the "gotcha" pictures that the media take of the apparent opposing side. In addition to them having a tendency to focus on the more extreme, there are deliberate attempts to manipulate this.
For example, this week one of the Tea Party organizations posted the following in regards to the protests in Wisconsin:
This guy claims that the other side does it as well, which is why he wants Tea Party members to do it.
Okay, then. Don't trust the "keep government out of my Medicare" signs. Only believe the nonsense when, say, it comes from someone who you know where they stand.
6:49 am on February 25th, 2011 41
I guess I support getting rid of the requirement that people buy health care. Let's take the names of all the people who refuse to buy it, put them in a national database, and deny them emergency care unless they pay upfront before they receive it. Once their ability to act as a free-rider on the insurance-paying population is removed, then there is no problem with them not buying insurance and they should not be fined.
11:33 pm on February 25th, 2011 42
@39 – The reduction of the state union's power in Wisconsin still leaves that union with much more bargaining rights than federal workers have. What would be wrong if the state governors wanted to have their state unions have the same level of power as a federal union?
12:17 am on February 26th, 2011 43
#42 I was wondering just who would get around to pointing out the federal workers bargaining rights. The Dems under Carter did this but Walker is getting the heat today. I had no idea untill I was watching Glen Beck
and he spoke of it. Then O'reilly 
spoke of it. Then Hannity 
had something on it.
To think that all these years I believed Carter never did anything but get troops killed and ask his pre-teen daugther Amy, what she thought about something, that she wasn't old enough to think about.
2:16 am on February 26th, 2011 44
GI Korea #42: Gov. Walker has already demonstrated that he doesn't want his state employees having the same rights as federal workers. Even though we can't strike, our union can still sit down and engage in collective bargaining on certain issues. The reason we can't bargain on wages and benefits is because our benefits and pay schedules are tied to federal law or policies and to a major extent are governed by those laws. So for a POTUS to step in and change anything about pay or benefits would literally take an "an act of Congress". There are differences in pay for the same job depending on locality, just like military pay that is augmented for the cost of living in different areas of the country. Your attachment mentioned something about Obama daring to withold COLA raises for federal employees. Once again, federal policies say he can, and even though it resulted in less money in my pocket, it was the right thing to do at this point in time.
As far as I know that was the first time that our pay wasn't synched with the raise the military got. You would probably be amazed at how few people even commented about it, let alone complained. Everyone I talked to was glad that at least the active duty personnel got a raise.
Another thing that would save some money would be to cut out some of those federal holidays. Really, how many people actually plan holiday activities around President's Day, Columbus Day, or even MLK day?
As I said before, Walker's agenda is not to give his public employees choices of union membership, more money in their pockets, etc. It's all about limiting funds for the opposition. Wisconsin in not a Right to Work state. Some think Right to Work is good, some think it's bad. But it appears as if he and his cronies have superseded that law for select employees.