Make your voice heard at the Capitol Wednesday

Some 10,000 people will be in Lansing on Wednesday April 13 to protect the working poor and middle class at the We Are the People Rally.

The rally is being organized by the Michigan State AFL-CIO, AFSME and Working Michigan. To accommodate working people who work different shifts, it will run from 1-6 p.m., and because of that, new people will be arriving all day. Last month more than 5,000 were at the Capitol for the “Storm the Capitol” rally. The numbers were actually more than that because, like what will be happening Wednesday, people were coming and going all day.

Various labor groups are also sponsoring buses, and that information can be found on the Facebook event page. The union-busting attempts by the Republicans have rallied people to the side of labor. In fact, polls are showing that Americans strongly oppose efforts to strip unionized government workers of their rights to collectively bargain.

Because of that over-reach, many non-union people have joined the protests all over the country, so to help those people get to the rally, plus gas approaching $4 a gallon, a page has been set up for people who want to car pool or share a ride.

There are also some interesting committee meetings they can take in while they are in the Capitol, and all committee meeting are open to the public and citizens can speak.

The House Education Committee is meeting at 9 a.m. in Room 519 of the House Office Building (HOB), 121 N. Capitol, across from the Capitol, and the subject of the hearing is an overview of teacher tenure in the State of Michigan.

The Senate Appropriations Sub-Committee on Higher Education is meeting at 12:30 p.m. in the Senate Appropriations Room on the 3rd Floor of Capitol Building. The committee will be discussing the Higher Education Budget, as well as the popular MSU Cooperative Extension Service program.

The Appropriations Sub-Committee on K-12 public education funding is meeting at 11 a.m. or right after the Senate session in the Senate Appropriations Room on the 3rd Floor of Capitol Building. Testimony will be held on the School Aid budget.

Good news for progressives: Kloppenburg win and Beck demise

In a preview of the 2012 election, JoAnne Kloppenburg was elected to the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday over the incumbent in a backlash to the union-busting attempt by teabagger Governor Scott Walker.

In a usually slow March election, voter turnout was very high, and Kloppenburg unseated incumbent David Prosser, a Walker pal who made it very clear how he will vote when the hastily passed union busting bill makes its way to the court.

The election was a clear referendum on the union busting efforts by Republicans in the Midwest states, and it was the first election since last November; allowing people to turn protest into action.

Going into the race after the primary election in February, incumbent David Prosser was the hands on favorite, having pulled in 55 percent of the vote over Kloppenburg, his second highest leading opponent, who received just 25 percent of the vote. After Walker’s union-busting legislation that would kill collective bargaining rights for state workers, the race became a focus for the energized Democratic base. However, A recount is expected.

The Wisconsin State Journal is reporting that the high voter turnout, double for a normal March election, has been a boon for the recall attempt of eight Republican Senators. The Journal is reporting that recall leaders got plenty of signatures outside of polling places on Tuesday, so much so that they have enough signatures to put them over the top for a second Republican recall.

The close vote indicates that not all eight will be successful, but it can change the makeup of the body, as well as keep the energy going until next year’s election. A recall of two Michigan Senators for a tax vote in 1983 gave Republicans control of the Senate they have never lost, despite more people voting for Democratic Senators in 2006 than Republicans.

I am not normally a fan of recalls for a single vote, but when that vote required you violate the law, sneak in and out of the Capitol under armed guard to make the vote and lock people out of their Capitol to do it then I would make an exception.

There is also recall attempt against a couple of the heroic Wisconsin 14 Democratic Senators who left the Capitol to deny a quorum, but it does not appear to be much of a threat. In fact, the recall against Sen. Lena Taylor, D-Milwaukee, has only two signatures so far; the organizer and his wife, and the 60-day window to gather signatures runs out April 25.

I can’t wait for next year’s election, and we only need to limit the damage Republicans can do in the next 16 months.

Yesterday saw even more good news. Faux “news” madman Glenn Beck announced he leaving his show; a victim of falling ratings and disgusted advertisers. It’s unclear if it is voluntary.

The ratings for the first quarter of 2011 showed Beck's show had lost close to a third of its audience, especially among advertiser-prized viewers ages 25 to 54, where he was down almost 40 percent. But, it was the advertisers that really did him in, and they were leaving in droves because they did not want to be associated with his crazy end-of-world conspiracy theories and racist rants.

I expect his ratings to make a surge for next couple of days and maybe weeks because people want to see what conspiracy theory he whips up and who he blames for this.

The right has to stoop to imposters to try and paint unions as violent

The right is spinning out of control trying to paint your neighbors, friends and relatives as “union thugs” simply because they are standing up for their civil right of collective bargaining.

The massive crowds protesting the right's assault on public sector unions have been peaceful, and it is driving the right crazy that no one is buying their lie that they are violent. The leading rightwing blog in Michigan is going berserk trying to portray firefighters, police officers and teachers as “animals. In fact, a few Michigan teabaggers have been at the protests trying to provoke a confrontation so they can get it on tap to try and make the claim that they are violent. Kind of like what went on from the regime in Egypt.

It has been driving them crazy that they have not been able to elicit a violent response, so now they are trying to plant imposters to incite a riot. Extremist Republican Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin said he considered planting some “troublemakers” into the huge crowd of pro-worker protestors that have flooded into Madison. The only thing that stopped him was that he was afraid it might force him to bow to the majority of people who support collective bargaining rights, not that it would endanger people.

But Walker and teabagger Republican Grand Traverse County Commissioner Jason Gillman are not the only Republicans who feel that way.

Republican Johnson County, Indiana deputy prosecutor Carlos Lam resigned last week after the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism traced an e-mail he sent to Walker urging him to fake an attack to make it look like the pro-union protested had did it to in order for Walker to gain sympathy.

The e-mail was one of the tens of thousands of e-mails released in an open-records settlement the Walker administration reached with a local paper and the Associated Press after Walker lied and said he had thousands of emails supporting his union busting attempt.

“I've been involved in GOP politics here in Indiana for 18 years, and I think that the situation in WI presents a good opportunity for what's called a "false flag" operation,” Lam wrote. “ If you could employ an associate who pretends to be sympathetic to the unions' cause to physically attack you (or even use a firearm against you), you could discredit the public unions.”

When confronted with the evidence, Lam initially lied and said he had not sent the e-mail, claiming that he had been the victim of identity theft before he confessed.

This is not the first Indiana Republican thug to lose his job for advocating violence against peaceful, working class citizens. Indiana Deputy Attorney General Jeff Cox lost his job after tweeting that the protesters should be dealt with using “live ammunition,” following that up with “against thugs physically threatening legally-elected state legislators & governor? You’re damn right I advocate deadly force.”

Tell me again who the thugs are?

Some idiot over at the Detroit News even went so far as to compare working people that are our friends, neighbors and family with the murderous, Detroit prohibition-era Purple Gang because they support those who support them. If you want to know why newspapers are barely surviving, you just need to know that this guy is what passes as an editor today.

This idiot named Jeffrey Hadden is comparing a legal boycott with murder and vandalism.

Please.

Rightwing Republican think tank continues to use FOIA for intimidation

You have to wonder if it's a case of the chicken or the egg with the use of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by the rightwing Republican think tank “Mackinac Center for Public Policy to intimidate and to dig up dirt on opponents.

The partisan Republican think tank, financed by right-wingers like the rightwing billionaire Koch Brothers, submitted a FOIA request last week to the labor studies departments at Wayne State University, Michigan State University and the University of Michigan aimed to intimidate pro-labor dissenters and stifle academic freedom.

The FOIA request is seeking emails in which the terms "Scott Walker," "Wisconsin," "Madison" or "Maddow" are being used. This is very similar to the Howell Public Schools infamous E-mail case that began four years ago, and, in fact, it has some of the same players.

In May of 2007 anti-union activist Chet Zarko, who passed away last summer, filed a massive FOIA request with the help of teabagger and former Howell School Board member Wendy Day seeking union emails in a fishing expedition to embarrass the Howell Education Association that were in tough contract negotiations with the school district. It was never determined who was paying Zarko, and he denied anyone was. But it was the Mackinac Center that ended up bankrolling his long court fight.

The district released some emails, but an injunction was issued stopping Zarko from receive any more of the 5,500 emails. However, he published the ones that put the union president in a bad light.

In January of 2010 the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled that the emails sent and received on Howell Public School computers between union members were not public record, and they concluded that under the FOIA statute the individual teacher’s personal emails were not rendered public records solely because they were captured in the email system’s digital memory. The three-Judge panel said it was a question that must be resolved by the Legislature.

After the death of Zarko, the Mackinac Center continued with the case, but the Michigan Supreme Court has refused to take up the case.

It begs the question if Zarko was being paid by the Mackinac Center, or if the Mackinac Center copied Zarko to use the FOIA as an intimidation tactic against teachers with their bottomless money pit. There is no reason they should get any of the emails based on this case.

It’s ironic that MSNBC host and Rhodes Scholar Rachel Maddow is a target of the rightwing think tank. The Koch Brothers bankrolled the union busting attempt in Wisconsin, and Maddow exposed the fact that they are also bankrolling the stealth union busting attempts in Michigan.

The Koch brothers are financing the Mackinac Center, and it was the Mackinac Center that basically wrote the anti-democratic and anti-union emergency financial managers (EFM) package of bills pushed and signed into law earlier this month by Gov. Rick Snyder, also a former wealthy CEO.

It’s well past the time Mackinac Center loses its non-partisan and nonprofit status so we can see who is funding them. They are not nonpartisan.

Rightwing Koch brothers also bankrolling union busting crusade in Michigan

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder’s plan to bust public sector unions and replace local control with centralized power in Lansing with this army of unelected and all-powerful emergency financial managers (EFM) has ties to the same union busting effort in Wisconsin.

Mother Jones magazine did a piece on the EFM bills Snyder signed into law earlier this month that gives an EFM, after just two days of training, the power to void union contracts, run a school district, fire the elected boards and councils, call for millage elections, disincorporate or dissolve the municipal government and kill collective bargaining.

Last month Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker was pranked when he thought he was talking to conservative billionaire David Koch, one of the Koch brothers who has bankrolled teabaggers and is financing the current union-busting movement, on the phone when he was really talking to a liberal blogger that showed Walker’s so-called “budget repair bill” was just a ploy to bust unions. The Mother Jones article shows that the Koch brothers are also behind the effort in Michigan. Like Walker, Snyder is creating budget deficits by taking away money from school districts and local governments with a $1.8 billion gift to businesses, allowing more EFMs to be needed.

The article says that since 2005, the rightwing Michigan think tank “Mackinac Center for Public Policy has urged reforms to Michigan law giving more power and protection to emergency financial managers.” “…In January, the free-market-loving center published four recommendations, including granting emergency managers the power to override elected officials (such as a mayor or school board member) and toss out union contracts. All four ended up in Snyder's legislation.”

The think tank has a history of union-busting and support for privatization, especially going after teacher unions. The article goes on to say that “the Mackinac Center does not disclose its donors. But a review of tax records shows that the group's funders include the charitable foundations of the nation's largest corporations and a host of wealthy conservative and libertarian benefactors. Between 2002 and 2009, the Mackinac Center's donors included the Charles G. Koch Foundation ($69,151), founded by the chairman and CEO of Koch Industries, who, with his brother, David, is a major backer of conservative causes,” including the union busting efforts in Wisconsin and funding teabaggers.

Senate Republicans approve anti-union and anti-Democratic EFM package of bills

LANSING – The only jobs the Michigan Republicans have created since taking office in January are those for Emergency Financial Managers (EFM) after the Senate Republicans passed the anti-union and anti-Democratic EFM package of bills on Wednesday

The package will make it easier for financially troubled municipalities and school districts to be taken over by an emergency financial manager, and the bills give the EFM almost dictatorial like powers. The bills take the power and authority out of the hands of the people legally elected by the voters and places it in the hands of a person appointed by the governor and the Legislature, and it allows the EFM - which is why Republicans have placed the bills on the fast track - to terminate contracts negotiated with labor unions in good faith.

Rick Snyder’s proposed budget has deep cuts in school aid and revenue sharing, and that, combined, with falling property values, will guarantee more school districts and municipalities are in finical trouble and ripe for takeover and government expansion.

“This bill, along with the Governor’s proposed cuts to revenue sharing and to our schools, is going to create a race to the bottom, which guarantees many of our cities and schools are going to head into bankruptcy,” said Senate Democratic Leader Gretchen Whitmer.” How does this fit into the primary objective of jobs as job?”

The vote came on the very day that the Michigan Department of Treasury announced that more than 150 “student" are expected for the next Emergency Financial Manager training seminar slated for some time next month. Subscription only MIRS said “the course content in the two-day seminar will be expanded to include school districts along with local governments that might need what will be known simply as an "emergency manager" down the road.” Last month the two-day seminar graduated 65 people to go forth and shred union contr5ats and fire elected officials.

Like on Tuesday in the debate over third reading, a Democratic amendment to limit the salary of the EFM to that of the highest paid elected official in the state, the Governor at $172,000, failed. Seven Republicans crossed over to vote with the Democrats, resulting in a 19-19 tie, but the Lt. Governor broke the tie.

So far, the only job Republicans have created is that of dictator.

“I would ask the Governor and the Republican members of the Senate: Why are you okay with attacking the secretary who makes $35,000 compared—I would ask you, Governor, and the Governor you work for, and the members of your party: Why is it okay to challenge a secretary’s $35,000 a year job and have members in your cabinet who make $250,000 a year,” Whitmer said. “Why are you okay with attacking the firefighter who runs into a burning house, making $44,000 a year, risking their lives, and having a budget director making $250,000 a year? Why is it okay to attack a cop who ensures our community’s safety, making $46,000 a year, and not the emergency financial manager who can make upwards of $159,000 a year? Why is that okay?”

Yesterday saw 29 amendments floated, but the only ones passed were introduced by Republicans. After the defeat of the amendment limiting the pay of the EFM, Sen. Tupac Hunter, D-Detroit, introduced an amendment saying that if the state is going to appoint an EFM and not limit the salary, the state should pay for the EFM. It only makes sense for struggling municipalities or school districts cutting the pay and firing trusted employees that live in the local community that the dictator from Lansing should be paid from Lansing. Predictably, it failed.

Many Democrats supported the idea of the early triggers that identifies early that a community may be in financial trouble and head off trouble early, but not the broad powers of an EFM. Sen. Hoon-Yung Hopgood, D-Taylor, introduced a substitute that retained all of the good points and got rid of the union-busting crap. But in the end, Republicans, like in Wisconsin, are more concerned with busting the unions.

“My concern is that, I think, we may be opening a can of worms, and we need to be very careful about these expansive powers that we are granting to emergency managers,” Hopgood said. “With this bill, as well as the budget and the laws and the stress that local communities and schools are experiencing currently, there is the concern that we are really balancing our budget through this bill on the backs of our employees, on the backs of our citizens who rely on the services for protection; in terms of our kids who are going to experience increased class sizes and schools that are closed.”

Because amendments were added to the main bill, it must now go back to the House for their concurrence.

GOP sneak attack proves union-busting had nothing to do with the budget

"In 30 minutes, 18 state senators undid 50 years of civil rights in Wisconsin," said Democratic Sen. Mark Miller in a statement after Wisconsin Senate Republicans pushed a provision stripping public employees of their collective bargaining rights through the state Senate on Wednesday evening after finding a way to bypass the chamber's missing Democrats and the Open Meetings Act.

This simply proves what Democrats and the majority of Americans have been saying; this was just a trumped up way to bust the unions and had nothing to do with balancing the state budget.

According to MSNBC, because the union provision was part of a budget bill, Republicans in the Senate needed at least 20 senators present for a quorum, but by separating out the anti-union measure, Republicans did not need 20 senators to allow a vote on that piece.

The only good news is that a recall effort is underway for eight of the Republican Senators.

People are outraged and on noon on Thursday middle class and freedom supporters will rally at state capitols or your city halls all over the country. Shortly after the Republicans procedural scam, Wisconsin people gathered at the Capitol to protest this injustice. Tomorrow in Indiana, organizers are expecting the largest rally in Indiana history at the Statehouse to protest a rash of anti-worker bills under consideration. More rallies are being planned every day.

Rally on Tuesday to protest anti-worker and anti-voter bills

The Michigan AFL-CIO and the United Auto Workers of Michigan (UAW) are organizing a pro-worker rally in Lansing on Tuesday March 8 to peacefully protest the anti-union and anti-Democratic Emergency Financial Manager (EFM) package of bills.

The Senate is expected to take up Senate Bills 153-158 that will make it easier for financially troubled municipalities and school districts to be taken over by an emergency financial manager, and the bills give the EFM almost dictatorial like powers. The bills take the power and authority out of the hands of the people legally elected by the voters and places it in the hands of a person appointed by the governor and the Legislature, and it allows the EFM - which is why Republicans have placed the bills on the fast track - to terminate contracts negotiated with labor unions in good faith.

The package is moving at breakneck speed. Just two weeks ago the House approved House Bills 4214-4218 and 4246 along party lines, 62-47 with one Republican voting no on the House version of the bills. This appears to be a stealth way to accomplish the union busting that is going on in in Ohio and Wisconsin and end collective bargaining for public sector unions.

Gov. Rick Snyder’s budget proposal that raises taxes on the most vulnerable and shifts taxes from corporations to kids and seniors will also place more school districts and municipalities into financial trouble.

It also includes deep cuts to revenue sharing to cities, villages and towns, and it will trim the fund from nearly $300 million to $200 million. It will surely cause local governments to lay off police and firefighters, and it will mean more municipalities will need an EFM.

The budget also calls for cutting some $420 per-pupil in public education funding. That will devastate school districts, sending many into deficit districts, meaning they will need an EFM.

The rally will begin at 9 a.m. at the Capitol steps, and the Senate will meet to take up the bills at 10 a.m. The rally is expected to last until 1 p.m.

Wisconsin Governor plans to start killing hostages

Wisconsin Gov. Scooter Walker is going to start killing the hostages at 4 p.m. today, Friday, in his quest to kill the public sector unions in Wisconsin.

Walker created a financial emergency by giving away huge tax breaks to corporations that supported him in order to get concessions from the public sector unions that did not endorse him in the election, but he is going even farther and wants to steal their civil right of collective bargaining and kill the unions.

Walker has refused to negotiate and Senate Democrats left the Capitol to stop the Senate from getting a quorum and passing his union-busting, so-called “budget repair bill.” Now Walker is threatening to begin issuing layoff notices to 1,5000 workers within 24 hours unless his measure was passed, and Senate Republicans authorizing police to round up their missing colleagues.

According to the Associated Press, Walker said he will issue layoff notices to 1,500 state workers on Friday if at least one of the 14 Senate Democrats didn’t return from Illinois to give the Republican majority the quorum it needs to vote.

Walker has tried to trick Senate Democrats into returning by lying and saying he was going to negotiate in good faith, but that trick was exposed in a prank call where he thought he was talking to rightwing billionaire David Koch, who is funding the union-busting efforts across the country, as well as the teabggers.

Leaving the Capitol to deny a quorum is as old as the country, and the father of the Grand Oil Party, Abraham Lincoln, once tried the same tactic.

Senate Republicans may have trouble in their illegal move to go after Senate Democrats with arrest warrants. According to the AP, “The Wisconsin Professional Police Association, a union representing 11,000 law enforcement officials from across the state, released a statement from its director Jim Palmer slamming the Senate Republicans’ resolution to go after the Democrats.”

“The thought of using law enforcement officers to exercise force in order to achieve a political objective is insanely wrong and Wisconsin sorely needs reasonable solutions and not potentially dangerous political theatrics,” Palmer said.

Walker has taken the extraordinary step of locking taxpayers out of their Capitol. It’s no wonder the majority of Americans support the workers in Wisconsin in poll after poll.

Americans do not support Republican union busting

Another day, another poll that shows Americans do not support Republican attempts to steal the civil right of collective bargaining from public employees.

A poll from NBC and the conservative Wall Street Journal discovered that Americans strongly oppose efforts to strip unionized government workers of their rights to collectively bargain. In fact, 62 percent of those surveyed said stealing those rights would be either “mostly unacceptable” or “totally unacceptable.”

That’s not to say the constant lies and attacks on teachers and public employees from Republicans have not been effective, and the poll also showed 68 percent of the respondents would like public employees to contribute more for their retirement benefits and 63 percent want these workers to pay more for their health care. This despite the fact that, for example, Wisconsin teachers have taken pay cuts for the past six years to keep their benefits, and they still are paying more for health care.

In Wisconsin, for example, a contract was made with public employees that is being broken, but they are still willing to make concessions.

It’s sad that Republicans are trying to bust unions and blame public workers for a recession created by Wall Street and made worse by tax giveaways to corporations already sitting on record profits, like in Wisconsin.

There is a good reason the growing inequality between the rich and the rest of us is turning the U.S. into a banana republic, and the richest 1 percent of Americans now take home almost 24 percent of income, up from almost 9 percent in 1976.

If Republicans are successful in breaking unions it will be even larger.

Conspiracy to start a riot may land Wisconsin Governor in hot water

The prank call last week to extremist Republican Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin not only exposed that that he was just trying to bust the public sector unions by trying to take away their collective bargaining rights by creating a financial emergency, but he may now be in some legal trouble.

Walker thought he was talking to sugar daddy David Koch, one of the Koch brothers who has bankrolled teabaggers and is financing the current union-busting movement, but he was actually talking to a liberal blogger posing as Koch. During the 20-lovefest Koch/blogger suggested “planting some troublemakers” into the huge crowd of pro-worker protestors that have flooded into Madison, and Walker said he thought about it but decided against it because it “ would scare the public into thinking maybe the governor has gotta settle to avoid all these problems.”

In other words, Walker planned to hire interstate criminals to use felony violence against his constituents and state employees.

The Madison Police said that he found those comments “very unsettling and troubling,” and he wants an explanation from the Governor. The Governor is the man responsible for public safety in the state, and he is trying to start a riot.

“I would like to hear more of an explanation from Governor Walker as to what exactly was being considered, and to what degree it was discussed by his cabinet members,” Police Chief Noble Wray said in the Milwaukee Journal.” I find it very unsettling and troubling that anyone would consider creating safety risks for our citizens and law enforcement officers.”

Even though Wisconsin has gotten most of the attention for its union-busting attempts, Ohio is also moving forward to take away civil rights. Rightwing extremist Republican Ohio Governor and former Faux News host John Kasich has been pushing to bust unions since he was elected.

On Wednesday the GOP-controlled Ohio Senate voted 17-16 to strip public workers of the civil right of collective bargaining, and it would also ban strikes and put the power of breaking labor impasses in the hands of local elected officials instead of impartial third party judges. Six Republicans had the good sense to vote against it, but it still squeaked by with just one vote.

The Republican controlled House is expected to approve it, but Democratic lawmakers said they would take it to a ballot referendum this fall.

Former Michigan Supreme Court Justice ignores legal election with union busting decision

You had to know this was coming with the rash of Republican attempts at union busting, and yesterday new rightwing Department of Human Services director and former Michigan Supreme Court Justice Maura Corrigan announced the state will stop collecting union dues from 16,500 private day care providers and will no longer fund the agency in charge of their union.

Despite the fact that a majority of workers voted in a legal election and it was upheld in the courts, Corrigan did the bidding for the rightwing think tank the Mackinac Center.

In 2009 child care workers organized the Child Care Providers Together Michigan (CCPTM) union, a joint venture between United Auto Workers (UAW) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). The Michigan Employment Relations Commission (MERC) certified CCPTM as the sole bargaining unit for all home-based child care providers receiving reimbursement payments from the Michigan Child Development and Care Program.

The Mackinac Center, and their allies in the conservative media and in the Senate GOP caucus, thinks it’s somehow illegal for a group of workers to vote to form a union, and the Mackinac Center filed a lawsuit claiming that because not everybody voted, the election is somehow invalid. The Michigan Court of Appeals rejected that ridiculous claim, twice, so they turned to the Legislature where the anti-union Republicans were very receptive. Still, they failed there, so with the stroke of a pen Corrigan undid a legally sanctioned election and what she could not accomplish on the bench or in the Legislature.

I’m assuming the Mackinac Center, knowing they would never win in court, will drop their losing lawsuit, and it’s unclear if the union will file a lawsuit, hopefully they will. It’s nice to know that you can undo an election with a simple stroke of a pen, so I want to see the 2010 election in Michigan undone, too.

Anti-union EFM bills in Committee Wednesday

The big government bills that will bust public sector unions and disenfranchise voters will be up for a vote in the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday, March 2.

The committee will take up House Bills 4214-4218 that will make it easier for financially troubled municipalities and school districts to be taken over by an emergency financial manger (EFM), and the bills give the EFM almost dictatorial like powers. The bills take the power and authority out of the hands of the people legally elected by the voters and places it in the hands of a person appointed by the governor ad the Legislature, and it allows the EFM - which is why Republicans have placed the bills on the fast track - to terminate contracts negotiated with labor unions in good faith.

Last week the House approved the bills along party lines, with one Republicans voting with the Democrats, and the Education Committee is already taking up the bills. Just last week the Education committee also voted out, along party lines, the Senate version of the EFM bills, Senate Bills 153-158.

Despite thousands of pro-working people flooding Lansing last week protesting against the bills and the many anti-worker bills, the Republicans are pushing the bills through with very little debate and at break-neck speed.

The Senate Education Committee meets at 12:30 p.m. in room 100 of the Farnum Building, 125 W. Allegan St. The meeting, like all committee meetings, is open to the public.

(Photo courtesy of Phil Reid)

The public does not support GOP union busting

Despite an all out war on collective bargaining and unions by Republicans like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, the public is simply not buying it.

A CBS/NYT poll released today shows a majority of people have a favorable opinion of unions. Public employees and their unions have been the biggest target of Republicans since the November election, and they are being blamed for municipalities teetering on the brink of bankruptcy despite the fact that Wall Street helped create the deepest and longest recession since the Great Depression.

Like in Wisconsin ad Michigan, public employees have given back wages and benefits to help balance state budgets while Wall Street bankers get huge bonuses, but what Republicans really want to do is take away their civil right of collective bargaining. But, again, people are not buying into that myth that public employees are making too much money and getting too many benefits.

The poll found the majority, 36 percent, say their compensation is about right, and a majority opposes cutting their pay and benefits to balance state budgets. A majority also oppose what Walker is trying to do in Wisconsin, and 38 percent oppose limiting collective bargaining.

With the tide turning against him, Walker has taken more tyrannical measures, locking the public out of their state capitol.

County commissioner calls teachers, police officers and firefighters animals

There is no doubt that the latest round of union-busting by Republicans is about politics because union, workers and the middle class tend to support Democrat, but the hate coming from the right is just amazing.

Only in their world are teachers, police officers and firefighters thugs and animals, but that’s what at least one elected Republican thinks. Pro-worker rallies were held all over the country in support of Wisconsin public employees on Saturday, and more than a thousand people showed up in Lansing.

But this is what teabagger Republican Grand Traverse County Commissioner Jason Gillman thinks of teachers, state employees, police officers and firefighters.

“For my part, I am convinced many of the labor union members that go to these rallies are little more than animals,” he said on the leading rightwing blog “RightMichigan.”

This is an elected official.

Remember that when they use police officers and firefighters as props at press conferences; it appears they are only standing next to these “animals” for political purposes.

Unlike in Wisconsin where the conservative, billionaire Koch brothers are busing in tea baggers, only a few are showing up in Lansing despite attempts to get more to try and get a confrontation on tape. It’s kind of like in Egypt where pro- Mubarak demonstrators tried to incite violence so they could say to the world that the pro-democracy demonstrators there were violent.

But only a handful of teabaggers like Gillman showed up in Lansing, but with so many pro-union people they managed to get an entire 31 seconds of a confrontation on tape from a rally that lasted more than three hours. We only see 31 seconds where a guy gave Gillman the finger and told him to fuck off. Nothing before or nothing after.

Democrats stayed away from teabagger “rallies” that were initially organized and promoted by the most extreme rightwing and anti-government groups out there that include militias, secessionists and neo-Nazi white supremacist groups, and they are financed by cash laden Washington, D.C. lobbying firms and people like the Koch brothers. Make no mistake about it, the attack on unions is to kill Democratic supporters and teabaggers showing up at pro-union rallies is to provoke a confrontation.
Among the many attacks I have endured from anonymous right-wingers on this blog includes the talking point that “elections have consequences.” At no time, that I recall, did a Republican take the position that they were going to take away collective bargaining rights. That they were going to push right to work for less was a given, but it’s not the same.

It’s absurd that workers should give up a civil right they fought and died for, for many years just because of a wave election. Perhaps the greatest civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, died supporting striking workers. The final campaign of King’s life was in support of striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee.

Sanitation workers went on strike for pay and working conditions after two workers had been crushed to death when the compactor mechanism of the trash truck was accidentally triggered in a rainstorm. As the strike lengthened, King agreed to lend his support to the sanitation workers, spoke at a rally in Memphis March 18, and promised to lead the large march and work stoppage planned for later in the month. He was in town for that march when he was assassinated.

Pro worker rally set for Saturday in the Capitol

Working citizens all over Michigan plan to gather at the State Capitol in Lansing at noon on Saturday, Feb. 26 to make their voices heard on the unacceptable attacks on the civil rights of workers, to protest the tax shift from the rich and powerful to the middle class and the working poor and to urge the Legislature to focus on creating jobs instead of union busting.

The rally will run from noon to 3 p.m., and a couple of progressive groups and organized labor are doing the organizing. One event is called “Storm the Capitol,” and the other one is called “The Rally to Save the American Dream.” Both events have the same goals, and the important thing is to just be there.

On Tuesday and Wednesday thousands of workers made it to Lansing to protest the attacks on workers’ rights, and this is a continuation of that. Teabaggers on Tuesday also tried to organize a counter rally designed to provoke a confrontation, but since they were outnumbered 50-1 they kept to themselves. The confrontations only come from them when the numbers are on their side.

But they plan to try it again, and a group called "We the People of Mid-Michigan” is trying to rally the troops on Saturday at the same time.

In addition to few real concerned conservative Republicans, teabagger groups have attracted the most extreme rightwing and anti-government groups out there that include militias, secessionists and neo-Nazi white supremacist groups, and they are financed by cash laden Washington, D.C. lobbying firms and corporations. It will be tough to ignore that element because they will do everything to provoke a confrontation, and we must do everything to ignore those attempts to give them ammunition.

Prank call shows Walker wants to bring union busting to Michigan

It was pretty clear to most people that extremist Republican Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin was trying to bust the public sector unions by trying to take away their collective bargaining rights by creating a financial emergency, but he confirmed his goal was union busting on Tuesday after he was phone pranked by a liberal blogger.

Besides proving he wasn’t very smart and easily duped, the call proves this is just a union busting ploy because unions tend to support Democrats in elections. Walker thought he was talking to David Koch, one of the Koch brothers who has bankrolled teabaggers and is financing the current union-busting movement.

The transcript of the call is just hilarious and reveling, and Walker never knew he was being pranked. It did prove that this is not about balancing the budget but killing the unions. Walker tries to make the claim that the huge crowds that have jammed the capitol in Wisconsin in support of collective bargaining rights are paid, saying, “…they’re probably putting hobos in suits.”

Then they joked about trying to trick the Democratic Senators who left Madison so the Legislature does not have a quorum by tricking them into returning by thinking that Walker was actually going to negotiate in good faith, and Koch/blogger Ian Murphy joked Walker should bring a baseball bat to the meeting.

“I have one in my office; you’d be happy with that,” Walker said. “I got a Slugger with my name on it.”

Walker is obviously enjoying all the attention he is getting, and his ego is growing along with his infamy. He even compared himself to GOP saint Ronald Reagan, and he tried to equate union-busting with the fall of Communism. Someone should tell him about the Solidarity union movement and Lech Wałęsa.

"I pulled out a picture of Ronald Reagan, and I said, you know, this may seem a little melodramatic, but 30 years ago, Ronald Reagan, whose 100th birthday we just celebrated the day before, had one of the most defining moments of his political career, not just his presidency, when he fired the air-traffic controllers,” Walker said. “And, uh, I said, to me that moment was more important than just for labor relations or even the federal budget, that was the first crack in the Berlin Wall and the fall of Communism because from that point forward, the Soviets and the Communists knew that Ronald Reagan wasn’t a pushover"

Walker also made it clear that Wisconsin is ground zero for busting public sector unions, and he wants to import the union-busting to other states, including Michigan.

“I talk to Kasich every day; John’s gotta stand firm in Ohio,” he said. “I think we could do the same thing with Vic Scott in Florida. I think, uh, [Rick] Snyder-if he got a little more support-probably could do that in Michigan.”

The good news is that Snyder is saying, at least publicly, that he is not interested in union busting. But the Republican-controlled Legislature is another story, and they are doing nothing but union busting. I have no idea how this creates jobs.

Veteran Capitol correspondent Tim Skubick is reporting that Snyder went so far as to meet with Legislative Republicans on Tuesday to talk about their union-busting agenda over his agenda of reforming the tax system and the budget. Apparently, the Speaker of the House told him they were more interested in union busting than jobs.

First of two pro-union demonstrations have large and peaceful turnout

LANSING -- Some 1,500 workers turned out to lobby their lawmakers and protest Republicans stealth attempt to bust public sector unions.

The House debated the anti-democratic and union busting House Bills 4214-4218 that give Emergency Financial Mangers (EFM) more power, including the ability to disenfranchise voters and terminate contracts negotiated with labor unions in good faith. Republicans fought off every attempt to make the bills more transparent, but they were defeated along party lines.

Tuesday’s demonstration was peaceful, despite the attempt to take away precious collective bargaining rights won by life and limb of people before them and the vote from locals. It should be hard to take the vote away from voters.

Not only that, but teabaggers organized a weak counter-protest, and about 20 teabaggers showed up in a failed attempt to provoke a confrontation, telling them to “Get pictures, and take video.”

The Detroit News reported that “At one point, about two dozen tea party supporters, many hoisting "Don't Tread on Me" flags, began marching toward the mostly pro-union group of a few dozen people gathered in front of the east Capitol steps. But they stopped about 50 feet away and eventually turned back, later regrouping near Capitol Avenue in front of the monument to Michigan's Civil War governor, Austin Blair.”

The 50-1 ratio of working people to teabaggers made them think better of trying to provoke a confrontation.

Republicans did their best to silence the working people. According to the Detroit News, “More than 500 construction workers chanted and stomped their feet outside a House hearing room this afternoon to get the attention of lawmakers hearing testimony on repeal of prevailing wages.“ The House Commerce Committee took testimony on a bill that will kill the prevailing wage law that calls for union wages to be paid on public projects, but they were locked out after the seats were filled. Typically, another committee room will be set up with a TV feed, bit for some reason that did not happen.

More protests are expected Wednesday in Lansing. The House Government Operations Committee is holding a hearing on legislation to repeal Public Act 312 on Wednesday, Feb 23. House Bills 4205-4206 that will repel Public Act 312 will be voted out of the Committee at noon on Wednesday.

Because police officers and firefighters are essential to public safety, they are not allowed to strike like other bargaining units can, so PA 312 gives them a tool in negotiating a contract. PA 312 is the foundation of collective bargaining rights for firefighters and police officers in Michigan, and since 1969 PA 312 has provided a fair and equitable process for contract disputes between firefighters and police officers and municipalities.

Michigan's police and firefighters are holding a rally in support of PA312. The rally will kick off at the Radisson Hotel in downtown Lansing. From there, the group will head to the Capital.

Additionally, the Senate Education Committee will vote out the Senate version of the anti-democratic and union busting EFM bills, SBs 153-158. The Education Committee meets at 12:30 p.m. in room 100 of the Farnum Building, 125 W. Allegan St.

The meetings, like all committee meetings, are open to the public.

Teabaggers looking to cause and record confrontations

You knew this was coming: Michigan residents are rallying at the Capitol in Lansing tomorrow on Feb. 22 to protect precious collective bargaining rights that people literally gave up life and limb to win, but it appears teabaggers are organizing a counter rally at the same time to try and provoke a confrontation.

Something called the “Southwest Michigan Patriots” is organizing a “Tea Party Rally” on the west side of the Capitol along Walnut St. The leading Republican teabagger blog is also telling their people they are busing in to “Get pictures, and take video” in an obvious attempt to provoke a confrontation they can record and put up on Youtube.

Republicans in Michigan are trying to bust public sector unions in the form of balancing the budget. Two weeks ago they voted anti-democratic and union busting House Bills 4214-4218 out of committee that will repeal Public Act 72, the current law governing emergency financial managers (EFM). The bills give them more power that includes disenfranchising the voters and terminating contracts negotiated with labor unions in good faith.

The public sector unions are gathering at 9 a.m. Feb. 22 at Central United Methodist Church, 215 N. Capitol, at the Corner of Ottawa and Capitol to march on the Capitol.

What is happening in Michigan is part of a larger union-busting strategy planned by Republicans not only in Michigan, but in Ohio and Wisconsin, and Worker Solitary rallies are planned all over the country to fight the obvious union busting strategy. Teabaggers are also trying to provoke confrontations in Wisconsin as well as in Michigan.

Teabagger groups have attracted the most extreme rightwing and anti-government groups out there that include militias, secessionists and neo-Nazi white supremacist groups, and they are financed by cash laden Washington, D.C. lobbying firms. It will be tough to ignore them because they will do everything to provoke a confrontation, and we must do everything to ignore those attempts to give them ammunition.

Michigan residents taking to the streets to protect worker’s rights

Wisconsin residents are taking to the streets to fight their governor’s attempt to bust public sector unions, and Michigan residents will do the same next week.

Republicans in Michigan are trying the same thing, but they are much sneakier about it. Last week they voted anti-democratic and union busting House Bills 4214-4218 out of committee that will repeal Public Act 72, the current law governing emergency financial managers (EFM). The bills give them more power that includes disenfranchising the voters and terminate contracts negotiated with labor unions in good faith.

On Tuesday Feb. 22 at 9 a.m. a citizen’s rally is being held in downtown Lansing to protest the union busting. They will gather at Central United Methodist Church, 215 N. Capitol, at the Corner of Ottawa and Capitol, to march on the Capitol and send a message to their legislators. They expect more than 200 people to show up.

House Bills 4205-4206 that will repel Public Act 312 will be voted out of the Government Operations Committee at noon on Wednesday Feb. 23. Because police officers and firefighters are essential to public safety, they are not allowed to strike like other bargaining units can, so PA 312 gives them a tool in negotiating a contract. PA 312 is the foundation of collective bargaining rights for firefighters and police officers in Michigan, and since 1969 PA 312 has provided a fair and equitable process for contract disputes between firefighters and police officers and municipalities.

Some 300 members of the Michigan Professional Firefighters Association are expected to send some 300 members to voice their displeasure for this union-busting measure.

The Government Operations Committee meets at noon on Wednesday in room 327 of the House Office Building, 121 N. Capitol in Lansing.

Additionally, the Senate Education Committee will vote out the Senate version of the anti-democratic and union busting EFM bills, SBs 153-158. The Education Committee meets at 12:30 p.m. in room 100 of the Farnum Building, 125 W. Allegan St.

The meetings, like all committee meetings, are open to the public.