Focus on Ohio as GOP Advances Curbs on Public Unions

At WSJ, "Ohio Vote Puts Curbs on Unions in Reach":

Ohio state senators narrowly approved a bill that would prohibit public-employee unions representing 400,000 state and local workers from bargaining over health benefits and pensions, while also eliminating the right to strike.

While national attention has focused for weeks on a similar battle in Wisconsin, the vote, by 17-16 in Ohio's Republican-controlled Senate, virtually ensured that the Buckeye State will become the first to strip collective-bargaining rights from public employees as states grapple with recent gaping budget deficits.

The move is especially significant because Ohio is larger than Wisconsin, and like its fellow Midwestern state, is both a stronghold of public-sector labor unions and a swing state politically.

The bill now goes to the House, where the Republicans have a 59-40 majority. If approved, as expected, it will move for signature to Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who supports the bill.

Mr. Kasich believes it would help local governments control labor costs, spokesman Rob Nichols said.

Ohio's labor leaders, while noting the narrow passage in the Senate, weren't optimistic about stopping the bill in the House.

Notice the union thuggery at the Ohio Statehouse clip above.

Plus, Robert Stacy McCain has an on-the-ground report from Ohio, "Lawyer for Ohio Police Union Tells Republican State Senator: ‘Funny Thing About Cops, They Hold Grudges’" (via Memeorandum.) And more from Melissa Clouthier at Red State, "Climate of Hate™: Lawyer For Ohio Police Union Threatens Republican Senator," and William Jacobson at Legal Insurrection, "‘Funny Thing About Cops, They Hold Grudges’":

This time it's in Ohio, and the "threat" comes from a police union lawyer directed at an Ohio Republican state senator who voted in favor of S.B. 5, the bill stripping public employee unions of collective bargaining rights.

The lawyer, after being told that the statement quoted in the post title was viewed as a threat, walked it back and denied that the grudges would be acted upon with violence.

But this is becoming a disturbing pattern ...

You think?

Wait! Yet More Progressives Calling for Revolution!

God, what is it with the people?

At The Blaze, "Jackson Call for College Students to Rise Up in Revolution, Blame Rush Limbaugh for ‘Huge Ignorance Movement’":

Also at WTSR, "Ralph Nader and Jesse Jackson Visit the College of New Jersey."

Communists Thrilled at Idaho's Precocious Progressive 17 Year-Old Who Took on the Luna Plan

Look, he's an extremely articulate 17 year-old. Interestingly, he says that student opposition to the Luna restructuring plan reflected spontaneous student revolt from below --- no teacher indoctrination, don't ya know! But the kid's a bit too in-the-know on the education lingo. He's hanging with a bunch of union goons at the rally, and perhaps he's got family members in the teaching profession. Or he's hoping to become a progressive teacher himself. Students of the world unite! But the fact that this has gone viral among the anti-establishment progressive fever swamps is telling. At communist Amy Goodman's Democracy Now!, "Idaho Students Stage Walkout to Oppose Teacher Layoffs, Collective Bargaining Curbs" (via Memeorandum):

The background is here: "Hundreds Rally Against Luna Plan."

Three-Fourths of New York Community College Students Have Remedial Issues

Hey, tell me about it.

At New York Times, "CUNY Adjusts Amid Tide of Remedial Students":

The City University of New York has long spent much of its energy and resources just teaching new students what they need to begin taking college-level courses.

But that tide of remedial students has now swelled so large that the university’s six community colleges — like other two-year schools across the country — are having to rethink what and how they teach, even as they reel from steep cuts in state and local aid.

About three-quarters of the 17,500 freshmen at the community colleges this year have needed remedial instruction in reading, writing or math, and nearly a quarter of the freshmen have required such instruction in all three subjects. In the past five years, a subset of students deemed “triple low remedial” — with the most severe deficits in all three subjects — has doubled, to 1,000.

The reasons are familiar but were reinforced last month by startling new statistics from state education officials: fewer than half of all New York State students who graduated from high school in 2009 were prepared for college or careers, as measured by state Regents tests in English and math. In New York City, that number was 23 percent.

Many of those graduates end up at CUNY, one of the nation’s largest urban higher-education systems, which requires its community colleges to take every applicant with a high school diploma or equivalency degree.

To bring thousands of students up to speed, those colleges spent about $33 million last year on remediation — twice as much as they did 10 years ago. They are expanding an immersion program that funnels hundreds of students exclusively into remedial classes.

But there is concern that the effort is diverting attention from the colleges’ primary mission.

“It takes a lot of our time and energy and money to figure out what to do with all of these students who need remediation,” said Alexandra W. Logue, the university’s executive vice chancellor and provost. “We are doing some really good things, but it’s time that we’re not thinking about our other wonderful students who are very highly prepared. We need to focus on them, too.”

More at the link. And be sure to RTWT. The article rightly notes that this is a national problem, and professors are complaining that community colleges have been transformed into institutions of extended education --- 13th grade, as my wife likes to remind me. And sure, while the problem isn't new, the shockingly high and rising levels of those needing remediation is generating heightened attention. I've discussed this at length on my campus, especially during the collective bargaining negotiations where most of the institutional discussion has been on wages and benefits. And that's not new either. Just about every year a new report comes out in California on the declining numbers of students who graduate in normative time. It's especially bad for minorities, who of course are those most disadvantaged historically and most in need of education and workplace skills. But community college accreditation authorities are obsessed with establishing institutional learning objectives (SLOs) as measures of college effectiveness. It's crazy. Ask any professor in a transfer-level GE offering and they'll tell you skills are lacking, discipline is compromised, social and technological changes have created debilitating distractions for many, and large numbers of students are overwhelmed with work and family issues (and too many young students are having babies themselves). But hey, don't touch my benefits!

After-Class Live Sex Demonstrations?

No doubt Scott Eric Kaufman can, er, dig the vibe, because, you know, it's an artsy, progressive pedagogy thing. At Chicago Sun-Times, "Northwestern University defends after-class live sex demonstration":

 

More than 100 Northwestern University students watched as a naked 25-year-old woman was penetrated by a sex toy wielded by her fiancee during an after-class session of the school’s popular “Human Sexuality” class.

The woman said she showed up at the Feb. 21 lecture in the Ryan Family Auditorium in Evanston expecting just to answer questions, but was game to demonstrate. The course’s professor on Wednesday acknowledged some initial hesitation, but said student feedback was “uniformly positive.”

And Northwestern defended the class and its professor.

“Northwestern University faculty members engage in teaching and research on a wide variety of topics, some of them controversial and at the leading edge of their respective disciplines,” said Alan K. Cubbage, vice president for University Relations. “The University supports the efforts of its faculty to further the advancement of knowledge.”

The optional, non-credit demo followed psychology Prof. John Michael Bailey’s sexuality class. Nearly 600 students are in Bailey’s class this quarter, and most didn’t stick around for the after-class show, which featured four members of Chicago’s fetish community describing “BDSM,” or bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism.

“I didn’t expect to see a live sex show,” said Justin Smith, 21, a senior economics and political science major who was in the after-class session. “We were told we were going to have some people talk to us about the fetish world and kink.”

Protests Force Cancellation of Cordoba Initiative Event

At New York's Metro News, "9/11 Play Canceled at the 11th Hour."

And at Pamela's, "WPIX TV Interview with Pamela Geller on Daisy Khan/Rauf Cancellation of Cordoba Event Exploiting 911 Tragedies for Shameless Promotion":

Tea Party Populism and America's International Relations

Walter Russell Mead's got an outstanding lead essay at Foreign Affairs, "The Tea Party and American Foreign Policy: What Populism Means for Globalism." The discussion includes a fascinating comparison between two tea party factions on foreign policy: the "Palinites" and the "Paulites." And he embeds the roots of today's tea party in the deep tendencies toward "Jacksonian" populism in American history. An excerpt:

Antiestablishment populism has been responsible for some of the brightest, as well as some of the darkest, moments in U.S. history. The populists who rallied to Jackson established universal white male suffrage in the United States -- and saddled the country with a crash-prone financial system for 80 years by destroying the Second Bank of the United States. Later generations of populists would rein in monopolistic corporations and legislate basic protections for workers while opposing federal protection of minorities threatened with lynching. The demand of Jacksonian America for cheap or, better, free land in the nineteenth century led to the Homestead Act, which allowed millions of immigrants and urban workers to start family farms. It also led to the systematic and sometimes genocidal removal of Native Americans from their traditional hunting grounds and a massively subsidized "farm bubble" that helped bring about the Great Depression. Populist hunger for land in the twentieth century paved the way for an era of federally subsidized home mortgages and the devastating burst of the housing bubble.

Jacksonian populism does not always have a clear-cut program. In the nineteenth century, the Jacksonians combined a strong aversion to government debt with demands that the government's most valuable asset (title to the vast public lands of the West) be transferred to homesteaders at no cost. Today's Jacksonians want the budget balanced -- but are much less enthusiastic about cutting middle-class entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare ...

The Tea Party movement is best understood as a contemporary revolt of Jacksonian common sense against elites perceived as both misguided and corrupt. And although the movement itself may splinter and even disappear, the populist energy that powers it will not go away soon. Jacksonianism is always an important force in American politics; at times of social and economic stress and change, like the present, its importance tends to grow. Even though it is by no means likely that the new Jacksonians will gain full control of the government anytime soon (or perhaps ever), the influence of the populist revolt against mainstream politics has become so significant that students of U.S. foreign policy must consider its consequences.

Mead returns to the Palinite/Paulite split in later sections of the piece. And it's a good discussion for the most part, but being an establishment essay it ends up too abstract, even bland. Mead implies, for example, that significant residual strains of racism animate the tea party overall, but in fact institutionally the key tea party leadership has consistently repudiated the slightest inclinations toward racism in the ranks. Not only that, Mead overstates the Paulite influence on the tea party, and he understates how Paulite hostility to Israel in facts engenders the real racist tendencies on the populist right. David Swindle's recent essay on the Paulites at CPAC offers a powerful case study in the problems that faction poses for the conservative movement in America today. And in the end I'd say that the Palinites are much more powerfully representative of the traditional currents of U.S. foreign and national security policy. That said, Mead's correct to posit the lasting impact of populism on America's international relations, regardless of how the immediate tea party splits play out in the short run.

New Left Media: 'Workers Defend Their Rights'

Folks can listen to how it plays on the other side, from New Left Media:

There's a lot of misrepresentation of fact, but that's to be expected. These are union hacks and progressives, and communist Medea Benjamin with a bullhorn gets a cameo at the opening. Actually, Walker's budget would continue to include union collective bargaining over wages, so the protesters are mostly mouthing class warfare rhetoric with a few lies and distortions about the GOP agenda. It's true, though, Republicans are aggressively attacking union power, as well they should. Big Labor's corrupt thugs are bankrupting the states and raping the democratic process. See, "With no end in sight, Wis. stalemate could drag on for months; money won't run out until May." On the other hand,"Capitol Chaos: Senate Dems to Fight Budget Plan," and "Senate Republicans, Democrats work to end stalemate."

Third Rail: Americans Oppose Cutting Entitlements

Well, we're gonna need booming economic growth, and frankly an increasingly globalized immigration policy, if we don't go bankrupt first. At WSJ, "Poll Finds Support Lacking for Entitlement Reductions":

Less than a quarter of Americans support trimming Social Security or Medicare to tackle the country's budget deficit, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll that illustrates the challenge facing lawmakers seeking voter support for altering entitlement programs.

The poll, conducted between Feb. 24 and 28, found strong opposition for cuts to these entitlement programs across all age groups and ideologies. Even tea party supporters, by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, declared cuts to Social Security "unacceptable."

The poll, however, revealed willingness by some respondents to make sacrifices to keep the programs from going broke.

Well over half of Americans favor bumping the retirement age to 69 by 2075, up from 66 now. An even larger share supports reducing retirement and Medicare payments to wealthier Americans.
The opposition against entitlement cuts comes four months after voters elected a crop of governors and conservative federal lawmakers who campaigned against government spending. Congressional Republicans have focused so far on cuts to discretionary spending. But a small group of U.S. senators in both parties has begun talks over changes to entitlement programs, as well as to the tax code.

House Republicans want to make entitlement reductions a key part of their next budget, while several likely 2012 GOP candidates vow to propose ways to shore up the finances of Social Security and Medicare as part of any campaign.

But Republican Bill McInturff and Democrat Peter Hart, the pollsters who conducted the survey, said it raised warning signs for anyone proposing cuts to those programs, which provide retirement benefits to seniors and help pay for their health-care, and to Medicaid, a health plan for the poor. The costs of those programs, which already make up 43% of federal spending, are expected to balloon in coming years.

More at the link.

Before you know it, folks won't be able to retire with full benefits until their 70s. Maybe that's good, but a lot of people are physically unable to work that long. And there's lots of economic pessimism at the poll. Check this out:

Americans remain clearly torn on the big questions of the national debt, government spending and the role of government in promoting jobs. Eight in 10 respondents said the growing federal deficit threatened to affect their family's future, but 62% also feared the effect of widespread cuts to government spending. Meanwhile, by a wide margin, more people saw job creation as a higher priority than deficit reduction.

It's a classic problem of the modern welfare state. As government grows to accommodate increasing demands for economic security, the political system gets locked into a collective action problem that disables the systems capacity to respond to economic crises. The going would be a tad bit easier if the voters dump the Democrats in 2012, which will be tough but not impossible, especially of economic growth remains tepid. See, "Federal deficit on track for a record this fiscal year: Government debt to exceed U.S. economy."

And If You Let Me Cool You One Time...

Well, Bartender Cabbie and Lonely Conservative enjoyed the music yesterday, and since 100.3 The Sound's been jamming it, what the heck? Here's some Van Halen, "Ice Cream Man":

Islamic Gunman Screamed 'Allah Akbar' Before Opening Fire on U.S. Troops in Frankfurt

Previously, "U.S. Troops Murdered by Kosovar Muslim at Frankfurt Airport."

And at ABC News, "Gunman Shouting 'Allah Akbar' Kills 2 US Airmen in Germany: Obama Says U.S. Will Spare No Efforts in Investigating Killings" (via Memeorandum):

Yeah, Obama's gonna spare no efforts. Okay, well that's better than not speaking out at risk of doing "a great disservice to my people," although he's bent over backwards to appease Islamists in every single attack before this. And speaking of doing a "great disservice," hey, no doubt the New Black Panthers are breathing easy that the administration's "spared no efforts" in investigating that despicable case of thuggery and voter intimidation.

More at Hot Air, "Breaking: Attack on soldiers in Frankfurt bus, 2 dead; Update: Air Force, not Army, gunman identified; Update: Two airmen confirmed killed, two more wounded; Update: “Allahu akbar!”"

And especially Atlas Shrugs, "Details Emerge on Jihadi Arif Uka Who Opened Fire on U.S. Airmen Just Arriving From America."

U.S. Troops Murdered by Kosovar Muslim at Frankfurt Airport

The story's developing.

At Der Spiegel, "Shooting at Frankfurt Airport: US Soldiers Believed Among Dead in Killings." (At Memeorandum.)

And see Atlas Shrugs, "Frankfurt airport shooting: Muslim Kills Two, Wounds Two, in Shooting Attack on US military bus UPDATE: Shooter Shouted Islamic slogans during the attack on the bus." And Jihad Watch, "Frankfurt Airport murderer shouted Islamic slogans during the attack on the bus."

Also, at Gates of Vienna, "Murder in Frankfurt":

A culturally enriched gunman has killed at least two people, one of them an American soldier, at Frankfurt Airport.

It’s important to remember that this:

(a) is the act of a deranged loner,
(b) reflects the extremist ideology of only a tiny minority of the world’s Muslims, and
(c) has no connection with terrorism.

If the U.S. government hasn’t already issued a statement to that effect, it will shortly.

And at BBC, "Frankfurt Airport shooting: Two US servicemen dead":

Kosovo Interior Minister Bajram Rexhepi said in an interview that German police had identified the suspect as a Kosovan citizen from the northern town of Mitrovica.

"This is a devastating and a tragic event," Mr Rexhepi said, reports the Associated Press news agency.

"We are trying to find out was this something that was organised or what was the nature of the attack."

The interior minister for the German state of Hesse, Boris Rhein, confirmed the gunman was from Kosovo.

"Whether the incident was linked to terrorism I cannot say at this stage," he told journalists.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the "terrible incident".

"I would like to say how saddened I am by this incident and I would like to assure you that the German government will do our utmost to investigate what happened," she told journalists in Berlin.

Four Islamists were convicted in March last year in Germany for plotting to bomb targets including Ramstein Air Base.

Last month the German parliament extended by one year the military mission in Afghanistan.

Germany has 4,860 troops there, despite domestic polls suggesting the mission's unpopularity.

Mobs and Slobs Turn Madison Into Progressive Pigsty

I mentioned last night that I was taking break from the union blogging, but it just keeps getting better.

First is the utter laugh riot over at Whiskey Fire, where dolt-douchebag Thers claims "that this is a damned disciplined protest." Yo, Einstein, getting up close and personal with screams of "F*ck you" in the face of a Wisconsin state legislator is not "disciplined." It's by definition mob rule. But it gets even better still. It turns out that Senator Grothman went on MSNBC last night and rebuked the filthy dirtbag protesters as a bunch of slobs:

And notice how Democrat State Representative Cory Mason responds with "these are police officers and firefighters and nurses and people who keep us safe." Yeah, and he might have mentioned officers from the Wisconsin Department of Corrections who harass citizen journalists with whistleblowing while their allied union thugs knock video cameras to the ground (toward the end of the clip):

Bunch of socialist scumbags.

At Althouse, "'You are a person against all of us. The whole nation is looking at you." — says an old woman with a "Solidarity" sign who gets right up in Meade's face...' (via Memeorandum). See also Hot Air and Legal Insurrection, "More Police Insurrection In Madison."

Yet More Union Thuggery: Wisconsin State Senator Glenn Grothman Trapped by Mob at Capitol Grounds

At Say Anything, "Wisconsin Protesters Mob Republican Legislator, Block His Entrance to The Capitol" (via Instapundit):

This all over Memeorandum, for example, at Gateway Pundit and Michelle's, "Mob rule video: Uhinged crowd corners Wisconsin GOP senator shouting “F**k you,” “Shame!”":

I got bad chills up and down my spine watching this group of crazed, pro-union Madison thugs gang up on a lone conservative in a public space just trying to do his job.

Been there, done that. It’s no fun.

Mass. Democrat Rep. Michael Capuano’s words “Get a little bloody” echoed in my mind like a soundtrack while watching the video clip.

The scene: The Madison, WI state capitol grounds.

The target: Wisconsin state Republican Sen. Glenn Grothman.

The mobsters: Anti-Scott Walker agitators shouting “Shame! Shame! Shame F***k you! F***k you!” while beating their tribal drums, blowing their horns, and hounding Sen. Grothman into an alcove.

First, they back him up on the side of a building, chase him across the lawn, and then corner him.

Sick to my stomach.

Revolutionary Socialist Union Rally in Dallas

Because, you know, they're not representative, or anything. Freakin' asshat commies. At The Blaze, "Working Together: ‘Revolutionary Socialist’ Leads Moveon.org Union Rally in Dallas":

Boy, those union hacks really hate screaming, "NO WAR BUT CLASS WAR."

Right.

Behold the mainstream of the Democratic Party base, as I've been reporting all along.

More at Red, White and Blue News, "Socialist propaganda, Code Pink, Marxist chants: Just a typical union rally in Dallas."

Both Ends Burning ... 'Till the End...

I'm taking a break from union blogging for a bit. Here's conservative rocker Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music, "Both Ends Burning":

Please don't ever let me down
'Cause you know I'm not so sure
Do I have the speed to carry on
Burn you out of my mind, I know
You're a flame that never fades
Jungle red's a deadly shade
Both ends burning, will the fires keep
Somewhere deep in my soul tonight
Both ends burning
Burning
Burn ...

The fires raging in my soul tonight
Oh will it never end?
Put your foot around the bend
Drive me crazy to an early grave
Tell me what is there to save tonight
Both ends burning
Burning
Burn
Keep on burning till the end, until the end
Keep on burning till the end, the very end ...

Update on New York Times Poll on Public Sector Unions

I wrote previously about the latest survey from the New York Times: "There's something fishy about this poll ..." One thing that bothered me was how the Times indicated that 25 percent of those surveyed included "a public employee in their household." And that's not quite right, as Ed Morrissey indicates:

... 25% of respondents are either public employees or share a household with a public employee. Federal employees comprise less than 2% of the workforce at around 2 million. Overall, the US has 22.22 million government employees out of an employed workforce of 130.27 million, according to the Current Employment Statistics survey at the BLS. Government employment accounts for 17% of all workers, so a sample consisting of 25% public-sector households for a survey of adults (not registered voters) seems a little off.

Anyway, that's a fantastic analysis. And while I'm at it, folks might check out William Jacobson's work as well, focusing on Public Policy Polling, "Skewed Sample Data Used In PPP Wisconsin 'Do Over' Poll." Here again, the survey's oversampling Democratic households. What's amazing, though, is that if it wasn't for bloggers analyzing the findings, most folks wouldn't know otherwise (see U.S. News, for example, "New Polls Bring More Bad News for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker").

Natalie Portman Condemns Dior Designer for Anti-Semitic Slurs

At Jerusalem Post, "Portman condemns Dior designer for anti-Semitic words." And New York Times, "Natalie Portman Condemns Galliano‎":

The actress Natalie Portman, who has an endorsement contract with Dior for its Miss Dior Cherie fragrance, has strongly condemned its chief designer, John Galliano, for anti-Semitic remarks after a video surfaced of Mr. Galliano appearing to deliver a tirade in a Paris bar. In a separate incident, he was accused of verbally abusing a French couple last week in the bar. He was suspended Friday from Dior.

In a statement released Monday evening in Los Angeles, Ms. Portman said: “I am deeply shocked and disgusted by the video of John Galliano’s comments that surfaced today. In light of this video, and as an individual who is proud to be Jewish, I will not be associated with Mr. Galliano in any way. I hope at the very least, these terrible comments remind us to reflect and act upon combating these still-existing prejudices that are the opposite of all that is beautiful.”

RELATED: The Other McCain on Natalie Portman and feminist ax-grinders, "‘The Most Important Role of My Life’."

Poll Shows Support for Public Sector Workers

At New York Times, "Majority in Poll Back Employees In Public Unions." (Via Mememorandum.)

I checked the raw data and the sampling methodology. There's something fishy about this poll, and I wasn't quite sure. Yet, Allahpundit does a thorough fisking, and seems to think the survey's not an outlier after all: "CBS poll: 60% oppose stripping any collective bargaining rights from public workers." Basically, when push comes to shove the public stands firm on support for education, and by implication the larger public sector work force. More particularly, folks recoil at the idea of making real cuts that have real impact on people's lives. Let's face it, it's scary as hell to contemplate a lifestyle downsize, to say nothing of jettisoning old-age retirement security for the ups and downs of stock market pension accounts. But we'll know more in time. The Democrats may well have erred big time in their methods of obstruction, despite sympathetic trends in public opinion. And if the mainstream press were to widely feature pictures like this on a day-to-day basis, then the public would at least get more of the real-world information needed to make accurate and holistic decisions about public policy. Seriously. Look what's happened on ObamaCare. Opponents were right all along, and now the administration's letting go of its legislation piece by piece. As we move forward through 2011 we'll be hearing from states with way deeper fiscal sinkholes than Wisconsin, and the public will get to see new rounds of progressive tantrums over public benefits systems that are inherently unsustainable. In any case, the unions are hoping to keep the protest spirit going, and they've had the corrupted police union giving them the green light for further disruptions in Madison. They're finally clearing the place out now, so check Althouse for more on that, and then back here later today:

Public Sector Unions Bankrupting America

At Pajamas TV:

Previously: "The Battle of Wisconsin Rages On," and "Wisconsin Police Union in Solidarity with Progressives, Socialists, and Big Labor Squatters."

BONUS: "Public Unions and the Socialist Agenda."

No Support for Terrorism Whatsoever? Uncovering Students for Islamist Jihad at UCLA

My investigative report is up at David Horowitz's NewsReal Blog: "UCLA’s Palestine Awareness Week: Students for the Extermination of Israel."

ICYMI: See my initial report, "Israeli Apartheid Week, Students for Justice in Palestine, UCLA, February 23, 2011."

Public Workers and Political Power

An awesome editorial, at Wall Street Journal, "A Union Education":

The raucous Wisconsin debate over collective bargaining may be ugly at times, but it has been worth it for the splendid public education. For the first time in decades, Americans have been asked to look under the government hood at the causes of runaway spending. What they are discovering is the monopoly power of government unions that have long been on a collision course with taxpayers. Though it arrived in Madison first, this crack-up was inevitable.

We first started running the nearby chart on the trends in public and private union membership many years ago. It documents the great transformation in the American labor movement over the latter decades of the 20th century. A movement once led by workers in private trades and manufacturing evolved into one dominated by public workers at all levels of government but especially in the states and cities.

The trend is even starker if you go back a decade earlier. In 1960, 31.9% of the private work force belonged to a union, compared to only 10.8% of government workers. By 2010, the numbers had more than reversed, with 36.2% of public workers in unions but only 6.9% in the private economy.

The sharp rise in public union membership in the 1960s and 1970s coincides with the movement to give public unions collective bargaining rights. Wisconsin was the first state to provide those rights in 1959, other states followed, and California became the biggest convert in 1978 under Jerry Brown in his first stint as Governor. President Kennedy let some federal workers organize (though not collectively bargain) for the first time in 1962, a gambit to win union support for his re-election after his cliffhanger victory in 1960.

It's important to understand how revolutionary this change was. For decades as the private union movement rose in power, even left-of-center politicians resisted collective bargaining for public unions. We've previously mentioned FDR and Fiorello La Guardia. But George Meany, the legendary AFL-CIO president during the Cold War, also opposed the right to bargain collectively with the government.

Why? Because unlike in the private economy, a public union has a natural monopoly over government services. An industrial union will fight for a greater share of corporate profits, but it also knows that a business must make profits or it will move or shut down. The union chief for teachers, transit workers or firemen knows that the city is not going to close the schools, buses or firehouses.

This monopoly power, in turn, gives public unions inordinate sway over elected officials. The money they collect from member dues helps to elect politicians who are then supposed to represent the taxpayers during the next round of collective bargaining. In effect union representatives sit on both sides of the bargaining table, with no one sitting in for taxpayers. In 2006 in New Jersey, this led to the preposterous episode in which Governor Jon Corzine addressed a Trenton rally of thousands of public workers and shouted, "We will fight for a fair contract." He was promising to fight himself.

Thus the collision course with taxpayers.

More at the link above, and be sure to check the graph on the rise of public sector unions.

Petra Němcová Joins 'Dancing With the Stars'

And Kendra Wilkinson as well. This season's gonna be steamin'.

At LAT, "New 'Dancing With the Stars' cast announced":

ABC just has to maintain its presence at the water cooler. First with the Academy Awards. Then with Charlie Sheen. Now with the "Dancing with the Stars" lineup announcement.

We've all heard rumors. But the wait is finally over. The network announced the new cast during the East Coast airing of Monday's episode of "The Bachelor."

So let’s now (officially) take a look at who will be twirling (and/or fumbling) across the stage this season. Here are the folks likely to take up your time on Tuesdays and Wednesdays...

Click through for the roster. Kirstie Alley's a beauty, and geez, Ralph Macchio? Dancing with the Karate Kid.

Republican Governors Association Launches Pro-Walker Ad in Wisconsin

At LAT, "GOP governors to launch ads backing Wisconsin Gov. Walker":

In a sign of the ramifications the budget standoff has beyond Wisconsin's borders, the Republican Governors Assn. plans to become the latest outside group to launch an advertising campaign in the state, supporting Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's effort to end collective bargaining rights for public employees.

The association's chairman, Rick Perry, announced the ad campaign during a briefing with reporters Monday in Washington, where the Wisconsin showdown has loomed over the annual meeting of state leaders.

"Republican governors aren't going to back down from our support of Scott Walker and what he's doing to make the tough decisions in his state to balance the budget," said Perry, the governor of Texas.

The television ad says leaders "don't run away from tough problems," referring to Democratic state senators who have left the state to prevent a vote on Walker's plan. It mentions the Republican governor's position that state employees should pay for more of their own benefits, but it omits the issue of collective bargaining that has fueled weeks of demonstrations at the state capitol.

The ad campaign by the Republican governors is the first salvo of what Perry said would be a two-year effort by the association to "provide some effective oversight of the Obama administration" and offer solutions to issues affecting the states.

Why Koch Industries Is Speaking Out

From Charles Koch, at Wall Street Journal (via Memeorandum):

For many years, I, my family and our company have contributed to a variety of intellectual and political causes working to solve these problems. Because of our activism, we've been vilified by various groups. Despite this criticism, we're determined to keep contributing and standing up for those politicians, like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who are taking these challenges seriously.

Both Democrats and Republicans have done a poor job of managing our finances. They've raised debt ceilings, floated bond issues, and delayed tough decisions.

RTWT.

The essay focuses on much more beyond Wisconsin, although for Koch Industries, and freedom-loving people everywhere, the Madness in Madison is the tipping point.

The Battle of Wisconsin Rages On

The Hill has the Beltway angle, "AFL-CIO Chief Blesses Obama's Handling of Wisconsin Labor Battle." (And more at Memeorandum.)

But see Weasel Zippers, "Top Union Chief Refuses to Condemn Protester Signs Comparing Gov. Walker to Hitler ..." And especially, Rich Trzupek, at FrontPage Magazine:

Appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press yesterday, AFL-CIO Richard Trumka was given two golden opportunities to do the very thing the left claims is so important to them: tone down violent, incendiary rhetoric. He couldn’t bring himself to do it. Asked to condemn the angry words and images that union supporters have employed in Wisconsin, Trumka chose to dance around the question instead:

“We should be sitting down trying to create jobs,” he said. “In Wisconsin, a vast majority of the people think this governor has overreached. His popularity has gone down. They’re saying to him, sit down and negotiate; don’t do what you’ve been doing. So he’s losing.”

Even if one were to accept the dubious premise that Governor Scott Walker is “losing” his battle with the teachers union in Wisconsin, Trumka’s answer is at once disingenuous, troubling and typical of the leftist mindset. The disingenuous part is obvious: Trumka never actually answered a question that was posed twice. Imagine how the old media would have reacted if a conservative leader like Sarah Palin or Rand Paul sidestepped an opportunity to denounce violent rhetoric on the right.

What’s troubling, though sadly unsurprising, is what this reveals about the way a leftist leader like Trumka thinks. Asked to denounce a tactic, he comes back with an answer that implies that such tactics are working. Trumka doesn’t actually come out and say that the end justifies the means, but it’s pretty obvious that he feels that way. Far from discouraging leftist protestors from employing violent imagery and rhetoric, Trumka’s answer sounds an awful lot like a nod of approval for the results that those tactics have supposedly achieved ....

The left says that public discourse ought to be civil, unless it involves a position that’s important to the left, in which case anything goes. Teachers unions are always demanding more for their members in the name of the best interests of the kids they educate, but they don’t have a problem orchestrating what amounts to an illegal strike when the union’s interests are threatened. Elections and majority rule are wonderful concepts on the left, until they lose an election and are in the minority. In that case, running away and hiding so that you don’t have to accede to the will of the majority is perfectly acceptable. If the battle of Wisconsin proves anything, it’s another demonstration of the self-serving hypocrisy that permeates the left in America.

Word.

PREVIOUSLY: "Wisconsin Police Union in Solidarity with Progressives, Socialists, and Big Labor Squatters," and "Public Unions and the Socialist Agenda."

Note: I pulled the Meet the Press clip with Trumpka, but check Weasel Zippers, where it seems to be playing fine.

Wisconsin Police Union in Solidarity with Progressives, Socialists, and Big Labor Squatters — UPDATE! Police Threaten Insurrection!!

Well, the Boing Boing commies are down with the Big Labor squatters in Madison, and the cops are as well, "Wisconsin Cops For the Win":

And here's this, from Glenn Reynolds:

YOU CAN SEE WHY TEA PARTY PROTESTERS WORRY THE COPS MIGHT TAKE SIDES: L.A. Police Union Urges Members to ‘Stand in Solidarity’ with SEIU and MoveOn.Org. The folks at BoingBoing seem to like it that the Wisconsin cops are siding with protesters, but where’s the reason for trust from those who feel otherwise? Do we want police to take sides in political disputes?

Apparently some do. This is why (1) you should always bring a camera; and (2) public employee unions should be illegal. If union protesters turn violent — as they increasingly have — can you trust pro-union police to intervene?

More at the link.

RELATED: At Althouse, "'The administration of Gov. Scott Walker abruptly locked out protesters from the Capitol on Monday morning...'"

UPDATE: From William Jacobson, "Wisconsin Police Union Members Threaten Insurrection":

It's unclear to me what the lines of command are in Wisconsin, and whether the departments in which these policemen work ultimately are under the control of the Governor and/or legislature. Clearly, the Governor does control the National Guard. Regardless, the police union members involved have actively advocated and offered to participate in insurrection against the legal authority in Wisconsin.

More than anything, this shows the dangers of public sector unions. Those who work for the state occupy a different position than those who work in the private sector because they carry the weight of state authority. When those state workers are in law enforcement, they carry special obligations not to use their positions for political purposes.

When an off-duty policeman wearing police insignia takes a megaphone and announces that he and his fellow police union members will disobey orders, that policeman -- at a minimum -- has dishonored his pledge to uphold the law.

It appears that by the end of today we will know whether the police union members' talk of insurrection was bluster (which I suspect is the case), or if they really will risk their careers by disobeying lawful orders from legitimate and duly elected state authority.

Public Unions and the Socialist Agenda

One of the more interesting things about the left is the refusal of its partisans to admit they're socialists. The truth, of course, is obvious to anyone who witnesses the massive progressive demonstrations, of recent years, for example the big One Nation rally the Democratic base held last year (see, "Democrats, Union Workers, and Communists Rally Together in Washington"). Indeed, we often hear that conservatives are chasing after "imaginary communists" and that attacks on Democrat Party extremism is "McCarthyism." The only problem for the left's denialists is that when one actually goes out to the protests and mobilizations, communists are everywhere, and they're usually in fact the key organizers. Progressives know that if the socialist label sticks they'll get slammed at election time, and rightly so, since Americans are by nature individualistic and entrepreneurial. By definition, then, the social program is anti-American, to say nothing of totalitarian. So it's interesting to see the AFSME members saying here that they're all about inclusion, and that they'd prefer the socialist alternative to the rational budget planning of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.

And see also, Robert Tracinski, "Public Unions & the Socialist Utopia" (via Memeorandum):

The Democratic lawmakers who have gone on the lam in Wisconsin and Indiana-and who knows where else next-are exhibiting a literal fight-or-flight response, the reaction of an animal facing a threat to its very existence.

Why? Because it is a threat to their existence. The battle of Wisconsin is about the viability of the Democratic Party, and more: it is about the viability of the basic social ideal of the left.

It is a matter of survival for Democrats in an immediate, practical sense. As Michael Barone explains, the government employees' unions are a mechanism for siphoning taxpayer dollars into the campaigns of Democratic politicians.

But there is something deeper here than just favor-selling and vote-buying. There is something that almost amounts to a twisted idealism in the Democrats' crusade. They are fighting, not just to preserve their special privileges, but to preserve a social ideal. Or rather, they are fighting to maintain the illusion that their ideal system is benevolent and sustainable.

Unionized public-sector employment is the distilled essence of the left's moral ideal. No one has to worry about making a profit. Generous health-care and retirement benefits are provided to everyone by the government. Comfortable pay is mandated by legislative fiat. The work rules are militantly egalitarian: pay, promotion, and job security are almost totally independent of actual job performance. And because everyone works for the government, they never have to worry that their employer will go out of business.

In short, public employment is an idealized socialist economy in miniature, including its political aspect: the grateful recipients of government largesse provide money and organizational support to re-elect the politicians who shower them with all of these benefits.

Put it all together, and you have the Democrats' version of utopia. In the larger American culture of Tea Parties, bond vigilantes, and rugged individualists, Democrats feel they are constantly on the defensive. But within the little subculture of unionized government employees, all is right with the world, and everything seems to work the way it is supposed to ...

This is why the left is treating any attempt to fundamentally reform the public workers' paradise as an existential crisis.

Well, some folks are for the insurrection, as we've been seeing for weeks.

See also, Pejman Yousefzadeh, "Marxists. I Hate These Guys" (via Instapundit).

Well, of course Ezra Klein doesn't hate 'em, "Do We Still Need Unions? Yes" (via Memorandum).

Natalie Portman Wins Best Actress at Oscars 2011

Commentary from Betsy Sharkey, at Los Angeles Times, "'Black Swan's' Natalie Portman made worthy sacrifice for her art."

RELATED: "Oscars: Natalie Portman and the anatomy of a dress." And some coverage at New York Times, "Oscar Coronation for ‘The King’s Speech’."

Wally Pfister's Union Call Out at Academy Awards

More Oscar coverage later, but the Wally Pfister call-out captured the imagination of the neo-communist left, "Oscar Winners Celebrate Union Crews That Are ‘A Very Important Part Of The Middle Class’" (via Memeorandum):

Notice the part about supporting "any other country." Hey, there's some neo-communist international solidarity for ya!

RELATED: At PuffHo, "Charles Ferguson's Oscar Speech Rips Wall Street: 'Inside Job' Director Levels Criticism During Acceptance."

Also, from Jammie, "Shocker: Obama Makes Oscars Cameo": "I'd have probably thrown up if I'd bothered to watch this dreck."

New York Times Searches for Union Victory in Wisconsin Protests

More reporting from Althouse, "The NYT strains to find a "victory" for the Wisconsin demonstrators." The "victory" is the police capitulation to the union thugs:

Notes Althouse:

A decision was made that it wasn't worth the drama to oust these people who've been clean and orderly enough. Plus, the police are — it seems to me — sympathetic to the protest. As for the GOP politicians who dominate the state government: Why would they want to make martyrs out of the folks who've worked so long and hard to demonstrate how strongly they care? They've been hanging out in the Capitol, enduring the cacophony of their own drumming and chanting and sleeping on the hard stone floor for 10+ days. They're punishing themselves. Why not let them suffer, unmolested, and continue to generate images that disturb the Wisconsinites who voted the Republicans into office 3 months ago?

Plus, from Michelle, "Capitulation: Madison capitol police give in to Big Labor Slumber Party occupiers":

In Madison, Wisconsin — the Berkeley of the Midwest — deadlines don’t mean diddly-squat. Rules don’t apply. And the People’s House belongs not to hard-working taxpayers, but to Big Labor squatters who have grimed and slimed up the Capitol for almost two weeks.

The Capitol police had set a deadline this afternoon for the grievance mob to clear out their sleeping bags, crock pots, and other makeshift camp paraphernalia. The occupiers ignored them. The Capitol police then promptly…capitulated. Rest assured, rewarding the breakdown of civil order will lead to more civil disorder. Way to go, Madison.

The New York Times piece is here: "Demonstrators Can Continue Overnight Stays in Wisconsin Capitol." (Via Memeorandum.)

More at Pundit & Pundette, "Monday various & sundry."

Unions Plot Strategy to Prolong Wisconsin Protests

At Chicago Tribune, "AFL-CIO works to keep Wisconsin protests going":

WASHINGTON — AFL-CIO leaders, sparked by the strength of pro-labor protests in Wisconsin, are deciding how they can help keep the crowds large and the pressure high as demonstrations enter a third week.

Officials at the nation's largest labor federation said Monday they are looking for a more strategic approach to keep the protests going strong.

"This thing rose from the streets of Wisconsin, and if you've got any brains as a leader, you see a parade, you get out in front of it," said Greg Junemann, president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers and a member of the AFL-CIO's executive council.

"Before this thing starts to diminish, we need to make sure it gets a shot of vitamins at all appropriate times," he said.

Also, at New York Times, "In Wisconsin, Flinging Blame and Citing Deadlines." And from Ed Morrissey, "Walker gives 24-hour deadline to fleebaggers."

Oil Flows as Rebels Gain

At WSJ, "Libyan Opposition Presses Gadhafi, Establishes Government, Sets Crude Shipment":

Libyan rebels pressed the regime of Col. Moammar Gadhafi Sunday, taking control of a key city near the capital of Tripoli, declaring a provisional government and allowing oil shipments to resume from territory under their control.

An oil tanker was expected to depart the port of Tobruk in the northeast corner of Libya sometime Sunday night carrying 700,000 barrels of oil, said Hassan Bulifa, a member of the management committee of Arabian Gulf Oil Co., Libya's largest oil producer and the only oil company based in the country's opposition-controlled eastern territory.

The management committee has assumed control of day-to-day operations at the company after its chairman, Abdulwanis Saad, resigned during the uprising against Col. Gadhafi. Mr. Bulifa said he believed the tanker would be bound for China.

The turmoil across the Middle East, cradle of much of the world's oil production, has sent prices soaring. Last week, crude oil for April delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose $8.17 per barrel, or 9.11%, to $97.88, and for the seventh time since 1982 prices jumped 10% within two days. Month-to-date, U.S. benchmark crude is up 6.17%.

The Arabian Gulf Oil shipment would be the first oil exported from the eastern territory in more than a week—the last left on Feb. 19, before much of eastern Libya had slipped out of government control. Money earned from exports from rebel-controlled territory still goes into the accounts belonging to the National Oil Co., which is based in Tripoli and remains under the control of Mr. Gadhafi's government. Nevertheless, the relaunching of exports would be good news for Arabian Gulf Oil, which has had to cut back production rates for fear of running out of storage capacity amid a lack of export outlets.

More at the link.

'These People Hate'

Yeah, well, I was saying the same thing yesterday about my deranged commenter, who may well have been the deranged hatemaster REPSAC = CASPER. Horrible people, progressives. See Nice Deb, "Video: Fox News Reporter On Madison Protesters – “There’s Hate In Their Eyes”":

Partial transcript via The Daily Caller.

“One thing I think should make clear – the people coming after us from every live shot here, these people hate,” Tobin said. “These are people who don’t respect diverse viewpoints. In fact, they’re so afraid I’ll present a diverse viewpoint, that’s why they try to heckle me and shut down every live shot. They’ve made it clear, that what they want to make it harder for me to do my job. They are proud of that when they disrupt a live shot, when they really trample over the First Amendment rights or the First Amendment’s obligations of a reporter. Now, I am not saying that’s all of the people. Those are the people that come here and heckle and try to disrupt things. I look in their eyes – there is hate in their eyes. They don’t want to hear any kind of viewpoint that is different from their own. That’s why they do what they do.”

Yep, that's them.

Nice Deb's got additional commentary, and see the thugs beating on the reporter at Freedom's Lighthouse, "Fox News’ Mike Tobin Shouted At and Hit During Live Report In Wisconsin."

Andrew Sullivan Moving to Daily Beast

The news is here.

And when you finish that recall the piece a while back at The New Ledger, "Through the Looking Glass With Andrew Sullivan."

And always entertaining commentary from The Other McCain, "Who Speaks for America?":

A Harvard-educated, AIDS-infected, Internet-cruising, marijuana-using gay British expatriate presumes to speak for Americans who reject Sarah Palin because of “a meanness, a disrespect, a vicious partisanship.”

We await a response from Sarah Palin’s uterus ...

In any case, I saw this first on Twitter, but if Memeorandum starts a thread I'll be updating. Last time I really read Sully was during the Iran democracy protests in 2009, and he was indeed a force of nature at the time. Other than that, I can do without RawMuscleGlutes.

ADDED: In bonus pervy news, I'd forgotten that David Frum was blogging a while back at the left's leading forensic gynecology outlet, and from that whacked pedestal he defended pro-pedophile blogger Alex Knepper against the folks at NewsReal Blog. And of course recall how well that turned out: "Pro-Pedophile Propaganda: For It Or Against It, David Frum?"

OKAY, now a thread at Memeorandum. And the link there to New York Times, "Andrew Sullivan Joins Tina Brown’s ‘Daily Beast’/'Newsweek’ Team":

The launch date of Tina Brown’s reinvented Newsweek after its merger with her Daily Beast Web site remains vague, but Ms. Brown’s efforts to continue building an impressive roster do not: Andrew Sullivan announced Sunday that his popular blog, “The Dish,” would be leaving TheAtlantic.com and joining Ms. Brown’s team in April.

Also, Tina Brown's announcement, "Andrew Sullivan Joins The Daily Beast!"

I tweeted on this a little earlier, suggesting that Sully might actually lift Newsweek's viability. When Niall Ferguson published his critical cover story over there a couple of weeks ago it was the first time that I'd been genuinely interested in reading the magazine. Tina Brown's a veteran at this sort of thing, although as for Newsweek's potential success, it's like "the British are coming," or something ...

Libya Rally Toronto

The video's c/o Blazing Cat Fur:

And see Michael Coren, "Absence of Outrage":

The bigots, the blind, the barbarous and the bullies have formed a coalition. Know them and expose them, before it’s too late.

The Latest Frank Rich Hissy Fit

The entire country is focused on the left's fits of moral depravity and violence, and once again for Frank Rich of the New York Times, it's the tea party that's the biggest threat to democracy, "Why Wouldn’t the Tea Party Shut It Down?" (via Memeorandum):

The highest priority of America’s current political radicals is not to balance government budgets but to wage ideological warfare in Washington and state capitals alike. The relatively few dollars that would be saved by the proposed slashing of federal spending on Planned Parenthood and Head Start don’t dent the deficit; the cuts merely savage programs the right abhors. In Wisconsin, where state workers capitulated to Gov. Scott Walker’s demands for financial concessions, the radical Republicans’ only remaining task is to destroy labor’s right to collective bargaining.

That’s not to say there is no fiscal mission in the right’s agenda, both nationally and locally — only that the mission has nothing to do with deficit reduction. The real goal is to reward the G.O.P.’s wealthiest patrons by crippling what remains of organized labor, by wrecking the government agencies charged with regulating and policing corporations, and, as always, by rewarding the wealthiest with more tax breaks. The bankrupt moral equation codified in the Bush era — that tax cuts tilted to the highest bracket were a higher priority even than paying for two wars — is now a given. The once-bedrock American values of shared sacrifice and equal economic opportunity have been overrun.

That last line is the laugher of the month, but of course progressives have seized on it faster than union dues from a teacher's paycheck: "Frank Rich: “The once-bedrock American values of shared sacrifice and equal economic opportunity have been overrun”."

Yes, bedrock values have been thrown out the window, but it's progressives doing the dumping. Ann Althouse has had the best coverage, for example, "Althouse and Meade return to the Veterans Memorial and encounter apologetic protesters, the police, and a rudeness expert":

Ann also destroys petulant Eric Kleefeld of Talking Points Memo, "Who invited Peter Yarrow to the Wisconsin protests? And why was he the only entertainer on the bill?"

Ann's the best.