The Senate requires a quorum to take up any measures that spend money. But Republicans on Wednesday split from the legislation the proposal to curtail union rights, which spends no money, and a special conference committee of state lawmakers approved the bill a short time later.
The lone Democrat present on the conference committee, Rep. Tony Barca, shouted that the surprise meeting was a violation of the state's open meetings law but Republicans voted over his objections. The Senate then convened within minutes and passed it without discussion or debate.
Spectators in the gallery screamed "You are cowards."
And here we were thinking cowards are people who run away.
The bill is a part of Otter's "Idaho's Students Come First" initiative, which is a legislative drive to reform the state's public schools. The bill not only gets rid of collective bargaining, but also eliminated tenure, limits the length of teacher contracts to one year, and ends the "last in, first out" method of deciding which teachers to let go during layoffs.
Teachers should have to earn their job security with merit - just like the rest of us.
Iowa is among other states who are ending taxpayer subsidized elections with backroom sweetheart deals.
What's interesting in all of this, is those of us who are aware of what's going on in Massachusetts find it fascinating that Deval Patrick's union busting flies under the radar.
Wealthy union thugs had a good run but all good things must come to an end.
A reader sent me a link on Facebook that looks like the official USCCB Facebook page, and it appears they are politically lobbying for big money unions and sullying the reputations of prolifers while they're at it.
Am I seeing things, or is THIS the official USCCB Facebook page? Because there's something very sleazy going on here.
The USCCB is politically lobbying for the collective bargaining rights of high-salaried unions -- and they're doing it by pretending they are 'poor people'?
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Today at 4 pm EST, join a Catholics Confront Global Poverty nation-wide phone call on "Let’s stop Congress from Balancing the Budget on the Backs of Poor People."
Dial-in number: 1-800-615-2820, Passcode: 859987. Everyone is invited! http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/2011-2-28_confcall.pdf www.usccb.org
What are the Bishops doing rounding up political power for these so called "poverty stricken" unions?
Union: National Education Association Membership: 3.2 million Assets: $216 million The NEA, representing most of the nation’s teachers, has 31 headquarters officers and employees who earn over $200,000. The president, Dennis Van Roekel, received $397,721 in salary and benefits. Of the $3.7 million NEA spent on political activities in the last election cycle, 98 percent went to Democratic candidates. The NEA has 98,000 members in Wisconsin. Before taking the helm in 2008, Van Roekel received pay increases averaging more than 4 percent a year as NEA vice president. In 2009, public school teachers were paid a national average of $54,319 and received raises ranging from 2 percent to 4 percent over the previous five years.
Union: Service Employees International Union Membership: 1.8 million Assets: $187 million The SEIU, whose membership has increased in recent years, has been organizing hospital, home care and nursing home workers, along with local and state government employees, janitors and security officers. The union has nine headquarters officers and employees who earn over $200,000. The former president, Andy Stern, was paid $306,388 in salary and benefits from the union in 2009. In his final year, Stern got a 5 percent pay boost, which came on the heels of the union growing by more than 88,000 members. Stern resigned in 2010 and was replaced by Mary Kay Henry, formerly the executive vice president. Over the past two years, SEIU gave almost $2 million to Democratic candidates and $8,500 to Republicans. It has 18,000 members in Wisconsin.
The USCCB went on to say the call would apply real and authentic Catholic values - as opposed to all that hooey about sin, repentance, grace.
What are real Catholic values, you ask?
Running for office, working with political parties, joining advocacy networks and community organizations to apply authentic moral teaching...and the like...
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops The Church teaches Catholics about moral values and then helps Catholics to apply those values to issues affecting the poor and vulnerable and the common good. Participating in the call can help Catholics live out the duties described in Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship: "Forming their consciences in accord with Catholic teaching, Catholic lay women and men can become actively involved: running for office; working within political parties; communicating their concerns and positions to elected officials; and joining diocesan social mission or advocacy networks, state Catholic conference initiatives, community organizations, and other efforts to apply authentic moral teaching in the public square (no. 16)" We welcome all who would like to do this to join us this afternoon!
I'm filing a complaint tomorrow against their non-profit status. Maybe we should make it a formal campaign.
And, of course, you can always count on so-called Catholic Henry Karlson to smell the blood in the water:
Henry KarlsonMany so-called pro-life advocates turn out to be anything but pro-life;
I have a narrow view? How do you know this? I have studied and engage the 2000 years tradition of social justice in the Church, and the further, longer tradition we have with the prophets. I have pointed out that so-called pro-life advocates turn the other side for life issues;
Henry's a so-called expert on Catholicism because he's 'studied' 2000 years of so-called tradition.
You know what Abba Cadabra said? Some people study and study but keep earning big fat zeros.
I don't do well with people who pretend their anti-Catholic or proabortion bullying is work they're doing on behalf of the poor.
Can you tell I am annoyed with the use of so-called?
Another woman in the thread addresses Henry's chicanery :
R**** Henry the name "so-called prolifers" is denegrating and prejudicial. We are not arguing about political agendas here. Please don't interject political bias by decrying the GOP. We want to here discuss the proper role of the Church in civil discourse. In this we should bear in mind that the Church's resources are limited as well and should be focused on the primary mission of the Church, the DIRECT care and ministry of the poor, ill, and enslaved.
when people claim to be pro-life, but denigrate things necessary for life, they are so-called pro-lifers, similar to how St Irenaeus pointed out the so-called gnostics were not even gnostics....
Henry Karlson you see so-called pro-lifers going against unions, encouraging disastrous policies such as proposed by Gov. Walker, it is clear they are not dealing with life-issues, but rather, politics and use abortion as a mask for their other, non-related issues...
Patrick: Walker has tried to remove the ability for people to have collective bargaining; this is an imposition on the weak...
Blech...Where's that list I found in the Urban Dictionary today?
Do you suppose if our country's poor learned how to earn their own credentials, to bargain for their own salaries and benefits, through education, hard work and merit, instead of staying weak and relying on the political cronies in bed with the Democrats for handouts - Henry and the USCCB would start lobbying for the unborn?
I'm sorry. I don't seem to have much patience for this today.
Who do you think is operating that USCCB Facebook Page?
Check out Michael Voris' Vortex on the USCCB's politically corrupt machine whoring for the unions.
Union workers need to pay their fair share like the rest of us. They are stealing from the poor and making it look like virtue.
As a parent with over a ten year spread between my children, I spent a lot of time in schools and experiencing the fruit of the teachers union.
Most teachers are dedicated to their mission and zealously carry out a vocation of collaborating in the development of the minds and souls of our children.
There are a number of teachers however, who are bitter, burned out, putting little to no effort into preparing lessons, creatively working with the different learning styles of children, encouraging, supporting - and quite frankly doing the job they are getting paid to do. And, they are guaranteed jobs!
Tenure has destroyed public schools.
The absurdity of this situation is compounded here in Massachusetts where they implemented testing benchmarks (MCAS) for graduation. This changed education into limited and grueling lessons on how to pass the test.
Why not test the teachers, you ask?
Because they can't fire them, that's why.
The onus to learn in this lousy environment is put on the children. In towns and cities where our country's poor live, the education of children is compromised almost to the point of being worthless. If you are black or hispanic, you are given the opportunity to be bused out of the system, which is wonderful - but our lilly-white skinned poor are suffering and I am not edified by this fix. The moral compass of our teachers unions points all students in the public school system into promiscuity. Low-self esteem develops, leading to depression, drug and alcohol abuse and crime.
Teachers unions are packed with people who have agendas that poison this well. They are in bed with the politicians. We are all forced into paying for these sweetheart deals being made in exchange for a promise to use their influence to get the pols elected in the future.
Let us face it. It's a failed experiment.
Unions are now scrambling all over the country to preserve their fiefdoms.
I believe good policeman, firefighters, teachers are being demoralized by the slugs unions protect. An employer who gives everyone the same money no matter how terrible or spectacular a worker they are, breeds a lousy environment.
Earlier this week, I overheard a local politician whining about the proposal to end collective bargaining rights. It's frightening, he said, to think of a country where workers will have to take whatever employers want to give them.
Really?
Because that's what the rest of us do in the private sector.
There are job offers out there and the best qualified get them. We work at our credentials and qualifications. We study in school, we bust our tails, we build our reputation, we advance our way through based upon ethics and the quality of our work product. Employers give raises to people based upon merit. The employer's clients are served by employees who put effort into that servitude.
This kind of a system grooms quality.
Of course, employees who have a bottle stashed in their desks and drinking on the job get fired. Workers who do not return the phone calls of customers, who are rude, lazy, abusive to colleagues or put little to no effort into the job also get fired.
There is no collective entitlement where poor performers are riding on the tails of the ethical and hard-working employees.
Unions have been taxing us for years without representation. State workers pay little to nothing for their health insurance and all kinds of outlandish benefits Americans are, quite frankly, sick and tired of paying for given the lousy quality collective bargaining gives us in return.
You had a good run but it's time to earn a salary, benefits and job security like the rest of us.
***UPDATE
As I'm sure you all know by now, Republicans finally took advantage of the laziness of the democrats and moved the bill forward around 1pm. Not everyone who wants to bust a tyranny goes into the public square with billy clubs. Some of us are still using the old democracy built upon a legal system where the politicians vote the way the majority of people tell them to vote.
Having to send state troopers out looking for the democrats to bring them to work to do their job is the monument to the regime they are defending with their thuggery.
In 2010, many tyrants were ushered out of office. It doesn't take a soothsayer to figure out that many more are ushered out in 2012.
If you haven't seen the brutality of the thuggery, check out the youtube:
What a spectacle. Whatever will these people do if they have to earn their reputation and advance individually on the merits of their performance like the rest of us?
