Firewall: The End of the Beginning

Bill Whittle's take on why teacher's unions are on the way out...

Reason TV: To Surly, With Love: Are Teachers Overpaid?

The latest edition of Reason TV:

Rand Paul On Letterman Show

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) was on the Letterman show last week.  Here's the video via Hit & Run,



Here's where Rand is right, and Letterman is wrong, according to Thomas Woods, 

Rand correctly noted that the top 1% of income tax earners pay one-third of all the income taxes, with the top 50% paying 96%. So the "rich" are already paying plenty. Letterman's response? There must be something wrong with those numbers, he said to applause from the audience. So the audience is in effect saying, "We also refuse to believe those numbers!" But those numbers are correct....


Rand explains, again correctly, that spending more money on education has not improved educational outcomes. Letterman's response? Well, education is important, so we've got to try something -- how about spending more money? But by the time of George W. Bush's term, per-pupil spending, adjusted for inflation, had already doubled since LBJ....

Letterman wonders why we can't just loot the "rich" some more. Well, if we'd like to make still more firms leave the U.S., that'd be a good start. Want to strangle the growth on which everyone's welfare depends? By all means pursue this strategy....

Rand points out, correctly, that the compensation package for Wisconsin teachers is extremely attractive, amounting to over $80K annually. Letterman, to general applause, says that figure should be doubled. Isn't education important? This is the level of reasoning people appear comfortable with. On Big Rock Candy Mountain there's a giant pile of cash overlooked by the governor and the rest of us. Don't worry that the pension systems are going to bankrupt the states -- that's nothing a doubling of teacher salaries won't solve.

This is an excellent illustration of the ignorance that abounds on the Liberal left's [self deluded] "intelligencia."   Not enough money in the state's budget, just raise taxes.  Teacher's don't make enough raise their salaries.  Unforunately for tax payers, teachers aren't paid, based upon the performance of their students.  Just over 50% of Wisconsin children graduate from high school...yet these people are paid upwards of $80,000.00 per annum in total compensation...for what in academia are...failing grades.

We, as a nation have fed hopper after hopper's full of cash into the education system, yet that system hasn't produced the desired results.  Eventually, the taxpaying public is going to revolt...and begin demanding results, or else the termination of those teachers who aren't doing their jobs.  After all, if kids are failing in school...who's fault is it?  It can't possibly be the parents fault, after all, they probably don't ensure that their kids are actually doing any homework...but then, our system tends to just throw more money at problems rather than actually attempting rational solutions. 

After all, the Obama Administration terminated the one program in the Washington, DC school system that was actually producing results...vouchers and school choice...

Typical Public Union Supporter

Here's video of a typical public union supporter in Wisconsin:



Here's Mike Tobin's report on Geraldo At Large:

On Saturday night’s broadcast of “Geraldo at Large,”

Fox News correspondent Mike Tobin took some critical shots at protesters attempting to shout down and disrupt his broadcast. He told host Geraldo Rivera he has observed hate and an effort to shut out other viewpoints.

“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.”

Pretty much  everything the MSM has tried to pin on the Tea Party movement in particular and the conservative movement in general is projection of what they and the Liberal Left think and feel.  The hatred that's oozed out of the Left over the past two years has come to the forefront in the past 6 weeks, starting with the assasination attempt on Congresswoman Gifford in Arizona, and the hate fest that's occuring in Wisconsin and now spreading all across the country.

Instead of the "new civility" we have Democratic Congressman from Massachusetts calling for union suporters to get their enemies "to get a little bloody." 

Capuano to unions: You have 'get a little bloody'': MyFoxBOSTON.com

The mere thought that Sarah Palin was encouraging her supports to do this...sent the media into a frenzy of blame and recimination...yet this Congressman gets off lightly with little or no punishment from the enablers in the media.  This is not helping the public union's cause, nor that of the Democratic Party...independent voters, those people who win elections turned away from the spending binge of the Democrats last fall, and this sort of rhetoric is pushing them turning them off in ever greater numbers.

Will history repeat itself?

By

JP Bender

Thirty years ago—on Aug. 3, 1981—workers in the union know as the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO), walked off the job. Their demands included seeking a shorter workweek, additional pay increases, improved working conditions and better safety for air travelers. This was all done in the name of collective bargaining. The union defied an ultimatum by the newly elected President Ronald Reagan to return to work.

The union members rallied, demonstrated and had the backing of the liberal democrats. Forty-eight hours later, Reagan fired 11,359 striking air traffic controllers.

Union leaders and members were arrested, jailed and fined. PATCO’s $3.5 million strike fund was frozen, the strike was broken and eventually the government decertified the union.

In Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker (R), faces a similar situation with public employees, taking to the streets, challenging his proposals for lower wages, increased contributions of retirement funds and the elimination of collective bargaining. The state of Wisconsin, like 30 other states, and the federal government too, faces financial ruin in the face of a depressed economy and budget shortfalls.

Protesters are pledging to remain in the Wisconsin Capitol while Senate Democrats are committed to staying out of state until a compromise can be found with Gov. Walker on collective bargaining rights for public sector employees.

The Republican governor said that while the state enjoys a lower-than-average unemployment rate -- about 7.5 percent compared to 9 percent nationally -- about 5,000-6,000 state workers and 5,000-6,000 local government workers will find their jobs on the chopping block as the state looks to close a $3.6 billion biennial budget gap.

Under the governor's proposal, unions still could represent workers, but they could not force employees to pay dues and would have to hold annual votes to stay organized. Only wages below the Consumer Price Index would be subject to collective bargaining, anything higher would have to be approved by referendum.

If the situation cannot be resolved, more than 14,000 state employees could be fired.

Medical Fraud in Wisconsin

ObamaCare is resulting in the proliticization of medicine in Madison Wisconsin, where Dr. Patrick McKenna was video'd giving out fraudulent physicians notes to cover the unionized teacher's missing work to attend the protest at the state capitol this week.  Ann Althouse, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin has this video of the physician in question.



Here is video from the McIver Institute

“I asked if they were handing out doctors’ excuses and a guy said yes and asked me if I needed one,” she said. “When I told them I needed one for February 16 and 17th, he wondered if I wanted to come back here for the protests next week.”


What happened next?

“I said, ‘sure,’ and I received a doctor’s note for the 16th through the 25th of February, without a medical exam.”

The notes read

Feb 19, 2011
Patient’s name______
Date of birth ____/_____/_____

To Whom it May Concern:
This is confirm I have seen and evaluated the above named patient.
Please excuse from work/school due to a medical condition from
____/____/____ through
Please contact me at badgerdoctors@gmail.com if additional information is needed. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Physician Signature:
Physician Name
WI license number

Based on an examination of the signature and medical license number provided, one of the men handing out these notes was purporting to be James H Shropshire MD, a Clinical Associate Professor at the University Wisconsin Madison.

Instapundit reader, Dr. Steve White notes that,

I noted the Althouse blog reference at Instapundit. I’m a physician. I take care of patients. Yes indeed, if I were to give a doctor’s note to someone without conducting a proper medical evaluation (however brief), I’d be guilty of improper behavior and ethics and could be brought before the medical licensing board.  However, there’s another name for this: FRAUD. The teachers will use these notes to justify their absences and collect their pay. Both the doctors and the teachers are perpetrating a fraud.  Wonder if the Wisconsin attorney general could be motivated to look into that? At the very least, demand that any teacher turning in a doctor’s note over this work action also turn over the record of the medical ‘evaluation’. That would put a stop to this real quick.

More importantly, this is the first politicization of fraudulent medical coverage to give, as Prof. Jacobsen of Cornell University says,

“We have seen the future of the health care system, and it is the doctors on the streets of Madison, Wisconsin, handing out free sick notes to public sector union members so they can fraudulently collect their pay for missing work. Boy, oh boy, I can’t wait for Obamacare. Politicized medicine, massive fraud in the name of progressive politics, and a callous disregard for the law free from fear of prosecution for those aligned with the Democrats.” [emphasis  is mine, ed.]

If you are a union member and support the politically correct party, you can break your union negotiated contract...to fraudulently call in sick to attend a political rally...that's the future of ObamaCare.  In my union, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, Mid Atlantic Regional Council,  you can be terminated from your employment for doing this...why are teachers and public employees being given special treatment?  Best of all...here's a video of a physician giving Andrew Breibart a note...



From the comments come this:

The doctors in question are Lou Sanner, Anne Eglash, Hannah Keevil, James Shropshire and Patrick McKenna. I wouldn't be surprised to find they have already been referred to the Wisconsin Dept. of Regulation and Licensing and/or the WI Attorney General. Handing out obviously phony medical evaluations on the street and in front of cameras is pretty dumb, even for self-absorbed leftist pigs. 
golgathum 52 minutes ago 4

Teachers Gone Wild: This Is What's Wrong With American Education

James O'Keefe has done it again.  This time he's caught the NEA teacher's union leadership saying and doing things that in our politically correct society are unacceptable.  I'm far from being politically correct myself, but there are some boundaries you just don't cross and this union crosses just about all of them.



Here is Governor Christy of New Jersey on this:

Gov. Chris Christie comments on 'teachers unions gone wild'

Mr. Christy is just about the only politician in the country has had the balls to take on the NEA.  He also has taken on the New Jersey political establishment's wasteful spending and corruption.  He just may be who we need to pick up the peices in 2012, nationally.

UPDATE:  More video of Ms. Ploshnick:



With teacher's union leadership like this, why do we bother having schools?

Chris Christie Nails The Teachers Union

The sitting governor of New Jersey, in a show of brilliance, hammers down a rude teacher, then proceeds to answer her question by showing how the NJ NEA is to blame for teacher layoffs.