EvilMonkey

I don't have anything to add, I would just like to applaud you and your wife's actions. It is a noble deed, indeed.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Feb 15, 2012 -> 08:55 AM) juddling posted an article from Tucker's website's current 'expose' on Media Matters that claims Media Matters is/was doing that, but it's not related to these Truth Teams. The Media Matters thing is creepy but Carlon's articles on it have been pretty lame so far, basically reporting that 'omg! the media gets information from advocacy groups and sometimes reports that information!' Also reported that the leader there tried to dig up dirt on the worker's personal lives, but then decided that the eeeevil conservatives would come after him with hit squads so now has body guards with him everywhere he goes. I bet they are armed.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Feb 15, 2012 -> 07:58 AM) I am sort of the resident centrist, but... I don't get what you are saying here. How is this related to personal liberty? Is anyone being asked to do something against their will? It doesn't mention it in this article, but last campaigns crack at this featured the AG of Missouri and several other prominent politicians and law enforcement personnel. Just the appearance that if you speak bad about the government the AG and police chief are gonna arrest you and press some kind of 'truth charges' is enough to evoke brownshirt comparisons. The name itself smacks of censorship, oppression and any other bad thought you would want to ascribe to it. It LOOKS bad, and it SOUNDS bad. Seriously, you guys don't see how this looks bad, AND has the potential to be REALLY bad?

OK, seriously, does just the sound of this frighten any of the Dem trolls in this thread who are concerned about personal liberty and such? Honestly, ask yourself if you would be OK with it if the parties were switched. http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/obam...--abc-news.html

Isn't there a certain level of English proficiency required to become a citizen? If she can't speak good enough to run, how the hell did she speak good enough to become legal?

But by asking for such a high amount her case now gets lots of free publicity and just maybe she gets a lawyer to represent her for free or some reduced percentage because of this.

QUOTE (Tex @ Feb 9, 2012 -> 11:19 AM) That hasn't been my experience (if we are just talking about common cats), not mountain lions, etc. I have had dogs snap at me but cats will usually run away or at least hiss. I have had a couple dogs charge me for no apparent reason. After volunteering at the humane society out here, I have seen all sorts of stuff. And I only do it once a month now, my wife is an adoption coordinator and does something there almost every day. He was right that stray cats are likely to be more diseased or fleas and such than dogs. But you are also right to beware the bigger breeds as they tend to be more aggressive after they have been out on their own for a while. Someone stated earlier my belief that for the most part we feel that people can, or at least have an opportunity to care for themselves to a degree that animals just don't have.

QUOTE (Tex @ Feb 7, 2012 -> 10:05 AM) He violated a law that seems about to me as bad as a cop speeding five miles over the limit. Not certain I would punish it that severely. And I support allowing him due process before removing him from office. Even Democrats caught with bribe money stashed in a freezer get due process and don't resign until they get it.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Feb 6, 2012 -> 09:50 AM) I get it, I just think the outrage is indeed very faux. If Ford made a similar ad - they didn't get a bailout - there would likely be some Dem pundits screaming too, and they can also just go away. They DID make an ad stating that they didn't take a bailout, and were pressured by the Obama Admin to take it down. How's that for a level playing field.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Feb 4, 2012 -> 06:02 PM) They are entitled to an education regardless of it being mainstreamed or not, and educating special-needs children is always more expensive. Educating special needs children in the same settings as non-special needs children is even more expensive. And when you have 3 or 4 at each school, instead of having several at ONE school, is even more expensive. Nobody ever said they didn't deserve an education, so no idea why you even brought that up, except to insinuate that somehow I thought they didn't.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Feb 4, 2012 -> 03:23 PM) They can also choose who they admit, which lets them avoid educating the expensive ones. This part is true. but then that can open the debate over whether it is good public policy to 'mainstream' kids that don't have the mental capacity to tie their shoes just because you are afraid of hurting some feelings or self esteem. Should there be other alternatives?

QUOTE (Heads22 @ Feb 4, 2012 -> 01:42 PM) Lets quit acting like being a teacher is a normal job. It's not. You have one person responsible for the welfare of twenty plus children at a time while at the same time being expected to educate them for the real world. As far as Obama, I'm going to vote for him, but it's a failure on the part of the Republican party that it doesn't look like he should lose. If it wasn't for the absolute dumpster fire that they have representing them at the top, they should be measuring drapes in the Oval Office. I also get a kick out of people that use Obama's middle name as a scare tactic. Let's quit acting like teachins is slave labor as well. The work 9 months out of the year, have better benefits than almost every other working sector and are as concerned about their own jobs as everyone else is. There are good teaching jobs and bad teaching jobs. For every inner city s***hole where the teacher should deserve triple as hazard pay there are cushy jobs where a gym teacher makes 200k. Get a payraise by going back to school and raising your degree. Tenure! WFT is THAT! Admin is bloated, pension are bloated and it is the fault of the politicians that voted them that way by kicking the can down the road. My mother worked in a school, a poor school district in fact. And while her pay was not on par with many others, her insurance was pretty damn awesome, and she paid very little for it. Due to the negotiations she also got sick days, which she was allowed to carry over. What other job gives you sick days and lets you carry them over if unused? And to accumulate them! She had a years worth of time she was able to cash in per her contract when she retired. I don't begrudge the teachers for asking for what they think they are worth and then some. You play by the rules. but the rules are changing. Economy sucks, job markets suck, and you have to do same or more with less. Private schools seem top produce as good an education if not more, for less money per student than public schools. Why is that?

[quote name='Balta1701' date='Feb 4, 2012 -> 01:26 PM' post='2545159' And then, things improve for the state, but the "Emergency sacrifices" stay in place. Tennessee is doing this one right now. Massive cuts to the education budgets over the last 3 years, financial situation now improving, first thing that happens...tax cuts. Kinda like toll roads here in Illinois, or the supposed 'temporary tax increase' that Quinn passed last year, that is supposed to end in a few years. yeah, it will end, sure. And I have a bridge to sell you. 67% increase and the state is still screwed. Perhaps Tennessee could get more money from teachers by reducing the executives pay? Cut some from the admin budget, filter it down to the workers. No reason those CEO's should be paid so much.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 4, 2012 -> 01:14 PM) So, if you went back to your CEO days, and you told your employees they were out a thousand dollars a year or so for whatever reason, to cover some portion of the benefits they had before, but you told them "Hey, it's ok, it's not a benefit cut, you have nothing to worry about", it'd go over great, right? I HAVE cut their pay in the past when things were rough. Right after 9/11 when my business volume dropped about 60%, everyone took a cut. You need to face reality. Why do you think teachers shouldn't feel the pain of a state with no money, just like the rest of the people? The state had NO MONEY. They were broke, in the red. Unlike the Feds, they can't just print up money or sell magic unicorn poop on Ebay to get some. You keep throwing tax cuts in here to try and muddy things up, as if I was first of all in favor of those, and also as if those were the sole reason that the concessions were made. You are wrong on both. Cuts were going to be made regardless, so your constant throwing around of tax cuts is a red herring. There was a choice, massive layoffs or a SMALL paycut and start paying a VERY SMALL portion of their very generous benefits package. WHich would you take if faced with a prospect of losing your job? As a result of the changes, the state is now in better financial shape, and almost all the districts that were underwater are not at break even or better. You also brought up earlier that despite our massive overall funding of education that a bulk of it seems to not make it down to the teacher level. I will agree with you there that the top layers are bloated beyond recognition on many areas and needs to be addressed. But those layers are also core Democratic constituencies, so good luck with that.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 4, 2012 -> 01:11 PM) So the total financial benefits were cut. You must get a workout with all the moving you do.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 4, 2012 -> 01:10 PM) I see, you don't like my comparison between cutting wages to cut the price of a product for no reason and cutting education funding to cut taxes for people who are already paying less than they should be, so it's clearly a lame hypothetical with me not paying attention. Wheter they cut taxes or not, the districts were still in the red, so money had to be saved somewhere. It was not all peaches and cream until some tax cut came along, the state, like almost all the rest, was floundering under massive debt brought on by idiotic representatives who caved in to union demands over and over again to create environments where the states just simply can't stay above water.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 4, 2012 -> 09:53 AM) Oh, I see, so now you are acknowledging market forces do impact things. So if I then come back to the original claim that dramatically curtailing benefits and increasing workloads for teachers will wind up with worse quality teachers, where we have to play games like teaching standardized tests in order to deal with the fact that the well-qualified people don't go into that profession because it pays below market rates, everyone will agree with me. And, if an executive is doing that to cut taxes for people who won't spend the money anyway, then that would mean that executive is effectively sabotaging his state/organization's future. Benefits weren't curtailed at all, they just actually had to PAY something for them like the rest of the country. And asking them to pay 4% when most people who have insurance pay more than that is not asking a lot. So what's worse, having a job with insurance and paying 4%, or being unemployed with no insurance. Hmmmm.

QUOTE (farmteam @ Feb 4, 2012 -> 12:20 PM) And I agree with cutting back on those benefits and funding upper income tax cuts is loathsome! Which STILL doesn't change the fact that your hypothetical, since it was in terms of Alpha's small business, was a poor one. That's because he was too busy moving the goal posts yet again with a lame hypothetical that he wasn't paying attention.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 3, 2012 -> 03:50 PM) They were clearly overpaid as well, they made more than the average worker. Except that I was the one paying them, not the taxpayers. Big difference. Huge. I wasn't running a deficit, and asking taxpayers to give me more money.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 3, 2012 -> 01:31 PM) Why, you made $20k more than the average worker. Clearly you were overpaid. Perhaps more than the average WIsconsis worker, yes. I also employed 6 others, 3 of whom made more than I did. But I guess that makes me eeeevil.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Feb 3, 2012 -> 03:01 PM) It's pretty sad that the right-wing response to teachers earning a decent living isn't to fight for everyone to raise up, but to drag teachers down. But I'm not sure what any of this has to do with the election! Its petty sad that the left wing response to a state that is broke is to just bend certain citizens over even more so that the unionized folk don't have to take a paycut or contribute to their own health care. How is laying off one third the teachers going to lift up anyone? It isn't. Keeping almost all of them working albeit at 5% less pay is better than having a third now living off unemployment. Although I suppose with teachers it is just going from one government teat to another, but at least with the first one we get something for the monies paid out. Whether it is worth it or now is another story. So many other places do better with less.

QUOTE (Tex @ Feb 3, 2012 -> 10:02 AM) Yet almost weekly Mexico experiences judges and elected officials being assasinated or driven from office for not bending to the cartels. They have cops and soldiers getting killed trying to stop the cartels. It has been five years since I worked full time in Mexico but then I would not have termed it a cesspool. It is worse than the US, but not nearly as bad as many people believe. Tex, trust me, I do read of the stories of the few honest people there getting threatened and/or killed. It pains me to see peole trying to do the right thing get no backing from their fellow countrymen. If Mexico wanted to actually use their own military to combat that, I would have no issue with helping them with some training here and there. But our boots need to stay here for the most part.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Feb 3, 2012 -> 10:40 AM) And how many of these "CEO's" are there and how many teachers? I sincerely wish people would stop tossing the monicker CEO around like every CEO is rich when all they're talking about is Fortune 250 CEO's. I know two people who run their own small companies and both are their respective CEO's...and neither make more than 65k per year. When I was CEO of my company I made about $50k.

QUOTE (Tex @ Feb 3, 2012 -> 10:07 AM) Let's look at what those poor GOP CEOs are earning, from USAToday http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/ma...2010/45634384/1 Of course one CEO is easily worth as much as four schools full of teachers (about 215). Nobody ever said they were Tex. CEO pay has zero to do with Wisconsin budgets and teacher pay. Even with the cuts, teachers in the non-university schools still make almost $10k more than the average resident. University teachers make almost double the average resident. It's about time the 1% of the state paid their fair share, you all should be applauding it!

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 3, 2012 -> 07:54 AM) Wow, $40k a year for a teacher. I mean, that's f***ing ridiculous. Greedy pigs. That doesn't include the universities, and it was more list $45k, and was almost $10k MORE than the average resident of the state. Not a lot for say New York, but apparently in WI, it is. Just face the facts. The state saved jobs, and budgets. Everyone paid the price, INCLUDING TEACHERS. They can't be immune to the same realities that everyone else has to face. Keep twisting and changing the goalposts, you are good at that. First they are boned. Then I show that they are not. Then they are poor. Then I show they are not. Then they are poor compared to teachers elsewhere. Just keep on moving the posts, you never lose that way.