“no mere exercise in payback”

Charles Lane in the Washington Post nails it.

For public-sector unions, the Walker recall is no mere exercise in payback. The unions, upon which Democrats depend heavily for funding and foot soldiers, say Walker must be ousted and his reforms reversed for the sake of the middle class. Progressive values — even democracy itself — are in mortal danger.

Actually, the opposite is true. The threat to such progressive goals as majority rule, transparent government, a vibrant public sector and equality comes from public-sector unionism.

I had supposed that Walker’s victory in 2010, along with the victory of Republicans in both houses of the state legislature, entitled the people’s choices to make policy until the next election.

I had not realized that Wisconsin’s voters were allowed to elect representatives to do everything except change the rules on collective bargaining.

“But Walker never campaigned on curtailing union rights!” his opponents cry. What rule of American democracy says that public officials may do only what they explicitly promised before taking office, and nothing else? By that logic, President Obama could be impeached because he opposed an individual mandate to buy health insurance during the campaign, then supported it in office.

Of course, collective bargaining in the public sector is inherently contrary to majority rule. It transfers basic public-policy decisions — namely, the pay and working conditions that taxpayers will offer those who work for them — out of the public square and behind closed doors. Progressive Wisconsin has a robust “open meetings” law covering a wide range of government gatherings except — you guessed it — collective bargaining with municipal or state employees. So much for transparency.

Even worse, to the extent that unions bankroll the campaigns of the officials with whom they will be negotiating — and they often do — they sit on both sides of the table.

Read the whole thing.

Not All Recoveries Created Equal

Ah yes...

The economy grew at 4.5% in 1983, with a few quarters of growth north of 8%. In 2011, meanwhile, the economy grew just 1.7%.

In just one month—September 1983—the economy added more than a million jobs. For the full year, the economy added almost 3.5 million jobs, a trend that continued into 1984, an election year in which Reagan captured 49 states in a landslide victory.

Obama can claim job growth of 1.8 million in 2011. A welcome comeback, but still tepid by comparison.

Looking ahead to 2012, Obama could replicate the 243,000 jobs created in January over each of the next 11 months and still not approach Reagan’s total for 1984 of 3.9 million.

Eat More Lizard

Yum.

Puerto Rico, plagued by iguanas for years, is taking a violent stand against the ubiquitous reptiles.

The government is proposing an iguana eradication project that would both eliminate the long-time nuisances, and bolster the territory’s lackluster economy by exporting the reptiles’ meat for as much as $6 a pound.

“That is a lot more than chicken,” said Daniel Galan Kercado, secretary of the Department of Natural Resources. “It has great economic potential.

The reptiles have cost the U.S. territory hundreds of thousands of dollars annually by sunbathing on San Juan’s airport runways and disrupting traffic; causing power outages by building nests near power plants and wrecking building foundations by burrowing holes underneath them.

Norovirus Outbreak in Dane County

I blame Scott Walker.

An unusual string of norovirus outbreaks has hit Dane County, including a suspected new outbreak of the foodborne illness in a church group, a health official said Monday.

UW-Parkside Threat Was a Hoax

What in the world posseses people to do stuff like this?

SOMERS, Wis.—The Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department said some recent racially motivated threats at University of Wisconsin-Parkside were a hoax.

Authorities said one of the students named on a list of “targeted” black students confessed that she created the list and fliers found in a dormitory. The lists and fliers were found after a report of a rubber band noose found in a residence hall.

Authorities said the student created the list and fliers because she was not happy with the initial response from a resident assistant to the noose.

New Tax Breaks for Wisconsinites

Excellent.

Wisconsin residents who use health savings accounts or who have children in day care will be able to take advantage of new tax breaks as they fill out their 2011 income tax returns this year. Companies that create jobs in Wisconsin also are in line for new benefits.

Patriots Release Player on Eve of Super Bowl

Wow. That’s harsh.

Tiquan Underwood, the guy who loved being a Patriot so much that he did that to his hair, was released by the team on Saturday, just hours before the Super Bowl.

It’s callous and it’s cold-blooded, but that’s football, and that’s Bill Belichick. I’m sure that Underwood is emotionally devastated, but that’s a head coach’s job. If he feels like another player might help a little more on Sunday, even if it’s just for one play, then it’s the coach’s job to make that decision. Feelings aren’t a part of it.
 
Underwood probably didn’t expect this, but he’s no stranger to being released, either. It’s the third time the Patriots have cut him this season.

Charles Haley Misses Out on HOF

What a shame.

After six Cowboys contributors were elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in the past six years, the 2012 class will not have any Dallas connections.

Defensive end Charles Haley and coach Bill Parcells both survived Saturday’s initial cut from 15 modern era candidates to 10, but neither passed on for final consideration.

The man has FIVE Super Bowl rings, fer cryin’ out loud. Put him in the Hall.

Moby Dick

I’m trying to encourage my little drummer girl to learn this. We’ll see how it goes.

Incidentally, I read Moby Dick all in one night in a blinding rain storm while sitting in my truck under a street lamp in a parking lot in Tioga, TX. I had intended to read it up at our farm, but the power went out. So my memory of that book is in pelting rain, which seems somehow appropriate.

Neumann!

Interesting.

Solar energy companies owned by a tea party Republican running for an open U.S. Senate seat in Wisconsin who is strongly opposed to the 2009 federal stimulus package have received $500,000 in grants under the program.

Herein I consider the relative paradox of these situations. Is it possible to oppose a program but still take advantage of it? Perhaps Neumann opposes the stimulus programs, but if they are out there, why shouldn’t he partake in them?

Let’s put this in another context… I oppose the Earned Income Credit as a policy matter. If I qualified for it (I don’t), would I take advantage of it? Yes, I would. So does it pollute the position if one who opposes the stimulus programs to take advantage of them? Perhaps.

While readers of this blog know that I don’t support Neumann, I have difficulty in finding fault in his behavior here.

It’s That Time

Ruling on GAB Vacated By Appeals Court

Interetsing.

A state Court of Appeals Friday reversed a lower-court order that the Government Accountability Board must seek out duplicate and obviously fictitious recall petition signatures.

The 4th District panel ruled that Waukesha County Circuit Judge Mac Davis should have allowed pro-recall groups to intervene in the lawsuit brought by Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign.

“We conclude that the recall committees are entitled to intervene as a matter of right,” the court said, adding later in the decision that “it cannot be seriously disputed that the recall committees have an interest in the procedures that will be used to review their recall petitions and strike names.”

The decision ordered Davis to reconsider all “later rulings that were made without the participation of the intervenors” — including the Jan. 5 ruling that GAB enact additional procedures to ferret out invalid signatures.

Notice that the court didn’t dipute the actual ruling. They merely said that the recall committees should have been allowed to participate. I suspect that we’ll come to the same conclusion even after listening to the recall folks bloviate for a while.

Kramer Carries

I would do the same thing.

Bill Kramer of Waukesha is speaker pro tem of the Assembly. He controls debate and can order spectators out of the chamber.

He says he obtained a permit to carry a concealed weapon in November and has at times carried a Glock 26 on the Assembly floor.

He says he feels he needs the weapon given the toxic atmosphere at the state Capitol. Bands of protesters still angry over Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s contentious collective bargaining law have spent the past year harassing GOP legislators.

Although… I’m not a huge fan of Glocks.

Odd FoodShare Spending

Well, that does seem odd.

The Legislative Audit Bureau reports Friday that a portion of recipients on the Wisconsin FoodShare program spent almost $33 million outside the state last year.

Program participants are legally allowed to purchase food anywhere in the country. But the report shows some FoodShare cards were used for purchases in Wisconsin on the same day the card’s account number was manually entered for purchases in another state.

Magna Carta Goes on Display

Very cool.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A 715-year old copy of Magna Carta will soon return to public view at the National Archives after a conservation effort removed old patches and repaired weak spots in the English declaration of human rights that inspired the United States’ founding documents.

The National Archives unveiled the medieval document Thursday in a specially humidified glass and metal case. It is the only original Magna Carta in the United States and will return to public display Feb. 17.

A $13.5 million gift from philanthropist David Rubenstein funded the conservation, the custom-built case and a new gallery being renovated to host Magna Carta. Rubenstein bought the historic document at auction in 2007 for $21.3 million and sent it to the National Archives on a long-term loan.

Rubenstein, a co-founder of the private equity firm The Carlyle Group, said he sought the document previously owned by Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot because he wanted to keep it from leaving the country.