We Are Wisconsin, Standing Together

SOME REAL GOOD FOOD FOR THOUGHT FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ISSUE!

IS THIS REALLY ABOUT BUDGET CUTS OR NOT?

We Are Wisconsin, Standing Together

-ADY"A Regular Guy On The Issues"

Wayne Allyn Root: President Obama alot like Egypt's Mubarak.

FYI -
-ADY "A Regular Guy On The Issues"

Wayne Root says It’s Time for a REAGAN Moment: Wisconsin Teachers-- “YOU’RE FIRED!”

Some real good food for thought from Wayne Allyn Root.

-ADY "A Regular Guy On The Issues"

It’s Time for a REAGAN Moment: Wisconsin Teachers-- “YOU’RE FIRED!” 

Wednesday, February 23, 2011, 07:12 AM

By Wayne Allyn Root, Former Libertarian Vice Presidential Nominee and Best-Selling Author of “The Conscience of a Libertarian”

Ronald Reagan stood up to the Air Traffic Controllers and in response to the threat of a strike simply fired them all. Can you imagine? Air Traffic Controllers- unique individuals with rare and valuable skills, thought irreplaceable, fired en masse. And we never noticed. Supervisors filled their shoes for months, while new ones were trained. Not a single accident. What happened to those Air Traffic Controllers who lost today’s equivalent of $100,000 per year jobs? Few ever found a job with that kind of pay again.

It’s time for a Reagan moment in Wisconsin. The average Milwaukee teacher compensation at retirement age is about $100,000 per year. Yes, I said $100,000. That’s not being reported on the nightly news, now is it? And, what good is all that bloated compensation doing? Milwaukee has a depressing 68% graduation rate. Two-thirds of Wisconsin 8th graders read below grade level. 

That $100K annual teacher’s compensation is the highest in the Midwest. Yet, during a ten-year period, while Wisconsin teacher salaries rose dramatically, students saw no improvement. None. Proving once again, taxpayers, students and parents get nothing in return for higher teacher pay. Who spends the most on teacher pay? California and Washington D.C. -- all for dismal results. 

Government employee unions, teacher unions in particular, have to be the only business (or should I say “racket") that asks for raises for horrible performance. The worse they do, the more they ask for. It’s always “the money.” The teacher unions never mention that private and Catholic school teachers make far less, with far superior results.

What drove GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy was not the bloated salaries for blue collar union workers. It was the gold-plated pensions and free lifetime healthcare that killed the automakers. Wisconsin (and every other state in the USA) faces the same problem with their public employee unions.

Today, a teacher reported retiring at age 55, after working part-time for 5 short years. She gets “only” about $250 per month for life from the taxpayers of Wisconsin. Receiving $250 per month doesn’t sound like much, until you do the math. If this teacher lives to the average age of 78, she’ll be paid over $65,000 in pension. With cost of living increases it probably goes to $75K. Perhaps that doesn’t sound like much. But, when you realize her entire 5-year working salary was $35,000, taxpayers will pay her twice that much in retirement. But what if she lives to 100? Perhaps triple or quadruple her working pay.

Now, think about all the full-time teachers in Wisconsin making $100,000 (or more) who have not paid a penny toward their retirement, but will get handed multi-MILLION dollar pensions for 25 to 40 years of not working.

But, it gets worse. Wisconsin taxpayers also pay all their post-retirement health care costs, and pay for new teachers to replace them. Ever wonder why America is broke, busted and insolvent? That is why.

Here’s the irony. While these government employees get gold-plated pensions and free lifetime healthcare, the taxpayers who are paying their bills struggle to survive. 

Why should taxpayers work their fingers to the bone until the day they die to support teacher and other public employee bloated wages and pensions? It’s time for anger and revolt alright. It is taxpayers who need to go on strike! 

It’s time for Governor Walker and other Governors across America to invoke Ronald Reagan. The message is simple: “Accept these modest cuts and end abusive collective bargaining by public employees or “YOU’RE FIRED.” And be sure to charge the teachers at the protests who hold fake doctor notes with fraud.

Good luck finding any job in the private sector paying $100,000 (or even $50,000), to work 8 to 3 with weekends, holidays, sick days and two months off in the summer, then retire young with a bloated pension and healthcare for life.

It’s time to stop being polite and politically correct. Rome is burning. The national debt and unfunded liabilities now totals $100 trillion. The clock on America’s survival is ticking. It’s time to invoke Reagan.

Guess what? If Air Traffic Controllers can be replaced, so can teachers, at far lower salaries and drastically reduced pensions. Look at the test scores. It can’t get worse. I bet we can get the same results for 30% less. Heck, bringing in fresh blood with new, creative ideas might improve the results. How can we find out if we don’t give it a try?

Oh, did I mention my daughter, Dakota, was home-schooled and is now a freshman at Harvard? Where’s my pension?

Where’s The Donald when we need him? Wisconsin teachers union — “YOU’RE FIRED!”

That's a good start. Next week, let’s have this same conversation with the all the rest of our government employees.


Wayne Allyn Root is a former Libertarian Vice Presidential nominee. He now serves as Chairman of the Libertarian National Congressional Committee. He is the best-selling author of "The Conscience of a Libertarian: Empowering the Citizen Revolution with God, Guns, Gold & Tax Cuts." His web site:www.ROOTforAmerica.com

"Don't Blow Sunshine..."

-ADY"A Regular Guy On The Issues"

FYI - a VERY good piece by Americans United for the Separation of Church and State! I totally agree with this, and to quote the below article, "If a church hospital wants public funds...it should be required to stop imposing its dogma on those in need."

-ADY "A Regular Guy On The Issues"

Medical Emergency: Catholic-Public Hospital Mergers Can Mean Loss Of Services

JANUARY 21ST, 2011

BY ROB BOSTON

People should be able to access medical care without interference from religious groups.

There has been a lot of talk about medical care lately, especially in light of the House of Representatives’ recent vote to repeal the health care plan. Americans United doesn’t take a stand on that law, but there are aspects of this discussion that are of interest to our organization.

One thing we firmly believe is that people should be able to access medical care without interference from religious groups. In some parts of the country, this is becoming difficult to do – especially when public hospitals and Roman Catholic hospitals merge. When this happens, church officials demand that the public hospital adopt a series of rules that reflect Catholic dogma.

The Ethical and Religious Directives of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops ban all abortions, for any reason. They ban the distribution of birth control. Sterilizing operations are forbidden, and a patient’s end-of-life decisions can be overridden if they conflict with church doctrine.

Yesterday, this controversy hit home for many of us at Americans United. The Maryland Health Care Commission voted unanimously to allow a Catholic hospital called Holy Cross to build a new facility in northern Montgomery County. The commission made this vote even though another hospital run by a group affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventists had proposed building a facility that would offer the full range of reproductive care.

Several people on the AU staff (me among them) live in Montgomery County. We were shocked by this decision. Our county, which is largely affluent, progressive and well educated, will be given a new hospital that doesn’t provide complete reproductive health care. I don’t believe most county residents support this.

AU Field Director Beth Corbin was at the commission meeting yesterday. For months, Beth has worked with women’s groups and the reproductive rights community to persuade the commission to back the Adventist option.

After the vote, Corbin told The Washington Post that the fight isn’t over. Legal action is being considered.

Americans United, The Post noted, “was among several advocacy groups that filed a lawsuit under similar circumstances in Florida a decade ago over the operation of a public hospital under Catholic religious doctrines. The case was settled out of court; the hospital no longer operates under Catholic directives.” (See more about that case here.)

The Post noted in a Jan. 19 story that this issue is sparking controversy all over the country. In a case from Arizona, Bishop Thomas Olmstead of Phoenix stripped St. Joseph’s Hospital of its Catholic affiliation after doctors performed an abortion to save a woman’s life.

In Oregon, a Catholic hospital lost its religious affiliation after doctors said they would refuse to stop performing tubal ligations on women who requested them.

I’m glad medical professionals at those hospitals stood up to church authorities, but many others simply buckle under and discontinue the services. This happens even though Catholic hospitals often receive public support. The new hospital in Montgomery County, for example, is being built on county-owned land.

What’s especially frustrating about this is that the people being denied these services – rape victims, poor women, those facing terminal illness – are already in exceedingly difficult positions. Instead of getting the services they need, they end up surrounded by inflexible church teachings.

There is a better way: If a church hospital wants public funds and support, it should be required to stop imposing its dogma on those in need.

FYI - From Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, http://www.au.org

-ADY "A Regular Guy On The Issues"

Montana Allows God-Talk At School Graduation

January 2011 AU Bulletin

A public school violated the First Amendment rights of a student when it forbade her from acknowledging God and Christ in her 2008 commencement remarks, the Montana Supreme Court has ruled. 

The court, in a 6-1 vote, held that a public school would not have violated church-state separation if it allowed student Renee Griffith to discuss her religious beliefs during a valedictorian address. By preventing her from going forward, the school infringed on the student’s free speech rights, the court said.

Griffith planned to mention her religious convictions in the speech by stating, “I didn’t let fear keep me from sharing Christ and His joy with those around me…. I learned not to be known for my grades or for what I did during school, but for being committed to my faith and morals and being someone who lived with a purpose from God with a passionate love for Him.”

Prior to the commencement ceremony, Griffith was asked by the school to remove the religious language.

Justice William Leaphart, in his dissent to the Griffith v. Butte School District No. 1 decision, argued that public school was right to consider the student’s remarks a church-state concern.

“Attendance at a high school graduation is compulsory,” he wrote. “The speakers chosen by the school clearly have a ‘captive’ audience. The student body of a public school is presumably very diverse with a mix of Christians, Jews, Muslims, atheists, and agnostics, many of whom would resent being required to attend a ceremony in which Christ and His love was being shared with those present in the captive audience.”

FYI - From Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, http://www.au.org

Pledge Of Allegiance Law Upheld In New Hampshire

January 2011 AU Bulletin

A New Hampshire law requiring that public school students have the opportunity to recite the Pledge of Allegiance every day is constitutional, an appeals court has ruled.

The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that the New Hampshire Patriot Act’s primary effect is not the advancement of religion, but the advancement of patriotism. The law – which was enacted in 2002 months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks – states that student participation in the Pledge is voluntary and students who choose not to recite it may stand silently or remain seated.

“In reciting the Pledge, students promise fidelity to our flag and our nation, not to any particular God, faith or church,” wrote Chief Judge Sandra Lynch on behalf of the three-judge panel in Freedom From Religion Foundation v. Hanover School District.

The lawsuit was brought by the Freedom from Religion Foundation on behalf of three children who attend the Hanover school district and the Dresden district in New Hampshire. Their parents, who identify themselves as atheist and agnostic, also joined the suit. 

The plaintiffs argued the recitation of the Pledge – with its “one nation under God” phrase — made their children “outsiders” to their peers.

Several Religious Right legal groups intervened in the case on behalf of the statute, including TV preacher Pat Robertson’s American Center for Law and Justice.

‘Father Of The Constitution’ Opposed ‘Faith-Based’ Funding.

FYI - Some VERY good food for thought!


-ADY "A Regular Guy On The Issues"

Madison’s Mandate

January 2011 Featured

By Rob Boston

‘Father Of The Constitution’ Opposed ‘Faith-Based’ Funding

The “faith-based” initiative may seem like a relatively newfangled notion, but it’s really not. James Madison faced a similar proposal 200 years ago — and firmly rejected it.

In February of 1811, Madison, fourth president of the United States, had to deal with a bill Congress had passed officially incorporating an Episcopal church in the District of Columbia. Acting on constitutional principle, he reached for a pen and promptly vetoed the measure.

In a message dated Feb. 21, 1811, Madison – widely considered to be the Father of the Constitution – told Congress that he considered the bill a violation of the First Amendment.

The proposed legislation was no mere symbolic measure. In fact, it contained 11 sections and included detailed information about how the church was to be organized and what steps were to be taken if the minister resigned. It also authorized the congregation to help the disadvantaged and to offer schooling to poor children.

All of this state-sponsored entanglement in ecclesiastical affairs was too much for Madison.

“[T]he bill exceeds the rightful authority to which governments are limited, by the essential distinction between civil and religious functions,” wrote Madison, “and violates, in particular, the article of the Constitution of the United States, which declares, that ‘Congress shall make no law respecting a religious establishment.’”

Madison went on to criticize the measure because “the bill vests in the said incorporated church an authority to provide for the support of the poor and the education of poor children of the same, an authority which, being altogether superfluous if the provision is to be the result of pious charity, would be a precedent for giving to religious societies as such a legal agency in carrying into effect a public and civil duty.”

In other words, Madison believed that churches don’t need approval from Congress to help the poor and to educate poor children if those projects are being paid for with private donations. And granting congressional sanction for such charitable endeavors, he feared, might set a precedent for public funding of them.

Madison’s veto isn’t as well known as some other incidents in church-state history – but it should be. Historians say his action is significant because it demonstrates that Madison, the primary author of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, held an expansive view of the scope of the First Amendment’s church-state separation provisions.

Religious Right revisionists who promote bogus “Christian nation” concepts of American history are fond of claiming that the First Amendment language barring laws “respecting an establishment of religion” was intended only to prevent the designation of a national church.

Madison’s veto shows that he believed otherwise.

The House of Representatives apparently saw the wisdom in Madison’s action. Members briefly deliberated the veto after Madison sent the bill back to them. Two days later, they returned to the matter and upheld the veto by a vote of 79-21.

A month later, on March 2, 1811, Madison struck again, vetoing a House bill granting a plot of federal land to a Baptist church in Mississippi. He told Congress the bill “comprises a principle and precedent for the appropriation of funds of the United States for the use and support of religious societies, contrary to the article of the Constitution which declares that ‘Congress shall make no law respecting a religious establishment.’”

Congress failed to override this veto as well. The House vote was 55-33.

Madison’s low-key persona and troubled presidency – he was in office during the unpopular War of 1812 when the British burned Washington – lead some today to overlook his contributions to religious freedom.

That’s unfortunate. A strong supporter of religious liberty, Madison celebrated “the total separation of the church from the state.”

What would Madison think of today’s faith-based initiatives? We don’t have to guess. Evidence from his own pen tells the story. http://www.au.org

The American Legion's Illegal Immigration Reform Strategy Guide.

FYI-

*From the American Legion:

"The American Legion is opposed to any person or persons being in this country illegally, regardless of race, sex, creed, color or national origin. The organization believes the current laws governing immigration should be enforced impartially and equally.  The Legion’s Americanism Commission has developed a strategy to address illegal immigration."

American Legion - Illegal Immigration Reform Strategy Guide


-ADY "A Regular Guy On The Issues"

Accused Nazi War Criminal Dies One Month Before Trial.

Something to think about...

More than 60 years after the end of World War II and the liberation of the concentrations camps, Israel is still working to bring those responsible for crimes against their people to justice. Sadly, here in America, we'd rather forget or turn a blind eye to those responsible for 9/11 all in the name of political correctness.  

Next time you hear some protected soul talking about how they don't really care about finding Osama Bin Laden or his operatives because it's been 10 years and so much time has past that it's not really that important, tell them to go tell that to an Auschwitz survivor.

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth a war, is much worse. When a people are used as mere human instruments for firing cannon or thrusting bayonets, in the service and for the selfish purposes of a master, such war degrades a people. A war to protect other human beings against tyrannical injustice; a war to give victory to their own ideas of right and good, and which is their own war, carried on for an honest purpose by their free choice, — is often the means of their regeneration. A man who has nothing which he is willing to fight for, nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. As long as justice and injustice have not terminated their ever-renewing fight for ascendancy in the affairs of mankind, human beings must be willing, when need is, to do battle for the one against the other." -John Stuart Mill.

Accused Nazi war criminal dies one month before trial

By JPOST.COM STAFF  

02/01/2011 14:42 

Accused Nazi war criminal Peter Egner died before he could be brought to trial next month, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

Egner was suspected of helping commit genocide as a transport guard for mobile gaschambers and trains headed for Auschwitz.

Egner reportedly died in a retirement community in Bellevue, Washington, at age 88

-ADY "A Regular Guy On The Issues"