Larry Johnson - In the bizarre world of so-called progressive thought, Michael Moore is offered up as one of the left’s brightest lights. Maybe he was the inspiration for Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Bright is in the eyes of the beholders.
According to Moore:
The nation is not broke, my friends. Wisconsin is not broke. Saying that the country is broke is repeating a Big Lie. It’s one of the three biggest lies of the decade: 1) America is broke, 2) Iraq has WMD, and 3) The Packers can’t win the Super Bowl without Brett Favre.
The truth is, there’s lots of money to go around. LOTS. It’s just that those in charge have diverted that wealth into a deep well that sits on their well-guarded estates. They know they have committed crimes to make this happen and they know that someday you may want to see some of that money that used to be yours. So they have bought and paid for hundreds of politicians across the country to do their bidding for them. But just in case that doesn’t work, they’ve got their gated communities, and the luxury jet is always fully fueled, the engines running, waiting for that day they hope never comes.
Man. Am I glad he cleared that up. Who knew? The Chinese are not buying our T-Bills.
There is no budget deficit. Hell, and Michael Moore ain’t fat. Nope, those rolls of flesh protruding over his belt and the enormous ass crack showing when he bends over to pick up cigarette butts littering the ground is just a figment of your hating mentality. He’s an Adonis. Don’t you get it?
In the magical world of the progressives more government and more debt is the recipe for success. (Sorry for the quick hit but I’m working an exercise, 12 hour night shifts, and don’t have as much time to write as I would like).
Monday, March 7, 2011
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Employment Trickery And Bamboozlement
Larry Johnson - Welcome to the magical world of Barack Obama and his media enablers. And yes, Fox News was doing its part to cheer-lead the glorious news that the ECONOMY HAS TURNED AROUND AND JOBS ARE GROWING LIKE DANDELIONS IN SPRING.
Don’t get me wrong. I really wish it were true. But it is a load of horseshit. Somebody at the Bureau of Labor Statistics is lying with statistics and hoping to hell you do not look at the actual numbers. So let’s take a look at the raw numbers and you will see what I mean.
Civilian Non-Institutional Population in February 2010 was 236,998,000
February 2011 it was 238,851,000.
With me so far? The number of people in the “Non-Institutional Population” grew by 1,853,000 people. The total civilian labor force in February 2010 was 153,558,000 and of that amount 138,698,000 had jobs. What percentage of the civilian labor force did not have jobs in February 2010?
Yep, 9%.
So here we are one year later. The civilian labor force is 153,246,000. WHAT THE FUCK!!!! Did we have a major natural catastrophe that killed 300,000 people? Why do I say this? According to these statistics the civilian labor force shrank by 312,000. Maybe Jesus came back and there were only 312,000 Christians worthy of being raptured?
Back to reality. Now watch the magic of statistics. Compare the 138,698,000 employed in February 2010 with the 139,573,000 employed in February 2011. That means we added 875,000 more jobs in that 13 month period. What does that mean? In that 13 month period there were an average of 67,000 new jobs created every month. What’s wrong with that?
Plenty–we have to have at least 100,000 jobs each month in order to keep pace with population growth. We did not do that. Let’s accept at face value the claim by the Obama team that 192,000 new jobs were created in February 2011. That means only 56,916 jobs were created (on average) in each of the preceding 12 months.
Check out the numbers for “NOT IN THE LABOR FORCE.” In February 2010 83,440,000 were placed in this category. In February 2011? The number is 85,605,000. In other words, 2,165,000 people disappeared from the labor force.
If you stand in front of a mirror measuring your dick with a two inch toothpick while telling yourself you are actually using a 12 inch ruler, your belief does not transcend reality. Two inches will never, ever become 12 inches no matter how much you insist that is the case.
Barack Obama and the press by and large are lazy assholes who refuse to even think for a minute about the actual numbers underlying the labor statistics that were used today to spin the world into the mistaken belief that our economy has turned a corner and we are on recovery highway.
Yep, as long as we can come up with some new ideas for eliminating more people from the workforce and use imaginary math we can be at 4% employment in no time.
Don’t get me wrong. I really wish it were true. But it is a load of horseshit. Somebody at the Bureau of Labor Statistics is lying with statistics and hoping to hell you do not look at the actual numbers. So let’s take a look at the raw numbers and you will see what I mean.
Civilian Non-Institutional Population in February 2010 was 236,998,000
February 2011 it was 238,851,000.
With me so far? The number of people in the “Non-Institutional Population” grew by 1,853,000 people. The total civilian labor force in February 2010 was 153,558,000 and of that amount 138,698,000 had jobs. What percentage of the civilian labor force did not have jobs in February 2010?
Yep, 9%.
So here we are one year later. The civilian labor force is 153,246,000. WHAT THE FUCK!!!! Did we have a major natural catastrophe that killed 300,000 people? Why do I say this? According to these statistics the civilian labor force shrank by 312,000. Maybe Jesus came back and there were only 312,000 Christians worthy of being raptured?
Back to reality. Now watch the magic of statistics. Compare the 138,698,000 employed in February 2010 with the 139,573,000 employed in February 2011. That means we added 875,000 more jobs in that 13 month period. What does that mean? In that 13 month period there were an average of 67,000 new jobs created every month. What’s wrong with that?
Plenty–we have to have at least 100,000 jobs each month in order to keep pace with population growth. We did not do that. Let’s accept at face value the claim by the Obama team that 192,000 new jobs were created in February 2011. That means only 56,916 jobs were created (on average) in each of the preceding 12 months.
Check out the numbers for “NOT IN THE LABOR FORCE.” In February 2010 83,440,000 were placed in this category. In February 2011? The number is 85,605,000. In other words, 2,165,000 people disappeared from the labor force.
If you stand in front of a mirror measuring your dick with a two inch toothpick while telling yourself you are actually using a 12 inch ruler, your belief does not transcend reality. Two inches will never, ever become 12 inches no matter how much you insist that is the case.
Barack Obama and the press by and large are lazy assholes who refuse to even think for a minute about the actual numbers underlying the labor statistics that were used today to spin the world into the mistaken belief that our economy has turned a corner and we are on recovery highway.
Yep, as long as we can come up with some new ideas for eliminating more people from the workforce and use imaginary math we can be at 4% employment in no time.
Friday, March 4, 2011
ABC: Long Term Unemployed "The New Discrimination"
Ed Morrissey - Earlier today, I noted that the level of civilian participation in the workforce has reached a generational low of 64.2% the last two months, the lowest seen since March 1984. ABC’s look at the job market suggests that it will be a long while before that rate rises significantly. Hearkening back to an era of bigotry, Alan Farnham says the long-term unemployed have become “the new Irish“:
In the bad old days of the 1800s, when it was legal for employers to discriminate against anyone they pleased, job postings used to say things like: “No Irish Need Apply.” Now the unemployed, it seems, have become the new Irish: In advertisement after advertisement, employers come right out and tell them they’re not wanted.
Right now CareerBuilder, one of the biggest job sites on the web, has a posting for an entry-level engineer. The candidate, it says, will perform structural analysis of telecommunications cell towers. A civil engineering degree is required, an undergrad GPA of at least 3.4 as is knowledge of AutoCAD. Some travel is required.
Oh, and there’s one other thing: “No layoff candidates.” …
Look anywhere that jobs are posted and you’ll see more examples. This discrimination isn’t subtle. It’s not covert. It’s right out in the open, stated in the listings: A phone manufacturer looking to fill a marketing job stipulates “No unemployed candidates will be considered at all.” An electronics firm looking for an engineer says it will “Not consider/review anyone NOT currently employed regardless of the reason.” A Craigslist posting for an assistant restaurant manager in New Jersey says all applicants “Must be currently employed.”
So prevalent is this new form of discrimination that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in February held hearings on it. The EEOC press release announcing them bore the catchy title “Out of Work? Out of Luck.”
The analogy is far from perfect, mainly because Farnham confuses discrimination based on ethnicity and the normal discernment of employers based on experience and job history. As a hiring manager for 15 years, I can attest that under normal conditions, the long-term unemployed are higher risks for problems in employment and for long-term performance. That is one of many factors that came into play when looking for new hires, but at both companies for which I ran call centers, it was considered an important factor. When exceptions were made, we usually had trouble with performance as a result.
That period of time differs from the current work environment in a couple of key ways that impact on this trend. During my years as a hiring manager, unemployment never got above 7.8%, and most of that period stayed in the 5% range. Under those conditions, finding stable employment histories for entry-level applicants was difficult, and we had to take more risks to keep staffing at appropriate levels. Indeed, we also had to significantly raise entry-level pay several times over the last ten years in which I worked in that field just to get applicants in the door.
That meant that applicants with spotty work histories were more suspect, since employment was easily found in that period. However, it also means that employers now have a much wider applicant base and can afford to be more selective. With so many new workers entering into the economy and not enough jobs to go around, it has become a buyer’s market, which means that employers don’t need to take risks in staffing decisions. While employment track records may be less indicative over the last three years of high unemployment, it’s still an issue that raises red flags about commitment and performance.
Eventually, the economy will recover enough to drive the available labor base down to a level where employers will have to take risks again, and the long-term unemployed will find opportunities at that point. Fortunately for them, they can stop being risks in that area far easier than the Irish could stop being Irish, blacks could stop being black, or women could stop being women.
In the bad old days of the 1800s, when it was legal for employers to discriminate against anyone they pleased, job postings used to say things like: “No Irish Need Apply.” Now the unemployed, it seems, have become the new Irish: In advertisement after advertisement, employers come right out and tell them they’re not wanted.
Right now CareerBuilder, one of the biggest job sites on the web, has a posting for an entry-level engineer. The candidate, it says, will perform structural analysis of telecommunications cell towers. A civil engineering degree is required, an undergrad GPA of at least 3.4 as is knowledge of AutoCAD. Some travel is required.
Oh, and there’s one other thing: “No layoff candidates.” …
Look anywhere that jobs are posted and you’ll see more examples. This discrimination isn’t subtle. It’s not covert. It’s right out in the open, stated in the listings: A phone manufacturer looking to fill a marketing job stipulates “No unemployed candidates will be considered at all.” An electronics firm looking for an engineer says it will “Not consider/review anyone NOT currently employed regardless of the reason.” A Craigslist posting for an assistant restaurant manager in New Jersey says all applicants “Must be currently employed.”
So prevalent is this new form of discrimination that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in February held hearings on it. The EEOC press release announcing them bore the catchy title “Out of Work? Out of Luck.”
The analogy is far from perfect, mainly because Farnham confuses discrimination based on ethnicity and the normal discernment of employers based on experience and job history. As a hiring manager for 15 years, I can attest that under normal conditions, the long-term unemployed are higher risks for problems in employment and for long-term performance. That is one of many factors that came into play when looking for new hires, but at both companies for which I ran call centers, it was considered an important factor. When exceptions were made, we usually had trouble with performance as a result.
That period of time differs from the current work environment in a couple of key ways that impact on this trend. During my years as a hiring manager, unemployment never got above 7.8%, and most of that period stayed in the 5% range. Under those conditions, finding stable employment histories for entry-level applicants was difficult, and we had to take more risks to keep staffing at appropriate levels. Indeed, we also had to significantly raise entry-level pay several times over the last ten years in which I worked in that field just to get applicants in the door.
That meant that applicants with spotty work histories were more suspect, since employment was easily found in that period. However, it also means that employers now have a much wider applicant base and can afford to be more selective. With so many new workers entering into the economy and not enough jobs to go around, it has become a buyer’s market, which means that employers don’t need to take risks in staffing decisions. While employment track records may be less indicative over the last three years of high unemployment, it’s still an issue that raises red flags about commitment and performance.
Eventually, the economy will recover enough to drive the available labor base down to a level where employers will have to take risks again, and the long-term unemployed will find opportunities at that point. Fortunately for them, they can stop being risks in that area far easier than the Irish could stop being Irish, blacks could stop being black, or women could stop being women.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Federal Report:: Almost Half The Babies Aborted In NYC Were African-American
(CNSNews.com) - In New York City in 2007, 87,527 abortions were performed, with 43,568--or 49.8 percent--of the aborted babies being black, according to the CDC. The number of white babies aborted in 2007 in New York City was 37,870--or 43.3 percent. 6,089, or 7 percent, were babies of other races, according to the report.
According to the Census Bureau, there are 8,302,659 people in New York City, of whom 2,085,514--or 25 percent--are black. Thus, black babies in New York City were aborted at a rate that is twice the black share of the municipal population.
A report released in December by the New York Department of Health indicated that that black babies represented an even higher percentage among those aborted in New York City in 2009. That report said about 41 percent of pregnancies in the city ended in abortion in 2009 and 59.8 percent of those abortions were of black babies.
Those statistics led a pro-life group to pay for a message on a billboard in Manhattan noting that the womb was a dangerous place for African Americans.
The billboard message, sponsored by the pro-life Web site thatsabortion.com, was taken down last week by Lamar Advertising. A company spokesman cited “public safety” concerns after workers in a building adjacent to the billboard were targeted by billboard critics.
The CDC's Abortion Surveillance Report does not include the numbers of abortions in all 50 states because there is no federal mandate for reporting abortions, and several states, including California, the nation's most populous state, did not provide abortion numbers to the government in 2007.
According to the CDC report, among the states that reported, New York had the most abortions overall in 2007: 87,527 in New York City and 33,041 in the remainder of the state for a total of 120,568 abortions.
Texas ranked second, with a reported 80,628 abortions.
Aside from race, other categories for abortion in the report include gestation, or number of weeks of pregnancy, age, and whether the abortions were surgical or non-surgical. – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report on Feb. 25 indicating that almost half of the babies aborted in New York City in 2007--the latest year in the report--were black. This was the case even though blacks represent a quarter of the city's population.
According to the Census Bureau, there are 8,302,659 people in New York City, of whom 2,085,514--or 25 percent--are black. Thus, black babies in New York City were aborted at a rate that is twice the black share of the municipal population.
A report released in December by the New York Department of Health indicated that that black babies represented an even higher percentage among those aborted in New York City in 2009. That report said about 41 percent of pregnancies in the city ended in abortion in 2009 and 59.8 percent of those abortions were of black babies.
Those statistics led a pro-life group to pay for a message on a billboard in Manhattan noting that the womb was a dangerous place for African Americans.
The billboard message, sponsored by the pro-life Web site thatsabortion.com, was taken down last week by Lamar Advertising. A company spokesman cited “public safety” concerns after workers in a building adjacent to the billboard were targeted by billboard critics.
The CDC's Abortion Surveillance Report does not include the numbers of abortions in all 50 states because there is no federal mandate for reporting abortions, and several states, including California, the nation's most populous state, did not provide abortion numbers to the government in 2007.
According to the CDC report, among the states that reported, New York had the most abortions overall in 2007: 87,527 in New York City and 33,041 in the remainder of the state for a total of 120,568 abortions.
Texas ranked second, with a reported 80,628 abortions.
Aside from race, other categories for abortion in the report include gestation, or number of weeks of pregnancy, age, and whether the abortions were surgical or non-surgical. – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report on Feb. 25 indicating that almost half of the babies aborted in New York City in 2007--the latest year in the report--were black. This was the case even though blacks represent a quarter of the city's population.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
The Hell With Wisconsin Public Employee Unions
Larry Johnson - Who the hell do these people think they are? Entitled to a job? Guaranteed lifetime employment? Top shelf healthcare?
Sorry, but as someone who once worked for the Federal Government, I understand that holding a job paid for by the U.S. taxpayer is a gift, not an entitlement. But that’s a point the union assholes in Wisconsin and around the country do not understand.
Taxpayers do not get to choose to pay taxes. You have to pay or you risk going to jail. So that money, which Government officials take from you forcibly, is different than the money you spend at McDonalds or Nordstrom or Best Buy. Why?
If you buy a lousy product you can take it back and ask for your money back. If you get lousy service you can decline to tip and/or complain to the management. I’ll give you a case in point. Last week while in Florida I called Uncle Julio’s in Boca Raton for carry out. They promised to have the food ready for pick up in twenty minutes. I made a wrong turn and arrived at the restaurant 35 minutes later. I asked for the food and was promised it would be out in a minute. Ten minutes later I was still waiting and I was pissed. I canceled the order and asked to see the manager. The manager, to his credit, came out with the food. Before I could say a word he apologized for the delay, returned my money and gave me the food.
Uncle Julio’s is great Tex/Mex and the manager won me back as a customer. So if you are sending your kid to public school and they are behind in math or reading do you get your money back? Hell no. My son was in the special education program of Montgomery County Maryland. They were supposed to teach him to read. Instead we ultimately had to take him to a specialist (Lindamood Bell) where he did learn to read. Before he started public school we lived in Argentina (he was three years old) and he learned to speak Spanish. He translated for my wife when they took the bus to the center of Cordoba to go shopping. So when he was in 7th grade and he tried to sign up for Spanish at Charles Woodward Middle School he was told, “You do not have the ability to learn Spanish.” It is this kind of mindless bullshit we constantly encountered from the highly touted public education system.
So count me as someone who believes strongly in the power of the dollar. I patronize those who sell a great product or provide a great service. I don’t pay for crappy food or shoddy products. But when it comes to government I don’t have much of a choice. I have to swallow what they supply. So spare me the crocodile tears in bemoaning the plight of Public Employee Unions. FUCK YOU AND GET BACK TO WORK!
And Scott Walker? You’re the man. Stay strong!
Sorry, but as someone who once worked for the Federal Government, I understand that holding a job paid for by the U.S. taxpayer is a gift, not an entitlement. But that’s a point the union assholes in Wisconsin and around the country do not understand.
Taxpayers do not get to choose to pay taxes. You have to pay or you risk going to jail. So that money, which Government officials take from you forcibly, is different than the money you spend at McDonalds or Nordstrom or Best Buy. Why?
If you buy a lousy product you can take it back and ask for your money back. If you get lousy service you can decline to tip and/or complain to the management. I’ll give you a case in point. Last week while in Florida I called Uncle Julio’s in Boca Raton for carry out. They promised to have the food ready for pick up in twenty minutes. I made a wrong turn and arrived at the restaurant 35 minutes later. I asked for the food and was promised it would be out in a minute. Ten minutes later I was still waiting and I was pissed. I canceled the order and asked to see the manager. The manager, to his credit, came out with the food. Before I could say a word he apologized for the delay, returned my money and gave me the food.
Uncle Julio’s is great Tex/Mex and the manager won me back as a customer. So if you are sending your kid to public school and they are behind in math or reading do you get your money back? Hell no. My son was in the special education program of Montgomery County Maryland. They were supposed to teach him to read. Instead we ultimately had to take him to a specialist (Lindamood Bell) where he did learn to read. Before he started public school we lived in Argentina (he was three years old) and he learned to speak Spanish. He translated for my wife when they took the bus to the center of Cordoba to go shopping. So when he was in 7th grade and he tried to sign up for Spanish at Charles Woodward Middle School he was told, “You do not have the ability to learn Spanish.” It is this kind of mindless bullshit we constantly encountered from the highly touted public education system.
So count me as someone who believes strongly in the power of the dollar. I patronize those who sell a great product or provide a great service. I don’t pay for crappy food or shoddy products. But when it comes to government I don’t have much of a choice. I have to swallow what they supply. So spare me the crocodile tears in bemoaning the plight of Public Employee Unions. FUCK YOU AND GET BACK TO WORK!
And Scott Walker? You’re the man. Stay strong!
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
It's Okay To Hate Gov. Walker And Taxpayers Who Agrees With Him
Pundit And Pundette - Tick tock goes the clock on the Wisconsin budget. Today is the deadline for a restructuring of the state's debt. If it passes without action on the budget repair bill, the state will lose $165 million. Yesterday, Gov. Walker gave runaway senators 24 hours to return and do their jobs:
"Failure to return to work and cast their votes will lead to more painful and aggressive spending cuts in the very near future," Walker's said in a statement.
Enter President Obama. From Cubachi:
President Obama weighed in to the business of Wisconsin, which he admitted he has no idea what the budget looks like, and said he doesn’t think it does “Anybody any good when public employees are denigrated or vilified, or their rights are infringed upon.”
Of course, he didn’t consider the rights of the taxpayers who fund these public sector workers.
Never. A taxpayer is just another bitter clinger, trying to hold on to his earnings.
The question for President Obama: Does it do "anybody any good" when a governor, legislators, media, or anyone and everyone who holds a dissenting view, are denigrated, villified, or their rights infringed upon"?
Peter Wehner:
I wonder if the president, who loves to portray himself as the high-minded arbiter of what is and what is not appropriate in American political discourse, might say something — anything — about the denigration and vilification of the governor of Wisconsin, who has been compared to Mubarak, Mussolini, bin Laden, and Hitler. There is nothing comparable being said about public employees.
If Obama were genuine in his concern about putting an end to (in his words, on the night of his election) “the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for too long,” he would have spoken out long ago on the slandering of Governor Walker. But he has not.
Gov. Walker's response to President Buttinsky:
“I’m sure the President knows that most federal employees do not have collective bargaining for wages and benefits while our plan allows it for base pay. And I’m sure the President knows that the average federal worker pays twice as much for health insurance as what we are asking for in Wisconsin. At least I would hope he knows these facts.
“Furthermore, I’m sure the President knows that we have repeatedly praised the more than 300,000 government workers who come to work every day in Wisconsin.
“I’m sure that President Obama simply misunderstands the issues in Wisconsin, and isn’t acting like the union bosses in saying one thing and doing another.”
Obama could take lessons in leadership from Gov. Walker.
Meanwhile, protesters are not being allowed to enter the Wisconsin statehouse this morning:
At the Capitol, police were blocking protesters from entering the building because some protesters who refused to leave Sunday night ignored orders to remain on the ground floor. Until those protesters comply, no other demonstrators were to be allowed into the building.
"Failure to return to work and cast their votes will lead to more painful and aggressive spending cuts in the very near future," Walker's said in a statement.
Enter President Obama. From Cubachi:
President Obama weighed in to the business of Wisconsin, which he admitted he has no idea what the budget looks like, and said he doesn’t think it does “Anybody any good when public employees are denigrated or vilified, or their rights are infringed upon.”
Of course, he didn’t consider the rights of the taxpayers who fund these public sector workers.
Never. A taxpayer is just another bitter clinger, trying to hold on to his earnings.
The question for President Obama: Does it do "anybody any good" when a governor, legislators, media, or anyone and everyone who holds a dissenting view, are denigrated, villified, or their rights infringed upon"?
Peter Wehner:
I wonder if the president, who loves to portray himself as the high-minded arbiter of what is and what is not appropriate in American political discourse, might say something — anything — about the denigration and vilification of the governor of Wisconsin, who has been compared to Mubarak, Mussolini, bin Laden, and Hitler. There is nothing comparable being said about public employees.
If Obama were genuine in his concern about putting an end to (in his words, on the night of his election) “the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for too long,” he would have spoken out long ago on the slandering of Governor Walker. But he has not.
Gov. Walker's response to President Buttinsky:
“I’m sure the President knows that most federal employees do not have collective bargaining for wages and benefits while our plan allows it for base pay. And I’m sure the President knows that the average federal worker pays twice as much for health insurance as what we are asking for in Wisconsin. At least I would hope he knows these facts.
“Furthermore, I’m sure the President knows that we have repeatedly praised the more than 300,000 government workers who come to work every day in Wisconsin.
“I’m sure that President Obama simply misunderstands the issues in Wisconsin, and isn’t acting like the union bosses in saying one thing and doing another.”
Obama could take lessons in leadership from Gov. Walker.
Meanwhile, protesters are not being allowed to enter the Wisconsin statehouse this morning:
At the Capitol, police were blocking protesters from entering the building because some protesters who refused to leave Sunday night ignored orders to remain on the ground floor. Until those protesters comply, no other demonstrators were to be allowed into the building.
Wisconsin's AWOL Democract Senators got $344,000 From Unions
David A. Patten - The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that at least one out of every five campaign dollars received by the 14 Wisconsin Democratic senators who have fled the state to protect union influence came from public-sector workers and their labor representatives.
“We have interests, and because of that we attempt to support candidates who support our interests,” Richard Abelson of the wisconsin,democrats,unions,donations,campaignDistrict Council 48 of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), told the newspaper in response to the report.
The Journal Sentinel bases the report on records compiled by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, a watchdog group that tracks money in politics.
According to that report, the 14 AWOL Democrats who have fled the state to avoid voting on whether to restrict the collective bargaining power of public-employee unions raised $1.9 million in campaign dollars since 2007.
Of that total, union and public-sector employee donated at least $344,000 to them, the newspaper reports. And the actual total could be much higher, according to the newspaper, because the occupations of those donating less than $100 go unspecified.
The newspaper reports that one Democratic senator, Spencer Coggs of Milwaukee, received about two-thirds of his campaign dollars from public-sector workers and their unions.
“What do you expect?” Coggs said, when asked about that level of support. “I’m a labor guy.”
Supporters of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker say the influence of public-sector unions must be constrained because in addition to their collective bargaining activities unions have a direct influence on who gets elected. Allowing politicians to set benefits for public employees and the unions, which in turn provide campaign donations to them, invites a conflict of interest, they say.
In addition, the Journal Sentinel reports that the AFSCME and the SEIU national unions donated over $1.3 million to liberal advocacy organizations in Wisconsin, which promote Democratic candidates.
“We have interests, and because of that we attempt to support candidates who support our interests,” Richard Abelson of the wisconsin,democrats,unions,donations,campaignDistrict Council 48 of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), told the newspaper in response to the report.
The Journal Sentinel bases the report on records compiled by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, a watchdog group that tracks money in politics.
According to that report, the 14 AWOL Democrats who have fled the state to avoid voting on whether to restrict the collective bargaining power of public-employee unions raised $1.9 million in campaign dollars since 2007.
Of that total, union and public-sector employee donated at least $344,000 to them, the newspaper reports. And the actual total could be much higher, according to the newspaper, because the occupations of those donating less than $100 go unspecified.
The newspaper reports that one Democratic senator, Spencer Coggs of Milwaukee, received about two-thirds of his campaign dollars from public-sector workers and their unions.
“What do you expect?” Coggs said, when asked about that level of support. “I’m a labor guy.”
Supporters of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker say the influence of public-sector unions must be constrained because in addition to their collective bargaining activities unions have a direct influence on who gets elected. Allowing politicians to set benefits for public employees and the unions, which in turn provide campaign donations to them, invites a conflict of interest, they say.
In addition, the Journal Sentinel reports that the AFSCME and the SEIU national unions donated over $1.3 million to liberal advocacy organizations in Wisconsin, which promote Democratic candidates.
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