You Stupid White Dude Assholes

You expect US, the majority of those who voted, to give a SHIT about your plight after you have voted the wrong way time after time, year after year, decade after decade? Give me a fucking break.

And some of those goddamned rust belt states put in "right-to-work," thus eroding living standards even more. You stupid white dudes VOTED for these politicians instituting these laws. We Democrats are supposed to fucking CARE about you because you entitled bastards are hurting, can't cut it in retraining for jobs, or you can't go camping or RV-ing like you used to do with your wives or girlfriends? Thirty-five years of wrongheaded voting, and you STILL can't get it right? You want sympathy because you are a racist, sexist, entitled white dude?

Give me a fucking break.

There is NO excuse voting for GOP if you are not rich. None.

Of course, DEMOCRATS are to blame because these MORONS refuse to listen to reason. Put the blame everywhere instead of where it belongs.

These people are willfully STUPID. You can't fix them.

It's Only Fair

Of course the reason for the "right to work" bullshit is to cut union power off at the knees by having them have less money with which to operate. It has nothing to do with a right of an employee to have a union job but be allowed to sponge off of other members by not paying their share.

Most people who don't join a union because of the financial costs which can be substantial. Others don't join because the union is worthless in protecting their interests (like Washoe Education Association). However, not paying the dues makes the matter even worse.

My school district up here has a "fair share" clause in the union contracts. It isn't the same thing as paying the full union dues, however:

The fact is that many contracts, especially in the public sector, respect the rights of the worker and their choice to join, or not join, the union and have a negotiated agreement with the employer for what is know as a “fair share” agreement. To people who many not be covered by a collective bargaining agreement in their workplace, this is a clause that basically means that if you benefit from the contract, ie work her under this agreement, then you must pay a fee to cover the costs of negotiating and administering the contract. That is it.

It's only fair, after all.

For the record, I joined OSEA a couple of months ago. The cost is only about 1.5-percent of annual salary, or about 15 a month.

Employees up here also have the right to strike, unlike Nevada's public employees.

Sellouts Will Kill Unions and Public Education

Diane Ravitch still hasn't figured this out about her friend Randi Weingarten.

Weingarten is an obvious mole, a fake, just like Barack Obama is a fake Democrat put in the party to weaken and eventually kill it. There is precedent for that sort of thing, so it isn't conspiracy nonsense. Infiltration of perceived opponents was done time and again during the 1960s-1970s with anti-war and other "left" groups seen as "subversive" by the FBI. What makes people think this sort of thing still isn't going on?

Neoliberals can't win on rational arguments, for what they believe is untenable in a democracy or even a functioning society, so they engage in various forms of subterfuge in order to "win." Infiltration of unions and political parties is one way to do it.

Etc.

In what other profession or field are those who are in it are considered not competent enough to comment on the reality of their jobs?

It's the craziest thing in the world, but those who don't know anything about schools other than having once attended them think they know what REALLY goes on.

They don't.

Note they complain to no end but they wouldn't consider going into this "cushy field" themselves.
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Once again unions are guilty of giving away the store in order to survive in name only, I guess.
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Any resemblance between Obama and George W. Bush is purely coincidental.
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Another harebrained scheme being floated about is the idea students should be allowed to "evaluate" teachers. They do it in colleges (though the evaluations don't actually make or break professors and mean little if they are tenured), so why not in K-12?

Well, I can tell you by looking at sites like RateMyTeachers that the teachers rated the most highly by students are those who are young, "popular," and are easy graders. It's true kids wouldn't be worse than most administrators, who wouldn't know "good teaching" if it bit them in the ass, but still it is a crazy idea.
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The Kiss of Death? Will Romney trump Trump's endorsement of Newt in this Saturday's Nevada caucuses, to say nothing of future contests?

Update: Mitt did "trump" Newt because Trump endorsed him. Mitt, that is, not Newt.
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Just I thought, a teacher at WCSD who had been on paid leave for almost a year has reached a settlement with the district, or more likely, it is vice versa.

The district had no defense when its principal decided she would try and force this teacher out on trumped-up charges (testing violations).

I think the teacher prevailed in part because she had an outside lawyer and didn't rely on WEA to help her.

If one has an account with the site, the case is here.

Cairo Comes to Madison,

and that's what the powers-that-be were so afraid of when the widespread protests happened in Egypt, Tunisia, Greece, Ireland, and other countries and why we didn't have a whole lot of coverage on most of them.

And we know the media especially didn't want to cover the onslaught against public employees in the United States.

Republicans have been so adept at brainwashing the public that they think they can get away with it. And now that neoliberalism has overtaken the Democratic Party, there is no political opposition to the attempts to destroy the middle class once and for all. Note, for example, Obama's complete indifference to the Wisconsin situation.

The WSWS has something to say about these current events.

nstead, they are part and parcel of an orchestrated attack on working class living standards being carried out by both big business parties, led above all by the Obama administration. While handing over trillions to bail out Wall Street, provide tax breaks for the rich and finance its criminal wars, the White House has refused to help the states, which have a combined deficit of $126 billion. The budget shortfall is being seized upon as a pretext to lay waste to any form of government spending that does not boost the fortunes of the rich, the banks, and the corporations.

Across the border in Illinois, the Democratic-controlled state legislature is moving toward banning the right of public school teachers to strike in order to carry forward a massive assault on public education. In Ohio, a Republican governor is working hand-in-hand with Democratic mayors to bar public employee strikes. Democratic governors in New York and California are ordering unprecedented budget cuts, just like their Republican counterparts in states such as Florida and Arizona.

Democratic politicians are about as big an enemy as Republican ones. People better wake the hell up. Politicians are also blatantly lying that their budgets are broke while at the same time refusing to acknowledge the fact too few people have too much money and all at the masses' expense.

On the Front Lines

Unlike Nevada, where public employees are NOT allowed to strike and therefore the unions are totally worthless, Eagle Point, Oregon, teachers have decided to strike.

Scabs, also called "substitute teachers," will be encourage to cross the picket lines:

District officials said they were disappointed by the union's decision because they felt the two parties had made progress toward a settlement in recent days.

"If the union does strike, we want the community to know that we will bring in qualified substitutes to keeps the schools open so our seniors can graduate," said Eagle Point schools Superintendent Cynda Rickert. "We are not going to turn our backs on students."

About 80 percent of employees voted in favor of the strike. Employees also formally rejected the district's initial offer Tuesday for a three-year contract, which included a 2-percent retroactive cost-of-living pay increase for 2008-09 but no cost-of-living increase in the subsequent two years.

Will the Unions Succeed

in demanding Obama demand the resignation of B of A's CEO Ken Lewis?

I wouldn't hold my goddamned breath. While the auto industry, a key sector of this economy, gets shit on, it's the Wall Street mess which precipitated the decline in ALL industries, including the auto industry, not the other way around.

But Obama remains a tool of Wall Street. Don't count on him to do one damned thing in this regard.

THIS is What We are Up Against

This worthless sack of shit, Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama, is so utterly insane that he wants to kill the auto industry in this country, which involves hundreds of thousands of workers, not only in the manufacture of cars, but also of auto parts, and of ALL businesses in these towns were the plants exist, plus all of the businesses depending on those busineses, just because this worthless piece of shit despises unions. That's what this not wanting the bailout is all about.
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Labor is hoping the new administration will put in the Employee Free Choice Act.
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The Democrats hope to reverse course on the economy, and the economy generally does better under Democratic administrations rather than Republican, but what is needed is a complete repeal of the last 30 years of "trickle on" economics or the transfer of wealth upward to fewer people.
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It Just Goes to Show

any idiot, as long as he or she is filthy rich and owns the media, can spew any sort of garbage he or she wants.

Too bad they can't oust this cretin.

The WSWS is Pissed

two major unions came out in support of John Edwards.

This outfit believes in unregulated immigration to this country to uncut the wage base, all in the name of "solidarity" or some stupid thing.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce couldn't have said it better.

The Unions

certainly aren't doing the workers much good with regard to Dana.

Tales from the Booming Economy.

Sweatshops are alive and well in this country in the form of the restaurant industry.
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The USSC continues to be in the pocket of big biz.
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Auto unions in this country continue to make concessions.
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