"Look for the Union Label"......

And make no mistake, GM is in a horrible bind. That $1.1 billion loss in the first quarter doesn't begin to tell the whole story. The carmaker is saddled with a $1,600-per-vehicle handicap in so-called legacy costs, mostly retiree health and pension benefits. Any day now, GM is likely to get slapped with a junk-bond rating. GM has lost a breathtaking 74% of its market value -- some $43 billion -- since spring of 2000, giving it a valuation of $15 billion. What really scares investors is that GM keeps losing ground in its core business of selling cars.

Enough is enough....

Interesting writings regarding the stand-off in Wisconsin and many missing Democrat Senators & House members....

Here's a lesson that is both ironic and sad at the same time. According to the U.S. Department of Education, two-thirds of the eighth graders in Wisconsin cannot read proficiently. But assuming the kids are skilled enough to watch TV, they can now see their teachers demonstrating to keep their generous union benefits. So while things do not seem to be going well in the classroom, any thought of holding teachers somewhat responsible is cause for a protest march.

In 10 years, starting in 1998, Wisconsin doubled the amount of money spent on each public-school student to more than $10,000 per pupil per year. And test scores went down! Doing the math, the equation seems to be that money is not the key to knowledge.

In the private sector, the capitalist knows that when he negotiates with the union, if he gives away the store, he loses his shirt. In the public sector, the politicians who approve any deal have none of their own money at stake. On the contrary, the more favorably they dispose of union demands, the more likely they are to be the beneficiary of union largesse in the next election. It's the perfect cozy setup.

Obama's Democrats have become the party of no. Real cuts to the federal budget? No. Entitlement reform? No. Tax reform? No. Breaking the corrupt and fiscally unsustainable symbiosis between public-sector unions and state governments? Hell no.

We have heard everyone — from Obama's own debt commission to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — call the looming debt a mortal threat to the nation. We have watched Greece self-immolate. We can see the future. The only question has been: When will the country finally rouse itself?



Meanwhile, 14 Democratic state senators who don't belong to organized labor but who with one exception are owned by unions have run off to Illinois so the state Senate can't vote on a bill they don't like.

As those Democrats ignored their constitutional duties a state away, that bill was passed early Friday in the Assembly where a mob of adults wearing orange T-shirts and acting like spoiled children chanted "shame, shame, shame" from the floor and gallery.




If anyone should be ashamed of their behavior, it's the public-sector workers and their supporters who think they have a moral title to jobs with bloated pay and benefits provided by others. They believe it's acceptable to bully those with whom they disagree and behave like riotous rabble. They've conducted themselves in an infantile, cowardly and undignified manner

If the AWOL Democrats don't start acting like adults and return to Madison by Monday to debate and vote on the bill passed in the Assembly, they should be recalled. Should government workers, including the teachers, continue to skip work without using their legitimate time off to join the protests, they need to be fired.

enough...

.

Enough said.... Regarding why we need to look at the Public Service Unions.....

Richard Cohen makes some obvious observations regarding why we need to look at the pensions of the public Unions and the abuse of these programs....

In New York City, the No. 2 guy in the Fire Department retired on a pension worth $242,000 a year. In New York State, a single official holding two jobs and one pension took in $641,000. A lieutenant with the Port Authority police retired with an annual pension of $196,767, and 738 of the city's teachers, principals and such have pensions worth more than $100,000 a year.

In some cases, retirement came a mere 20 or so years after first reporting to HR and, if you were lucky enough to fake a disability — oh, my aching back! -- the sky is virtually the limit. Fully one-third of all New York City cops who retired during a recent 17-month period did so on disability.

They have dangerous jobs, we all know — but not nearly as dangerous as Long Island Rail Road workers. Almost all of them retired on disability. All aboard!

California state police often retire at age 50 with 90% of their salary. Corrections officers in that state earn $70,000 in base salary. New York City, the home office of featherbedding, supports 10,000 cops who retired before the age of 50.

It was one thing when unions went after giant corporations run by guys who played golf at restricted clubs. But when it comes to government workers, we are the boss and we pay the bill. To quote what Sam Spade told the woman he loved in the "Maltese Falcon, "I won't play the sap for you." When it comes to public-sector unions, my sentiments exactly.

Democrats and history of "Skipping Town"?....

Turns out this is not the first time for the Democrats to “take their marbles and leave the game” when it looked like it was not going to go their way….. But this is not limited to just the Democrats, I witnessed our former chairman of the local GOP County Committee storm out of several committee meetings when he did not get his way yelling “No Quorum, No quorum” on his way out the door. Fortunately he was wrong and there was a quorum so business to move the local party and committee forward was accomplished....

Recently there have been several new stories that bring up the history of Democrats leaving town once the going got tough……

There have been at least four occasions of blocking a quorum in Wisconsin's legislature alone. The first known took place in 1893 when legislators were locked in the chamber for 72 hours after some left to avoid a vote on piping water to the World's Fair in Chicago.
.

And this past week in Wisconsin...
The 14 Democrats, who fled first to a convention center and water park in Rockford, Ill., before scattering when discovered by a reporter, have so far been able to prevent the quorum of 20 senators, or three-fifths of the members, needed for such a vote in the 33-person body.

And one representative in 1951, Rep. Ruth Doyle, had to be retrieved from the women's bathroom for a vote on a resolution for the legislature to hear Gen. Douglas MacArthur speak
.

Even in Texas....
On Monday, the Republican-led Texas state legislature was preparing to convene when it suddenly became apparent that virtually all the Democrats in the Texas House were nowhere to be found.

Republicans quickly ordered state troopers and the legendary Texas Rangers to round them up. But the Democrats were one step ahead of the law. They fled to neighboring Oklahoma and set up shop in a hotel.

Milwaukee teachers average $100,000+ with benefits?!.....

Milwaukee teachers are already making an average $100,000+ with benefits and they refuse to pay into their own retirement pension to close the $3 billion State gap in the budget? The average person working in the area only makes $19,000 a year and the median avg household pulls in $40,000 and these are the people who pay the teachers salaries\benefits with their tax money...

.

Here is the kicker, but one you did not expect. The graduation rate for Milwaukee is only 68% so it's obvious that besides making more than 4X times the average person (Taxpayer) the teachers of Milwaukee are failing in their performance...

.

Out of that $100,000 package how much do they pay the Unions to do their deeds?

Obviously it was enough if they could get the Whole lot of DEMOCRAT Senators to flee the State instead of doing the job they were elected to do?....

.