Tea Party Invades Occupy D.C. to Defend Capitalism | Video | TheBlaze.com

What happens when the Tea Party invades the seemingly never-ending “Occupy” protest movement? Until now, this question has been left to the whims of the imagination. But over the weekend, Accuracy in Media, Let Freedom Ring and Young America’s Foundation joined forces to infiltrate ”Occupy D.C.”

As you can imagine, the results are quite hilarious, as the Tea Party counter-protesters state their love for capitalism, holding signs that read, “Taxed Enough Already” and “Unions Destroy Jobs,” among others. The patriotic young men, who are predictably met with anger, hand out Constitutions to the “Occupiers,” while defending capitalism (Meredith Jessup covered this on the blog as well).

In the video, you’ll hear an Occupy D.C. protester call one of the Tea Partiers an “idiot.“ Another man calls one of the supporters of capitalism a ”candy a**.” And yet another individual who is visibly agitated says, “I‘m gonna turn away because I don’t turn the other cheek. You push me and you’re gonna have a problem.”

Some of the other responses, though, are even more bizarre: “Our troops are the terrorists” and “You and your corporate cronies…get the f**k out of my country” are two odd statements to look out for.

Accuracy in Media described the mission as follows: “To see what happens when three peaceful fans of capitalism, guns and our military take to the streets.”

Watch the insanity unfold, below (caution: language):

Tea Party Invades Occupy D.C. to Defend Capitalism | Video | TheBlaze.com

What Wisconsin's Judicial Election Means

Regardless of the ultimate result, there are vital lessons we should take from the race.

First, the machine of leftism, even operating in a structurally leftist state like Wisconsin, is a paper tiger.  Unions long ruled Great Lakes states with an iron hand and a rubber truncheon.  The well-paid army of union operatives, the dull armies of whipped members, and the timidity of possible opponents has meant that unions were able to drive the economy of the industrial heartland of the world's greatest economy into poverty and despair.

This judicial election, however, dispels the notion of omnipotent unions.  Voter turnout in these elections is ordinarily light.  Incumbent judges seeking reelection do not have huge organizations and vast pots of campaign funds to support them.  In this race, the leftist challenger Kloppenburg had all the advantages.  She should have walked away with this race, but she did not.  Even if Kloppenburg somehow "discovers" her own trove of uncounted votes, the left will only win the battle and lose the war.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/04/what_wisconsins_judicial_elect.html

Are California Public Employees Overpaid? | The Heritage Foundation

Abstract: While it is clear that federal workers' wages and benefits are above market levels, it is less clear whether state and local employees are similarly overpaid. In the past year, several organizations have published studies arguing that state and local workers are underpaid. But these studies undercount or omit important benefits that public workers enjoy, leading to a substantial understatement of state and local compensation. Using the example of California, this paper provides a full accounting of state and local compensation, correcting the omissions of past studies. The conclusion is that California public employees earn up to 30 percent more in total compensation than comparable private-sector workers.

http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2011/03/Are-California-Public-Employees-Overpaid

The American Spectator : Is Scott Walker the Next Calvin Coolidge?

That attention is coming Walker's way, it is impossible not to note, precisely for the same reason as it gravitated to Coolidge: a highly public -- and distinctly popular -- fight over the rights of bullying public employee unions. Taxpayer-funded unions that have deliberately targeted working families and the American middle class -- communicating a series of messages designed to infuriate: Your money or your kids. Your money or your safety. Your money or a phony doctor's excuse.

The American Spectator : Is Scott Walker the Next Calvin Coolidge?

On Teachers and Others - Victor Davis Hanson - National Review Online

Teachers are right that the crisis transcends compensation. Yet why, others might ask, would teachers’ unions oppose merit pay? Why should someone who did not join the union still have to pay its dues? Why should the state have to collect the dues from employee paychecks on behalf of the union? Moreover, when these questions are posed amid a landscape of teachers skipping classes to protest, urging students to join them, and soliciting fraudulent doctors’ notes to cover their cancellations of classes — while their supporters in the legislature hide out to prevent a quorum and thereby subvert the democratic process reaffirmed last November — the public becomes further estranged from their cause.

On Teachers and Others - Victor Davis Hanson - National Review Online

American Thinker: Madison and the Schoolkids

The writer asks an interesting question:

Why must some people be subjected to reality while others live like it doesn't exist? The reality of Wisconsin is that unemployment is around ten percent. My home state of Wisconsin is facing a projected $3.6-billion budget deficit. That's bigger than New York's deficit, and they have ten times more people than we do. We don't even have enough money to pay for $137 million's worth of this cycle's budget, which ends on June third.

In the real world, companies facing this proposition have few alternatives outside bankruptcy. Yet we all know that reality never affects the government, right? Wrong! Not anymore in Wisconsin. We have reached the point where we can either follow Greece into the future or make tough decisions now. We can no longer afford to pay 100% of government union pensions. Even if my union neighbor pays 5.8%, as the governor has requested in his recent bill, the taxpayer of Wisconsin will continue to pay for the rest of it.

Imagine that you are now a unionized government employee. The missing Democrat senators are found, they are escorted back to WI, and the governor's bill passes. Because the governor has asked unions to pay twelve percent (and in some situations, a few points higher) of their health care premiums, you get a call from your insurance agent. He informs you of an outstanding balance of $1,000. Thanks to Scott "Stalin" Walker, you now have to pay $120 of that balance. Your neighbor, the taxpayer, will have to pay only the remaining $880 instead of the complete $1,000.

Now you're back in the real world. Where in the nearly destroyed private sector can you get a health care premium like that?

American Thinker: Madison and the Schoolkids

Deny Collective Bargaining Rights?

Is the Wisconsin deal basically about denying workers collective bargaining rights?

The Governor and legislature could certainly just accept the public sector union's position, that of a willingness to accept a very modest rollback for the current year.

While doing that might solve the immediate problem for the current year, it would not solve the problem created by the unbalanced situation that exists where one side has most of the power, i.e. the public sector unions, that can basically hold the state hostage to whatever it is they want in the long term.

No level of government can make a budget if the unions can call in an outside negotiator and then demand this and that and the political subdivisions must accept the demand.

The proposal on the desk is to limit the power of public sector unions to negotiate certain things--not wages--as well as requiring that unions undergo re-certification each year, meaning workers would have the opportunity to choose whether to continue paying in huge union fees, which are now collected by the state using force--no choice is allowed, and worker's union dues then go to support Democrats and union bosses.

Make no mistake, a change such as is proposed will put an effective end to the corrupt system we have in so many states and that has led them to bankruptcy. Democrats who derive their main support from forced union dues will suffer. But that, in my opinion, is a good thing.

Workers in any case are protected by Wisconsin's civil service laws--the strongest in the country.

If the unions win this contest, then the Governor will have no choice but to begin firing public sector workers to make up the shortfall. The unions are on record as having no problem with firings. The Governor, however, does have a problem with firing state workers. Let's not forget, the state is facing financial catastrophe. Either we get a budget or we fire workers. That is the choice, unless we have reforms.

I should hasten to add, despite all the Democrat and liberal propaganda, the proposal does not address itself to private sector unions. We are talking about reforming a deeply corrupt system so that taxpayers will be put back in charge of spending. It's as simple as that.

Abolish Public Sector Unions

There can be no justification for public employees to be in unions, since the employer is the government, not a private business. Government employees have no right to strike against the public, since the public has no alternative to the government. It's not as if the public has an alternative government to provide the services required.

More than this, we have a hugely corrupt system where unions, as in Wisconsin, have the government collect union dues from each employee and then the state funnels those huge amounts of money to the union bosses who then, in turn, support Democratic politicians. Those same politicians then offer cushy benefits to the unions in exchange for union political support. It is an unholy alliance between Democrats and public sector unions that cannot be economically sustained.

It amounts to nothing less than financial rape of the public and the taxpayers, and the public has voted, overwhelmingly in Wisconsin, to make a fundamental reform of this corrupt system which can only lead to economic catastrophe for the state.

In the elections of 2010, we had a vote. In Wisconsin, the voters elected the Republicans to do what they are doing, and the votes expect them to perform and get the system in order.

This is a movement toward fiscal responsibility that is occurring in other states as well, such as Ohio, where there is legislation that essentially outlaws public sector unions.

Public sector unions are an abomination and a threat to our democratic institutions, a point well understood by George Meany, President of the AFL-CIO, and FDR himself, who opposed public sector unions. All responsible public officials should oppose public sector unions for the reasons stated.

The only way we shall have fundamental change in this country is by eliminating the long-term threat to our political and economic institutions by abolishing, or severely reigning in, the monopolistic power of public sector unions.

Even the voters of Wisconsin understand this, finally. Those in California apparently do not and will suffer accordingly.

And what about all those 14 Democrats who have abandoned their jobs to represent the people in their districts in Wisconsin? They have a moral and legal obligation to come back to the legislature and vote.

They will lose, but as President Obama has said over legislation he has favored: "We won the election." Precisely. In Wisconsin, the Republicans won, overwhelmingly. In 2012, the voters will get another chance to change their opinion, if that's what they want to do.

The Republicans will win, if they actually do what they've promised to do. Governor Walker is doing exactly what he said he would do. No surprise there, and the public supports him.

Capitalism Magazine - The Battle of Wisconsin

The battle between the governor of Wisconsin and his state employees illustrates the case for capitalism -- and against government-run monopolies. Government employees hold a monopoly -- or at least a strong advantage -- in the provision of certain services. Over time, they get comfortable. If you have only one school system -- the public school -- or one garbage collector, or one snow removal office, well then, the employees in these monopoly businesses can pretty much do and demand whatever they want. For years, even decades, they sit pretty and they're "fat and happy." They might not become millionaires at their jobs, but they're guaranteed income and retirement, in ever-increasing portions, for all of their lives.

Capitalism Magazine - The Battle of Wisconsin

Arvada Police arrest 11-year-old over 'inappropriate' stick figure drawing - KDVR

The parents were outraged, I am outraged, and every decent human being should be outraged at this sort of totalitarian mindset that has been engendered by political correctness--specifically Left Wing Progressivist attack on free speech, and the equation of speech with behavior. This is no different than that the sort of irrational nonsense that began on elite college campuses with "speech codes" and has filtered throughout higher education and enforced by Left-wing college professors and administrators. When one speaks of the fascism of the Left, this is precisely the sort of thing we are talking about.

One sees the phenomenon all throughout the culture. Recently, for example, we have the left-wing conventional mainstream media report favorably on the union thugs demonstrating in Madison Wisconsin carrying signs attacking the Republican Governor Walter as "Hitler" yet the media says nothing about that, even though such vicious signs are quite prevalent. Had the demonstration been a Tea Party affair, something the media loathes, then you can be sure the Madison demonstration would not be represented favorably, but as a riot of "racist right-wing vigilantes". I hope you see what is obvious to me, the complete double standards of the news media. If the media favor the demonstration, it's all sweetness and light. If they don't, then the demonstrators are racists.

It's interesting to note how the media liked to point out there were so few blacks among the Tea Party demonstrators, but said absolutely nothing about the fact that there were hardly any black people in the Madison union demonstrations.

Another egregious example of bias, corruption, and dishonesty in the national news media. The only news organizations that fairly reported the demonstrations was FoxNews, so oftentimes attacked by the left-wing zealots who call it "FauxNews." It's clear to me and to any fair-minded person that the only news organization that still reports news rather than straight propaganda is Fox News.

Did you notice the difference in how CNN reported how doctors who are committing fraud by excusing teachers on sick leave are reported as just doing a nice favor, when in fact, the doctors are helping the teachers commit fraud? Only FoxNews reported this story accurately in this contest between the people on the one side, who just hired their new Governor, doing what he was elected to do, and these left-wing public sector union thugs whose only object is to keep getting union dues to support their power and influence in the Democratic Party?

Arvada Police arrest 11-year-old over 'inappropriate' stick figure drawing - KDVR

» Left Re-embraces Hate and Vitriol in Wisconsin - Big Government

Now that Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is on the road to recovery, labor unions and others on the American left have pulled out all the stops in blocking spending cuts in D.C. and across the country. Since the left has no substantive, intellectually-honest arguments to offer in defense of the insane levels of government spending, they are once again resorting to hate, vitriol and downright nastiness as its political weapons of choice.

» Left Re-embraces Hate and Vitriol in Wisconsin - Big Government

» Madison Madness: Taxpayers Have Had Enough - Big Government

Nationwide, state and local government unions have a 45 percent total-compensation advantage over their private-sector counterpart. With high-pay compensation and virtually no benefits co-pay, the politically arrogant unions are bankrupting America — which by some estimates is suffering from $3 trillion in unfunded liabilities.

» Madison Madness: Taxpayers Have Had Enough - Big Government