News Roundup for 7/6/11

Gov. Scott Walker

-Headline of the Day-
"Scott Walker's bogus 'mission accomplished' moment."

When Gov. Scott Walker decided to end collective bargaining for public employees in Wisconsin, you'd have thought the world was going to end. Everyone freaked out, commies and hippies turned the state capitol into occupied territory, and people marched around with the most uncomplimentary signs.

Well, Scott showed them! Mere days after the bargaining ban went into effect, the Kaukauna school district announced that a $400,000 deficit had turned into a $1.5 million surplus. Success! And they all called him mad...

There's just a little hitch; that would've happened without the ban. According to the report, "the teachers union had already offered up financial concessions that would have produced almost identical savings and an almost identical surplus."

"What's more, the use of this one district to declare Walker's policies a success is almost comical in its cherry-picking," we're told. "There are 424 school districts in Wisconsin, and as the AP recently noted, Walker's policies mean draconian budget cuts to 410 of them, with labor officials and school districts predicting increased class sizes and layoffs."

An unpopular Republican Governor just making crap up to cover his ass? Unheard of! (Plum Line)


-Republican re-engineering-
It blew up the last time, but GOP experts have detected the flaw in the design:


Click to embiggen

See, the problem was that the Hindenburg wasn't big enough. (Political Wire)


-Bonus HotD-
"If the Top 25 Hedge Fund Managers Paid Taxes Like You and Me, We'd Cut 44 Billion of the National Deficit."

But of course, that'd be godless communism. (Smirking Chimp)

News Roundup for 2/22/11

Scott Walker's ship of state

-Headline of the day-
"Walker Losing Support Among Rep. State Senators."

I told ya so. Turns out that that Governor Walker's big plan to destroy the political careers of everyone in the Wisconsin Republican Party isn't so popular with those Republicans as the governor would like you to believe.

Editor of Wisconsin instution The Progressive magazine Matt Rothschild spoke with fugitive Democratic Sen. Bob Jauch and Bob says that, among the less suicidal GOPers, Walker's plan is about as popular as a fart in an elevator.

"There are six to seven Republican senators that hate this bill, really hate this bill," Jauch said. Only three defectors would be needed to kill the bill outright. Bob says he's been in touch with these senators to try to "come up with an alternative" -- presumably behind Walker's back.

Rothschild reports, "Jauch also predicted that some Republican legislators who support Walker's bill would face a recall effort." Which wouldn't be fun for them because, even if they survived it, they'd go into the next election cycle weakened by the effort and somewhat cash-poor. So they're going to be eager to avoid that, which means more incentive to stick to the union.

Poor Scott Walker. All he wanted to do was destroy working-class families.

Is that so wrong? (The Progressive)


-More bad news for Walker-
Scooter's been having a lot of fun pretending that the public is with him, but that ends today. A new USA Today/Gallup poll shows that Americans -- a group to which Wisconsinites coincidentally belong -- oppose doing away with collective bargaining for public employee unions by a ratio of about 2:1. According to the report, "The poll found that 61% would oppose a law in their state similar to one being considered in Wisconsin, compared with 33% who would favor such a law."

Walker's got to be wondering how everything could've gone so wrong, so quickly.

Let me help you out there, Scott -- it's called "rank incompetence." (USA Today)


-Bonus HotD-
"Is Scott Walker Cutting Off Internet Access To Thwart Protesters?"

Oh for chrissake, Scott. Name the last guy that worked out well for. (ThinkProgress)