On, Wisconsin !

Let's start with full disclosure. I hate unions. I hated them when I was a leftist radical, and when I was a liberal, and when I was a moderate. And as a conservative, my contempt for unions has only deepened. In fact, my enmity toward unions is probably the only totally consistent political view I've held my entire life. The current loathsome activities of the unions and the Democratic Party in Wisconsin only confirm my beliefs.

The poor benighted unionized teachers of Wisconsin are having apoplexy because they are being asked to contribute to their own retirement and accept terms of employment that are still far better than comparable jobs in the private sector. Their response is to spit in the face of the voters of Wisconsin, scream that they are being fiscally murdered in droves, and to leave their classrooms to go to the capital in Madison and act like a mob. I take that last remark back. They aren't acting.

The State of Wisconsin is facing a financial meltdown much like California and Illinois, and the biggest contributor to the meltdown is the cost of union public employee salaries and benefits. The governor carved out an exception to proposed cuts for police and fire personnel, and then proposed cuts for all other public employees as well as a major overhaul or elimination of collective bargaining. Good for the governor, since that's exactly what the voters of Wisconsin just recently demanded at the polls. The police and fire union bosses sent their stooges to Madison, but it appears that the rank and file support the governor's actions.

Teachers who should have been in the classroom were instead in Madison. They even encouraged their students to join them (we're talking about kids, not college students here). The protest has turned into a full-blown mob, shouting obscenities and carrying signs that put an end to the two-day Democrat "era of civility." Not unexpectedly, these parasites on the public teat have already compared the governor to Hitler. How intellectual!

The SEIU is heavily involved and has coerced several other unions to respect the protest--or else. The Teachers Union has now called for all 98,000 Wisconsin union teachers to abandon their students, leave their classrooms, and descend on the capital. Meanwhile, back at the union Democrat Legislators Hall, the party of socialism and welfare has literally left town. In order to stop an up-or-down vote on the governor's proposal, these low-life union-owned cowards have actually left the state.

And it gets worse. Union thugs and fellow-travelers have landed on the lawns of the personal residences of Republican legislators, school administrators, and anybody else who supports the governor and the voters. To quote the worst ex-President in history, "this is the moral equivalent of war." But wait, there's more. The socialist in the White House, along with the Democratic National Committee, are supporting, funding, organizing and speechifying in favor of what is quickly becoming an illegal wildcat strike. Organizing for America (oh, crap!), the former Obama election committee, is actively funding the protests and sending its cadres into Wisconsin to agitate. Not only is this the leviathan federal government interfering in a state matter, but it is further proof of the lawlessness of the Obama administration. What next? Maybe the President will invite the Muslim Brotherhood to join in the protests.

Much though I may think the Supreme Court was wrong when it allowed collective bargaining during the FDR administration, the fact is that there is a contract in place, and the contract, signed by the same union fatcat thugs, is filed with the National Labor Relations Board. It forbids wildcat strikes. So the unions are not only behaving like the scum they are, but they are breaking the law and violating their own contract. The great Constitutional scholar and alleged editor of the Harvard Law Review supports these actions.

Make no mistake, this is a showdown. I am hoping the governor will stand firm and do what is required either to get the necessary changes made or to break the back of the unions once and for all. Accomplishing both would be even better. As a resident of the once great state of California, I am thinking of the words of a former California governor who became President of the United States who stood up against a different mob and said "if they want a bloodbath, let's give them a bloodbath." Later, as President, he repeated the words of Calvin Coolidge by saying "no one has the right to strike against the public good." When the damnable Air Traffic Controllers' Union refused to cooperate, he fired them all.

This is not only a golden opportunity to rub the face of the unions in the dirt where it belongs, but also an additional opportunity to fix a budget, hire teachers who teach, get rid of massive deadwood, and serve the original purposes of public education--to serve the students, not to enrich the teachers. Imagine there's no union, it's easy if you try. I hope some day they'll join us, and we can get something done. OK, it's not John Lennon, but it's hard to be poetic when you're frothing at the mouth.

This was not the piece I had originally planned for today. But my puppy and the two cats didn't seem to comprehend why I was yelling at the television. So I turned to all of you, since you are more tolerant of my occasional rants. Sputter, sputter, sputter.