Michael Oberndorf
Democracy, totalitarian style
By Michael Oberndorf
The despicable spectacle being staged in Wisconsin by Democrats and their public employee union storm troopers should a real wake-up call to Americans still dozing on the couch. These jack-booted thugs are out to trample our republic into the mud, and replace it with, it seems, a Soviet-style democracy, where you have free speech and votes, as long as they agree with the Party line. The fact that the majority of Wisconsin voters gave Governor Scott Walker and the Republicans in the state legislature a mandate means nothing to these lawless, greedy Democrats. They apparently believe that elections mean nothing, unless Democrats win them. Whoever is in office must bow down to their greedy, ever-increasing demands for big, taxpayer funded salaries, and absurdly large benefit packages, also paid for by the public.
One might be able to find a bit of sympathy, except much of what public employees do is unnecessary, unconstitutional, and poorly done, to boot. Other than police and firefighters, who generally do a good job, you don't have too many of these union public trough-feeders who do much that is to society's benefit.
For instance, you have social workers who can't recognize or won't report child abuse, who encourage people to stay on the welfare rolls so the social workers will have "clients" to justify their bloated salaries. You have DOT workers who have you stand in line, sometimes for hours, just to do five minutes worth of business like renewing a license. You have all sorts of construction and building inspectors who make you wait for them to show up, sometimes for weeks, only to find a nit-pick detail to flunk you on, so that they can come back again. And trust me folks, for I have seen it in person in several big Democrat-run cities over the years, you can buy health inspectors for a half-gallon of cheap rye whiskey, cops on the beat, and even fire inspectors. Corruption, Democrat is thy name.
And, of course, we have the teachers. According to their unions, they are overworked and underpaid. However, Wisconsin ranks 20th in average salary, at about $47,000, with another $25,000 in benefits. Not bad for working less than 10 months of the year.
In Wisconsin, the student-to-teacher ratio is 15-to-1. Nationally, it is 16-to-one. When I was in school, it was generally 30+-to-1. However, the results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress shows that low student-teacher ratios is no guarantee of children getting a better education:
"HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NATIONAL RESULTS SHOW THAT 34 PERCENT OF FOURTH-GRADERS, 30 PERCENT OF EIGHTH-GRADERS, AND 21 PERCENT OF TWELFTH-GRADERS PERFORMED AT OR ABOVE THE PROFICIENT LEVEL, DEMONSTRATING COMPETENCY OVER CHALLENGING SUBJECT MATTER."
In other words, the longer students are exposed to teachers, the less they learn, and that two-thirds and more apparently learn almost nothing. This in spite of spending $11,370 per pupil in 2011, up from $6,424 in 1995. Seems that giving these union grifters more money has made education worse, not better.
WHAT IS TRULY AMAZING ABOUT THE WISCONSIN OUTRAGE IS THAT THEY SEEM TO ACTUALLY BELIEVE THAT HAVING RACE-EXTORTIONIST JESSE JACKSON SHOW UP, BUSING PEOPLE IN FROM OUTSIDE WISCONSIN TO SWELL THE CROWD, AND HAVING TEACHERS COMMIT FRAUD BY CALLING IN SICK — THEY WILL GET PAID SICK-LEAVE FOR HAVING A HIGH OL' TIME IN MADISON, INSTEAD OF WORKING — WILL ENDEAR THEM TO THE PUBLIC. OBAMA SEEMS IMPRESSED, BUT I DOUBT MANY OTHERS WILL BE, EVEN SOME DEMOCRATS. THE ARROGANT AND DISGRACEFUL DEFIANCE OF LAW BY THE DEMOCRATS IN THE WISCONSIN SENATE, IN RUNNING AWAY LIKE THE COWARDS THEY ARE, RATHER THAN STAYING AND DOING WHAT THEY ARE REQUIRED BY LAW AND COMMON DECENCY TO DO, WILL NOT WIN THEM MUCH, NOW OR IN 2012.
THIS DEBACLE, COMING ON TOP OF THE OBAMA/REID/PELOSI MOB'S THUGGERY IN PASSING ALL OF THEIR UNCONSTITUTIONAL LEGISLATION IN 2009 AND 2010, SHOULD MOTIVATE EVEN THE MOST DIE-HARD KNOW-NOTHINGS TO GET OFF THE COUCH, TURN OFF THE TV, AND GET INVOLVED BEFORE THERE IS NOTHING LEFT TO GET INVOLVED IN. FEAR ITSELF IS THE LEAST OF WHAT WE SHOULD BE AFRAID OF...
© Michael Oberndorf
February 21, 2011
The despicable spectacle being staged in Wisconsin by Democrats and their public employee union storm troopers should a real wake-up call to Americans still dozing on the couch. These jack-booted thugs are out to trample our republic into the mud, and replace it with, it seems, a Soviet-style democracy, where you have free speech and votes, as long as they agree with the Party line. The fact that the majority of Wisconsin voters gave Governor Scott Walker and the Republicans in the state legislature a mandate means nothing to these lawless, greedy Democrats. They apparently believe that elections mean nothing, unless Democrats win them. Whoever is in office must bow down to their greedy, ever-increasing demands for big, taxpayer funded salaries, and absurdly large benefit packages, also paid for by the public.
One might be able to find a bit of sympathy, except much of what public employees do is unnecessary, unconstitutional, and poorly done, to boot. Other than police and firefighters, who generally do a good job, you don't have too many of these union public trough-feeders who do much that is to society's benefit.
For instance, you have social workers who can't recognize or won't report child abuse, who encourage people to stay on the welfare rolls so the social workers will have "clients" to justify their bloated salaries. You have DOT workers who have you stand in line, sometimes for hours, just to do five minutes worth of business like renewing a license. You have all sorts of construction and building inspectors who make you wait for them to show up, sometimes for weeks, only to find a nit-pick detail to flunk you on, so that they can come back again. And trust me folks, for I have seen it in person in several big Democrat-run cities over the years, you can buy health inspectors for a half-gallon of cheap rye whiskey, cops on the beat, and even fire inspectors. Corruption, Democrat is thy name.
And, of course, we have the teachers. According to their unions, they are overworked and underpaid. However, Wisconsin ranks 20th in average salary, at about $47,000, with another $25,000 in benefits. Not bad for working less than 10 months of the year.
In Wisconsin, the student-to-teacher ratio is 15-to-1. Nationally, it is 16-to-one. When I was in school, it was generally 30+-to-1. However, the results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress shows that low student-teacher ratios is no guarantee of children getting a better education:
"HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NATIONAL RESULTS SHOW THAT 34 PERCENT OF FOURTH-GRADERS, 30 PERCENT OF EIGHTH-GRADERS, AND 21 PERCENT OF TWELFTH-GRADERS PERFORMED AT OR ABOVE THE PROFICIENT LEVEL, DEMONSTRATING COMPETENCY OVER CHALLENGING SUBJECT MATTER."
In other words, the longer students are exposed to teachers, the less they learn, and that two-thirds and more apparently learn almost nothing. This in spite of spending $11,370 per pupil in 2011, up from $6,424 in 1995. Seems that giving these union grifters more money has made education worse, not better.
WHAT IS TRULY AMAZING ABOUT THE WISCONSIN OUTRAGE IS THAT THEY SEEM TO ACTUALLY BELIEVE THAT HAVING RACE-EXTORTIONIST JESSE JACKSON SHOW UP, BUSING PEOPLE IN FROM OUTSIDE WISCONSIN TO SWELL THE CROWD, AND HAVING TEACHERS COMMIT FRAUD BY CALLING IN SICK — THEY WILL GET PAID SICK-LEAVE FOR HAVING A HIGH OL' TIME IN MADISON, INSTEAD OF WORKING — WILL ENDEAR THEM TO THE PUBLIC. OBAMA SEEMS IMPRESSED, BUT I DOUBT MANY OTHERS WILL BE, EVEN SOME DEMOCRATS. THE ARROGANT AND DISGRACEFUL DEFIANCE OF LAW BY THE DEMOCRATS IN THE WISCONSIN SENATE, IN RUNNING AWAY LIKE THE COWARDS THEY ARE, RATHER THAN STAYING AND DOING WHAT THEY ARE REQUIRED BY LAW AND COMMON DECENCY TO DO, WILL NOT WIN THEM MUCH, NOW OR IN 2012.
THIS DEBACLE, COMING ON TOP OF THE OBAMA/REID/PELOSI MOB'S THUGGERY IN PASSING ALL OF THEIR UNCONSTITUTIONAL LEGISLATION IN 2009 AND 2010, SHOULD MOTIVATE EVEN THE MOST DIE-HARD KNOW-NOTHINGS TO GET OFF THE COUCH, TURN OFF THE TV, AND GET INVOLVED BEFORE THERE IS NOTHING LEFT TO GET INVOLVED IN. FEAR ITSELF IS THE LEAST OF WHAT WE SHOULD BE AFRAID OF...
© Michael Oberndorf
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