John Kasich

Police Officers, Fire Fighters, And The “Divorce” From The Republican Party

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The Republican Party is involved in a nasty “divorce” proceeding from two groups that have been for a long time proud to be Republicans–police officers and firefighters, with the unions for both occupations regularly endorsing GOP candidates for President, Governor, Senator and other political offices. This “marriage” has been a good deal for the Republican Party, but no longer, thanks to GOP Governors across the country!

Other than the military, what other occupations are more respected as there to protect all of us in America than the police officers and firefighters, who like soldiers at war, sacrifice themselves daily and face dangers most of us have never experienced!

John Kasich, Governor of Ohio, who recently ridiculed a police officer for having the gall to stop him and give him a ticket for reckless driving, has now signed legislation taking away collective bargaining from these loyal unions. A referendum to repeal this legislation is proceeding, and police and fire unions across the nation are actively working to overcome the despicable actions of the Ohio Republican Party, and also to work work against all the other GOP governors who are mistreating those who are there for us every day, loyal to their communities!

Even Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin was smart enough to leave police and fire unions out of his legislation to to take away collective bargaining rights from teachers, nurses, and other public servants, because of his awareness of their endorsement of his candidacy last year. But many police and fire fighters marched and demonstrated at the state capitol in Madison to show their support for those public workers under attack, and made clear their opposition to such actions by the Republicans in the Wisconsin state legislature.

Chris Christie in New Jersey, Paul LePage in Maine, Rick Snyder in Michigan, and now Rick Scott in Florida have also declared war on police and fire fighters, and so this will become a major factor in the Presidential Election of 2012 and in Congressional races and state races next year.

As Rachel Maddow of MSNBC said tonight, this issue could insure that Barack Obama is elected to a second term as President, and that the Democrats could make major gains in the states and in Congress, as a result of the stupid, inane actions by Republican politicians, who will now pay a heavy price politically!

But remember, also, that the Republican Party has ALWAYS been anti labor since the era after Theodore Roosevelt one hundred years ago, and sponsored the anti labor union law, the Taft Hartley Act of 1947, which led to a half century of GOP minority status in Congress until 1994!

The Republican Party is a leopard that has never, and never will, change its spots! Once a enemy of working people, ALWAYS an enemy of working people!

When will working people finally understand and stop voting Republican?

Florida Governor Rick Scott: Obscene And Corrupt To The Core!

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Florida Governor Rick Scott cares not at all what anyone thinks of him, and will not stop his attempt to destroy any sense of decency in state government!

Rick Scott is obscene to the core, as he is now promoting the destruction of education and health care in the name of privatization!

He cares not a whit about disabled people, about poor people, about state workers, about children, about honest and accountable government!

Media inquiries about the details of his blind trust while he is Governor have gone unanswered, as he feels he has no need to explain ANYTHING about his financial affairs, despite his involvement in Medicare scams in the 1990s, paying a record fine and avoiding prison time, as a result!

Not only is he obnoxious, obscene, and arrogant, but his past record of corruption in business is now starting to show up by his executive order mandating that all state employees be required to have drug tests on a random basis every three months, and also his demand that welfare recipients be so tested quarterly, and that they pay the cost out of their welfare payments!

This whole idea of mandatory drug testing is an invasion of privacy, and an extremely expensive proposition, and since he has already demanded that welfare recipients pay for their testing, it may be he will expect state employees to do the same, although at the moment that is unclear.

But the corruption shows up with the news from the Palm Beach Post that Scott’s wife has control over his blind trust, and that she has a link to a drug testing firm, with the indication that it is that company which would do the drug testing!

So Scott, through his wife, could benefit from kickbacks and profits from the drug testing!

Is that NOT a conflict of interest, and pure corruption? But does Scott care to react to or defend such revelations? This man seems invulnerable to any critics and just goes about his business of doing whatever the hell he wants, and tells his critics to go somewhere!

Is Florida’s Governor becoming a fascist dictator, who skirts the law and is immune to criticism? Is our state legislature going to lie down and act dead, simply because he, like their majority, is a Republican?

When are we going to see the end of this nightmare against the people’s interests, and the end of the transfer of wealth from the poor and middle class to the extremely wealthy?

When are Floridians going to rise up and say, NO MORE to this arrogant, abusive man who thinks he is above the law? WHEN, OH WHEN?

And when are we going to see a similar outrage to throw out Scott Walker in Wisconsin, John Kasich in Ohio, Rick Snyder in Michigan, Chris Christie in New Jersey, and the newest outrage, Paul LePage in Maine?

When will the American people take away power from the BULLY GOVERNORS, and say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH?

Tremendous Swing In Public Support Against Rick Scott, Scott Walker, John Kasich, Rick Snyder!

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Here we are only two and a half months into the terms of Republican Governors Rick Scott of Florida, Scott Walker of Wisconsin, John Kasich of Ohio, and Rick Snyder of Michigan.

All have declared war on labor unions, public workers, education and health care, and have conducted themselves in a dictatorial manner, not giving a damn about public opinion!

But now there is evidence that, if the elections were held now in these states, after people realize what these demagogues represent, all four would LOSE!

The good news, but belatedly, is that Rick Scott in Florida, who just barely won the race for Governor over Alex Sink by one percentage point, 50,000 votes, the smallest margin in Florida history, after spending $73 million of his own fortune to buy the job, now has had a EIGHTEEN point swing in public support, so that Sink would now win by SEVENTEEN points!

This poll result is a clarion call for a RECALL vote bill to pass, and if the Governor vetoes it, he should be IMPEACHED by his own party, as it is obvious that the people of Florida are totally disgusted with the “hoodlum and thug” attitudes of this Medicare scam felon “bully”, who should be removed from office by one constitutional method or another, as he is going to take Florida down with him into another scandal or disaster similar to his illegal activities as a medical industry executive a decade ago! This man belongs in prison, not in the Governorship of the 4th largest state!

And similar action needs to be taken against Scott Walker, John Kasich, and Rick Snyder!

Disappointments With Barack Obama: Guns, Labor, And Bradley Manning

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President Obama is overwhelmed with one problem after another, and with no break in stress and tension, as the world and the nation seem to be going from one problem to another.

Already, we have seen four major issues arise in 2011, which are bound to be among the top ten news stories of the year: the guns issue, after the attempted assassination of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona in January; the uprisings in the Middle East, particularly Egypt and now Libya, leading to American involvement with NATO, the UN, and the Arab League, and Obama’s decision to intervene militarily against Moammar Gaddafi; the Wisconsin battle over organized labor, which has spread to other states as well; and the disastrous Japanese earthquake, ensuing tsunami, and the nuclear power plants emergency that followed those natural events.

So the ability of Barack Obama to do and say everything that one might feel he should, is, of course, unrealistic, but still there are three key issues that need to be addressed at some point soon by our President.

The first is to take strong leadership on the issue of the need for some greater regulation of guns, as since the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords, and the killing of six others and wounding of thirteen, we have seen the murder by gun of close to 3,000 people. If this is not a national crisis, and with the additional murders of young black youths that we see in Chicago and elsewhere, then what is? It is hard to fight the gun lobby and the National Rifle Association, but the President MUST not sit on the sidelines as gun violence escalates, and the growing danger of political assassination of himself, or some other office holder grows by leaps and bounds as the economy continues to create a crisis atmosphere in regards to jobs and housing.

Secondly, Obama had said during his Presidential campaign in 2008 that he would march with labor if there was ever a threat against the rights of workers, but he has hardly spoken up, and certainly has not gone to Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, or Florida to speak up on the issue and to confront the “Bully” GOP Governors, including most infamously, Scott Walker, John Kasich, Rick Snyder, Mitch Daniels, or Rick Scott, who are destroying the rights of public employees, making them the scapegoat, as these governors favor the rich and the powerful, and set out to destroy collective bargaining. Obama will have to campaign on labor support in 2012, but he has been slow to react publicly with adequate words and actions!

Finally, there is the issue of Private Bradley Manning, who is accused of releasing and disseminating Wikileaks information on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and who is being held in inhumane conditions in the military brig at Quantico Naval Base in Virginia, stripped naked, not allowed to sleep normally, kept in solitary confinement, being mentally destroyed, all on the basis of accusations, but not yet coming to trial.

President Obama made a reference to Manning when asked at a news conference, that he had been assured that what was being done with Manning was totally appropriate, but that is clearly the furthest from the truth. It is clear that his mistreatment is an outrage that the President needs to stop immediately, and it is a tremendous disappointment that he seems up to this point to be totally insensitive to what is happening to Manning.

Urgent action on all three matters is needed, and hopefully, the first will be to relieve Manning of his inhumane treatment NOW!

Mr. President, we believe in you, but you need to take immediate action on all three of the above matters!

Maine Republican Governor Paul LePage And Labor History

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Maine’s new Republican Governor, Paul LePage, may not be noticed nationally very much, but he is now drawing attention as another GOP state executive who is a disgrace in so many ways, and anyone who voted for him should be ashamed at what they have wrought by putting him into the Governorship!

Riding a wave or bitterness and resentment by the Tea Party Movement, LePage was elected Governor, much like Rick Scott in Florida, Scott Walker in Wisconsin, John Kasich in Ohio, Rick Snyder in Michigan, and Chris Christie in New Jersey.

All of the above, and LePage, have declared war on organized labor and working people in general, and have shown how they do not understand the history of this nation, and the long, hard fought battles of the labor movement over the past 150 years to better the conditions of workers, with millions of workers in all fields who never were members of labor unions, but benefiting from the labor struggles and rising to the middle class from poverty because of the sacrifices of others!

Now the wealthy corporate world has declared war on working people, both in unions and outside, setting out to add to their wealth and power while impoverishing every day working people, and they have had willing allies on Capitol Hill from House and Senate Republicans, as well as from Republican Governors, and have succeeded in destroying a century and a half of progress in a very short time!

If what has been happening just since this year began does not cause average, every day working people to rise in protest and to demand an end to the further aggrandizement of power by the wealthy and corporations, then we have truly and, likely, permanently, lost our concept of democracy, and have become a plutocracy, and that plants the seeds for eventual disintegration of our society and potential threat of civil war in the future, on a scale far greater than the event of 150 years ago, which will be commemorated on its opening day tragedy at Fort Sumter on April 12, and over the next four years to follow!

Paul LePage has proved himself totally insensitive to labor history, and he and the other GOP Governors need to be given lessons in the greatness of labor struggle to create better lives for the masses, to educate them in the history they apparently never studied or ignored in their earlier lives!

For LePage to order the withdrawal of a labor mural at the offices of the Maine Labor Department, depicting the triumphs and struggles of labor over the history of the state and nation, is an absolute outrage that needs a prompt response calling for a reversal of his ignorant, insensitive executive order, and a move to demand a recall election for the removal of this incompetent, stupid man who gives not a damn about the average Maine resident!

And for this outrage by LePage to occur on the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of March 25, 1911, causing the death of 146 men and women, and leading to the fight for greater labor reform in New York City and elsewhere, is indeed a sacrilege!

Focus On Bullying: Schools, State Governors, Tea Party Congressional Republicans, And A Supreme Court Justice!

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It is very sad that this nation is witnessing so many examples of bullying as a method of taking advantage of others.

President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama held a White House Conference on Bullying Prevention today to draw attention and concern to the growing bullying problem faced by young children, teenagers and early 20s youths in schools and colleges, either because of social pressures, or their sexuality, physical characteristics, or ethnic or religious heritage, often leading tragically to suicides. President Obama even said he had been bullied as a child because of his big ears. A lot of this bullying also occurs on the internet.

But it is not just an issue of young people being bullied. It manifests itself in so many other ways in our political system today, with bad manners and rudeness becoming endemic!

We have Governors such as Scott Walker of Wisconsin, Rick Scott of Florida, Chris Christie of New Jersey, and John Kasich of Ohio, among others, who are bullying public servants who have dedicated their lives to working for their communities as teachers, nurses, firefighters, police officers, prison guards, social workers, librarians and other fields of public service, and now are facing the loss of basic labor rights to collective bargaining that have been long held.

Workers having basic rights of organizing is a human rights issue for anyone in a democracy, and for Wisconsin to bypass the Democrats in their State Senate and strip workers of their basic rights in an unethical and slimy way is despicable beyond belief! Scott Walker is clearly a bully and a political thug, and the other Governors are no better, as they all proclaim, as do Republicans nationally, that we all have to “share the pain”, with the wealthy and corporations however not part of that equation, just the middle class and the poor. There is no sense of morality or decency in these men and their party as they take us back to the Gilded Age of the late 19th century, when labor was first trying to organize to protect the rights of workers.

One hundred fifty years of progress is being wiped out by these right wing fanatics who will stop at nothing to give tax breaks to the rich and the corporations and harm the masses of the nation, who are facing attacks both on their homes and their employment, and being expected to pay more and get less, squeezing the middle class down into poverty!

But the same tactics of confrontation, arrogance and belligerence are also demonstrating themselves in Congress, as the Tea Party freshmen in the House and a small band of Tea Party supporters in the Senate are showing their disdain for civility and rational thought!

And even the Supreme Court is witnessing bullying, primarily by Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, becoming more contemptuous of his fellow Justices when they go against his views. As he nears the 25th anniversary of his elevation to the Court, he is becoming more obnoxious and insufferable than ever!

When will civility and decency return to America in its schools, its government leaders, and even the Supreme Court? Unfortunately, it seems not anytime soon!

The Tea Party Movement Declares War On John Boehner! The True Insanity Destroying The Republican Party!

Ronald 3 Comments

If the Republican Party did not process the reality of the danger of the Tea Party Movement on their party and its future, it should now be very clear!

Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips has declared war on Speaker of the House John Boehner, due to the fact that Boehner seems not to understand that the Tea Party Nation means what it says, that $100 billion must be cut from the present fiscal year budget, and instead the House majority Republicans have settled on $61 billion instead.

The fact that the $61 billion is a reckless cut that will hurt the poor, the sick, the elderly, the young, and veterans has no effect on Phillips and his ilk, so therefore he now suggests that John Boehner himself seems not to get the message, and that someone needs to come along and challenge Boehner in his congressional district in the Cincinnati, Ohio, area to teach Boehner a lesson, and make clear to the GOP who is the boss of the future!

The Republican party has gone to bed with a radical right faction that is very willing to destroy the party in its mad race to the 19th century Gilded Age!

If Boehner and other GOP leaders allow this insanity to continue, and if the state governors continue to follow the destructive path of Scott Walker in Wisconsin, John Kasich in Ohio, Chris Christie in New Jersey, and Rick Scott in Florida, then the Republican Party will be totally destroyed by this cancer eating it up alive!

It is time to take a stand and say NO to this destructive, anarchistic movement which has no good purpose except to destroy the middle class, and put all of it into total poverty!

But the good thing is that the Tea Party Movement will discover it has met its match, as the middle class and the poor will organize and back the Democratic Party as the true promoter of the interests of the vast majority of the American people!

Support In Poll For Public Sector Workers As Republican Governors Work To Destroy Unions

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As Scott Walker, John Kasich, Chris Christie and Rick Scott, among other Republican Governors, make clear their campaign to undermine labor unions and strip public service workers of their benefits, a New York Times-CBS News Poll shows the American people oppose efforts to weaken the collective bargaining rights of public employee unions, and are against the cutting of pay and benefits of public workers to reduce state budget deficits.

By 60-33, Americans oppose taking away the bargaining rights of workers, and by 56-37 they are against cutting of pay or benefits to reduce deficits, with larger majorities of Democrats and Independents, and slight plurality favoritism among Republicans of what these governors are attempting to do.
By a slight margin, the poll also supports ability to retire early for police officers and firefighters, and even teachers.

A plurality of 40 percent supported raising taxes to deal with the deficit, and 71 percent of Democrats and 62 percent of Independents opposed weakening collective bargaining rights of public employees.

The only group that had a substantial support for cutting pay and benefits, but even then not a majority (45 percent), were those earning more than $100,000 per year.

A Wisconsin poll also shows nearly 60 percent oppose what Governor Scott Walker is trying to do to destroy collective bargaining, and a recall movement is developing against him and many leaders of the GOP in the legislature. And a poll shows if Walker was running now for Governor, four months after he was elected, he would easily lose!

So with strong Independent support for labor rights, and polls showing great anger against GOP Governors, the Democrats may be able to utilize the anti labor fight in a productive way in 2012!

The Plight Of Organized Labor From The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Of 1911 To Wisconsin In 2011

Ronald 1 Comment

One hundred years ago, on March 25, 1911, 146 workers, mostly female, were killed in the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in New York City, spurring the beginning of labor reforms.

Promotion of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union and other unions moved ahead after this tragedy, and finally, in the 1930s under Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, organized labor finally received recognition as an equal in collective bargaining.

By the 1960s and 1970s, about one third of all workers were in labor unions, and the middle class grew in size and prosperity as never before.

But starting with the 1981 Air Traffic Controllers Strike under President Ronald Reagan, where all the strikers were fired, leaving the nation in a dangerous, reckless situation regarding air safety, unions rapidly declined, and now are as low as 6-9 percent of the population, much of it public workers unions. Many states have become “right to work” states, or states that have worked against unionization, particularly in the South and Mountain West.

Now Scott Walker in Wisconsin, John Kasich in Ohio, Chris Christie in New Jersey, Rick Scott in Florida, and other Republican Governors are declaring war on public service unions, and this may be the turning point where the collective bargaining rights of 1935 are lost in 2011 and beyond, and just on the centennial of the horrible tragedy of the Triangle fire coming up in a few weeks.

Before that complete collapse of labor rights occurs, one can watch a documentary on PBS on Monday night, relating the terrible events of the Triangle Fire, and that event’s centennial should make us reflect on how far we have come and how far backward we seem to be headed!

Have we learned from history, or are we again ignoring history in the name of “bully” Governors who speak for the Koch Brothers and other extremely wealthy corporate interests, who do not give a damn about the rest of America in their mad dash to obscene profits and greed?

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker Scandal: Resign, Be Impeached, Or Face Recall Vote!

Ronald 10 Comments

Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker has been shown today to be a complete fraud, a liar, under the control and influence of corporate interests including the Koch Brothers, and having delusional ideas comparing himself to Ronald Reagan.

In a fake phone call, a person supposedly David Koch, communicated with Walker who discussed the goal of destroying the labor movement and collective bargaining, willing to do the bidding of the Koch brothers, ready to trick the 14 State Senate Democrats who have boycotted the legislature and are staying in Chicago, considering setting up confrontations between thousands of demonstrators and corporate supporters, and comparing what he is doing to Reagan firing 11,000 air traffic controllers in 1981.

He also showed he is totally warped on history, as he claims that the air traffic controllers firing in 1981 led to the Berlin Wall’s collapse in 1989 and the downfall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Walker’s behavior requires one of the following: either withdraw the destructive labor legislation from consideration, or resign as a scandalous governor, or face impeachment, or utilize the Recall mechanism devised by Governor Robert LaFollette, Sr. a century ago to remove this disgraceful power grabber.

And while we are at it, let’s work to remove all of the “bully” Governors, including Chris Christie, John Kasich, and Rick Scott, all of whom are setting out to destroy state government and make for the most corrupt series of Governors we have seen in many generations!