(HT to an e-mailer for the term “Flee Party”)

From the Indy Star (HT Cubachi via Dan Riehl):

Indiana Democrats trigger Statehouse showdown over anti-union legislation

House Democrats are leaving the state rather than vote on anti-union legislation, The Indianapolis Star has learned.

A source said Democrats are headed to Illinois, though it was possible some also might go to Kentucky. They need to go to a state with a Democratic governor to avoid being taken into police custody and returned to Indiana.

The House came into session this morning, with only two of the 40 Democrats present. Those two were needed to make a motion, and a seconding motion, for any procedural steps Democrats would want to take to ensure Republicans don’t do anything official without quorum.

With only 58 legislators present, there was no quorum present to do business. The House needs 67 of its members to be present.

… Today’s fight was triggered by Republicans pushing a bill that would bar unions and companies from negotiating a contract that requires non-union members to kick-in fees for representation. It’s become the latest in what is becoming a national fight over Republican attempts to eliminate or limit collective bargaining.

It’s interesting how the President’s home state of Illinois is such a popular Flee Party hangout, seeing how it’s a Blue State stronghold, just raised taxes to “solve” a budget problem, yet still won’t fund a service most Dems would consider sacrosanct.

With time on their hands, maybe Badger State and Hoosier State Dems on the lam can do some drug and addiction counseling on the side.

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UPDATE: From a commenter at Dan Riehl’s place — “So, I take it that Illinois is a ‘Sanctuary State’ for ‘undocumented legislators’ …”

I had a feeling this was coming, because if Wisconsin public schools on the whole were stellar, we would have heard about it many days ago.

From CNS News:

Two-Thirds of Wisconsin Public-School 8th Graders Can’t Read Proficiently—Despite Highest Per Pupil Spending in Midwest

… In the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests administered by the U.S. Department of Education in 2009—the latest year available—only 32 percent of Wisconsin public-school eighth graders earned a “proficient” rating while another 2 percent earned an “advanced” rating. The other 66 percent of Wisconsin public-school eighth graders earned ratings below “proficient,” including 44 percent who earned a rating of “basic” and 22 percent who earned a rating of “below basic.”

The test also showed that the reading abilities of Wisconsin public-school eighth graders had not improved at all between 1998 and 2009 despite a significant inflation-adjusted increase in the amount of money Wisconsin public schools spent per pupil each year.

In 1998, according to the U.S. Department of Education, Wisconsin public school eighth graders scored an average of 266 out of 500 on the NAEP reading test. In 2009, Wisconsin public school eighth graders once again scored an average of 266 out of 500 on the NAEP reading test. Meanwhile, Wisconsin public schools increased their per pupil expenditures from $4,956 per pupil in 1998 to 10,791 per pupil in 2008. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator the $4,956 Wisconsin spent per pupil in 1998 dollars equaled $6,546 in 2008 dollars. That means that from 1998 to 2008, Wisconsin public schools increased their per pupil spending by $4,245 in real terms yet did not add a single point to the reading scores of their eighth graders and still could lift only one-third of their eighth graders to at least a “proficient” level in reading.

The $10,791 that Wisconsin spent per pupil in its public elementary and secondary schools in fiscal year 2008 was more than any other state in the Midwest.

Look, I know there are plenty of reasons besides the teachers themselves why kids can’t, don’t, or won’t learn. But this is a disgrace, and it should be obvious that paying teachers much higher salaries and providing gilded benefits packages hasn’t changed things for the better.

My memory may be foggy, and maybe a Badger State reader or someone knowledgable about these things can help me — but I vaguely recall a time when Wisconsin’s public schools were considered the envy of the land. Obviously, that’s not true now.

At NewsBusters — “(Chris) Matthews Visibly Angered By Poll Finding Americans Think Reagan Was Greatest President.” The result is at this Gallup poll. Well Chris, I suspect that this is partially because the current Punk President’s PR peeps are trying to pretend that their guy is somehow like Reagan. Their campaign has instead reminded many Americans of the greatness of the real Gipper, especially compared to the Oval Office’s current pathetic occupant.

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Ann Althouse (“Neutrality — cruel and kind — from Wisconsin — where everything’s happening”) reports receiving a death threat (I suppose lefty excuse-makers will call it a “death suggestion”) for videotaping a Madison salt truck driver not doing his job.

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Madison back story: So it appears that President’s Day is not a holiday at Madison, Wisconsin schools. The guess here is that Martin Luther King Day is. If so, I have a problem with that.

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At the UK Daily Mail, via Drudge — “Illinois slashes ALL state funding for drug and alcohol abuse treatment in massive cuts programme.” Google News as of about 7:30 a.m. shows pretty light coverage for what seems to be a pretty big story — and Drudge apparently feels he has to go to a UK newspaper for good coverage.

This is happening because the state has lived way beyond its means for years. It has attempted to solve its problems with tax increases, and yet it STILL has to cut to the core.

If a Republican governor did this, it would lead the evening newscasts.

Party of compassion my a**.

Update: Well, the St. Louis Post Dispatch’s cartoonist noticed.

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Only the naive will be surprised by this — “Cables show China used debt holdings to press US.” The referenced item goes back almost 2-1/2 years. Over $4 trillion in additional debt later (Feb. 17, 2011 – $14.124 trillion; September 30, 2008 – $10.025 trillion), only the naive would think that this isn’t a nearly routine occurrence.

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At the Wisconsin State Journal (HT Gateway Pundit) — “UW Health is investigating reports of doctors writing sick notes last weekend to excuse Capitol protesters from work, and the Wisconsin Medical Society has criticized the doctors’ actions.” I suspect “Now get off our backs, will ya?” window-dressing, but we’ll see.

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A bad sign from Egypt:

Egypt protest hero Wael Ghonim barred from stage

Google executive Wael Ghonim, who emerged as a leading voice in Egypt’s uprising, was barred from the stage in Tahrir Square on Friday by security guards, an AFP photographer said. Ghonim tried to take the stage in Tahrir, the epicentre of anti-regime protests that toppled President Hosni Mubarak, but men who appeared to be guarding influential Muslim cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi barred him from doing so.

Ghonim, who was angered by the episode, then left the square with his face hidden by an Egyptian flag.

Qaradawi gave a Friday sermon in the square, where hundreds of thousands of people gathered a week after Mubarak’s fall, in which he called for Arab leaders to listen to their people.

Via MEMRI, January 9, 2009:

Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi on Al-Jazeera Incites Against Jews, Arab Regimes, and the U.S.; Calls on Muslims to Boycott Starbucks and Others; Says ‘Oh Allah, Take This Oppressive, Jewish, Zionist Band of People… And Kill Them, Down to the Very Last One’

The potential for a repeat of Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeni in the late-1970s would appear to be very real.

Update: Never mind the spelling difference in the last name. It is the same guy.

This post is a Washington’s Birthday BizzyBlog tradition.

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Few know that George Washington singlehandedly prevented a soldiers’ revolt in 1783.

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(from historyplace.com)

At the close of the Revolutionary War in America, a perilous moment in the life of the fledgling American democracy occurred as officers of the Continental Army met in Newburgh, New York, to discuss grievances and consider a possible insurrection against the rule of Congress.

They were angry over the failure of Congress to honor its promises to the army regarding salary, bounties and life pensions. The officers had heard from Philadelphia that the American government was going broke and that they might not be compensated at all.

On March 10, 1783, an anonymous letter was circulated among the officers of General Washington’s main camp at Newburgh. It addressed those complaints and called for an unauthorized meeting of officers to be held the next day to consider possible military solutions to the problems of the civilian government and its financial woes.

General Washington stopped that meeting from happening by forbidding the officers to meet at the unauthorized meeting. Instead, he suggested they meet a few days later, on March 15th, at the regular meeting of his officers.

Meanwhile, another anonymous letter was circulated, this time suggesting Washington himself was sympathetic to the claims of the malcontent officers.

And so on March 15, 1783, Washington’s officers gathered in a church building in Newburgh, effectively holding the fate of democracy in America in their hands.

Unexpectedly, General Washington himself showed up. He was not entirely welcomed by his men, but nevertheless, personally addressed them…

Gentlemen:
By an anonymous summons, an attempt has been made to convene you together; how inconsistent with the rules of propriety, how unmilitary, and how subversive of all order and discipline, let the good sense of the army decide…

Thus much, gentlemen, I have thought it incumbent on me to observe to you, to show upon what principles I opposed the irregular and hasty meeting which was proposed to have been held on Tuesday last – and not because I wanted a disposition to give you every opportunity consistent with your own honor, and the dignity of the army, to make known your grievances. If my conduct heretofore has not evinced to you that I have been a faithful friend to the army, my declaration of it at this time would be equally unavailing and improper. But as I was among the first who embarked in the cause of our common country. As I have never left your side one moment, but when called from you on public duty. As I have been the constant companion and witness of your distresses, and not among the last to feel and acknowledge your merits. As I have ever considered my own military reputation as inseparably connected with that of the army. As my heart has ever expanded with joy, when I have heard its praises, and my indignation has arisen, when the mouth of detraction has been opened against it, it can scarcely be supposed, at this late stage of the war, that I am indifferent to its interests.

But how are they to be promoted? The way is plain, says the anonymous addresser. If war continues, remove into the unsettled country, there establish yourselves, and leave an ungrateful country to defend itself. But who are they to defend? Our wives, our children, our farms, and other property which we leave behind us. Or, in this state of hostile separation, are we to take the two first (the latter cannot be removed) to perish in a wilderness, with hunger, cold, and nakedness? If peace takes place, never sheathe your swords, says he, until you have obtained full and ample justice; this dreadful alternative, of either deserting our country in the extremest hour of her distress or turning our arms against it (which is the apparent object, unless Congress can be compelled into instant compliance), has something so shocking in it that humanity revolts at the idea. My God! What can this writer have in view, by recommending such measures? Can he be a friend to the army? Can he be a friend to this country? Rather, is he not an insidious foe? Some emissary, perhaps, from New York, plotting the ruin of both, by sowing the seeds of discord and separation between the civil and military powers of the continent? And what a compliment does he pay to our understandings when he recommends measures in either alternative, impracticable in their nature?

I cannot, in justice to my own belief, and what I have great reason to conceive is the intention of Congress, conclude this address, without giving it as my decided opinion, that that honorable body entertain exalted sentiments of the services of the army; and, from a full conviction of its merits and sufferings, will do it complete justice. That their endeavors to discover and establish funds for this purpose have been unwearied, and will not cease till they have succeeded, I have not a doubt. But, like all other large bodies, where there is a variety of different interests to reconcile, their deliberations are slow. Why, then, should we distrust them? And, in consequence of that distrust, adopt measures which may cast a shade over that glory which has been so justly acquired; and tarnish the reputation of an army which is celebrated through all Europe, for its fortitude and patriotism? And for what is this done? To bring the object we seek nearer? No! most certainly, in my opinion, it will cast it at a greater distance.

For myself (and I take no merit in giving the assurance, being induced to it from principles of gratitude, veracity, and justice), a grateful sense of the confidence you have ever placed in me, a recollection of the cheerful assistance and prompt obedience I have experienced from you, under every vicissitude of fortune, and the sincere affection I feel for an army I have so long had the honor to command will oblige me to declare, in this public and solemn manner, that, in the attainment of complete justice for all your toils and dangers, and in the gratification of every wish, so far as may be done consistently with the great duty I owe my country and those powers we are bound to respect, you may freely command my services to the utmost of my abilities.

While I give you these assurances, and pledge myself in the most unequivocal manner to exert whatever ability I am possessed of in your favor, let me entreat you, gentlemen, on your part, not to take any measures which, viewed in the calm light of reason, will lessen the dignity and sully the glory you have hitherto maintained; let me request you to rely on the plighted faith of your country, and place a full confidence in the purity of the intentions of Congress; that, previous to your dissolution as an army, they will cause all your accounts to be fairly liquidated, as directed in their resolutions, which were published to you two days ago, and that they will adopt the most effectual measures in their power to render ample justice to you, for your faithful and meritorious services. And let me conjure you, in the name of our common country, as you value your own sacred honor, as you respect the rights of humanity, and as you regard the military and national character of America, to express your utmost horror and detestation of the man who wishes, under any specious pretenses, to overturn the liberties of our country, and who wickedly attempts to open the floodgates of civil discord and deluge our rising empire in blood.

By thus determining and thus acting, you will pursue the plain and direct road to the attainment of your wishes. You will defeat the insidious designs of our enemies, who are compelled to resort from open force to secret artifice. You will give one more distinguished proof of unexampled patriotism and patient virtue, rising superior to the pressure of the most complicated sufferings. And you will, by the dignity of your conduct, afford occasion for posterity to say, when speaking of the glorious example you have exhibited to mankind, “Had this day been wanting, the world had never seen the last stage of perfection to which human nature is capable of attaining.”

This speech was not very well received by his men. Washington then took out a letter from a member of Congress explaining the financial difficulties of the government.

After reading a portion of the letter with his eyes squinting at the small writing, Washington suddenly stopped. His officers stared at him, wondering. Washington then reached into his coat pocket and took out a pair of reading glasses. Few of them knew he wore glasses, and were surprised.

“Gentlemen,” said Washington, “you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have not only grown gray but almost blind in the service of my country.”

In that moment of utter vulnerability, Washington’s men were deeply moved, even shamed, and many were quickly in tears, now looking with great affection at this aging man who had led them through so much. Washington read the remainder of the letter, then left without saying another word, realizing their sentiments.

His officers then cast a unanimous vote, essentially agreeing to the rule of Congress. Thus, the civilian government was preserved and the young experiment of democracy in America continued.

That is, unserious about dealing with the country’s problems and challenges.

From a column in today’s Wall Street Journal by Paul Gigot, who interviewed Paul Ryan:

Has the president ever called him to talk? “Never once,” he says, notwithstanding Mr. Obama’s many public statements that he wants “aggressive” conversations with Republicans, especially Mr. Ryan. “He keeps saying that,” says the Wisconsin native, but “they don’t talk to us. It just doesn’t really happen. I don’t know what else to say.”

So goes the reality of today’s Washington, especially after Mr. Obama dropped his budget this week that does almost nothing about everything. To call it a punt is unfair to the game of football. That abdication makes Mr. Ryan, by dint of his expertise and his influence with other Republicans, the most important fiscal voice in Washington. As supply-siders used to say—and Mr. Ryan came of political age as a protege of Jack Kemp—Mr. Ryan is now the man on the margin. He says he’s determined not to waste the opportunity, notwithstanding the huge political risks.

What’s the White House political calculation behind its budget? “The fiscal strategy is to hang on to all the government we’ve grown, and hopefully rhetoric will get us through the moment. It strikes me as a posture or position to keep the gains of the last two years in place—the bump up in discretionary spending, the creation of these new entitlements—to lock in their gains, bank their wins, and then hang on through the rest of this year. And they believe they have the flourishing rhetorical skills to navigate the politics in the meantime,” Mr. Ryan says.

He adds he was hoping for more, counting on at least some leadership on Social Security, but “we’ve seen triangulation in rhetoric, not in substance.”

But they’re quite serious about holding on to power. The case that they’re really serious about making the problems worse gets more convincing with each passing day.

If Obama is reelected, they have four more years of essentially unaccountable power. If you think the damage done thus far is severe, just wait.

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Related, at NewsBusters — “Newsweek’s Evan Thomas: Obama’s Budget a ‘Profile in Cowardice’” —

Only the President, only the President can break the logjam. His State of the Union was a profile in cowardice. His budget is a profile in cowardice. I hope there’s a secret plan he has here to come forward to lead us, but he hasn’t shown it yet.

Thomas asserted in 2004 that establishment press bias in favor of John Kerry and John Edwards “would be worth maybe 15 points” in that year’s presidential election. Bush won by 2.4%. So if you believe the press was as successful as Thomas predicted, Bush would have won by 17 in a fair fight.

When you’ve lost Evan Thomas ….

Lucid Links:

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From an Investors Business Daily editorial (“Obama And The Unions: A Lawless Alliance?”):

Last month the president called for civility in politics. Yet now he supports the Democratic lawmakers in Wisconsin who unlawfully refuse to do their elected jobs — and the union mobs backing them.

Democratic state politicians in Wisconsin are on the run. State troopers are searching from Bayfield to Kenosha for 14 Democratic state senators who in effect are fugitives.

But the state legislators promise they’ll stay outside the boundaries of the state, in hiding, for weeks — even if it means government paralysis.

This is the vicious way the left plays. They lose an election after spending a state into oblivion, then instead of submitting to the will of the people they collect their marbles, refuse to continue playing, and go home in a huff — or in this case go off to points unknown.

… In what dictionary is “civility” defined as “having your political machine bus in union mobs”?

There really is no need for the question mark at the end of the editorial’s title.

At the Washington Post, Jennifer Rubin has related thoughts on who is really guilty of “overreach.”

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In Venezuela, some students are on a hunger strike:

Venezuela Student Hunger Strike Gains Momentum …

What started off as a small hunger strike of Venezuelan students, is now growing as dozens of people have joined the protest demanding that the government let the Organization of American States investigate alleged human rights abuses under President Hugo Chávez.

The activists vow to press on with the protest until OAS Secretary-General José Miguel Insulza or the OAS’s Inter-American Human Rights Commission are authorized to visit Venezuela. Protesters say Chávez uses judges and prosecutors to persecute his political adversaries.

According to El Nacional, the students have specifically referenced and asked for the release of 27 people they say are political prisoners.

While mentioning the hunger strike, the Associated Press does not mention the alleged political political prisoners, and frames the situation quite differently:

Venezuela’s allies tell OAS chief not to meddle

Latin American allies came to the defense of President Hugo Chavez’s government on Saturday, telling the head of the Organization of American States not to meddle in Venezuela’s domestic affairs.

Nations belonging to a left-leaning bloc led by Venezuela and Cuba accused OAS chief Jose Miguel Insulza of being a pawn of the U.S. government, which has urged Chavez’s administration to allow an international investigation into alleged human rights abuses.

Left-”leaning”?

Fausta wonders if we might be seeing another Egypt. Maybe, but in this case the sympathies of the world press will remain with authoritarian Chavez unless he really, really, really screws up, and even then it might not matter.

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John Kasich has his hands full right now, but the needs to get the following outrage on his team’s radar:

The Center for Equal Opportunity (CEO) released a study earlier this week that analyzed undergrad admissions data we had obtained from Ohio State and Miami University and concluded that heavy preferences are given to African American and, to a lesser extent, Latino applicants over white and, again to a lesser extent, Asian applicants. …

The universities’ response is that, while we considered test scores, grades, residency, and other variables in addition to race, we did not consider all the variables they consider. In other words, they are apparently claiming that the severe disparities we found can be explained away by the fact that African Americans write much, much more persuasive admission essays than do whites, for example, and that Latinos get much, much better letters of recommendation than do Asians. To which our response is … be serious.

From the Center’s web site (bolds are mine):

CEO Chairman Linda Chavez said Miami and Ohio State lower academic standards to admit students from diverse racial backgrounds.

… The study found at Miami median SAT scores differ between back and white students by between 110 to 166 points in what it calls the “black-white gap.”

… Chavez said in addition to accepting students with lower test scores, Miami accepts students with lower high school grades to amplify its racial diversity.

Claire Wagner, director of news and public information at Miami, said while Miami is dedicated to promoting diversity, both racial and otherwise, the university evaluates each student individually.

“(The study) is skewed because Miami has a very holistic and comprehensive review process,” Wagner said. “We use a set of 25 criteria that can be found on the admissions website, and of course racial and socioeconomic diversity falls into that.”

If Miami were a private university, it could do what it wants (though you could still make a case, since it relies on federal student loan funds, that it would have a social responsibility to maximize total educational value delivered). But it’s not. Taxpayers have a right to expect and should demand that their state-supported universities will accept the best and brightest, and not discriminate against more qualified students simply because they’re white.

The governor and his peeps should get on this quickly. The justification would probably be pretty easy. I’ll betcha, as has been found elsewhere, that underqualified kids who get admitted flunk out at a much higher rate. If so, this result would show that the named universities did them no favors by admitting them in the first place. Meanwhile, the university is unfairly shafting others who shoud have been accepted and would have had a much better chance of graduating.

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Lickety-Split Links:

• The public-sector unions have deep pockets. Investors Business Daily cartoonist Michael Ramirez shows us (HT Hot Air) that a certain U.S. president is inside one of them.
• Every once in a while I catch a glimpse of a New York Times print edition front page, and marvel at the paper’s grim determination to make propaganda points with its layout and photo decisions. Gerard Van der leun at American Digest (HT Instapundit) details Sunday’s particularly odious example.
• A wishful-thinking headline (“Republican House votes to defund Environmental Protection Agency”). We can’t possibly get that lucky.
• Press reports would seem to indicate that the new “Badger 14″ blog may be busy for a while.

Off the Southern Gold Coast of Australia:

When you get knocked overboard without a life jacket five miles from land, you do what Australian fisherman Andy Wilson did Tuesday.

You think of your fiancée, tell yourself “I’m not dying out here,” and you start swimming.

That’s how Wilson survived a six- or seven-hour swim (depending on the source) through shark-infested waters off the Southern Gold Coast of Australia.

Authorities feared he had drowned.

The Sydney Morning Herald, The Courier-Mail and the Associated Press were among many covering the story.

A rogue wave knocked Wilson overboard. When authorities discovered his boat abandoned at sea, a massive search ensued. Wilson wasn’t about to wait for help. Strong currents were pushing him farther out to sea.

“I thought I’d be able to stop and be able to float and get some energy back, but if I stopped for 30 seconds it would take me straight back out to sea,” Wilson told the AP.

“There was only going to be one outcome — I wasn’t going to stop, so I just kept going. Adrenaline and just sheer determination.” …

Go here for the rest of the story.

It’s why Mitt Romney didn’t beat Ted Kennedy in the U.S. Senate race in 1994.

In 2012, if nothing else does, it will keep him away from the White House.

“It” is Mitt Romney’s real track record as a “businessman.”

Read on, via Josh Kosman at the New York Post:

Romney’s past is more a working class zero

… Romney’s private equity firm, Bain Capital, bought companies and often increased short-term earnings so those businesses could then borrow enormous amounts of money. That borrowed money was used to pay Bain dividends. Then those businesses needed to maintain that high level of earnings to pay their debts.

A lot of them couldn’t “maintain that high level of earnings.” When they didn’t, they were cast aside — not because they weren’t viable businesses, but because they couldn’t withstand how Bain bled them dry:

… Bain and Goldman Sachs, for example, put $85 million down in a $415 million 1994 leveraged buyout of Baxter International’s medical testing division (renamed Dade Behring), which sold machines and reagents to labs.

… In August 2002, Dade filed for bankruptcy.

This was not an isolated case.

• Bain in 1988 put $5 million down to buy Stage Stores, and in the mid-’90s took it public, collecting $100 million from stock offerings. Stage filed for bankruptcy in 2000.
• Bain in 1992 bought American Pad & Paper (AMPAD), investing $5 million, and collected $100 million from dividends. The business filed for bankruptcy in 2000.
• Bain in 1993 invested $60 million when buying GS Industries, and received $65 million from dividends. GS filed for bankruptcy in 2001.
• Bain in 1997 invested $46 million when buying Details, and made $93 million from stock offerings. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2003.

Romney’s Bain invested 22 percent of the money it raised from 1987-95 in these five businesses, making a $578 million profit.

What Bain practiced in these instances wasn’t capitalism. In these cases, Bain acted as a late 20th century pack of robber barons. Mitt Romney was a lead robber.

Add this to the reasons Mitt Romney can’t win, shouldn’t win, and does not deserve to win.

If Mitt Romney prevails in the 2012 primaries, the establishment press will love him to death … until mid-September 2012.

If GOP primary voters are crazy enough to ignore all of the reasons why Mitt Romney is unfit and hand him the nomination, the press will nail Romney with the business deals described above. Then it will be curtains.

Just like with Ted Kennedy in 1994.

Write it down.

Gateway Pundit: “Tea Party Movement Brings in 15,000 Protesters to Madison With 24 Hour Notice, Embarrassing Left” — “It was an amazing turnout considering the Saturday rally was only announced on Friday morning. Oh… And we paid our own way.”

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A lot is being written about doctors writing up phony excuses for teachers who were absent from school. This is the kind of thing with the potential to resonate very negatively with the general public.

A small coverage sample: Althouse, Rebel Pundit, Instapundit, MacIver Institute (“Another woman, who wished to remain anonymous, said they were handing out excuses like they were leaflets”), and FreeRepublic (with visual evidence), Gateway Pundit (with video evidence), Charlie Martin, Big Gov, Big Gov again (“Doctors Give Andrew Breitbart a ‘Sick’ Note”), Doug Ross, and Pundit Press (“Physicians Betraying Their Oath and Their Professionalism!”).

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Michelle Malkin, as expected, had great coverage yesterday, and had this tease at the end:

You know who’s seeing red? Working parents who have to pay for child care because of illegal teachers’ strike.

I’m hearing class-action lawsuits to recoup those costs may be in the works.

They should be.

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Sarah Palin (paragraph break added by me):

Union Brothers and Sisters: Seize Opportunity to Show True Solidarity

… I am a friend to hard working union members and to teachers. I come from a family of teachers; my grandparents, parents, brother, sister, aunt, and other relatives worked, or still work, in education. My own children attend public schools. I greatly admire good teachers and will always speak up in defense of the teaching profession. But Wisconsin teacher unions do themselves no favor by closing down classrooms and abandoning children’s needs in protest against the sort of belt-tightening that people everywhere are going through.

Union brothers and sisters: this is the wrong fight at the wrong time. Solidarity doesn’t mean making Wisconsin taxpayers pay for benefits that are not sustainable and affordable at a time when many of these taxpayers struggle to hold on to their own jobs and homes. Real solidarity means everyone being willing to sacrifice and carry our share of the burden.

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Patrick McIlheran notes how FDR felt about public-sector unions. On Friday, I wrote that I thought it was clever triangulation by FDR. But McIlheran has compelling evidence that it was a position of the vast majority of Democrats until the late 1950s at least.

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Pelosi Backs Wisconsin Protesters. First Jesse Jackson, now Nancy Pelosi. This is Scott Walker’s dream come true.

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Best places to keep current: Drudge, Memeorandum.

They’re the ones who fired her, “The Great One” notes (HT Rebel Pundit):

Discovery in this one should be fun. Please … let it be videotaped.

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Previous Related Posts:

• Jan. 2 — 2010 a Banner Year for MSM’s Winston Smiths and Their Ministries of Mistruth (accurately describes Sherrod as having received “the free press ride of the year”)
• August 7, 2010 — Zombie’s ‘Slave Labor Conditions at Shirley Sherrod’s Farm?’
• August 5 — The Sherrods’ New Communities 1960s and 1970s Plantation
• July 26 — AmSpec’s Jeffrey Lord: ‘Sherrod Story False’ (Update: The Definition of ‘Lynch’)
• July 26 — Charles Sherrod Explains It All (Sort of)
• July 23 — Shirley Sherrod’s Race-Based Grievance-Mongering: Right at Home With Team Obama
• July 22 — Shirley Sherrod’s Disappearing Act: Not So Fast
• July 20 — At WEOZ — ‘Shirley Sherrod’s Disappearing Act: Not So Fast’
• July 19 — Racism on Display at the NAACP (Update: Shirley Sherrod Resigns, Then Gets an Apology From Those Who Fired Her)

The horror perpetrated on farmers by envirozealots in California’s Central Valley during the past few years has been inexcusable.

It also turns out that the entire premise for the water cutoffs that have occurred is bogus.

Thank goodness there are folks like the editorialists at Investors Business Daily who can boil it down. Read the whole thing. Here are a few excerpts:

Consequences: The green lobby assured everyone it knew what it was doing when it got a judge to cut water to Central Valley farmers to save the delta smelt. But while the Valley economy is now ruined, it hasn’t helped the smelt.

… Back in 2007, they convinced federal Judge Oliver Wanger to rule that the Endangered Species Act gave the federal government the right to cut water to thousands of farmers in California’s Central Valley to protect a 3-inch baitfish called the delta smelt.

That ruling turned many of the Valley’s prized vineyards and almond groves into wastelands. Jobs were lost, family farms were shut, fields went fallow and food prices rose.

But there’s been just one problem with this overreaching of the law: Cutting off water didn’t save the smelt.

A draft of a new study from the Delta Stewardship Council shows the water cutoffs had no effect on the smelt. The smelt remains endangered even as farmers have been punished with a policy that cut off as much as 90% of their water.

“Environmentalists claimed the sky was falling in Delta, and the only way to save smelt was to flush more fresh water to the ocean,” said Andrew House, spokesman for Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif. “So they embarked upon a narrow path of diverting water from (San Joaquin Valley) farmers by using science to confirm their predetermined assessment of what was going on.”

But it didn’t work. Similar evidence is now coming out from the Pacific Northwest stating that shutting down the logging industry never did save the spotted owl.

… This was never about science anyway. “It was … about re-engineering the development of California, particularly the San Joaquin Valley,” said House. “They don’t think the west side should be farmed at all, they want it removed from production, gone to a natural state, re-engineered as a socialist Utopia.”

This should be a national scandal that discredit those who use the Endangered Species Act as a dishonest club to shut down commerce — which, as House noted, is the real goal.

From Vatican City:

Feb 10, 2011 / 03:00 pm

The vitality of the Church depends on individual Catholics fostering vocations in their homes and parishes, the Pope says in his annual message for the May 15 World Day of Prayer for Vocations.

“It is essential that every local Church become more sensitive and attentive to the pastoral care of vocations,” the Pope writes in his new statement issued by the Vatican on Feb. 10.

He speaks of the role of the Church in helping children and young people to grow in a real friendship with Jesus, to increase their familiarity with the Scriptures, to understand the truth of his message and to be generous in creating relationships with others.

The theme of this year’s prayer for vocations day is “Proposing Vocations in the Local Church.” The Pope says this “means having the courage, through an attentive and suitable concern for vocations, to point out this challenging way of following Christ which, because it is so rich in meaning, is capable of engaging the whole of one’s life.”

Answering Jesus’ call of “Follow me!” is “no less challenging” today than it was for the disciples 2,000 years ago, says the Pope.

“It means learning to keep our gaze fixed on Jesus, growing close to him, listening to his word and encountering him in the sacraments” and “learning to conform our will to his.”

The Church is called to protect and love the gift of God’s call to people to share in his mission and serve as ordained ministers and consecrated religious, he says.

“Particularly in these times, when the voice of the Lord seems to be drowned out by ‘other voices’ and his invitation to follow him by the gift of one’s own life may seem too difficult, every Christian community, every member of the Church, needs to consciously feel responsible for promoting vocations.”

According to a report from the U.S. bishops, there are currently 5,131 men enrolled in the U.S. seminaries. The number is up from 4,973 in 2009. …

Go here for the rest of the story.