Ohio's Senate Bill 5 - Today's the Day They Vote In Ohio

What is widely expected to be a referendum that will be a significant indicator for the 2012 elections, in Ohio they are voting on Senate Bill 5 (read the text here), relating to the rights of people to engage in collective bargaining -- in other words, unions.  The Republicans in the legislature along with the governor, stripped those rights away, along partisan lines.  Today, Issue 2 on the ballot (read the text here) could reverse that legislation, repealing it.  If that happens, it is predicted that the gains made by the right in 2010 are likely to largely be reversed in 2012.

Ahead of the November 2012 elections, it could also be prophetic for the direction that recall next door in Wisconsin of Governor Walker.

One of my favorite sites, non partisan and factual, for following these elections and issues is of course Ballotnews, featured on our blog roll.  Check them often; they are an excellent way to stay factually informed in a quick and easy and effective way.

While no election or referendum is over until the last voter casts their vote, and given that there have been numerous upsets and surprises in history, the following graph from the Ballotnews coverage of this issue strongly suggests that when it comes to Issue 2, repeal is more likely than it continuing:

Polls

The following is a line graph of poll results taken since April 2011. The graph represents five polls taken throughout the course of the year. All polls represented in the graph asked whether or not voters supported or opposed Senate Bill 5. The average number of those surveyed from all polls was 1,454 registered voters. The average margin of error among those polls was +/- 2.6 percentage points.^[1]

I look forward to seeing who is, in effect, going to be given a thumbs up or a thumbs down on this key issue.  Watch this space for the Ballotnews updates as we get closer to the voting results being announced, complete with results analysis of what happened to union busting today in Ohio.

Wisconsin Protests Walker - Again, Still

The thought which occurred to me is that the number of people at this event appears larger than the number at tea party events........which are mostly getting smaller, not larger.

We can only hope that some of the tea partiers and other conservatives are recovering their senses.... after seeing what the people they supported have actually done; done in Wisconsin, and done elsewhere.

From the STrib:
Thousands protest at Wis. Capitol, pressure Gov. Walker, lawmakers in bargaining rights feud

Article by: Associated Press Updated: May 14, 2011 - 10:29 PM
MADISON, Wis. - Thousands of people outraged that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's budget proposals are not dead have gathered at the Capitol in protest.

The Wisconsin State Journal reports that police estimate more than 7,000 people attended Saturday's the "Fight Is Not Over" rally in Madison. The event organized by We Are Wisconsin and Wisconsin Wave was held three months after Walker unveiled his plan to curtail collective bargaining rights for public workers.

Opponents of the plan have vowed to target for recall Republican and Democratic lawmakers who voted for it, along with Walker.

Walker signed the bill into law in early March, but it has not been implemented because of court challenges. He says the bill will help him fix Wisconsin's budget shortfall and ensure future budgets are balanced.
Information from: Wisconsin State Journal

Wisconsin's Modern Labor Struggles and International Working Women's Day 100th anniversary

Observed by:

Albania, Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Ecuador, Estonia, Dominican Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, India, Italy, Israel, Laos, Latvia, Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Malta, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Nepal, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Philippines, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Seychelles, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Sweden, Spain, Syria, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Zambia

The original premise back in 1910-11 was :

"The idea of having an international women's day was first put forward at the turn of the 20th century amid rapid world industrialization and economic expansion that led to protests over working conditions. In the West, International Women's Day was first observed as a popular event after 1977 when the United Nations General Assembly invited member states to proclaim March 8 as the UN Day for Women's Rights and International Peace"

The first countries to celebrate : 

"The first International Women's Day was observed on March 19, 1911, in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland, where more than 1 million people attended rallies calling for women to be given the right to work, vote, and hold public office."

Early American women's activist
Rose Schneiderman speaks at a union rally
around 1910.  Courtesy Radio Free Europe,
and Radio Liberty

There is also an International Men's Day, November 19th.

There should be no question that the history of this specific date, which was later celebrated as a week, and now as an entire month, has close ties to the earlier struggle of labor to organize.

As such, it is an important context to the struggles in Wisconsin and a number of other states are in essence re-fighting these battles, per Daisy Sindelar at Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty:

Rosalind Rosenberg, a professor of history at New York's Barnard College, says the holiday was created as the country's workers, including large numbers of women, were losing patience with poor labor conditions.

Early American women's activist Rose Schneiderman speaks at a union rally around 1910. "I would date it back to 1908 and the strike of some 15,000 women in the garment industry on the Lower East Side who were suffering low pay and terrible working conditions, and who walked off the job and protested," Rosenberg says.

A Wisconsin Teacher and Unionist - Golda Meir, Women's History Month, March 2nd



Golda Meir as a young girl

 I have no particular organized outline for these posts on Women's History Month; each one is prompted by some daily encounter with the news or current events.  Meir was a logical choice, given the events taking place in Madison, Wisconsin and also in the middle east.  Meir grew up in Milwaukee, and became a teacher in Milwaukee Public Schools, after graduating from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee; she was an active supporter of labor causes.

Women's History Month is celebrated world wide, an extension of International Women's Day on March 8th, going back to 1911, which then grew into a celebration of Women's History Week, and now we're up to a whole month.

MADISON UPDATE - Judge Orders Access Open to Capital Building

Let them in!

Sort of; one wonders if this is what the judge had in mind, but this is so far from over, one cannot see the end from here.

Wisconsin judge orders Capitol open to public


Reuters – Protestors wait for the doors to open as they continue to occupy the state Capitol to protest against … .– 1 hr 16 mins ago


MADISON, Wisconsin (Reuters) – Wisconsin officials said Tuesday they would not ease entry restrictions at the Capitol Building in Madison after a judge ordered there be public access during business hours.

The Capitol building has been the focus of two weeks of protests by labor unions and their supporters opposed to Gov. Scott Walker's plan to curtail union power.

Maybe They Were Right to Call the Governor 'Hosne' Walker in an Unflattering Comparison to Mubarek from Egypt; The Right Attempts to Block Opposition Organizing by Shutting Down an Internet Site

Dear Wisconsin protesters:
You are already being compared to the protesters in the middle east, particularly Cairo.  So follow their example!  Organize on facebook and with twitter.  I doubt the paranoid conspiracy theorists who are trying to gut your collective bargaining rights are going to shut down the entire internet.  But hey! There are always other options.  Just keep up that in-person pressure.
Best of Luck! Dog Gone, penigma.blogspot.com

I have been following our penigma statcounter.com account, noticing that we have been getting an unusually higher number of hits, or reads, from Wisconsin, and to a lesser extent, from other states where there are efforts to stamp out the unions, both public service sector unions as in Wisconsin, and private sector unions, like the ones in Indiana where their democratic legislators have also gone on the lam to Illinois.  Some of them are originating from state government internet connections like this one (ip redacted for privacy):

Madison, Wisconsin, United States
State Of Wi Dept. Of Administration (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) [Label IP Address]
A Penigma - a mystery, under a pseudonym: Scott Walker Punked by Buffalo Beast Pretending to Be David Koch

I tend to pay particular attention to 'reads' from government offices in other states (or congressional offices etc. in DC), and from the offices/headquarters of political parties or other organizations.  There has been an increase in that demographic readership.  Sorry protesters, we're just a blog, we can't do much to help with organizing - but we're delighted you're reading! (That goes for you conservatives too.)

This seems a particularly interesting phenomenon, given that at least Wisconsin has begun to censor the access by internet to the opposition organizers.  I'm going to be curious to see if this trend is followed in those other states where we have been privileged to have readership - and to see if it applies just to those using the Madison, WI state house wi-fi, or if it applies to the actual government office computers as well.


This follows the Republicans in the Wisconsin Senate shutting off the microphones of the Democratic Senators prior to their leaving to prevent a quorum.  I'm pretty safe in guessing that those Republican Senators are big on 2nd Amendment Rights, and maybe on 10th Amendment Rights, but apparently - judging by their actions - they're not so supportive of 1st Amendment Rights to  Freedom of Speech, at least, not for dissent or opposition.

Scott Walker Punked by Buffalo Beast Pretending to Be David Koch

This provides an interesting insight into the political workings of Governor Scott Walker, and what he finds both credible, and acceptable - and gives an idea of his alleged relationship to the Koch brothers.

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ARE the Unions Really the "Budget Bad Guys"? Multiple Economic Analyses and Comparisons Says NO!

It is a well-circulated, oft-quoted false fact on the political right that somehow the public sector employees, particularly those who are unionized, are overpaid, or paid distinctly more than their counterparts or equivalent employees in the private sector.  This is the justification the Right likes to use, to go after the unions (both public and private) as somehow being greedy, and as the cause for their outsourcing jobs.  What they really want to do is to damage the Unions as the largest competing donors to Democratic causes.  And to give cover to their making unfunded tax benefits to corporations.  The Washington Post notes that such a claim was advanced this past Saturday by Rupert Murdoch's newspaper, the Wall Street Journal:

The Wall Street Journal has a chart showing that "state and local government workers" clearly do better that "private-industry workers." According to the Journal, state and local government workers make $26.25 cents an hour, compared to the $19.68 an hour that workers in private industry average. This chart clearly feeds the narrative that public-sector workers are - depending on you point of view - "better-paid" or "overpaid."

It is not true.  Such a shame; the WSJ used to be a reliable source for honest journalism; not so much any more. From the New York Times - the venerable 'gray lady' presents a more accurate picture:

For the real story, an analysis and comparison was made by the New York Times on Saturday, February 19th, 2011, which makes a much more accurate - and frankly a much more HONEST apples to apples look at the employees in Wisconsin that are at the center of the current national controversy.

So, DID the Wisconsin Legislature Spend $140 Million Dollars for "Special Interests"? Politifact says NO - but there is more to it!

This came out about the alleged ties Governor Walker has to the Koch brothers, and a possible end run to slip this past the legislature while everyone else is paying attention to the union bashing.  It appears to give some credence to the allegations of special interest pandering / payoffs.

While, politifact.com gave the claim, made in a "One Wisconsin Now" press release it's most sever rating for factually inaccurate statements a 'pants on fire' rating for this statement:

"Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican-controlled state legislature have added over $140 million in new special interest spending"

Politifact.com did note that this was not totally something new that was just 'made up' by the Democratic opposition to the recent legislation:

"David Riemer, who was budget director under Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, said the concept of a "tax expenditure" dates back some 50 years to Stanley Surrey, an assistant U.S. treasury secretary. The idea, Riemer said, is that tax breaks with a particular purpose that could be accomplished by direct spending should be considered expenditures."

So, this is not an apparent attempt to deceive anyone.  I would like to note here that based on multiple news sources which referenced 'special interest spending', I too am guilty of incorrectly using that term - and will be more accurate going forward.

In response to the challenge by politifact.com, they made a change in how they describe the spending, which still amounts to $140 million dollars that the Wisconsin legislature doesn't have, and is seeking to recoup by attacking unions:

Update: ... One Wisconsin Now executive director Scot Ross modified the way he described the three tax break bills. Rather than calling them spending, he said in a news release issued by the liberal Citizen Action of Wisconsin that the bills are "deficit-hiking corporate giveaways."

Here is the link to that press release, and the most salient paragraphs:

Most of the bills being rushed through the Legislature have no direct connection to jobs, and the ones that do are costly corporate tax breaks which are too small to encourage job creation. According to the Fiscal Bureau
[note, DG - the Fiscal Bureau is the Wisconsin state non-partisan equivalent to the CBO, the Congressional Budget Office]
the tax credit for companies moving to the states only provides $2700 per year, which is not enough even for one person to relocate let alone a business. The tax credit for job creation only provides between $79 and $269 net credit per job, not nearly enough to encourage job creation. Yet the initiatives will cost millions of dollars that could of have been used to fund real job creation measures.

“The job creation claims for the legislative package careening through the State Legislature are preposterous on face. Proponents cannot even meet the most minimal public standards of proof that any jobs will be created,” said Robert Kraig, Executive Director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin. “No evidence has been offered that this harmful mix of corporate give-a-ways and meager tax credits can put a dent in the Wisconsin jobs crisis, let alone put us on the road to creating 250,000 jobs.”

"Wisconsin was promised by Gov. Walker and the new conservative majority that job creation would be job one,” said Scot Ross, Executive Director of One Wisconsin Now. “Instead, we have gotten deficit-hiking corporate giveaways and elimination of basic protections for Wisconsin citizens."

“The biggest issue for our members in Wisconsin is jobs – jobs that pay a family sustaining wage and include job quality supports that ensure workers can care for themselves and their families without fearing loss of that job,” said Amy Stear, Wisconsin Director for 9 to 5, National Association of Working Women. “Our elected leadership should be focused on creating jobs and supporting people who desperately want work. Instead, time is being spent on an agenda inspired by business lobbyists who don’t represent the interests of most people in our state.”

It does however appear to still be correct that without the legislation referenced above, there would be no need for a budget 'repair' bill that disadvantages the members of unions, and that there is no actual budget change created by the attempts to remove the collective bargaining privileges granted in prior legislation and that this is a largely Republican contrived budget crisis.

About this [politfact.com] statement:  Published: Tuesday, February 1st, 2011 at 9:00 a.m.
Subjects: Health Care, Small Business, Taxes
Sources:
One Wisconsin Now, news release, Jan. 28, 2011
Interview, Scot Ross, One Wisconsin Now executive director, Jan. 28, 2011
E-mail interview, Cullen Werwie, Gov. Scott Walker spokesman, Jan. 28, 2011
Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau, Health Savings Accounts bill memo, Jan. 18, 2011
Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau, job creation tax breaks memo, Jan. 20, 2011
Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau, economic development tax credit, Jan. 7, 2011
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Walker signs bill limiting court awards in injury cases, Jan. 27, 2011
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Walker signs HSA measure; budget repair bill planned, Jan. 25, 2011
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Tax cut for job creators advances, Jan. 25, 2011
Wall Street Journal, Why I’m not lining up for stimulus handouts, Feb. 28, 2009
The New York Times, The stimulus plan: How to spend $787 billion, Jan. 29, 2011
Interview, Ron Shanovich, Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau analyst, Jan. 31, 2011
Interview, Rick Olin, Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau analyst, Jan. 31, 2011
JSOnline.com, Walker signs bill that eliminates taxes for relocated businesses, Jan. 31, 2011
Congressional Budget Office, The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
Interview, David Riemer, former state budget director under Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, Jan. 31, 2011
Interview, George Lightbourn, former State of Wisconsin Department of Administration secretary under Republican governors Tommy Thompson and Scott McCallum, Jan. 31, 2011
Written by: Tom Kertscher, Researched by: Tom Kertscher, Edited by: Greg Borowski