While the financial world cast its eyes toward Greece and the rest of the European PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain) over their insurmountable debt problems, cracks in government finances are starting to spread in this country. The federal government can plaster over debt problems with newly printed money until the whole house comes down. But state and local governments do not have that deception at their disposal.
We all know about the darkening budget problems in the bastions of socialism like the states of Illinois and California. Farther down the chain at the municipal level actual defaults on debt are occurring. Last week a judge gave the approval for Jefferson County, where Birmingham, Alabama is located, to go ahead with it bankruptcy plans The county is staring at $4 billion in debt.
This week the city of Harrisburg, the capitol of Pennsylvania, announced it will miss the interest payments on two general obligation bonds. Some, including yours truly, classify this delinquency as a technical default.
The landscape in this country is littered with governments on the brink of insolvency like we are witnessing in Europe. The only difference so far is the lack of rioting from government non-worker, workers.
On second thought we got a preview of that from the government union thugs in Wisconsin.
All the talk about the Hudson School District buying the dog track or now receiving an offer for 65 acres of land at the Hudson Golf Course for free as part of a donation misses one important point. Meg Heaton, a parroting stooge for the Hudson government schools, blared in an article how enrollment in the district grew by 35 students. Commenting on the article, Matt Robinson wrote the following:
1. Matt Robinson said: On October 30, 2011 at 1:28 AM
54 students home schooled? We need more home school money and capacity
Matt the solution to the mythical capacity issues at the government schools is providing the incentive for parents to seek alternatives to teachers walking out on their students, bloated administration, and nonsense like Freshman Year Initiative , Food and Fashion, or Everyday Math to name a few.
Currently within the boundaries of the Hudson School District the parents of 691 students bite an education penalty of paying for their children’s education at a private school or homeschool while at the same time being forced to pay the taxes to support the government schools they do not trust. Imagine how much excess capacity the Hudson Government Schools would have if the education penalty was removed. How many parents would pull their kids from the government union controlled classrooms if they could receive a tax credit for tuition paid to a private school that would apply even to homeschoolers? The slogan for the school district would need to be changed to read “Too Much Space for Learning”.
Another comment on the same article and a letter to the editor in the paper this week present an interesting riddle. Read More→
The Hudson School Board following the leash of the head bitch, Second Choice Two-Names, voted to take the taxpayers to referendum for the purchase of the dog track with a price tag of over $8,000,000. What a perfect place for a school where parents can gamble with their children’s education in the hands of government union thugs. Since the spot was a former place of gambling, let’s take a look at some numbers and odds.
7- The number of monkeys on the Hudson School Board that cannot muster a simple thought on their own.
1-The tracts of land already purchased for new schools. Is the mission of the school district real estate or education? Considering the first land deal I would say they are not good at either.
10 to 20- the number of dollars the school district claims the purchase will add to tax bills of a house valued at $200,000. My tax bill is loaded with about 300 of this $10 from the school district over the years.
2- the number of grade levels at the high school beneath the district’s capacity levels. The spin from Second Choice Two-Names was that all but two grade levels at 400 or more students. You only have four grade levels at the high school, which means half are fewer than 400.
0-the improvement in average ACT scores since the district began building new schools over ten years ago and claiming they need more space for learning.
100-the times we have heard how every graduating class will exceed 400 for infinity. Last year the class was under 400
2/18- the date Hudson government teachers walked out on their students in an illegal strike
7-the number of gutless school board members that did not fire one teacher for walking out
150 – the number of teachers that held a whole school district hostage.
17% or more- the guess on what percentage of students would leave the government schools if vouchers were offered to every family. Now you do not have a space problem.
23-the miles from Hudson to New Richmond. Take a drive through New Richmond and you will see how a school district bent on more space destroyed a whole town
1-the stooges writing in the local papers that cover school district news
????- what is the cost of the school yet to be built. Why vote to purchase land when you do not know what the cost of the building will be. The cost will be a lot more than 8 million dollars. What good is land if the voters won’t pay for the building? See the first land sitting vacant
100 to 1- odds of passing a referendum in this economy.
Another find government union thug teaching our children at UW River Falls was caught doing some very naughty things with a very young girl. I suppose the taxpayers will have to also pay for his absence from teaching while the trial takes place.
At the end of the movie Tora, Tora, Tora, Admiral Yamamoto reflects on the news that despite two separate waves of bombing on Pearl Harbor the Japanese assault failed to find and destroy the American carriers. The Japanese Admiral says “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”
This supposed quote from Yamamoto has resonated with me today after the government union thugs failed in the mission of their recall elections to wrestle control from the Republican majority in the state Senate. Beginning in January, we have witnessed all colors of government union non-worker, workers from government teachers to police to bureaucrats engage in tactics fitting for a warring hoarde. They tried their best to intimidate the taxpayers through extortion, threats of violence, destruction of property, and importing socialist goons to disrupt peaceful rallies.
What should now be clear is that these government union thugs are not your friends, or your neighbor, or the fabric of a community. Make no mistake, the government non-worker, workers with Shelly Moore as their commander declared war on us. It is time for the sleeping giants in Wisconsin to mete out their vengeance. Read More→
Today is the day to send a message to the government union thug Shelly Moore and her minions by casting your vote for Sheila Harsdorf. Sheila had the courage and wisdom to fix a $3.6 Billion shortfall WITHOUT raising taxes on the average taxpayer. Let’s hope a victory by Sheila puts a nail in the coffin of the whole recall B.S.
Take a look at this woman(?). She’s giving us the sign that her husband gave her last night when she got a little frisky….
So this is what civility is about? Remember when Shelly Moore rented the bandshell and announced her candidacy? Did you see teaparty people ranting and raving, being disrespectful and shouting obscenities?
Where were the Hudson police yesterday? Why didn’t they arrest these people for disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace or inciting violence? Maybe it’s because the police thugs are on the same team as the other government union thugs who showed up yesterday.
What a pathetic display from the Shelly Moore supporters. Sure can’t let anyone have their right to free speech now can we? Is this what Shelly teaches her children to do? And to think these are the same people teaching our children about “anti-bullying”. How ironic!
Remember earlier this year when the teacher unión thugs walked out of school to hole up in the state capitol to protest the Walker Budget Repair Bill. Their rationale for the illegal strike was for the kids, of course.
This week showed a completely different scene. Large protests were expected in Madison as the Legislature finalized the budget. An array of non-worker, workers and general bums erected a tent city near the Capitol. The protestors had planned to encircle the grounds of the statehouse with a giant human chain.
Several months ago the same location was littered with tens of thousands of non-worker, workers that could have formed several chains. A few days ago, however, the numbers had comparatively diminished so great that a chain could not be completed even while standing within close proximity to the Capitol building.
Remember also when throngs of non-worker, workers and their bussed in buddies from out of state congregated for group chanting in Hudson. Today, the Moore union thugs were to meet in town. The protestors’ numbers almost could not field a football team.
What happened to the masses that arrogantly walked out off the job for the kids? What changed over the last few months? Apparently teachers are only dedicated protestors when it is on the student’s time. After all it is summer vacation and protesting would mean sacrificing their personal leisure time. Now I call that dedication.
For a number of years I have wondered how HSO assistant editor Randy Hanson could have such a liberal slant to his opinion. It is just difficult for me to imagine how someone working in the private sector could harbor such a skewed opinion on basic economics. Randy’s last opinion piece about collective bargaining was the ultimate in leftist reasoning, if you can call it reasoning at all.
In addition to his highly slanted opinion pieces, Randy has been giving significant front page press to teacher union leader Shelly Moore. It is amazing how much press Ms. Moore has received and how little she has actually said. Surely Mr. Hanson could ask a few hard questions of the challenger in this recall election. Her connection with the government union is quite obvious and she would certainly be serving a very narrow constituency if elected.
Then recently I learned that prior to joining the staff at the HSO, Randy Hanson was a Wisconsin government school teacher. Randy retired as a teacher and currently draws a public pension that he made no contributions to. The taxpayers paid for his retirement and now he spends his time rambling on about how we should spend even more money on big government. Randy tries to belittle anyone who feels that the current spending by our government at all levels is unsustainable.
Doesn’t Mr. Hanson or editor Doug Stohlberg feel the need to inform the readers that Mr. Hanson is a retired teacher? Isn’t Mr. Hanson proud of his teaching past? Obviously he feels to the need to criticize anyone who dares to challenge the status quo in government education, so why hasn’t he told us about his previous employment?
Perhaps Randy wants us to believe he is just this kind hearted individual who sees the good in such a system and that anyone who challenges the wages, pensions or healthcare that state employees receive must have an evil streak in them. Or a more likely scenario is that he doesn’t want his readers to know that he is one of those privileged individuals with the guaranteed pension for life.
Nice try Randy, but let’s be honest from here on out shall we?
Wow, the dems couldn’t have picked a worse candidate to run against Sheila Harsdorf. Not only is she a bonafide government union thug, it seems as though she has more personal baggage than even Playboy Roy Sjoberg. We are working on the breaking news but want to make sure that we have our facts straight before announcing this information to the public. Ms. Moore should have been a little more careful before entering into public life…..
If I was one of the non-worker, worker lemmings or other mindless stooge that marched in the cold while making a fool of myself plus having insults with more than a ring of truth hurled at me, then I would be one pissed off hombre over the person running against Shelia Harsdorf.
Do the socialist actually expect an uppity union thug to be the picture of a candidate that will defeat Shelia Harsdorf who did nothing wrong except to tell the government union thugs that they work for the people who have run out of money. This is what Ms. Moore said in a speech at WEAC convention in 2008:
‘We are WEAC and they WILL respect us, not just because we DEMAND it, but because we DESERVE it!’
Excuse me! You teachers and for that matter any government employee deserves what? The increased arrogance of the government non-worker, worker class does not even care to hide the fact that they are a group of self-entitled non-working , working government thugs. I realize my description is redundant.
So she will get the thug vote or about 25-30% of the total. The signatures on the petition are not necessarily a good guage since it includes students who have long forgotten about an election. Do you think an official of the Teachers’ Union Thug Association is going to appeal to the real middle class that is being sucked out their houses by the taxes to support the lifestyle of thugs. Don’t think so.
I wonder what Ms. Moore’s solution for the state is? Really don’t need to wonder. Tax everyone and give it to government employees, especially teachers.If you don’t like it, then leave!
And you moron goons froze your ass for this. You are truly dumber than you look!
If any doubt existed whether the walkout by Hudson teachers on February 18th was a spontaneous spasm of illegality, then a teacher that goes by the blog name of One Guy puts any speculation to rest.
The following is a quote from One Guy (an admitted government union teaching thug) taken from the Hudson Star Observer online chat about the penalties meted out to striking teachers:
One Guy said: On April 15, 2011 at 3:00 PM
John,
Yes, I am a teacher. And in the meeting Scott Ellingson held with us on the afternoon of the 17th it was made quite clear that the Union was asking us to go to Madison to protest against Scott Walker’s tactics and the content of the budget repair bill.
The teachers had no axe to grind with the District. Those who called in sick did so to go protest in Madison against the legislation.
I do not know how many actually went to Madison. I do know that at least 8 people confirmed to me that they had gone to Madison.
As bad as the Republicans are pussy-footing around with some socialist judge in Dane County, it is nothing compared to the footsy-playing Republicans in Congress. At least the Wisconsin Republicans showed some real guts by going after the government union thugs and putting in place some real reform that at least tilts the playing field a little bit toward the producers.
The Republicans leaders in the House of Representatives are apparently ready to strike a deal with Democrats that will cut $33,000,000,000 from a $3,700,000,000,000 budget that has a $1,500,000,000,000 deficit, which further increases the national debt of $15,000,000,000,000. In the words of John McEnroe, “You Can’t Be Serious”!! They are working tirelessly to make sure the government does not stop operating.
Well, Shut ‘ER Down!
I made a list of things that I won’t miss if the federal or state governments shut down.
1.A slow morning commute. You ever notice on those holidays that only government employees take, like Columbus Day or Take Your Kid to Lunch Day, how thin the traffic is? You don’t notice a difference in the afternoon because government non-worker, workers clocks out by 3.
2.Standing in line at the Post Office for 10 minutes even when you are the only one in line.
3.Paying the extra 50 cents for a gallon of gasoline. Of course if we shut down the government that includes the DNR, Dept. of Energy, EPA, and the Dept. of Interior we would be drilling for oil and cut our oil prices by half.
4.Having some government educated kid with rings in their tongues, lips, nose, ears, belly-button and god knows where else miscounting my change.
5.Filling a mountain of tax forms and writing a check with a bunch of zeroes following some number higher than zero
6.Having a TSA goon feel my balls and my wife’s breast every time we want to fly.
7.Picking up the paper and seeing the picture of some government non-worker, worker who just retired at age 50 and never put one dime into their pension. Then read the story that talk about their great sacrifice.
8.Trying to find a light bulb that doesn’t look like a pig’s tail after the oinker had an all night sexathon at the trough.
9.Having Ranger Rick at the park spying on me to make sure my dog has proper crap etiquette.
10.Listening to the news filled with the voices of politicians
11.Taxing everything I own including my Toilet Paper.
In the spirit of audience participation, I will stop here and let you write in the things you won’t miss when they Shut ‘ER Down.
With the permission of the author, Ontheborderline will be providing snippets to a novel that unfortunately never found a publisher. The book market over the last several years has become almost impenetrable to new authors. The writer started the project in May 2007 with final manuscript editing completed at the end of December 2008.
Much of the story is happening now. According to the author, events may spin the country apart later this summer. As a weekly series, partial chapters will be released on Sunday evenings. With the protests by government union thugs and the passage of currency legislation in Utah this week, portions of two chapters are showcased later tonight.
In the midst of all this debate about government unions and collective bargaining, Mary Bowen-Eggebraaten (aka Second Choice Two Names) has been busy behind the scenes creating a brand new curriculum for the Hudson School District.
Always one to strike while the iron is hot, Mary has decided to add Bullying to the ever expanding course selections. She has indicated that it is never too young to start the children in the right direction, so the initial course offerings will begin in kindergarten. Our precious five four year-olds will be instructed on how to color beautiful signs reading things like “Wuck Scott Falker” and “Protect Workers Rights”.
Entering middle school, the young brains full of mush will be taught how to march the proper way. This would include blocking of public roads and sidewalks as well as surrounding your opponent in the most intimidating fashion.
Once the children enter high school they are ready for a more sophisticated approach. This is where they will learn to stalk legislators as well as taunt innocent citizens. But beyond that, they will learn about trespassing on private property, beating on cars, flipping off drivers and hitting vehicles with their signs. In general they will be taught how to violate every law know to man and create chaos.
In honor of his participation in the local rallies and his leadership in being the most ruthless and disgusting thug imaginable, Michael Yell (middle school history teacher) has been chosen to head up this new curriculum. Mr. Yell has indicated that he will do his very best to indoctrinate the youth of Hudson into mindless robots and tools of the government union thugs.
Local attorney and prominent Hudsonite Roy Sjoberg (aka Playboy Roy) has decided to provide the district with initial funding. He is highly enthusiastic about this new course offering and believes this will make Hudson a better place for families to relocate. Playboy has participated with Mr. Yell at all of the protests and has a great working relationship with him.
Hats off to the Hudson School District! Look for this new curriculum to begin in the fall, but Saturday classes are currently being held throughout the county. Just look for a private gathering on private property by any republican organization to sign up. Look for Mr. Yell and Mr. Sjorberg as they will be participating in taunting, intimidating, disorderly conduct, trespassing and general unruly behavior.
Peter is dead-on right here. Folks, the fed is in such a pickle jar now that it is utterly obvious to all except the government union employees :} who continue to pursue the irrational.
By the way, I wager that Schultzy turns on the GOP. It will be the biggest story to hit farmsville since the haymaker.. I’m not sayin, I’m just sayin..
