"An injury to one is an injury to all." I know many of us are hurting financially and we are all scared for what the future may bring. However, let us not fight our neighbors - for it is not them that caused this budgetary problem. Remember, the unions have repeatedly said, "we understand the dire situation the state is in and we will do our part to help out." Why is this not enough? Why do we want to harm our union friends, family, and neighbors?

mouse, they own Angelsoft? Wow... now I'll think of my absentee Senator every time I wipe.

Prison guards not striking. They have stayed steadfast at their jobs.

I find it funny that pro-Walker posters pick and choose which articles to comment on. It's odd that not too many of you are commenting on the article which points out that the COLLECTIVELY BARGAINED contract between the teachers and the school district will actually protect the district from lawsuits regarding layoff notices. If this isn't proof that collective bargaining should be removed from the budget bill, I don't know what is! You republic supporters show your true colors, just like your leader, Yellow!

Zoom, nothing was denied. If you watched any of the voting, the whole night, the vote time was always ~15 sec...nothing changed. If you watch when the vote was called half the t-shirt crowd never made a move to cast a vote. Could things have been done different after all had slept and been clear headed, yes. Claiming their vote was denied is a complete fabrication.

Correction: They denied the public the chance to see how 28 of their elected representatives were going to vote, including 2 Republicans and 2 Independants, and that choice will never be part of the public record.

sj, I really don't have that much of a problem with the Assembly Republicans cutting off the marathon debate. However, it was cowardly to cut off voting after 17 seconds, when it was obvious everyone hadn't voted. They denied the public the chance to see how 17 of their elected representatives were going to vote, including 2 Republicans and 2 Independants, and that choice will never be part of the public record. Pretty hypocritical and petty, considering the Republicans have been complaining all week about the Senate Dems leaving the state.

From what I understand, since it was a procedural vote they only needed a simple majority. The vote was 51-17.......the 28 who did not vote in time would not have changed the outcome. It would have still been a majority of 51-45 had they all voted.
This was after close to 60 hours of debate (filibustering) and perfectly legal. Voting was stopped as soon as the majority was reached.

That is my understanding, but I am sure someone else will correct me if this is wrong.

Also, quit assuming I listen to the programs you keep listing....I mentioned before, I do not have CC and do not depend on watching news that I can not hear.

Why is a 3% tax increase on the richest considered "socialism", but an 8% pay cut on the middle class is "doing your part"?

wislady, can you explain why the assembly Republicans cut off voting after 17 seconds? I'm guessing Fox News, Rush and Beck didn't report what really happened.

truecitizen, if it only take a few minutes to vote, why did the Repiblicans cut off voting after 17 seconds? The Republicans in the Assembly denied most of the Democrats and Independants the opportunity to record their vote.

Wow, it seems only the liberal left wingers can say whatever they want.
I believe in facts, as in......Wisconsin is broke.

Where have you been, the dems were in charge for the past 4 years, and the tides have changed. I know it is hard to accept, but just as we had to come to gripes with the 2008 election, you have to accept the 2010 election. That is not a belief, that is a fact

The unions had 15 months to negotiate, before Walker took office. If they were not so greedy, they would have had a contract.

The only desperate people are the MIA dems and their supporters, you can spin it any way you want, doesn't change reality.

Badgerlvr, MY vitriol?? I called Diamond Jim Doyle a lot of unpleasant (but truthful) things. I didn't call him Hitler. Go look up the definition of the word vitriol.

The reason Walker is in office is due to the excesses when Doyle and the Democrats controlled both the Senate and Assembly. Rather than looking up the words reason and compromise, I think I'll just stop by Senator Cullen's office in the Capitol and ask him the definitions. He's the elected Senator from my district so I'm sure he won't mind taking a minute from his busy day representing me in the Senate chamber to explain those words to me. Perhaps he'll even throw in the definitions of duty and responsibility.

Janesvillecomments, billnewbie, wislady, mike1942. et. al.
Just remember...the pendulum swings both ways. Should your beliefs be victorious, there will come a day when your opponents will be in charge. Your vitriol will come back to haunt you. And what will you say then? Go look up the words reason and compromise.

thekai, it's not Governor Walker's job to negotiate. That's the job of the cowardly hiding Senators. They are supposed to engage in debate and negotiation and submit amendments.

The Republican Party sucks at the teat of big business and the Democratic Party sucks at the teat of Organized Labor. Neither one is interested in compromise and neither one wants its rank-and-file members to be reasonable or to think for themselves. The only difference between the two parties is that when the Democrats controlled both sides of the Legislature and the Governor's office, the Republicans stayed at their desks, doing their jobs.

We independents know neither party is going to return to the ideals and principles that caused them to be formed. It's the very nature of political parties to become self-serving and corrupt, to use politics as an end to the party leadership's personal goals and count on their members who blindly worship a politician or political party because it is easier than thinking for themselves. We just want the Democrat Senators to stop sulking like children, return to their desks, and do the job their sheep elected them to do, the way the Republican Senators are doing theirs.

Since the Democrat Senators won't vote on the Budget Repair Bill, the potential changes to the actual budget require the Governor, and subsequently any school boards, town, village, city or county, that was expecting a state subsidy, to prepare for the possibility that they won't get it, and adjust their budgets accordingly. To comply with laws regulating advance notice of layoffs, some boards and municipalities need to issue notices of possible layoffs now to be in compliance with the law, should the Democrat senators continue to neglect their fundamental duties and responsibilities.

sluggo, if the voters don't understand and are not able to learn all the ramifications of the Budget Repair Bill, the teachers have failed badly since unionizing and that is reason enough for the bill to be passed. If the results turn out really bad, enough people will learn to vote differently in the next election. If the results improve Wisconsin, the teachers will learn that unionizing public employees was wrong for Wisconsin. Wisconsin has existed both without and with unionized public employees. Perhaps human nature swings back and forth like a pendulum and we just happen to be on the upswing for dumping unions at this point in history.

It's too bad that people like wislady are so easily swayed by propaganda. The initial reason for free and public education was for citizens to be able to participate in the democratic process. We have failed. Apparently if t.v. says it - it must be true. Walker is preying on the fact that most people are willing to believe any alarmist point of view.

What's the difference between a labor union, a political machine and an organized crime family?

Nothing, other than the fact that only one is illegal.

Badgerlvr...are you forgetting about the 50 hours of debate that preceded it! It was a record in the Wisconsin assembly. The republican side simply put an end to it. The actual time it takes to vote rarely takes more than minutes. This is again how the media takes advantage of buzz terms.
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Teachers should not strike, they have already allowed for alot of school to be missed in this area. The change should happen and teachers should accept what it is. If it is too much or found to be over the top, then the winds of change will bring it back. More than likely, this is the result of teacher's unions being too powerful and unreasonable for far to long! Walker's plan is reasonable by all accounts. I just think he could have done more to explain things and address a few concerns.

"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant, it's just that they know so much that isn't so"
Ronald Reagan

Governor Walker, follow in the footsteps of President Reagan. If they conduct an illegal strike, fire them. None of them are irreplaceable as they obviously believe of themselves and would like us to think so too.

wislady: You mean to say that holding a vote within the Assembly in 15 seconds DOESN'T constitute an embarrassment? You've been watching Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh too much.

What happened to decorum in the legislative process?

The dems with their matching orange shirts, screaming and shaking their fists, are an embarrassment to Wisconsin.

I hope the MIA dems are enjoying their vacation, while putting their fellow citizens at risk of layoff.

It would be more accurate to say that Governor Walker cost us that money, by not being more open and willing to negotiate.

Governor Walker would have us believe we had two options. Either pass the bill by Friday, or face lay-offs.

The reality of the situation is, it is rare that we are ever so limited in options. There were several different options available to us. The problem was, most of those options were being limited by one person, Governor Walker. Since he single-handedly had the ability to prevent these lay-offs, he must take full responsibility. He acts as if it was entirely out of his hands. He wouldn't even have had to settle on collective bargaining. Just remove it for now, let us get on with the fiscal issues, and let's save jobs. We can deal with collective bargaining as a separate issue, it doesn't have to stop us from making progress.

At least my Representive Amy Loudenbeck was man enough (no pun intended) to go to work today and do the will of the people. Not just the loudest ones. Now if we could just get that Senator from Janesville to show up at work we could finally get some where.

If there is a strike for a month the money saved by not paying the public employees would it almost solved the budget crunch??

We all would be happy? I wonder.

I expect that if Col. Walker proposed eliminating the UAW--or all unions-in WI, there would have been mass support for that proposal here in J-ville, right?

Perhaps he should even pass a law--or why waste time...just issue a decree, as that is what an emperor should should be able to do--that would force ex-union members to wear a large "U" in public...just so we know what kind of union swine and criminals walk among us, huh?

So what's next--gulags and "retraining" camps? Retrospectively, perhaps there we should have a minimum height requirement for governors as well! Achtung baby!

Yeah, Bun, that didn't come out right, did it. Sorry. Just read the story.....

"Teamsters are telling the teachers to NOT join the strike for their own protection."
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isn't it funny how no matter what the teamsters say it comes out like a line from a bad mafia movie?

@doc0430- I think he got the "living and breathing" version of the constitution. the right to join a union is on the same page with the right to privacy and free health care.

ummmm....perhaps some of you need to go back to your teachers to learn to read & understand history. The strike referred to here is a general strike - that means everyone...not just public employee unions. In fact, the article states that the Teamsters are telling the teachers to NOT join the strike for their own protection. All this hatred toward teachers is so over-the-top. Really, folks, seek counseling for whatever trauma you experienced at the hand of some teacher. Something is seriously wrong if you have that much hate.....

I am not a hater or a basher here, I have no ill will against the teachers or state employees, what I am though is a realist and something needs to change and I say let Governor Walker do his job and keep his campaign promises, (I know that many of you Democrats might not be use to having politicians keeping promises), but if he does then maybe the healing of our state can begin.

Roadmaster
Feb 25, 2011 at 6:02 p.m.
Suggest removal
To get rid of public employee union you would have to suspend the U.S. Constitution. Are you all for that?
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Roadmaster, I ask of you to do one thing for me here, do you think you can handle that? Show me in the Constitution where it states that Public Unions are a Constitutional right, I've read it a few times this week and for some reason that page seems to be missing from mine, funny thing is that they are all in order and yet I still can't find it in our US Constitution anywhere.
I have heard an awful lot of this in the past week that "It's our Constitutional Rights that Governor Walker is trying to take away from us". If that were the case then this would be illegal and there wouldn't be such a debate over it here, wouldn't you think that if Constitutional rights were actually being violated that the Democratic Senators who are hiding in Illinois would've just said "Hey wait a minute here, your breaking the law and violating their rights by doing this" and that would've been the end of it? I have heard many excuses this week on why this should stay the way it is, but none of them have actually been a valid point when discussing this, I for one hope that this matter comes to an end soon so we can move on to the next bigger issues at hand when trying to make the State of Wisconsin a more attractive state to do business in, this is actually going to benefit so many workers when all is said and done, and it needs to be completed as soon as the Democrats come out of their hole and put this into affect. You don't have any actual legitimate reasons to put this off anymore and the past week has given people more than enough time to learn the facts and see what needs to happen. If the state and teacher union members want to stage a strike or walkout then this could possibly play out much like the air traffic controllers strike did back in August of 1981.
There are currently 227,684 people unemployed in Wisconsin and here is the link to those numbers for those of you out there that doubt me~ http://data.bls.gov/pdq/SurveyOutputServ...

These are the statistics and I am sure out of that pool of unemployed there would certainly be more than enough to fill those positions if a strike were to occur, be careful people you might not like how this all plays out.
There could be many teaching jobs opening up for younger teachers (Who might actually care about the kids and aren't just in it for the freebies that the taxpayers are stuck paying for) just out of college that are just dying to get the chance to do their jobs, and teach our children and prepare them for the future. If it plays out that way it will be too bad that some will lose their longtime jobs and for what? For a few extra bucks a year that they might have to pay and help ease the burden of the taxpayers.

There's nothing wrong with planning for the worst case scenario. Isn't that what we were all taught as kids-- plan for the worst, but expect the best? It seems that is an education some adults never get... I'm sorry, I meant that some kids will never get. Why not teach them during a current history lesson?

We've all had teachers we disliked or were angry with because they made us face the reality and need for following rules in a civilized society. Some of us even so disliked the methods by which we were taught that, perversely, we went into teaching to make changes. I don't see that happening any more. I foresee a future of mindless, unquestioning automatons directing youngsters into a future of indentured servitude or military canon fodder. What do you think?

The socialist really know how to show their real colors. Shame on you democrats and unions and the membership.

To get rid of public employee union you would have to suspend the U.S. Constitution. Are you all for that?

Yes, Gov Walker.

This is not 1968, and the unions have out lived their usefulness.

What do we do now ???
I know, get rid of the unions that have been choking out our state for years.
GO MR Walker GO

Collective bargaining laws and arbitration have allowed us to have school teachers and other public workers on the job while contract issues are resolved. Without those protections, public workers will have little choice but to strike, and of course the scabs and finks and union-haters will be out in full force -- as the three comments before this amply prove. If being hated is the price for having your rights recognized, many are willing to bear that burden, but remember who wanted this situation.

We've been held hostage for years! Time to end the union era!

just like I said before hold the taxpayer hostage. This why they should rid of unions for public employees.