The Political Class

Wisconsin Teacher Unions riot for Viagra, $90K teacher salaries and $100k bus drivers.

2011-03-10T11:00:03-06:00

So the unions took control of the Wisconsin State House last night. Video:

But just what are they rioting over? Do they work in a sweatshop type atmosphere like the Chinese workers that make all of the Apple products that teachers love? (see picture below)

Something tells me that working conditions in Wisconsin schools are a tad bit nicer. Here are three reports about teacher union contracts in Wisconsin.

First up is Viagra coverage. Full story here at ABC News:

Two years ago, the Milwaukee school district decided that it was more interested in enhancing teacher performance in the classroom than the bedroom.

Researchers found that using Viagra in combination with a cancer drug killed cancer cells in mice and protected their hearts at the same time.

The district cut Viagra and other erectile dysfunction drugs like Cialis and Levitra from its health insurance plan, hoping to save $786,000 a year.

Officials said too many teachers were using the expensive drugs for recreation, swelling their insurance rates. An estimated 1,000 of the 10,000 school's staff, which includes employees, dependents and retirees, were using the drugs.

Now, teachers are fighting to get the benefit back with a lawsuit. The Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association (MTEA) argues that the new policy discriminates unfairly against men and "creates barriers" to receiving necessary medical treatment.

In recent years, several lawsuits have claimed that health plans discriminate against women by not providing contraceptives, but now medications like Viagra -- which can cost $20 a pill -- are being viewed as so-called "lifestyle" drugs.

continued…

Looks like Viagra can be an expensive habit if you have to pay for it yourself. So just what are some of the average teacher salaries in Wisconsin anyway? The Daily Caller has some data here:

Wisconsin’s 2010 Teacher of the Year, Leah Lechleiter-Luke of Mauston High School, told CNN the budget changes would force her to look for additional part-time work.

“When people say that public sector employees live high off the hog, I’d like to share that for 13 of my 19-year teaching career I have held a part-time job either in the summer or teaching night class at the local technical college,”

Lechleiter-Luke told CNN. “In addition to tightening the belt even more and crossing our fingers that nothing breaks, I will need to find part-time work again.”

Lechleiter-Luke makes $54,928 in base salary and $32,213 in “fringe benefits,” which include health insurance, life insurance and retirement pay.

So her compensation package is worth $87,141 per year for only 9 months of work. Kudos for the summer job but if you do the math her compensation package is equivalent to $116,188 for the average person that works for a company the entire year. $116,000 per year is not to shabby for a Midwestern lifestyle.

What about other school employees like say the bus drivers perhaps? How are they scraping by in these hard economic times? Ann Coulter has a great bit on that one here:

MSNBC is covering the fight in Wisconsin as if it's the 9/11 attack -- and the Republicans are al-Qaida. Its entire prime-time schedule is dedicated to portraying self- interested government employees as if they're Marines taking on the Taliban. The network's Ed Schultz bellows that it is "morally wrong" to oppose the demands of government employees.

Yes, and I guess pornographers are noble when they launch a full-scale offensive against obscenity laws.

Public sector workers are pursuing their own narrow financial interests to the detriment of everyone else in their states. That's fine, but can we stop pretending it's virtuous?

Because of the insane union contracts in Wisconsin, one Madison bus driver, John E. Nelson, was able to make $159,000 in 2009 -- about $100,000 of which in overtime pay. Jackie Gleason didn't make that much playing bus driver Ralph Kramden on "The Honeymooners." Seven bus drivers took home more than $100,000 that year.

When asked about the outrageous overtime pay for bus drivers -- totaling $1.94 million in 2009 alone -- Transit and Parking Commission Chairman Gary Poulson said: "That's the contract."

It's ludicrous to suggest that these union contracts were fairly bargained. Only one side was at the negotiating table. Ordinary people with jobs were not at the meetings where public sector compensation was discussed.

Once again kudos to anyone that puts in the overtime to work hard for their family. Then again some quick math shows that driving a bus earns you at least $60,000 per year before overtime. Not to shabby at all for a job that does not require an advanced degree or skill beyond an extra test at the DMV.

Now those stories provided some useful salary data - but are those salary numbers real or just some numbers thrown out by political types to make headlines? Solid question. Michelle Malkin wrote her own piece on teacher salaries in Wisconsin here and provided not one but two links to the Wisconsin data bases that hold that type of information.

The research tools and numbers are all there for everyone to use and see. As it happens the results aren’t pretty for the unions. What’s that old phrase “If you can’t argue the facts then bang on the table” or in this case the Capital building.

Technorati Tags: wisconsin,unions,teachers,salaries,teacher salaries

Obamas Cuban Missile Crisis Iranian missiles based in Venezuela that can reach US.

2010-12-09T14:39:36-06:00

Has Castro’s crew found another way to put intercontinental ballistic missiles in range of US cities? It appears that is the case. We know that Venezuela’s intelligence services are trained and run by Cuba. See coverage here. So now you can add long range missiles to the list of weapons at the disposal of Hugo Chavez. Full story here at Gateway Pundit:

Hudson New York reported, via Israel Matsav:

According to Die Welt, Venezuela has agreed to allow Iran to establish a military base manned by Iranian missile officers, soldiers of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Venezuelan missile officers. In addition, Iran has given permission for the missiles to be used in case of an “emergency”. In return, the agreement states that Venezuela can use these facilities for “national needs” – radically increasing the threat to neighbors like Colombia. The German daily claims that according to the agreement, Iranian Shahab 3 (range 1300-1500 km), Scud-B (285-330 km) and Scud-C (300, 500 and 700 km) will be deployed in the proposed base. It says that Iran also pledged to help Venezuela in rocket technology expertise, including intensive training of officers

Venezuela has also become the country through which Iran intends to bypass UN sanctions. Following a new round of UN sanctions against the Islamic Republic, for example, Russia decided not to sell five battalions of S-300PMU-1 air defence systems to Iran. These weapons, along with a number of other weapons, were part of a deal, signed in 2007, worth $800 million. Now that these weapons cannot be delivered to Iran, Russia is looking for new customers; according to the Russian press agency Novosti[2], it found one: Venezuela.

Now we know what they are smiling about:

According to Geobytes the distance between northern Venezuela and Miami, Florida is about 2,200 kilometers. So I would like to see how the range is calculated by a third party like Janes to see what targets they could actually reach in the US. Nevertheless it’s a development that no rational person wants to see. I wonder what Chavez’s neighbors think of his new ballistic missile abilities?

Documents show media plotting to kill stories about Rev. Jeremiah Wright

2010-07-20T11:39:34-05:00

Busted. How else can you sum up this leak? Full story here at The Daily Caller:

It was the moment of greatest peril for then-Sen. Barack Obama’s political career. In the heat of the presidential campaign, videos surfaced of Obama’s pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, angrily denouncing whites, the U.S. government and America itself. Obama had once bragged of his closeness to Wright. Now the black nationalist preacher’s rhetoric was threatening to torpedo Obama’s campaign.

The crisis reached a howling pitch in mid-April, 2008, at an ABC News debate moderated by Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos. Gibson asked Obama why it had taken him so long – nearly a year since Wright’s remarks became public – to dissociate himself from them. Stephanopoulos asked, “Do you think Reverend Wright loves America as much as you do?”

Watching this all at home were members of Journolist, a listserv comprised of several hundred liberal journalists, as well as like-minded professors and activists. The tough questioning from the ABC anchors left many of them outraged. “George [Stephanopoulos],” fumed Richard Kim of the Nation, is “being a disgusting little rat snake.”

Others went further. According to records obtained by The Daily Caller, at several points during the 2008 presidential campaign a group of liberal journalists took radical steps to protect their favored candidate. Employees of news organizations including Time, Politico, the Huffington Post, the Baltimore Sun, the Guardian, Salon and the New Republic participated in outpourings of anger over how Obama had been treated in the media, and in some cases plotted to fix the damage.

In one instance, Spencer Ackerman of the Washington Independent urged his colleagues to deflect attention from Obama’s relationship with Wright by changing the subject. Pick one of Obama’s conservative critics, Ackerman wrote, “Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares — and call them racists.”

Michael Tomasky, a writer for the Guardian, also tried to rally his fellow members of Journolist: “Listen folks–in my opinion, we all have to do what we can to kill ABC and this idiocy in whatever venues we have. This isn’t about defending Obama. This is about how the [mainstream media] kills any chance of discourse that actually serves the people.”

“Richard Kim got this right above: ‘a horrible glimpse of general election press strategy.’ He’s dead on,” Tomasky continued. “We need to throw chairs now, try as hard as we can to get the call next time. Otherwise the questions in October will be exactly like this. This is just a disease.”

continued…

Technorati Tags: journolist,the daily caller,obam,wright

Glenn Beck going blind? Leftist radio host says he should just commit suicide.

2010-07-20T11:19:00-05:00

Here is Becks announcement at an event last week.

Leftist talkshow host Mike Malloy says Glenn Beck should commit suicide and “fulfill the family tradition.”

Radio Equalizer has the audio:

Technorati Tags: glenn beck,blind,macular degeneration

New Laser Weapon Blasts Spy Drones Out of the Sky

2010-07-20T11:06:47-05:00

Dr. Evil might might have sharks with lasers on their heads but the U.S. wants drone killing lasers. Story here:

A U.S. defense company wants to take drone wars to a new level with a laser weapon capable of shooting down unmanned aircraft.

Raytheon today touted its new weapon, which brought down four drones over the Pacific Ocean during tests conducted with the U.S. Navy this spring.

"One of the Navy's problems is that the bad guys have [unmanned aircraft] now -- they can give away ships' positions," explained Mike Booen, a Raytheon official, according to USA Today. "So we wanted to do a more real-world test of the laser over water."

The test involved tracking the drones with sensors used as part of a Raytheon-built ship defense system, and then destroying the aircraft using a high-powered fiber-optic laser.

"The Raytheon-Navy team demonstrated the systems' capability to detect, track, engage and defeat dynamic targets at tactically significant ranges in a maritime environment," Taylor W. Lawrence, president of Raytheon Missile Systems, said in a statement.

The idea of laser weapons has been around for decades, but so far few ideas have progressed beyond testing. Scientists have long struggled with creating a device that can produce enough power to be useful but packaged in a system that is compact enough to be deployed.

Fiber lasers, like the type Raytheon is using, have been gaining traction in recent years as a possible weapon candidate because of their efficiency, which makes them less complex and more compact than other types of lasers.

Technorati Tags: raytheon,drones,fiber-optic laser

Glenn Beck busts Think Progress for fraudulent film of Tea Party

2010-07-20T10:40:59-05:00

Good job to the bloggers and Beck. GWP reports:

Glenn Beck exposed the blatant dishonesty at the Soros-funded website Think Progress yesterday on his show. He included footage taken by Adam Sharp at the April Tea Party in Clayton, Missouri where a “racist” was driven away by the tea partiers. Think Progress showed the racist in their fraudulent propaganda film but did not show the man asked to leave by the patriots in attendance.

Technorati Tags: think progress,tea party,video,glenn beck documentary

25% tax increase needed to pay for US debt spending under Obama.

2010-07-19T23:12:57-05:00

PHYLLIS SCHLAFLY lays it out here in her column:

'Unsustainable" is a scary word that recently entered political discourse, coming authoritatively from Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf. Unsustainability is the operative moniker for Barack Obama's massive deficit spending, which Elmendorf said "cannot be solved through minor tinkering."
The CBO predicts an increase in our public debt from $7.5 trillion at the end of 2009 to $20.3 trillion at the end of 2020 if Obama's fiscal 2011 budget is implemented. As a percentage of gross domestic product, the debt will rise to 90% from 53%.
Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., sharpened the focus by asking the CBO director: "What's going to be necessary (is) either a 25% increase in taxes or a 20% reduction in spending, or some combination thereof. Is that correct?" Elmendorf replied "yes."
Americans are beginning to wonder if Greece is the picture of the U.S.' future. But we need look no further than the place where Obama and his team were trained in community organizing and bully tactics to redistribute the wealth: Illinois.
continued...

Ouch.

Technorati Tags: obama,deficit,tax inscreases,cbo,Douglas Elmendorf

Pakistan Navy trained terrorists that attacked Mumbai. Provided boat for attack.

2010-07-19T15:04:08-05:00

This is big. The Times of India reports here:

NEW DELHI: In yet another indication of the involvement of Pakistani establishment in the 26/11 Mumbai attack, LeT operative David Headley has corroborated the statement of lone captured terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab that the terrorists got training from Pakistan Navy.

During his interrogation, Kasab confessed that the ten terrorists, including himself, who attacked Mumbai received training of swimming and underwater diving from the Pakistan Navy's frogmen.

A frogman is someone who is trained to dive, swim and combat.

"The role of frogmen was confirmed by Headley when the Indian investigators interrogated him in the US last month," an official said.

This is being seen as another clear indicator of the Pakistani establishment's involvement in the planning and execution of the Mumbai terror attack, which claimed 168 lives.

Home secretary Gopal K Pillai had recently said that the ISI was "literally controlling and coordinating the (Mumbai) attack from beginning to end".
Pakistani-American Headley, currently in American custody, was interrogated by a team of National Investigation Agency.

continued…

Pakistan also provided the boat for the attack. Story here:

Technorati Tags: mumbai terrorists,pakistan,navy,mubai,india

Muslim bus drivers refuse to let guide dogs on board

2010-07-19T09:44:18-05:00

Expect anything less? Full story here:

Blind passengers are being ordered off buses or refused taxi rides because Muslim drivers or passengers object to their 'unclean' guide dogs.
One pensioner, a cancer sufferer, told how had twice been confronted by drivers and asked to get off the bus because of his guide dog, and had also faced hostility at a hospital and in a supermarket over the animal.
The problem to carry guide dogs on religious grounds has become so widespread that the matter was raised in the House of Lords last week, prompting transport minister Norman Baker to warn that a religious objection was not a reason to eject a passenger with a well-behaved guide dog.
'Stunned': George Herridge, 73, was twice asked by bus drivers to leave their vehicles because of his guide dog, a black labrador
While drivers can use their discretion to refuse to carry non-disabled passengers with dogs, they are compelled to accept guide dogs under disability discrimination law.
continued...

Technorati Tags: islam,muslim,england,dogs,buses,hostipals

New Black Panther raps I'm a terrorist trained by Osama Bin Laden

2010-07-19T09:35:20-05:00

Verum Serum covers the New Black Panther's rap group Coup Da'Ta. Full story here:

From the music vault of the New Black Panther Party, here is Philly NBPP leader King Samir Shabazz and his group Coup Da’Ta with ”Damn Rebels”:

I’m a warrior trained by Khallid Muhammad

I’m a terrorist trained by Osama Bin Laden

Demolitionist, breaking down the walls of the rotten

Never hit and miss
First time, take out your target

This part is also nice (:55).

Hittin back, bust a cops’ ass son with a bat

And after that split a jackhammer to his rackin’ back

And look ‘em in his eye, tell us what he did for that

I will snatch you, break you down, kick you and bat you
I had to
Break your molecules and regraft you

Sounds like just the kind of guy that should be in charge of…uh, “security”…outside a polling site. Yes, in case you haven’t been following this story, King Samir Shabazz is the baton-wielding, “cracker”-threatening Black Panther leader who the Obama DOJ pretty much let off the hook for voter intimidation. You know, this guy.

Technorati Tags: Samir Shabazz,rap,Coup Da’Ta,new black panthers