13,000 protest Governor's plan to change collective bargaining for public employees

Just curious. Does this kind of rhetoric go for your Dad and Mom as well? I don't know how many times I have to say it. Every bit of our present problems have happened in the last decade and were caused by a myriad of things. Also, please quit twisting what I post to suit your particular spin. I did not say anything about the needy.

Just a thought from one who has saved, planned and worked hard to put his family on a sound footing during retirement, only it sometimes appears, to have the efforts ruined by those interested in making sure those who have floated through life are guaranteed a comfortable existence in their old age. Bitter at what I see happening? You bet and rightly so!

Wisconsin Revolts: A Stirring Video Chronicle | The Nation

great video on the Wisconsin protests. Good to see the students standing with their teachers and the firefighters--the 60s live again! :clap:

That is your view - there was a lot more to protests in the 60s than just Vietnam. My parents protested in the 60s, yet have always had a very high regard for members of the armed forces.

Columbia University students heckled a war hero during a town-hall meeting on whether ROTC should be allowed back on campus.

"Racist!" some students yelled at Anthony Maschek, a Columbia freshman and former Army staff sergeant awarded the Purple Heart after being shot 11 times in a firefight in northern Iraq in February 2008. Others hissed and booed the veteran.

Hell, my high school had ROTC and no issues.:lol:

This is the last I say on this subject. "The 60s live again" says volumes on what has gone wrong in this country. While some of the youth of that era were protesting and blowing up buildings, (so I am told, I wasn't here at the time) other youth were being killed and wounded in a war, which, whether you agreed with it or not, they were asked to fight by their country. They did so valiantly without being able to respond to the protesters. Yeah, all of you who demonstrated in the 60's should be really proud. You won, at the cost of over 58,000 lives and troops being spit on upon their return. IMO, it is a very dark period in our history and there is one thing for which I am really thankful. Those returning from their service in combat areas now are being treated with respect and recognition for what has been asked of them. Maybe those protesters have learned something of value by now.

This is the last I say on this subject. "The 60s live again" says volumes on what has gone wrong in this country. While some of the youth of that era were protesting and blowing up buildings, (so I am told, I wasn't here at the time) other youth were being killed and wounded in a war, which, whether you agreed with it or not, they were asked to fight by their country. They did so valiantly without being able to respond to the protesters. Yeah, all of you who demonstrated in the 60's should be really proud. You won, at the cost of over 58,000 lives and troops being spit on upon their return. IMO, it is a very dark period in our history and there is one thing for which I am really thankful. Those returning from their service in combat areas now are being treated with respect and recognition for what has been asked of them. Maybe those protesters have learned something of value by now.

Andy, while you were serving in Vietnam my husband and I were serving overseas as well...I was both a protester and a supporter of the military. The two are not mutually exclusive...

The protests helped end the war and I am proud to have been a part of that--I only wish we had been able to help stop it before so many of my friends and family died.

I spent long hours in the Navy hospital helping care for wounded military--just off the medivac plane from SE Asia...and most of them would have welcomed a protest to end the hell they had just survived.

Yes, there were some people with their own agendas, there always are...but, I am just as proud of those young people in Wisconsin today(two of them are relatives of friends of mine) as I was of my friends and neighbors of the sixties--they are not what is wrong with our country today-- in fact, they just may help get it back to a rational place.

The minority party in the legislature responded with a collective freak-out. Massive populist protests were held, drawing national press attention. A few signs in the crowd compared the newly elected executive to Hitler. Partisan cable TV opinion anchors doubled their duty, drumming up the crowds and then offering "analysis" on air. The language of apocalypse was invoked, the battle lines were drawn -- and domestic politics started to feel a little like a war.

No, this isn't a recap of Washington 2009 after Barack Obama's election, but Wisconsin 2011 after Gov. Scott Walker's election. And if you were offended by one, but cheering the other, you're part of the problem -- an atmosphere of hyperpartisanship in which extremes on both sides of the political spectrum act like wingnuts crying wolf.

Democrats are in Illinois, in their third-day of a walkout that began Monday in a protest over a bill targeting labor union talks but which encompasses many more labor and education bills. House Minority Leader B. Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, said Democrats would not return today, and that it was a ?day to day? discussion about when they would return.

Democrats issued a list of 11 bills they say are concerns, including one which already has passed the legislature and is on its way to Daniels? desk: a fix to the state?s busted unemployment fund. That legislation cuts benefits to the jobless while also raising taxes on businesses.

Bauer said he knows that not all the bills Democrats oppose could be stopped, but said some are essential, including the so-called ?right to work? bill banning unions and companies from negotiating contracts that require non-union members to pay for representation and also the voucher bill which lets tax dollars pay for private school tuition. Bauer also singled out a bill which limits collective bargaining for teachers to wages and wage-related benefits, but not working conditions.

House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, said Republicans would not negotiate and that the Democrats needed to return from Illinois to do their jobs.

Daniels said the Democrats actions are ?un-democratic? and that they simply are trying to re-fight the November elections, in which voters put Republicans in charge.

?You don?t walk off the job, take your public paycheck with you and bring the whole process to a screeching halt,? Daniels said.

He also clarified his remarks to reporters made Tuesday, in which he had said the activities of the past few days were an acceptable part of the process. Daniels said he was talking about the thousands of labor union members who have come to the Statehouse to protest, and not the Democrats? walkout.

Republicans have killed a controversial labor bill that has sparked a Democrat work-stoppage and large union protests at the Statehouse.