NLRB vs. Boeing & South Carolina: House Strips NLRB Of Bargaining Rights! Reid To Reject!

House passes anti-NLRB Outsourcers' Bill of Rights

As expected, the House passed the bill Democrats have dubbed the "Outsourcers' Bill of Rights" Thursday. The bill strips the National Labor Relations Board's power to remedy it when companies move jobs illegally due to workers exercising their rights.

The vote was 238 to 186, with eight Democrats and seven Republicans crossing party lines. Although the bill was spurred by the NLRB's complaint against Boeing, Boeing has declined to endorse the bill.

Speaking on the House floor, Rep. George Miller (D-CA) said:

Mr. Speaker, workers have had the right to organize since 1935. They have the right to join together and fight for a better future for themselves and their families. And it has been the law of the land that employers cannot retaliate against workers for exercising that right.

Employers cannot fire workers for exercising that right. They cannot subcontract or outsource work just because workers exercise that right. If they do, workers have a right to redress.

For more than 70 years, the National Labor Relations Board has taken issue with that kind of retaliation. If employers are proven to have retaliated against workers for exercising the right to organize, the Board is empowered to make workers whole.

But not under this bill.

Under this bill, workers would not be able to be made whole anymore.

Under this bill, a company can retaliate against a worker for trying to organize a union. The employer could layoff that worker and subcontract their work out.

A company can bust a union by setting up a shell company down the street and send all the work there until all of the union employees have lost their jobs. Workers would be out of luck because the NLRB would be prohibited from ordering the work returned to those now-unemployed workers.

Under this bill, if a company wants to bust a union by outsourcing its work to China, this bill permits it. Workers would be powerless to stop that outsourcing.

But then, that's what Republicans want.

Harry Reid does not plan to bring the bill to a vote in the Senate.


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Sources: Daily Kos, Youtube, Google Maps

Democrats Still Planning To Remove Scott Walker In 2012 (Union Backlash!)

Wisconsin Recall Election Results Could Reverberate In Other States

A stand by Wisconsin Republicans against a massive effort to oust them from power could reverberate across the country as the battle over union rights and the conservative revolution heads toward the 2012 presidential race.

Democrats succeeded in taking two Wisconsin state Senate seats away from Republican incumbents on Tuesday but fell one short of what they needed to seize majority control of the chamber.

Republicans saw it as a big win for Gov. Scott Walker and an affirmation of his conservative agenda, the hallmark of which has been his successful push to strip most collective bargaining rights from public workers.

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin said Wednesday that despite falling short Tuesday night it is still pushing ahead with its plans to recall Walker next year.

"Barely scraping by on their own turf is an incredible sign of weakness for Gov. Walker and Republicans," party chairman Mike Tate told the Wisconsin State-Journal. "The historic gains made tonight to restore balance and accountability to our state, and restore Wisconsin values, will continue when the entire state weighs-in on the November 2012 elections -- and with the recall of Scott Walker himself."

Walker told The Associated Press on Wednesday that even though his party managed to retain control of the Legislature, he thinks the recall election results show that voters want both parties to work together on jobs and the economy.

"People still want us to focus on those two priorities," Walker said. "They want us to work together."

Walker said he planned to meet soon with leaders from both parties to discuss areas where they could work together. The invitation was greeted with skepticism from Assembly Democratic Minority Leader Peter Barca.

"It's bipartisan action, not bipartisan rhetoric that people are looking for," Barca said.

Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, who will preside over a razor thin 17-16 GOP majority should two Democratic senators manage to win their own recall elections next week, echoed Walker's talking points.

"Republicans are going to continue doing what we promised the people of Wisconsin – improve the economy and get Wisconsin moving back in the right direction," Fitzgerald said in a prepared statement after the victory.

Democrats and union leaders tried to make the best of the historic GOP wins. There had been only 13 other successful recalls of state-level office holders nationwide since 1913.

"The fact of the matter remains that, fighting on Republican turf, we have begun the work of stopping the Scott Walker agenda," said Democratic Party Chairman Mike Tate.

Phil Neuenfeldt, the president of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO, said voters sent a message that there is a growing movement to reclaim the middle class.

"Let's be clear, anyway you slice it, this is an unprecedented victory," he said.

Still, it was far less than what Democrats set out to achieve. And while they still plan to move ahead with recalling Walker, maintaining momentum for that effort, which can't start until November, will be difficult.

Sen. Luther Olsen, one of the four Republicans who won, said he hoped the victories would "take the wind out of the recall for Walker, but I'm not sure."

Tate, the Democratic Party chairman, said Wednesday that Democratic gains showed how vulnerable Walker is and that the recall effort would continue with the election taking place in November, timed to coincide with expected high Democratic turnout in the presidential race.

Walker said he would "leave it up to the pundits to decide" what the recall elections meant for efforts targeting him, but he believed he ultimately will be judged on whether he can fulfill his campaign promise to create 250,000 jobs in the state over four years.

Four Republican senators held on to their seats Tuesday. They were Olsen and Sens. Sheila Harsdorf of River Falls, Rob Cowles of Allouez, and Alberta Darling of River Hills. Two Republicans – Randy Hopper of Fond du Lac and Dan Kapanke of La Crosse – were defeated. Former deputy mayor of Oshkosh Jessica King beat Hopper and Democratic state Rep. Jennifer Shilling beat Kapanke.

A ninth senator, Democrat Dave Hansen of Green Bay, won his recall election last month.

Collectively, more than $31 million has been spent on the recalls, largely from outside conservative groups, unions and others.

Republican and Democratic strategists were leery of reading too much into the results heading into next year's campaign in which Wisconsin is expected to be a key swing state.

Democratic strategist Chris Lehane said the results could provide "some early radar warnings" about the 2012 races, and that he expects the conservatives "to fight back like an angry badger."

Lehane said Wisconsin's tumultuous year since November's elections has been a microcosm of the current "rollercoaster" era of U.S. politics.

Wisconsin voters had mixed emotions about the necessity of the recalls.

Wayne Boland, 41, a Whitefish Bay man who works in marketing for a medical equipment maker, said he voted for the Republican Darling "not because I entirely agree with everything the Republican Party has done or the governor" but because they're working toward addressing the state's problems.

Republicans won control of both houses of the Legislature and the governor's office in the 2010 election just nine months ago.

Democrats had hoped enough wins in the recalls would have allowed them to block the Republican agenda, but the GOP will hold on to their majorities that have allowed them to rapidly pass bills through the Legislature.

The elections were also closely watched in other states undergoing similar partisan battles.

A coalition of unions and labor-friendly groups fighting a Wisconsin-style collective bargaining overhaul in Ohio said the outcome of the recall elections will have little bearing on whether Ohio's law is repealed this fall.

The effort in Wisconsin was about recalling specific Republicans who voted for the anti-union bill while the push in Ohio is about repealing the law itself. That makes it difficult to compare the two states, said We Are Ohio spokeswoman Melissa Fazekas.

Supporters of the Ohio law also are distancing their state from the fight in Wisconsin.

"We're not focused on Wisconsin, and Ohioans aren't looking to another state to tell them where they should stand," said Jason Mauk, spokesman for Building a Better Ohio, a group defending the collective bargaining law.

Ohioans will vote Nov. 8 on whether to accept or reject the union-limiting law signed by Republican Gov. John Kasich in March that limits bargaining rights for more than 350,000 police, firefighters, teachers and other government employees.

Unlike Wisconsin, Ohio's Constitution makes no provision for recalling elected officials.


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Sources: CBS News, Huffington Post, MSNBC, Youtube, Google Maps

Wisconsin Recall Election Battle Snapshot Of 2012 Elections: Class Warfare! (BRUTAL Race Ahead!)

Wisconsin'S Recall Elections Are A Snapshot Of What We'll Face In 2012. The GOP & Tea Party Are NOT Playing! They're Currently Out Organizing Us & Out Spending Democrats, Liberals, Progressives & Independents. If We Don't Unite, Organize, Mobilize & Outspend Them We Can Just Say Good-Bye To Diversity, Good-Bye To Equal Rights, Good-Bye To Opportunities For Everyone & Hello To Rich Vs. Poor With No Middle Class In Between! Don't Stay Home! VOTE OBAMA IN 2012!!




Republicans take 4 of 6 in recall elections, hold Senate

Democrats won two state Senate seats in Tuesday's historic recall elections, but failed to capture a third seat that would have given them control of the chamber.

By keeping a majority in the Senate, Republicans retained their monopoly on state government because they also hold the Assembly and governor's office. Tuesday's elections narrowed their majority - at least for now - from 19-14 to a razor-thin 17-16.

Republicans may be able to gain back some of the losses next week, when two Democrats face recall elections.

Democrats had hoped to block the Republican agenda by taking control of the Senate in the recall elections, but the GOP should be able to continue to advance its agenda.

"I think it's a huge victory for us," said John Hogan, director of the Committee to Elect a Republican Senate. "Voters gave us a mandate last fall. . . . They backed us up again (Tuesday). Voters told us loud and clear, 'Stay the course. Things are working.'"

But Democrats claimed victory for the two seats they captured from Republicans.

"We went on their turf and we won on Republican turf," said Mike Tate, chairman of the state Democratic Party. "We will not stop, we will not rest . . . until we recall (Gov.) Scott Walker."

Republican Sens. Dan Kapanke (R-La Crosse) and Randy Hopper (R-Empire) were both defeated by their Democratic challengers, Rep. Jennifer Shilling (D-La Crosse) and Democrat Jessica King of Oshkosh.

"I look forward to going to Madison to stand up for the working families, seniors and students of Oshkosh, Fond du Lac, Blackwolf, Waupun and all across the 18th district," King said in a statement. "Their voices will be once again heard."

Three other Republicans held onto their seats, despite aggressive campaigns put up by their Democratic foes and outside groups backed by unions. Surviving the recalls were Republican Sens. Alberta Darling of River Hills, Sheila Harsdorf of River Falls, Luther Olsen of Ripon and Rob Cowles of Allouez.

Darling was declared the winner over Rep. Sandy Pasch (D-Whitefish Bay) late Tuesday.

Democrats called for the recalls after Walker launched his plan to eliminate most collective bargaining for public workers, and Tuesday's races were seen as a preview of a plan to force a recall of Walker next year.

Tuesday's recalls were launched in March, during the turmoil in Madison over Walker's plan, ultimately successful, to curtail collective bargaining by most public employees. Democrats tried to recall Republicans for that vote, while Republicans tried to recall Democrats for leaving the state for three weeks to block a vote on the issue.

Sen. Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay) was the first to face a recall election, and he easily survived the challenge last month.

Attention now turns to next week's recall elections, against Democratic Sens. Jim Holperin of Conover and Bob Wirch of Pleasant Prairie.

"It's encouraging to see, even though a couple Republicans lost their seats, the recall process holds as a check for those who disrespect their office and not simply do their job and take a vote," said a statement from Holperin's challenger, Kim Simac. "Next week we will recall a senator who was actually derelict in his duty by failing to represent his district when he fled to Illinois."

Turnout levels in Tuesday's elections were substantial, approaching those of last fall's governor's race - a striking testimony to the extreme passions, money and attention these contests have attracted this summer.

In one contest, for the 10th district seat won Tuesday by GOP incumbent Harsdorf, the total vote exceeded that of the race for governor last fall.

Voters were mobilized by massive get-out-the-vote efforts on both sides, and by expensive television and radio advertising campaigns that flooded the airwaves in all six districts. At least five of the elections broke the $3 million spending record, set in 2000, for money spent by all parties in a Senate race.

Expensive campaigns
So far more than $35 million has been spent on the recall races, according to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, which tracks political money. The spending on the nine races dwarfs the $19.3 million spent in last year's 115 legislative races, and approaches the $37.4 million spent in the race for governor.

The flow of money came as unions saw the recall elections as the best way to halt Walker's agenda and to send a message to other states considering changing their collective bargaining laws. Political observers are watching Wisconsin to see what the results say about the mood of the electorate leading up to next year's elections for president and Congress.

Unions played a huge role for Democrats by spending vast sums of money on advertising, and supplying manpower in all the Senate districts. Conservative groups have parried with their own influx of cash.

But the Democrats' argument in the recalls morphed over time from concerns over collective bargaining to objections to a number of GOP initiatives - most notably cuts to education and tax breaks for the wealthy - and the complaint that the changes were pushed through without enough public discussion.

Republicans countered that argument by insisting that voters - who just last November flipped both houses of the Legislature and the governor's office from blue to red - had sent them to Madison to balance the budget and get control of state spending. "Elections have consequences," was the often-repeated slogan.

The wave of recall elections is unparalleled in the nation's history. Before this year, there had been just four recall elections of Wisconsin lawmakers. Two incumbents were recalled, while two survived the efforts. One of those who won his recall election was Holperin, who was in the Assembly in 1990 when a recall effort was launched because of his stance on Indian fishing rights.

Democrats cried foul over returns that came in late from Waukesha County in the Darling-Pasch matchup. Tate, the party official, alleged Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus was "sitting on ballots" and "tampering with the results." Later, though, he said he would not pursue questions of irregularities.

Nickolaus enraged Democrats in April when she discovered votes from Brookfield that helped Supreme Court Justice David Prosser win re-election.

Here's how the races played out:

32nd District: From the beginning of the state Senate recalls that have preoccupied Wisconsin politics for the past five months, Kapanke, 63, had been identified as the Republican most likely to be thrown out of office, and he was Tuesday.

Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) said Shilling's victory was a rebuke to Republicans.

"The people of the 32nd Senate District sent Gov. Walker and his legislative Republicans rubber-stamps a clear message today: they've had enough of the GOP's extreme agenda that favors wealthy special interests and large out-of-state corporations at the expense of Wisconsin's working, middle class families," read a statement Barca issued.

Kapanke's district has been trending increasingly Democratic, including a win by President Barack Obama with 61% of the vote in 2008. .

18th District: Hopper had been considered, with Kapanke, the other most vulnerable of the six Republicans to being defeated.

Voters in his public-employee-heavy district quickly gathered 22,500 signatures to force the recall.

His opponent, lawyer King, had lost by just 163 votes when they faced off for the open seat in 2008. On top of that, Hopper has had to deal with questions about an ugly divorce, where he lives and a state job for his 26-year-old girlfriend.

But Hopper, 45, a radio station owner, said his two years in office had proved that he and Walker have Wisconsin on the right track to fiscal health, and he was confident about his chances.

"It will be close," he said in recent weeks, "but I've always said, 'more important to do my job than keep my job.' "

That turned out to be true. With just three precincts still out, and those in King's home county of Winnebago, she was up by more than 1,100 votes, and the Associated Press called the race for her.

King, 36, a former Oshkosh alderman and deputy mayor, had predicted that the momentum of dissatisfied workers would put her in office.

14th District: Olsen's district came to be considered the Democrats' best chance to pick up a third Republican seat to give them control of the Senate. But Olsen, 60, held on to squeak by his opponent, Rep. Fred Clark (D-Baraboo).

Clark, 52, was the first Democrat Olsen's ever faced in the 16 ½ years he's been in office - an indication of how Republican his district has been over the years.

Still, spending in the race was second only to that in Darling's 8th District, according to the Democracy Campaign, which estimated last week that $5.5 million was spent in total, both by candidates and outside parties.

The largely rural central Wisconsin district stretches from Wisconsin Dells to Waupaca County. It is traditionally considered GOP turf, with Olsen's home of Ripon laying claim as the birthplace of the Republican Party.

Clark's Assembly district is in the southwestern corner of Olsen's Senate district, and until 2008 had been in Republican hands.

Clark and Olsen often told voters during the campaign that they like each other, turning the race into one that pitted a nice guy against a nice guy. In more than a dozen interviews with voters in Portage and Ripon, few were critical of the candidates personally. The voters had clear views on where the two stood and said they planned to vote even though the election was occurring at the height of summer.

8th District: In by far the most expensive recall race, Darling, 67, was the victor in a tight race with Pasch. Mike Tate, chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, had called this seat the "crown jewel" of the recalls, because Darling, as co-chairwoman of the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee, had helped push through Walker's budget initiatives.

Darling raised well over $1 million for the race, the all-time record for a state Senate candidate in Wisconsin, and the nonprofit Wisconsin Democracy Campaign last week estimated $7.9 million had been spent by both candidates, plus all outside groups - nearly triple the $3 million record for spending on a state Senate race.

Besides Darling's key legislative role, the campaign was made more expensive by the higher advertising rates in the Milwaukee television market. Pasch, 57, was first elected to the Legislature in 2008.

2nd Senate District: Cowles easily defeated Nancy Nusbaum, the former De Pere mayor and Brown County executive. From the first, Cowles had been considered the GOP senator safest from being defeated. He was the final senator to have recall signatures filed against him, and a recent report by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign estimated just $750,000 was spent by all parties on both sides of the race - the smallest amount on any of nine Senate districts with recalls.

Nusbaum, 65, argued that Cowles had changed his political spots to fall into line with Walker's conservative agenda, switching from the moderate image Cowles, 61, had cultivated over 28 years in the Legislature. Cowles said he had not changed and was running on his record as a fiscal conservative who had worked in a bipartisan way on such issues as renewable energy and energy conservation.

10th District: Republican Harsdorf easily beat Democratic challenger Shelly Moore.

Early on, Harsdorf had been considered somewhat vulnerable, but lately she'd been seen as well ahead of Moore, who was making her first run for office.

During the campaign, Moore, 37, of River Falls accused Harsdorf, 55, of betraying working families, public employees, students and seniors. Moore is an English teacher at Ellsworth High School and a member of the Wisconsin Education Association Council, the state's largest teachers union.





Wisconsin recall leaves both sides claiming victory

Democrats in Wisconsin failed to gain control of the state Senate in Tuesday's recall elections, but both Democrats and Republicans are claiming victory in the struggle, which cast Wisconsin as "ground zero in a national class war, partly over the fate of organized labor."

In the unprecedented recall elections against six Republican state senators, four Republican lawmakers won, leaving the GOP with a slim 17 to 16 majority. Two Democrats face recall elections next week, which could bolster the GOP's weakened control.

The recalls were spurred by vehement anger over Republican Gov. Scott Walker's ultimately-successful effort to curb public employees' union rights. The number of lawmakers facing recall elections in a matter of weeks was unprecedented, and national organizations brought millions of dollars and significant organizational support into the mix.

While the recalls were inspired over union rights, the elections morphed into a referendum against Walker's entire Republican agenda, encompassing issues like school vouchers and health care funding. Meanwhile, the recalls were seen as something of a test for the GOP agenda at the national level -- whether Republican leaders could withstand the blowback from taking on unions, particularly in a key battleground state.

"I think it's a huge victory for us," John Hogan, director of the Committee to Elect a Republican Senate, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "Voters gave us a mandate last fall... They backed us up again."

Similarly, Republican State Leadership Committee President Chris Jankowski called Tuesday's results a "tremendous victory" with larger implications.

"Tonight's results demonstrate that responsible budgeting measures and job creating policies can prevail over mountains of liberal special interest money from those fighting to maintain the unsustainable status quo," Jankowski said in a statement. "By beating back countless liberal special interest dollars and paid supporters, the strength of responsible Republican ideals is obvious and foreshadows continued Republican victories in 2011, 2012 and beyond."

While labor unions and liberal groups did contribute significantly to the recall effort, the Republican senators were also heavily backed by third party interest groups and the national parties.

Democrats and their backers argued that their impressive mobilization efforts showed that labor unions still have voter support, in spite of the GOP's best efforts to limit their influence. The mere fact that they were able to collect enough signatures quickly enough to put six Republicans up for recall suggests the union-backed liberal movement remains strong, they say.

"Beyond Wisconsin, if we can enjoy a similar 'loss rate' in Republican-held districts (picking up 33 percent of them), Speaker Nancy Pelosi will have a huge majority in 2013," liberal pundit Markos Moulitsas wrote. "We had a message that resonated with large numbers of working people in overwhelmingly white working-class districts that shifted hard against Democrats in 2010. GOP overreach is winning them back for us."

Mike Tate, chairman of the state Democratic Party, told the Journal Sentinel, "We went on their turf and we won on Republican turf."

Republican Sens. Alberta Darling of River Hills, Sheila Harsdorf of River Falls, Rob Cowles of Allouez and Luther Olsen of Ripon all held onto their seats. Democratic state Rep. Jennifer Shilling of La Crosse defeated incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Kapanke, while Democrat Jessica King defeated first-term incumbent Sen. Randy Hopper of Fond du Lac.

While Democrats did make some gains in Republican-held districts, the New York Times' Nate Silver points out that these elections were in swing districts -- districts that voted for Walker in 2010 but for President Obama in 2008.

Furthermore, extrapolating national implications from Tuesday's elections could be a futile exercise, given the extraordinary and unique political circumstances in Wisconsin, where residents protested for weeks over union rights.

Union rights have been a point of contention in other states like Ohio this year, and some Republican governors, like Rick Scott of Florida and Rick Snyder of Michigan, have left some voters grumbling over their agenda.

While national Republican leaders say the outcome in Wisconsin validates the agendas Republican governors have pursued, Walker suggested Tuesday that he was willing to extend an olive branch to Democrats.

"Earlier this evening I reached out to the leadership of both the Republicans and Democrats in the Assembly and State Senate," Walker said in a statement. "I shared with them that I believe we can work together to grow jobs and improve our state. In the days ahead I look forward to working with legislators of all parties to grow jobs for Wisconsin and move our state forward."

Walker could very well have his own fate in mind, since Democrats intend to hold a recall election against him next year.


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Sources: AP, ABC News, CBS News, MSNBC, Reuters, Wisconsin Milwaukee-Journal Sentinel, Youtube, Google Maps

Real Wisconsin Democrats Defeat "Fake Democrats In Recall Election Primary (Next Scott Walker)

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Fake Democrats lose in Wisconsin primary recalls


All six fake Democrats lost to Democrats supported by the party in primaries Tuesday that are the first in a series of recall elections targeting nine Wisconsin state senators for their positions on Republican Gov. Scott Walker's divisive union rights restrictions.

The winners advance to take on incumbent Republicans targeted for recall on Aug. 9.

The state Republican Party orchestrated the placement of the fake Democrats on Tuesday's ballot, thereby delaying the general election for a month. That gave the Republican incumbents more time to campaign and distance themselves from the turmoil over the union law that they voted to support in March, spurring the recall efforts.

Five of the six winners had at least 65 percent of the vote, based on unofficial results. The sixth, Shelly Moore, had 54 percent.

Moore defeated Isaac Weix, a Republican on the ballot as a Democrat who had previously run twice before and lost as a GOP candidate for the state Assembly. The St. Croix County Republican Party sent emails and paid for phone calls on behalf of Weix, urging Republicans to support him in the Democratic primary.

Democratic Party spokeswoman Gillian Morris said she wasn't concerned about how tight the Moore race turned out to be.

"They were campaigning pretty hard there," Morris said. "That also shows how scared they are of what Shelly Moore can do in a general election against."

State Republican Party spokeswoman Katie McCallum said the results were an embarrassment for Moore but that ultimately Tuesday's elections wouldn't change the approach being taken by any of the incumbents.

Moore, a 37-year-old Ellsworth public school teacher from River Falls in western Wisconsin, said she expected the race to be close given spending on the race from outside interest groups. She said the results won't change her approach toward taking on Republican Sen. Sheila Harsdorf in the general election.

Overall, Morris was buoyed by the election results.

"The voters of Wisconsin have rejected the Republicans' dirty tricks, despite their best efforts to turn out voters in these primaries for fake candidates," she said.

In the 2nd District, former De Pere mayor and Brown County Executive Nancy Nusbaum, 64, easily defeated fake Democratic candidate Otto Junkermann, an 82-year-old who served as a Brown County supervisor in the 1980s and one year as a Republican in the state Assembly.

Nusbaum, who had 65 percent of the vote with 99 percent of precincts reporting, will face Republican Sen. Rob Cowles in the general election.

In the 32nd District, state Rep. Jennifer Shilling of La Crosse handily defeated fake Democrat James D. Smith, a former county Republican executive committee member also from La Crosse. Shilling, who had 71 percent of the vote, takes on Republican Sen. Dan Kapanke.

State Rep. Fred Clark defeated fake Democrat Rol Church of Wautoma in the 14th District to advance to take on Republican Sen. Luther Olsen. Clark got 67 percent of the vote.

And in the 18th District, attorney Jessica King, 35, defeated John Buckstaff, 81, a retired furniture business owner. King, who had 69 percent of the vote, will face Republican Sen. Randy Hopper.

Tuesday's primaries marked the first of four recall elections during the next five weeks. The six targeted Republicans voted for Walker's bill and the three Democrats fled to Illinois for three weeks to delay a vote on the measure that takes away collective bargaining rights from most public employees.

The stakes are huge. If the Democrats gain three seats, they will take majority control away from the Republicans and be in a position to stop Walker and the GOP's agenda.

Republicans can vote in the Democratic races because Wisconsin has an open primary, raising the possibility of further mischief in the elections. State Democratic Party Chairman Mike Tate said he was concerned Republicans would attempt to vote for the fake Democrats on Tuesday, but he was confident the real ones would prevail.

In Republican Sen. Alberta Darling's district in suburban Milwaukee, several dozen voters waited in line at Glendale City Hall about noon to choose between Democratic state Rep. Sandy Pasch and fake Democratic candidate Gladys Huber.

Pasch won with 67 percent of the vote.

Jim Krivitz, a 66-year-old retired museum executive, called the primary "phony." He said he was voting for Pasch in part to register his disapproval of Darling and her GOP colleagues.

"I don't like the way the current Republican administration is moving precipitously to the right on everything," he said.

Self-described conservative Walter Schoenfeld, 69, said he was voting for Huber to protest the actions of 14 Democratic state senators who fled the state.

"Democrats played like little children," said Schoenfeld, a retired health care administrator. "What's the saying? Elections have consequences. Live with it."

There is a Republican primary in two other races on July 19 and a general election in the Green Bay area with Democratic Sen. Dave Hansen versus GOP challenger Dave VanderLeest. The general election for the other two races targeting Democratic incumbents is Aug. 16.

Also Tuesday, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin public policy director Chris Taylor emerged from a field of six Democrats to win a primary for a seat in the Assembly representing a portion of Dane County that was vacated by Joe Parisi when he left in April to serve as Dane County executive. Taylor has no opposition in the Aug. 9 general election.


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Sources: Current TV, Huffington Post, MSNBC, USA Today, Youtube, Google Maps

Christie & Walker Win Anti-Union Fight: NJ Dems Vs. Wisc. Dems

Unlike Their Bold Counterparts In Wisconsin Who Earlier This Year Chose To Flee Their State Rather Than Agree With Gov. Scott Walker's Union Busting, Collective Bargaining Restricting Agenda, New Jersey's Scared Democrats Recently Sided With Gov. Christie To Enact His Anti-Union Plan Which Phases Out Collective Bargaining Rights Of Public Workers (Police, Fire Fighters, Teachers) & Restricts Their Health Benefits Package.

Amazing!

My Prayer Is For All Of The Scared New Jersey Dems Who Sided With Christie On This Anti-Union Vote, To Be Kicked Out Of Public Office By Democratic Challengers In The Next Election.

Why?

It Was A Political Trap Set Up By Christie & Those Dimwitted, Scared Democrats Walked Right Into It.

If You Are That Dumb & Scared, Then You Should NOT Be Serving In Public Office To Represent Anyone!

VOTE OBAMA IN 2012!!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

N.J. state workers protest as Assembly prepares to vote on pension overhaul bill


New Jersey lawmakers tonight voted to enact a sweeping plan to cut public worker benefits after a long day of high-pitched political drama in the streets of Trenton and behind closed doors.

Union members chanted outside the Statehouse and in the Assembly balcony, and dissident Democrats tried to stall with amendments and technicalities. Although they successfully convinced top lawmakers to remove a controversial provision restricting public workers’ access to out-of-state medical care, they failed to halt a historic defeat for New Jersey’s powerful unions and a political victory for Republican Gov. Chris Christie.

"Together, we’re showing New Jersey is serious about providing long-term fiscal stability for our children and grandchildren," Christie said in a statement released after the vote. "We are putting the people first and daring to touch the third rail of politics in order to bring reform to an unsustainable system."

Christie and Republicans banded together with Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-Essex) to advance the bill despite opposition from the majority of Democrats who control the Legislature.

More than 8,500 protesters, the most this year, poured into Trenton this morning with signs, speeches and their trademark inflatable rat. But most had dispersed by the time Democrats emerged from their hours-long caucus meetings where they debated the bill’s details and a separate budget proposal. The Assembly convened for a vote at about 6:15 p.m., more than five hours late, and lawmakers delivered speech after speech on the bill for nearly three hours.

"We cannot afford to put off these needed reforms for another year," said Assemblyman Lou Greenwald (D-Camden), a sponsor. "Kicking the can down the road and doing nothing will only require more sacrifice from taxpayers and public workers in the future."



The bill passed the Assembly 46-32 and will be sent to Christie’s desk for his signature. Fourteen Democrats voted for the bill, while 32 opposed it. After the vote, protesters in the balcony shouted "Shame on you!"

Unions have blasted the bill for ending their ability to collectively bargain their medical benefits. Health care plans for 500,000 public workers would be set by a new state panel comprised of union workers and state managers, rather than at the negotiating table. A sunset provision would allow unions to resume collective bargaining after increased health care contributions are phased in over four years.

In addition, police officers, firefighters, teachers and rank-and-file public workers would all pay more for their pensions and health benefits.

Supporters of the bill say the state needs to cut costs because the pension and health systems are underfunded by more than $120 billion total. The Christie administration estimated the bill would save $3 billion in health benefits over the next 10 years and $120 billion in pension costs over 30 years. Much of the pension savings are from the controversial elimination of the cost-of-living adjustments for retirees, which unions have threatened to challenge in court.

Christie, who has staked his reputation on shrinking government costs, has called the bill a model for the the country. New Jersey is one of 23 states that have asked workers to pay more for their pensions since the Wall Street crisis in 2008, according to the Pew Center on the States.

The Assembly passed the bill much like the Senate did on Monday. Democrats voting for the bill have been either from South Jersey and allied with that region’s power broker, George Norcross, or from North Jersey and tied to Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo Jr.

Most Democrats denounced the bill, and Assemblyman Joseph Cryan (D-Union), the Assembly majority leader, called it "one of the most stunned and disheartening times" of his career.

Today's union protest, like other recent demonstrations, did nothing to stop the bill. But it did highlight the growing fissures in the state Democratic Party. While Sweeney and Oliver were pushing the bill, the chairman of the state party, Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex), was rallying protesters with two-dozen other Democrats. "I represent the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party," he said. Bob Master, a leader in the Communications Workers of America, said Democrats should not be "collaborating" with Christie.

Later, on the Assembly floor, Republicans heaped praise on Oliver while her Democratic colleagues condemned the bill. Assemblyman Joseph Malone (R-Burlington) said she showed courage, saying "I’ll remember your actions for the rest of my life."

Sweeney, who has urged cuts to public worker benefits, said the legislation would help save the state’s retirement system.

"Nobody is talking about how we protected 800,000 people’s pensions," he said today. "I don’t apologize for that."

Over the years, lawmakers and local leaders from both parties have offered increased benefits to public employees, often in exchange for political support. But even as benefits improved, the state and municipalities failed to meet its financial obligations. Since 2004, the state has not made $15.11 billion in required payments to the pension funds, while the municipalities have skipped $1.9 billion. Public employees, meanwhile, have fully paid their required contributions.

As a result, the state has a $54 billion shortfall in its pension system, among the highest in the nation. New Jersey’s health benefit system is in even worse shape than the pension fund and is the most poorly funded in the nation at $66.8 billion in the hole, according to the Pew Center on the States.


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Sources: Business Insider, MSNBC, NJ.com, Politico, Youtube, Google Maps

Jim Demint Defends Decision To Block TSA Chief Nomination..."Pure Politics"

After blocking the confirmation of Erroll Southers as the new TSA head, Sen. DeMint stopped by Fox News to defend his decision.

DeMint said he said he objected not to Southers' qualifications, but rather the "Collective Bargaining" and "Secrecy" surrounding his nomination.






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Sources: The Daily Beast, Fox News, Zimbio, Google Maps