Archive for the ‘economy’ Category

What I saw at the Boston Union/Tea Party rally

Posted: February 23, 2011 by datechguy in economy, examiner columns, internet/free speech, opinion/news
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

I got to the State house around 5:45. At the time I got there you could see two distinct groups. On the right side of the street (the state house building) were the unions. About 1200 people appeared on that side of the street (I actually counted).

The Union side of the street


On the other side of the street was the tea party folk, mixed with union folk, there were considerably more Union folk so they spilled over but the Tea Party had flags at the Shaw memorial precariously perched on the top of an ice bank.

The police did the best to keep the side apart at first and keep the road open since there was no permit to close it:

A Boston police office works to keep the road open

After my initial count I started interviewing I began on the Union side of the street with Kat:

The next willing person to talk was from the Democratic Socialists of America, ironic:

As soon as I talked to him a union fellow came up to me to claim that the tea party was having people show up pretending to be union folk. The irony of that statement was huge. This is called “projection” and we would see more of that before the end of the day.

I then crossed the street the crowd was getting thicker as more union folk turned up (were the stewards counting?). On the Tea Party side was Susan who was pushing a priest in a wheelchair and is clearly more Catholic than me:

At this point the crowd surge was really large, I noticed Marty Lamb

(I’ve been seeing him everywhere lately) who had a bit of a tale to tell:

I didn’t see Marty Knocked down, if someone has the film I’d like to see it. I also didn’t know they were making some union guys sign in. That suggest payment but I have no direct evidence of that.

At this point the street was shut down, I went to the police to ask about it and they said it was a matter of safety, too many people were there and they could not guarantee safety of people if cars kept going though

Street was closed off

I then climbed up the ice hill and saw Roxeanne (who will talk about this Saturday on the show) and talked to Ralph who was now surrounded by union guys so his flag would not show up in the pictures

Climbing down was a bit of an adventure. I briefly chatted with one of the union guys covering the event and we agreed that the ice hill didn’t care what side anyone was on.

And of course the Axis of Fedora was represented:

Now that's a Fedora look

more than once:

As the day wore on there were more of the standard: “I show up for every protest” people along with the LaRouche cult (sans Obama Hitler mustaches signs) their suggestions were…interesting.

Shortly afterward

Michael Graham's doctor notes

Michael Graham of WTKK showed up and he was not well received by the union folk as he gave out his “Doctor Notes”

The union guys swarmed him so police had to come, ironically one of the union guys heckling him made the best case of anyone there for unions in general:

This guy should have been on the stage, if the unions were smart he would be their spokesman. Meanwhile I followed Graham as his very presence made buzz

and seemed to drive people over the edge:

To craziness and Nazi salutes. This really took State Rep Bastein (R Gardner) aback

He talked to me about it directly afterward:

We never saw this kind of nonsense in our neck of the woods. I lost track of Graham at this point but found an interesting person who had lived in the Soviet Union who had some comment:

It’s funny how people who have actually lived under oppression seem to be on the conservative side. He was the second Russian I had met today saying the same thing.

At this point (about 5:30) it looked like things were dying down

However it wasn’t as dead as I thought as this fellow started to call the Tea Party people (who were more prominent as some union people started leaving) mass murderers.

I tried to interview the union guy who tried to block the interview but he declined curtly. Even more interestingly was an actress Trudy and her friend Bob who both talked to me until my memory card filled:

It was really interesting to see really odd charges made against the tea party which are totally contrary to reality and to my own reporting over the last 14 months but I never thought to ask her, if she was an actress for all these decades with the Union to look out for her, how is it she never made it into the middle class? I guess the union movement didn’t do much for her.

Once I changed my card I talked to Edward of the tea party who I see regularly at these events and Karen who follows me on twitter (thanks)

We both bemoaned the lateness of our Koch brother checks that should be keeping us in luxury. I made it a point to stay as the union folk packed up, there was a fair amount of trash that was left in the area and I wanted to see if they would pick up after themselves, in the end pickup was done but from an unexpected source:

Yes that’s right, a tea party guy was picking up after the union, after all “janitor” was likely not in their job description.

At that point I went back to the tea and a nice fellow allowed me to put my PC on his bag as he sat allowing me to finish my Examiner article (click on it, that’s worth .75 of a cent to me).

How did it come out? Well it really will have no effect on Wisconsin but you could see that the union side was tense, they are very afraid of what is going on in Wisconsin, they were in denial about the last election, and I think they realize that it’s a question of when (not if) Gov Walker wins this fight.

The image of democrats fleeing the state and doctors giving out “sick notes” have made a very bad impression that is likely going to stick. Even worse if Walker turns Wisconsin around he will be copied and the game will be over.

Update: Welcome Big Government and Gateway pundit readers. Take a peek around and don’t forget to check out my two articles on the subject at the Examiner. Anger and Loathing in Boston and The News Hounds that didn’t Bark. Also check out my two interviews with Andrew Breitbart, one from CPAC and one from Madison.

The White House figures out which way the wind is blowing

Posted: February 21, 2011 by datechguy in economy, elections, opinion/news, politics
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Four days ago Politico highlighted the involvement of the DNC was and OFA in Wisconsin:

The Democratic National Committee’s Organizing for America arm — the remnant of the 2008 Obama campaign — is playing an active role in organizing protests against Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s attempt to strip most public employees of collective bargaining rights.

OfA, as the campaign group is known, has been criticized at times for staying out of local issues like same-sex marriage, but it’s riding to the aide of the public sector unions who hoping to persuade some Republican legislators to oppose Walker’s plan. And while Obama may have his difference with teachers unions, OfA’s engagement with the fight — and Obama’s own clear stance against Walker — mean that he’s remaining loyal to key Democratic Party allies at what is, for them, a very dangerous moment.

OfA Wisconsin’s field efforts include filling buses and building turnout for the rallies this week in Madison, organizing 15 rapid response phone banks urging supporters to call their state legislators, and working on planning and producing rallies, a Democratic Party official in Washington said.

The @OFA_WI twitter account has published 54 tweets promoting the rallies, which the group has also plugged on its blog.

During my interview with Andrew Breitbart on Sunday morning he commented on their presence saying the following:

I’ve sensed that any time when Obama’s Organizing for America gets involved they are up to no good. So when I see them go up against the people I try to be there.

Now in the surest sign that the White House has figured out where this is going to end up, there is some serious backtracking going on:

Administration officials said Sunday that the White House had done nothing to encourage the demonstrations in Wisconsin — nor was it doing so in Ohio, Florida and other states where new Republican governors are trying to make deep cuts to balance their budgets.

And, officials and union leaders said, reports of the involvement of the Democratic National Committee — specifically Organizing for America, the grass-roots network born of Mr. Obama’s 2008 campaign — were overblown to start with and were being inflated by Republicans sensing political advantage.

Because we all know how Politico is really a house organ of the Republican Party, that’s why they are always being quoted on MSNBC

I think the White House has seen these polls and is getting cold feet BIGTIME:

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 48% of Likely U.S. Voters agree more with the Republican governor in his dispute with union workers. Thirty-eight percent (38%) agree more with the unionized public employees, while 14% are undecided.

And as Captain Ed Morrissey at Hotair reports the details are even more damning:

No one will be shocked to find Democrats opposed to Walker’s plan, 21/68, although the opposition seems a little weak, under the circumstances. Also, no one will be surprised to see almost the mirror image among Republicans, 68/15. Independents across the nation give a strong endorsement to Walker, 56/31. Among income demographics, only those earning under $20K per year support the unions (30/54), while Walker gains a plurality or majority in every other income demographic, including a 62/27 among the $60-75K demo. Interestingly, unions only barely edge Walker among government employees, 44/46. (bolding mine)

I put this down to Bill Daily. He is a man of the left and a big supporter of these same unions but he knows politics and sees where this is going. His job is to minimize the damage to the white house. He also understands that if Democrats shut down Wisconsin with the White House behind them it will be harder to blame republicans for a shutdown here.

The Democrats in a Wisconsin mine field

Posted: February 21, 2011 by datechguy in economy, internet/free speech, opinion/news, politics
Tags: , , , , , , ,

Our democratic friends and the media are stepping on so many land minds these days its hard to count them all, but a few things instantly come to mind:

Boom! We all love school in July

Every day that the Wisconsin teachers choose to take off is a day that parents around the state have to find sitters for theirs kids. Parents all around the nation relate and understand this. One of the things people are also forgetting is that an awful lot of school was missed this year already due to wild weather. Every day the teachers take off is a day those kids will be in school in July, again something parents nationwide can relate to

Boom!: Walker itis or take two protests and call me in the morning:

Every time we hear people talking about budget cuts in any state we hear the words “waste and fraud”, “waste and fraud”. Well now on camera we have Wisconsin doctors giving phony sick notes so Teachers can collect taxpayer money while protesting. Again this is something every single person nationwide can understand. Let’s forget the dishonesty, violation of medical ethics , the great potential lawsuits and liability suits that are going to come from this and the sheer audacity of the act and consider one other thing. This is a political protest and the doctors are giving out notes based not on medical necessity but on their political beliefs.. The federal government last year passed over the objections of the voting public a national healthcare law “Obamacare”. One of the many objections to this law has been the possibility “political” decisions in medicine, well there it is for all to see. I wonder will the same people who have no problem with the doctor notes due to “stress” will be all in favor of giving notes on April 15th (a Friday) for Tea Party folk to protest nationwide?

Boom! Walker Reagan and Unions:

We have seen an awful lot on the 100th anniversary of the Birth of Ronald Reagan, a poll just out showed him picked as the greatest president of all time (I disagree, but that’s another post). The Reagan halography has been all over and one thing that has been reported on a lot was his confrontation with the Air Traffic Controller unions. You might remember that the media was uniformly against him in this (and almost everything) but it was a turning point. Now not two weeks after all of this pomp was on TV we have Scott Walker standing his ground against both. If you think that bloggers and viewers are not making the connection, you are wrong.

Boom! Hide and seek:

The Wisconsin Senate’s ride has continued all the way to Chicago (talk about the symbolism for the White House) and it has led to milk cartons and jokes. Forgetting the long-term damage it will do to any agenda they have and the Badger14 blog reports become more arrogant and their attempts to become sympathetic for abandoning their jobs are just not washing.

Boom! Remember that Civility thing?

Was it not even two months ago when the key word was civility? That we had to watch what we were saying and show respect? Well now that the “target” is a republican governor that is out the window. On Morning Joe today you have Mika twisting like a pretzel saying yes some signs are bad both others make a point. Suddenly the fierce moral imperative of civil discourse that we were drilled with for weeks is not longer such an imperative. Coming so soon after the stern media lectures it didn’t give people a chance to forget and speaking of signs…

Boom! Dictator Dictator who is a dictator?

One of the things I’ve noticed over the years is that people who have actually lived under a real dictatorship tend to be more conservative. Our friends on the left in Wisconsin have been throwing the dictator card out pretty freely.

Phil Hands for the Wisconsin state Journal via Disrupt the narrative

Today on Big Government we have a fellow of the left saying he would like Castro or Che rather than Walker (the better to shoot or imprison those who disagree with him I guess). It’s reached a point where the target is so big even cartoonists of the left are unable to miss it as illustrated. The cartoonist, Hands is a man of the left but the assertion that Walker is too much for him. As he put it:

I’m sorry, but Walker is not a despot or a dictator. He, and the rest of the republican clowns serving at the State Capital were elected, by a wide margin, by the people of Wisconsin. I find it ironic that the same day that thousands of people skipped work to rail against our “undemocratic” leader, fewer than a quarter of the registered voters in Madison bothered to vote in an actual election.

Personally I find it insulting to see people who are making 100k in wages plus benefits claiming to be under a dictator’s thumb when people living off of dollars a day are actually being shot by real dictators at the same time.

All of these have in common the fact that this can be easily understood by the general public. This is the critical distinction. Each of these things put democrats in a bad light, are supported by video and can’t be defended easily. On twitter It has been a struggle for people of the left who reflexively support these guys to do so. The hems and the haws have been very informative.

While some members of the GOP are getting wobbilly, I say man up. The reason why the left and the unions are screaming so loud is because they are losing both the argument and the visuals: as Powerline puts it:

I agree with Roger that this is a watershed moment. I think it is George Will who supplies the appropriate term for what we are seeing: “reactionary liberalism.” The petulant public employee unions and their associated goons swarming the Wisconsin capitol remind me of nothing so much as George Wallace blocking the schoolhouse door against integration, or the scenes, played out on national television in the early 1960s, of Democratic politicians whipping up mobs and setting dogs on civil rights marchers in the South. It was a clear sign the old order, also dedicated to preserving illegitimate privilege, was collapsing.

These protests aren’t a sign of strength, they are signs of weakness as the union bosses can’t quietly slip in the goodies they want. Or as even EJ Dionne acknowledges (and deplores) the Tea Party is winning.

I repeat the words of Sheridan: Ride Right through them, they’re demoralized as hell.

Update: I’m live at 5 for the first time! I’ll not let my new found fame change me.

Doing the Math… Shy a couple of hundred

Posted: February 20, 2011 by datechguy in economy, personal
Tags:

In doing the Math (ok the books) I see that I’m a couple of hundred short, likely due to car repairs and the increased price of gas as I venture from town to town to sell my ads door to door.

I haven’t done a lot of tip Jar shaking lately, mostly because I’m trying to make it via the show alone, but if you think this blog is worth the time and effort and you can spare a $20 or two this month, it would be quite appreciated.

Older Entries
Newer Entries