VOTE TODAY!

I was reminded by a close friend the other day to please vote on Tuesday and that “There’s a lot at stake in this year’s election...”   I could not agree more.

After reading a column that she sent with her plea to vote, I thought to myself, isn’t a lot at stake in every election?  If only every eligible voter looked at every election as a crucial election with a lot at stake, maybe we would not reach the point where one particular election is described as having “a lot at stake.”

Americans take their right to vote for their government representatives for granted and generally don't vet candidates themselves, accepting what the so-called mainstream media chooses to feed us. 

We should never forget that a lot of Americans have fought and died to protect our individual rights, but our freedoms are directly linked to our right to vote. And that includes your right to vote for local school board members and all the way up the political totem pole to President of the United States of America.

I’ll leave you with this quote attributed to who many historians consider the Father of the American Revolution.

SAMUEL ADAMS, Founding memberThe Sons of Liberty.“Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual — or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country.”

—Samuel Adams, in the Boston Gazette, 1781

Million, Billion, Trillion...What is it costing You?

With the United States debt quickly approaching $16 trillion, did you ever stop to think what comes after a trillion?

The answer is: quadrillion (1000 X 1 trillion).

Emily Skarbek, Director of the Center on Entrepreneurial Innovation at the Independent Institute, explains how MyGovCost.org can help you better understand how much government spending is costing you.

"Crusaders" Roust Union Occupiers From Rotunda

When the media talks about high school kids at the Wisconsin Capitol, it’s usually been about teachers bringing students to protest Governor Scott Walker and his budget cuts.

We don’t recall seeing nor reading any news coverage of this rather newsworthy story in any of Milwaukee’s news outlets—do you?  Why do you suppose that is? This isn’t merely a local Sheboygan story—not when the story takes place in the State Capitol’s Rotunda. 

In fact the only news outlet we could find that covered this story was Wisconsin Citizens Media Co-op.

On Thursday, March 20, 2012, during a visit to the Capitol, some Wisconsin high school students from Sheboygan Lutheran High School, in town for the state high school basketball playoffs decided to check out the Capitol rotunda.   While there, they witnessed protesters singing about unions and solidarity, so they decided to drown them out with pro-Walker chants.

Read more at Wisconsin Citizens Media Co-op.

A Balanced Look at The Impact of Wisconsin's Act 10

 

Have you noticed that FranklinNOW and a number of its sister-suburban NOW publications are running what we consider to be a series of hit pieces on Governor Walker’s Act 10 legislation?  The timing of this series is certainly interesting.

Here is what we found by NOW reporters and one FranklinNOW blogger on this divisive issue, followed by articles with a different perspective from those found in FranklinNOW, etc.:

• Act 10 effects being felt one year in
• Act 10 has little impact in Whitnall so far
• Act 10 not making major classroom waves in Oak Creek-Franklin, Greendale (FranklinNOW)
• Our Educators Deserve Better (Oak CreekNOW blog--Perspectives in Progress)
• Act 10 effects vary in the North Shore
• Act 10 has few immediate effects in classroom
• Act 10's effect is in the eye of the beholder in Muskego, New Berlin
• In Wauwatosa, all's quiet when it comes to Act 10
• On a scale of 1 to Act 10

Opposing Viewpoints:

• THE BAD OLD DAYS OF COLLECTIVE BARGAINING (EAG)
• Impact of an act: New report finds big benefits in WI’s Act 10 (WisconsinReporter.com)
• The impact of Act 10 on public sector compensation in Wisconsin (American Enterprise Institute)
• NEA to "Reorganize" Amid Unprecedented Membership Losses, Budget Shortfalls (Education Intelligence Agency)

Is Gov. Scott Walker Public Unions' Iceberg?

Originally published May 31, 2012 at FOX BUSINESS Network (FBN), Stuart Varney says there is a pushback coming against public labor unions and not just in Wisconsin.

RELATED STORY

• Public Unions: Is California Next? (WSJ)

WISN’s Mark Belling covered this same topic on his program yesterday, as well.