Chicago

We know of one genuine and effective Alinskyite provocateur on the American scene today. Andrew Breitbart is his name, and "taking down the institutional left" is his game. As we noted last July, Breitbart "has no authority, only the inexpensive integrity of a rascal who is honest about what he is." If you've read "Rules for Radicals," you know that description also fit Alinsky to a T.

"The basic tactic in warfare against the Haves is a mass political jujitsu," Alinsky wrote:


***** QUOTE *****
The Have-Nots do not rigidly oppose the Haves, but yield in such planned and skilled ways that the superior strength of the Haves becomes their own undoing. For example, since the Haves publicly pose as the custodians of responsibility, morality, law, and justice (which are frequently strangers to each other), they can be constantly pushed to live up to their own book of morality
***** END QUOTE *****

A great example, which we noted earlier this month, is the way Breitbart shamed the left-wing corporation Common Cause by publishing a video depicting participants in a Common Cause rally calling for the assassination of Supreme Court justices and others.

Speaking of which, do you remember the middle-aged white man with the mustache who said that Justice Clarence Thomas should be put "back in the fields," that Justice Samuel Alito "should go back to Sicily," and that Fox News chief Roger Ailes "should be strung up and--but, ah, I don't know. Kill the bastard"? Breitbart has now identified him as Don Wallace, a former president of a public-sector union, the United Firefighters of Los Angeles.

"And still, yes still, they can successfully convince multitudes of voters of the notion that the financial problems in this country are teacher's salaries and collective bargaining."----

In many states, public sector pensions and benefits ARE one of the main causes of pending financial doom. Take California, long essentially a single party state where public sector unions dominate the scene like almost nowhere else:

'This year we're spending 10% less on higher education than we were 10 years ago, parks and recreation 40% less, environmental protection 80% less, while spending on pensions is UP 2500% PERCENT.'-David Crane, former Gray Davis and Arnold staffer and a Jerry Brown supporter in the last election.

Many progressives, at least in California as the problem there is a decade more advanced than states like Wisconsin, recognize the problems these unfunded liabilities pose. All of these people see money intended to go for infrastructure, stimulus, welfare, environmental protection, etc going instead to public employee bishopric. Over the next decade, California is slated to pay out $400-500 billion in pensions and benefits to public employees...and the revenue of California last year wasn't even $95 billion!

----"They can deftly organize to attack, once again, the little people and the safety mechanisms put into place to protect the little people..." ----

Who exactly are the 'little people'? The unions are BIG money. Five of the top ten contributors to congressional and presidential campaigns since 1989 are labor unions. In the last election, 10 of the top 20 PACs were union PACs. 'Little people'???

I don't agree with everything that is going on in an effort to combat this epic problem, but to pretend that the benefits and pensions that public sector unions have secured over the past decades aren't a HUGE problem is absurd. At the state and local levels they are the biggest budget issue on the plate.

The Federal government, however, has different issues and their employees benefits are far down the list. In fact, they dealt with this problem back in the early 80's when the pension system was scrapped for a more 401K type of retirement. "


I thought this was interesting take on WI from CA based Gawker commenter

Obama / O'Reilly Interview

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0211/48913.html

This was pretty enjoyable  He would benefit from increased exposure to 'center-right' media- he is a likable guy.  We spend too much time preaching to choir, not enough trying to explain positions.  Good for him.

Storm 2011 pics

State multiculturalism has failed