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The best cartoons of the week (06/02/12)

Posted by Kevin Fischer on June 2, 2012

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UPDATE: Bill Clinton to campaign for Tom Barrett in Milwaukee Friday?

Posted by Kevin Fischer on June 2, 2012

MRCTV'S  Joe Schoffstall asks the question the liberal media wouldn't:
 

Week-ends (06/02/12)

Posted by Kevin Fischer on June 2, 2012

Week-ends

A look back at the people and events that made news the past week. Week-ends is a regular weekly feature of This Just In...


HEROES OF THE WEEK


Lisa Copley


Brendan Haas


Anonymous customers


Lawrence Adams


Todd Frazier


Ewan Parry


Lori Anne Madison


Marvel Comics



VILLAINS OF THE WEEK


Heath Howe


Rudy Eugene


Chris Hayes



QUOTES OF THE WEEK 


"I have a police department that arrests felons. He has a practice of hiring them."
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett taking a jab at Governor Scott Walker at Thursday's debate.


"So everybody's clear, the mayor doesn't have a plan. All he's got is attacking me."
Governor Walker at the debate.


THE WEEKLY STANDARD: Are there a few specific policies, though, that you would pursue or [bills to] send to the legislature? 

TOM BARRETT: I want to make sure that as we look at the tax code in particular that any tax incentives are actually tied to actual job growth, job creation. As mayor of Milwaukee, I've had many developers come and many businesses come and have asked for financial assistance from the city, and my questions have always been: how many jobs are we talking about and are these family-supporting jobs. So those are my opening questions: how many jobs are we talking about and are they family supporting jobs? 

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Governor Walker on "Hannity"

Posted by Kevin Fischer on June 2, 2012

Scott Walker for Wisconsin Governor/ Moving Wisconsin Forward

Photos of the Week (06/03/12)

Posted by Kevin Fischer on June 3, 2012

Photos of the Week

1) Governor Walker gets a little help from Evansville Future Farmers of America Queen Emily Templeton (left) and Erica Ballmer, La Prairie 4H Queen at the Rock County Dairy Breakfast on Saturday morning in Evansville. Photo: John Klein


2) Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett smiles for 9-month-old Alex Besler of Dresser, who was in the arms of his father, Bryan Besler, and chewing on a "Recall Walker" sign. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel photo: Rick Wood


3) A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, June 1, at the Closing Bell in New York City. The Dow Jones Industrial average lost 277 points after the release of a disappointing jobs report.  Photo: Justin Lane / EPA


4) Egypt's ex-President Hosni Mubarak lays on a gurney inside a barred cage in the police academy courthouse in Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, June 2, 2012. Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison Saturday for his role in the killing of protesters during last year's revolution that forced him from power, a verdict that caps a stunning fall from grace for a man who ruled the country as his personal fiefdom for nearly three decades.(AP Photo)


5) Egyptians celebrate as they hear from a car radio the verdict on ousted president Hosni Mubarak outside the police academy courtroom in Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, June 2, 2012. Egypt's ex-President Hosni Mubarak has been sentenced to life in prison after a court convicted him on charges of complicity in the killing of protesters during last year's uprising that forced him from power. Mubarak's two sons — Gamal and Alaa — were acquitted on corruption charges.(AP Photo/Amr Nabil)


6) U.S. Navy Gunners Mate, Steven Joyce, puts his head in the lap of his wife, Damara, as he says good bye as his ship the USS Carr prepares to depart Naval Station Norfolk en route to the Persian Gulf in Norfolk, Va., Friday, June 1, 2012. The ship is part of the group leaving with the floating special operations base ship USS Ponce for deployment to the Persian Gulf. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)


7) The Washington Air National Guard says two nursing mothers were wrong to be photographed in uniform while breast-feeding their babies. The photos were posted on the Internet by a group at Fairchild Air Force Base that supports breast-feeding mothers. The group, Mom2Mom, said the photos were meant to promote World Breast-Feeding Week in August. Photo: Brynja Sigurdardottir


8) A woman holds an umbrella to make shade for an elderly woman laying on a bench after she was evacuated from a nearby hospital, in Mirandola, northern Italy, Tuesday, May 29, 2012. A powerful earthquake killed at least 15 people and left 200 injured Tuesday as it rocked a swath of northern Italy hit just nine days ago. Factories, warehouses and churches collapsed, dealing a second blow to a region where thousands remained homeless from the previous, stronger temblor. The 5.8 magnitude quake left 14,000 people homeless in the Emilia Romagna region north of Bologna, one of Italy’s most agriculturally and industrially productive areas. (AP Photo/Marco Vasini)


9) Winnie Pajcic, 9, holds on to a railing as she leans back in the wind during a visit to Stockton Park in Ortega, Fla., in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Beryl on May 28. Photo: Kelly Jordan / AP


10) Jake Beaudoin, a U.S. Army Private of 508 BSTB, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, takes cover during a controlled detonation to clear an area for setting up a check point in Zahri district of Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, May 31. Photo: Shamil Zhumatov / Reuters


11) An aerial view shows a clandestine airstrip used for drug smuggling after it was destroyed in a military operation, approximately 22 miles from the border with Colombia, in the state of Apure on Thursday. Photos: Carlos Garcia Rawlins / Reuters


12) Fireworks explode over the Golden Gate Bridge to celebrate its 75th anniversary on May 27, 2012 in San Francisco, California. Photo: Ezra Shaw / Getty Images


13) A nun irons a secondary altar prior to the arrival of Pope Benedict XVI to celebrate the holy mass of Pentecost Sunday at Saint Peter's Basilica in the Vatican on May 27. Photo: Filippo Monteforte / AFP - Getty Images


14) Pope Benedict XVI is presented with an AC Milan team soccer jersey reading "Benedetto" by AC Milan former defender Franco Baresi, second from left, in Milan, Italy, Saturday, June 2, 2012. Pope Benedict XVI is leading thousands of young people in a packed Milan soccer stadium in a pep rally to shore up flagging Catholic faith. Benedict on Saturday told the young faithful to keep their ideals high. He also is urging them to attend Sunday Mass regularly and to pray daily. The pope is on the second day of a three-day visit to Milan as part of Church activities aimed at showing support for families. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)


15) Former US president George W. Bush and his wife Laura Bush speak during the unveiling of their portraits on Thursday in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC. Photo: Mandel Ngan / AFP - Getty Images


16) Col. Jeannie Leavitt, right, salutes 9th Air Force Commander Maj. Gen. Lawrence Wells after assuming command of the 4th Fighter Wing on Friday, June 1, 2012. Leavitt, the Air Force's first female fighter pilot, has now become the first female to take command of an Air Force combat fighter wing. Photo: Michael Betts / Goldsboro News Argus via AP


17) President Barack Obama presents rock legend Bob Dylan with a Medal of Freedom, Tuesday, May 29, 2012, during a ceremony at the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)


18) Joanne Gregory carries the Olympic torch on a hand drawn canal boat across the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, a UNESCO World Heritage Site on May 30 in Llangollen, Wales. The Olympic flame is now on day 12 of a 70-day relay involving 8,000 torchbearers covering 8,000 miles. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)


19) Sam Lowery, of Charlestown, Mass., spells his word in the air during round two of the National Spelling Bee on May 30, 2012 in National Harbor, Md. Photo: Evan Vucci / AP


20) Snigdha Nandipati of San Diego is embraced by her brother Sujan Nandipati, after winning the National Spelling Bee on Thursday night. Photo: Jacquelyn Martin / AP


21) The body of a dead whale, hooked on the bow of a cargo ship, is seen on June 2, in Marseille, France. The animal was hit by the vessel "Mont Ventoux" on the route between France and Tunisia and was discovered dead upon the arrival of the ship in the Seaport of Marseille. Photo: Boris Horvat / AFP - Getty Images


22) A wild leopard reacts after it fell into a green slimy water reservoir tank at a tea estate in Sangatram, some 30 kms from Siliguri, in West Bengal, India on May 28, 2012. The leopard escaped by climbing up a ladder put in place by the wildlife sanctuary team. Photos: Diptendu Dutta / AFP - Getty Images


23) A kite bird drinks water from a puddle in a public lawn in New Delhi, India, Friday, June 1, 2012. The weather in northern India has been extremely hot in recent days with temperatures reaching as high as 45 degrees Celsius, or 113 degrees Fahrenheit. (AP Photo/Saurabh Das)


24) A baby otter that has been added to the Virginia Aquarium is shown in Virginia Beach, Va., on Tuesday, May 29, 2012. The Virginia Beach facility says it is conducting an online contest to name the new addition. The male otter was adopted after it was found alone near St. George, S.C., apparently abandoned by his mother.


25) Police officers tackle a fan who invaded the field as Brazil played the U.S. in an international friendly soccer match in Landover, Maryland, on May 30, 2012. Photo: Jason Reed / Reuters


26) A tourist has her photograph taken with a cardboard cut out of Queen Elizabeth II in The Mall on June 1, in London, England. Photo: Peter Macdiarmid / Getty Images


27) Sean Farrell, 1, of San Diego, tries to sit on a section of the statue called, "Unconditional Surrender," as the artwork is dismantled from its' spot alongside the USS Midway aircraft carrier museum on May 30, in San Diego. Photo: Gregory Bull / AP


28) A fan of U.S. pop star Lady Gaga waits outside the Singapore Indoor Stadium for the Lady Gaga Born This Way Ball concert to start on Monday May 28, 2012 in Singapore. Lady Gaga performed 3 shows in the city-state on the 28, 29 and 31 of May.(AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)


29) Justin Bieber fans gather at the Norwegian Opera House. Photo: Ian Gavan / Getty Images


30) A Marine salutes as motorcycles drive past during the annual Rolling Thunder parade ahead of Memorial Day in Washington, D.C., May 27. Photo: Charles Dharapak / AP


31) Brittany Jacobs of Hereford, NC, hugs her 17-month old son Christian at her husband, Marine SGT Christopher Jacobs' gravesite in Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day at in Arlington, VA, on 28 May 28, 2012. Photo: Pete Marovich / EPA


32) A child looks at the prosthetic legs of Wounded Warrior Amputee Softball team members during a Memorial Day Parade in Binghamton, New York. Wounded Warrior Amputee Softball team members are U.S. veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars who lost limbs during their time of service. Photo: Gary Cameron / Reuters


33) Ann Adams lies atop the grave of her son Army Sgt. Andrew Baddick at the National Cemetery on Memorial Day in Arlington, Va. Baddick died while saving a comrade from drowning after a military vehicle rolled into a culvert in Iraq in 2003. Photo: John Moore / Getty Images


34) President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama help Rose Mary Sabo-Brown place a wreath at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial during a Memorial Day ceremony on the National Mall in Washington, DC. Sabo-Brown is the widow of Army Specialist Leslie H. Sabo, Jr., who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor by Obama earlier this month. Photo: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images


35) Game to remember: US Air Force Master Sgt. David Sims, center right, of Centerville, Ga., is embraced by his wife Robin, and children, Bree Anna, 10, from left, Brittney, 13, and Dustin, 12, after surprising his family during the fifth inning of a baseball game between the Atlanta Braves and the St. Louis Cardinals Monday, May 28, in Atlanta. Sims returned home from his deployment in Afghanistan. Photos: David Goldman / AP and Erik S. Lesser / EPA

My husband and Marilyn Monroe

Posted by Jennifer Fischer on June 3, 2012

What does this handsome man…

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Very important points to ponder about Tuesday's recall

Posted by Kevin Fischer on June 3, 2012

“A recall election for Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is scheduled for June 5.  But on the ballot that day will effectively be whether we should establish in law after all these years a new aristocracy in America, not subject to the democratic will of the people like everyone else, with special legal privileges, including the right to plunder the taxpayers with virtual impunity.  That new aristocracy is state and local government public employee unions.”
Forbes.com


“The Wisconsin recall is a farce???—???a childish, union-sponsored tantrum that will cost the state’s taxpayers an estimated $18 million. Perhaps the greatest irony is that Democrats rarely discuss its ostensible cause: collective bargaining. Tom Barrett, the mayor of Milwaukee who is seeking to replace Walker, did not use the phrase in the speech he gave celebrating his victory in the Democratic primary… There’s a reason the governor’s reforms have gone from being the center of the anti-Walker movement to a talking point to be avoided. They’ve worked. Walker took office with a projected deficit of $3.6 billion, and in two years he’s erased it. The Wisconsin Department of Revenue projected last month that the state will have a budget surplus of $154 million by the summer of 2013.”
The Weekly Standard


“Restricting public sector collective bargaining freed the state and local governments from the de facto veto unions could exercise over their budgets and allowed taxpayers to ask public employees to contribute more???—???in some cases to begin contributing something???—???to their own health care and pension benefits. Before the reforms, most public employee union members paid less than 1 percent of their salary toward their pensions and contributed 6 percent of the cost of their health care premiums. And in fact, Wisconsin public employees still have a good deal???—???with most contributing 5.8 percent of their salary toward their pension and up to 12.6 percent of their health care premium, well below the averages for the private sector.

In addition, the reforms brought an end to forced union membership. This means that public employees can opt out of the union and stop paying its dues. A teacher in, say, the suburbs of Madison who opts out will bring home an additional $1,100 a year.”
The Weekly Standard


“After all the yelling and screaming in Wisconsin, in the end these government workers were only required to contribute 5.8% of their salaries towards their pensions, which is matched by their government employers (taxpayers), and 12.6% of the costs of their health insurance, with the other 87% paid by taxpayers. This compares to private sector workers paying on average 21% of the cost of their company health insurance, with most private sector workers having no pension at all.”
The American Spectator


“Take Milwaukee, where Barrett is the mayor. Even he has acknowledged that the reforms in Act 10, Walker’s early 2011 budget-repair bill, enabled his city government to balance its budget. Walker’s cuts in state aid to the city cost it $14 million, but it was able to come up with $30 million in savings, of which two-thirds came from the budget-repair law. The law required employees to pay a larger share of their insurance premiums, and it also made it easier for the city of Milwaukee to switch to more cost-efficient health-insurance plans.

As public-employee union contracts come up for renewal around the state, the savings will keep adding up, relieving local pressure to raise property taxes or cut back basic services. Indeed, this past year property taxes statewide actually declined for the first time in a dozen years.”
National Review


“For school districts so far, the savings from this competitive bidding alone have amounted to $211.47 per student. Statewide that would add up to nearly $200 million in savings.

The state has also used this flexibility to halt fraudulent sick leave abuses that unions used to inflate overtime expenses. Workers had called in sick for their own shifts, and then worked the next shift on overtime pay. School districts have also been freed to pay teachers based on performance and not just seniority, and to keep better performing teachers rather than longer term time servers who have long given up caring about their job performance.”
The American Spectator


“Which raises a question for those aghast at Scott Walker's budget: How much higher should taxes be in Wisconsin?

According to the Tax Foundation, in 2009, Wisconsin had the fourth-highest combined state and local tax burden in the country, with only New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut residents paying more. 2009 is the latest year available for this figure, but there's little reason to believe much if anything has changed. In 2009, the Tax Foundation found that Wisconsin residents paid 11 percent of their income in state and local taxes. The compared to 12.3 for New Jersey residents (the highest rate) and 6.3 percent for Alaskans (the lowest rate).

Wisconsin has historically been a high-tax state - in 1985 for instance, it had the second-highest combined state and local tax rate in the nation, at 12 percent - but it seems unlikely that increasing taxes to spend more money (or borrowing more money to be paid back later via tax revenues) is a smart way to boost a flagging economy.”
Reason.com


“Walker is somehow a liar for not mentioning his plan while campaigning for governor in fall 2010. Walker’s proposal ‘went far beyond what anybody thought he would do,’ union leader Richard Abelson told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in February. ‘He didn’t talk about it during the campaign.’

The Walker complainers have a more finely honed selective memory than people who remember the Titanic as a fine dining experience. Do they recall Walker’s predecessor, Democrat Jim Doyle, campaigning on cutting the University of Wisconsin budget by $250 million and raising tuition 35% in two years to cover it? Was candidate Doyle in 2002 running around the state promising to raid the transportation fund and backfill it with debt? Of course not — but upon taking office, he thought he had to do these things to balance the budget.

In fact, the archetype of the lying politician is as ingrained in American politics as the sight of candidates kissing babies. Doyle promised never to raise taxes — yet he raised them by billions during his tenure. Candidate Barack Obama pledged to close the Guantanamo Bay prison facility — yet under President Obama, there it remains, providing the government with the intelligence it needed to catch Osama bin Laden.

And yet Walker isn’t being excoriated for going back on a promise; he’s being criticized simply for something he didn’t say. (Incidentally, plenty of unions were telling their members during the campaign that Walker was going to roll back their ability to bargain.) “
The Wisconsin Policy Research Institute


“As the Republicans folded together like Russian nesting dolls, the Democrats have been driven by conflicting interests. Labor unions pumped several million dollars into the losing campaign of Barrett’s primary opponent, and the national party has been tentative about going all in. Meanwhile, Walker’s allies built a state-of-the-art ground game to protect a politician so reviled by his opponents that they have taken to burning his campaign signs.  ‘They can protest,’ Wisconsin GOP communications director Ben Sparks says of the Democrats. ‘They’ve got us beat on that. But that’s about all they’ve got us beat on’.”
TIME magazine


“I'm a lifelong Democrat and a career educator. So I'm predictably appalled by Wisconsin's Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who has cut spending for schools and stripped teachers — and most of the state's public workers — of collective bargaining rights.

But I'm also appalled by the recall campaign against Walker by Wisconsin Democrats, who Tuesday chose Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett to run against Walker in a June 5 special election — a rematch of the 2010 contest. The recall epitomizes the petty, loser-take-all vindictiveness of contemporary American politics.

As a liberal, I'm troubled by the prospect of voters unseating an elected official over taxes. Or abortion. Or gun control. If you can recall leaders for any political reason, sooner or later your own ox will be gored.

I'm also worried that the Wisconsin recall, which has drawn nationwide attention and money, will trigger a vicious cycle of partisan retribution. Your guy didn't win in November? No problem. Start a recall drive now.

Most of all, though, I fear that the recall threat will make our elected officials even more timid and poll-tested than they already are. Sometimes, great leaders need to take unpopular positions. And politically motivated recalls make that less likely…”
Jonathan Zimmerman teaches history and education at New York University. He is the author of "Small Wonder: The Little Red Schoolhouse in History and Memory."


“Why do unions lose so many certification elections after successful petition drives?  Put yourself in the place of an employee of a targeted company.   A union organizer or some fellow worker shoves a petition in your face and says something like: ‘You want to sign this petition, don’t you?  You don’t want to stand in the way of your fellow workers forming a union to protect their rights in the workplace, do you?’  If you decline to sign that petition at work, perhaps some of your pro-union colleagues will visit you at home to see if you’ve changed your mind!  There’s a rather nifty little way for them to remind you that they know where you live; and where your car is parked at night; and where your wife and children are when you’re at work.  So what do you do?  Well, since you know that you’ll be able to vote against the union on a secret ballot, you sign the petition.  You go along to get along.  The election comes, unions lose, and union leaders grit their teeth and bemoan the loss of all those wonderful union dues.  Unions know if they could just get rid of the secret ballot election and rely on their intimidation tactics to get a card signed by you -- with a check mark in the ‘Yes!  Let’s unionize!’ box -- they’re home free. 

Well that’s pretty much the same scenario citizens of Wisconsin faced while the unions were running about with their recall petitions.  That person shoving the recall petition in your face might have been a coworker.  Perhaps it was a neighbor.  Maybe it was your child’s teacher!  The scenarios are almost endless, but whatever the scenario you did not want to create a conflict or controversy with that person by not signing their precious recall petition.  You didn’t want a neighbor refusing to let his kid play with your kid because you’re “anti-union.”  You didn’t want a teacher retaliating against your child in your local government school.  You didn’t want your co-worker to be angry with you because you didn’t sign the petition her union husband sent to work with her.  Maybe you’re a business owner in Madison.  You know if you don’t sign the recall petition the union goons will brand you and your business as anti-union.  For every single one of these scenarios, the solution was the same.  Sign the petition, shut the goonion organizer up, and wait to have your true say when the recall election comes around.”
Townhall.com


“Wisconsin leapt to 20th place in our Best States/Worst States list this year from 24th last year, one of only eight states that enjoyed a rise of at least four spots. That followed a phenomenal 17-place leap in last year’s list, where it occupied the doldrums of 41st place. Wisconsin also fared well by other gauges last year, especially in how it treated entrepreneurs. The state ranked 4th last year in tax costs on new firms, as calculated by the Tax Foundation, and a Kauffman Center Index of Entrepreneurial Activity showed Wisconsin with the 7th largest rise last year among the handful of states that did better at all.

‘There’s now a keen focus on making sure we’re competitive to be a place where businesses can create jobs and wealth,’ said Mary Ellen Stanek, director of asset management for Milwaukee-based brokerage Robert W. Baird & Co. Stanek, who is a member of Milwaukee 7, a public-private, economic-development partnership of seven counties, points out that neighboring Illinois faces ‘big challenges in terms of tax rates and the overall climate for business’.”
Chief Executive magazine


“By virtually every objective measure, Walker has been an extraordinarily successful governor…So why is Scott Walker facing a recall vote? He hasn’t broken any laws. He hasn’t been charged with a crime. No one has accused him of accepting bribes or molesting children or any of the things most people think of when they think about recalling a sitting governor.

Walker is facing recall for one reason: His reforms have diminished the power of unions, and the unions want revenge.”
The Weekly Standard


“Whether it's in Wisconsin, Illinois, California or the nation's capital, today's public sector workers expect to do little or no work (I'm not counting partying in Las Vegas as ‘work’), and then be lavishly compensated. Often, the only heavy lifting they do all week is picking up their paychecks.

When government employees mobbed the state capitol in Wisconsin last year, the upside was: They got to bully people. The downside: Voters finally found out what these public servants were being paid.

Their compensation included not only straight salary, but also lavish overtime benefits, pensions, health care plans, sick days and vacation time (most of which they spent protesting).

The unions thought they could fight back against Gov. Scott Walker's tiny rollbacks without anyone finding out the details. Most people saw what public employees were getting and assumed it was a misprint.

Two years ago, seven bus drivers in Madison, Wis., made more than $100,000 a year.”
Ann Coulter


“State and local government workers today are not exploited in sweat shop conditions for poverty wages as the workers in union lore of old. Today it is taxpayers who are the ones being exploited.”
Forbes.com


“Education is easily the most important social equalizer in our society, yet there is no evidence that Wisconsin's previous levels of retirement and health-care funding for teachers improved student performance. Many factors harm student performance—including that we don't fire our worst teachers and don't reward our best, thanks to union contracts that forbid merit-based compensation and block the dismissal of teachers except in rare circumstances.

Recalling Gov. Walker and reinstating collective-bargaining rights would guarantee a tax hike to pay astronomical, pre-Walker-level health and retirement benefits to union members. Local governments would have to continue fighting in front of arbitrators to exert any semblance of control over their workforce. And big labor would be able to exert more control over politicians and dictate reform on its terms—which is virtually no reform at all.

If politicians nationwide see Mr. Walker as a cautionary tale, what will happen on the inevitable day when we have to tell seniors that they must contribute more toward Medicare or wait until age 68 to receive Social Security? Will the AARP run those people out of office too?”
The Wall Street Journal


“If the American Dream is to remain available to working people, and not just bureaucrat aristocrats, then Scott Walker must survive the recall, and his reforms must remain intact.  That means patriots across America must respond to this Paul Revere moment with maximum possible support for the Walker campaign… Or what was won at Lexington and Concord 237 years ago will be lost in Madison this year.”
Forbes.com

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