Public vs. private benefits battle heats up

When Erin McFarlane looks at public workers, she sees lucrative pension benefits she doesn't ever expect to get. And it makes her mad.

"I don't think that a federal employee or government employee is worth any more than anybody else who does their job and does it well," said the Slinger, Wis., woman. She's been working a couple of bartending jobs since January, when she was laid off from her job at a Harley Davidson plant after almost a decade.

She's not alone in seeing public servants as public enemies in some ways. For some everyday Americans, it's a case of pension envy. For McFarlane, 36, it's part of a ubiquitous discussion, at the bars where she works and on Facebook. And it's the center of some of the biggest political battles playing out in state capitals across the country as governors say their states can no longer afford the benefits that public employees have been promised.http://news-herald.com/articles/2011/03/12/news/nh3740915.txt

League of American Voters

The Wisconsin House has followed the Senate in stripping Obama's bloated public unions of the power to line their pockets with taxpayer dollars.
On Friday, Gov. Walker courageously signed this law in to effect.
This is a huge victory not only for Wisconsin, but for all of America.
And it's a stunning defeat for Obama's bloated public-unions allies.
That's why Team Obama is so raving mad and they want Scott Walker and his supporters in Wisconsin to pay a heavy price.
Already, they are demanding recall elections for legislators who supported Gov. Walker.
Rev. Jesse Jackson has entered the fray, swearing he'll escalate the protests.
Jesse Jackson told Fox News, "You will either have collective bargaining through a vehicle called collective bargaining or you're going to have it through the streets."
And Hollywood leftist Michael Moore has even called for Scott Walker to have his "a*s" thrown in "jail."
But the most disgusting response has to be from the protesters, who've sent death threats to the legislators.
Here's just one example:
"Please put your things in order because you will be killed and your families will also be killed due to your actions in the last eight weeks. Please explain to them that this is because if we get rid of you and your families then it will save the rights of 300,000 people..."
These types of criminal threats are disgusting and have no place in our society.
When Obama's liberal allies don't get their way, they resort to bullying and intimidation.
And they won't give up.
Obama's bloated public unions are determined to break the back of Gov. Scott Walker's resolve, and to reverse our victory.
That's why it's so important for you and the League of American Voters to stay in the fight.https://www.ezsubscription.com/lav/subscribe.asp?key=710326&s=al&promo_code=BD97-1

Obama Gives a Health Care Waiver to Entire State of Maine

The federal government Tuesday granted Maine a waiver of a key provision in President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, citing the likelihood that enforcement could destabilize the state's market for individual health insurance.
The U.S. Health and Human Services department said in a letter it would waive the requirement that insurers spend 80 cents to 85 cents of every premium dollar on medical care and quality improvement. Instead, the letter said, the state could maintain its 65 percent standard for three years, with the caveat that HHS intends to review the figures after two years.
The decision makes Maine the first state to receive a waiver of the requirement. Similar requests are pending from Kentucky, Nevada and New Hampshire.
In seeking the waiver, Maine Insurance Superintendent Mila Kofman feared that one of three major insurers offering individual plans in Maine would withdraw from the market altogether if the federal requirement remained in place. The insurer, MEGA Life and Health Insurance Co., has 37 percent of the state's individual market.http://nation.foxnews.com/obamacare-waivers/2011/03/08/obama-gives-health-care-waiver-entire-state-maine?cmpid=NL_FiredUpFoxNation_20110309

Muslim Brotherhood Strips Bylaws From Website

The Muslim Brotherhood removed its bylaws from its English-language website just days after longtime Egyptian ruler Hosni Mubarak was driven from office.
The Brotherhood, which has been banned in Egypt, appears eager to promote a more moderate image and downplay its past history of Islamic extremism in hopes of gaining a spot on the ballot in future Egyptian elections.
“The bylaws have long been a source of discussion and debate on the Internet because of the group’s stated intention to create an Islamic state, uniting Muslims around the world,” observes Steven Emerson, executive director of The Investigative Project on Terrorism.
“It’s not clear why the bylaws disappeared, but the timing is highly suspicious. With a genuine opportunity to appear on an Egyptian ballot, they have vanished from public view within days of President Hosni Mubarak’s ouster.”
Tellingly, the bylaws remain posted on the Brotherhood’s Arabic-language site, Emerson notes.
The vanished bylaws cited “the need to work on establishing the Islamic State,” and sought “the sincere support for a global cooperation in accordance with the provisions of the Islamic shariah.”
They also stressed the “need to inform the masses, Muslim and non-Muslims, of Islamic teachings.”
Emerson writes: “Now, it seems, the Brotherhood sees its written bylaws as something they don’t want to be read by the English-speaking world.”
As for claims the Brotherhood is moderating its positions, Emerson discloses that as recently as September, the organization’s General Guide Mohammed Badie said Muslims are duty-bound to make the Koran the law of Egypt.
And another senior member of the Brotherhood, Kamal Helbawy, said a week ago that Egypt needs “innocent, honest and brave leaders like” Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
In an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV in February, former Assistant Defense Secretary Richard Perle warned: “The Muslim Brotherhood is potentially a very serious problem, since it is committed to the global expansion of an extreme approach to Islam, which is strict shariah law.
“I know a lot of people take a different view now, but they’re not looking at what the Muslim Brotherhood has done from its inception and they’re not listening to what the Muslim Brotherhood is saying in Arabic. They’re listening to what’s being said in English and that’s a very different story.”newsmax.com

Clean up your own Trash First

In a Newsmax.TV exclusive interview, determined Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker on Friday began the legal notification process that could lead to 1,500 state employees losing their jobs in April. He also said that President Barack Obama should stay out of his state’s fiscal crisis and instead ought to focus on “the much, much graver budget crisis we have in our nation’s capital, which he’s failed to lead on.” 

The GOP governor said the jobs will be saved, however, if at least one of 14 AWOL Democratic state senators return to the state next week, which would allow the Wisconsin Senate the quorum it needs to pass Walker’s “budget repair bill.”

Wisconsin has been mired in weeks now as thousands of union members, many of them bused in from neighboring states, march to protest the fiscal austerity measures that Walker maintains are necessary to rein in a $3.6 billion deficit. Among his proposals are limitations on unions’ ability to conduct collective bargaining, which would be limited to negotiating salaries. Unions would have no say in how much their members pay for pension and health benefits.
Read more on Newsmax.com: Gov. Walker: Obama Should Fix His Own Budget Crisis
Important: Do You Support Pres. Obama's Re-Election? Vote Here Now!


Bailey: I think that Obama should clean up his own trashy backyard before he starts complaining about  his neighbors. What a hypocrite!

14 Missing Dems got Big Money from Union

The 14 Wisconsin Democratic senators who fled to Illinois share more than just political sympathy with the public employees and unions targeted by Gov. Scott Walker's budget-repair bill.

The Senate Democrats count on those in the public sector as a key funding source for their campaigns.

In fact, one out of every five dollars raised by those Democratic senators in the past two election cycles came from public employees, such as teachers and firefighters, and their unions, a Journal Sentinel analysis of campaign records shows.

"It's very simple," said Richard Abelson, executive director of District Council 48 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. "We have interests and because of that we attempt to support candidates who support our interests. It's pretty hard to find Republicans who support our interests these days."

Bailey: It most be nice to get free insurance and a free pension plan for life.

Read more: http://nation.foxnews.com/missing-wisconsin-democrats/2011/02/28/14-missing-dems-got-big-money-union?cmpid=NL_FiredUpFoxNation_20110301#ixzz1FTNDcsgr