June 16, 2011

"The Assembly passed the measure 60-38 at 3 a.m. Thursday, and 19 hours later the Senate approved it 19-14."

"Because senators made no changes to it, it will go straight to the Republican governor without having to return to the Assembly. Walker is expected to sign the bill soon, and he will have the ability to reshape it with his vast partial-veto powers."

Meade and I were in the Senate gallery just now when the final vote was cast. We saw 2 protesters stand up and yell and get carried out.

I'll have some video soon of the protests before and after the vote. It was noisy, especially before the vote. The police were completely in control. Afterwards, the scene outside in the "Walkerville" tent city was completely calm.

42 comments:

edutcher said...

Even the cops know it's over.

Ralph L said...

No, the Senators will fire them if they don't maintain order when Senators are around.

Steve Austin said...

We need to talk about Kathryn Vinehout. She was a complete moonbat tonight. Screeching the entire session about bad roads, understaffed schools, poor health care and her two rich friends who told her they would have no problem paying a "few more pennies" in taxes to make it all right. Hey Kathy, if the cost is only a couple pennies, I will give you our change jar from the cupboard.

Then in her last spiel, she goes on a rant about how the GOP has raided all the funds in the State, even "raiding the raids" as she put it, yet there still is a hidden 900 million dollar structural deficit in this budget and we will lose our bond rating.

If none of the above makes sense to you, it didn't to me either.

bagoh20 said...

The silence of the lambs.

Chip S. said...

The news article at the link seems particularly concerned that the new budget has a Trojan horse provision for expanding eligibility for school vouchers. This sentence was particularly informative:

The current school choice program, in place for 20 years, allows low-income students in Milwaukee to attend private schools, including religious schools, at taxpayer expense.

So, vouchers are acceptable to the Dems as long as they're only used to siphon off low-income students from the public schools? Doesn't that seem kinda racist?

Anonymous said...

Chip -- I'll defend that law. The rationale is that people who aren't poor can move to places where there are better schools. Poor people simply cannot. In light of the reality that property taxes pay for schools everywhere, it makes sense to limit vouchers to people who simply cannot pay the necessary taxes to send their kids to better schools.

Michael K said...

it makes sense to limit vouchers to people who simply cannot pay the necessary taxes to send their kids to better schools.

So, those who can pay will be required to pay twice. And why is that now ?

Anonymous said...

Let me step back here and say that I am a huge fan of education vouchers. My plan would be far more radical. The only drawback I see is that heavy subsidization necessarily leads to price equally large price increases -- as we see at the undergraduate level.

All of that notwithstanding, only a frothing libertarian would say that you don't means test something like this or that you overdo the revolution. For example, some kid in Glencoe or who lives on Central Park West just doesn't need a voucher. Nor does a middle-class kid where there's two elementary schools in town. The systems in place are pretty good ones.

Anonymous said...

I'll be the radical and say that if you want YOUR reproductive rights to be my financial responsibility then I should have a choice in whether or not you get to reproduce.

I do have experience in the ghetto, living and working, and in the criminal justice system - as an inmate - I will tell you - we breed animals with more care than humans.
I will remind EVERYONE, ESP garagemajahal - if you are employed in the public sector - YOU ARE A LIABILITY. GOVERNMENT IS AN EXPENSE. Limited government is a blessing. we are currently - CURSED.

Chip S. said...

A key consideration regarding school vouchers is the effect that gaining or losing students has on the cost of operating a school. People talk about vouchers as if having kids leave the public school system doesn't reduce the cost of the public schools by the amount of the voucher. There are two things wrong with thinking that that's a good argument against vouchers.

1) If it's true that educational costs don't fall in direct proportion to the reduction in public-school students, then the "cure" is to limit the dollar value of vouchers for the non-poor to the actual cost reduction due to reduced enrollment. Poor kids' families could still get the amounts they're getting now.

2) The data I'm aware of suggest that the cost per student is pretty much a constant amount in the long run, so there's no real reason to think that vouchers will reduce per student appropriations for public schools.

Anonymous said...

Who here believes COMPETITION is good - when we are talking about vouchers - let us see how RUSD is described -

"Racine Unified School District in Racine, WI is a private company categorized under Public Elementary and Secondary Schools. Our records show it was established in 1961 and incorporated in Wisconsin"


Public education is a CORPORATE BUSINESS. No wonder they don't welcome competition. IT IS NOT THEIR MONEY. PROPERTY TAX IS THEFT.
But hey, being Jim Shaw, the Pied Piper of Racine pays VERY WELL - for a man of such limited intellect.

Anonymous said...

Poor people cannot move to rich or even middle-class areas. Taxes or not. They can't afford the housing itself. And if too many poor people do move to an area, that area actually becomes poor, and property values go down, and property taxes go down, and you end up going to school with a bunch of thugs and criminals who are not very interested in education. (Note that this is not a racist argument; it is a classist argument.)

Our current education model really, actually is rigged against poor people.

Anonymous said...

Enicar is a loon.

Anonymous said...

Somewhere in these arguments - it is forgotten that PARENTS are the best teacher a child ever had. Why did you BREED - beside?

My Dad is a wonderful man - and a pillar of the ommunity - yet - he didn't want me. I know this - and it hindered me - so I understand - and have seen what many go through. NOW- that said - he was a WONDERFUL material provider - but I was left for much on my own. Never reproduced because I didn't want it- so I speak of experience here.

Anonymous said...

SEVEN MACHOS - Please explain WHY

"Enicar is a loon."

No Problem - I got MY story, you got yours.

Anonymous said...

PARENTS are the best teacher a child ever had

Except when the parents are drunks or crack heads or idiots, or simply people who don't care.

Your views concerning the prevention of reproduction by people you deem unworthy are highly, highly unlikely to gain anything approaching widespread acceptance.

Anonymous said...

STeven Macho - Just for you - Here is a wonderful human being - that beat his newborn daughters head in with a cinderblock. (P.S. spend some time in the ghetto with me if you want)

http://www.dreamindemon.com/page/2/


Police say a 20-year-old man from northeastern Pennsylvania murdered his newborn daughter with a cinderblock

Anonymous said...

enicar -- So what? You are still a loon. Nobody except your fellow loons is going to agree with you that we should pass laws allowing some vague body to deem people worthy and unworthy of bearing children.

Furthermore, this isn't your first foray into moonbat crazy ideas here at Althouse. The fact that these ideas apparently don't sound crazy to you is merely additional evidence of your craziness.

Anonymous said...

"Except when the parents are drunks or crack heads or idiots, or simply people who don't care."

Well, Steven - I AGREE!!! These people need to be sterilized. Given the state of todays society - and my understanding of evolution - look at the ghettoes - Children need to be reversibly sterilized FIRST - then allowed to breed as circumstances warrant.


For you viewing pleasure, and consideration:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXRjmyJFzrU

Anonymous said...

Thus do you demonstrate your lunacy.

Anonymous said...

"Meade and I were in the Senate gallery just now when the final vote was cast. We saw 2 protesters stand up and yell and get carried out."

Two WHOLE protestors?

Anonymous said...

So... Steve... We can SEE the results of your propositions - I would find it natural for you to rebel AGAINST the TRUTH. You can't handle it - so you dismiss it. Status Quo - Cui Bono?

Anonymous said...

So Steven "moonbat crazy" - if we can't pass laws regulating breeding - why should everyman have to provide financial support for another man's breeding experiments?

Anonymous said...

"Enicar is a loon."

Macho, you reduce the effectiveness of your arguments and you destroy your credibility when you start name-calling like a Democrat with no ideas.

Stop calling people names and stick to presenting your arguments. Not everyone who disagrees with you is a loon, or a nut, or a moby. Some people actually disagree with you because you're sometimes wrong, dude.

Anonymous said...

I have no problem with the name calling- I just want to know why his "reproductive rights" become MY financial responsibility. If he feels that his spawn are my financial responsibility - shouldn't I have a voice in saying if he can reproduce????

Anonymous said...

Bob -- Hilarious. You call people names all the time. Besides, you are a moby.

Enicar -- You are a loon because your ideas are silly and crazy. No serious person advocates widespread sterilization of human beings.

Anonymous said...

Enicar -- I would be willing to wager quite a bit of money that your household income is substantially lower than mine. You may rest assured that nothing I do is your financial responsibility.

Anonymous said...

We breed our animals with more care. I have worked on a farm - i saw the difference between those allowed to live - and those who died. It's just a hard truth. Lunacy? I think NOT. I look forward to the age of Reason. - to break the chains of poverty and slavery. What is wrong with every Child being wanted- TRULY wanted. But then, given your socio-economic status- you might not be able to understand...

Anonymous said...

I look forward to the age of Reason. - to break the chains of poverty and slavery.

That's a famous quote. I know it. Was it Ayn Rand? Karl Marx? Robespierre? Pol Pot? I forget.

Anonymous said...

Seven Machos - I would be willing to bet that my I.Q. is directly inverse to the income level you suggest. I.Q. has nothing to do with income - for many. Further- I am willing to bet I am more altrustic than you - you are a self-absorbed sociopath - that for which society has no cure. Good luck in your World.

Anonymous said...

As Dan Kapanke (R, WI 32nd) tweeted tonight...it's a great day to be a Badger.

Even better - the Packers received their Super Bowl rings tonight.

Anonymous said...

There is no such thing as IQ.

Carol_Herman said...

The backbone of a good school is the PTA!

And, yes. Even in public schools, the best one have parents of kids who add dancing, music, art, and other after-school activities, that they pay for out of pocket.

How do I know? My son went to public school. Parent participation in PTA was 100%. Every year.

When my son was 5, a mother with older children was telling me about introducing an instrument my child would learn to play. My son chose the clarinet.

Now, when her daughter was young, she had asthma. The pediatrician told the mom that her daughter eeded breathing exercises. Or she could opt for a musical instrument. The flute, said the mom. NOPE, sad the doctor. "Your daughter is shy. Everyone plays the flute. She had to compete for a seat in the orchestra." Instead she learned to play the French Horn.

Went all the way to Oberlin.

Even better. The mom told me that as soon as a kid goes to college you lose control. But if they play an instrument. And, their colleges are in another state. The child shows up on day one. And, goes to the band room.

You're creating an underpinning, where you child then meets other children whose parents also sacrificed. Giving up something so their kids could get private lessons.

And, a shy child, who learned to play the French Horn, didn't have to compete with lots of kids who were competing for flute positions.

Now, what I don't understand. If you go to these poor schools? And, you're told about the neighborhood's poverty ... how come most of the kids have cell phones?

Isn't it a question of how parents "distribute" their income? If they don't read books, why would their kids be interested in books?

If the house is loud, and there's a TV on in each room. And, kids can play video games without ever having to do homework ... There's not a school in the world who will turn such a student around, and make them learn.

Learning isn't about "making."

It's about the wonder kids possess ... where teachers turn them on by increasing curiosity.

And, having parents at home who are real weight lifters ... when it comes to helping kids that need extra help. And, giving the kids time to practice. And, where there's demands for homework. And, table conversations that goes with "what did you do today?"

And, there are kids who do well, whose parents are immigrants and who don't speak English. Where the kids advance, anyway. And, then they have to translate for their parents. Poor people come to America to have hope.

Anonymous said...

Seven Machos - Now I own you. You dance for me. I didn't even know you before tonight - but now you are my personal stalker - remembering things from far away.
No thing as IQ- like no thing as income- or perhaps you ever reproduced. Dream on , OMEGA.

Anonymous said...

Good luck on making your dreams of sterilizing poor people into reality.

AllenS said...

enicar333 said...
I do have experience in the ghetto, living and working, and in the criminal justice system - as an inmate

Somewhere in these arguments - it is forgotten that PARENTS are the best teacher a child ever had.


So, what did your parents teach you? Lock picking? Burglary? Car Theft?

Anonymous said...

We breed our animals with more care.

That's because your animals are yours. Other human beings are not yours to breed, and have not been for 146 years now, you threadjacking loon.

Woodsman said...

Its not "Walkerville" its "Entitletown"

MadisonMan said...

It'll be interesting to see what he vetoes. I assume it is his budget, after all.

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Martin L. Shoemaker said...

I wonder if this thread sets a new record for the ratio of crazy comments to sane...

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

Seven Machos,

enicar333 is what you get when you start thinking of any of your fellow human beings as "these people":

Well, Steven - I AGREE!!! These people need to be sterilized. Given the state of todays society - and my understanding of evolution - look at the ghettoes - Children need to be reversibly sterilized FIRST - then allowed to breed as circumstances warrant.

S/he need only add "Three generations of imbeciles are enough" for perfection.