There is the bit there where Walker appears to be laying a trap for his Democrat colleagues; luring them back with a promise to talk and then waiting for them to recess so he can declare quorum and push through bills without their presence.
Then there is this little bit:
Is it illegal to contemplate planting “troublemakers” in a crowd of protesters? Or is it only illegal if you actually do it? Or is it merely unethical?
You need a cite for the claim that Mississippi, South Carolina, and Georgia are heavily poor and black? or that poor minorities do worse on SATs? Are you serious? :dubious:
Sorry, that’s not the way it works. I’m not the one making a claim; Whack-a-mole is (or, more precisely, he posted data and AFAICT implied the claim).
Here’s all 50 states. Which end are those 5 states on?
Yeah, New York and Florida have the highest total black population. Who’d a thunk?:rolleyes:
Looking at the far more meaningful per capita, the Carolinas, Georgia and Virginia are all top ten. Texas is middle of the pack, but obviously heavily hispanic.
Do better in school != SAT scores.
This is not as well known or as strongly correlated, but it’s there. e.g. Rural PA - Page Not Found: 404 - Center for Rural PA
Lots of other factors influence SAT scores: first in family to attend college, immigrant status, etc. etc.
But again, I wasn’t the one making the claim. If you want to seriously argue that the biggest influence on aggregate SAT scores is a state’s collective-bargaining status … well, I’m gonna laugh at you and tell you to have a nice night.
Which I have to do anyway.
Of course. Lower SAT scores may also be correlated with higher precipitation for all I know. It’s up to the person claiming causation to prove it.
G’night.
You know, there’s a perfectly good way to handle things if you think your unionized public employees are overpaid that doesn’t involve making collective bargaining illegal. You do the same thing that the private sector does - you put forward a contract proposal that reduces their compensation and stick to it in the subsequent bargaining, strikes, etc. until the union signs it. Let’s face it, how much ultimate power does a union have in bargaining with an employer who can use the big club of passing laws to force implementation of a contract. This is a blatant attempt to union bust.
The Koch brothers spent something like $3.4 million on TV commercials during the election to discredit the Democratic nominee, Tom Barrett.
To be fair, union contract disputes might have to be elevated to the NLRB for arbitration.
You’re a compassionless and empty-headed shitstain, so no wonder you’re attacking people and defending another greedy, dishonest shitstain like walker.
Failing companies? Since Citizens United corporations have been buying politicians like a busy prostitute buys condoms. You’re whining about rich scumbags and attacking poor working people. Vile.
That was my main point. Most reporting on medians and other averages* never bothers to see if it does skew the underlying data, and rather than using them as a starting point for policy discussions, too many use them as the end point, especially populists. They are a reference point, nothing more. It can provide a gauge for determining the effects of a policy, but are useless for the actual construction of those policies. And it is rare that medians don’t skew the data when it referring to income and wages.
I wonder what else is being buried in all the other legislation being proposed in Wisconsin and all the other states attacking unions. I think the Koch brothers (shorthand for all the conservative assholes out there, the Kochs are just the bankers, I doubt even they came up with this all on their own) want to bust the unions, but also use it as cover for the rest of their agenda. The non-conservatives end up saving the unions only to see a dozen other protections gutted.
Dark days for the republic. I am waiting for Chancellor Palpatine to show up…
AP
*I swear this subject is what turns more people off of stats than any other: “What? There is more than one average? This stuff is obviously BS” - and this is the simple stuff (as far as stats are concerned - t tests were, and still are my bane.)
But it still doesn’t answer my question – why didn’t this aspect of Walker’s past show up in Democratic campaign advertising? or did it, and it was simply ignored?
I’ve only recently found this thread - I haven’t been on the dope much lately, but this bumblefuck in Madison brought me here to get an opposing view to Fox News on the issue.
Dio, you and I have had disagreements about Vikings/Packers and about whether or not Favre is or was a deity. But, I just want to applaud this post. I lol’d. 
I’m only on page two, but I wanted to comment before I got to the end and had to find it again.
saw in the news:
this budget repair bill threatens mass transit in cities and counties. federal aid to mass transit is only available to systems that have collective bargaining. systems would have to be cut in size or may become unable to continue if that happens.
if state aid to cities and counties is eliminated if workers in those units have collective bargaining then cities and counties have to choose between state aid or federal aid.
He even goes on to say that not only did they think about it, but were afraid that it may backfire - which is why they didn’t do it. They feared that if the protests got violent that they may be forced to back down from their position just to restore order.
Which leads me to believe that if they thought instigating violence in the protests would help their cause, they would certianly do it. Asshats.
It just pisses me off that I still gotta watch Walker commercials bemoaning those greedy teachers and how they refuse to pay their fair share. It’s bullshit. It’s about collective bargaining - nothing else. The 14 Dems that are hiding out said that they would be happy to come back and vote on the heathcare and retirement issues, if Walker removed the collective bargaining caveats from the bill.
This is all well and good. What happens in the meantime…
As the state suffers through weeks, months maybe years of nonsense with nothing ever getting accomplished, the status quo carried forward in some insignificantly modified way.
Wisconsin could eventually become the new model for Federal bureaucracy.
IMO this is a chickenshit move by the runaway legislators. It’s like the kid that doesn’t like losing and takes his ball and runs home. They were voted in and are paid to be there and do their job. If they don’t want to do their job they should resign or be removed from that job.
Since Walker as county board president (or whatever his formal title was) of Milwaukee County has been trying to gut the Milwaukee bus system for years, and blocking any effort to have a rail system, the proponents of the bill probably consider that a feature and not a bug. :mad: Walker doesn’t want Wisconsin to accept federal aid for any transport mode except highways and airports. :rolleyes: Unlike this union-busting business, that was something he was quite open about in his gubernatorial campaign.
It is always good to have a simplistic, shallow analysis of a complex situation, if only to provide a benchmark to measure against the more intelligent.
They ARE doing their job. They are protecting their constituents. This is what they were elected to to do. Elections have consequences. Suck it.
I’d characterize it more as gross malfeasance. Hopefully they are just dumb enough to have overlooked the clause in the state constitution or some law that gets them canned. 
No it is their job to be there and vote on the legislation. If they don’t like it fine, get a majority in the future and overturn it. Same thing Publicans want to do with national healthcare.
You can cut this issue apart a million ways and debate till you’re blue in the…fingers, but I look at the big picture. The legislators should not be allowed to get away with what they’re doing regardless of the issues involved. It’s not like it’s life and death we’re talking about.
I shudder when people quote Diaperboy the Cynic. The ignore function is great, except for that. But I’m bored at work as usual, so…
Sounds like his idea about Legislator’s duties squares pretty well with ideas about driving in the left lane. This is to say, completely bereft of fact, logic or common sense.