from Wisconsin: "Mubarak for Governor" signs

According to the Associated Press, the legislators in the "Wisconsin Assembly have agreed to a deal that will limit further debate on a bill taking away collective bargaining rights for public workers and lead to a vote on the measure later Thursday," possibly as early as noon.

Meanwhile, the Chief of Police in Madison is asking the governor to explain "troubling" and "unsettling" statements the loose-lipped rookie Governor made while he thought he was on the phone with billionaire David Koch.

"I find it very unsettling and troubling that anyone would consider creating safety risks for our citizens and law enforcement officers. Our department works hard dialoging with those who are exercising their First Amendment right, those from both sides of the issue, to make sure we are doing everything we can to ensure they can demonstrate safely."

Police Chief Noble Wray
Madison, WI
Wisconsin State Journal, 24 Feb 2011

"There are a lot of folks out there who say, ‘It doesn't impact me, I'm not a union guy, I'm not a teacher, I'm not a civil servant.' Let me tell you how it does matter to you. Wages are going down in this country for everybody. When you destroy unions there will be no standard at all, nobody left to negotiate decent jobs for the middle class..."

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders
Statement, 23 Feb 2011

"I would like to hear more of an explanation from Governor Walker as to what exactly was being considered, and to what degree it was discussed by his cabinet members."

Police Chief Noble Wray
Madison, WI
Wisconsin State Journal, 24 Feb 2011

The Chief has some legitimate questions, and the rest of the cheeseheads are coming up with some really great signs at the Madison protests, don't you think?

Political Correspondent Thomas Hayes is a former Congressional Campaign Manager; he's a journalist, photo/videographer, entrepreneur, and communications consultant who contributes regularly on topics ranging from economics and politics to culture and community, who incidentally stands in solidarity with the citizens and workers in Wisconsin refusing to let their Governor's self-created budget "crisis" and new spending priorities be re-cast as a reason to undermine contractual obligations and collective bargaining agreements.

You can follow Tom as @kabiu on twitter. Tweet

The Truth About WI Teacher's Pay

The data on how much is spent on teacher's pay isn't hard to find, but the truth may bother WI's Governor in his bid to blame unions and collective bargaining for his budget priorities:

The average teacher's salary across all Wisconsin districts is $48,267.  According to the Census Bureau’s Median Household Income by State – Single-Year Estimates the average household income in Wisconsin is $51,237 -- a difference of $2,970/year which would amount to a 6% raise if teachers were just brought up to the average.

Collective bargaining hasn't made Wisconsin teachers rich, it hasn't even brought them level with the rest of their state, but their new Governor wants to impose a new regulation restricting their rights.  If you ask me, that's new government regulations when the GOP has been telling us job creation is their priority.

Actions speak louder than words.

If you want to dig deeper, or verify the data on teacher pay, check the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction link: "Statistical Information Center - School Staff and Salary Data." It's all there: the low salary, high salary, average salary, average fringe, average local experience, average total experience for staff in each public school district, and more, in spreadsheets you can download.

If Governor Scott Walker hasn't blocked access, that is.

Political Correspondent Thomas Hayes is a former Congressional Campaign Manager; he's a journalist, photo/videographer, entrepreneur, and communications consultant who contributes regularly on topics ranging from economics and politics to culture and community, who incidentally stands in solidarity with the citizens and workers in Wisconsin refusing to let their Governor's self-created budget "crisis" and new spending priorities be re-cast as a reason to undermine contractual obligations and collective bargaining agreements.

You can follow Tom as @kabiu on twitter. Tweet

DNC Convention Invesco Tour | CNN Grill | Pepsi Media Tent City

On the morning of July 31st 2008, I boarded a United Airlines morning flight to Denver to attend the final (?) media walkthrough before the Democratic National Convention, this one at Invesco Field.

Unlike my first media walkthrough trip, I ended up renting a Saturn SUV for ground travel. The reason was simple: it was cheap. Cheaper to rent than a Prius and because they were in low demand versus the economy cars. In a way it worked out to a savings of about $25. Invesco Field was only 20 minutes away from the airport, so it was a quick trip for me.

I arrived at Invesco at 11:20 and ran into a DNCC employee (who I will not name by request) and who walked me around the stadium (we ended up on the field at one point) and eventually into the main briefing meeting.

For security reasons I did not film the main meeting discussion, but focused more on the 'broadbrush" tour and interviews of key media people there. On the way to the main press box, I met "Oreo" who's one of the main contributors at DemConWatchBlog.com and talked about how the blog came to be and who the writers were. To my surprise, one of them was a person who had his own blog called "Mr. Superdelegate" for a time, and gave all of us political junkies fits trying to figure out who he was. It's become a great resource for DNC Convention news.

After talking with Oreo, and heading to the main field, I met Sara Burrett, who's a reporter for the Rocky Mountain News. Sara -- who I talked to while tripping all over myself on the Invesco Field sidewalk -- told me that she was a court reporter until this assignment and that her current focus was on the lawsuit the protest group Recreate68 and their leader Glen Spagnuolo, who's known for protesting the Columbus Day Holiday in Denver and for whom a split was caused between his group and other protest groups.

See, even Democratic PROTESTERS can't get along.

But I digress.

Sara also pointed out where Senator Obama will stand to give his acceptance speech, which is about on the 50-yard-line of the field used by The Denver Broncos.

That about ended that part of the tour. But Oreo and I decided to take a tour of our own making. He drove us over to the Pepsi Center area to see the media tent city in the making. Two construction reps let us in and we parked and walked the grounds. The media tents must be about 25,000 square feet in size each, and there were two made already, one for NBC News, the other we didn't know who was for, perhaps CNN.

Writing of CNN, we then walked over to the Brooklyn Grill for a quick lunch. Oreo informed me that the grill was to be transformed into the "CNN Grill" and almost on que, we saw a stencil being used to paint the CNN = Politics logo on the side of the building. They had just got started with this, and we were the first to record the action.

The one problem with the CNN plan is the restaurant workers know nothing about it. They don't know if they will be paid double-time or who will get to work the shifts, or anything and they're getting a little nervous about the whole deal.

Then, on the way out, Oreo, who lives in Denver, pointed to where the DNC Media Party was to be held over at an amusement park nearby.

In all, the Democratic Party is working overtime to make the DNC Convention work. The objective is open-ness. The main issue now is still scheduling. Contrary to reports, many of the speakers and speaking days have not been fully set. Speculation that Hillary Clinton will not be the VP choice because of the Tuesday "Women's Day" event is faulty at best.

On the way back to the airport, I turned in my rental car and then forgot my iPhone in it. Alamo Rent-A-Car got it back to me very quickly and for that I give thanks.

New World Order Video Against World Government

This video going around repeats the phrase "New World Order" as if it's a bad idea. The feat is that a "World Government" will take freedoms away from people.

Personally I object to this point of view. I'm not sold on the idea that our current World order, which promotes racism and separatism and nationalism, is the best way for us.

At any rate, it's a great video. Here it is: