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Tea Party backers outnumbered in Wisconsin budget demonstrations

What do you believe the teachers should get since they are using the "fake notes?" Doctors should lose their job but the teachers should get away with it?

If it was a real doctor, how are the notes fake?
 
I was not under the impression that teachers get vacation days with summer and all.

I do believe some teachers get personal days. This is not sick days. My apologies for using "vacation"
 
You know better than the doctor?

images
 
You know better than the doctor?

Well we could argue the meaning of "sick" but they clearly are not sick if protesting. If they are truly sick, 2 Tylenol and some sleep might help them out.
 
I am all for protest if you truly believe in the matter. But to lie or use fake excuses and get someone to forge one for you isnt very tactful. What is this showing the youth? Lie and you may be what you want?

Actually according to this statement they may get away with it. Real doctors, real notes, "stress"



Chaotic scene as nearly 70,000 protest in Wisconsin - Chicago Sun-Times

Doctors from numerous hospitals set up a station near the Capitol to provide notes covering public employees’ absences. Family physician Lou Sanner, 59, of Madison, said he had given out hundreds of notes. Many of the people he spoke with seemed to be suffering from stress, he said.

“What employers have a right to know is if the patient was assessed by a duly licensed physician about time off of work,” Sanner said. “Employers don’t have a right to know the nature of that conversation or the nature of that illness. So it’s as valid as every other work note that I’ve written for the last 30 years.”
 
The problem is that there are those who will try to unduly punish the teachers for ideological reasons over and above a normal day of not showing up, which means that they would be in the right to attempt to protect themselves.

I think they should've waited for the week-end myself. Having the schools close doesn't seem to put them in a very good light in my opinion. I thought teaching was about the children.
 
I think they should've waited for the week-end myself. Having the schools close doesn't seem to put them in a very good light in my opinion. I thought teaching was about the children.

I think you are right that it was not a good PR move. However, while teaching is about the children, it does not mean that people wouldn't care about their livelihood being cut out from under them. Teaching is not a charity but a job.

While I believe most teachers have some passion to do a good job, they are still human who have bills to pay and what not. To assume it being about the children means teachers should be happy to accept any circumstance is silly.
 
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I think you are right that it was not a good PR move. However, while teaching is about the children, it does not mean that people wouldn't care about their livelihood being cut out from under them. Teaching is not a charity but a job.

A lot of them will lose their jobs if they aren't careful. The money just isn't going to be there to keep them all on.
 
A lot of them will lose their jobs if they aren't careful. The money just isn't going to be there to keep them all on.

Given what I know about the situation, teachers had already made concessions, but what the governor wants to do is strip away their right to collective bargaining, which goes beyond simple financial matters and goes into their first amendment right of assembly.

Whatever cuts were already agreed to.
 

Why is it that we have so many threads about Wisconsin and the only "source" of information the anti-unionists seem to use is MacIver Institute?

Okay, here we go for at least the third time.

From One Wisconsin


Be warned: The MacIver Institute is a not a news service. It is not a member of the traditional media. It is a right wing educational “charitable” organization and it is gathering footage to advance its conservative, anti-worker agenda.

Talking to the MacIver Institute is abetting the conservative movement in its efforts to ensure progressive values and issues are not a part of the public policy debate. MacIver has spent considerable time criticizing the 2009-11 state budget, the Recovery Act, reforming the health insurance industry and stopping global climate change.

MacIver is financed and run by leading conservatives, many with long ties to the Republican Party. Speaking on camera with the MacIver Institute helps the conservative movement by giving legitimacy to its faux “reporting,” as its “interviews” are regularly posted on the MacIver website.

WHO IS THE MACIVER INSTITUTE
The MacIver Institute is a conservative, pro-corporate organization founded in 2009 to advance conservative ideas and values. Its top staff is long-time Republican campaign strategists and its board of directors includes leading Republicans, most notably Mark Block, the head of Americans for Prosperity-WI, Fred Lubar, deep-pocketed Republican donor and Jim Troupis, lawyer to leading Republicans such as Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen and ethically-challenged Supreme Court Justices Mike Gableman and Annette Ziegler.

Staff: MacIver’s top staffers include both the former Chief of Staff to Scott Jensen and former GOP state senate caucus head and campaign strategist for top Republicans including Attorney General JB Van Hollen.

Jensen Ties: Initially, MacIver attempted to distance itself from Jensen, stating through a spokesperson that the former Assembly Speaker has no “formal role” with the organization. An investigation by Eye On Wisconsin's Cory Liebmann revealed that the properties of several initial communications from MacIver included the electronic imprint of Scott Jensen. Milwaukee Magazine also talked with Jensen about his involvement and after a preliminary denial, the reporter wrote “Later, Jensen amended that he is a consultant and his ‘main client’ is Alliance for School Choices.” [Milwaukee Magazine.com, 3/10/09]

MACIVER METHODS
MacIver has begun dispatching a new staffer, former Rock County television reporter Bill Osmulski, to events to film events and create conservative propaganda pieces as “news reports.” These “reports” are put onto the MacIver website and available for public consumption.

ISSUE TARGETS
MacIver hews to the standard conservative lines and its talking points are echoed in the arguments of the state’s leading Republican elected officials. It has referred to the 2009-11 state budget as “$12.8 billion of bad” and “driven by politics and devoid of principle,” has called health insurance reforms at the federal level “budget busting” and has criticized cap and trade. Its top target though, has been the federal Recovery Act and the use of those funds by the state legislature. In repeated postings on its website, MacIver attempts to make the case the legislature and the federal government failed in efforts to solve the economic crisis created by the failed policies of the Bush administration and that the legislature and federal government have failed to create much-needed jobs. [MacIver Institute Website]

CREDIBILITY
Immediately after it hired its phony news “reporter,” MacIver was plunged into controversy when it was confirmed the MacIver staffer had gotten an interview with two elected officials by allowing the two elected officials “to think he was just interviewing the two politicians for a local television station, all three men confirmed...” [Wisconsin State Journal, 9/5/09]

CONSIDERATIONS
One Wisconsin Now supports healthy and vibrant public policy discussions and this rightfully requires public officials to regularly talk with the media. This does not apply to the MacIver Institute, an ideologically-driven organization, created to advance a policy agenda, in this case an ultra-conservative one.

The good news is MacIver can only film and put on its website what an individual says on camera. Any progressive who suddenly finds a MacIver camera thrust in his or her face should consider responding with a smiling response of “I am not interested in speaking with Scott Jensen’s right wing think tank.” As MacIver has been less-than-forthright about Jensen’s potential involvement in its operation, it would be interesting to see if they would post this video on their website.

Now you can abandon this thread and begin another on the same subject ignoring that your source has been thoroughly discredited.
 
Why is it that we have so many threads about Wisconsin and the only "source" of information the anti-unionists seem to use is MacIver Institute?

Okay, here we go for at least the third time.

From One Wisconsin




Now you can abandon this thread and begin another on the same subject ignoring that your source has been thoroughly discredited.

You can't argue with the vid, though.
 
I don't see why being outnumbered one way or the other should matter. Not arguing who's right or wrong, but certainly crowd size isn't a factor in who's right or wrong. Seems kind of pointless to have pointed it out. No pun intended.

I disagree.... when I lived in Germany it was always noted the gegen(anti) Nazis outnumbered the Neo... It's kind of important for people to see who has more motivation, and if it's not your side, then get motivated!
 
They took sick days...Most Americans cant afford to use their sick days for protest. We have to use them when we are actually sick or take care of our kids when they get sick. I am sure they are getting fake doctor excuses..hell I did when I was in high school.

Ohh please... I have worked in plenty of places where people call in sick all the time, or they'll build up their PTO and then call in sick instead of taking a real vacation with it.
 
Ohh please... I have worked in plenty of places where people call in sick all the time, or they'll build up their PTO and then call in sick instead of taking a real vacation with it.

Where I work, many people make $11/hr and call in sick all the time. They have to have a doctors note if they want to get paid for it, but the points against their attendance is the same, so many people choose to not get paid. If people can afford it on 11/hr, it must not be a huge burden.
 
If this is true, than those doctors should be reprimanded and perhaps lose their licenses for fraud.

If a doc gives somebody pretending to be sick an excuse, they should be charged with fraud... :shock:

The doctor I went to in highschool is going to be doing life... :2razz:
 
If a doc gives somebody pretending to be sick an excuse, they should be charged with fraud... :shock:

The doctor I went to in highschool is going to be doing life... :2razz:

I further considered that opinion.
 
Ohh please... I have worked in plenty of places where people call in sick all the time, or they'll build up their PTO and then call in sick instead of taking a real vacation with it.

I am sure many people use sick days when they arent actually sick. But those people weren't filmed or photographed. They avoided being seen by their companies. I just think they could have waited for after school hours or even the weekend. With the demo's running for the hills...the protest would have still been seen and heard.
 
I am all for protest if you truly believe in the matter. But to lie or use fake excuses and get someone to forge one for you isnt very tactful. What is this showing the youth? Lie and you may be what you want?

Well, like somebody said... working people have to feed their families and they don't want to lose their job. The desperation in their motivation is easy to understand if you look at if from a relative POV. They don't see protesting as a luxury, but as something they have to do.
 
One thing you have to say is that the people of Wisconsin and their guests are a peaceful, orderly lot.

If there are so many people in WI who dont want this then why did they vote for it by having a Republican Gov and Senate??
 
Given what I know about the situation, teachers had already made concessions, but what the governor wants to do is strip away their right to collective bargaining, which goes beyond simple financial matters and goes into their first amendment right of assembly.

Whatever cuts were already agreed to.

Yeah. that's the real issue.

People join together and make a legal agreement agreement to unionize, and no government should be able to stop that. Whether one disagrees with whatever demands the teacher's union may have, the state shouldn't make any attempt to control their right to form a union.

Seems like the people on this thread who want government to ban a union are usually the ones complaining about big government.
 
I am sure many people use sick days when they arent actually sick. But those people weren't filmed or photographed. They avoided being seen by their companies. I just think they could have waited for after school hours or even the weekend. With the demo's running for the hills...the protest would have still been seen and heard.

I had a dumb friend who called in sick with 24 hr flu. Came in next day with a bad sunburn. Lucky our boss had a sense of humor. :)
 
I dont see the point in the outnumbered movement here. You have to remember most people have to work on saturdays. I understand teachers and their unions can take the time off whenever and are even OFF on saturdays but in most instances, the general public MUST work in order to feed their families and pay their bills...we dont get "free days"
most people do not work on saturdays.....
are you suggesting that public employees don't work? I suppose some could be fired and the system would still function, but so would any business as well.
Including where you work....
 
You can't argue with the vid, though.

Please read the info about the source for this "report". Unless you see a story like this on a reputable and verifiable news outlet and not some far right propaganda outlet, it should be considered as possible bogus and give no respect of any kind.

If I were a right winger in Wisconsin and wanted to cast doubt on the union protestors, this doctor bit is a perfect way to do it.
 
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