Grown Up Journalism

The Detroit News editorial on the AWOL Dems.

"American-style democracy holds together because no matter how nasty the political game gets, the players honor a few inviolable rules. We obey the laws, even the ones we disagree with. We respect the ballot box. And after even the most bitterly contested election, the loser accepts the results, works within the system and awaits another chance to prevail with voters.

"Instead of staying on the field to defend their positions, Democratic lawmakers in both states fled to neighboring Illinois, where they hope to win with their absence what they couldn't at the ballot box — namely, the right to control policymaking."

The lawmakers in exile call this a defense of democracy. In truth, it's a step toward anarchy. If it catches on as a practice, it will officially end government by, of and for the people.
It's part of a disturbing trend by Democrats to embrace a by-any-means-necessary approach to governing. We saw it during passage of Obamacare, when the Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate blew up the rules to block a filibuster. In Massachusetts, Democrats used after-the-fact law changes in a failed attempt to keep a Republican from succeeding Ted Kennedy.

Obama trashed bankruptcy law to move the United Auto Workers ahead of General Motors' and Chrysler's secured creditors. And his regulatory agencies are bypassing Congress to enact policies he knows the elected representatives would never approve.

The strategy exposes the arrogant liberal conviction that they are justified in imposing their will on the people, because only they know what's best for America.

These Democrats in Indiana and Wisconsin merit universal condemnation.

What they are saying is that the people no longer have the right to use the ballot box to decide the direction of their government.

That's a rule change our system can't survive.

Read the whole thing. And then compare it with the trashy journalism below.

Trashy Journalism

Joanne Weiss, a Boston Globe columnist, bemoans the fact that unions are losing the PR battle in Wisconsin.

She says there are "three major players in the Wisconsin labor battle: loud politicians, billionaire refinery owners, and middle-class people who want the right to bargain for benefits and working conditions."

She's wrong on every count.

The "billionaire refinery owners" the Left screams about are about as conservative as George Soros is mainstream. You only have to look up David Koch on Wikipedia to see his values. Both he and his brother are Libertarians. Both are generous donors to the arts, medical research, educational and social issues. Neither can be remotely described as conservative. The "loud polticians" can't be heard of the screams and shouts of the unruly labor unions.

But the biggest lie in Weiss story is that the protesters are "middle class." The teachers who walked out on their students, the other teachers who dragged their underage students to a street rally, and the union thugs who organized the bus loads of out-of-staters to chant loudly haven't a single middle class value. They merely have middle class salaries paid for by lower income taxpayers.

If these are our average teachers, it confirms what most of us have feared about the educational establishment for decades. We no longer have to wonder why they don't teach values; they have none. We no longer have to speculate how to improve schools. It isn't the curriculum or lack of money. It's the teachers.

Weiss describes herself as coming of age with "Different Strokes." She, no doubt, forgets that the only two cast members in that show who were black -- Todd Bridges and Gary Colemen -- didn't exactly end up living the Liberal dream. Or maybe it is exactly the role the Liberals had in mind for them.

RACISM AND INCIVILITY IN DENVER

From Looking at the Left blog: Union Thugs and Teachers Lash Out at Taxpayers

Amazing photos of the union thugs in Denver.

Voters Decide

THE IRISH ELECTION RESULTS were staggering.

The party, [Fianna Fail] which has ruled Ireland for 61 of the last 80 years, was reduced to the country's third party, with Sinn Fein hot on its heels in fourth place. The Greens, Fianna Fail's coalition partner, lost all its seats.

Fine Gael is expected to take over 75 seats, 7 seats short of a majority. The leftist Labour party (The "leftist" term was in an AFP story.) came in a distant second with 33 seats. Fianna Fail is now reduced to 20 seats. In Dublin alone, they lost 46 out of 47 seats.   All 6 Greens deputies lost their seats.

Ireland is, as Reuters notes, "the first euro zone government to be brought down by the debt crisis."

SUCCINCT: John Kass on Rahm Emanuel's election as Mayor of Chicago: "What Tuesday's victory prevents is outside examination of the City Hall books."

OUTRAGE OF THE DAY Kids for Cash Scandal

A Pennsylvania juvenile court judge was convicted of racketeering in a $2.8 million "kids for cash" plot to send youth offenders to for-profit detention centers.

February 21, 2011 - Mark Ciavarella, 61, a Luzerne County PA judge was found guilty of 12 of 39 racketeering and fraud charges for accepting millions of dollars in bribes from friends who owned detention centers to which he sent juveniles. Another judge - Judge Michael Conahan - pleaded guilty to racketeering last year in the same scheme.

After his arrest, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court dismissed 4,000 juvenile convictions issued by Ciavarella, saying he sentenced young offenders without regard for their constitutional rights.

Both judges pleaded guilty to tax evasion but a Federal judge refused to accept the plea bargain, leading to the corruption charges.

Some of the children were as young as 10. A twelve-year-old boy spent two years in the facility for joyriding in his mother's car. A 17-year-old boy sentenced for drug paraphernalia killed himself years later. His mother confronted Ciavarella outside the courtroom. An ABC video captures her rage.

MOBSTER TIPPED OFF POLICE. Investigators were tipped off by a mobster in a northeastern Pennsylvania Mafia family who regularly met for breakfast with Conahan. He became a government informant after his 2006 arrest on charges of witness tampering and conspiracy to launder drug money.

Feb 23, 2011 - An out-of-county judge has been brought in to investigate court employees linked to the payoffs.

SEE ENTRY BELOW FOR MORE JUDICIAL MISCONDUCT.

Misconduct

Speaking of judicial misconduct in Pennsylvania.

Jan 2010 - Another Luzerne Co, PA, judge - Senior Judge C. Joseph Rehkamp, 61, - was arrested, accused of assaulting his wife. He was filling in because the country was short of judges after two judges were arrested in the kids for cash kickback scheme. And then those other judges. (Click on name for link.)

The county is short four of its 10 judges. In December 2008, the state Supreme Court removed Judge Ann H. Lokuta from the bench until her misconduct case is resolved. Voters torpedoed former judge Peter Paul Olszewski's re-election bid in November and his seat remains empty. Former Judge Michael T. Toole resigned after pleading guilty on Dec. 28 to federal corruption charges. [NOTE: He pleaded guilty in 2010. Both were permanently removed from the bench.]

In Feb 2010 Charges were refiled against Rehkamp because his wife had refused to testify. A month later he agreed to complete a probationary program, known as Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition, for six months. After which the domestic violence charge would be dropped. His attorney says he hopes to be reinstated to the court.

But in the meantime, in January 2011 found property he owned in foreclosure and additional disclosure about conflict of interest allegations in an alimony case. And then there was that half a million dollars in debt. Amazing because he only makes $5,500-per-month salary as a senior judge, according to Citizen's Voice.

MORE LUZERNE COUNTY: Oddly enough, in 1993, Mark A. Ciavarella defended another Luzerne County judge - Arthur D. Dalessandro - who faced criminal charges, as the Internal Revenue Service moved to collect $186,899 in unpaid taxes.

PENNSYLVANIA
SENTENCED March 12, 2009 - Pennsylvania Appellate Judge Michael was sentenced to 3 years and 10 months in a federal prison for insurance fraud stemming from a car accident.

Legislative misconduct is something altogether different.

How's that new civility working?

A deputy attorney general in Indiana was fired when he remarked on his Twitter account that police should use live ammunition against Wisconsin protesters. "The Indiana attorney general's office says in a statement that while it respects employees' free speech rights, public servants are held to a "higher standard" and should "strive for civility."

On the other hand, if you are not Republican and elected, you can get away with urging unions to 'get a little bloody when necessary.' Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Mass.) was speaking at a union rally that included other members of the state's congressional delegation.

The hypocrite was caught out by James Taranto (WSJ).

The Educated Class

TEACHERS SENTENCED THIS MONTH include:

In Brief

WISCONSIN STRIKES ANTICIPATED - The National Guard in Wisconsin, according to the Journal Sentinel has visited at least one state correction facility in preparation for taking over in case of a strike.

Flights by Flee Baggers, (the union-elected alternative to the Tea Baggers) are spreading as Indiana House Democrats refuse to show up for legislative business. Apparently, democracy just doesn't work for Democrats.

Even the White House is worried about the DNC strategy. Ben Smith of Politico reports they are chucking the "DNC, under the bus". (Their first clue, no doubt, to the looming failure was that any protest that includes Jesse Jackson is a sure loser.)

AND SPEAKING OF COMPARISONS TO CAIRO, John Kass, the gutsy Chicago Times writer, knows something about decades of wrought-iron-fisted rule as he sums up the election for mayor nicely: "Though in the geographic center of America, Chicago politics isn't really that American, is it? This yearning for a strongman is almost Russian."

A SPECIAL ELECTION IN LOUISIANA results show the GOP now has a 20-19 advantage in the Senate, a majority in the Louisiana House of Representatives (57-42) and a Republican governor.
It is the first time Republicans have had control of the Senate since Reconstruction.

Who has a right to work? Depends on where you live. Right to work laws explained. The Right to Work Foundation has a map ofStates with Right to Work laws.

Update from Wisconsin

Via Gateway Pundit: WI State Rep Busted For Sexual Misconduct – Says Charges Are a Distraction From Larger State Issues

The Washington Post caught on 19 hours later to the story.
Unfortunately, The Heavenly Touch Massage Parlor does not have a web site.

Biography from VoteSmart.

MY VIEW: Hintz has an interesting career that has taken him from a political science instructor to legislative aide for Representative Jay Johnson and then Senator Herb Kohl where he appeared not to have thrived because he left government briefly only to emerge in Long Beach, CA, government. If you know anything about Long Beach, CA politics, you know the city is dominated by teacher union politics.

If you want to understand the interplay between politics, race baiting, gross media irresponsibility and how unions work to control a school district, there's no better example than Long Beach. Just Yahoo Michael Shane Ellis but don't expect to find any stories from The Long Beach (Ca) Press-Telegram. They bury theirs as quickly as possible. The Los Angeles Times, however, is (rare for them) more honest in this instance.