The chicks are getting annoyed enough to come back in from the coop and make some comments on the week that was with Wisconsin’s Governor-elect.
Last Thursday Scotty got to ride a big airplane to Washington DC to meet the President of the United States. He even got to eat lunch at the same table as the Secretary of the Dept. of Transportation. His hope was that when President Obama met him, he would be so impressed that he’d say, oh yes, you can use that stimulus money on roads instead of a train. Guess he found out that wasn’t going to happen….but more on that later.
On Friday, it was a little less exciting for the Governor-elect. Bet he didn’t even know that he was just a short way from the chicks coop. The chicks decided to just do our own thing on Friday, be happy and get a big green tree to put in the coop. We ignored his visit. However, lots of the chicks friends and coworkers worked very hard setting up Kolf Fieldhouse for his visit as part of the New North Summit. Unfortunately the Governor elect doesn’t realize that some of the folks who work hard to make these events happen are making less then $30,000 a year! A few days later, he was busy saying mean spirited things, like the “haves” (ie., State Employees) need to fork over some of their “extra” money and contribute more for health insurance and pensions. Kinda tough to figure out how someone making less then $30,000 a year, taking 8 furlough days and looking at more toward their pension and health insurance in January is going to find that extra money.
While Scotty was visiting Oshkosh, our WSEU friends were getting their ballots to vote on their 2009-2011 contract. Some mean ol’ Republican roosters and hens got a copy of some of the new language and are making simple concepts like compensatory time and overtime seem evil. Our friends have always had that language, the employee just has a choice now which they want to use. They also saw the proposal for health insurance contributions and said it’s just not enough, you must pay more or we will take away your union. The Governor-elect isn’t real happy with our WSEU friends and sent his minions out to say mean things about them over the weekend to say.
Scotty must have gotten coal in his St. Nicholas sock on Monday, because on Tuesday he was pretty upset when in talked to the Milwaukee Press Club making threats to our state employee friends. Using nasty words like decertify the unions that represent State employees. He also hinted that he’d like to see all unions have their feathers clipped by making Wisconsin a Right to Work state. The chicks sure aren’t surprised by this, but, seems like some folks just weren’t listening in fall when we were working hard to get a much better person elected as Governor.
On Thursday, Oshkosh got it’s first real snow of the season. Everything is pretty and white, but, the Grinch that Stole Christmas (also known as the Governor-elect), got his first gift. President Obama took away the money for the train that was going to go from Milwaukee to Madison and help give people jobs. But, the Grinch didn’t get exactly what he wanted, the President told him that he couldn’t use the money for roads either.
High speed train around Wisconsin would have been real nice for our people friends to use to travel instead of having to drive on slippery highways. Guess we all have to remember what the Lt. Govenor-elect said when she was campaigning, “I don’t need at train….I have a minivan”. Maybe she doesn’t have to pay almost $3 a gallon for gas on State Employee wages….oh wait, she has Health insurance from the state and her husband IS a state employee right now. Whoops, I forgot.
And now we’ve reached Friday. The Governor-elect gets to make make a big check mark next to “eliminate high speed rail from Milwaukee to Madison” on his Christmas list. I’m sure the next check mark he’d like to make is to eliminate those pesky unions.
But, remember Scotty, just like with the train, “you can’t always get what you want”.
