MILWAUKEE COUNTY SHERIFF DAVID CLARKE SAYS PROTECT YOURSELF

Did you see this??  Mayor Tom Barrett of Milwaukee, WI puts police officers on furlough to save money so he has the funds to cover police pensions and retirement obligations.  Here we go, People.  The pension funds of cities, counties and states nationwide are woefully underfunded, and this "furloughing" could become common throughout the kingdom.

Of course, we could do what Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke  suggests.  He wants people to arm themselves because he says due to the shortage of staff his officers can't respond to your life threatening call in a timely fashion.  You could be dead while waiting.  So prepare ahead.  Buy a gun.

HERE'S THE STORY

EASY WIN FOR WALKER, THE LEFT SAYS DEMOCRACY DIED TONIGHT

Finally, at last, the closing, the ending, Gov. Scott Walker decisively, conclusively, irrevocably beat Barrett for the third time. I’d say 53% to 46% is a pretty significant victory, pretty much a landslide. And what does the Main Stream Media have to say about it? Well, watch the first video. It’s a compilation of comments the MSM made in the past about the significance of a Democrat win, and then it segues into more recent MSM statements as they realized Walker may very well win. What a change of tune!

At 8 p.m. Central time when polls officially closed and networks could “predict,” all cable networks, including CNN ,MSNBC and FOX NEWS, announced the race was “too close to call.” CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer was absolutely joyous when he declared exit polls showed a 50/50 race.

At 9 p.m. CNN ditched election news coverage, so sure they were that Barrett would win. But at 10 p.m. Blitzer came back on the air with another update. His tone was subdued, low key, no exuberance, like attending a funeral. At this point Blitzer ceased talking about how the Wisconsin vote would be a preview for November. Once the race was called for Walker the election suddenly didn’t mean a thing. The Dems should learn something from this. Do Not Believe Your Own Exit Polls.

And MSNBC’S Ed Schultz? He was teary eyed when the race was called for Walker. The network’s anchors immediately began suggesting that the Barrett loss was actually good for Obama, who hadn’t even set foot in Wisconsin, and they began attacking Mitt Romney.

Watch the second video for the tearful, sniveling, weeping reaction from an obvious Democrat and Barrett backer. He says it’s the end of Democracy. “Democracy died tonight,” he mournfully cried. He must not know that the U.S. of A is not a Democracy, but rather a Republic.  He probably doesn't know the difference. 

The way I see it?  Our Republic Lived Last Night. Walker’s victory means that ALL states now have another choice when it comes to dealing with fiscal issues. It means they don’t have to raise taxes, lay off people or go bankrupt. It means the federal government does not have to even think about bailing out these states. It also means states can trim the fat from government union contracts and the world is not going to come to an end.

Wisconsin was the first battleground in the war to save America. The message we sent is strong, powerful and irrefutable. Watch out Barack Hussein Obama, or Barry Soetoro, or whatever your name is, You’re Next! Five More Months, we’re coming to get you and your Progressive, Liberal, Big Spending Buddies, from both parties. We’re going to finish what we started in 2010 and send you back to where you came from. We're going to restore fiscal sanity to Washington!

MARINE VET ARRESTED AT CLINTON/BARRETT RALLY

Here it is, Folks, the arrest of a Veteran exercising his right to free speech. Appears to me that the police officers had no reason to arrest him other than they didn't like what he was saying. The message is "you are not allowed to speak your mind without threat of arrest." But Gov. Walker will win, and we will do it again in November. Granted, Romney is not my favorite Conservative candidate, but I am in the Anybody But Obama Crowd. Let's elect Romney and then hold his feet to the fire to force some changes before America is lost forever. Wish I could let this Vet know I am proud of him.

WALKER WINS WISCONSIN RECALL ELECTION

See the Title?  Walker Wins Wisconsin Recall Election.  I am practicing up, saying it over and over and over, getting ready. 
And here's the latest good news.  Monroe WI School District saved over $800,000 on the renewal of their insurance/dental plans for the District employees.  The savings from Gov. Walker’s Act 10 keep on growing.    We are lucky to have him in Wisconsin!  He did what he said he’d do and what we elected him to do:  balance the budget, reduce the deficit significantly, put a lid on property tax increases, give schools and municipalities more control over their budgets, bring some sort of reason and sensibility to dealing with government worker unions.  He did it all, and in the process revamped collective bargaining. 

The result?  Gov. Walker’s reforms are saving municipalities and school districts millions of dollars enabling them to limit job layoffs.  The State of WI now has a surplus.  We are out of the red and well into the black.  Not many other states have a governor willing to make such difficult decisions. 

And what did Tom Barrett, Gov. Walker’s opponent do?  Barrett attacked Walker’s proposals to reform collective bargaining, but then Barrett used some of Act 10’s provisions to help reduce Milwaukee’s health care bill.  Barrett stated that the alternative was to cut 300 to 400 jobs.  And now when asked what Barrett’s “plan” is if he beats Walker in the recall election, Barrett and the Democrats have been unable to tell us.  That’s because they have no plan.  They just want Walker gone because he dared to challenge the unions.  If they regain power we will promptly reverse course, go back to restrictive collective bargaining, and financially be back in the red. 

Folks, the stakes in Wisconsin’s Ridiculous Recall Rant are higher than any state election ever.  Public employee unions understand that the legitimacy of collective bargaining is now in question as states, municipal governments and school districts struggle with the burden of a costly public sector, including pensions and retiree health care costs.  They understand that the Gimme Gimme Well is drying up. 

The Recall election date is June 5.  Every Walker supporter must goWalker. I am proud that you belong to Wisconsin. I hope you win in a landslide. to the polls and vote.  It is not enough to stay home and be happy that it’s over, though we all are relieved that Walker will finally be able to put this joke of an election behind him and get on with the business of governing Wisconsin.  We must send a powerful signal to other reform-minded governors and to the whole country that we cannot afford to go back to business as usual.  Wisconsin is righting its ship.  We can't afford higher taxes, runaway spending and even fewer jobs.  Thank you Governor Scott      

WHAT THE GOV. WALKER RECALL IS REALLY ABOUT

Saw this in MOMENT OF CLARITY, by Tim Nerenz.  Thought it was worth sharing.  Tim speaks the truth about the sideshow Walker Recall effort.   It's a lot of words, but it is definitely worth the read. 
"In the past few days the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had a couple of remarkable articles on the upcoming Wisconsin recall elections – both interesting and infuriating.       

The first one reported that the public-sector unions who endorsed Democrat candidate Kathleen Falk have now suspended advertising on her behalf with just weeks to go before the primary. 
Thank you so much, WEAC and AFSME, for forcing a primary upon us that will add several millions to the $9 million it was already going to cost the taxpayers to humor you with a recall, only to pull out when it came time to spend some of your own money on it.  That’s just terrific; a sure-fire way to win over independent and undecided taxpayers by spending a boatload of their money for nothing.  Bravo.

The second was the astonishing admission of both leading candidates to unseat Governor Walker – Falk and Tom Barrett – that they have no plan to offer the voters of this state to counter the reforms enacted by the guy they want to replace prematurely.  Even the liberals at the paper found this       bizarre.  

Thank you so much, Democrat Party of Wisconsin, for forcing a recall election that will cost taxpayers upwards of $20 million in a runoff between two candidates who, with nearly 18       months to come up with a better idea than Scott Walker’s reforms, can’t think of anything besides not being Scott Walker.  Isn’t the cream supposed to rise in the dairy state?        

There are 3.6 million other adults here who are also not Scott Walker and who also have no earthly idea how to run the State of Wisconsin effectively. Why not put them all on the ballot, if that’s what democracy looks like.  Just pick one at random; or maybe rotate daily, so everybody has a better chance of taking a turn.  Maybe it could be a scratch-off lottery prize and we can make some money on the deal.       

The left also endured a minor thong-twist this week over Walker’s reinstatement of merit bonuses for some state employees, although I don’t know why paying state workers a little more would cause angst among Team Public Worker. 

They say it is too costly in this era of austerity, but the bonuses will only cost taxpayers an additional $725,000 or roughly 1/30 the cost of the recall over…what was that again?  Oh, yeah, cutting state workers’ pay in the age of austerity.      

Actually, it is no longer clear that the recall is about worker pay; in fact,  I don’t think anyone knows anymore what this recall is supposed to be about. 

It started over benefit adjustments for public employees, but once a database of teacher salaries and benefit values was made public, sympathy for besieged public servants turned to envy.

Then it switched to collective bargaining, which sounded like a pretty good principled argument until residents of the Badger state got a good look at the behavior of the “collective” in question when they hit the capitol en masse last winter.  And putting the muscle to neutral businesses turned off a lot of fair-minded people who suddenly understood that “bargaining” has a different meaning altogether to the boys from Chicago who are calling the shots.    

So the argument shifted to Walker’s cuts in education funding, which actually had a little traction going until we discovered the extent of the WEA trust insurance scam and realized how much we have been ripped off and for how long in the name of education.  Turns out your average fish-fry cheesehead couldn’t get whipped into a frenzy over cuts to money-laundering.        

Then it was just sort of, generally, um, that Walker’s Act 10 reforms, like, you know, kinda destroyed the state and stuff; until people started to see that the state was not destroyed and over $1 billion had been saved in less than a year since Act 10 was implemented over the objections of every living and breathing Democrat, who are still living and breathing despite the issuance of 100,000 concealed carry permits, thank you very much Governor Walker. 

Then it was all about jobs – the Democrats had something going on there until they voted down the mining bill and killed off the biggest opportunity for high-wage job growth to come down the pike in this state in many years.  It is quite a feat to get unions and old people from up North pissed at       Democrats – kudos.   
   
Next they tried out this pitch:  it wasn’t exactly what he did, it was how he did it.  But when people looked at their lower tax bills and those concealed carry permits they pretty much decided it didn’t matter how he did it.  And besides, having a majority of both houses of the legislature vote for a law that the governor then signs, is pretty much how he is supposed to do it.  It’s the veto by any old county judge with ink in the pen that is a process problem. 

So now about all that is left for The Left is the old standby - Walker didn’t tell us he was going to do this reform stuff before we elected him.  Forget that we didn’t buy this crock when they first whipped it on us in January of 2011 - that’s their story and they are sticking to it…for now. 

Let’s see if we got this straight: we are supposed to throw out the guy who saved the state from fiscal catastrophe because he didn’t spell out his plan to a level of specificity satisfactory to his       opponent, and replace him with said opponent who has...wait for it...no plan whatsoever.    
Really?  And then what? 

I guess recall that one in a year, too. Because if they won’t tell us anything at all now, then if they do anything at all once in office it will be at least equal to Walker’s transgression – i.e., not telling us ahead of time exactly what he was going to do and how. 

If that is how this is all supposed to work from now on, then we might as well just rent a Governor for a year instead of hiring one for four and then tossing him or her after one anyway.  Someone call Manpower and see what the rate would be for a temp.     

This is not getting ridiculous; it put ridiculous in the rear view mirror a long time ago.  President Obama has no plan to solve the deficit and the debt at the federal level; his Treasury Secretary admitted so under oath in a Congressional hearing.  They apparently think not-Paul-Ryan is a       winning strategy.  Governor Walker’s opponents admit they have no plan to avoid deficits and debt at the state level; they apparently think not-Scott-Walker will work here, too. 

Until someone in the Democrat party brain-trust decides to make this a difficult decision and       give us a plan – any plan - to consider, the recall vote is going to be easy, even if you don’t care much for Scott Walker.  Whoever runs against Walker plans to spend more, tax more, and tell us what to do, and if Walker wins he plans to spend less, tax less, and tell us what to do.    

So if we are going to have a government hell-bent on telling us what to do, we might as well have the one that takes less of our money doing it.  Not exactly bumper-sticker material, but then I'm not a Republican with turf to defend or a Democrat with an axe to grind - just a libertarian with an opinion."      

“Moment Of Clarity” is a weekly commentary by Libertarian writer and speaker Tim Nerenz, Ph.D.