The Devil Is In The Details Of A Comparison

So, the Republicans had been making a stink about the push for the state legislature to have a special session to pass the union contracts. Republican law makers have been falsely claiming not to know what was in them. They did so to follow and enhance the misleading talking point that the state workers is the cause of all of the state's economic woes. In reality, this is just a front as they build up for a war as they plan to try to bust up all of the state's unions, public and private alike.

In their task of promoting Republican ideals, the MacIver Institute did the dirty deed of posting the commonly available contract between AFSCME and the state. Right wingers around the state cheered this as some sort of blatant journalism (the right does consider propaganda to be the equivalent of journalism - but that is for another website to handle).

The latest winger to cheer this action is Jo Egelhoff at FoxPolitics.net. She cites Patti Wenzel for the evil, diabolical details of the contract:

The documents unveiled some changes which Doyle failed to share. As for overtime, the decision as to how overtime will be paid to employees, either at time-and-a-half in cash, or compensatory time or a combination thereof, is moved from the employer (the state, or the taxpayers) to the employees.

…. Another perk for employees could be a sick pay conversion. The proposed contract would allow retirees to convert any unused sick leave at retirement at the highest pay rate earned in state service — not what they were being paid at the time they stopped working. The same conversion rate could be used when determining sick leave for a work-related injury or disease.

More pay can be had if an employee is injured on the job and needs to be treated at a hospital. If they are released from the hospital after the regular shift ended, they can receive up to 2 hours of straight time pay…

Egads, those state workers and Governor Doyle are dastardly villians, aren't they?

But, wait a minute, those terms look awfully familiar...

Milwaukee County workers are currently without a contract. By the rules, that means that Milwaukee County and the unions operate under the old contract, the one that Scott Walker signed off in 2006, complete with the signing bonus.

Under that contract, workers have the right to chose between taking compensation time off sometime in the next six months of accruing that time or taking it at time and a half pay. Over the last year or so, workers have been unofficially encouraged to take the pay, since there is simply not enough staff left to do the work with furloughs and vacations figured in. This will only become more so when the wave of retirees come at the beginning of next year.

The sick pay clause is the same as it currently is for the older workers. For workers with 15 years or less, that changes. But those changes were put into effect long before Walker became county executive, so he can't even take credit for that.

Likewise, if a county worker is injured on the job, and has to go to the ER for treatment, the time they are there is considered overtime, unless it becomes a long term issue, when workman's comp takes over.

So if these things are just now being added to the contracts for state workers, it means that Governor Doyle has done a lot more at holding the workers' collective feet to the fire than Walker has.

Scott Walker is one of the best at bringing the show on, I will not deny them that. I am sure there will be some great showmanship coming from the governor's office as he stomps and shouts about the workers.

But at the end of the day, when all the smoke clears and the mirrors are taken down, I think that there are going to be many disappointed Republicans and TEA Partiers.

Getting Nothing For Something

Jo Egelhoff, of FoxPolitics.net, has a piece up complaining about Wisconsin's health care.

The problem is when she compares it to a bill in Florida regarding health care. Here's what she thinks is a swell idea (emphasis mine):

But the Florida reform, which both houses of the legislature approved unanimously, renounces Mr. Obama's favored remedy: It nudges the government out of the health-care marketplace. Insurance companies will be permitted to sell stripped-down, no-frills policies exempted from the more than 50 mandates that Florida otherwise imposes, including for acupuncture and chiropractics. The new plans will be designed to cost as little as $150 a month, or less.

Um, Ms. Egelhoff, the problem is we are already paying a lot for no coverage. More of the same is not going to help the problem.

But as Ms. Egelhoff quaintly puts it:

And from a Republican. Imagine.

Amateur? Moi?

Jo Egelhoff, of FoxPolitics.net, is mighty upset that her candidate for DPI chief lost in yesterday's elections. For some reason, she decided to take her frustrations out on me:

And then there’s the spin of amateur liberal pundit Chris Liebenthal. Simply unbelievable in the face of WEAC money thrown at the race. Absolutely unbelievable.

I think [Fernandez] would have had a better chance of winning except for two things. The fact that she was too willing to sidle up to the special interests was one of them. The other was that some of her ideas and positions showed just how unqualified she really was for the job.

Perfect lack of class. And lack of truth.

In her frustration, about the only thing she got correct was the spelling of my name.

Please note that she does not indicate why she thinks there is a supposed lack of class or truth. I guess in her world, her saying so makes it true. This appears to be a common ailment among a lot of the right wingers, so it does not surprise me. It is also rather ironic that this is coming from someone that occasionally links to my posts, but has yet to be able to transcribe the title of the post accurately.

Another thing that is not surprising is her denial of my point about special interest. The tangled web from K12 (who keep checking in here to see if I wrote about them) to All Children Matter, she is not what most people would call squeaky clean from the entanglements of the special interests.

Considering that the two Supreme Court races in which similar special interests were involved led to the bought elections of two justices that start with a cloud of shame even before they were sworn in, it is not at all surprising that people are shunning that type of politics now. It also didn't help Ms. Fernandez to have Howard Fuller, a pro-school choice advocate, throw his support behind Evers.

But the part that I am still chuckling about is the "amateur pundit" line. Obviously, Ms. Egelhoff meant pundit to be defined as critic and commenter instead of learned person. She wouldn't want to give me any credit now, would she.

But the amateur part is a bit bemusing. Amateur could mean novice, but since I am approaching my second blogiversary, counting the time that folkbum has been kind enough to get me started and host me for this whole time, I don't see that being applicable.

It could also mean that I do not do this for pay, but for the love of it. Well, I do enjoy the discourse, and have a cyber-soapbox on which to offer my opinions, but I also have these blog ads on the side bar, which I am told will someday produce revenue. So I do (or more accurately, someday will, hopefully) receive compensation, no matter how meager, for my work here.

The third option for amateur is the most accurate, but probably not what she meant. That would be when amateur means the opposite of professional. It is quite true that I do not have someone paying to write what they want me to write, like Bush and the Republicans paid some "professionals" to do. Nor am I part of an echo chamber that follows these professionals.

But hey, Ms. Egelhoff, thanks for reading.