Welcome to your Wednesday open thread. Nothing big going on today. It’s not like I have a big meeting with governor or anything.
Kansas Republican Connie O’Brien has special illegal immigrant-detecting powers.
Speaking in favor of repealing the law, Rep. Connie O’Brien (R-KS) began telling an anecdote at the hearing about how her son had difficulty in getting financial assistance to attend college. She explained that she took her son to a financial aid office, and as she was waiting in line, she believed there was a girl waiting in line with them who was “not originally from this country.” Fellow committee member Rep. Sean Gatewood (D-KS) asked O’Brien how she knew this student was “illegal.” O’Brien replied that she knew because the student “wasn’t black, she wasn’t Asian, and she had the olive complexion”
I think I’m surrounded by illegal immigrants! There are swarthy-looking people everywhere!
Speaking of governors, new Wisconsin governor Scott Walker has started his term with huge controversy. He’s proposing huge pay cuts for public employees, pension and benefit changes and wants to end collective bargaining (basically a wingnut’s dream). He’s even said he’ll call the national guard to keep workers from striking. The AFL-CIO had a huge demonstration yesterday. Superbowl champions Green Bay Packers released a statement of support for the state workers.
We know that it is teamwork on and off the field that makes the Packers and Wisconsin great. As a publicly owned team we wouldn’t have been able to win the Super Bowl without the support of our fans.
It is the same dedication of our public workers every day that makes Wisconsin run. They are the teachers, nurses and child care workers who take care of us and our families. But now in an unprecedented political attack Governor Walker is trying to take away their right to have a voice and bargain at work.
The right to negotiate wages and benefits is a fundamental underpinning of our middle class. When workers join together it serves as a check on corporate power and helps ALL workers by raising community standards. Wisconsin’s long standing tradition of allowing public sector workers to have a voice on the job has worked for the state since the 1930s. It has created greater consistency in the relationship between labor and management and a shared approach to public work.
These public workers are Wisconsin’s champions every single day and we urge the Governor and the State Legislature to not take away their rights.
Thank you, Green Bay Packers for supporting public servants. We should all realize that as unions lose rights, we all lose rights.