Monday Open Thread

Welcome to your Monday open thread. It’s Monday again. Time for the work week to begin for many of us. I don’t know about you, but I miss the weekend already.

While we’ve all been following the events in Wisconsin quite closely, we should probably keep our eyes on Florida as well. Rick Scott is the most unpopular governor in the nation and this will have consequences.

​Next month the Broward County Police Benevolent Association is holding a “Party to Leave the Party” — an event coordinated with the Supervisor of Elections where police officers and the general public can switch their voter registrations from Republican to Democratic or Independent.

The reason for the switch? The association, which serves as the bargaining union for the county’s law enforcement officers, is unhappy with the leadership of Governor Rick Scott and the results of the past legislative session, including changes to the Florida Retirement System that will require the workers to pay more of their own wages into retirement savings.

…

“[Governor Scott’s] union dues deduction bill is a flat-out union-busting bill,” says Hanrihan. “Under the law, a government agency wouldn’t be allowed to collect union dues if it was involved in political campaigns.” He notes that Scott had “no problem” taking money from the police union in the past election. Scott did get significant pushback on the bill from some Republican representatives, but the House eventually passed it.​

You don’t have to be a union member to realize they are almost all we have in fighting corporate power. The idea of removing the last bit of worker protection is rubbing a lot of people the wrong way. 2012 is going to be a really important election in determining the direction of our nation.

I missed this earlier in the week. John Stossel of Fox News Business had Republican presidential candidate Gary Johnson debate an Obama impersonator.

I have no idea why Gary Johnson would agree to do something so silly. Does Johnson thinks it helps him?