With the flick of his pen, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker dashed the hopes of thousands of protestors defending their right to basic wage negotiation, March 11, and signed into law legislation which breaks up the unions of firefighters, police officers, teachers, prison guards and other public employees.
While ostensibly a budgetary matter, the bill does little to actually reign in spending but does strengthen a state law which already prohibits strikes by public employees by threatening dismissal for taking part in sick-outs, sit-downs or slow-downs and also mandates annual elections by union members on whether to remain unionized.
“While tough budget choices certainly still lie ahead, both state and local units of government will not have to do any mass layoffs or direct service reductions because of the reforms contained in the budget repair bill,” said Walker.
Meanwhile, Gov. Walker himself makes $137,092 a year, not a cent of which he has donated to ease the burden of those dedicating their lives to teaching our children, ensuring our safety and making our cities a better place to live, most of whom make close to 23,000 a year.
This number is fairly typical for a majority of Americans, 90 percent of whom make an average of $31,244 annually according to a study released in February by Mother Jones Magazine. The top ten percent, which includes Gov. Walker, make an average of $164,647 per year, while the top one percent makes $1,137,684. The study goes on to list the exponentially more extravagant lifestyle of the top .1 and .01 percent of Americans, but most readers get too angry to read past that point.
“There is class warfare,” said billionaire Warren Buffett. “But it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”
At the same time, Walker and other Republicans are clamoring to extend the Bush tax cuts for families making over $250,000 a year, while subsequently demonizing teachers and other servants of the public good.
“What we’re doing here, I think, is progressive,” said Walker. “It’s innovative. It’s reform that leads the country, and we’re showing there’s a better way by sharing in that sacrifice with all of us in government.”
In response to the resolution that they would be sharing the sacrifice with their governor, Wisconsin citizens swarmed their capitol, as did the citizens of Michigan and Ohio. Democrats, seeing no other way to stop the vote, went refugee from the Senate, as a result of

which Walker penalized them with stiff fines and authorized state troopers to bring them in by force. He also briefed the National Guard “in preparation of any problems that could result in a disruption of state services.”
With the recent unrest in Egypt and elsewhere, one would think the American overlords would have learned a thing or two about equality under the law. Or perhaps they have.
“If you had found [rebels] taking over American cities with armed force, tell me what you would do?” asked Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi in a letter to U.S. President Barrack Obama.
My concern is that, given time, Americans may learn the answer to Gadhafi’s question for themselves.