Dear Wisconsin:

[seawasp]

Your Lords and Masters need to be reminded that they are, actually, neither. I hope it doesn't require that you burn half the capital to the ground to remind them, but if you feel it's necessary, this may be the time to start.


Oh, and many Tea Party supporters? Please stop calling yourselves Libertarian. You clearly don't know what it actually means and I'm now having to avoid calling myself one -- when I've been doing so for 30 years -- because you've gotten the word all dirty.

Comments

[phanatic.livejournal.com]

Your Lords and Masters need to be reminded that they are, actually, neither.

Hysterical.

[phanatic.livejournal.com]

Oh, shit, even funnier:

"We're prepared to do whatever it takes to kill the bill or shut it down," said Daniel Ginsberg of Milwaukee, an organizer with Students for a Democratic Society.

[johnkzin.livejournal.com]

Tea Party == Econo-Terrorist dupes.

[gary-jordan.livejournal.com]

I always thought that in a room containing 100 Libertarians, there were 101 opinions of what "Libertarian" means, half of them mutually exclusive. (Not that it's any different for the other parties...)

[seawasp]

To an extent, but I've noticed I've been running into fewer and fewer of those which I would call "sensible Libertarians" and seeing far more of the variant that uses "Libertarian" to mean "Gimme my stuff and no, I'm blinding myself to the potential consequences with this here spike."

[joycemocha.livejournal.com]

You mean SDS is still alive?

Wowzer.

This could get really interesting.

[ancientone.livejournal.com]

It would seem we're doing the shame thing in Michigan regarding unions. I actually am starting to feel a little frightened by all this. I guess we all really know what the republican's wanted to accomplish this year. Shame on them!

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

Why aren't the Republicans allowed to pass a law, even if they have sufficient quorum and votes? You seem to be implying that the Democrats should be able to shut down all legislative business by virtue of their sheer Democrat-ness, and use illegal force if necessary to ensure this.

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

Evil Republicans, daring to pass laws using the constitutional process! It's a good thing we have noble Democrats willing to use illegal force to stop this nefarious plan!

[muirecan.livejournal.com]

What is so special about Wisconsin's law that it gets all this attention when Ohio is passing essentially the same thing and no one is complaining?

[anghara.livejournal.com]

COMPLAIN! We all need to complain, loud and long! Everywhere, even in Ohio!

[anghara.livejournal.com]

Oh, so that's why they all slunk out of a secret tunnel after they "voted" on passing a law they could not constitutionally pass without the political opposition being present?

Shame on you for labeling any of this "constistutional". Have you ever heard "BY the people and FOR the people"? Or do you understand that to mean only people who have a minimum of (high) six figures in their bank accounts, and can afford to buy their politicians?

[chaotic-nipple.livejournal.com]

The tunnels aren't really secret. It's how many people who work at the Capitol get from the parking garage to their offices every day.

[chaotic-nipple.livejournal.com]

Also, last night's vote was probably constitutional, but it was held in blatant violation of the state's Open Meeting Law. Hopefully, that's grounds to overturn it.

Ya gotta love how spending 18 months incessantly debating and compromising on an issue is "Ramming it down the public's throat" when it's a Democratic majority doing it, but a week's notification and a declaration that there will be no negotiation or compromise is just a-ok when it's Republicans in charge. And how filibusters are "an essential safeguard to democracy", but quorum-denial is "n attack on democracy itself!"

[chaotic-nipple.livejournal.com]

'Cuz our protests have been bigger. If there were 70,000 people chanting outside the Ohio Capitol building, more people would pay attention to them.

[ancientone.livejournal.com]

gosh, i thougt for sure they were elected to balance the budget, not bust the unions. please, constitutional process?? oh, I see. that must be when 69% of wisconisn did not want that passed. hmmm. I guess they must be evil too.

[argonel.livejournal.com]

How do you feel about the term Minarchist? Of course that sparks just as many arguments about just how much is the minimum necessary to keep society functioning.

[randallsquared.livejournal.com]

And by "Lords and Masters", I suppose you're referring to the public workers who want to be able to take even *more* money from taxpayers, although they're paid above average already (or so I read on the internet).

But seriously, I don't really see a correct side, here.

[caper-est.livejournal.com]

Legalism: libertarianism without all that commie liberal 'consent' crap. You know it makes sense.

And indeed, if you are going to be sitting on the right side of the no-bid government contracts, it most absolutely honest-to-gosh does!

[caper-est.livejournal.com]

In principle, I am more than open to arguments like that. In this case, the managerialist-state faction has shown itself so quickly to be so power-trippy, so shamelessly false to its most basic alleged principles, and so gloatingly indifferent to any questions of good faith or agency or consent, that the labourist-state faction will have to do a lot of extra bad things to match it. I am not very much on the public unions' side in the big picture, but I am very considerably on their side against this misery of masters.

In power politics, I very seldom expect to find a correct side. I do very often expect to find a side which is right out of line, and needs to be resisted but good. And I nearly think the New Bosses in Wisconsin have put themselves in just that position.

False friends like these are worse than open foes for libertarians (or anybody else with a code they really care about): they steal not only the silver from our pockets, but the words off our tongues and the features off our faces into the bargain.

Libertarians

[niall-shapero.livejournal.com]

The tea party members are about as Libertarian as George Lincoln Rockwell.

When I think of Libertarians, I tend to think of L. Neil Smith and (closer to home) Samuel Konkin III.

[ldsman.livejournal.com]

So, whats the big deal? If the Democrats win enough seats in the next election, they can reverse the decision/pass a new bill giving back the union monopoly. Personally, I'd wait and see how things go before complaining about it.