When Obama was running for president in 2008, he promised to “fundamentally change America” – a phrase which lucid Americans took as meaning he was going to bring his leftist agenda to bear on us all. And if Obama has had any success as president, it’s certainly been his success in changing us fundamentally from a nation under law to a nation that often looks lawless. From a nation in which one feels secure into a nation in which more and more people are feeling that their security is in their own hands (literally). And this has led not only to record breaking gun sales since Obama’s election, but also to changes in state laws around the country to make it easier for law-abiding citizens to carry a handgun for their own protection.

As a result of this, Wisconsin, which was one of the few states to not have some form of concealed carry law within its borders, now has one thanks to their much maligned Republican legislature and Gov. Scott Walker. With the stroke of a pen in July of 2011, Walker made Wisconsin the 49th state in the union to allow the concealed carry of handguns. (Only Illinois, Obama’s old stomping ground, continues to deny its citizens this option right.)

And while I don’t want to take away from what Walker has accomplished in Wisconsin, during the last few years the momentum has shifted from seeking to allow licensed citizens to carry concealed handguns to allowing all citizens without a felony in their criminal record or mental health problems to carry concealed without a license or a permit. In other words, the growing push abroad is to recognize the 2nd Amendment as a sufficient permit for concealed carry and go from there.  After all, the 2nd Amendment does say we have the right not only to keep but also to bear arms.

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Next time you hear sanctimonious wails from the left about how Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) and Republicans want to take collective bargaining rights away from workers, remember that basic evaluations and disciplinary actions for awful teachers is something these union believe need to be negotiated and are not, in fact, the built in right of the employer (that’s you, the taxpayer).

Here’s “Exhibit A”:

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo stressed the importance of officials agreeing on a new statewide teacher evaluation system at yesterday’s State of the State address. Michael Mulgrew, President of the United Federation of Teachers, tells WOR’s John Gambling, Cuomo showed real leadership, but until Mayor Bloomberg negotiates the law the union will not act outside of those parameters. (Audio after the jump) (more…)

Big labor attempted to turn yesterday’s election for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court into a referendum on Governor Scott Walker’s budget policies, but, like much else in Wisconsin politics these days, the results remain unclear. This state court fight drew national attention because of its potential implications for the state’s new law, supported by Walker and Republicans in the legislature, barring collective bargaining for government employees.

Charles H. Franklin, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison told the New York Times Monday “This has really become a proxy battle for the governor’s positions and much less a fight about the court itself.”

Prosser, seen as a conservative, is expected to uphold Governor Walker’s union bill, while the liberal Kloppenburg has been heavily backed by the unions because she is expected to overturn it. The current court is split four to three in favor of conservatives, which makes this seat the deciding vote if the union case were to reach the state Supreme Court.

The morning after the polls closed there is no clear winner. Kloppenburg leads by a mere 224 votes 739,574 to Prosser’s 739,350 with 99 percent of precincts reporting. Turnout was high, but it is significant to note that, for all that it invested in this contest,  big labor was unable to secure a decisive win. It wasn’t for lack of trying.

Unions attempted a show of force across the country on April 4, staging hundreds of “We are 1” rallies. Their goal was to show solidarity but the outcome was lackluster at best. Redstate.com reported that despite the unions spending tens of thousands of dollars many of the rallies had only a fraction of the expected turnout.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka boldly predicted that the union’s demonstrations across the country would translate into electoral victory – starting yesterday in Wisconsin and catapulting Democrats to large wins in November 2012. On Tuesday he told a closed door Democratic House caucus meeting, “I firmly believe that if Democrats are to take back the House in 2012, it will be because they succeed in riding this wave, keeping that spark alive and closing the enthusiasm gap.” However, the unclear result from the Wisconsin Supreme Court election makes Trumka’s bluster ring hollow.

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On April 5, Wisconsinites will go to the poll to pick a new supreme court justice. The election has gained prominence because many political analysts believe the Budget Repair Bill may one day end up before the high court. Throughout the campaign, challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg has claimed she is politically unbiased and impartial. However analysis of her political history, donations and comments have called that into question. Now Media Trackers has learned that Kloppenburg accepted a campaign donation from the husband of Judge Maryann Sumi, the judge who caused a firestorm of controversy by blocking Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair bill.

Additionally, Sumi’s husband, Carl Sinderbrand, an environmental lawyer, also represents a party in a pending case in which Kloppenburg is defending the other side – the state DNR.

Underscoring the growing ties between her campaign and attempts to stop Walker’s agenda, Kloppenburg’s campaign website boasts an endorsement from a vocal member of the “Wisconsin 14” – one of the Democratic senators who fled the state, Sen. Chris Larson.

According to Wispolitics.com, Kloppenburg said during a debate with incumbent David Prosser this week that “she also wouldn’t need to recuse herself from any cases on the collective bargaining bill because she has remained independent during the protests in Madison.”

However, the donation from Sumi’s husband raises serious questions as to whether Kloppenburg, if victorious, could even hear the state Attorney General’s challenge to Sumi’s ruling, which could eventually reach the state Supreme Court.

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MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Republicans in the Wisconsin Senate voted Wednesday night to strip nearly all collective bargaining rights from public workers after discovering a way to bypass the chamber’s missing Democrats.

All 14 Senate Democrats fled to Illinois nearly three weeks ago, preventing the chamber from having enough members present to consider Gov. Scott Walker’s so-called “budget repair bill”—a proposal introduced to plug a $137 million budget shortfall.

The Senate requires a quorum to take up any measures that spend money. But Republicans on Wednesday split from the legislation the proposal to curtail union rights, which spends no money, and a special conference committee of state lawmakers approved the bill a short time later.

The lone Democrat present on the conference committee, Rep. Tony Barca, shouted that the surprise meeting was a violation of the state’s open meetings law but Republicans voted over his objections. The Senate then convened within minutes and passed it without discussion or debate.

Spectators in the gallery screamed “You are cowards.” (more…)

Faced with an $8 billion budget deficit, Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) is on the verge of signing a bill that would prevent state employees from using collective bargaining to negotiate their health and pension benefits. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) has pushed a similar bill, which has drawn national attention, spawned weeks of protests, and sent Democratic lawmakers fleeing the state as a way to stall its passage.

Two other GOP governors facing major budget crises – New Jersey’s Chris Christie and Michigan’s Rick Snyder – have made it clear that they don’t see restricting bargaining rights as the key to more austerity. Texas, North Carolina, and Louisiana face major budget deficits, and in those states public employees don’t have collective bargaining rights.

To what extent is collective bargaining to blame for out-of-control state spending? Is clamping down on the ability of public-employee unions to negotiate an important tactic for closing what may grow to a combined $125 billion gap in state budgets next fiscal year?

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