Topic: Stewart on Wisconsin: MSNB-Sad (video)

[IronDioPriest]

This is pretty hilarious. Gotta hand it to Stewart. He's one Leftist comedian who at least hasn't forgotten that a comedian's primary objective is to be funny.

Oh, and this is funny up until he introduces "correspondent" Samantha Bee. She's just not funny, and her bit is not funny. Skip that part and you miss nothing.

(Video)

...And then there was Lawrence O’Donnell, calling President Obama the “real winner” of the recall, which led Stewart to muse on how President Obama came up with the idea for Walker winning reelection: “Hey guys, I got an idea– let’s have the core of what we believe soundly rejected by voters of a swing state five months before the national election!”

[Pandora]

Uh ....YEAH! That's the ticket!  We'l just say .... uh ..... we'll say we meant to lose!  That's it!  Because ... uh ... because we can win whenever we want to!

[LadyVirginia]

Uh ....YEAH! That's the ticket!  We'l just say .... uh ..... we'll say we meant to lose!  That's it!  Because ... uh ... because we can win whenever we want to!

 

[AlanS]

I don't think I've ever heard Stewart so funny. Now that I think about it, I'm not sure if he's ever been funny before.

[EW1(SG)]

I don't think I've ever heard Stewart so funny. Now that I think about it, I'm not sure if he's ever been funny before.

 

/If he has, I missed it.

[RickZ]

Say what you want, but at least PMSBC covered the recall vote even though they were crying in their soy lattes.  CNN, once the election was called, cut from Wolf Blitzer to a replay of Queen Elizabeth's anniversary ceremonies -- for well over 3 hours.  A replay!  With one of the most significant votes, outside of a presidential election, taking place.  The implication for organized labor and government employee unions is staggering.  Stewart had one very good point:  The electorate put Walker into office precisely because of the state's financial condition.  He took on waste, which means taking on the unions.  The unions didn't like it, so they stuffed the recall forms with nonsense.  Got away with it, too.  Then they did all that damage to the state capitol, protesting for their assumed right as government employees to collective bargain.  Then the people told the unions via this vote, hey, we meant it when we elected Walker the first time!

This recall election could very well end up being a referendum on unions, with the unions losing big time.  All that money, all that overtime, all wasted.  Now that Walker has cut the state out of the union dues collection business, the unions have lost a third of their membership.  With the election now over, I'm sure more will quit paying dues depriving the union beast of money necessary to mount such challenges in the future.  We could be seeing the high water mark for unions, specifically the government employee kind.  It really was a historic night.  Yes, the hosts over at PMSBC were in denial in their devastation.  But at least they were live and on the air (as if anyone noticed).  But CNN?  The 'down the middle, real news source' network?  A repeat of something that had nothing to do with Wisconsin or even the United States.  CNN deserves the ridicule while we should take the deranged angst at PMSBC for the humor that it is.

[IronDioPriest]

...This recall election could very well end up being a referendum on unions, with the unions losing big time....

I think that's exactly what it was - even more so than a referendum on Walker's job performance. I think it was a combination of that, and of people deciding that recalls are for malfeasance in office, not for political differences.

People got a 24/7 dose of reality when the Democrats fled the state and the unions took over the capitol. The unions and their supporters dropped the mask for an extended view that revealed ugliness that most people find repulsive, and perhaps were seeing for the first time.

Everybody knows the cliche of the "union thug". But most people have never seen it in action, and this debacle showed people that not only do union thugs exist, but they are our teachers; public service clerks; our neighbors. And we learned that they are selfish, hateful, tantrum-throwers who cannot conceive of someone telling them that all the toys in the nursery do not belong to them.

There is a lot of talk about how Walker's victory will begin a cascade of states making similar moves. But seriously, after watching this debacle unfold in Wisconsin - and taking into account Kasich's initiative in Ohio being overturned - even though the people of WI got it right, and it came out right in the end, it will take politicians with balls of steel to follow in Walker's footsteps. The unions blew it in Wisconsin, and yet, they did create a situation that few people want to see repeated.

[Libertas]

Say what you want, but at least PMSBC covered the recall vote even though they were crying in their soy lattes.  CNN, once the election was called, cut from Wolf Blitzer to a replay of Queen Elizabeth's anniversary ceremonies -- for well over 3 hours.  A replay!  With one of the most significant votes, outside of a presidential election, taking place.  The implication for organized labor and government employee unions is staggering.  Stewart had one very good point:  The electorate put Walker into office precisely because of the state's financial condition.  He took on waste, which means taking on the unions.  The unions didn't like it, so they stuffed the recall forms with nonsense.  Got away with it, too.  Then they did all that damage to the state capitol, protesting for their assumed right as government employees to collective bargain.  Then the people told the unions via this vote, hey, we meant it when we elected Walker the first time!

This recall election could very well end up being a referendum on unions, with the unions losing big time.  All that money, all that overtime, all wasted.  Now that Walker has cut the state out of the union dues collection business, the unions have lost a third of their membership.  With the election now over, I'm sure more will quit paying dues depriving the union beast of money necessary to mount such challenges in the future.  We could be seeing the high water mark for unions, specifically the government employee kind.  It really was a historic night.  Yes, the hosts over at PMSBC were in denial in their devastation.  But at least they were live and on the air (as if anyone noticed).  But CNN?  The 'down the middle, real news source' network?  A repeat of something that had nothing to do with Wisconsin or even the United States.  CNN deserves the ridicule while we should take the deranged angst at PMSBC for the humor that it is.

 

[Pandora]

Everybody knows the cliche of the "union thug". But most people have never seen it in action, and this debacle showed people that not only do union thugs exist, but they are our teachers; public service clerks; our neighbors. And we learned that they are selfish, hateful, tantrum-throwers who cannot conceive of someone telling them that all the toys in the nursery do not belong to them.

Exactly that, and more.  Vast swaths of taxpayers were finally made aware of how much those toys were costing them; the salaries, pensions and medical benefits paid for by folks who were working for their own, which were less impressive, and that of the thugs.  What I am sure outraged many was finding out the health insurance company was teacher-owned and costing them three times what other plans would.

That whiny-baby-cranky-face crying to the reporter about how "democracy died" in this country was quite honest in his belief that it has, because he was taught that voting for the "good" people meant his life was paid for and he was entitled to have it so.

[IronDioPriest]

...That whiny-baby-cranky-face crying to the reporter about how "democracy died" in this country was quite honest in his belief that it has, because he was taught that voting for the "good" people meant his life was paid for and he was entitled to have it so.

Yip. That dude is the poster child for why the unions lost and Scott Walker won. The people of Wisconsin voted against him, as much as for Scott Walker.

[RickZ]

That dude is the poster child for why every child shouldn't get a trophy.

[LadyVirginia]

One GOP strategist noted that Walker's reforms could turn out to be one of the most significant educational reforms in decades.  School boards will become relevant again as they decide how much teachers get paid.  They can decide if a math teacher is worth more than a PE teacher for their kids.

[RickZ]

More food for thought re: this recall election.

. . . big labor was absolutely the huge loser last night and in fact, they have been losing ever since Walker took office.  It was the behavior of the unions in the Madison riots that really started the general public's focusing in on just how much these "public servants" are now making in salaries, pensions and health care, and how damned entitled they feel to all of this.  That is what started all of this mess.  The public was also tuned in to the unseemly nature of public sector unions per se and their relationship with politicians they get elected.  And perhaps most devastating of all is the fact that some government unions in Wisconsin have lost over half of their own membership during this protracted battle.  And oh by the way, public sector unions started in Wisconsin.  In 1959.

Makes the theory of the recall being a referendum on unions all the more interesting.

[IronDioPriest]

...Makes the theory of the recall being a referendum on unions all the more interesting.

Indeed. I hadn't heard that nugget until this moment. I wonder how many voting Wisconsinites know this, and if it played a role in the outcome? I'm going to guess not many, and little. Still, it'd be interesting to know.