So I have been following the worker protests in Wisconsin. As usual, I didn't just want to base my opinion on headlines, and mainstream media reporting. So I started following links, and found some interesting stuff. You see, the Governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker wants to weaken unions, and effectively destroy the collective bargaining process through legislation. Some great details can be found here. Thousands of workers have hit the streets in protest. So then I opened up the Drudge Report, and found a story telling how Wisconsin teachers are on average compensated $100,000 a year. Mind you, it doesn't say they get paid that much, but the casual reader (Drudges "conservative readership") might think that. So I follow the headline and it turns out it was posted by the MacIver Institute... (a self described free market think tank) The link has since become inoperative. So I wondered just what is the MacIver Institute. Easy enough to find information on that. It turns out that former Republican Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen is the force behind them, not an academic as one might expect from an "institute". Mr Jensen recently settled a misconduct in office case where he and other Republicans got caught using staffers for political campain work. The institute, I then found, used a former news anchor to pose as a himself still as a reporter, (to gain access) to "interview" Democratic office holders. Great stuff, and very telling of the machinations being used by those who would keep working people down.
The MacIver Institute has several internet presences, such as their page on YouTube. And like many other conservative YouTube and blog sites, they do not allow comentary on their post. Showing them to be the cowards they are.
