Chicago school activist and CTU organizer Martin Ritter designed this to be used as your Facebook cover. Share it with your friends.
John Dillon’s Pension vocabulary: Pedantic Profits. Caterpillar’s Chief Executive Doug Oberhelman says that the U.S. manufacturing workforce is lagging, and education is at fault. Oberhelman, who receives $16.9 million in salary alone in 2011 and another $8.3 million in options, describes the potential workforce for his company as lacking. And he says it is education’s fault, for he has nowhere else to pick from.
I was no fan of Day Hynes, but he was sure right about Pat Quinn. And Harold sure nailed the guy.
Do you support Chicago teachers? Call CPS CEO JC Brizard on Thursday and every Thursday to let him know: 773 553 1500.
Rahm’s top cop says the city’s increasing violence is neither winning or losing. What’s that? A tie?
More from Tom Morello on Paul Ryan. This from Rolling Stone.
California’s Prop 32 is the corporate billionaire’s wet dream.
Politico broke a story on Sunday that a group of Republican congressmen, their staffers, and families had gone for a rowdy dip in the Sea of Galilee on an official trip to Israel last summer, with a representative from Kansas, Kevin Yoder, swimming in the buff. Is this a mini-scandal worth caring about?
What interests me about it is that two of the three founders of the GOP’s self-styled “Young Guns” — Eric Cantor and Kevin McCarthy — were on that junket, if not skinny dipping themselves. It’s also interesting that they kept this mini-scandal secret for a year. It makes you wonder what else happened on this junket or other outings by this cohort. Perhaps the third founding “Young Gun” — that would be Paul Ryan — can tell us. Frank Rich.
Fred Klonsky 
Did I dream this up?
Illinois Voters: Give teachers their pensions
August 23, 2012 By IEA Communications
Illinois Voters: Give teachers their pensions; find non-punative solution to pension crisis
Springfield, IL – A new statewide poll shows the efforts of Governor Quinn and other politicians to win public support for proposals to cut pensions for teachers and other public employees has failed. Rather, it shows that voters overwhelmingly believe that teachers are entitled to their full retirement benefits and that politicians should find fixes to the pension mess that do not punish current or retired workers.
The poll, taken in early August, also indicates that a controversial proposal to shift state pension costs to local school districts could cost state legislators votes this November.
The statewide poll of 600 frequent voters (margin of error +/- 4.0 percent), conducted in early August by Normington, Petts and Associates for the Illinois Education Association (IEA), shows 68 percent of voters believe teachers should receive their pensions as they were promised. Voters maintain that opinion even when reminded about the state’s budget problems.
“Governor Quinn and the state legislative leaders have been bashing teachers over pensions for years but our poll shows the public supports teachers, not politicians,” said IEA President Cinda Klickna.
The percentage of frequent voters who believe teachers should receive their full pension increases from 68 percent to 75 percent when voters learn that teachers are ineligible for Social Security and that the crisis was caused by politicians who spent money that should have gone to pensions on their own state priorities instead.
Among the poll highlights:
Only 5 percent of voters believe teachers and college faculty are to blame for the current $83 billion pension deficit while 58 percent believe it’s the legislature’s fault.
Voters strongly oppose any proposal that would reduce pension benefits for current retirees.
Voters are concerned about the proposal to shift the state’s pension costs to local school districts.
59 percent polled feel that switching the state’s pension cost to local school districts would be a bad idea, though opposition lessened when it was proposed that the shift take place over 10 years (45 percent both for and against).
Most (51 percent) said they would be less likely to vote for a lawmaker who voted for the shift.
According to Klickna, Gov. Quinn should rethink his plan to rally the public against teacher pensions in September and instead, start meeting with the Illinois labor coalition to develop a fair and constitutional plan to fix the pension crisis.
“The governor needs to work with the unions, not against them. The framework developed by the union coalition offers the opportunity for the governor and other politicians to get on the right side of the pension issue, the side the voters support” Klickna said.
“The voters aren’t fooled by the attacks on teachers and other public employees. They reject the schemes cooked up by a handful of millionaires. They want us to all work together to do what’s best for Illinois,” she added.
In their proposed framework for addressing the pension crisis, members of the We Are One Illinois labor coalition have asked that the following be part of any pension legislation:
A guarantee the state will, going forward, make its payments to the pension systems.
A commitment by the state to close loopholes allowing big corporations to avoid paying their share.
No pension cuts for those already retired.
If the state will agree to those conditions, the coalition unions have said that their members would be willing to generate billions of dollars for the pension systems by increasing the amount individuals pay for their pensions.
According to Klickna, the unions representing teachers, firefighters and other public employees know that a solution to the pension-funding crisis has to be found and have ideas that would help stabilize the pension systems. However, the state’s elected leaders have ignored the unions’ ideas.
“The poll shows the voters are saying, ‘Enough.’ The politicians need to listen to the voters,” she added.
I fully apreciate the vote of confidence from the public at large. I am however; a little concerned that we; as soon to retire teachers, state workers, etc., are being told we will agree to pay more. The facts will still remain the same. The legilature/governor will figure a way to steal the money (divert if you prefer that term) and use it for programs to continue to buy votes in Chicago. A thinking person would consider that lessons should have been learned from Boss Tweed. Boss Daily, and a host of others. We are in the shape we are in due to a shameless waste of our monies by a never ending stream of corruption that is endemic to our state. My one hope is that after retirement I will be able to move to a more friendly and less corrupt location outside of Illinois. These problems will not end, they will have band aids placed on them, and they will be pulled off later causing more pain and suffering. We need to fight now, or blame ourselves for our lack of effort later.
I sure miss Harold!