VUSD Taxpayer wrote on Aug 10, 2008 10:05 AM:Jim, you are right!! I too have lived through the recall and all the diviseness of the union.

huh wrote on Aug 10, 2008 10:07 AM:I find it hard to believe that Mr. Trageser was even in Vista back in 1993. For one thing there were 3 so called Christian trustees and they were in the majority, Tyndall, Holliday and Joyce Lee. Tyndall actually worked at the Creation Research Center in Santee. Those 3 most assuredly did propose teaching creationism in Vista schools. It became nationwide news. The rest of Trageser's rant is just as incorrect as his "facts". You are way out of line saying that our Vista teachers don't give a darn about my kids' education. You are wrong, wrong, wrong.

ER wrote on Aug 10, 2008 11:39 AM:How can someone write an article without checking the facts? This is full of misinformation... probably on purpose. This type of garbage fuels the fire of division. Get it right (and correct) or do us all a favor and keep it to yourself.

jvc wrote on Aug 10, 2008 11:52 AM:If teachers gave a darn, why is teaching so poor? No, it is all about money! Do public servants need a union?
MAYBE, THE ONLY WAY FOR STUDENTS TO GET A PROPER EDUCATION IS TO UNIONIZE THEM
AND THEIR PARENTS!

Beth-San Marcos wrote on Aug 10, 2008 5:51 PM:These ads stating that education is being cut is an outright lie. They just ain't getting their increase in their budget. And don't forget that most school districts give nice raises and pay little to nothing for their healthcare

Jim Trageser wrote on Aug 10, 2008 8:09 PM:To Huh and ER: Deirdre Holliday was never targeted for recall. Further, the recall committee launched the recall the night of the election when Tyndall and Lee were elected. Clearly, the recall had nothing to do with anything they did in office, as it was launched even before they were sworn in. Nor did any of them ever move to put creationism in the classroom - they may have talked about it during the election, but once in office, none of them ever made a formal proposal to do so. Not once. The closest they came was when Tyndall proposed putting a creation book (with the name Panda in the title, as I recall) in the voluntary reading stack at the library. The faculty committee voted that suggestion down (I guess allowing students to actually read the creation literature for themselves was too dangerous ...), and that was the end of it.

The reason the Vista district become nationwide news is because the VTA brought just about every VUSD board meeting to a screeching halt with chanting and yelling. Various other political groups also demonstrated outside VUSD board meetings as part of a national campaign against Christian conservatives on school boards. So, yes, VUSD was national news during Tyndall, Lee and Holliday's tenure.

I would further point out that I was editorial page editor of the Blade-Citizen at that time (one of the precursors to this paper), and while we did not endorse Holliday, Tyndall or Lee, we did oppose the recall for the above reasons: Tyndall and Lee never betrayed their constituents nor the students. And I still believe their real "crime" was suggesting that the district couldn't afford another round of across-the-board raises on top of the built-in step raises the teachers were already getting.

Unionist wrote on Aug 11, 2008 12:49 AM:I'm a union member. I'm also disgusted by the teachers union's. They have no real accountability, yet demand raises in a time when the money is DECREASING in the budgets. "Educators"; bring California schools up from next to last place in the nation, and we'll talk about rewarding you. In the meantime, quit the social indoctrination of our kids and get back to actual TEACHING.

To huh wrote on Aug 11, 2008 3:53 AM:I was there the night of the creationism discussion. The superintendent put the word creationism in a science curriculum agenda, but there were no actual curriculum of any kind in the packet.
After two hours of press coverage and people yelling at these poor board members, the board comments were "There is nothing in here [the agenda item] about creationism to discuss." I have to admit I didn't think anyone from the press was left to cover that.

k wrote on Aug 11, 2008 7:41 AM:I do care about my students. I give my all for my students. I show up everyday, and go above and beyond, even though people in the press and in the community criticize me. I have been teaching for 14 years. The information in theis article is talking about things that happened when I was in high school and college. I think it is hardly relevant now. Quit talking about the past, and if you are so unhappy with the job our schools are doing...get involved. Come and read with children, mentor children whose parents are in jail, take on a foster child. Do something other than badmouth the people who are doing the hard work with little or no support.

Unions are good wrote on Aug 11, 2008 7:47 AM:I love my union, they help me keep the job I deserve at the pay I deserve. It is my right to get paid the right amount without someone trying to take it all the time. The unions represent in a very positive, helpful way for the good of all.

Damaged wrote on Aug 11, 2008 8:25 AM:Unions have wreaked havoc on the districts. Bus service for kids has been curtailed, sports programs cut, infrastructure maintenance deferred. Yet the step increase raises continue (aka - fog-a-mirror, get-a-raise).

Nobody "deserves" a job. You must prove yourself every day and be at risk of unemployment if you slack.

Reardon wrote on Aug 11, 2008 8:43 AM:Have you ever seen a teacher strike for more eductional material? More classroom time? Tougher testing? Firing incompetents? Fewer sports?

No, and neither has anyone else! Teachers have HUGE political clout, and it is all dedicated to more pay, less work, less accountability, hiring more teachers...

To be brutally direct, California ranks 49th out of 52 States and Districts in 4th Grade Reading. (Federal National Report Card.)

We also rank 49th in 8th grade reading,

There is something to say about consistency, so we also rank 49th in 4th grade Math – and somehow our 8th graders managed to finish 46 in Math.


Meanwhile

Trageser bias wrote on Aug 11, 2008 9:16 AM:Jim has a bias and he is willing to fit his "facts" around that bias.

How can he write about what happened at the VTA meetings that he did not attend?

The VTA has Executive Board and Representative Assembly minutes for that whole time period on file at the VTA office. There was NO ACTION concerning recall or even discussion of recall until MONTHS after the new board majority took office in December. Never was salary given as a reason for VTA to consider joining the community effort to recall the Extremist VUSD School Board members.

At the VERY FIRST meeting of the new Extremist VUSD School Board Majority in December creationism WAS the major topic. I was there. I saw the scientist hold up the fossil and ask the extremist if they thought it was only 6 thousand years old. They took the bait.

I attended virtually every board meeting after that while the Extremist held the majority. I NEVER once heard any chanting or disruption of the school board meetings by teachers. All the Vista School Board meetings are ON TAPE. I defy Trageser and the editor who allowed his nonsense to be published to find even one incident where teachers are heard chanting or disrupting the meetings. The teachers were extremely respectful at all the meetings I attended. The craziness and boos came from the other side during public comment by teachers and parents asking questions about the new board’s policies.

Trageser says there was a meeting the same night as the Board election to discuss recall. If so, document it, Jim. Aren't newspapers supposed to have TWO INDEPENDENT SOURCES? Can you tell us "Who came to the meeting?" or "Where it was held?" No, I did not think so. I believe your meeting is a made up fantasy concocted out of whole cloth to make the recalled board members feel better.

If your only source is from that group of sour grape recalled board members, then it is a BIASED source and should be suspect until independently confirmed. It should only be reported at that point. That is basic reporting protocol, right Jim?

The recall had nothing to do with being “part of a national campaign against Christian conservatives on school boards.” That statement by Jim gives us a bit of a view into the fantasy paranoia that informs his thinking and writing. The truth is that virtually every Vista School Board member has been and continues to be a Christian. The ooard majority has always been Christian since the formation of the district over eighty years ago. I defy Trageser to find one atheist, agnostic Muslim, Buddhist or other non Christian Board member in the history of the Vista School Board. I bet he cannot find one. He has not lived in our community. He would not know. I have and I actually do know of one and only one who was not a Christian. She was Jewish. Was she the person with the anti-Christian bias Jim is writing about? Did she start the “national campaign”? Who or what is Jim writing about? It needs documentation.

Having religious school board members was never the issue. It was attempts by the Extremist VUSD School Board Majority to insert non-science non-educational nonsense into the VUSD curriculum. Creationism was added to the public school curriculum by them. It was added to the social studies middle school curriculum by the Extremists after their attempts to insert it into the science classroom failed. The second issue was the destruction of VUSD’s comprehensive sex education program and replacement by a little or no information program called Sex Respect which among other things encouraged teenagers to "pet their dogs and not their dates and had racially questionable cartoons. The third issue was the chaos at the board meetings where needed school business did not get done because the new majority was so concerned with their personal agenda driven fringe issues. Fourth it had to do with the three member extremist board majority putting their personal political and religious agendas ahead of educating our children. No other VUSD Christian Board majority in our eighty year history had ever done that before.

The Extremist VUSD School Board Majority that was recalled was from a splinter Christian group called Young Earthers. They believe contrary to all geologic, radiographic and astronomical evidence that the ENTIRE universe is only 6 to ten thousand years old based on a single priest’s interpretation of Biblical genealogical records (see the begats) in the Bible. The early Christians closest to the time of Jesus did not have that view. It came 1500 years after the books of the New Testament were first written. Most Christians today do not share the young earth view either.

Had the Extremists stuck to School Board business and kept their religious minority extremist views out of the school board meetings and school board decisions, there would have been no recall. They caused their own recall with their outrageous actions and behaviors. It had NOTHING to do with some agenda against Christians. Every board majority in the history of VUSD has been a Christian Board majority including the board majority today.

The Recall certainly had nothing to do with teacher salaries. Again I repeat, there are Executive Board and Representative Assembly minutes for the Vista Teacher’s Association going back decades. There is NO MENTION of salaries as a reason for recall in those minutes. There was NEVER even a discussion of salary issues as a reason for the VTA to join the recall. The decision of the VTA to join the recall did not happen UNTIL MONTHS after the extremists board majority was seated in December. The VTA did not instigate the recall. Community members started the process and asked the VTA to join. There were very large misgivings on the part of many Executive Board and Representative Assembly members. It took several meetings of those two boards and some really outrageous behavior of the Extremist VUSD School Board majority members before the VTA joined with the community to attempt to recall those two board members and unseat the third (Deidre Holliday) if she decided to run for an additional term which she decided not to do.

Those community members and teachers who recalled the extremists did a great and valuable service for the students of VUSD. Educational issues come first in our district again. The brave Recallers also helped the businessmen and homeowners in the community as well. The chaos and craziness caused by the extremist board majority and its supporters was giving the City of Vista a terrible reputation and a terrible business climate.

In fact didn’t the Business Roundtable support the recall as well? I am a bit hazy here but I do remember there were many, many local businessmen who helped with the recall because of the effect that the national, regional, and local headlines were having on their businesses.

On the plus side it is the only time in my senior citizen life that I ever saw Vista on the front page of the New York Times. I guess we can be grateful to the Extremists for giving our community its fifteen minutes of fame or was it infamy?

Thankfully the extremists have been defeated every two years since then. They have not been successful at getting a majority in the last decade and hopefully will not succeed this November. They do have two on our board currently. Hopefully they will not get that third one for a majority allowing them to again bring our district to the brink of chaos.

Extremist revisionist history as published by today by Jim Trageser is a stain on the fine reputation of the North County Times and if his fictions are accepted as accurate by the voters in VUSD, it would do a great disservice to the children who are counting on VUSD to give them a well rounded education sheltered from extreme political and religious agendas.

jvc wrote on Aug 11, 2008 9:53 AM:Trageser Bias....wow, what an extremist point of view!
How could you defend a public institution that has proven itself a failure? What are YOU doing to bring
education of our children up to par?

Ron wrote on Aug 11, 2008 10:53 AM:Go get em Jim & Reardon @8:43 AM.
"Have you ever seen a teacher strike for more eductional material? More classroom time? Tougher testing? Firing incompetents? Fewer sports?"

Speaking of testing...
I was present at that particular Vista school board meeting where decreasing the amount of money spent on student testing was talked about, in order to preserve a recent teacher pay increase.
Eventually, they did see the light, cut something else like removing asbestos, but were able to preserve funding for testing. And Yes... teachers got their pay increase. All while leaking roofs over at Lincoln middle was unaddressed.
Yes, they complained about that too, later.

Unions are BAD wrote on Aug 11, 2008 10:55 AM:1. No teacher "DESERVES" a job. No more than any other member of society.
2. No teacher "DESERVES" a certain rate of pay. Actually, maybe they do: pay teachers in accordance with their performance. In our case, pay them second lowest rates in the country.

jvc wrote on Aug 11, 2008 11:20 AM:Reardon! Love you guy!In fact, I am star struck!

Retired public school teacher wrote on Aug 11, 2008 12:27 PM:I taught in the public school system for 35 years, paid my CTA dues at the tune of $350 a year. I was REQUIRED TO JOIN. NOT once were we able to vote on any issue. These officers sit on the CTA board in L.A., mostly minority, and say they represent us the average teacher.THEY REPRESENT THEIR OWN INTEREST AND DONOT SPEAK FOR ME. As far as I was concerned they did nothing for us.

Bill wrote on Aug 11, 2008 1:09 PM:A lot of parents don't think it's their job to teach their kids anything! I was just in a grocery store and wanted very badly to ask this woman if she ever thought...if my kid acts like this in a grocery store, I wonder what he acts like on the play ground!!

to retired teacher wrote on Aug 11, 2008 1:26 PM:(1) No one has to join a teacher's union. You are always free to work at a private religious school with no benefits and at half the salary and with no job security. You can even donate your dues to charity.
(2) So the CTA never did anything for you? Have you checked the salary and benefits at a non-union school? The HUGE difference is the result of the CTA constant work and efforts.
(3) You have retirement income. Without the CTA I doubt you would have any. Without constant vigilance on part of CTA, the STRS funds would be stolen away to pay state budget deficits. Many governors have attempted to do so in the past including Pete Wilson George Deukmejian, Gray Davis and even our current governor. If you are not informed enough to know how many times the CTA has protected your STRS retirement, I am sorry for your ignorance. But you are welcome anyway. The CTA protects the rights and retirement benefits even of the uniformed and ungrateful.

Yes Unions are Good wrote on Aug 11, 2008 1:27 PM:Sure, unions are great ... for those that belong to the union!! But, to say they have anyone else's best interest in mind, let alone that of SOCIETY, is one of the most unrealistic, laughable things I've ever seen printed here. And the use of children to play on the emotions of the public is about the most pathetic thing I've ever heard.

Trageser factless and biased wrote on Aug 11, 2008 2:16 PM:To Jim Trageser
I await your reply. You are a reporter. You are theoretically supposed to adhere to a set of ethical and journalistic rules. Reporters do not report as facts biased statements from one political side without independent facts to back up their charges. So enlighten us on the following:

(1) What evidence do you have for a national campaign against Christian Conservatives (a true religious oxymoron) on American school boards?
(2) What evidence do you have that this campaign targeted your friends Joyce Lee and John Tyndale?
(3) What evidence do you have of a teacher meeting to plot their recall on the night of their election?
(4) What evidence do you have that teachers chanted and disrupted any school board meeting at that time?
(5) What evidence do you have that teachers joined the recall to get more pay?
(6) Have you read VUSD Board Policy 6019 enacted by your friends that mandated the teaching of creationism in VUSD public schools?

I know you think of yourself as a good reporter. So you must have some facts to back up your assertions and slanders, don’t you? I am sure your editor would like some documentation. Certainly you must have some. Right, Jim?

Unions are good wrote on Aug 11, 2008 2:27 PM:Union wages and benefits raise the wages of all workers in related industries.

The teacher's union unashamably protects teacher's rights salary and benefits. But we also protect children. No one becomes teachers for the pay or working conditions. we do because we care about kids.

The VTA brought education issues back to the forefront for kids in VUSD. We stopped the desemination of false information and facts to the children of our district regarding science, history and sex education.

Our school board is now and always has had a Christian Board Majority. The difference in the last decade since the recall is that education issues come first not political agendas.

As to the slander that teachers salaries take money from children's text books, the state has a dedicated budget item for textbooks. The money cannot be used for any thing else including teacher's salaries. Other uses would be illegal.

Fooled no more wrote on Aug 11, 2008 2:28 PM:There actually have been two non-Christian school board members in the last thirty years. Both were good Jewish women. Perhaps having two is why Jim Trageser refers to a conspiracy. Who knows?

Union Watcher wrote on Aug 11, 2008 4:07 PM:Albert Shanker, president of the American Federation of Teachers said:

“When school children start paying union dues, that 's when I'll start representing the interests of school children.”

That says it all!

james wrote on Aug 11, 2008 4:45 PM:My comments, 8/10/2008, were not published. Why? To much to the point?

I look forward to your response.

Reardon wrote on Aug 11, 2008 7:55 PM:Could we forget the bickering, and set a goal to get to a state ranking of, say, 45th?

I may be setting the goal a bit high for these current teachers (who by the way are ranked Number One in state average salary), but we must have goals.

Now, if we can't get our test scores up, perhaps we can reduce our teach average pay to meet our student testing level.

That works for me.

to james wrote on Aug 11, 2008 8:19 PM:A lot of comments were not published. The various blog editors have very distinct political views. When a blog offends their politics, it is not published. However sometimes if you post a second time it is published as a different blog gatekeeper is on duty. Try again. Good Luck.

The real questions is why was this "article" ever published without being fact checked?

to to retired teacher wrote on Aug 11, 2008 8:41 PM:so the truth comes out, it is all about money and not the kids!

Fact Checker wrote on Aug 11, 2008 8:50 PM:Just a guess, but the piece is an opinion piece which has no reason the be a balanced, but just Jim's opinion.

If you want to give your opinion, get your own column.

It's that simple.

To Reardon and fact checker wrote on Aug 12, 2008 1:11 PM:Readon you have made up facts again. VUSD teachers are not even in the top twenty for salary in San Diego County let alone the state of California.

Fact Checker of course it is an opinion piece but it is not supposed to be a fiction piece. you do know the difference?

The old teacher dude is right wrote on Aug 12, 2008 1:54 PM:The unions are crooks that steal money from their member and then lie and mislead them. Then they manipulate the politics and liberal politicians of this great state to the point that the state is broke (and they still want more money). Then when they are interviewed by the press they say we are all about the kids!

The point of this story is dead on! The unions don't care one bit about the kids. This is not about the intentions of teachers, most teachers are great and in fact love what they do regardless of the money. If the pay is good of course they will take it, same with the great benefits. What they don’t know is that they are being lied to and mislead. If they knew those great raises and benefits where straight off the backs of our kids they would I’m sure be truly upset.

Almost every district in this county has made dramatic cuts that directly affect our kids, their education and ultimately all of our futures. This includes bussing, librarians and library techs, PE coaches, nurses, counselors, higher classrooms sizes, etc. All for what you ask? So the employees that did not lose their jobs can get a pay increase and keep all of their benefits as is.

Please someone explain to me how that helps our kids?

jvc wrote on Aug 12, 2008 6:23 PM:Are public unions a fiction?

Hysterical wrote on Aug 15, 2008 11:42 AM:I got a real laugh out of Trageser's column, “Unions care about salaries, not students.” Ha! What a clever headline! Do you really believe that? Have you ever been with a bunch of CTA’s teachers at a conference? Apparently not. In a K-8 district like Escondido, it doesn’t take too much research to figure out it is all about the kids.

I do agree with your first two paragraphs of your article though.

Although I am not a union lockstep teacher, I have been a union member and a Vice President of EEEA in Escondido and, during the Debra Beaghler era, I had her daughters in my class. I even went on the Roger Hedgecock show when she was a guest to defend her from some callers.

(Roger, a guy who is a master of misinformation and sometimes practices just dead lying. You understand that concept, don’t you Jim?!)

Your description of events in Escondido is way off base. Without going into mindless detail from the last decade, Debra carried considerable baggage to the school board, the least of which was questioning teachers’ salaries. Basically, she was in over her head because she was groomed by others to run for the board out of the blue to support a superintendent’s agenda.

How else do you think she got on Roger Hedgecock’s show? You don’t think that other politicos were trying to really stir it up, do you?

Clearly, Debra was a great pawn in a movement in and out of Escondido that was less about children and more about changing public education and supporting compromised superintendents.

If CTA was such an effective union, then why is education in California always under-funded and punished at the whim of the Governor and state legislature?
Here we go with high class sizes again. Heck, let’s even throw in algebra in eighth grade, something that most of your readers would probably fail now. How would that be for a column?!

My wife trains all of the new teachers in Escondido’s BTSA program and, like all of N. County school districts, our learning programs and now the children have taken major hits in Escondido. The current EUSD school board is committed to learning excellence and is not affected by outside influences like Debra was. They are outstanding.

But since you have decided to vilify all of the unions, now let’s look at Vista.

For starters, VUSD has been the most mismanaged district in all of SD County and everyone knows it. The extremists who have been on the board have been clueless on many areas. How do you keep funding Lindamood Bell to the tune of millions of dollars for only a small group of students, yet cut staff and increase class sizes for all others?

How is it possible for other N. County school districts to show similar student population growth without the expensive Lindamood Bell program?

Let’s take, for example, two of the main players, Jim Gibson and Stephen Guffanti, two board members who have, again, completely mismanaged VUSD and then blamed others for their mistakes and financial shortfalls.

Guffanti, “your servant on the board,” has played the Christian right card over and over to gain support and then sends out his hate emails publicly criticizing VUSD staff, administrators, parents and teachers. Have you seen them?

Anyone with knowledge of school board ethics will tell you how compromised Vista is although the administrators I have spoken with will not say anything on the record and many of the parents in Vista apparently don’t know the difference.

It’s no wonder that dozens of teachers and administrators (labeled bad staff members in the NCTimes by Gibson) have left Vista to be quickly snapped up by San Dieguito, Encinitas, Carlsbad, Escondido, San Marcos, etc.

The VTA has been totally ineffective and the VUSD board has had their way for many years resulting in considerable district issues and compromised situations.

Lastly, Jim, I guess you have seen importance to again, denigrate CTA as not giving “a darn about the education of our children.” Too funny.

Maybe it’s best for you to continue your quest to protect the Christian right in the political arena. The good news for the public, however, is that the media is a vacuum and your agenda will just dissipate into thin air again and again. Keep in touch with Guffanti, though, as he can help you.

Jim Wickstrom
Carlsbad

Jim,

I got a real laugh out of your column, “Unions care about salaries, not students.” Ha! What a clever headline! Do you really believe that? Have you ever been with a bunch of CTA’s teachers at a conference? Apparently not. In a K-8 district like Escondido, it doesn’t take too much research to figure out it is all about the kids.

I do agree with your first two paragraphs of your article though.

Although I am not a union lockstep teacher, I have been a union member and a Vice President of EEEA in Escondido and, during the Debra Beaghler era, I had her daughters in my class and she loved me. I even went on the Roger Hedgecock show when she was a guest to defend her from some callers.

(Roger, a guy who is a master of misinformation and sometimes practices just dead lying. You understand that concept, don’t you Jim?!)

Your description of events in Escondido is way off base. Without going into mindless detail from the last decade, Debra carried considerable baggage to the school board, the least of which was questioning teachers’ salaries. Basically, she was in over her head because she was groomed by others to run for the board out of the blue to support a superintendent’s agenda.

How else do you think she got on Roger Hedgecock’s show? You don’t think that other politicos were trying to really stir it up, do you?

Clearly, Debra was a great pawn in a movement in and out of Escondido that was less about children and more about changing public education and supporting a compromised superintendents.

If CTA was such an effective union, then why is education in California always under-funded and punished at the whim of the Governor and state legislature?

Here we go with high class sizes again. Heck, let’s even throw in algebra in eighth grade, something that most of your readers would probably fail now. How would that be for a column?!

My wife trains all of the new teachers in Escondido’s BTSA program and, like all of N. County school districts, our learning programs and now the children have taken major hits in Escondido. The current EUSD school board is committed to learning excellence and is not affected by outside influences like Debra was. They are outstanding.

But since you have decided to vilify all of the unions, now let’s look at Vista.

For starters, VUSD has been the most mismanaged district in all of SD County and everyone knows it. The extremists who have been on the board have been clueless on many areas. How do you keep funding Lindamood Bell to the tune of millions of dollars for only a small group of students, yet cut staff and increase class sizes for all others?

How is it possible for other N. County school districts to show similar student population growth without the expensive Lindamood Bell program?

Let’s take, for example, two of the main players, Jim Gibson and Stephen Guffanti, two board members who have, again, completely mismanaged VUSD and then blamed others for their mistakes and financial shortfalls.

Guffanti, “your servant on the board,” has played the Christian right card over and over to gain support and then sends out his hate emails publicly criticizing VUSD staff, administrators, parents and teachers. Have you seen them?

Anyone with knowledge of school board ethics will tell you how compromised Vista is although other districts' administrators I have spoken with will not say anything on the record and many of the parents in Vista apparently don’t know the difference.

It’s no wonder that dozens of teachers and administrators (labeled bad staff members in the NCTimes by Gibson) have left Vista to be quickly snapped up by San Dieguito, Encinitas, Carlsbad, Escondido, San Marcos, etc.

The VTA has been totally ineffective and the VUSD board has had their way for many years resulting in considerable district issues and compromised situations.

Lastly, Jim, I guess you have seen importance to again, denigrate CTA as not giving “a darn about the education of our children.” Too funny.

Maybe it’s best for you to continue your quest to protect the Christian right in the political arena. Heck, if you call into Rush or Michael Savage, you, too, can have all of the listeners mindlessly agree with you.

The good news for the public, however, is that the media is a vacuum and your agenda will just dissipate into thin air again and again. Keep in touch with Guffanti, though, as he can help you.

Got Unions wrote on Aug 15, 2008 11:49 AM:It's interesting to see how many people see themselves as an expert on unions when so few of them have ever been involved in one. I guess it's more convenient to spew out stereotypes from afar than cogent comments based on facts.

jvc wrote on Aug 15, 2008 1:01 PM:To Jim Wickstrom:
Could you generate some of your seeming logic to explain why we need public unions that exist to find privilege from a non-profit entity
that employes their members? And explain why public unions now take the
role of self-interest over the public interest and use their membership wholly for political cohesion?
Public unions are a self-interest group that works against the public interest,
a public that employes them!
Yes, let us pay our public empoyees well, but let us also remove public unionism that work as lobbyists for making their members of privilege rather than for the greater public good!