Bridgid:
I hadn't considered what the flying saucers would do. But, I am expending considerable energy to trying to figure out what WE can do. I think the answer must be in getting 3 Republicans to agree that the goals right now are reasonable....in addition to being necessary to move forward. Rewrite what collective bargaining means if ABSOLUTELY necessary but DON'T take away the VOICE. I keep trusting that people smarter than I who are also at the core of what's happening, are doing everything possible to resolve. (The problem of course if that's what everybody is doing...waiting for someone else to find an answer (albeit, temporary)).
Hey....you may want to either remove Denny or change her address. You probably know that she switched jobs. Her email is now: droark@uwsa.edu. I wonder whether taking her off for at least a while would be the wiser choice. Her job is a definite possible hit. If Walker is spying and his layoffs strategic, she is vulnerable. (God, are we back in the era of McCarthyism in Wisconsin?!)
Keep up the good fight.
Tom:
Good tip about Denny. Spies. People like Walker and his benefactors have more in common with the Soviets than with the 19th century libertarians like our great grandfather that they pretend to be.
What I was getting at with the flying saucers was the notion that we need to cultivate a comprehensive, compassionate, and strategic point of view. I don't believe in flying saucers -- or the second coming for that matter. I do believe that somebody who's trying to eliminate collective bargaining has a larger agenda than saving money for his state.
But... I also believe that the ground troops among the tea party are correct, if only in believing that the American economy is screwed. If you're going to agitate for your right to collective bargaining, it's incumbent upon you to articulate a larger plan. Otherwise you're just the flip side of the idiots that elected Walker, and my state's legislative majority.
Those people who are supposed to be smarter than you and me seem to be playing their cards pretty close to their chests. I caught a PowerPoint presentation on energy a couple of weeks ago, and I facetiously asked the presenter whether or not our leaders know "all this stuff." Of course they do, but a) they don't want to scare us, b) our economy is so complex and interrelated that they don't know how to correct problems in one sector without throwing the whole thing into turmoil, and c) the inertia of interest and massive ignorance limits what a well intentioned politician or CEO can do -- maybe more than it does you and me.
