Thu
Feb 24 2011
09:03 am
Loooooooooong leap of logic for some negative spin
By: EricLykins

Local "conservatives" have recently been pointing to Madeline Rogero's long history as a community leader. In the seventies she worked for the rights of farm workers and has earned a reputation as a hard working consensus builder. Who would think she wouldn't stand today for those who work in law enforcement, firefighters and other city employee groups?
EconGal's picture

the boob's blog

Submitted by EconGal on Thu, 2011/02/24 - 9:08am.

I am NOT going to vote for Madeline, but please consider whether or not you want to give that nincompoop's blog or website any publicity. Someone might accidentally (and incorrectly) think he is a serious person or that his opinion deserves any consideration.

BTW, I'm not going to vote for Marilyn, Ivan or little what's-his-name, either. I currently live outside the city limits.

EricLykins's picture

Ha! Sorry, he follows our

Submitted by EricLykins on Thu, 2011/02/24 - 9:32am.

Ha! Sorry, he follows our business on twitter and we'll follow anybody local that follows us as a courtesy. I often see him parroting bad ideas that are making the rounds in feeble attempts to ride the coattails of "conservative" popularity.

Bbeanster's picture

This blog will have zero

Submitted by Bbeanster on Thu, 2011/02/24 - 9:34am.

This blog will have zero effect on a Knoxville election, except maybe to harm his favorite (see Z. Wamp)
Democrats fare pretty well in these non-partisan contests, a fact that this blogger hasn't yet grasped. He can spout anti-labor rhetoric all he likes, but he's spitting in the wind.
Not sure where he is truly influential. Certainly not in his own party, which rejected his bid for GOP state executive committee by a 63/37 margin.

EconGal's picture

Betty, what is your opinion

Submitted by EconGal on Thu, 2011/02/24 - 9:36am.

What is your opinion of this pension task force?

Bbeanster's picture

I'm reserving my opinion. I

Submitted by Bbeanster on Thu, 2011/02/24 - 9:59am.

I'm reserving my opinion. I cannot pretend to have much expertise in this area. I have a lot of respect for some of the members. Some I do not know. Others, meh.

I will say that I don't much care for the secrecy.

And while I'm prone to come down on the side of working people most all the time, defined benefits pensions are going to break our collective backs.

fischbobber's picture

Defined Benefits Pensions

Submitted by fischbobber on Fri, 2011/02/25 - 12:02am.

And while I'm prone to come down on the side of working people most all the time, defined benefits pensions are going to break our collective backs.

That is actually a myth. What kills a defined benefits plan is mismanagement. After Reagan changed the pension rules in the eighties people began managing funds for quarterly returns so they could skim the cream off that was deemed in excess of required vested value. Just because stealing was legalized doesn't make it ethical or moral.

EricLykins's picture

What the media and the

Submitted by EricLykins on Fri, 2011/02/25 - 9:24am.

What the media and the general public need is a historical perspective on how and why pensions work for public service workers and taxpayers.

Some have argued that State workers’ benefits are too generous and have become unaffordable. The reality is that 25 years ago union negotiations produced changes so that the cost of pensions for employees hired after 1984 is about 7 percent of payroll, typical of many large corporations. Changes negotiated in 1997 further reduced costs, so that pension costs are less than 4.7 percent of payroll for employees hired in the past 13 years, far less than many large corporations pay.

Connecticut is simply paying now for the damage created by five decades of politicians who could not show restraint or fiscal foresight.

EricLykins's picture

Wouldn't there be less

Submitted by EricLykins on Thu, 2011/02/24 - 5:14pm.

Wouldn't there be less corner-cutting illegal hiring practices by corporate agriculture with a stronger farm worker union?

brianhornback
@EricLykins: Thanks for the RT and the mention on the local liberal blog. It isn't about collective bargaining but about wages 4 "illegals"

Is he trying to drum up fear that Rogero is trying to replace the cops and firefighters and other city employee organizations with undocumented immigrants?

Judging by his twitter "followers" he seems to be mostly "influential" with this crowd of twit:

Tweet in your sleep! Fully automatic twitter software. Auto follow and unfollow. Schedule tweets. Easy marketing for your products! (link...)

Have activist Supreme Court judges stretched the first amendment to let those people vote yet?

EconGal's picture

More on union issues and revolts

Submitted by EconGal on Thu, 2011/02/24 - 9:13am.

My wonder is about the make-up of the city pension task force group. Pension plan participants absolutely have to be included in any analysis of the situation, but I know many of the members of that group. Some of them aren't intelligent enough to grasp checkers, much less actuarial assumptions, realistic return assumptions, second derivatives and non-linear analysis.

Committee, per NS

EricLykins's picture

We have rising pension costs

Submitted by EricLykins on Thu, 2011/02/24 - 9:36am.

We have rising pension costs all around the country because the baby boomer generation is getting old. They've paid in, and that money is theirs. Unfortunately, cities and states have recently borrowed from these pension funds to cover other losses, bad ideas, or in the case of Wisconsin, a fat ass $137 million tax break for rich buddies.

R. Neal's picture

They also got sold toxic

Submitted by R. Neal on Thu, 2011/02/24 - 9:43am.

They also got sold toxic investments misrepresented as AAA securities by Wall Street grifters. States and pensioners should be made whole or somebody ought to go to jail. Instead, the grifters get government bailouts and $billions in bonuses and the pensioners get cat food for dinner.

EricLykins's picture

Local class war reenactors

Submitted by EricLykins on Thu, 2011/02/24 - 9:52am.

Local class war reenactors strive for accuracy

"I love it when I get to be upper class," said Jill Scholle, 33. "I usually outsource half my workforce, give myself a $20 million bonus and then tell all the people who I laid off how lazy they are. What a time to be alive."

MemphisSlim's picture

Community organizers are a jaded bunch right now

Submitted by MemphisSlim (not verified) on Thu, 2011/02/24 - 1:33pm.

I'm not sure Madeline falls into that category, but I'd be more concerned about the Padget campaign than I would the conservative Knoxville city voters right now. Rogero and Padget are dipping from the same pot and they both will not end up in a run off in the city election.

If there are any conservative, for profit, business owners in Knoxville, there aren't many of them left, most have folded up, moved outside the city, some have moved outside the county, many have simply left the state altogather, such that I wouldn't get bent in a big way there.

Madeline's record will speak for itself as will her accomplishments when she has been in office.

Rachel's picture

Rogero and Padget are dipping

Submitted by Rachel on Thu, 2011/02/24 - 6:57pm.

Rogero and Padget are dipping from the same pot

I don't think that's as true as some people like to believe.

And somebody told me the other day that Madeline and Harmon appeal to the same voters and one should get out of the race in order to keep from splitting that vote.

Say what again??

EricLykins's picture

I've seen you guys make fun

Submitted by EricLykins on Sat, 2011/02/26 - 5:32pm.

I've seen you guys make fun of him and never gave it much thought but this guy seems to create the future. He's like the behind-the-scenes Yoda of FOX News. How else does he know the theme of the day?

I learned there is a "theme of the day", set at 3AM California time when Fox and Friends comes on with their faux friendly little coffee klatch. Yesterday's theme was "Liberals are less civil than Tea Partiers." It began last night with Bill O'Reilly's ongoing claim that he's unfairly accused of being unfair. But today, it was the overriding, dominant theme.

but the day before that:
"Evidently liberals EconGal, EricLykins, BBeanster and others either didn't get the civility memo or selects to ignore it."

"the main stream media come to Brian's Blog for the story before they do a story"
It's true. Brian Hornback IS The Matrix.

I salute you, prophet. And thanks for reading. Here's some background if you're just joining:

At one point Ketron said he'd introduce a piece of legislation Dec 9. Now he's saying mid-January. I think he'd rather do what he's been doing since at least July which is yap vaguely to any "journalist" willing to give him a piece of soap box about how they take up our space in hospitals, schools, jobs and prison cells. 72% of Tennesseeans support the Arizona law, which I'm sure they've all read.

Sometimes they slip up and tell the truth
Submitted by EricLykins on Sun, 2010/12/26 - 12:40pm (edit)
"Democrats want the votes, Republicans want the cheaper labor." Bill Ketron

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