Wednesday, October 29, 2014

MARY BURKE: OTHERS COMMENT ON HER COMPETENCE

Trek Sources;  Mary Burke's famiy fired her for incompetence
Wisconsin Reporter - M. D. Kittle

Long article.  Read the comments below first that expose additional character traits worth thinking about as you read the complete article - scroll down.

Comment about Mary Burke: Imagine electing a person for governor who couldn't even handle the pressure of being a manager in a family business for a couple years...before needing 2 year hiatus.... As governor she we melt down in 6 months!

Look at Walker he has stood up to more pressure than anyone could imagine and still gets the job done.

So you don't need to believe this article, because the alternate story the left likes is just as good a reason not to elect this empty head.

Comment about Mary Burke:
"Burke has never married and has no children." - Wikipedia

55 years old with no record of friends or relationships.

There's no indication Mary Burke ever earned anything. She's got family money and bought her way onto the Madison School Board. Titles without substance. Too many indications of hidden failure. No real indication of thinking for herself, of innovation, of creativity. What has she really accomplished without her own money?

Mary Burke exists outside the cultural mainstream. The lack of any personal background is kinda weird.

Put Scott Walker aside for the moment - why would we want this woman to be governor?
Mary Burke is scary.

Comment about Mary Burke: According to Wikipedia, she has never been married, has no children and even though she has an impressive education (Georgetown Undergrad, Harvard MBA, London School of Economics) She has never held a job outside of the family business. A business where she has held nebulous positions with lofty names but little verifiable accomplishment.

There isn't even a mention anywhere of a former boyfriend, or girlfriend for that matter.
She seems strangely devoid of a personal life or personal accomplishment.

Trek Sources;  Mary Burke's famiy fired her for incompetence 
http://watchdog.org/179822/mary-burke-trek-sales/ - Wisconsin Reporter - M. D. Kittle

MADISON, Wis. — In attempting to explain her two-year work hiatus in the early to mid-1990s, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke has said she was just burned out after an intense period of leading European operations for Trek Bicycle Corp., her family’s Waterloo-based global manufacturer.

In fact, Burke apparently was fired by her own family following steep overseas financial losses and plummeting morale among Burke’s European sales staff, multiple former Trek executives and employees told Wisconsin Reporter.

The sales team threatened to quit if Burke was not removed from her position as director of European Operations, according to Gary Ellerman, who served as Trek’s human resources director for 12 years. His account was confirmed by three other former employees.

“She was not performing. She was (in) so far over her head. She didn’t understand the bike business,” said Ellerman, who started with Trek in 1992, at the tail end of Burke’s first stint as a manager at Trek.

Ellerman said Richard Burke, Mary Burke’s father and founder of the family business, asked Tom Albers, Trek president and chief financial officer at the time, to fly to Amsterdam to evaluate Mary’s performance.
 
It wasn’t a pretty picture. The European operations were in disarray, Ellerman said.

Full disclosure: Ellerman is chairman of the Jefferson County Republican Party. As to the possibility that his accounts are politically colored, Ellerman said, “I was there. This is what went down.”

A former employee with the company told Wisconsin Reporter that John Burke, Mary’s brother and current Trek president, had to let his sister go.

The former employee, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal from the Burke family, said Mary Burke was made to return to Wisconsin and apologize to a group of about 35 Trek executives for her treatment of employees and for the plummeting European bottom line.

Managers in Europe used to call Burke “pit bull on crack” or “Attila the Hun,” one source said.
“She never made money in Europe when she was there Germany was gushing blood and it would take profitability from everywhere else,” the former employee said.

“There is a dark side to Mary that the people at Trek have seen She can explode on people. She can be the most cruel person you ever met,” said Ellerman, who started a consulting business after he was “asked to leave” Trek in 2004 over a difference in hiring philosophy.

As HR director, he said he heard plenty of complaints about Mary Burke, but he said she was “hands off and everyone knew it. She was absolutely bulletproof. She could do anything she wanted.”
To a point, apparently.

In her campaign against Republican incumbent Gov. Scott Walker, Mary Burke has bragged that European sales climbed to $50 million on her watch. She originally said the increase was closer to $60 million in a 2004 resume to officials in Gov. Jim Doyle’s administration, the Democrat who in 2005 tapped Burke to be his secretary of the now-defunct state Commerce Department.

Ellerman and the other employees tell Wisconsin Reporter that Burke’s sales boasts are lies, that the European division did significantly lower numbers — at least $10 million lower — during her tenure as director. Most of the sales increases, they said, were in Trek’s United Kingdom market, which was well established before Burke arrived, and in the Japan operations, which Burke had nothing to do with. Any growth in sales was well offset by the losses sustained in Germany and other European countries, according to the former executives.

Trek is a privately held company and does not disclose its sales or earnings figures. Mary Burke, too, has refused to provide documentation of the numbers.


When asked to apologize to staff before her departure from the company in 1993, Mary Burke struggled and stammered through the apology much as she appears to do in a video clip of the gubernatorial candidate trying to define the word “plagiarism,” according to one former Trek employee. The Democrat has been dogged throughout her campaign by revelations she lifted large sections of her policy plans from other sources.

“She had a list of excuses, but the fact is she made fatal errors. She thought she knew everything,” the former employee said.

John Burke, who at the time was vice president of sales and marketing, was forced to “unravel” the mess his sister Mary made of the European operations,” the former Trek employee said.
The former employees’ recollection of Burke would seem to jibe with Burke’s predecessor at the Commerce Department.

“She’s a disaster,” Cory Nettles, secretary of Commerce under Doyle from 2003 to 2005 told one of Doyle’s top aides in a 2006 email, according to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story published earlier this month.

Nettles told the newspaper he didn’t remember sending the email, which the Journal Sentinel obtained in an open records request.

Regardless, he said he does not feel that way anymore.

The Burke family, publicly at least, has had nothing but smiles and accolades for Mary Burke, praising her business acumen.

John Burke’s book about his father, published in 2012, refers to Mary as “the brains in the family.” In the book, “One Last Great Thing: The Story of a Father and a Son, a Story of a Life and a Legacy,” John applauded his sister’s performance in Europe.

“I hired my sister Mary, the brains of the family, to move to Europe and run the business. Mary and her team opened Austria, Spain, the Benelux, and France the following year. Trek’s business in Europe took off,” John Burke wrote.

That’s revisionist company history, sources insist.

Following her forced apology, they say, Mary Burke left her family company in a huff in 1993, taking off for the snowy mountains of Colorado and Argentina — her “snowboarding sabbatical,” as some of the candidate’s critics have derisively put Burke’s personal work stoppage.

While Burke told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last month that she wanted to “resolve any inconsistencies” about her time away, the details and the timing remain foggy.

Burke told a Doyle administration official in 2005 that she was burned out from her European Trek stint.

“This had been a very demanding job, and as a result I decided I needed some time off,” Burke wrote, as quoted in the newspaper story. “I joined some Spanish friends of mine and moved to Argentina to snowboard for three months.”

Not true, according one former Trek executive.

“She made the statement that she was burned out. She wasn’t burned out. She was fired. (The firing) was definitely over performance issues and there were major people problems over there,” said the executive who also asked not to be identified because the source believes the extraordinarily wealthy Burke family will “destroy any individual” who brings such information public.

She did some other things during her two-year break from Trek, but full-time employment during that period wasn’t Burke’s scene.

Burke’s resume notes that she returned to Trek in 1995 as director of forecasting and strategic planning.

Not quite true, according to Ellerman and other sources.

“I remember (Richard “Dick” Burke) talked to (John Burke). I was there. Dick said we need to bring her on, so they put her in a marketing role and she worked for the marketing director for a while,” Ellerman said. It didn’t last. “She was creating dissatisfaction in the marketing world so John came to me and asked me, ‘What can I do?’ I said, ‘I can’t touch this.’”

Then, Ellerman said, Burke’s father and brother created the strategic planning role.
Another employee who worked with Burke confirmed Ellerman’s account.
Neither the Burke campaign nor Trek officials returned several calls and emails from Wisconsin Reporter seeking comment.

Ellerman claims that throughout Burke’s tenure with Trek, she showed that she was not a person who could bring people together.

“She is very divisive, very opinionated, but she’s not smart enough to have the right opinion,” Ellerman said. “But she’s a Burke, and she got to do whatever the hell she wanted.”

Northwoods Patriots - Standing up for Faith, Family, Country

BRAD SCHIMEL - MEET AND GREET 11/1/2014

Brad Schimel - Candidate for Attorney General

11/1/2014 - Saturday - 7:30 - 8:30 p.m.        
Eagle River Inn - 5260 Hwy 70 - Eagle River
Info:  Carol Cady - 715-356-1950; mlcicady13@frontier.com
 Northwoods Patriots - Standing up for Faith, Family, Country

SCOTT WALKER RALLY 10/31/2014

Walker Rally - Governors Scott Walker, Christie and Barbour

10/31/2014                        Friday - 5:15 p.m. 
Ponsee North America Inc
4400 International Ln, Rhinelander (west on Hwy 8 - just past the airport)
Bring your signs, wear your buttons and tee shirts
Info:  Carol Cady 715-892-4677; mlcicady13@frontier.com
                                           
Northwoods Patriots - Standing up for Faith, Family, Country

SEAN DUFFY - EAGLE RIVER - 10/30/2014



Congressman Sean Duffy - Meet and Greet

10/30/2014 – Thursday - 3:34 - 4:45 p.m
Best Western Derby Inn - 1800 Hwy. 45 N - Eagle River
Info:  Carol Cady - 715-356-1950; mlcicady13@frontier.com
                                           

Northwoods Patriots - Standing up for Faith, Family, Country

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

LIBERALS NEED TO ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS



Here Are The Top 10 Questions To Ask A Liberal
Federalist Papers - Steve Straub  - 7/8/2014
Brian Anderson over at Downtrend has ten questions that liberals can’t answer.

10. How many people should we let into this country? Liberals want amnesty for the 11-20 million illegal aliens currently living in America. Let’s say that happens, then what? Do we grant amnesty to the next 20 million illegals that come looking for a better life?

9. How are rules that apply equally to everyone discriminatory and racist? Liberals say that everything from the justice system to education is racist. They whine that voting laws that apply to everyone equally are somehow discriminatory. Why? I h

8. How are rules that only apply to one group of people not discriminatory and racist?Affirmative Action set quotas for minorities in hiring and college admissions. Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper program gives funds and opportunities to people of color. There are literally hundreds of liberal programs available to minorities only. Do not disadvantaged white people deserve the same help?

7. Do you know what a pyramid scheme is? Wikipedia tells us: A pyramid scheme is an unsustainable business model that involves promising participants payment or services, primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, rather than supplying any real investment or sale of products or services to the public. The people at the bottom of the pyramid do all of the paying and never reap any benefits. (Think Social Security and ObamaCare)  Private sector: fraud / government: progress.

6. Why is it okay to kill unborn children but wrong to kill convicted murderers?  Liberals love abortion but hate the death penalty.The only difference is, unborn children haven’t viciously murdered anyone. Why do liberals deem the life of a killer more important that that of an innocent child?

5. How does stagnating growth stimulate the economy? High taxes and needless regulations are two things liberal lawmakers can’t get enough of. They are also the two things that hurt business growth the most. Businesses are those things that give people jobs. When people have jobs, they have money to spend. Our economy grows when more people have jobs and spend money. This is a fact.

4. Does it make sense to do the same thing over and over and expect a different result?The social safety net, which includes welfare, food stamps, Medicaid, and a whole host of liberal entitlements, has failed in its stated goal to pull people out of poverty. Instead, these programs have had the opposite effect, creating generations of people that are utterly dependant on government handouts.

3. How will punishing law-abiding people stop criminals from breaking the law? Every liberal gun control law either passed or proposed places arbitrary restrictions on law-abiding citizens. These laws don’t apply to criminals because, by their very nature, they don’t follow laws. If someone is going to commit a murder or assault, do you think they care if their weapon of choice isn’t compliant to the local ordinance?

2. How can you count to ten if you skip the number two? The first ten amendments of the US Constitution are known as the Bill Of Rights. These enumerated rights were laid down by our Founding Fathers because they felt each of them was essential to ensure we live in a free society. Liberals are enamored with all of them except the 2nd, which guarantees our right to keep and bear arms. They say all of the other amendments confer individual rights, yet claim the 2ndAmendment is a collective right that allows only the government to possess arms. Why would the Framers list 9 individual rights, and one government right? Liberals also don’t seem to understand that the 2nd Amendment protects all the others. Tyrants can’t take speech and voting rights away from an armed populace.

1. Why was George W. Bush a bad President but Barack Obama is a good one? To liberals, George W. Bush was the Devil incarnate. Their biggest beefs were the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the bank bailout, and Guantanamo Bay torture. When Obama took office he escalated the war in Afghanistan, gave even bigger bailouts, and after 5 years in office still hasn’t closed Guantanamo Bay. On top of that, Obama ignores the Constitution, spies on every single American, kills women and children with drone strikes, and has saddled the country with a health care law that will bankrupt the middle class and require an insurance company bailout of epic proportions. 


Northwoods Patriots - Standing up for Faith, Family, Country

ACT 10 NEEDS TO COVER MORE STATE EMPLOYEES


Act 10 was no mistake; in fact, it should be expanded 
Journal Sentinal - Edmund Henschel And Russell Knetzger - 10/4/2014
 http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/act-10-was-no-mistake-in-fact-it-should-be-expanded-b99361706z1-278086621.html 

Where bargaining has been especially deleterious for taxpayers is unions began focusing on fringe benefits, which are hidden from public view and often hidden from employees themselves and under-appreciated by them. It is now common for public employees to receive benefits that cost 50% of their total pay, whereas the private-sector ratio is around 25%. This "fringes strategy" has paid excess dividends to public workers in two costly areas: health insurance and pensions. 


In health insurance, public employees were shielded from the huge run-up in health premiums because they were able to bargain 100% employer pickup of the cost. Such premiums between 1978 and the 2008 economic slump rose 600%, or double the 300% rise in general inflation.

For teachers, they achieved an extra bonus from their employer-paid health insurance. The local unions bargained, and won in 60% of Wisconsin school districts, that the no-bid contract for health insurance go to the insurance company owned by the state teachers union.

That insurance can be called "cadillac coverage." Not only did it have five-way coverage — doctor, hospital, drugs, vision and dental — each was top of the line. For example, in private-sector dental insurance, when it existed, $1,000 per year was the typical limit per patient in the family. A few companies offered $1,200, and a very few $1,500. Some teachers' coverage: $2,000 per patient per year.

In pensions, most private-sector employers contribute up to 3% of wages into the company 401(k) plan, and under 401(k) rules, employees may add another 3%, a total of 6% between them. But because the early retirement feature of the Wisconsin plan is so costly, the plan specifies total contributions as high as 16% a year.
 

Northwoods Patriots - Standing up for Faith, Family, Country

WHY DO LIBERALS HATE CONSERVATIVES

Absurd reasons why liberals hate conservatives
Godfather Politics  - Garay DeMar – 10/6/2014

There are so people in the liberal camp that are blinding by their own prejudices that they can’t see any view but their own and refuse to be taught otherwise.
 
Cook mentions a Facebook exchange:

“Republicans hate anything that isn’t white, wealthy, and Christian at least in appearance. They hate the poor, women, and minorities. They hate science and don’t believe that the global warming we clearly are experiencing is man-made.

“They hate any government programs that help the poor and minorities, and the particularly despise immigrants, particularly the illegal kind. They love programs that line the pockets of oil companies, mining companies, and are willing to export jobs with wild abandon.

“They hate public education, and they despise public schools and the public school teachers and public university professors. And since they do not respect the market place of ideas, they hate tenure (that gives teachers academic freedom) because it prevents them from firing teachers who are Democrats and who might infect some student with their liberal ideas.

“They want insurance companies to make a maximum of profit, and are perfectly willing for the health insurance companies to kill people by refusing service to anyone that might cost them a buck more than the median expense. They don’t care about clean food because it might cost the food corporation a little money, and they don’t care about clean water because cleaning up the waste will cost their precious corporate persons a little money.”

Any conservative reading the above characterization would be fuming after reading it. I would love to answer each of the charges, but it would take a book to do so. In fact, books have been written debunking these caricatures of conservatives, but the false narrative continues.

Let me quickly give a series of snapshot responses:

Conservatives hate it when liberals use the poor, women, and minorities as political pawns to further the expansion of the State and make them dependent on government.

Conservatives love science, that’s why they question the man-made global warming thesis.
Conservatives don hate government programs that claim to help the poor and minorities but in reality hurt the power long-term.

Conservatives love immigrants because most of us are descendants of immigrants who followed the rules and came here legally.

Conservatives oppose illegal immigration because they understand that many liberals want to use it to grow the already bankrupt welfare State to empower the Democrat Party.
True conservatives despise corporate welfare or what is often called “crony capitalism,” although it has nothing to do with capitalism

Oil company profits are paid out to millions of stock holders, many of who are liberals.
Companies would not “export jobs” if the corporate tax rate and excessive regulations weren’t debilitating, thus, making it difficult for American companies to compete with foreign companies.

Conservatives who choose to send their children to public schools do not “hate public education” or “despise public schools and the public school teachers.” They hate and despise much of what is taught in these schools and what is not taught.
Conservatives do respect the “market place of ideas.” That’s why they are often critical of university professors who use tenure as a way often to exclude academic competition by a rehearsal of alternative positions and facts.

Insurance companies are generally despised. But we should remember that insurance companies are tightly regulated by government. Our government has often curtailed interstate competition among insurance companies.

It’s absurd that Conservatives “don’t care about clean food” or “clean water because cleaning up the waste will cost their precious corporate persons a little money.”

Friday, September 12, 2014

WISCONSIN'S STRUCTURAL DEFICIT



6 things the media won’t tell you about the structural deficit
Wisconsin State Assembly – Rep. Dale Kooyenga – 9/9/2014

1.) This budget which extends through June 30, 2015 is still projected to end with a healthy cash balance.  The rainy day fund is at an all time high.  The "structural deficit" is a state government concept and some states do not even calculate, or calculate using different methods.  In this state, LFB assume there are no growths in revenues or expenditures all the way through June 30, 2017.

Revenues tend to grow, and Walker's team has proven they can manage the expense side of the budget.  Many folks (and even legislators) do not understand that we do not tell the Governor (executive branch) what they have to spend - we tell them the maximum they can spend.  This means the Governor's team can find cost savings, and simply spend less than the maximum amounts the legislature stipulated. There are substantial areas expenses can be cut with a $30 Billion plus annual budget.  If you look at the audited state financial statements - the general fund had less spending in 2012 than 2011, and the 2013 general funding spending was lower than 2012 and 2011 even though the legislative budget was an increase in GPR spending.  

2.)  The structural deficit is projecting revenue all the way to June 30, 2017 - a lot will happen between now and then - including the passage of a new budget.  No company would forecast a budget 3 years out and not assume any changes in revenues or expenses. 

3.)  Some of the confusion, and forward projections, are affected by the fact we are returning a portion of the surplus to the taxpayers who put it there in the first place.  In the private sector, we would call this a return of equity - not an expense or lost revenue!  For example, if GE is predicting a year with zero net income, but still pays out $1 billion in dividends because they have excessive cash, their net income does not become a net loss of $1 billion, their income remains flat.  In Madison, the stakeholders do not view it that way, and they call a return of taxpayer dividends an expense.   This is an important distinction in the private sector, but not understood in government because it is not in their best interest.

4.)  Wisconsin's businesses and families budgets are what really matters.  Since we cut taxes, and the Governor adjusted the withholding tables, budgeting has become less burdensome for families and business.  Republicans made a conscious decision to make budgeting easier at the dinner table and main street - that is what really matters.  We all know the left, assisted by the media, wants to argue against tax cuts because they want to make it easier to keep your cash in Madison so they can spend it on growing government.

5.) The revenue projections going forward are not Wisconsin specific, they are instead based on national economic trends.  There is no doubt that lack of leadership in the White House has created domestic and international concerns which have national economic impacts.  

6.)  Media bias and ignorance is driving the confusion.  I have never seen a Wisconsin paper headline the federal deficit despite Sen. Ron Johnson's best efforts.  Those deficits are real.  Wisconsin is in good shape.  54% of voters think Wisconsin is headed in the right direction, compared to 25% of national voters who think the US is headed in the right direction.

Northwoods Patriots - Standing up for Faith, Family, Country

WISCONSIN VOTER ID NOW LEGAL



Appeals court reinstates Wisconsin’s voter ID law
ABC News – Todd Richmond and Michael Tarm – 9/12/2014

In a stunningly fast decision, a federal appeals court in Chicago reinstated Wisconsin's voter photo identification law on Friday — just hours after three Republican-appointed judges heard arguments on reactivating the hotly debated law in time for the November election.
In a brief order, a three-judge panel of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago said, "The State of Wisconsin may, if it wishes ... enforce the photo ID requirement in this November's elections."

Wisconsin officials wasted no time in saying they would do just that.
"We are taking every step to fully implement the voter photo ID law for the November general election," said Kevin Kennedy, the state's top election official. "We are now focused on communicating with local election officials and voters, and will have more information about the details next week."

Northwoods Patriots - Standing up for Faith, Family, Country

GLOBAL WARMING NOT SO WARM; NO TRUE CONSENSUS



Estimates of the social cost of carbon-driven “consensus” global warming
Freedom Outpost – Ileana Johnson 9/12/2014

At the end of the day, consumers are going to pay more taxes and higher prices for all goods and services because of "consensus" global warming and its social costs as determined by omnipotent governments, academicians, and the United Nation's IPCC. The science is not settled but the fix on our pockets is.



Northwoods Patriots - Standing up for Faith, Family, Country

WISCONSIN WANTS SCHOOL CHOICE FOR ALL CHILDREN




Poll finds strong support for school choice in WI swing districts

Wisconsin Reporter – M. D. Kittle – 9/12/2014

The poll of 500 likely voters, conducted by NMB on Aug. 20-21, found 63 percent of respondents favor allowing education tax dollars to be used for choice programs in private schools. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.38 percent.
 

Northwoods Patriots - Standing up for Faith, Family, Country

Saturday, September 6, 2014

COLLECTIVISM AND SOCIALISTIC CONTROL



Control is the key focus of collectivism
Freedom Outpost – Dale Pflug – 9/5/2014

Americans have been in a 100+ year war to resist the transformation of our republic into a democracy, then to socialism. The American shift to socialism has reached an alarming stage with the move to a powerful centralized federal government. States' rights have been surrendered. During the past 50 years, we have watched socialism increase with the federalization of education, environment control and adoption of national health care with the addition to ObamaCare. (A more appropriate name might be DemocracyCare!)

Individualists, particularly freedom loving Americans, learned the importance of a republic from their Founding Fathers who insisted on maximum freedom and limiting government to its most basic functions. Today, the state has become more powerful while allowing a large role of big corporations with central planning and crony capitalism. Coercion plays an increasing role in ensuring individuals is control by, and serve the will of the state. Nationalization of health care, for example, has forced people to buy health insurance. Big government has invaded every aspect of our lives.

Federal control of the educational system has provided the necessary dumbing down of the citizen that has increased surrender of individual freedoms. Individualism is best characterized by freedom of the individual while control is the key focus of collectivism. Many people wonder if the fate of America is destined to collapse as every collectivist societies that have gone before it. The risks associated with this change are huge. A massive effort to stop this collapse would be costly and take decades to achieve if even possible. Each citizen should study the contrast between individualism and collectivism. There is extensive information available about collectivism on the Internet. A good starting point is: www.freedomkeys.com/collectivism.htm.



Northwoods Patriots - Standing up for Faith, Family, Country

Friday, September 5, 2014

MILWAUKEE TEACHERS RECEIVE HIGH PAY; STUDENTS NEED HELP


How much are teachers really paid?
MacIver Institute – Nick Novak – 9/3/2014

Elementary school teachers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin are the highest paid amongst the nation's large cities, according to this study from the John K. MacIver Institute for Public Policy and the National Center for Policy Analysis.

The joint report looks at median elementary school teacher pay, not including fringe benefits, in 60 selected metropolitan areas. Cities were selected on the basis of availability of data, their population and for geographic balance.

Comparing nominal teachers' salaries provides a basic look into educator pay in the United States, but for a true comparison, salaries must be adjusted for the cost of living in each metro area. When adjusted for cost of living, Los Angeles drops from second highest ($74,280 - nominal) to 17th highest ($56,963 - adjusted). New York City drops even further, from third highest ($73,000) to 59th out of 60 ($33,152).

Teachers in Milwaukee do not move from the top spot, however. When adjusted for cost of living, teacher pay drops slightly from $74,540 to $73,078.

While this study looks at median teacher pay, it also questions how well students perform in these cities. Do the metro areas with the highest adjusted teacher pay have students performing at the highest level? The answer is a resounding no.

In fact, of the 19 metro areas that have data available for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) - also known as the Nation's Report Card - the four cities with the worst test scores are the four cities with the highest paid teachers (Detroit, MI; Cleveland, OH; Fresno, CA and Milwaukee, WI).

It is clear that Milwaukee has more work to do when it comes to educational performance. According to the latest statewide standardized testing, only 24.1 percent of fourth-grade students are proficient in math and only 16.8 percent of fourth-grade students are proficient in reading. Both are about half of the statewide average.

While teacher pay varies greatly across the country, Milwaukee makes it clear that higher pay does not always translate into higher test scores. Moving forward, policy makers may need to look to other educational reforms if they intend on better preparing students for success.
Full report – 13-page PDF
 

Northwoods Patriots - Standing up for Faith, Family, Country

UNION LEADERSHIP ARE IN THE TOP 1% OF INCOME EARNERS



UNION LEADERSHIP ARE IN THE TOP 1% OF INCOME EARNERS

Meet the Bosses:  Big Labor’s Top Ten
Watchdog.org – Jason Hart – 9/3/2014

Open the link to see the list of 100 top union-dues paid leaders

Union officials lived even higher on the hog in fiscal 2013 than the year before, when 428 union officers and employees were paid more than $250,000 and the top 100 received compensation totaling $52.1 million.

The latest list of the 100 highest-paid union bosses is led by employees of the MLB, NBA, and NFL players’ unions — unsurprising, given the prevalence of seven-figure contracts among the professional athletes they represent.

American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten was paid $543,150 last year.

However, dozens of union officers and employees — whose paychecks come from teachers, government workers and blue-collar laborers — are also paid $350,000 or more.


Northwoods Patriots - Standing up for Faith, Family, Country

MEXICANS, MUSLIMS, MARXISTS



An open letter to the leadership
Eagle Rising – Thomas Paine – 9/5/2014

Those are the three M’s... MEXICO, MUSLIMS, MARXISM....all seemingly working together to derail America as founded on Christian/Judeo principles of the Enlightenment. As the only country where the PEOPLE made the rules, the founding USA was a miraculous breakthrough that is now under attack.

For decades US politicians turned a blind eye, or worse, colluded, in Mexico's decades of organized racketeering exporting illegal drugs, guns and poor people into the United States for the purpose of psychological warfare, subversion and profit.

The impact of 20-30 million criminals/illegals (not the fictional “11 million”) has degraded cities, schools, education, medical care and all other areas of American civic life.

Criminals/illegals already reap billions from Left/Dems party so it is unlikely they will ever vote GOP...to think so smacks of delusion...it is reading the tea leaves incorrectly to assign "conservative values" to them. In fact, their culture is incompatible with democratic Western values of self-reliance & fairness.

They are steeped in 400 years of Spanish Colonial policies of racism and elitism generating disrespect for authority and honesty.

Americans have no moral, legal, ethical obligation to support the poor which have been sent by racketeering Mexico...Mexican, Carlos Slim, the richest man in the world, could fund education/medical for all Mexican poor...but this is never mentioned...Americans are forced to do this.

There should be no "door prize" of citizenship for successfully breaking into the country to take what citizens created...essentially burglarizing the homeland to steal property bought and paid for by citizens/taxpayers.

It goes without saying the growing numbers and aggressive demands of MUSLIMS in Europe and the US will become a greater infringement in the future. There has been no attempt to be secretive on the intentions of the Islamists...it is world domination.

The MARXISTS in government and education have usurped the American model of patriotism and fairness. Decades of 1960s-style aggression against government and middle-class values has produced too many who have no understanding of the foundation of American and what it stands for. They have been successfully brainwashed to believe unworthy propositions forwarded by the Left, such as "You didn't build that."

Now is the time to speak up for the Rule of Law and America.


Northwoods Patriots - Standing up for Faith, Family, Country

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

OBAMA’S DEBT SADDLES AMERICA’S CHILDREN FOR DECADES



During Obama’s Presidency, national debt has grown by $61K per household
Daily Signal – Michael Sargent – 9/3/2014

Today, the country is saddled with more than $17.6 trillion of gross debt, an increase of more than $61,000 per American household during Obama’s presidency alone. Median household income in the U.S. is about $51,000. This means that during Obama’s presidency debt per household grew by more than the typical American family earns in a given year.

The debt increase seen over the past six years is massive enough to eclipse the entire annual production of other top economies around the world. The $7.06 trillion added during Obama’s tenure exceeds the combined 2013 output of Germany and France, the two largest economies in Europe.

In order to reverse this trend, the country needs to seriously address its spending problem, starting with an evaluation of its biggest culprit: swelling entitlement programs. Continuing to put off the problem will leave the next generation more indebted and economically weak than any before it—and that is not the American way.

Northwoods Patriots - Standing up for Faith, Family, Country

SOCIAL JUSTICE MATH IS REALLY INDOCTRINATION

Is social justice math creeping into your child's math curriculum?
http://www.glennbeck.com/2014/08/28/is-social-justice-math-creeping-into-your-childs-curriculum/
Glenn Beck - 8/28/2014

If you think back to your elementary school years, your math equations probably centered around going to the store and making a purchase or having to make change in some way. Not anymore. Now, progressives are pushing to have themes like climate change and casualties of war worked into these problems. 

“A typical math problem would be you have 13 cents and a green pencil is 3 cents – you know, that sort of problem. They want to get rid of those sorts of problems,” Olson said. “Instead, they want to calculate war deaths, or they want to calculate the number of liquor stores within a particular radius of the school, or problems related to global warming – those sorts of things.”

Ultimately, there is a push to insert a political and ideological bias into areas of the curriculum that should be straightforward and fact-based. 

Northwoods Patriots - Standing up for Faith, Family, Country

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

NORTHWOODS PATRIOTS SEPTEMBER MEETING

After a summer hiatus, The Northwoods Patriots will resume in September with less than two months prior to Congressional election on November 4.

New Location:   Home of Kim Simac
Plan to enjoy a summer evening outside as we discuss and brainstorm actions that can benefit Conservative Causes.  Discover and discuss your own SOI.

Remember:  Conservative = FREEDOM ~ LIBERTY ~ TRANSPARENCY

Northwoods Patriots - Standing up for Faith, Family, Country

MILLENNIALS NEED DEFINITIONS BEFORE THEY CAN VOTE WITH INTELLIGENCE



5 charts that explain millennial voters
Daily Signal – Melissa Quinn – 9/1/2014

 The importance to communicators:

The Cold War ended long ago, and according to one survey, it’s time for politicians to leave Cold War-era terms such as “big government,” “socialism” and “capitalism” behind. The reason: Such words mean little to the millennial generation, who came of age during the Great Recession.
  
Polling firms, marketers and politicians continue to have put millennials under the microscope to determine their political leanings and what drives them to the polls.

A recent survey by Reason-Rupe found that many millennials don’t understand the words “big government,” “socialism” and “capitalism” — language that emerged after World War II and during the Cold War. Generation Y, Ekins says, simply doesn’t extract much meaning from such terms.

1. Millennials say “capitalism” is a better economic system than “socialism” by only a small margin. However, when asked if they believe a free market economy is better than a government-managed one, the margin widens substantially.

2. Millennials don’t quite know what “socialism” means.

3. Millennials say they prefer a “larger government” that provides more services. They don’t tend to think of “big government” leading to higher taxes and heavier regulation. Once the possibility of higher taxes to support a larger government is mentioned, though, millennials’ support shifts. 

4. Under the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, the cost of health insurance increases for young people to subsidize the cost of health insurance for the elderly and less affluent. Millennials covered under their parents’ plans — they can remain so until 26 under Obamacare — support others helping pay to insure the uninsured. However, those paying for their own plans disagree.

5. Millennials are fiscal centrists and social liberals, Ekins says. On fiscal issues, millennials see themselves as closer to Republicans such as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie than to President Obama, and are centrists. However, millennials rate themselves closer to liberal Democrats such as Obama on social issues.
 

Northwoods Patriots - Standing up for Faith, Family, Country

Sunday, August 31, 2014

QUESTIONS FOR LIBERALS: WILL THEY ACTUALLY DISCUSS THEIR POSITION?



Five civil questions to post to your liberal friends
God Father Politics – David Bahnsen – 8/30/2014

This article is NOT intended as a device to make an argument in and of itself – these are real QUESTIONS – not answers.

1. Do you believe public employee unions have been a constructive force in American society or a destructive one? If the latter, do you acknowledge the relationship between public employee unions and the Democratic party/agenda, and how do you feel about that? If you believe they’ve been a constructive force in American society, could you elaborate?

2. Are you for MORE government in American lives or LESS government? The confusion lies in the left’s pretty consistent opposition to things like school choice and health care freedom, but pretty consistent support for things like abortion rights and gay marriage. Should we want more government for some things and less for others, and if so, how do you draw those lines?

3. Would you consider the “war on poverty” of the last fifty years to have been a success? If so, by what basis do you see it as such? If not, what do you think was done wrongly and by what basis do you think even greater federal government intervention would succeed in defeating poverty?

4. Do you like big money in politics or dislike it? If you dislike it, do you believe it should be demonized when the last name is Soros and Steyer or only Koch? At what economic point does a person lose his or her right to participate in elections, and regardless of what that point is, do you believe it applies to both parties or just one?

5. Does the economy function better with greater regulation or less regulation? If the former, can you think of an industry or company or product or innovation that has thrived with more regulation? If the latter, do you believe the current Democratic Party is committed to freer markets or more restrictive markets? Which one is better for middle class people?
 

Northwoods Patriots - Standing up for Faith, Family, Country

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

AGENDA 21 AND CONTROL OF AMERICA'S FOOD SUPPLY



The Agenda 21 Depopulation of rural areas will give Obama Stalin-like control over food
Freedom Outpost – Dave Hodges – 8/27/2014

The plan is called America 2050 and the concept is based upon the creation of megacities. In order for the megacities concept, which is well underway, to come to fruition, American suburbs and rural areas must be completely depopulated. This process is underway and the Obama administration is accelerating the process.

This will come as a shock to many reading this article because they did not learn of these events from FOX or CNN. However, in actuality, the process of moving the United States towards a complete Agenda 21-style of total urbanization has already commenced and it began nearly 20 years ago. In the case of total urbanization, the United States is in the process of dividing the country into 11 large densely populated urban centers.

NAFTA Was the Beginning of Rural Flight In the United States
The first notable effect of NAFTA is that it is credited with greatly accelerating illegal immigration, and almost immediately bankrupted over three million farmers in northern Mexico and this group became the vanguard of millions of Mexicans illegally entering the US in search for subsistence work of any type.

The second dramatic impact of NAFTA lies in the fact that it has had catastrophic consequences for U.S. farmers as a record number of small farmers have lost their farms and have gone through foreclosure while the government subsidized corporate farms have thrived. Since NAFTAthe average annual growth of the US trade deficit has been 45% higher. Also since NAFTA took effect, about 170,000 small family farms have gone bankrupt which represents a decline of 21% of family farms in the U.S.

The US Government Is Gaining Control Over All Food

Through the collectivization of the food production, the Chinese government is working towards gaining complete control over all food in order to control the people. On an ever increasing basis, NAFTA is providing the U.S. government with the exact same ability.

Therefore, the third draconian impact of NAFTA is that it has led to even more nefarious free trade agreements and executive orders, which led to the loss of control for local communities over their own food supply.

With the stroke of his pen, Obama has total and absolute control over all food where his EO 13603  states:

e)  "Food resources" means all commodities and products, (simple, mixed, or compound), or complements to such commodities or products, that are capable of being ingested by either human beings or animals, irrespective of other uses to which such commodities or products may be put, at all stages of processing from the raw commodity to the products thereof in vendible form for human or animal consumption.  "Food resources" also means potable water packaged in commercially marketable containers, all starches, sugars, vegetable and animal or marine fats and oils, seed, cotton, hemp, and flax fiber, but does not mean any such material after it loses its identity as an agricultural commodity or agricultural product.

(f)  "Food resource facilities" means plants, machinery, vehicles (including on farm), and other facilities required for the production, processing, distribution, and storage (including cold storage) of food resources, and for the domestic distribution of farm equipment and fertilizer…"

NAFTA was merely the opening artillery bombardment against the American farmer and the ultimate depopulation of rural areas. The death of the American farmer will ultimately come at the hands of EO 13603 and I believe this will be fully implemented when Obama declares martial law


Northwoods Patriots - Standing up for Faith, Family, Country