Republicans in the Wisconsin senate are threatening to pass legislation that would require photo identification at polling places if the Democrats don’t return to vote on public employee union reforms. The photo ID bill, which apparently can be passed sans quorum, is anathema to Democrats, and the GOP is using it as bait to get them back to the capitol, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel today reports.

It’s a bad idea.  Republicans have the upper hand on the union reform legislation; they should stick to that issue. Momentum and public opinion are on their side.  So are the facts.

Just look at the fishing expedition Democrats in the Wisconsin Assembly are on, again according to the Journal-Sentinel:

Among the amendments Democrats will offer is one to ensure transit workers retain their collective bargaining rights because they say the U.S. Department of Labor could pull millions of dollars in federal aid from Wisconsin if those laws are changed. Rep. Robin Vos (R-Rochester), co-chairman of the Joint Finance Committee, said he opposed that change because the issue of whether federal aid would be lost was a “gray area.”

Assembly Democrats said they also were worried the bill could affect the certification of state forests as being managed sustainably, because the groups that certify them require that foresters adhere to international labor standards. Losing the sustainability certification could hurt an important niche market, they said.

Clearly they’ve got nothing.  These are desperate grasps at straws.

As Margaret Thatcher famously told President George Bush 41, “Don’t go wobbly.”

There’s nothing like a bout of Linda-Blair-in-the-Exorcist-like vomiting to remind oneself how quickly one’s attitude about something can change.

It makes me wonder which long-held beliefs are non-negotiable and which could be subject to change should life’s conditions become suddenly altered.

This is a gross and silly example, but it serves to frame the topic:

On Saturday, a friend came to my house for a poker game with a huge aluminum tray of pasta – about five pounds of farfadelle with shrimp and sun-dried tomatoes in a cream pesto sauce.  My wife and children had just left for a weekend trip, so the mouse – yours truly – quickly moved in his old card-playing crew, six paunchy and half-balding men who regularly played cards with me in my 20’s, when we were paunchy with full heads of hair.

The pasta’s arrival was notable for two reasons 1.) It served as a jarring reminder of how old we all had become. When did people start showing up at poker games with farfadelle with shrimp and sun-dried tomatoes in a cream pesto sauce?, and 2.) the very site and smell of the stuff told me that my stomach might not be in optimal shape.

The game began, and I declined several invitations to “get a plate.”  My pasta-wielding friend persisted: “Try it; you’re gonna love it,” he pressed between each hand of cards. “I picked it up from the restaurant specially for you.”

I politely peeked at it.  I sniffed it, poked it, and lied.  I told him it was, perhaps, the finest looking tray of pasta I had ever laid my eyes on, but “maybe a little bit later.

But it was too late already.  The cream pesto sauce was in my head – in my olfactories — and no matter how intriguing the combinations of cards dealt to me – I won five of the first ten hands — I couldn’t get the image and stink of that slimy green yuck out of my thinking.

Even after my second hour of vomiting it was there.  The brain can be brilliantly photographic when it needs a catalyst to purge a threatening bacterium – or whatever I had in my stomach  – and in my case that photograph was of a big pink shrimp in a pool of green goo with a sun-dried eyebrow-looking-thing dangling across it.  Sorry everyone.

I spent a better part of 24-hours on a bathroom floor.  And that shrimp and pasta dish – which I hadn’t even tasted – was with me every heave of the way.

And then on Monday I awoke, starving.  And there, again, was that pasta in my head, but this time in an entirely new light.  I was ravenous, and, miracle upon miracle, there was four-and-a-half-pounds of the most delicious-looking farfadelle with shrimp and sun-dried tomatoes in a cream pesto sauce downstairs in my fridge.  (Delicious it was – even had hints of truffle oil.)

I rarely get that sick, but whenever I do, it makes me go through the same thought process as soon as I rebound:  How can a temporary illness alter one’s perspective so quickly and so dramatically?  Or, more exactly, how can one’s thinking be so altered by how one feels at any given time? And yet it can be.

Experiences do that, too, of course. Often permanently. Reagan press secretary James Brady became an ardent gun-control activists after being shot by John Hinkley Jr., and the old adage that a conservative is a liberal who’s been mugged has truth to it.  Otherwise rational people become 100% convinced they are entitled to a rent-stabilized apartment because they live in one, and staunch social conservatives can turn into libertarians after a child comes out of the closet.  But those are dramatic examples.

It’s the everyday stuff I wonder more about – income and education levels, age, physical health, living environment, job and marital status, family support structure, etc.  How much do those things effect our individual political and philosophical outlooks on life?  Which of our beliefs are truly objective and which might be proven subjective at the end of the day?

One more plate of this pasta probably isn’t going to tell me, but it sure has me thinking…

Good news for Libyans might spell bad news for President Obama next year. Looks like it’s going to be an expensive summer at the gas pump.

The spread of popular revolution – read market uncertainty – into oil-rich Libya and the growing political instability throughout the Middle East virtually guarantees it.  So does the recovering manufacturing sector;  the growing automobile market in China and India; a nut job controlling Venezuela’s oil exports, and deep-water drilling moratoriums in the Gulf Coast .

We learned in the summer of 2008 that $4 is the magic number for the American driver.  When a gallon of gas exceeds that price, motorists alter their habits – and howl like mad.

No one has a crystal ball.  It is impossible to predict with certainty today how much a gallon of gas will cost in July.  But a quick scan of international news headlines suggests it will be significantly higher than an already-high $3.16, today’s national average.  Indeed, oil prices jumped to a two-year high today on news out of the Middle East.

If the price of gas reaches or exceeds $4 again, Americans aren’t going to be happy about it.  And fairly or unfairly, they’re going to take it out on President Obama — just months before his re-election effort launches.

Politicians who want to be ahead of the game should start addressing this today, most notably the President.

There are skirmishes every day in state capitols across America.

And then every once in a while, there is a fight.

The unfolding turmoil at the Wisconsin state capitol has become even more than that:  It has turned into an existential battle for the Democratic Party and the public employee unions as they exist today, the results of which could be landscape-altering in the history of American politics. The stakes have become too significant for either side to back down, or so it seems at the moment.

To Republicans, the battle in Madison cuts to the core of what is whittling away America’s economic foundation – self-perpetuating government and its costs.  Public employee unions and other special interests are its drivers.

To the Democrats, this is an assault on its most reliable troops and fund-raising apparatuses. Public service employees – and their political contributions — are central to today’s Democratic Party.   Witness President Obama’s and the Democratic National Committee’s rush to assist the demonstrators.

Both parties realize what’s at stake, which makes prosecuting this fight to a successful conclusion so important to both sides.

Today’s public employee unions are a well-oiled Mercantile system.  They provide jobs for political loyalists, who provide union leaders with campaign volunteers and taxpayer-funded dues, which are donated to candidates for public office, who then vote to increase the salaries and benefits of those workers.  It is – if you’ll forgive the overused term – a Ponzi scheme that goes on until the money runs out.  And the money has run out.

Democrats are not wrong in accusing Republicans in Wisconsin of trying to break the backs of the public employee unions.  They are. And rightly so if you subscribe, as I do, to a fiscally conservative philosophy.  The only way to stop the growth of spending and debt in U.S. states is to structurally weaken the union grip on state capitols. Madison, a long-time stronghold of organized labor, is as good a place to start as anywhere.

If Wisconsin plays out the way it promises to, this could be a very ugly and protracted fight.  But it is a battle America has to go through if it’s going to come out the other side and know who it is again.

The Democratic National Committee is surreptitiously aiding the raucous union demonstrators in Wisconsin who have closed Milwaukee schools with “sick outs” and frozen the Wisconsin state senate with punk-outs, according to a great get by Politico’s Ben Smith.

All eyes are on Wisconsin where President Obama and the DNC are now publicly defending the intransigent public employee unions. I have a sneaking feeling the President and DNC will quickly back down. This is a major loser for them.  The public is sick and tired of public union abuses.

Stay tuned.

Forty-seven years ago in Kew Gardens, Queens Kitty Genovese was stabbed to death over an extended period of time.  Dozens of neighbors heard her cries for help, but no one called the police.  The incident prompted many studies — and the naming of a quirky human phenomenon now called the Genovese Syndrome or the Bystander Effect.  What the studies found is that humans are less likely to come to a stranger’s rescue when other people are around.  They assume someone else will help.  The more people present, the less likely any of them are to assist.

I once heard a New York City police officer instruct attendees at a community meeting during a crime wave to yell “fire” if they are ever accosted in the street late at night.  An individual cry for help can be ignored or chalked up as horseplay, he explained, but “fire” gets people’s attention.  It can spread and affect them, so they will make a call.

The disturbing video above from the Today Show was just posted by a friend on Facebook.  I thought I’d post it here as well, just to remind all of us, including me, not to listen to ourselves when we hear cries for help, but to remember the lessons learned from Kitty Genovese.

The Blackberry Alarmclock welcomes guest columnist Liz Feld. Ms. Feld, the former mayor of Larchmont, NY, served as a public affairs specialist at the White House Office of Management and Budget, and as a press officer for Vice President George H.W. Bush. She served as Senior Vice President of Communications for Nickelodeon, and as Director of News Information at ABC News.

Let me get something out of the way right up front.  I believe President Obama cares deeply about this country and about its future. And as with any other President, I believe as Americans we should hope he moves the country forward — notwithstanding any policy differences — as long as he serves as our President and Commander in Chief.  In fact, if Sarah Palin is the GOP nominee I may hope even more that he succeeds.

But the President’s foray yesterday into the Wisconsin legislative feud over collective bargaining rights for public employees cannot be viewed as moving the country forward.

What is the President of the United States doing coming to the defense of public school teachers who staged a “sick out” .. now in its second day, thanks in no small part to the blessing of the President …. to protest their Governor? What is the President doing accusing a Republican (but we’ll get to that later) Governor of “vilifying” public sector unions, because that Governor,  and a majority of elected legislators, have asked these employees to do what every other private sector employee has to do: contribute to his/her pension?

While Rome is burning … well, not Rome but half of the Middle East …. President Obama is opining in an interview with a local midwest television station that “public employees are people, too. They are our neighbors and our friends.”

Well, of course they are. But so are the tens of thousands of people who are unemployed in Wisconsin, New York, New Jersey and all across the country. And two years into his tenure, the President still has no jobs plan.

Wisconsin is broke. New York is broke. New Jersey is broke.  But the President hasn’t said a word about Governor Cuomo’s call for the “special interests” to back off their demands for ever-richer contracts.  And nothing from the President when Cuomo said education funds should not continue to subsidize the “education bureaucracy” while student performance suffers.     Not a word when Mayor Bloomberg — and now Governor Cuomo  — talk about the need to end the century-old teachers’ union practice of “Last In First Out” when layoffs come.   Maybe the public employees in NY aren’t “our friends and neighbors.”

Conceptually, Governor Cuomo has said nearly all of the same things — the right things — the Governor of Wisconsin has said. He has called for the same essential reforms. As in Wisconsin, the NYS teachers’ union — and special interest groups – are waging a big campaign to stop Governor Cuomo from getting anywhere close to where he wants and needs to be to get NY on sound fiscal footing. While they haven’t staged a sick out yet, just wait until budget day comes in Albany.

Make no mistake about it. President Obama’s comments yesterday were all about 2012.  For the first time since 1984, Wisconsin is in play for the Republicans.  No need to weigh in on behalf of his “friends and neighbors” in  New York, for victory is assured for him in New York next November.

For the second day in a row, thousands of parents in Wisconsin had to take a day off from work to take care of their kids because their public school teachers “called in sick.”  Where’s Ronald Reagan when you need him? I think every one of those teachers should be fired; think 1981, when the President gave the striking air traffic controllers an ultimatum to get back to work or be fired. And what of the example being set by the Wisconsin Democratic legislators who also “no-showed” yesterday for the vote on collective bargaining legislation? They were hiding in plain sight in a hotel … no doubt collecting their per diems. Just three months ago these folks were elected to do the people’s business. I wonder when the last time was the hard working people of Wisconsin had a chance to hang out in a hotel all day in protest.

All of the talk from the President about “shared sacrifice during these tough times” is just that: talk.  During his nationally televised press conference on Tuesday, President Obama chastised reporters for pressing him about the lack of substantive budget cuts in the areas of entitlements and defense. They asked him what happened to the recommendations made by his own Deficit Reduction Commission — recommendations that included raising the retirement age (we have to), means-testing Medicare (we must), eliminating certain tax deductions (that, too) — and he punted. After complaining that MSNBC’s Chuck Todd and other members of the press were too “impatient” for progress, the President said he’s “waiting to hear from the Republicans in this process.”  He’ll yield his time to the Republicans in Congress and the Teachers’ Union in Wisconsin.

Americans need a President who is willing to lead. During his State of the Union, President Obama sounded like one. In talking about the American spirit, he said ” … We do big things.” He called this “our Sputnik moment.”  A “big thing” would be demanding that Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and defense spending be part of any budget discussion.   A “big thing” is not fanning the flames in Wisconsin.

Democratic senators in the Wisconsin statehouse have fled the state to avoid being brought back to work by newly deputized truant officers – the Wisconsin State Police – and restoring quorum.

At issue is a bill to end public service employee collective bargaining that Republicans planned to pass.  The GOP now holds a 19-14 majority and can pass the measure – providing they have quorum.  Hence, the flight of the cheese heads to neighboring states.

Senators are elected by voters.  They represent them.  They legislate in their stead.  What these absent legislators are doing is childish and disenfranchising, to use a favorite word of the Left.

Whether you agree with this bill or not, fleeing the state – fleeing the state! – is not an appropriate legislative tactic.

May have to throw another Green Bay Packers tribute to lure them back in.

If this is a sign of things to come state-by-state, we’re in for a long decade.

I use the word “transparency” a lot in my day job. It polls off the charts. When asked if they would be more or less likely to vote for a candidate who fights for “transparency in government,” about 70-75% of voters these days generally respond in the affirmative. That’s a big number — right up there with the results from “provide more services with fewer dollars.”

But I’m beginning to think transparency is not what we need in government. What we may need, in fact, is just the opposite — utter anonymity.

With every passing day in capitols across the country, it is becoming increasingly clear that a great majority of legislators are — how does one say this politely? — chicken shit. Political careers have become more important than what is right for towns, cities, counties, states, and, ultimately, the country.

Most people in office know what needs to get done — systematically reduce government spending — but they don’t want to be the ones to have to sneak into the lion cages and snatch back the rib roasts.

So maybe we should give our elected officials in Albany and Washington and Sacramento and Springfield a temporary reprieve from accountability — a transparency holiday for, say, a week, where they can anonymously vote on all the ugly stuff — the tough budgets, the pension reform bills, and the entitlement changes.

It would require a complete media blackout, windows covered in dark paper, chimneys sealed, a sweep for bugs … Legislators could mask themselves to be extra safe and use voice altering machines like kidnappers have in the movies. All that would be allowed would be tweets to the outside world: “Tied. To. Chair. Can’t. Break. Free.”

At the end of the week, all the tough stuff could be pushed through and no one would be the wiser to who dunnit.

I wonder how that idea would poll…

I’m not looking to pick on the President.  It’s not election time yet – quite yet – and he is my President whether I supported him or not in 2008 (I did not). But a statement made by President Obama Wednesday was so excruciatingly lily-livered that not commenting on it would be a crime of omission.

When asked at a White house press conference why he did not propose reforming non-discretionary spending programs like Social Security and Medicare – as his much-hyped bi-partisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform directly challenged him to do 48 days ago – here’s what the President said:

“This is not a matter of, ‘you go first, I go first. It’s a matter of everybody having a serious conversation about where we want to go and then ultimately getting in that boat at the same time so it doesn’t tip over.”

Translation: “Are you out of your mind? I’m not touching those issues. They’re dangerous.  Let the idiots in the House and Senate take the beating.”

The President’s pusillanimous punk-out struck me extra hard because I learned of it while leaving a 100^th birthday forum on President Reagan.  In a matter of 15 minutes, I went from “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” to a replay of that classic 1974 Hues Corporation hit:

to rock the boat, don’t rock the boat baby
rock the boat, don’t tip the boat over
rock the boat, don’t rock the boat baby
rock the boat-t-t-t-t

Catchy tune, but where is the leadership?