Wednesday, March 23, 2011

On labor art, local tax options and the UA Board of trustees

FOR NO EXTRA charge, people, we are pleased to show you another excellent example of how the Tea Partiers are making a mockery of democracy in America. Here, we give you Maine Gov. Paul LePage, a TPer himself, who has ordered the removal of an historic 11-panel mural from the state's Department of Labor because he believes - are you ready for such nonsense in the land of the free? - it is too pro-labor and doesn't reflect a balance with business and industry. The Republican governor has also called for name changes for conference rooms for the same preposterous reasons. So the depiction of Rosie the Riveter will be gone, as well as others who contributed sweat and muscle to industry. Next, across the land with these LePage types in charge, will come removal of WPA art in theaters and other public places. The awesome Diego Rivera mural in the Detroit Instititute of Arts that commands a visitor's attention will probably remain. Tea Partiers have better things to take up their time than anything as trivial as a dying American city like Detroit.

More from Gov. Kasich on the new royalist regimes that have moved into state governments: He has now placed himself in charge of tax policies of local governments, telling the Columbus Dispatch increases in taxes at the municipal level is "not an option" to make up for abundant losses in state revenue in his proposed budget. He says the beleaguered locals can get by on savings from having to deal with public worker unions. He can't prove that, but when you are royalty, you don't have to. His ally, Mayor Don Robart of Cuyahoga Falls, has already placed his seal of approval on Kasich's plan. He told the Beacon Journal with vague certainty that "I'd like to think it's going to balance out." You can tack that one up on your refrigerator.

Finally, Alex Arshinkoff wasn't dumped by the University of Akron Board of Trustees as the newly-hired UA lobbyist. I'm told Trustee Jane Bond raised the issue in executive session but "nothing happened." Why am I not surprised?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Proposed name change for LePage include the Lehman Brothers Hall of Heroes and the Koch Brothers Room. Visits will enter through the Enron Rotunda and eat at the Goldman Sachs Cafeteria.

JLM said...

One can only wonder how much Maine taxpayer money will be spent in the removal of the murals. One can also wonder how many of these new Tea Party governors will be re-elected after they finish savaging their respective states.

Mencken said...

One of the first items on the Taliban's agenda in Afghanistan was the destruction of the magnificent Buddhas of Bamiyan. Mullah Omar felt that they were"idols" and un-Islamic.

"The Taliban soon banned all forms of imagery, music and sports, including television, in accordance with what they considered a strict interpretation of Sharia".

Enter the American Taliban.