Steve Bartin, who heads up the great site Newsalert, sends a fascinating YouTube clip (below) of a leader of the AFSCME (American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees) threatening Illinois lawmakers in order to get them to send more money to public employees. I have written quite a bit regarding the sweetheart deals public employee unions and their members enjoy, courtesy of taxpayers.  Generous salaries, guaranteed gold-plated pension and health care plans, special deals that allow them to retire, collect their pensions, and go to work again for the government. Those deals exist because politicians are playing with Other People's Money (ours) and like to hand it out to union members, who then recycle it back into their campaign coffers. The AFSCME Political Action Committee is one of the largest in the nation and the union boasts of its political power on its website. States are being crippled by these unions; investments needed to support our children and...(Read Full Post)