Math questions [updated]

Heh. Via Doug Ross.

$6 million: Michelle Malkin notes the cost of fake-sick-protesting teachers in Wisconsin.

How much do you suppose the state lost in productivity when parents were forced to stay home to care for their children? The teachers–or unions–should be charged.

14: The Wisconsin Senate escapees claim they’ll come home “sooner rather than later.” Do the teachers not have the mental capacity to realize that this could cost 12,000 of their jobs?

How much does it cost to house and feed 14 state senators on the lam?

Via Rush, a little history:

Texas Democrats, what was it that got ’em home?  In 2003 Texas Democrats fled to Ardmore, Oklahoma, in a rented bus.  Now, Governor Rick Perry sent the Texas Rangers after ’em.  And the Democrat governor of Oklahoma would not allow the Texas Rangers to cross into his state.  So Governor Perry informed those Democrats that they would not be allowed to use their state credit cards to pay for their trip, nor would they be reimbursed for their expenses in Oklahoma, including the bus that took ’em there.  Now, once the runaway Democrats in Texas realized that they had to pay their own way that was the beginning of their caving in and coming back home.  So I’m wondering if Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin has thought of pulling the plug on the credit cards of the runaway Democrats.  ‘Cause make no mistake, I’m sure they have them.  I mean if we’re gonna have welfare debit cards, you know damn well that members of the state legislature have a state credit card as well.  He-he-he-he.

Priceless: Wisconsin taxpayers realize they’re footing the bill for this snit fit.

UPDATE via Backyard Conservative, WISen Dems on lam in IL forced to buy underwear, scavenge for food. Mabye they learned a lesson from their Texas counterparts. (Is it possible for a Democrat to learn anything?) Read it and giggle at one self-absorbed Senator’s idiotic comparison to college life and refugees. Really?

UPDATE 2: Layoffs imminent if budget not resolved. Ed Morrissey:

Democrats had used the threat of the bond default as a means to pressure Walker into caving on the budget-repair bill.  Instead, they’ve forced Walker’s hand and now have their own pressure to get back to work.  Will they stay out just to see state employees pay the price for their obstinacy?

The state employees who lose their jobs will never blame the on-the-lam liberals. They’ll blame Walker.

Both Backyard Conservative and Ed Morrissey link to Byron York, who explains that the working relationship between parties has been changed for-ev-er:

At the heart of all this, Republicans and Democrats are realizing there might be a gap between them that is bigger than they realized. To Republicans, the budget fight has involved the widespread shirking of responsibilities: teachers walking out on students, legislators running away from their offices, even doctors abandoning medical standards to make excuses for perfectly healthy teacher/protesters. To Democrats, the fight has touched a core issue; anything is justified to preserve union benefits.

At some point, the battle will be over. But it’s not clear Republicans and Democrats will ever look at each other quite the same again.

I hope the GOP best buds in the U.S. House and Senate have a similar epiphany. I did in the aftermath of the ’08 election. Find a compromise with liberals? No. Work to defeat them. 

Ed Morrissey:

I’d say that this standoff has provided a much-needed clarification of commitment to constituencies and principles for both sides, and that will end up doing the most damage to those Democrats who attempted to hold the state hostage so that the minority could dictate to the majority

So I don’t understand what all the media hulabaloo is all about…

because Rush is right. (As usual).

Politico headline: Rush ‘meant’ what he said about Haiti

“Everything this president sees is a political opportunity, including Haiti, and he will use it to burnish his credentials with minorities in this country and around the world, and to accuse Republicans of having no compassion,” Limbaugh said.

CBS headline: Obama adds Newsweek cover story writing to his plate

What’s the story about?  Oh, you know, Haiti. 

What better for Newsweek than to have the commander-in-chief of the United States spend his time carefully crafting a few thousand words that put the tragedy in Port-au-Prince in perspective for its readers.

Perspective, eh? 

What strikes me as funny about this: given the comparisons to Katrina (which Rush predicted, by the way), if Bush had written an article about Katrina, announced four days after the event, he would have been excoriated.  (Not that Newsweek would have even given him a cover story to begin with, but that’s an entirely different post.)