GARVEYBLOG
September 2, 2010
Bob Fest is just 10 days from now
By Ed Garvey
Catch this. WIBA talk radio in Madison, the station that carries Rush Limbaugh and Vicki McKenna, has a one-day host from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Labor Day--the Monday before Fighting Bob Fest. The guest host: an unapologetic progressive (sorry Glenn) Ed Garvey. Imagine the reaction of the conservative audience when they hear that I will be handling "Outside the Box" in place of Mitch Henck, who will be on vacation for a day! Whoa Nelly!
Can we call Glenn Beck? How about that congresswoman from Minnesota--Michele Bachman? Or should we fill the air with our voices of reason--Hightower, McCabe, Tammy Baldwin, Greg Palast, the Reverend Jesse Jackson?
Don't know about you, but I'm going to have fun talking about Fighting Bob La Follette instead of Hannity and other folks from the Fox end of the spectrum. Put up your dukes! Be sure to call in.
Bob Fest speakers have all confirmed and are listed on the Fest website, FightingBobFest.org. Check it out and plan to be in Baraboo on Saturday, September 11.
Kick-off at the Barrymore Theatre Friday, August 10, starting at 7:30 p.m. with Jim Hightower, Greg Palast, poet Daniel Kuenene, John Nichols, Thom Hartmann and Laura Flanders. What a line-up! And Senator Russ Feingold. (The two Republicans running against Feingold have not responded to our invitation. Maybe I will get them on "Outside the Box.")
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ARTICLE
September 2, 2010
Sisterly advice
By Bill Berry
Candidate Ron Johnson should say less not more when answering questions about climate change and other topics he knows little about.
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GARVEYBLOG
September 1, 2010
THE WAR IS OVER
By Ed Garvey
Or is it? I watched, listened and remain confused. For some reason the president seems to have misplaced his wand. But, hey, combat in Iraq is over. Hooray.
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GARVEYBLOG
August 31, 2010
Wall Street in revolt?
By Ed Garvey
The NY Times is scary this morning: "Wall Street is deserting Obama," screams the header over Andrew Ross Sorkin's column in the business section. They loved Obama, funded his race for president, but now see him as a traitor to his "elites." They appear to be ready to join Beck's god squad.
Catch this: Sorkin says the Wall-Streeters take Obama's rejection personally. His support for regulation, was compared by one to Hitler's invasion of Poland! My god, Beck might be more like them than Obama ever was!
Here's the rub. Sorkin writes, "Mr. Obama was viewed as a member of the elite, an Ivy League graduate (Columbia, class of ’83, the same as Mr. Loeb), president of The Harvard Law Review — he was supposed to be just like them. President Obama was the 'intelligent' choice, the same way they felt about themselves." I think Sorkin got it right.
Get back to your supporters, Mr. President.
President Petraeus? When do we start to leave Afhanistan and who will decide?
Fighting Bob Fest--all set. Looking forward to answers and challenges from a tremendous list of speakers, breakout leaders and you.
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ARTICLE
August 31, 2010
Kiss of what?
By Joel McNally
The news industry and the conventional wisdom insist that 2010 will be a terrible year for Democrats, but first they have to ignore a few facts.
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GARVEYBLOG
August 30, 2010
Leave us alone!
By Ed Garvey
In an interview in the MJS, right-winger Ron Johnson, a Republican who hopes to defeat Russ Feingold, said, "Conservatives just want to be left alone. The problem is liberals are not leaving us alone."
Don't you wonder what he is talking about? Maybe he is urging a continuation of our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq so long as "conservatives" need not participate. Who really knows. To find out, we invited Johnson to the Fighting Bob Fest kick-off on September 10, along with Russ Feingold and the other Republican David Westlake. Thus far only Feingold has accepted.
Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin. What a ticket! Think 2012. Beck's "god-o-rama" sounds more and more like a presidential fantasy trip for the two who would have us believe they are turning down their rhetoic to become the Trojan Horses of 2012. Ya, sure, and Rush Limbaugh is a moderate!
Fighting Bob Fest: All the booths are taken, but if you forgot to send in your form send us an email and we will try to help.
The countdown begins today; 9/11--Baraboo.
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GUESTBLOG
August 29, 2010
Reconsidering term limits
By Bill Kraus
My own aversion to term limits comes to some extent from my distaste for procrustean measures generally. This is enhanced by knowing that the Bass family of Texas is known to put big money into the idea, and, to a lesser extent, that this is George Will’s favorite remedy for anything and everything that is wrong with politics.
The better reason is that term limits would have and will truncate some potentially sensational legislative careers. Lyndon Johnson’s, Mel Laird’s and Dave Obey’s come to mind. What would they and others like them have done post term-limited stays in Congress. Good, worthwhile things no doubt.
At a more personal level I can recall the Wisconsin attempt to put limits on sheriffs’ terms. This was easily thwarted. The sheriff was limited to two consecutive terms. When he reached that limit, his wife ran to succeed him, and then he came back for another two terms. A process that could and did go on as long as the marriage partners did.
On the other hand, I have become a better-late-than-never fan of President James Polk. He imposed term limits on his presidency when he announced during his campaign that he would serve only one term when elected in the mid-1800s. He was responsible for getting Oregon and Washington from the powerful English, and California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas from the scattershot Mexicans. So much for the disadvantage of the lame duck status that accompanies term limits.
To get back to the emerging advantages of term limits in this day and age, there are several:
1. The focus of the term limited can shift subtlety or strongly onto the job they were elected to perform instead of on keeping the job.
2. Dispassionate redistricting to increase the number of seats truly in play becomes less threatening. The paralyzing phenomenon of a permanent majority composed of invincible incumbents should gradually disappear.
3. The need for money to hold on to seats which are temporary becomes less desperate. Would politicians with a predetermined life expectancy be less likely to be for sale? One could hope.
4. Most important--particularly at the city council, county board, state legislative levels--these offices would become what the founding fathers envisioned: avocational diversions for citizens who have real jobs and real lives instead of sinecures, lifelong careers for a largely professional (mercenary?) class.
What the specter of term limits promises is more ideas, daring, and long-term thinking for those lower level legislators who are more ambitious for higher office and for the majority who will be more concerned about creating a government that works and that is devoted to improving the human condition instead of providing career jobs for them and their fellow incumbents.
The scales are tipping.
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GARVEYBLOG
August 29, 2010
No less than a million!
By Ed Garvey
Michele Bachman, the congresswoman who makes Sarah Palin look and sound like a Rhodes Scholar, was in her glory at the non-partisan, non-political god fest convened by Rupert Murdoch's paid clown, Glenn Beck. She hollered, "Don't let anyone say we had less than a million people at our event. We are witnesses!" In that case, I expect at least a million at Fighting Bob Fest on September 11. (Probably plus one.) Might get a little crowded, but with Bachman as our witness we will not need more porta-pots.
Who are the Koch brothers and why are they giving away so much money? Jane Mayer, in a brilliant article in the New Yorker, exposes the billionaires who are bankrolling the tea party, the Beck-o-rama in D.C., and lots of right-wing causes and candidates. While you didn't think the tea party was genuine, even the most cynical will be surprised by reading Mayer and Frank Rich. Rich writes, "There's one element missing from these snapshots of America's ostensibly spontaneous and leaderless populist uprising: the sugar daddies who are bankrolling it" (and have been doing so all summer).
Both Rich and Mayer's articles are too good to summarize in a blog. Great reading and one can almost hear light switches going on all over America. Oksy, not at the Wall Street Journal or Fox News, but everywhere else.
These generous guys are at the center of climate-science denial (they have vast fossil business), but give generously to Sloan-Kettering cancer hospital. They are behind Sharron Angle and Joe Miller. Their daddy was among the Birch Society founders and leaders a generation ago. They pour money into the arts to mask their agenda. They want to be honored as "good corporate citizens."
What do we do about this avalanche of money flowing into our political process, our schools, the arts? How do we counter the god-squad of Beck-Palin? How do we protect our last hope of non-Murdochian communications, the internet?
We decide to fight! It is that simple. Fight and organize. Yes Fighting Bob Fest, but take it on the road. Raise money? Yes, but also raise hell about the corruption of our society. And we must not permit the theft of the Civil Rights movement by those who, had they gone to Selma, would have been on the other side of the bridge.
See you in Bababoo!
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ARTICLE
August 29, 2010
Truth deficit
By Dave Zweifel
While those on the Right can't remember what they believe about the importance of the national debt, what we know is that now is the worst time to try to cut it.
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GARVEYBLOG
August 28, 2010
Glenn Beck or Paul Singer?
By Ed Garvey
Which one is more harmful to our country? A silly goof on Fox television who mocks Martin Luther King with his nonsensical parade, or Paul Singer, the head of a $17 billion hedge fund who has contributed millions of dollars in support of candidates who agree that there is no need for regulation on Wall Street? Your vote is as good as mine, so you decide as we prepare for our progressive celebration in Baraboo to celebrate the progressive tradition of Wisconsin's Fighting Bob La Follette.
Singer has an agenda and if you take his money you had better toe his line or you are off the list. You must be anti-regulation of business, pro-Israel, and, surprisingly in favor of gay rights. Or else. No public disclosure but he has given more than $4.2 million to groups supporting gay rights. (Aha, so that is why gay-basher Ken Mehlman is out of the closet! Had to please this guy--the singer names the tune! Singer is active. He loaned his jet to Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign and he supports lots of individual candidates.
Singer, reports the paper of record, controls Elliott Management--the biggest source of money to the Republican National Senatorial Committee. He sponsored the so-called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, And only he knows the full list of takers.
So, do you vote for Daddy WarBucks or goof-ball-Beck? I vote for singer because he is helping to destroy our country by eliminating our right to vote. He is the subversive, Beck is just a clown who will pass like Father Coughlin in a previous generation. But Singer will be around long time. With his bottomless wallet, he will join with Murdoch and other billionaires to take control of our elecoral process. It is already a nation of rich and poor--but just wait until Social Security, Medicare. unemployment compensation are killed by the greedy jerks. "We got trouble...right here is River City..."
Fighting Bob Fest: A true celebration of Dr. King will take place in Baraboo. See you on September 11. All the booths have been taken but if you forgot, check the FightingBobFest.org web site. There could be cancellations.
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