GUESTBLOG
March 11, 2010
Granny D, in her own words
By Karen Rybold-Chin
Tributes to Doris "Granny D" Haddock are pouring in all over the internet, and rightfully so. Her walk across the the United States to raise awareness of the scourge of money in politics and the need for campaign finance reform did just that--raise awareness. It also inspired many of us to become more involved and more committed.
Granny D was a fixture at Fighting Bob Fest, appearing in spirit even when she wasn't speaking in person. In 2005, the People's Legislature brought Granny D to Wisconsin. It happened at the Capitol, and here is what she said:
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ARTICLE
March 11, 2010
Race to nowhere
By Ed Garvey
How about an intelligent, honest, inclusive plan for using Race to the Top money in Wisconsin?
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GARVEYBLOG
March 10, 2010
Thank you, Doris. Thank You.
By Ed Garvey
Known as "Granny D" she was Doris "Granny D" Haddock. She inspired all whom she met and all of us lucky enough to have heard her speak at two Fighting Bob Fests. Despite her struggle to breathe, she spoke the truth with vigor. She told our group, "Do something about our corrupt government or just go home."
Doris was tough, humorous, and lots of fun, but I remember her personal sacrifice in traveling to Bob Fest. She changed lives every time she spoke and every mile she walked in support of campaign reform. She was a great woman; 100 years old. She tried to come to Bob Fest last year but her doctor refused. She will be with us at the next Bob Fest on September 11.
Toughen-up, chief! Chief Justice John Roberts, who misled Congress in his confirmation hearings, now makes clear he can't take a punch. He was "troubled" by President Obama's speech about the State of the Union. Well, me boy, toughen up! You have destroyed our democracy along with your fellow misleader Allito.
Open records: Let's get serious. About the only people who know what is going on inside government are lobbyists and public officials. Records should be open, government should be transparent, because otherwise only the lobbyists will know what's going on. More next week.
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GUESTBLOG
March 10, 2010
Postoccupied
By Bob Menamin
Politicians state over and over that we are a nation at war. I hate this mindless refrain.
We are not at war. We are occupying Iraq and Afghanistan for no rational reason. Most acknowledge that we have no discernable way of knowing when we have won "the wars." We have been fighting the so-called War on Global Terror since the twin towers were attacked by 19 criminal individuals from Saudi Arabia on 9/11/2001. These criminals represented no nation state and should have been hunted down just as we hunted down Tim Mcveigh and his accomplices for the criminal act of bombing the federal building in Oklahoma City.
Our national paranoia has fueled a state of perpetual war that has never been rationally defined. It allows the U.S., with assistance from the Congressional-Military-Industrial Complex to permanently suspend our civil liberties and exist in a perpetual state of military emergency. Military expenditures related to the "wars" are not part of the regular budget, but are handled as a supplementary items that have a blank check quality about them with no concern of paying for the expenditures. This operational status quo allows us to wander around the globe with our war making machine finely tuned to attack anyone anywhere for whatever reason the President deems necessary. There is never a "declaration of war" by Congress with appropriate debate.
Anyone who seriously questions our policy is deemed unpatriotic. Since 9/11, there has been an increasing trend to privatize our military which leads to an increasing condition with less oversight of our military adventures. Private contractors such as Blackwater operate as secretly as the CIA resulting in crimes by thugs that have no oversight.
President Obama provided a hope for change in this madness, but it is clear that he is captive to our world view of Empire. When the Romans found themselves in this position, most of them chose to just kick up their feet and enjoy it. Then it ended. And so will ours.
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GARVEYBLOG
March 9, 2010
I'm crazy--not the gods
By Ed Garvey
How crazy am I? When I read a headline that "Northrop Won't Bid on Tanker," I get terrible thoughts running through my mind. Thoughts like, "It ain't fair."
Just when the World Series of lobbyists was about to start, Northrup Grumman quit! C'mon Northrup! How will we know who is the champion lobbyist group if Boeing wins the $40 billion Air Force aerial refueling contract by default?
And what weak excuses! My, my. "The government favored Chicago-based Boeing." Ah, as if the administration favored the home towners. You can do better than that! "The government favored a smaller plane," and that meant Boeing would win. And the real problem, says Northrup? There was "no guarantee" from government that Gruman would make a profit even if it won the lobbyist-fired bid. Talk about unfair!
That damned government.
Now, a cynic might ask "Why?" While we are fighting on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq, why does the Air Force need two hundred aerial refueling planes when they can refuel on the ground? Trust the Air Force's lobbyists. The Air Force needs them.
Okay, we can't afford universal health care; university budget cuts are threatening our long-term well being; Social Security is deep in debt; state budgets are in crisis; 16 percent of us are unemployed or under-employed...but we can purchase $40 billion worth of ridiculously outdated aerial refueling planes? Am I crazy, or are they?
Finally some brain power! Worry no more about long-term care at long-term care facilities. No problem. Max Baucus and "good time Charlie Grassley" are going to investigate. Whoa Nelly!
I'm off for a week. Keep the flame burning! See you next week.
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ARTICLE
March 9, 2010
Icelandic spine
By John Nichols
If the U.S. had a better democracy it would have rejected bankster bailouts just has Iceland's voters overwhelmingly have.
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GARVEYBLOG
March 8, 2010
Blame the lawyers!
By Ed Garvey
The NYT reminds us that Iowa scholar Charles Grassley is after lawyers who did pro bono work representing detainees at Gitmmo while in private practice but now working for DOJ. Grassley, who wouldn't recognize the idea of justice if it slapped him in the arse, is demanding that Eric Holder release the names of these defenders of "terrorists" who are now on our payroll. Liz Cheney, as goofy as mom and dad, has named them the "Gitmo 9" and she and William Kristol, faux intellectual on the right, actually produced a video about these terrible people called "lawyers." "Whose values do they share?" asks the voice.
Imagine representing people we don't like. (Given my Court-appointed representation of SuperMax prisoners, I guess I am guilty of a Cheney-Kristol-Grassley crime.) Could this be patriotism in disguise? No, not according to Cheney. "We must look at who these terrorists were," Cheney says. Yikes and whoa Nelly! What would she do after that? Give her a book to read.
Garrison Keilor asked in his joke segment: "Q. What do you call a lawyer gone bad? A. Senator." I think we should call Grassley and Cheney something less polite.
Watch your wallet. Facts: Herb Kohl owns the Milwaukee Bucks; his friend Jane Bradley Pettit paid for the Bradley Center built 22 years ago and named it after her father Harry Lynde Bradley--yup the Bradley Foundation. Kohl is very wealthy; there is something called the "Bradley Center Sports and Entertainment Corp." There is nothing so wrong with the Bradley Center that it should be demolished, but look out. Kohl, despite tremendous economic hardship in Milwaukee, wants a new arena. Who should pay? Well, here is a bold prediction. Leave it to the Bradley Center Corp., and taxpayers will foot the bill!
Here is how the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel lapped up the story: Marc Marotta is well positioned to be the new point man. He is, get this, former Doyle loyal DOA secretary who knows the political landscape. Partner at Foley & Lardner, former student and athlete at Marquette, lets us know where his bread comes from: "I've built a good relationship with the senator. The Bucks are our partners and we want to support them." Really? He said that? Yes, really. Try to imagine the tough negotiations between Marotta and Herb.
Outgoing chairman of the Bradley Center Corp. Ulice Payne thinks it is time to demolish the old center. The in-coming chair, Marotta, thinks we should wait but not for long. Just long enough to suck all "the juice out of the orange." How about Tuesday, Marc? I guess they really talk like that!
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GUESTBLOG
March 7, 2010
Be more like NRA
By Bill Kraus
This should be the reformers year. At long last large numbers of people seem to be noticing that our legislatures do not seem to be working. They also seem to be coalescing and organizing to let it be known that some of them do not like what legislators are doing, more of them don’t like what the legislators are not doing, and all of them have noticed and really don’t like the fact that the legislators are not listening to them.
This latter has been the reformers lament ever since I got into this Sisyphean business 20 years ago. Reform measures are somewhere around 13th place on almost everyone’s priority list. Reformers are not marching on capitols. Reformers are mostly old lefties. Nice. Well intended. Hardly threatening.
Reformers want to be is as threatening as, say, the National Rifle Association. They aren’t.
Until this year.
Except the latter-day protesters who have noticed that the people who are representing them are a lot more interested in preserving the status quo, in paying attention to people and organizations who will raise and contribute the money they need to be re-elected to the jobs that they want to career out in, and, worse yet, that the people who represent them in most cases have picked them as constituents instead of vice versa.
The system is not working as the reformers have been telling them for all of my time in the reform business.
So why don’t the newly alerted and aware protesters simply join forces with the reformers, adopt the reform agendas, get the attention and action they deserve and want?
Why isn’t Common Cause more like the NRA?
Because the reformers operate in the ethereal precincts of policy not politics.
Step on the toes of the NRA and your mailbox fills up and your contributions box doesn’t.
So the rascals' movement is looking for more than the reform organizations offer.
Putting the tea parties aside for the moment, the recent action against the system and its incumbents comes in two main forms.
One is mostly positive. The Wisconsin Way coalition of diverse interest groups in Wisconsin that Jim Wood collected proposed changes in the way taxes are collected and spent. They want the legislators to quit posing for holy pictures and do something.
What Ed Koch, the 85-year-old former mayor of New York City, had in mind for the collection of interests he is putting together was a place for the “throw the rascals out” advocates to gather and target the miscreants in Albany.
Surely California’s discontent will breed variations on both of these change-agent ideas.
What occurs to me is that this might be the year that the long standing, long suffering reform groups finally get some respect. But only if they step up ther firepower.
The Common Causes, Leagues of Women Voters, Wisconsin Democracy Campaigns, and all their clones are reform and change agents who have members and programs which the protesters have got to love: dispassionate redistricting, election reform, contributor disclosure, even such ideas as term limits, part-time legislators are not off the table.
None of the newly awakened are going to ally with either party. They want bi-partisan action.
Why reinvent the wheel? Why not make the reformers as scary as the shooters already are?
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GARVEYBLOG
March 7, 2010
No problem!
By Ed Garvey
Your schools are below average, too many drop-outs, low scores on standardized tests, too many special Need kids? Or worse--your schools are doing too well. I have the answer--privatize education!
It's as easy as baking a pie and just as rewarding. Here is how it is done. First, get yourself a rich sugar-daddy foundation with a name like "Bradley"; hook up with a department in a local university; make a deal with the Political Science Department to handle polling that will promote vouchers, choice, and charter schools. Find or create a new "think tank" with a good wonkish name like "Promise Academy" or "Your State Policy Research Institute." The key word is research. Frankly, any name that includes "academy" or research will do.
Issue a policy paper from the neutral think tank condemning poor quality teachers as the problem; demand student performance be linked to teacher salaries; poo-poo any bleeding heart talk of poverty playing a role; blame school bureaucracy (that means unions) that gets in the way; demand a "choice" for parents to send their kids to a "failing public school" or the Howard-Norquist Academy.
Now get rid of the special needs kids (sure, they deserve an education but "we are not good at that so keep them in the public schools"). Believe me, that will save a lot of money!
Wake up. Just look at the Arne Duncan approach. It is a game. Guess the right door and your school wins! Guess the wrong door--oppose cuts in wage and pension benefits--and out you go!
OK, Enough. The Wisconsin State Journal (WSJ) has joined forces with Jim Doyle and Tom Barrett in support of Race to the Top. "Get back in bid for better schools" hollers the WSJ editorial. WSJ, like Governor Doyle, blames the "risk-averse" legislators and even the teachers union for getting nothing in round one of Duncan's game.
Nonsense. Call for a summit meeting of people who understand public education, meet in open sessions, adopt a thoughtful program, and then stop pointing fingers and do something.
Duncan thinks that if you meet resistance from those clinging to the status quo, fire all of the teachers. Recruit new teachers. Oh boy, pie is in the oven!
You know the rest. Give Arne Duncan the sugar- stick and what have ya got? A race to the top! Ya-WAHOO! HUZZAH! Dream like a Democrat, but act like a Republican. Dismiss comments that the charter movement reminds us of the South's response to Brown vs. Education. Sure, the taxpayer-supported private schools are "better" but not "equal," but so what? Whoa Nelly.
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ARTICLE
March 7, 2010
People personhood
By John Smart
Congressman Dave Obey has proposed a citizens' response to the Supreme Court's Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision.
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