Hey everyone, just a quick comment on the recent news that Wisconsin has turned down the federal money for the rail system. That money now goes to other states. Basically, my opinion is this: Scott Walker, YAAFM (Google it if you don't know what it means).
That money would have gone towards jobs, no doubt about it. Not just jobs associated with the railroad itself (staffing, maintenance, management), but the other jobs surrounding the rail system - work in the stations, manufacturing parts, to name a couple. Even if you didn't agree with the kinds of jobs that would have been created, I'm sure there are at least a few Wisconsinites who wouldn't mind working on the rails, or working at all for that matter.
Walker wanted to spend that money on road repair instead. Well first, that's not how federal earmarks work, Scott. Second, that's such a stopgap measure I don't know where to begin. Sure, you could have repaired all the roads and bridges in the state, and probably expanded a few of the highways. And that money might have lasted five years. But after five years of winters and heavy driving and summer traffic, and the money's all gone, what then? I mean, Wisconsin doesn't have a toll system (and I'm probably among the few that believes it'd be better if the state did), so money to keep up the transportation system won't come from there. Wanting to take money for rails to spend on fixing roads is short-sighted.
Bottom line: You missed out on jobs and you missed out on money and you certainly missed out on road repair. Scott Walker, YAAFM.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Monday, November 1, 2010
A Modest Proposal
I am going to ignore the fact that I haven't posted in months, and continue on as if nothing has happened.
As this election cycle comes to a close, we reflect on some of the issues/non-issues that have been raised. The Tea Party, jobs, head-stomping supporters, other people being me, three-ways in Alaska and Florida, taxes, jobs, the economy, health care, rent being too damn high, tan Congressmen, running from reporters, jobs, limp Democrats, batshit Republicans, and a million moderates marching (with music from Yusuf Islam and Kid Rock), and jobs. But one issue keeps coming up for everyone, left, right, and middle: campaign spending. The Supreme Court's Citizens United decision now allows private groups/corporations to make unlimited donations to 527s and 501(c)s (not campaigns). We have seen an explosion in advocacy advertising by groups with names like Citizens for Justice, or Rednecks for a Better America (this is an actual name of a group from 2004).
To date, $3.9 billion have been spent by candidates, parties and issue groups to get a single message out: Vote for me (or, don't vote for him/her/it). Ads have flooded the airwaves and generally annoyed the American populace. Some feel the enormous expenditures made to buy ad time for the election could have been spent on better things, like hiring people, or buying up the entire world's supply of black market firearms four times over, or 80 days worth of video games. Therefore, I submit this proposal to the American people: we legally prohibit how much money a candidate/issue group/party may spend on television expenditures.
I'm not talking about public financing of campaigns. History has shown that, while popular with the people, nobody's really inclined to actually take the restrictions public financing entails. Let private financing continue. Let individuals (or corporations, same thing now) donate as much as they want to the cause of their choice. But each group that airs advertisements is limited, in total, to one half-hour of local airtime, and ten minutes national airtime. Airtime costs are determined from market to market, so the actual flat dollar amount will change depending on location, but the effect remains the same. A half-hour of airtime is a lot, really. If each ad runs for thirty seconds, that's 60 ad spots. For each market, there is a total local airtime cap for all political ads of eight hours.
Why is this inherently more fair? Well, for one, we no longer deal with the pesky issue of more money = more say. If some corporation donates 3 million to a particular 501(c), fine. But if 30 minutes of airtime only costs $500,000, then that 501(c) better find a different way to spend the rest of the money. Corporations want to be treated the same as individuals, ok. They can have as much say as the individuals who spend $500,000 on an opposing advertisement. What if someone decided to start up a whole bunch of issue groups to eat up airtime? Fine, but those half-hour and 8 hour limits are still in place.
And I can bet you that when air time becomes valuable, the ads will be of a higher quality, and perhaps might actually contain more valuable information instead of wild-eyed threats and insults.
So what would those groups do with all that extra money? Put it to good use: buy yard signs, t-shirts, buttons, bumper stickers, key chains, hats, scarfs, window clings, a blimp with your name on it. I'm pretty sure that all of those items would be made in the USA (it's really bad publicity for American campaign groups to hand out stuff made in China), and that means jobs. So, not only will this plan limit the flow of political ads, but it will create industry jobs for people who desperately need them; and since we seem to live in an age of constant campaigning, that means those jobs will be constant. Yes we can - make cheap political tchotchkes!
To summarize: rather than limit how much can be donated to issue groups, limit how much can be spent on the thing that annoys us most, the campaign advertisement. Use the spare money to employ people in the making of campaign gewgaws (or pay your staffers more). Save the American sanity and its economy at the same time.
Have a happy Election Day. Go vote.
As this election cycle comes to a close, we reflect on some of the issues/non-issues that have been raised. The Tea Party, jobs, head-stomping supporters, other people being me, three-ways in Alaska and Florida, taxes, jobs, the economy, health care, rent being too damn high, tan Congressmen, running from reporters, jobs, limp Democrats, batshit Republicans, and a million moderates marching (with music from Yusuf Islam and Kid Rock), and jobs. But one issue keeps coming up for everyone, left, right, and middle: campaign spending. The Supreme Court's Citizens United decision now allows private groups/corporations to make unlimited donations to 527s and 501(c)s (not campaigns). We have seen an explosion in advocacy advertising by groups with names like Citizens for Justice, or Rednecks for a Better America (this is an actual name of a group from 2004).
To date, $3.9 billion have been spent by candidates, parties and issue groups to get a single message out: Vote for me (or, don't vote for him/her/it). Ads have flooded the airwaves and generally annoyed the American populace. Some feel the enormous expenditures made to buy ad time for the election could have been spent on better things, like hiring people, or buying up the entire world's supply of black market firearms four times over, or 80 days worth of video games. Therefore, I submit this proposal to the American people: we legally prohibit how much money a candidate/issue group/party may spend on television expenditures.
I'm not talking about public financing of campaigns. History has shown that, while popular with the people, nobody's really inclined to actually take the restrictions public financing entails. Let private financing continue. Let individuals (or corporations, same thing now) donate as much as they want to the cause of their choice. But each group that airs advertisements is limited, in total, to one half-hour of local airtime, and ten minutes national airtime. Airtime costs are determined from market to market, so the actual flat dollar amount will change depending on location, but the effect remains the same. A half-hour of airtime is a lot, really. If each ad runs for thirty seconds, that's 60 ad spots. For each market, there is a total local airtime cap for all political ads of eight hours.
Why is this inherently more fair? Well, for one, we no longer deal with the pesky issue of more money = more say. If some corporation donates 3 million to a particular 501(c), fine. But if 30 minutes of airtime only costs $500,000, then that 501(c) better find a different way to spend the rest of the money. Corporations want to be treated the same as individuals, ok. They can have as much say as the individuals who spend $500,000 on an opposing advertisement. What if someone decided to start up a whole bunch of issue groups to eat up airtime? Fine, but those half-hour and 8 hour limits are still in place.
And I can bet you that when air time becomes valuable, the ads will be of a higher quality, and perhaps might actually contain more valuable information instead of wild-eyed threats and insults.
So what would those groups do with all that extra money? Put it to good use: buy yard signs, t-shirts, buttons, bumper stickers, key chains, hats, scarfs, window clings, a blimp with your name on it. I'm pretty sure that all of those items would be made in the USA (it's really bad publicity for American campaign groups to hand out stuff made in China), and that means jobs. So, not only will this plan limit the flow of political ads, but it will create industry jobs for people who desperately need them; and since we seem to live in an age of constant campaigning, that means those jobs will be constant. Yes we can - make cheap political tchotchkes!
To summarize: rather than limit how much can be donated to issue groups, limit how much can be spent on the thing that annoys us most, the campaign advertisement. Use the spare money to employ people in the making of campaign gewgaws (or pay your staffers more). Save the American sanity and its economy at the same time.
Have a happy Election Day. Go vote.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
The Big Ten Gets Bigger Returns!
For those readers with long memories, you'll remember that in December of last year, I discussed the possibility of Big Ten expansion, and the following schools were on my short list:
Virginia Tech, Virginia, Maryland, Cincinnati, Louisville, West Virginia, Rutgers, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Iowa State, Missouri, Nebraska.
So, since then, it's come to my attention that the rule regarding bordering a Big Ten state doesn't really exist. That means all bets are off, and if you've been paying attention recently, Nebraska has unofficially announced its intentions to become the 12th member of the Big Ten Conference. Today, Colorado announced its intentions to join the Pac-10 Conference, and Oklahoma has confirmed that the SEC has shown interest in their university. While I don't want to come out and say that the Big 12 is going to dissolve, it will be difficult for them to find replacements of the same caliber as those three schools. We are most likely living in the end of days for the Big 12 Conference either as a power conference or as a conference period. That's fine by me. The Big 12 is the Frankenstein monster created from the corpses of the Big 8 and Southwest Conference, and no one has really been very happy with the arrangement. It made the least amount of money for the schools involved out of any conference.
The man really keeping an eye on the whole expansion business is Frank the Tank, an Illini alumnus whose observations are very astute and easy to understand. According to the news on his end, the Big Ten might be looking at Texas, Texas A&M, Notre Dame, and Missouri. However, Notre Dame will only get an offer if Texas or Missouri says yes. Why?
Well, first, if Missouri signs on, that makes an awkward 13 teams, and that's a terrible conference name: The Awkward 13. Adding one more will make for 14 teams, enough for two divisions and a conference championship, which athletically was the ultimate goal for Big Ten expansion. If the Big Ten scores the big enchilada of Texas, we have to take the ugly stepsister of Texas A&M, because their state legislature is a bunch of dickless wonders that requires the two to remain tied to each other in whatever conference they belong to. That way, their rivalry remains a conference game, and much more important. Adding one gets you the other, which makes 15 teams, equally awkward to 13. Add the Irish, you get 16 teams, a superconference, capable of destroying entire planets in a single blast. In those circumstances, the allure of a large conference with a championship game and a lot of money may be too much for Notre Dame to ignore, at long last.
Now, for my thoughts on the Nebraska addition:
I'm “meh” about it, overall. Athletically, it's a great football school, it's one of the great teams of college football history with 46 conference championships and 5 national championships, the last one in 1997. In basketball, it sucks. Thematically, it fits well into the Big Ten, because it's a public, state flagship university, which is the general theme of the Big Ten (not counting Northwestern [not public or state flagship] or Michigan State [not state flagship]). Academically, it's not a great, or even good addition. On the often-overused and misleading U.S. News rankings, Nebraska ranks 96, which is over twenty spots below even the lowest-ranked Big Ten schools (Indiana and Michigan State). It's just not academically equal to the Big Ten, so my sincere hope is that over time, closer association with the conference will improve Nebraska academically as it shares in research and other educational benefits. In summary, I'm not exactly sure why the Big Ten courted Nebraska, unless it knew that taking it would trigger massive conference shifts which could lead to nabbing Texas or Missouri or Notre Dame.
Either way, the next two weeks are going to be very interesting, and we'll see how they play out. What are your thoughts?
Virginia Tech, Virginia, Maryland, Cincinnati, Louisville, West Virginia, Rutgers, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Iowa State, Missouri, Nebraska.
So, since then, it's come to my attention that the rule regarding bordering a Big Ten state doesn't really exist. That means all bets are off, and if you've been paying attention recently, Nebraska has unofficially announced its intentions to become the 12th member of the Big Ten Conference. Today, Colorado announced its intentions to join the Pac-10 Conference, and Oklahoma has confirmed that the SEC has shown interest in their university. While I don't want to come out and say that the Big 12 is going to dissolve, it will be difficult for them to find replacements of the same caliber as those three schools. We are most likely living in the end of days for the Big 12 Conference either as a power conference or as a conference period. That's fine by me. The Big 12 is the Frankenstein monster created from the corpses of the Big 8 and Southwest Conference, and no one has really been very happy with the arrangement. It made the least amount of money for the schools involved out of any conference.
The man really keeping an eye on the whole expansion business is Frank the Tank, an Illini alumnus whose observations are very astute and easy to understand. According to the news on his end, the Big Ten might be looking at Texas, Texas A&M, Notre Dame, and Missouri. However, Notre Dame will only get an offer if Texas or Missouri says yes. Why?
Well, first, if Missouri signs on, that makes an awkward 13 teams, and that's a terrible conference name: The Awkward 13. Adding one more will make for 14 teams, enough for two divisions and a conference championship, which athletically was the ultimate goal for Big Ten expansion. If the Big Ten scores the big enchilada of Texas, we have to take the ugly stepsister of Texas A&M, because their state legislature is a bunch of dickless wonders that requires the two to remain tied to each other in whatever conference they belong to. That way, their rivalry remains a conference game, and much more important. Adding one gets you the other, which makes 15 teams, equally awkward to 13. Add the Irish, you get 16 teams, a superconference, capable of destroying entire planets in a single blast. In those circumstances, the allure of a large conference with a championship game and a lot of money may be too much for Notre Dame to ignore, at long last.
Now, for my thoughts on the Nebraska addition:
I'm “meh” about it, overall. Athletically, it's a great football school, it's one of the great teams of college football history with 46 conference championships and 5 national championships, the last one in 1997. In basketball, it sucks. Thematically, it fits well into the Big Ten, because it's a public, state flagship university, which is the general theme of the Big Ten (not counting Northwestern [not public or state flagship] or Michigan State [not state flagship]). Academically, it's not a great, or even good addition. On the often-overused and misleading U.S. News rankings, Nebraska ranks 96, which is over twenty spots below even the lowest-ranked Big Ten schools (Indiana and Michigan State). It's just not academically equal to the Big Ten, so my sincere hope is that over time, closer association with the conference will improve Nebraska academically as it shares in research and other educational benefits. In summary, I'm not exactly sure why the Big Ten courted Nebraska, unless it knew that taking it would trigger massive conference shifts which could lead to nabbing Texas or Missouri or Notre Dame.
Either way, the next two weeks are going to be very interesting, and we'll see how they play out. What are your thoughts?
Sunday, May 16, 2010
We Never Say Good-Bye...
I am spending this afternoon reflecting on the events of this morning, where I walked across a stage, was handed an empty diploma holder, and told that I was a graduate of the University of Wisconsin. Yes, I realize that is a very empty description of what is supposed to be a momentous occasion, the “rest of your life” and such. But as a historian I guess I tend to take a long view of things.
My education is not yet over. For the few who read this blog, I will remain in Madison over the summer. In August, I will move out to the Boston area as I enter the doctoral program in History at Brandeis University, located in Waltham, Massachusetts. Four years down, five (hopefully) more to go. What effect will these events have on this blog?
This contents of this blog will begin to shift towards a view on events in Boston and the surrounding area, but I will definitely still share my opinion on events in Wisconsin and affecting the University of Wisconsin. When possible, I will try to share how what happens in Boston affects the university, and vice versa.
As I close out this undergraduate career, I want to thank you for sharing some of it with me. My time at this university has been the best of my life. I want to share a few short lines that any good student or alum of this university should take to heart:
“Praise to Alma Mater, ever let us bring”
“'Forward' is our driving spirit”
"If you want to be a Badger, just come along with me"
“Your name forever glorious will hearken us to do or dare”
“When you say Wisconsin, you've said it all”
“Eat a rock!”
“Once a Badger, always a Badger”
“Praise to thee, our Alma Mater”
And of course...
“We never really say good-bye...We'll see you real soon, and On, Wisconsin!”
Thank you.
My education is not yet over. For the few who read this blog, I will remain in Madison over the summer. In August, I will move out to the Boston area as I enter the doctoral program in History at Brandeis University, located in Waltham, Massachusetts. Four years down, five (hopefully) more to go. What effect will these events have on this blog?
This contents of this blog will begin to shift towards a view on events in Boston and the surrounding area, but I will definitely still share my opinion on events in Wisconsin and affecting the University of Wisconsin. When possible, I will try to share how what happens in Boston affects the university, and vice versa.
As I close out this undergraduate career, I want to thank you for sharing some of it with me. My time at this university has been the best of my life. I want to share a few short lines that any good student or alum of this university should take to heart:
“Praise to Alma Mater, ever let us bring”
“'Forward' is our driving spirit”
"If you want to be a Badger, just come along with me"
“Your name forever glorious will hearken us to do or dare”
“When you say Wisconsin, you've said it all”
“Eat a rock!”
“Once a Badger, always a Badger”
“Praise to thee, our Alma Mater”
And of course...
“We never really say good-bye...We'll see you real soon, and On, Wisconsin!”
Thank you.
Monday, March 22, 2010
The Choices We Make: A Follow-Up
On my last post, I said "If Mr. Johnson ever wishes to explain his comments, or apologize for them, or make any sort of statement regarding this post, he is more than welcome to do so on this blog." I recieved this communique from Michael Johnson not ten minutes ago. As I promised, I am posting it in its entirety. Only the contact information (email address, phone number) has been withheld.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To the Madison and Campus community,
Recently, insensitive comments that I made two years concerning Jewish students have been discussed by both the Daily Cardinal and Badger Herald in relation to my current campaign.
I know that words don't have to have malicious intent to have malicious effects upon people. Sadly, those comments are mine and I own them. They don't reflect on anyone or anything except my own poor judgment in using those words. I made them and I apologize in no uncertain terms because they were deplorable, offensive, and hurtful to the personal histories and struggles of many of my fellow students.
As someone who has worked to defend and protect the histories and struggles of this diverse community of ours, I failed to take the things I had learned in my experiences and apply them to those of others, whom I had considerably less experience working with.
However, let me be clear; I am in no way anti-Semitic. It saddens me greatly what my fellow students who are Jewish and their families have been through, and have always stood in solidarity against the threats that they face from those who wish to erase their history of struggle.
No matter our differences, we share a common bond; that we call this small world of Madison home, and that it should always be a safe space where everyone can live and learn. Together.
Sincerely,
Michael Johnson
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To the Madison and Campus community,
Recently, insensitive comments that I made two years concerning Jewish students have been discussed by both the Daily Cardinal and Badger Herald in relation to my current campaign.
I know that words don't have to have malicious intent to have malicious effects upon people. Sadly, those comments are mine and I own them. They don't reflect on anyone or anything except my own poor judgment in using those words. I made them and I apologize in no uncertain terms because they were deplorable, offensive, and hurtful to the personal histories and struggles of many of my fellow students.
As someone who has worked to defend and protect the histories and struggles of this diverse community of ours, I failed to take the things I had learned in my experiences and apply them to those of others, whom I had considerably less experience working with.
However, let me be clear; I am in no way anti-Semitic. It saddens me greatly what my fellow students who are Jewish and their families have been through, and have always stood in solidarity against the threats that they face from those who wish to erase their history of struggle.
No matter our differences, we share a common bond; that we call this small world of Madison home, and that it should always be a safe space where everyone can live and learn. Together.
Sincerely,
Michael Johnson
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
The Choices We Make
What if someone said the following:
“I have this feeling that blacks would rather be treated as this oppressed group to justify constantly reaching back to slavery”
Or:
“Is this not like the fifth or sixth time this year a Latino student has criticized the BH for something printed in their paper??? It’s starting to get out of hand…”
Or:
“The funny things is the Muslims seem to be so anxious to be treated poorly, they reach and make comments about 'infidels' and women...”
How would you feel if you were a member of either community? Would you feel offended? Marginalized?
Ok. Now imagine the person saying those comments was a candidate for public office. If that were the case, these quotes might make it into a major newspaper. Would you vote for that candidate? Would you tell other people to vote for them?
I bring up this issue because comments extraordinarily similar to these were made in 2008 by a current candidate for County Board, Michael Johnson, and listed on the now-defunct Fearless Sifting blog in a post that brought up Mr. Johnson's comments during his run for alderman. In reality, these comments were made against Jews. They read as follows:
“I have this feeling that Jews would rather be treated as this oppressed group to justify constantly reaching back to the holocaust”
“Is this not like the fifth or sixth time this year a Jewish student has criticized the BH for something printed in their paper??? It’s starting to get out of hand…”
“The funny things is the Jews seem to be so anxious to be treated poorly, they reach and make comments about blacks or brown people...”
These comments were made regarding the publication of a shout-out in the Badger Herald making light of the Holocaust. There are more. For example:
“Well, as Archbishop Desmond Tutu said 'Jews must get over this victimization complex, and stop acting like they have a monopoly on suffering'..”
I can't find any record of Archbishop Tutu ever making that statement, but if someone can find me evidence of such a statement being made, I'll post the whole quote right here. Desmond Tutu has made repeated comments about the treatment of Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli government, and he has likened it to the apartheid policies of South Africa. That is a fair and legitimate political statement, and Tutu has the right to make it. But, again, I have never found a quote of Archbishop Tutu saying, “Jews must get over this victimization complex, and stop acting like they have a monopoly on suffering.” So either Mr. Johnson knows where I can find the quote, or he put words in someone else's mouth. If the situation is the latter, then it means “Desmond Tutu's” words were really Michael Johnson's words, and he must explain them.
Why do I bring these two-year-old quotes up? I bring them up because as a candidate for County Board and a potential public figure, Michael Johnson should know better than to make comments like these. In an era where nearly everything we do or say is recorded for posterity, he should have been more careful. Mr. Johnson did not have to make those comments, and he certainly did not have to make them public. I want to know why he chose to do so, given that they would almost certainly attract attention and upset more than a few people.
Am I accusing Michael Johnson of being anti-Semitic? No. Believe me, if I were to accuse someone of that, I'd be blunt about it. Am I making this post in an attempt to take Mr. Johnson down and ruin his shot at being County Board Supervisor? Au contraire, I believe that if Mr. Johnson addressed these comments and explained himself, it would make him a stronger candidate. I respect Mr. Johnson tremendously for choosing to run for public office, as I respect (most) people who do. The path is not easy, the demands are crushing, and it is often a thankless endeavor. But I must question his decision-making skills, because he has issued questionable comments more than once. Someone who runs for office should know better, not just because it'll get picked up by third parties, but because that office-holder is a representative of the people, and our representatives should exhibit the best traits, the qualities that we all aspire to hold. Sometimes chief among these qualities is knowing when to bite your tongue. As a final example:
“As fair as the comparison of the two, the herald is better is because it's actually a newspaper, and not a church bake sale newsletter posing as one. I've only read the cardinal once, and that was even asking too much, as it came off as pot luck notification that a publication”
Generally, if I were a candidate, I would not insult one of the two major papers on campus, especially one that makes endorsements. Again, I would cite this as an example of a candidate not knowing when to bite his tongue and making a poor decision.
I bring this matter up in light of the recent controversy on the Badger Herald regarding the Bradley Smith advertisement that, in essence, denied the occurrence of the Holocaust and the death of six million Jews. The events of the past few weeks show that comments similar to the ones Mr. Johnson made a couple years ago are still being made by other individuals, and that these comments generate backlash and rebuke from people who will not tolerate those sorts of statements, (admittedly) including myself. I urge Mr. Johnson to take great care in the future with what he says publicly, but I also ask him to stand up and declare that he neither condones nor would tolerate comments like those made on the Badger Herald website, or in any other forum. I believe that it will make him a stronger candidate, and certainly close the book on the comments made in 2008.
If Mr. Johnson ever wishes to explain his comments, or apologize for them, or make any sort of statement regarding this post, he is more than welcome to do so on this blog.
“I have this feeling that blacks would rather be treated as this oppressed group to justify constantly reaching back to slavery”
Or:
“Is this not like the fifth or sixth time this year a Latino student has criticized the BH for something printed in their paper??? It’s starting to get out of hand…”
Or:
“The funny things is the Muslims seem to be so anxious to be treated poorly, they reach and make comments about 'infidels' and women...”
How would you feel if you were a member of either community? Would you feel offended? Marginalized?
Ok. Now imagine the person saying those comments was a candidate for public office. If that were the case, these quotes might make it into a major newspaper. Would you vote for that candidate? Would you tell other people to vote for them?
I bring up this issue because comments extraordinarily similar to these were made in 2008 by a current candidate for County Board, Michael Johnson, and listed on the now-defunct Fearless Sifting blog in a post that brought up Mr. Johnson's comments during his run for alderman. In reality, these comments were made against Jews. They read as follows:
“I have this feeling that Jews would rather be treated as this oppressed group to justify constantly reaching back to the holocaust”
“Is this not like the fifth or sixth time this year a Jewish student has criticized the BH for something printed in their paper??? It’s starting to get out of hand…”
“The funny things is the Jews seem to be so anxious to be treated poorly, they reach and make comments about blacks or brown people...”
These comments were made regarding the publication of a shout-out in the Badger Herald making light of the Holocaust. There are more. For example:
“Well, as Archbishop Desmond Tutu said 'Jews must get over this victimization complex, and stop acting like they have a monopoly on suffering'..”
I can't find any record of Archbishop Tutu ever making that statement, but if someone can find me evidence of such a statement being made, I'll post the whole quote right here. Desmond Tutu has made repeated comments about the treatment of Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli government, and he has likened it to the apartheid policies of South Africa. That is a fair and legitimate political statement, and Tutu has the right to make it. But, again, I have never found a quote of Archbishop Tutu saying, “Jews must get over this victimization complex, and stop acting like they have a monopoly on suffering.” So either Mr. Johnson knows where I can find the quote, or he put words in someone else's mouth. If the situation is the latter, then it means “Desmond Tutu's” words were really Michael Johnson's words, and he must explain them.
Why do I bring these two-year-old quotes up? I bring them up because as a candidate for County Board and a potential public figure, Michael Johnson should know better than to make comments like these. In an era where nearly everything we do or say is recorded for posterity, he should have been more careful. Mr. Johnson did not have to make those comments, and he certainly did not have to make them public. I want to know why he chose to do so, given that they would almost certainly attract attention and upset more than a few people.
Am I accusing Michael Johnson of being anti-Semitic? No. Believe me, if I were to accuse someone of that, I'd be blunt about it. Am I making this post in an attempt to take Mr. Johnson down and ruin his shot at being County Board Supervisor? Au contraire, I believe that if Mr. Johnson addressed these comments and explained himself, it would make him a stronger candidate. I respect Mr. Johnson tremendously for choosing to run for public office, as I respect (most) people who do. The path is not easy, the demands are crushing, and it is often a thankless endeavor. But I must question his decision-making skills, because he has issued questionable comments more than once. Someone who runs for office should know better, not just because it'll get picked up by third parties, but because that office-holder is a representative of the people, and our representatives should exhibit the best traits, the qualities that we all aspire to hold. Sometimes chief among these qualities is knowing when to bite your tongue. As a final example:
“As fair as the comparison of the two, the herald is better is because it's actually a newspaper, and not a church bake sale newsletter posing as one. I've only read the cardinal once, and that was even asking too much, as it came off as pot luck notification that a publication”
Generally, if I were a candidate, I would not insult one of the two major papers on campus, especially one that makes endorsements. Again, I would cite this as an example of a candidate not knowing when to bite his tongue and making a poor decision.
I bring this matter up in light of the recent controversy on the Badger Herald regarding the Bradley Smith advertisement that, in essence, denied the occurrence of the Holocaust and the death of six million Jews. The events of the past few weeks show that comments similar to the ones Mr. Johnson made a couple years ago are still being made by other individuals, and that these comments generate backlash and rebuke from people who will not tolerate those sorts of statements, (admittedly) including myself. I urge Mr. Johnson to take great care in the future with what he says publicly, but I also ask him to stand up and declare that he neither condones nor would tolerate comments like those made on the Badger Herald website, or in any other forum. I believe that it will make him a stronger candidate, and certainly close the book on the comments made in 2008.
If Mr. Johnson ever wishes to explain his comments, or apologize for them, or make any sort of statement regarding this post, he is more than welcome to do so on this blog.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
BREAKING: GMCC Endorses Eicher
The Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce has endorsed Analiese Eicher for County Board Supervisor, District 5. The GMCC selected Analiese because they generally have a good sense about a campaign and how it is being run. The GMCC also previously endorsed Bryon Eagon and Eli Judge for Alderperson, so this may be a way to maintain relations with that group. In essence, GMCC found Eicher more friendly to business than her opponent, Michael Johnson (who also sought endorsement).
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Something That Needs Talking About
Recently, an event occurred concerning Alpha Epsilon Pi, a predominantly (but not entirely) Jewish fraternity on campus. The event itself is not a concern of this post, nor the investigation or rulings that will result or have resulted. As a disclaimer: I am not a member of any Greek community on campus. I have never been a member of any Greek community on campus. I do not find the lifestyle appealing to me, but I understand that others do for a wide variety of reasons.
The event and allegations surrounding it have become the focus of a newspaper article in the Badger Herald. From that article, a disturbing number of comments of an anti-Semitic nature were made by a number of anonymous individuals. These comments ranged from disparaging remarks about the stereotypical wealth of Jews, to open attempts at jokes recalling the Holocaust. The Dean of Students wrote a letter to the editor the following day in which she stated that the offending comments are not representative of the University of Wisconsin.
In a way, this is completely true. The University of Wisconsin is not only notable for being among the first universities in America to do away with its “Jewish quotas,” but also for having one of the oldest Hillel branches in the United States. Many of its notable faculty, past and present, are Jewish, and many of its famous alumni are Jewish, including both of Wisconsin's current U.S. senators. It is this long history of being Jewish-friendly that attracts so many of today's Jews to the University of Wisconsin.
But clearly, the offending comments are representative of a portion of this university. There are clearly some that attend this school that harbor some resent against Jews, either for real or imagined reasons, a belief in age-old (or more recent) stereotypes, or from something in their upbringing. I am opening this post up as a place to discuss why this problem of anti-Semitism persists, to some small degree, at this most enlightened of universities. Keep in mind these caveats:
1. I am monitoring the discussion. Comments that do not contribute to the matter at hand, or are so senselessly stupid and offensive, I will remove. This is my blog, I make the rules.
2. This is not the place to defend or attack AEPi, it's actions, or the Greek system in general.
3. Try to use correct spelling and grammar. Other people do actually read this stuff, you know.
I look forward to the ensuing discussion, and I will of course participate.
The event and allegations surrounding it have become the focus of a newspaper article in the Badger Herald. From that article, a disturbing number of comments of an anti-Semitic nature were made by a number of anonymous individuals. These comments ranged from disparaging remarks about the stereotypical wealth of Jews, to open attempts at jokes recalling the Holocaust. The Dean of Students wrote a letter to the editor the following day in which she stated that the offending comments are not representative of the University of Wisconsin.
In a way, this is completely true. The University of Wisconsin is not only notable for being among the first universities in America to do away with its “Jewish quotas,” but also for having one of the oldest Hillel branches in the United States. Many of its notable faculty, past and present, are Jewish, and many of its famous alumni are Jewish, including both of Wisconsin's current U.S. senators. It is this long history of being Jewish-friendly that attracts so many of today's Jews to the University of Wisconsin.
But clearly, the offending comments are representative of a portion of this university. There are clearly some that attend this school that harbor some resent against Jews, either for real or imagined reasons, a belief in age-old (or more recent) stereotypes, or from something in their upbringing. I am opening this post up as a place to discuss why this problem of anti-Semitism persists, to some small degree, at this most enlightened of universities. Keep in mind these caveats:
1. I am monitoring the discussion. Comments that do not contribute to the matter at hand, or are so senselessly stupid and offensive, I will remove. This is my blog, I make the rules.
2. This is not the place to defend or attack AEPi, it's actions, or the Greek system in general.
3. Try to use correct spelling and grammar. Other people do actually read this stuff, you know.
I look forward to the ensuing discussion, and I will of course participate.
Friday, January 22, 2010
An Interview with Analiese Eicher
Analiese Eicher is a 21-year-old senior at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. She has a long history of political involvement, particularly within Representative Tammy Baldwin's campaigns, and she served as the Campus Coordinator for Students For Tammy Baldwin in 2008. During the presidential primary, she organized Students for Hillary, and then worked with Students for Barack Obama in her Coordinator capacity during the general election. She is currently Chair of the College Democrats of Wisconsin and the Membership Director for College Democrats of America. She previously served as the Women's Caucus Chair for CDA. Miss Eicher is now running for the Dane County Board of Supervisors for the 5th District. I sat down with her at the Starbucks on State Street and asked her a few questions.
Why did you initially decide to run for county board, or who convinced you?
Well, I guess I really hadn't been considering because there was an open seat, and it never really crossed my mind that it was something I wanted to do right away. I was definitely on the track for law school, taking the LSAT. Someone brought it more to my attention and asked me to consider it, and I began to consider it...just to think about it. And I was, like, “Well, OK.” So I started talking to a lot of students that I work with on campus, asking their opinion about it. I started to think about what the position means to the students on campus. So after many conversations with many students, it was clear a lot of people thought it was a good idea. I convinced myself that there were a lot of things that I wanted to work on that could be accomplished on the county board. I felt students needed strong represented to represent their voice on the board. I felt that students needed to know what was going on. They don't realize just how relevant the board is to their everyday lives. So it was a lot of students that convinced me to run.
What is the single most important issue for you? What is your “niche”?
It's a hard question, because I'm very much a comprehensive thinker. But I think the one thing that's really important is kinda twofold. It's important that students know thy have rep on the board and how those decisions affect them. What it comes down to...God, that's so hard! There's so many different things. Our safety on campus is really important to me and I know from the conversations with students that it's important for them, and the Dane County Sheriff's Department works very closely with Madison city police and UW police to make sure that we're safe in our campus community. That's one thing that's important to me, but another is our campus environment. Having an environment that's safe for us in terms of 'can we go out and jump in the lake?' There's a lot more we can do to improve the quality and safety of the water. Students use the Terrace every single day as soon as the snow melts and we have amazing resources. Protecting those resources and having the ability to use them is an important thing to me and it should be important to students. It goes along with making sure that we live in a green community and doing things in our lives to live in a healthy environment.
We know you've mentioned how important you believe Health and Human Services to be. What do you feel needs to be done to maintain or improve HHS' level of effectiveness with regard to the student population, and how will that work given the current economic situation?
Well, the human services department in Dane County is one of the best in the state and actually in the nation, in my opinion. It got national attention for its programs. It's got the lowest infant mortality rate among African-Americans in the nation. I think a lot of that attests to making Health and Human Services a priority in Dane County, and regardless of the economic situation I think making sure the health of our community and making sure those services are available are key, especially because when you enter times like this, we see people needing these services more than ever. So they're important. I think in terms of keeping those a priority...budgets are difficult, we saw that last year with the county budget and next year's will probably be difficult too. It comes down to finding a balance on what we're working with and what we need and there's a lot we can do with shared revenue, making sure we have funding for programs. If it means asking the state for shared revenue, we shouldn't hesitate to do so. We need to evaluate what programs work best, and from what I know, most of them work well and efficiently, but I think monetarily we need to make sure we're using the right services.
There's been talk for a few years now about purchasing biodigesters to help clean the lakes. However, talk about them tends to disappear after election day. Do you feel there be progress to purchase this equipment in the next two years, and if so, what role can you play in that?
Well it's funny you mention, because at the county board meeting last night there was talk specifically about manure digesters. From what I understand, they are actually taking the steps to move forward to purchase one of these and I don't know the timeline but if I get elected, absolutely I'll be involved. They're extremely beneficial to making sure we have clean water. I would definitely advocate for it, vote for funding for it, no question.
Between September 2008 and 2009, Dane County's unemployment rate went from 3.3% to 5.4%. The rate is the same in the City of Madison. Compared to the rest of the state, the county unemployment rate is the lowest, and compared to the U.S. unemployment rate of 9.5% at the time, Dane County has not been hit as hard. Why is that? What can be done to further lower the unemployment rate?
Well, first let me say that looking at the unemployment rates for the rest of the state and surrounding counties and the rest of the nation, I think Dane County is comparatively very fortunate. The reason I think it's lower than the rest of the state and nation is because Dane County's main priority is that people have jobs. Jobs are important and the board has made that a priority...that has something to do with it. It might have something to do with the types of jobs we have in Dane County. If you look at it, there's just higher unemployment nationwide. Will that change anytime soon? It seems so. We need to protect the jobs we have and create opportunities for more and newer jobs. In terms of protecting jobs we already have, I think it's recognizing where those jobs are and if it comes down to everyone taking a cut instead of losing your job, personally I would take the pay cut. But I also think that there's potentially other solutions. In terms of new jobs, looking to new businesses, investing in green jobs and “greenifying” existing businesses. I think it's areas like that that can provide for jobs. Making sure that Dane County residents have jobs and maintain them is central.
Dane County currently has the lowest per-capita number of domestic abuse shelter beds: 1 bed per every 19,000 residents. The state average is 1 bed per 7,300 residents. Last year, there was an over 100 percent increase in the number of women seeking help. It's believed that the economy may play some role in this increase. How does the county address the problems of the low number of beds and the increasing occurrence of domestic abuse?
I think in order to address it, we have to talk about it and it is very much a sensitive subject. But the reality is that it happens and that it is happening, and that the women and men who seek shelter because of domestic abuse situations need somewhere to go and have resources. I do not think that has necessarily been a priority. The domestic abuse services are consistently underfunded while the people need these services. We need to make sure we are providing for Dane County residents, and if that means some funding then I will advocate for it and I am advocating for it. People need them.
The 5th district's current board member is Wyndham Manning, who has come under criticism from a number of sources for being almost nonexistent in the student public. How would you improve communication between yourself as a board member and the student constituent?
It's one of the reasons I'm running, to increase student presence on the board and so students know the decisions the board makes. I think it's about opening the lines of communication. I will have a blog on my website, which is still under construction. If elected, the site will transition to an informational website: what's coming up in the meetings, what I think about it. I want to hear from students. There's 10,000 of them in the 5th district. Its about opening communication with student papers. We have two with a lot of readership. In the past, we didn't see a lot reported. I want to change that. If that means working with the editorial boards in some way, or writing a guest column. Face to face contact is important, and so I'll hold office hours before every meeting- there are two a month. We need to have an open dialogue between constituents and their representatives. It comes down to making yourself available. It's not fair if your constituents elect you and you ignore them- it's not right!
What do you feel will be the major three developments in the next two years for Dane County? How should the county board respond to those developments?
The biggest one is the RTA, which the board created, but they need to put together a task force to look into everything, and it comes down to the voters and what changes will be made. It's incredibly important. I was supportive of the RTA when the board discussed it and I will continue to support and advocate for it. As of right now, cities outside Madison “rent” the ability for buses to head out there. By taking it to the county level, we can address the disparities between cities, streamline everything, provide more routes and allow people without cars to get to work, get to the store. With more people riding buses, there's less cars on the road, which can lead to improved air quality, which is pretty important. Biodigesters will come to fruition in the next two years. I already said I support funding for that and making sure that's something we have in Dane County to improve our quality of living. I'm not anticipating anything, but things happen and I'm prepared to deal with them as they arise. So two for three ain't bad.
Analiese has a Facebook group located here. Her website, which is still under construction, is at http://www.studentsforanaliese.com/.
Why did you initially decide to run for county board, or who convinced you?
Well, I guess I really hadn't been considering because there was an open seat, and it never really crossed my mind that it was something I wanted to do right away. I was definitely on the track for law school, taking the LSAT. Someone brought it more to my attention and asked me to consider it, and I began to consider it...just to think about it. And I was, like, “Well, OK.” So I started talking to a lot of students that I work with on campus, asking their opinion about it. I started to think about what the position means to the students on campus. So after many conversations with many students, it was clear a lot of people thought it was a good idea. I convinced myself that there were a lot of things that I wanted to work on that could be accomplished on the county board. I felt students needed strong represented to represent their voice on the board. I felt that students needed to know what was going on. They don't realize just how relevant the board is to their everyday lives. So it was a lot of students that convinced me to run.
What is the single most important issue for you? What is your “niche”?
It's a hard question, because I'm very much a comprehensive thinker. But I think the one thing that's really important is kinda twofold. It's important that students know thy have rep on the board and how those decisions affect them. What it comes down to...God, that's so hard! There's so many different things. Our safety on campus is really important to me and I know from the conversations with students that it's important for them, and the Dane County Sheriff's Department works very closely with Madison city police and UW police to make sure that we're safe in our campus community. That's one thing that's important to me, but another is our campus environment. Having an environment that's safe for us in terms of 'can we go out and jump in the lake?' There's a lot more we can do to improve the quality and safety of the water. Students use the Terrace every single day as soon as the snow melts and we have amazing resources. Protecting those resources and having the ability to use them is an important thing to me and it should be important to students. It goes along with making sure that we live in a green community and doing things in our lives to live in a healthy environment.
We know you've mentioned how important you believe Health and Human Services to be. What do you feel needs to be done to maintain or improve HHS' level of effectiveness with regard to the student population, and how will that work given the current economic situation?
Well, the human services department in Dane County is one of the best in the state and actually in the nation, in my opinion. It got national attention for its programs. It's got the lowest infant mortality rate among African-Americans in the nation. I think a lot of that attests to making Health and Human Services a priority in Dane County, and regardless of the economic situation I think making sure the health of our community and making sure those services are available are key, especially because when you enter times like this, we see people needing these services more than ever. So they're important. I think in terms of keeping those a priority...budgets are difficult, we saw that last year with the county budget and next year's will probably be difficult too. It comes down to finding a balance on what we're working with and what we need and there's a lot we can do with shared revenue, making sure we have funding for programs. If it means asking the state for shared revenue, we shouldn't hesitate to do so. We need to evaluate what programs work best, and from what I know, most of them work well and efficiently, but I think monetarily we need to make sure we're using the right services.
There's been talk for a few years now about purchasing biodigesters to help clean the lakes. However, talk about them tends to disappear after election day. Do you feel there be progress to purchase this equipment in the next two years, and if so, what role can you play in that?
Well it's funny you mention, because at the county board meeting last night there was talk specifically about manure digesters. From what I understand, they are actually taking the steps to move forward to purchase one of these and I don't know the timeline but if I get elected, absolutely I'll be involved. They're extremely beneficial to making sure we have clean water. I would definitely advocate for it, vote for funding for it, no question.
Between September 2008 and 2009, Dane County's unemployment rate went from 3.3% to 5.4%. The rate is the same in the City of Madison. Compared to the rest of the state, the county unemployment rate is the lowest, and compared to the U.S. unemployment rate of 9.5% at the time, Dane County has not been hit as hard. Why is that? What can be done to further lower the unemployment rate?
Well, first let me say that looking at the unemployment rates for the rest of the state and surrounding counties and the rest of the nation, I think Dane County is comparatively very fortunate. The reason I think it's lower than the rest of the state and nation is because Dane County's main priority is that people have jobs. Jobs are important and the board has made that a priority...that has something to do with it. It might have something to do with the types of jobs we have in Dane County. If you look at it, there's just higher unemployment nationwide. Will that change anytime soon? It seems so. We need to protect the jobs we have and create opportunities for more and newer jobs. In terms of protecting jobs we already have, I think it's recognizing where those jobs are and if it comes down to everyone taking a cut instead of losing your job, personally I would take the pay cut. But I also think that there's potentially other solutions. In terms of new jobs, looking to new businesses, investing in green jobs and “greenifying” existing businesses. I think it's areas like that that can provide for jobs. Making sure that Dane County residents have jobs and maintain them is central.
Dane County currently has the lowest per-capita number of domestic abuse shelter beds: 1 bed per every 19,000 residents. The state average is 1 bed per 7,300 residents. Last year, there was an over 100 percent increase in the number of women seeking help. It's believed that the economy may play some role in this increase. How does the county address the problems of the low number of beds and the increasing occurrence of domestic abuse?
I think in order to address it, we have to talk about it and it is very much a sensitive subject. But the reality is that it happens and that it is happening, and that the women and men who seek shelter because of domestic abuse situations need somewhere to go and have resources. I do not think that has necessarily been a priority. The domestic abuse services are consistently underfunded while the people need these services. We need to make sure we are providing for Dane County residents, and if that means some funding then I will advocate for it and I am advocating for it. People need them.
The 5th district's current board member is Wyndham Manning, who has come under criticism from a number of sources for being almost nonexistent in the student public. How would you improve communication between yourself as a board member and the student constituent?
It's one of the reasons I'm running, to increase student presence on the board and so students know the decisions the board makes. I think it's about opening the lines of communication. I will have a blog on my website, which is still under construction. If elected, the site will transition to an informational website: what's coming up in the meetings, what I think about it. I want to hear from students. There's 10,000 of them in the 5th district. Its about opening communication with student papers. We have two with a lot of readership. In the past, we didn't see a lot reported. I want to change that. If that means working with the editorial boards in some way, or writing a guest column. Face to face contact is important, and so I'll hold office hours before every meeting- there are two a month. We need to have an open dialogue between constituents and their representatives. It comes down to making yourself available. It's not fair if your constituents elect you and you ignore them- it's not right!
What do you feel will be the major three developments in the next two years for Dane County? How should the county board respond to those developments?
The biggest one is the RTA, which the board created, but they need to put together a task force to look into everything, and it comes down to the voters and what changes will be made. It's incredibly important. I was supportive of the RTA when the board discussed it and I will continue to support and advocate for it. As of right now, cities outside Madison “rent” the ability for buses to head out there. By taking it to the county level, we can address the disparities between cities, streamline everything, provide more routes and allow people without cars to get to work, get to the store. With more people riding buses, there's less cars on the road, which can lead to improved air quality, which is pretty important. Biodigesters will come to fruition in the next two years. I already said I support funding for that and making sure that's something we have in Dane County to improve our quality of living. I'm not anticipating anything, but things happen and I'm prepared to deal with them as they arise. So two for three ain't bad.
Analiese has a Facebook group located here. Her website, which is still under construction, is at http://www.studentsforanaliese.com/.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
The Kennedy Seat Goes Red, or: What the Fuck Do We Do Now?
While the loss of the Kennedy seat upsets me, I can't say I'm surprised. Coakley ran perhaps the worst campaign of the last ten years. If you don't know that Curt Schilling pitched for the Red Sox, you have no business running in the state of Massachusetts.
How to prepare for 2010? Pass some sort of health care reform. On the one hand, it's absolutely vital that health care reform be passed before the midterms. On the other hand, the conference committee needs to carefully create a bill that will be acceptable to a majority of legislators.
The nuclear option might actually be viable in this situation. If health care reform passes, the Republicans would not attempt a repeal, even if they retake the Congress and White House. History shows that when large-scale domestic programs are established, the opposing party is actually loathe to repeal it (though they have no compunctions against modifying it). See: Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, Food Stamps. I predict it will be the same with health care reform. The program will be too far along to risk repeal without backlash of some sort.
In the meantime, focus on two things: financial reform (something akin to Glass-Steagall), and perhaps implementing a federal microcredit system. There are already two major groups giving out microloans in the United States. These are Grameen Bank out of New York, and ACCION USA. Programs like this are immensely useful at this point in time, since it is nigh impossible for many people to get a loan from banks. Unfortunately, people in the US think it's too hard to escape poverty through private enterprise (according to NYU economist Jonathan Morduch). If Republicans are always bitching about how Democrats are overtaxing hard-working middle class Americans, a program that takes tax money to establish independent businesspeople might be a coup.
In all seriousness, consider finding new leadership. Harry Reid is in a steep power decline. Senate Democrats require a leader who will instill a fear of God into wayward party members, someone akin to Lyndon Johnson. Johnson got stuff done because he scared the shit out of people in his way. Republicans have done a great job gumming up the works in Washington, and that resulted in a nationwide disappointment over a lack of change. Reid clearly is not the powerhouse he or other people thought he was, else the Republicans would not be so much of a problem. Maybe pick Durbin to ascend, or Jim Webb.
Americans have a notoriously short political memory. I don't think today's election will have that damaging an effect in the midterms. People think Congressmen are a bunch of money-grubbing do-nothings, but their Congressmen and senators are great! In all honesty, it's really too early to know how this will alter the elections later this year; a lot can happen. Obama's first SOTU is later this month, I guarantee that will affect how we see the midterms. Something is always changing in the realm of politics.
If you were a Democratic leader, how would you prepare your party for the 2010 midterms and beyond? What would you do as a Republican?
How to prepare for 2010? Pass some sort of health care reform. On the one hand, it's absolutely vital that health care reform be passed before the midterms. On the other hand, the conference committee needs to carefully create a bill that will be acceptable to a majority of legislators.
The nuclear option might actually be viable in this situation. If health care reform passes, the Republicans would not attempt a repeal, even if they retake the Congress and White House. History shows that when large-scale domestic programs are established, the opposing party is actually loathe to repeal it (though they have no compunctions against modifying it). See: Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, Food Stamps. I predict it will be the same with health care reform. The program will be too far along to risk repeal without backlash of some sort.
In the meantime, focus on two things: financial reform (something akin to Glass-Steagall), and perhaps implementing a federal microcredit system. There are already two major groups giving out microloans in the United States. These are Grameen Bank out of New York, and ACCION USA. Programs like this are immensely useful at this point in time, since it is nigh impossible for many people to get a loan from banks. Unfortunately, people in the US think it's too hard to escape poverty through private enterprise (according to NYU economist Jonathan Morduch). If Republicans are always bitching about how Democrats are overtaxing hard-working middle class Americans, a program that takes tax money to establish independent businesspeople might be a coup.
In all seriousness, consider finding new leadership. Harry Reid is in a steep power decline. Senate Democrats require a leader who will instill a fear of God into wayward party members, someone akin to Lyndon Johnson. Johnson got stuff done because he scared the shit out of people in his way. Republicans have done a great job gumming up the works in Washington, and that resulted in a nationwide disappointment over a lack of change. Reid clearly is not the powerhouse he or other people thought he was, else the Republicans would not be so much of a problem. Maybe pick Durbin to ascend, or Jim Webb.
Americans have a notoriously short political memory. I don't think today's election will have that damaging an effect in the midterms. People think Congressmen are a bunch of money-grubbing do-nothings, but their Congressmen and senators are great! In all honesty, it's really too early to know how this will alter the elections later this year; a lot can happen. Obama's first SOTU is later this month, I guarantee that will affect how we see the midterms. Something is always changing in the realm of politics.
If you were a Democratic leader, how would you prepare your party for the 2010 midterms and beyond? What would you do as a Republican?
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