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?
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Champs Sports Bowl: My Observations
A Happy New Year to all. I returned from Orlando this morning after what was definitely a great close to four years of marching in the Hardest Working Band in America. Great show, but also a win. Doesn't get better. But I'm not here to write about that. I'm here to make some observations on the game.
Wisconsin won because of two things. First: there was excellent control of both the ball and the clock. Wisconsin had the ball for almost 40 of the 60 minutes and knew what it wanted to do with it. On the rare occassions when Wisconsin wasn't exactly sure, they remained calm and collected, made the fix, and proceeded. For example, at one point in the game, Wisconsin looked like that it was going to try for the FG. A called timeout allowed them to calmly reassess and opt for a well-placed punt instead. Many's the time when Wisconsin would have sent out it's FG team, had second thoughts, but proceeded anyway, and missed. In summary, Wisconsin executed a fantastic game. There are countless debates about "speed" vs. "size", but I'm pretty sure that the winner of the game executes better than their opponent.
Second: Miami is a team that doesn't seem to take its games seriously. It was talking all about taking the National Championship next year. Why on earth would a team think about the end of next season, when this season's not over? Miami also embraces this concept of "swagger". If you check out college football boards now and again, you may have heard of it. Apparently, at Miami, swagger is a verb, a noun, and probably serves the same purpose that the word "smurf" does for those little blue toadstool-dwellers. Essentially, it is bravado. When a Miami player makes a regular tackle and gets in the opponent's face, that is swagger. Late hits and blatant personal fouls (that aren't called by crappy SEC officials) are swagger. Swagger is a failure to look ahead, to consider the single act in the scheme of the bigger picture. As long as Miami has a mindset that places more importance on celebrating and bringing attention to themselves than making the play and moving on and repeating, it'll remain a mid-conference player.
Also: the turf was ridiculously soft, and it was basically sod that had been laid down perhaps that morning, or even that afternoon. It was noticibly hard to manuver on, and it definitely affected bounces and rolls, in addition to runs.
Anyway, those are some of my thoughts on the game.
Wisconsin won because of two things. First: there was excellent control of both the ball and the clock. Wisconsin had the ball for almost 40 of the 60 minutes and knew what it wanted to do with it. On the rare occassions when Wisconsin wasn't exactly sure, they remained calm and collected, made the fix, and proceeded. For example, at one point in the game, Wisconsin looked like that it was going to try for the FG. A called timeout allowed them to calmly reassess and opt for a well-placed punt instead. Many's the time when Wisconsin would have sent out it's FG team, had second thoughts, but proceeded anyway, and missed. In summary, Wisconsin executed a fantastic game. There are countless debates about "speed" vs. "size", but I'm pretty sure that the winner of the game executes better than their opponent.
Second: Miami is a team that doesn't seem to take its games seriously. It was talking all about taking the National Championship next year. Why on earth would a team think about the end of next season, when this season's not over? Miami also embraces this concept of "swagger". If you check out college football boards now and again, you may have heard of it. Apparently, at Miami, swagger is a verb, a noun, and probably serves the same purpose that the word "smurf" does for those little blue toadstool-dwellers. Essentially, it is bravado. When a Miami player makes a regular tackle and gets in the opponent's face, that is swagger. Late hits and blatant personal fouls (that aren't called by crappy SEC officials) are swagger. Swagger is a failure to look ahead, to consider the single act in the scheme of the bigger picture. As long as Miami has a mindset that places more importance on celebrating and bringing attention to themselves than making the play and moving on and repeating, it'll remain a mid-conference player.
Also: the turf was ridiculously soft, and it was basically sod that had been laid down perhaps that morning, or even that afternoon. It was noticibly hard to manuver on, and it definitely affected bounces and rolls, in addition to runs.
Anyway, those are some of my thoughts on the game.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
The Big Ten Gets Bigger
Alright, so everyone here knows that the "Big Ten" is a misnomer (hence the hidden "11" in the logo - cool, huh?). And, in fact, there are twelve schools in the academic Big Ten; charter member University of Chicago is the George Harrison of the Big Ten. Well, according to a recent interview with Barry Alvarez, the Big Ten will be redoubling its efforts to add school number twelve to its happy yet dysfunctional family. Coach Paterno also supports expansion, as well as a number of athletic faculty concerned over the six-week hiatus that occurs annually between the end of the Big Ten conference football season and the start of bowl season.
So, what would happen if the Big Ten got twelve teams? First of all, it would really have to change its name, and Big 12 is taken. We could become the Big North, the Midwestern Conference, or the Great Lakes Conference. I like the latter, myself. We could stay the Big Ten...but how long can that go on?
Second, it's very realistic that the conference might be split into two divisions, and a conference championship game. I'll say this now: East vs. West will not work. That will almost certainly put Ohio State, Michigan, and Penn State into the East Division. No good. North vs. South may be the fate of the Big...Whatever. That will almost certainly keep most major rivalries in the same divisions (Illinois/Northwestern, Wisconsin/Minnesota), except for the special exception that will be made for Ohio State/Michigan.
Of course, this all depends on who becomes the mythical twelfth team. There are a few rules that must be adhered to (at least, at this moment): Teams may only come from states that already have a Big Ten member, or are in a state that borders a state with a Big Ten member. This gives us a list of possible locations:
Big Ten States: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania
Big Ten Borders: North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Missouri, Kentucky, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York
Now, let us assume for the moment that the Big Ten could lure away schools from other conferences (by the way, if this happens, expect to see a major shift in all conferences), as well as look at independents. The new team would have to be not only a fair competitor athletically, but academically as well. Not to mention conerns about marketability and fan base. Schools must also belong to the Association of American Universities, which is an organization of top doctoral universities in North America. Below is the list of all potential schools:
ACC: Virginia Tech, Virginia, Maryland
Big East: Cincinnati, Louisville, West Virginia, Rutgers, Pittsburgh, Syracuse
Big 12: Iowa State, Missouri, Nebraska
C-USA: Marshall
Independents: Notre Dame, Army, Navy
MAC: Akron, Bowling Green, Buffalo, Kent State, Miami (OH), Ball State, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Northern Illinois, Toledo, Western Michigan
Wide selection. But we can scratch off Notre Dame (who won't really join a conference for a while yet, and even if they did, they'd join the Big East), Army, and Navy. Most, if not all of the directional schools lack the fan base and academic power of the Big Ten schools. I'm not arguing that they are bad schools; I'm saying that in terms of research dollars and funding, they don't come close. So good-bye, Central/Eastern/Western Michigan. Northern Illinois, I contend, is becoming an increasingly competent football contender, but it doesn't meet the research/funding requirements, and having three conference schools in one state might be too much. The rest of the MAC teams lack the fan base even remotely necessary for Big Ten interest. Same problem for Marshall. Thus, we have a short list:
Virginia Tech, Virginia, Maryland, Cincinnati, Louisville, West Virginia, Rutgers, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Iowa State, Missouri, Nebraska.
The good news: most of these schools are competitive in either football or basketball. Most meet the minimum academic standards of the Big Ten in terms of both research and education. The inclusion of any of them would provide a potential for expansion of the Big Ten Network into new media markets.
The bad news: all of them already belong to a conference.
So. Which of these teams would be interested in switching conferences? Who could become the twelfth member of the Big Ten?
So, what would happen if the Big Ten got twelve teams? First of all, it would really have to change its name, and Big 12 is taken. We could become the Big North, the Midwestern Conference, or the Great Lakes Conference. I like the latter, myself. We could stay the Big Ten...but how long can that go on?
Second, it's very realistic that the conference might be split into two divisions, and a conference championship game. I'll say this now: East vs. West will not work. That will almost certainly put Ohio State, Michigan, and Penn State into the East Division. No good. North vs. South may be the fate of the Big...Whatever. That will almost certainly keep most major rivalries in the same divisions (Illinois/Northwestern, Wisconsin/Minnesota), except for the special exception that will be made for Ohio State/Michigan.
Of course, this all depends on who becomes the mythical twelfth team. There are a few rules that must be adhered to (at least, at this moment): Teams may only come from states that already have a Big Ten member, or are in a state that borders a state with a Big Ten member. This gives us a list of possible locations:
Big Ten States: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania
Big Ten Borders: North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Missouri, Kentucky, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York
Now, let us assume for the moment that the Big Ten could lure away schools from other conferences (by the way, if this happens, expect to see a major shift in all conferences), as well as look at independents. The new team would have to be not only a fair competitor athletically, but academically as well. Not to mention conerns about marketability and fan base. Schools must also belong to the Association of American Universities, which is an organization of top doctoral universities in North America. Below is the list of all potential schools:
ACC: Virginia Tech, Virginia, Maryland
Big East: Cincinnati, Louisville, West Virginia, Rutgers, Pittsburgh, Syracuse
Big 12: Iowa State, Missouri, Nebraska
C-USA: Marshall
Independents: Notre Dame, Army, Navy
MAC: Akron, Bowling Green, Buffalo, Kent State, Miami (OH), Ball State, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Northern Illinois, Toledo, Western Michigan
Wide selection. But we can scratch off Notre Dame (who won't really join a conference for a while yet, and even if they did, they'd join the Big East), Army, and Navy. Most, if not all of the directional schools lack the fan base and academic power of the Big Ten schools. I'm not arguing that they are bad schools; I'm saying that in terms of research dollars and funding, they don't come close. So good-bye, Central/Eastern/Western Michigan. Northern Illinois, I contend, is becoming an increasingly competent football contender, but it doesn't meet the research/funding requirements, and having three conference schools in one state might be too much. The rest of the MAC teams lack the fan base even remotely necessary for Big Ten interest. Same problem for Marshall. Thus, we have a short list:
Virginia Tech, Virginia, Maryland, Cincinnati, Louisville, West Virginia, Rutgers, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Iowa State, Missouri, Nebraska.
The good news: most of these schools are competitive in either football or basketball. Most meet the minimum academic standards of the Big Ten in terms of both research and education. The inclusion of any of them would provide a potential for expansion of the Big Ten Network into new media markets.
The bad news: all of them already belong to a conference.
So. Which of these teams would be interested in switching conferences? Who could become the twelfth member of the Big Ten?
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Moldy Old Stuff
For those of you unaware, yesterday President Obama spoke at Wright Middle School in Madison, Wisconsin. It was a half-hour speech to a crowd of a little more than 600, definitely fewer than the crowd that last saw him when he spoke in Madison. But then, that was a public event held in the Kohl Center during the election; circumstances change. Obama said that over $4 billion in federal incentives would be offered to successful schools - essentially, he would be actually funding "No Child Left Behind."
That's great. Except NCLB relies heavily on test scores, which as everyone knows, are excellent indicators of test-taking ability, but piss-poor when it comes to actually getting knowledge through the thick skulls of students. You may notice I'm a little biased on this point.
American students simply do not learn as much as students from other countries. This can be seen in Common Core's report, "Why We're Behind: What Top Nations Teach Their Students But We Don't." (Warning: PDF file).
Twelve hundred 17-year olds were questioned on basic knowledge that should be common to any curriculum. Here are some results that, as a history major, really make me want to beat some small animals to death with a bat:
*The respondents answered 73% of the history questions correctly. That's a low C.
*Almost 1/3 could not identify "ask not what your country can do for you" as a quote from JFK.
*A third did not know that the Bill of Rights ensures freedoms of speech or religion.
*Only two in five students knew that the Civil War occurred sometime between 1850 and 1900.
*Only three in five students knew that the First World War occurred sometime between 1900 and 1950.
In fact, the question that students did the best on in history concerned the "I Have a Dream" speech, where 97% of students could correctly identify the speaker (MLK).
Students who have parents that went to college finished one to two letter grades better than those without college-educated parents. I don't find this an excuse. Parents need to get involved in the education of their children, at an early age! Parents should take their kids to museums, or national parks and monuments, or read books about our history. Maybe the reason our current political situation is so fucked up is because our citizens have such a skewed, inaccurate, and simply spotty understanding about the key events and concepts that shape our nation.
Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Sometimes they may not even get that chance.
That's great. Except NCLB relies heavily on test scores, which as everyone knows, are excellent indicators of test-taking ability, but piss-poor when it comes to actually getting knowledge through the thick skulls of students. You may notice I'm a little biased on this point.
American students simply do not learn as much as students from other countries. This can be seen in Common Core's report, "Why We're Behind: What Top Nations Teach Their Students But We Don't." (Warning: PDF file).
Twelve hundred 17-year olds were questioned on basic knowledge that should be common to any curriculum. Here are some results that, as a history major, really make me want to beat some small animals to death with a bat:
*The respondents answered 73% of the history questions correctly. That's a low C.
*Almost 1/3 could not identify "ask not what your country can do for you" as a quote from JFK.
*A third did not know that the Bill of Rights ensures freedoms of speech or religion.
*Only two in five students knew that the Civil War occurred sometime between 1850 and 1900.
*Only three in five students knew that the First World War occurred sometime between 1900 and 1950.
In fact, the question that students did the best on in history concerned the "I Have a Dream" speech, where 97% of students could correctly identify the speaker (MLK).
Students who have parents that went to college finished one to two letter grades better than those without college-educated parents. I don't find this an excuse. Parents need to get involved in the education of their children, at an early age! Parents should take their kids to museums, or national parks and monuments, or read books about our history. Maybe the reason our current political situation is so fucked up is because our citizens have such a skewed, inaccurate, and simply spotty understanding about the key events and concepts that shape our nation.
Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Sometimes they may not even get that chance.
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