Uppity Wisconsin
Making Wisconsin Progressive Again
Hey Wisconsin, Remember the Fear of Zero National Debt
Fri, 03/27/2009 - 10:50am | mal contends
As Gov. Doyle grapples with the giant budget deficits, it's worth recalling a time when zero national debt was feared and states argued about how much fiscal revenue they should shave off for their budgets.
In 2001 Fed Chair Alan Greenspan testified before the Senate Budget Committee on the potential dangers of having no federal debt [we're at $11 trillion now], a fiscal legacy of the Clinton administration that Bush, Cheney and his rightwing ideologues were desperate to avoid.
It was an ambiguous and wide-ranging testimony, recounted by Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neil in The Price of Loyalty, that included Greenspan's "fear that large surpluses would create a drag on the economy," among other expressed cautions and concerns about the then-proposed Bush tax cuts (O'Neil p. 63).
But the damage was done and Greenspan gave political cover (then and in later statements) to the reckless Bush tax cuts for the super-rich.
In 2001 Fed Chair Alan Greenspan testified before the Senate Budget Committee on the potential dangers of having no federal debt [we're at $11 trillion now], a fiscal legacy of the Clinton administration that Bush, Cheney and his rightwing ideologues were desperate to avoid.
It was an ambiguous and wide-ranging testimony, recounted by Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neil in The Price of Loyalty, that included Greenspan's "fear that large surpluses would create a drag on the economy," among other expressed cautions and concerns about the then-proposed Bush tax cuts (O'Neil p. 63).
But the damage was done and Greenspan gave political cover (then and in later statements) to the reckless Bush tax cuts for the super-rich.
Rightwingers Set to Mock Themselves
Sat, 11/08/2008 - 9:54am | mal contends
A valuable bequest from the Clinton administration is the revealing to a wide political audience of the American rightwing as hateful whack jobs. Decent, hard-working people no doubt, but whack jobs nonetheless who pursued the Clintons relentlessly and shamelessly, casting every aspersion imaginable upon a cautious administration.
As a result of the Clintons' devastating rebuttal of the rightwing attacks [at the height of the impeachment, Bill Clinton's approval numbers rose to 69 percent], George W. Bush was forced to run as an anti-rightwing, centrist Republican, proclaiming non-divisive moderation in the 2000 election.
Progressive groups like Move On flowered as the attacks on Clinton became utterly untenable and the American people soured on the politics of the right.
Bill Clinton
Wed, 08/27/2008 - 8:09pm | Steve Hanson
Bill Clinton at the DNCBill Clinton has just taken the stage, to by far the biggest ovation that has been seen (though I'm sure tomorrow is going to be completely nuts). The hall is crowded beyond belief - everyone on the floor appears to have just gotten engaged - well, anyway, they're pretty close to each other. The security guards are trying to keep everyone moving, but there's not much of anywhere to move to.
Clinton is in criticizing Bush mode, as I would have expected, and is asking everyone who supported Hillary to throw all of their work behind Obama. I think that any doubt people might have had that Bill Clinton would sound half-hearted in his support of Obama is gone. I have to say - he has the audience in the palm of his hand. This all feels a lot like a revival meeting - let's hope the revival happens. I'm always amazed by Clinton's ability to talk to a room full of this many people and to have most of them feel he is speaking directly to them.
The world has always been more impressed with the power of our example than the example of our power.
My fellow Democrats, America can do better than that - And Barack Obama will do better than that.
Was there a war during Bill Clinton's Presidency?
Tue, 02/19/2008 - 2:26am | Outraged
An excerpt from President Clinton's speech 8-20-1998 concerning the attacks on Afghanistan and Sudan.
"THE PRESIDENT:
Good afternoon. Today I ordered our Armed Forces to strike at terrorist-related facilities in Afghanistan and Sudan because of the imminent threat they presented to our national security.
I want to speak with you about the objective of this action and why it was necessary. Our target was terror. Our mission was clear -- to strike at the network of radical groups affiliated with and funded by Osama bin Laden, perhaps the preeminent organizer and financier of international terrorism in the world today.
The groups associated with him come from diverse places, but share a hatred for democracy, a fanatical glorification of violence, and a horrible distortion of their religion to justify the murder of innocents. They have made the United States their adversary precisely because of what we stand for and what we stand against."
.....Sound familiar..? (Funny how Osama's always right around the corner but by hook or by crook we can't find em')
Outraged's blog | 
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Tags: National, Politics, Afghanistan, Bill Clinton, cluster bomb, kosovo, sudan, war
Ambassador to Wherever
Wed, 06/06/2007 - 11:20am | xoff
"I think Mark Green will be a great ambassador - to whatever country," said Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch (R-West Salem).Green, the ex-Congressman who lost the race for governor last year, will be named ambassador to Tanzania. Maybe Huebsch couldn't remember where Green was going when he gave the "whatever country" quote. But there is actually some logic to sending him to an African country, as the Journal Sentinel notes:
Green, 47, has ties to Africa. He is the son of a South African immigrant, and he and his wife, Sue, spent a year in the late 1980s as volunteer teachers in Kenya, Tanzania's neighbor to the north.
Who says losing doesn't pay? Both Green, the losing candidate, and Rick Graber, who was Wisconsin Republican chair for the disastrous 2006 campaign, have been rewarded with ambassadorships. Graber is ambassador to Czechoslovakia.
There's precedent on the Democratic side of the aisle in Wisconsin. Tom Loftus, who lost a race for governor in 1990, was later named ambassador to Norway by President Bill Clinton.
xoff's blog | Add new comment | View | Tags: Politics, Bill Clinton, Mark Green, Rick Graber, Tom Loftus