Uppity Wisconsin
Making Wisconsin Progressive Again
Waco, OK City and Banality on April 19
Sun, 04/19/2009 - 7:53am | mal contends
Update: Intelligence analysts at the Homeland Security Department ignored objections by civil-liberties officials before sending out a controversial report on the resurgence of domestic right-wing extremism, a department official confirmed Friday.
April 19, Sunday is the anniversary of two American tragedies: Waco (1993) and Oklahoma City (1995).
Waco Casualties — Some 76 people dead, including more than 20 children
Oklahoma City Casualties — 168 dead and over 800 people injured
[A reader points out Ruby Ridge, April 19, 1992 — three people killed]
These numbers obviously understate the horror.
No doubt, the FBI and Homeland Security are properly on alert, trying to prevent a deadly marking of these anniversaries.
April 19, Sunday is the anniversary of two American tragedies: Waco (1993) and Oklahoma City (1995).
Waco Casualties — Some 76 people dead, including more than 20 children
Oklahoma City Casualties — 168 dead and over 800 people injured
[A reader points out Ruby Ridge, April 19, 1992 — three people killed]
These numbers obviously understate the horror.
No doubt, the FBI and Homeland Security are properly on alert, trying to prevent a deadly marking of these anniversaries.
Tags: Salon Looks at 1960s Civil Rights Movement
Thu, 04/02/2009 - 8:29am | mal contends
Lauren Hermele has a photo essay on 1960s civil rights veterans in Salon. Great stuff.
Today's Republican Party, like Wisconsin attorney general J.B. Van Hollen, and know-nothing GOP bloggers still don't get why so many were incensed by last year's voter suppression efforts. It's likely that they never will.
A lot of the people comprising the civil rights movement have names that history will not record.
And quite a few live in Wisconsin today.
Registering voters, demanding jobs, risking their lives, enforcing democracy; that's what they did.
Today's Republican Party, like Wisconsin attorney general J.B. Van Hollen, and know-nothing GOP bloggers still don't get why so many were incensed by last year's voter suppression efforts. It's likely that they never will.
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.
Earmarks No Good? Tell That to Janesville
Fri, 03/13/2009 - 9:12am | mal contends
Update: Mike Madden in Salon - "President Obama urges pork reform and signs a bill with earmarks in it on the same day. Republicans make an unconvincing show of outrage."
From today's State Journal: "U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl D-Wis., added $951,000 to the federal Omnibus Appropriations Bill for Black hawk Technical College to provide job training and placement services for former employees of General Motors in Janesville and it supplier companies."
The horror ... because the job training and placement services are an earmark, according to Wisconsin's Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Middleton) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Janesville) and of-course the ever-foolish John McCain.
Reads Feingold's statement:
From today's State Journal: "U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl D-Wis., added $951,000 to the federal Omnibus Appropriations Bill for Black hawk Technical College to provide job training and placement services for former employees of General Motors in Janesville and it supplier companies."
The horror ... because the job training and placement services are an earmark, according to Wisconsin's Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Middleton) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Janesville) and of-course the ever-foolish John McCain.
Reads Feingold's statement:
Wisconsin Leads Way for Obama
Thu, 11/06/2008 - 7:02am | mal contends
Amplifying a point made by others, since the Feb. 17 primary that catapulted Obama as the frontrunner in the Democratic Primary with solid appeal to the white working class, Wisconsin has reclaimed its maverick status demonstrating a propensity to support political progressives.
As Paul Maslin writes in Salon today, "In my home state of Wisconsin, Obama's margin mushroomed to an extraordinary 13 points. Just look at any of the electoral maps of the Badger State and realize that all that blue was produced by nearly all-white rural counties and small towns that many thought would never support an African-American candidate."
GOP Voter Fraud Hoax Gets Knocked Around
Wed, 10/15/2008 - 9:01am | mal contends
The desperate GOP is lying in unison. It's what they're good at.
And truth and civil rights aren't going to stand in the way. It would nice if just one GOP official would stand up and say, 'This is wrong. Suppressing voters is wrong,' Dare to dream.
Andrew Burmon has a piece in Salon knocking down the lie in Behind the GOP's voter fraud hysteria.
Wisconsin Millworkers Ought to Pay Back McCain
Mon, 10/06/2008 - 4:46am | GlobalGirl
Paper mills dumping their employees has taken a toll on the lives of the type of people who are casual political voters and will make Wisconsin a landslide win for Obama.
From the Wisconsin Rapids area to Wausau to Green Bay-Appleton, 1,000s of millworkers are seeing how valued their labor and their lives are in 21st century America capitalism and world trade.
From the Wisconsin Rapids area to Wausau to Green Bay-Appleton, 1,000s of millworkers are seeing how valued their labor and their lives are in 21st century America capitalism and world trade.
Jerks like McCain owning 13 cars and nine houses don't get it as he offers the option of buying health insurance fired workers cannot afford, and then slashing their unemployment benefits, while blasting the notion that Americans buy products produced by American labor.
I don't think McCain has any idea the destruction that losing one's job can cause, which is why I feel that Ohio and Pennsylvania will join Wisconsin in telling McCain and the Republicans to go to hell.
Salon: Surveillance State Huge, Investigation May Be Finally Coming
Wed, 07/23/2008 - 6:50am | mal contends
Those longing for an accounting of Bush's historic abuse of power may get their wish.
In Salon, Tim Shorrock has uncovered new modes of state surveillance of Americans, and revealed documents contemplating "a potential investigation of the White House that could rival Watergate."
Breaking new ground on the government's programs monitoring Americans to be used in a declared national emergency, Shorrock reports on programs "designed for use by the military in the event of a national catastrophe, a suspension of the Constitution or the imposition of martial law."
Some excerpts:
Peace Movement Is Right, Tom Friedman Is Wrong
Wed, 07/16/2008 - 10:00am | GlobalGirl
A woman just needs love and reassurance sometimes; that’s why I read Glenn Greenwald at Salon.
That's not a commercial advertisement for Salon, just a statement of appreciation of Greenwald’s article this morning chiding Tom Friedman (and Fred Hiatt, Charles Krauthammer) and other Iraq war cheerleaders.
Chickenhawks seem incapable of realizing that American foreign policy under Bush-Cheney (including that Iraq War thing) is more serious than mere “mistakes,” deserving of a "thumbs-down," as Friedman writes this morning.
From Greenwald’s column this morning on the “befuddled” Tom Friedman:
Feingold Fights for Fourth Amendment This Week
Tue, 07/08/2008 - 10:33am | mal contends
Update: Contact Barack Obama.Not nearly as compelling a visual as the Christie Brinkley divorce proceedings (at left), the votes in the U.S. Senate tomorrow on using the Nixon crimes-inspired FISA law to immunize unlawful presidential abuses that FISA was crafted to prevent ought draw the attention of every news organization and blog in the country.
But do not bet on saturation coverage of the FISA votes this week, no matter the advocacy of Russ Feingold, Chris Dodd and others. The Fourth Amendment is just not as sexy as Christie Brinkley, nor as powerful as the fear gripping too many supine Democratic U.S. Senators.
“... I hope that over the July 4th holiday, Senators will take a closer look at this deeply flawed legislation and understand how it threatens the civil liberties of the American people. It is possible to defend this country from terrorists while also protecting the rights and freedoms that define our nation,” said Feingold in late June, as he and others pursue a quest that we hope is not quixotic.
Wisconsin and the White Working Class
Thu, 05/01/2008 - 2:14pm | mal contends
via MAL Contends
Madison, Wisconsin - Salon has a piece by Mike Madden explaining the importance of Wisconsin's primary and probing why this perfectly composed demographic state for Hillary handed her a 17-point thrashing on Feb. 19.
Why did Obama do so well with Wisconsin's white working class, but not with Ohio and Pennsylvania's?
So well-received was Obama's victory here that many secular progressives were smitten with whimsical rumination of metaphysics. But Madden reasonably attributes the win to Wisconsin's progressive history.
Writes Madden:
... 'I think Democrats do have questions about whether or not [Obama] is going to be able to reach out and successfully win over the kind of blue-collar voters that Democrats need to win in order to take the White House back in November," Clinton strategist Howard Wolfson reiterated on CBS's 'Face the Nation' on Sunday.
Madison, Wisconsin - Salon has a piece by Mike Madden explaining the importance of Wisconsin's primary and probing why this perfectly composed demographic state for Hillary handed her a 17-point thrashing on Feb. 19.
Why did Obama do so well with Wisconsin's white working class, but not with Ohio and Pennsylvania's?
So well-received was Obama's victory here that many secular progressives were smitten with whimsical rumination of metaphysics. But Madden reasonably attributes the win to Wisconsin's progressive history.
Writes Madden:
... 'I think Democrats do have questions about whether or not [Obama] is going to be able to reach out and successfully win over the kind of blue-collar voters that Democrats need to win in order to take the White House back in November," Clinton strategist Howard Wolfson reiterated on CBS's 'Face the Nation' on Sunday.