Email to Membership - Went Out Tonight

Fellow Dems & Friends of the Party,

As you may know, the last Friday of the month, Democrats from all over the Fox Valley converge for a scrumptious breakfast.

This month is no different, we will be meeting on Friday the 29th at 7:00 AM in our new location - B.J. Clancy's - 3341 S. Oneida St - Appleton.

Do not forget our normal business meeting - Wednesday, August 10th - 7:00PM at the Delta Family Restaurant - 515 N Sawyer St - Oshkosh.

We also have out Corn Roast upcoming, Saturday, August 27th - 1:00PM - Winnebago Community Park.

Also, please sign up for a shift at the fair, August 9th-14th. Contact me with a time you are available!

I hope to see you all as soon as possible!

As always contact me at any time!

-jef-

Ouch!

I've played a lot of sports, and dabbled in photography (journalism major in college).

But, don't worry:

"She's fine," U.S. diving team leader Bob Rydze said. "She's moving all her limbs. She just needs a few stitches."

My Recent Letter to the Northwestern:

Bush Election of 2004 Was Neither Definitive Referendum nor Mandate

In a recent editorial, the Northwestern declared, "There already has been a national referendum on the Iraq War issue, in the presidential elections last November."

It is incorrect to declare the 2004 election of George Bush a mandate or definitive referendum, on Iraq or other issues. The facts are simple:

- Bush won nationally by the narrowest percentage margin of any sitting president in American history since Woodrow Wilson in 1916.

- Bush's popular vote margin was the smallest since 1976 (except 2000, of course, when Bush lost the popular vote to Al Gore). Bush also lost the popular votes of Wisconsin and Oshkosh.

- The Republicans picked up seats in Congress, but more Americans voted for Democrats nationwide (Wisconsin's Tammy Baldwin received more votes than any other Democratic member of the House).

- Statewide, Democratic Senator Russ Feingold, who voted against the war, received more votes than any candidate in Wisconsin history, also carrying Winnebago County and Oshkosh by wide margins.

- Locally, the 2004 Republican Assembly candidate was out polled; then lost the popular vote for 2005 DPI statewide, and in every Winnebago County voting ward but one.

The "Republican/Bush Mandate" of 2004 is a myth. The Northwestern is incorrect to characterize it as a clear mandate for Bush, the Republicans or their policies.

Also, poll after poll shows America's growing unease with the Republican leadership that has haphazardly led us to war:

- In a recent NBC/Wall Street Journal Poll, only 46% approved of Bush's performance (49% disapproved). Only 41% of those polled called Bush "honest & straightforward."

- In another NBC/WSJ Poll, only 33% approved of the Republican Congress, and by a 47 to 40% margin, would prefer to see Democrats in control in 2006.

In both polls, Iraq was the number one issue, and the economy the second.

When you look both at the poll numbers and the numbers at the polls, you see an America split down the middle, and a Democratic Wisconsin and Oshkosh. We also see Americans nationwide experiencing severe 'buyer's remorse' over the Bush administration and its policies.

This does not a Bush mandate nor referendum make.

Are We Truly Carrying a Mercenary Army?

I think this is a real question - here are some excerpts from an insightful op-ed.

I want to start with this quote (so as not to mistake this as an attack on the soldiers):

Neither the idealism nor the patriotism of those who serve is in question here.

The rest:

THE United States now has a mercenary army. To be sure, our soldiers are hired from within the citizenry, unlike the hated Hessians whom George III recruited to fight against the American Revolutionaries. But like those Hessians, today's volunteers sign up for some mighty dangerous work largely for wages and benefits - a compensation package that may not always be commensurate with the dangers in store, as current recruiting problems testify.

Our leaders tell us that our armed forces seek only just goals, and at the end of the day will be understood as exerting a benign influence. Yet that perspective may not come so easily to those on the receiving end of that supposedly beneficent violence.

But the modern military's disjunction from American society is even more disturbing. Since the time of the ancient Greeks through the American Revolutionary War and well into the 20th century, the obligation to bear arms and the privileges of citizenship have been intimately linked. It was for the sake of that link between service and a full place in society that the founders were so invested in militias and so worried about standing armies, which Samuel Adams warned were "always dangerous to the liberties of the people."

That tradition has now been all but abandoned. A comparison with a prior generation's war illuminates the point. In World War II, the United States put some 16 million men and women into uniform. What's more, it mobilized the economic, social and psychological resources of the society down to the last factory, rail car, classroom and victory garden. World War II was a "total war." Waging it compelled the participation of all citizens and an enormous commitment of society's energies.

The implications are deeply unsettling: history's most potent military force can now be put into the field by a society that scarcely breaks a sweat when it does so. We can now wage war while putting at risk very few of our sons and daughters, none of whom is obliged to serve. Modern warfare lays no significant burdens on the larger body of citizens in whose name war is being waged.

This is not a healthy situation. It is, among other things, a standing invitation to the kind of military adventurism that the founders correctly feared was the greatest danger of standing armies - a danger made manifest in their day by the career of Napoleon Bonaparte, whom Jefferson described as having "transferred the destinies of the republic from the civil to the military arm."

Some will find it offensive to call today's armed forces a "mercenary army," but our troops are emphatically not the kind of citizen-soldiers that we fielded two generations ago - drawn from all ranks of society without respect to background or privilege or education, and mobilized on such a scale that civilian society's deep and durable consent to the resort to arms was absolutely necessary.

The life of a robust democratic society should be strenuous; it should make demands on its citizens when they are asked to engage with issues of life and death.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/25/opinion/25kennedy.html?ei=5070&en=6aca49cd0f04a4dd&ex=1122955200&emc=eta1&pagewanted=print

A Great View on the War....

During our widely separated but shared wartime years, we were led by presidents of Olympian eloquence (Roosevelt during World War II) and almost brutal bluntness (Truman during the Korean War), yet, on their own terms, they spoke with clarity, conviction and honesty about our national threats, challenges, sacrifices. And the price of peace was high.

Today, in Iraq, where nearly every dawn is lacerated by mounting carnage - local and foreign - American troops are hemorrhaging among the wounded and the dead, pawns in an unspeakable farce, for the United States of America is not at war.

Only 135,000 men and women in American uniform are fighting - volunteers, members of the National Guard, reservists. There is no draft. No threat of a uniform hangs over the citizens of a nation of nearly 300 million who, in polls, support the invasion of a remote country upon whom our government would pin guilt of 9/11 ... and then attack. An invasion that was ordered by an expertly trained but combat-innocent fighter pilot and a draft-deferred character with "other priorities" during the Vietnam War.

Meanwhile, perhaps one crucial question was omitted from those polls: "Is any member of your family uniformed and in Baghdad?"

David Douglas Duncan, who served in the Marine Corps from 1943 to 1946 and who photographed the Korean and Vietnam Wars for Life magazine, is the author of "Photo Nomad."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/25/opinion/25duncan.html?ei=5070&en=54e2a11dae34b5ae&ex=1122955200&emc=eta1&pagewanted=print

It is a sin as a society that we grant the wealthy tax breaks while we send the poor to war.

Krugman on Jobs Moving to Canada

This carried echoes of Leach for me. I really think that we can make change here, but to do it we need to change what we think government is or should be.

As usual, Krugman says it better than I ever could. Here are some exerpts:

Toyota, Moving Northward

Modern American politics is dominated by the doctrine that government is the problem, not the solution. In practice, this doctrine translates into policies that make low taxes on the rich the highest priority, even if lack of revenue undermines basic public services. You don't have to be a liberal to realize that this is wrong-headed. Corporate leaders understand quite well that good public services are also good for business. But the political environment is so polarized these days that top executives are often afraid to speak up against conservative dogma.

But last month Toyota decided to put the new plant, which will produce RAV4 mini-S.U.V.'s, in Ontario. Explaining why it passed up financial incentives to choose a U.S. location, the company cited the quality of Ontario's work force.

What made Toyota so sensitive to labor quality issues? (...) Japanese auto companies opening plants in the Southern U.S. have been unfavorably surprised by the work force's poor level of training.

There's some bitter irony here for Alabama's governor. Just two years ago voters overwhelmingly rejected his plea for an increase in the state's rock-bottom taxes on the affluent, so that he could afford to improve the state's low-quality education system. Opponents of the tax hike convinced voters that it would cost the state jobs.

But education is only one reason Toyota chose Ontario. Canada's other big selling point is its national health insurance system, which saves auto manufacturers large sums in benefit payments compared with their costs in the United States.

Funny, isn't it? Pundits tell us that the welfare state is doomed by globalization, that programs like national health insurance have become unsustainable. But Canada's universal health insurance system is handling international competition just fine. It's our own system, which penalizes companies that treat their workers well, that's in trouble.

For now, let me just point out that treating people decently is sometimes a competitive advantage. In America, basic health insurance is a privilege; in Canada, it's a right. And in the auto industry, at least, the good jobs are heading north.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/25/opinion/25krugman.html?ex=1122955200&en=e94463b4f00e2f24&ei=5070&emc=eta1

Best Editorial Cartoon Of the Year

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/uclickcomics/20050724/cx_db_uc/db20050724

Appleton Post-Crescent - Ryan's Social Security Bill is a Loser

Quote the editorial:

Editorial: Social Security bill is a big net loser

Here’s another reason why the leading Social Security “reform” bill in the House is a bad idea: It’ll increase the federal government’s massive budget deficit.

Despite claims by the bill’s sponsors — including Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis. — that their plan wouldn’t grow the deficit, it does just that.

An analysis by the Social Security Administration shows that the GROW Accounts Act would add $851 billion to the $333 billion deficit over 11 years.

That’s because the bill would set up personal accounts for workers younger than 55, using bonding to finance them until 2016. Then it would use surplus Social Security taxes only. The bonding creates the deficit.

So for a program that adds hundreds of billions of dollars to our national debt, we get to keep the Social Security program solvent for an additional two years. Does that sound like a good deal to you? It doesn’t sound like one to us, either.

Proponents of the bill say this is just the first step in reforming Social Security to keep in solvent long into the future. But this first step is a doozy, which does little to accomplish the ultimate goal while plunging us deeper into another problem — the deficit.

http://www.wisinfo.com/postcrescent/news/archive/opinion_21881159.shtml

Another Great Cartoon

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/uclickcomics/20050721/cx_bs_uc/bs20050721

How Times Change...

"If anyone in this administration was involved in it [the improper disclosure of an undercover CIA operative's identity], they would no longer be in this administration." - Scott McClellan, September 29, 2003.

"I don't know of anyone in my administration who has leaked. If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it, and we'll take the appropriate action. And this investigation is a good thing." – George W. Bush, September 30, 2003.

"I would like this to end as quickly as possible so we know the facts and if someone committed a crime they will no longer work in my administration." - President Bush, yesterday.

They Finally Said It Out Loud.....

Sen. Kanavas: Is It Time to End the UW System?
7/15/2005
Contact: Senator Ted Kanavas
(608) 266-9174

(Madison) Ju1y 15, 2005 - Senator Ted Kanavas (R-Brookfield) today questioned the need for continuing the UW System and speculated that autonomous institutions could be more innovative and productive.

"It may be time to end the UW System and allow the individual campuses to stand alone, competing with each other for students."

Read it all here:

http://wispolitics.com/index.iml?Article=40752

The UW System is the gem of the state. The heart of our progress.

Now, here is the funny thing about his wish to end the UW (from his biography):

While attending the University of Wisconsin, Ted majored in political science where he was exposed to another form of community service, elective politics.

http://www.legis.state.wi.us/senate/sen33/news/index11.htm

Just like the Madison Republicans - after they get their use out of it, it is no longer necessary.

Hypocrite alert!

Great Cartoon

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/uclickcomics/20050715/cx_db_uc/db20050715

So Much for His 2004 'Straight-Talker' Hype....

Bush honesty rating drops to lowest point

The survey, which was conducted from July 8-11 among 1,009 adults, and which has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, finds that respondents, by a 49 percent-to-46 percent margin, disapprove of Bush’s job performance.

Furthermore, only 41 percent give Bush good marks for being “honest and straightforward” — his lowest ranking on this question since he became president. That’s a drop of nine percentage points since January, when a majority (50 percent to 36 percent) indicated that he was honest and straightforward.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8561443/

More on Plame/Rove Aftermath

Written by Larry Johnson, associate of Plame's:

http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/7/13/04720/9340

For starters, Valerie Plame was an undercover operations officer until outed in the press by Robert Novak. Novak's column was not an isolated attack. It was in fact part of a coordinated, orchestrated smear that we now know includes at least Karl Rove.

Valerie Plame was a classmate of mine from the day she started with the CIA. I entered on duty at the CIA in September 1985. All of my classmates were undercover--in other words, we told our family and friends that we were working for other overt U.S. Government agencies. We had official cover. That means we had a black passport--i.e., a diplomatic passport. If we were caught overseas engaged in espionage activity the black passport was a get out of jail free card.

A few of my classmates, and Valerie was one of these, became a non-official cover officer. That meant she agreed to operate overseas without the protection of a diplomatic passport. If caught in that status she would have been executed.

The lies by people like Victoria Toensing, Representative Peter King, and P. J. O'Rourke insist that Valerie was nothing, just a desk jockey. Yet, until Robert Novak betrayed her she was still undercover and the company that was her front was still a secret to the world. When Novak outed Valerie he also compromised her company and every individual overseas who had been in contact with that company and with her.

According to the US Ambassador to Niger (who was commenting on Joe's visit in February 2002), "Ambassador Wilson reached the same conclusion that the Embassy has reached that it was highly unlikely that anything between Iraq and Niger was going on." Joe's findings were consistent with those of the Deputy Commander of the European Command, Major General Fulford.

At the end of the day, Joe Wilson was right. There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. It was the Bush Administration that pushed that lie and because of that lie Americans are dying. Shame on those who continue to slander Joe Wilson while giving Bush and his pack of liars a pass. That's the true outrage.

Let's not forget the consequences of Rove's actions...

Leak of Agent's Name Causes Exposure of CIA Front Firm
By Walter Pincus and Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, October 4, 2003; Page A03

The leak of a CIA operative's name has also exposed the identity of a CIA front company, potentially expanding the damage caused by the original disclosure, Bush administration officials said yesterday.

The inadvertent disclosure of the name of a business affiliated with the CIA underscores the potential damage to the agency and its operatives caused by the leak of Plame's identity. Intelligence officials have said that once Plame's job as an undercover operative was revealed, other agency secrets could be unraveled and her sources might be compromised or endangered.

A former diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity said yesterday that every foreign intelligence service would run Plame's name through its databases within hours of its publication to determine if she had visited their country and to reconstruct her activities.

"That's why the agency is so sensitive about just publishing her name," the former diplomat said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A40012-2003Oct3

Our Opposition's Money....

Petri has $900,000:

http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.asp?cycle=2006&cid=N00004426

Underheim has $900

http://elections.state.wi.us/financereport_candidate_all.asp

Dean on Rove...

...in Madison!

Bush said in 2003 that he would fire anyone in his administration involved in the leak, and the White House has been on the defensive since the latest news reports showing Rove may have been involved.

"Now we're going to find out, Mr. President, if you'll keep your word: who do you value more, Mr. President, do you value intelligence operatives defending the United States of America or do you value political operatives from Texas?" Dean told a crowd of 500 in a downtown Madison theater.

"Who do you value more, Mr. President, the security of the American people, or your political cronies? Will you keep your word?"

http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/politics/12126172.htm

Proud to Have Him as Our Chair...

Wednesday night may have been one of those rare occasions when a crowd was already boiling before Howard Dean gave a speech.

Not that the chairman of the Democratic National Committee calmed them down. He left a group of more than 700 people cheering after his short talk in the Orpheum Theatre on State Street.

This was after state Democrats barely avoided a fiasco, having rented only the theater lobby - capacity less than 150 - for the short-notice "grassroots" fundraiser.
http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/local/index.php?ntid=46832&ntpid=4

Repercussions of War....

Iraqi civilian casualties
By UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
Published July 12, 2005

BAGHDAD -- An Iraqi humanitarian organization is reporting that 128,000 Iraqis have been killed since the U.S. invasion began in March 2003.
Mafkarat al-Islam reported that chairman of the 'Iraqiyun humanitarian organization in Baghdad, Dr. Hatim al-'Alwani, said that the toll includes everyone who has been killed since that time, adding that 55 percent of those killed have been women and children aged 12 and under.

'Iraqiyun obtained data from relatives and families of the deceased, as well as from Iraqi hospitals in all the country's provinces. The 128,000 figure only includes those whose relatives have been informed of their deaths and does not include those were abducted, assassinated or simply disappeared.

http://www.wpherald.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20050712-122153-5519r

How is your Congessmember responding:

John Nichols: State Dems rate high in peace report

Two Wisconsin representatives, Madison's Tammy Baldwin and Milwaukee's Gwen Moore, are among the most consistently anti-war members of the current Congress.

The Peace Majority Report, an online publication that works with a broad array of anti-war groups from Veterans for Peace to Military Families Speak Out and Pax Christi, has developed a scorecard that reviews the votes of members of the U.S. House and Senate on issues of war and peace.

Baldwin, who is usually considered to be the most anti-war member of the Wisconsin delegation, earned an impressive score of 89 percent

But Baldwin fell slightly behind Moore, who was elected last fall and so far is maintaining a 92 percent pro-peace score.

Sen. Russ Feingold earned a solid 77 percent pro-peace rating, while Democrat Sen. Herb Kohl had 62 percent.

Rep. Dave Obey, D-Wausau, rated a credible 72 percent.

Rep. Ron Kind, D-La Crosse, the most conservative Democrat in the Wisconsin delegation, clocked in with a less-impressive 53 percent

Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Janesville, scored only 21 percent.

Rep. Tom Petri, R-Fond du Lac, got 20 percent.

Rep. Mark Green, R-Green Bay, was at 13 percent.

Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Menomonee Falls, brought up the rear with just 12 percent.

http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/index.php?ntid=46897&ntpid=1

Invasion of the Business-Speakers

MSNBC has a great interview with Don Watson, author of "Death Sentences: How Cliches, Weasel Words and Management-Speak are Strangling Public Language." I haven't read the book, but it has been added to my list.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8514826/site/newsweek/

Working in a professional atmospheree, I have always thought that 'business speak' is crazy. There is no word I hate more than 'proactive.' What does that really mean?

For everyone that has ever giggled at a memo, here are some great excerpts and examples:

Does it infuriate you that everyone, from the local pastor to your kids school principal, seems to have a mission statement touting their core values.

He laments the fact that librarians are now referred to as: information needs identifiers, and that his 12-year-old granddaughters report card said that she had developed a variety of products in history class. He cites a John Deere tractor safety notice that warns customers to lock the brake or unexpected non-powered tractor movement may occur.

We are all customers. Even the CIA talks about having internal clients. Im quite sure that in another iteration, the Army will talk about enemy clients. Once they decide were all customers then the consequences for basic relationships in civil society are not good.

I think it happened when we decided to a greater or lesser extent that we live in an economy, not a society. Its become badge of honor for people in their professional lives so theyll bring it home with them. Soon theyll be saying: Were going to watch 'The Wizard of Oz' together in a family scenario.

In the book, you quote President George W. Bush as saying: We need to counter the shockwave of the evildoer by having individual rate cuts accelerated and by thinking about tax rebates.

Ive collected examples that people have sent in on the Web site [www.weaselwords.com.au]. One of my favorites is from a high-school [evaluation]: Just as the skill and processes are not compartmentalized in the creation process, the evaluation of outcomes will occur against a background of understanding that separation of outcomes into discrete components is subordinate to the evaluation of the total process as a comprehensive outcome. Nobody has any idea what that means.

When you turn language into an assembly line, you take all the potential out of it. You can't write a poem in this language. You cant tell a joke, you can't convey feeling. You can't discover new meanings. This writing is incapable of taking you anywhere. It's deliberately circumscribed. It's almost an abuse of human rights.

Here's how we beat it:

How do we fight this abuse of language, or as you say, become a refusenik? When people use this jargon, ask them what they really mean.

But, there is hope:

Even after all the harm that American corporations have done to the language, there's still Mark Twain. Americans do great good for the language; they keep it alive and moving.

Guess Who's a Democrat?

Katie Couric: I read, though, that you're a Democrat. Is that true?
Rev. Billy Graham: Yes. I am.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8326362/

Also here:

Graham called the Clintons "wonderful friends" and "a great couple," quipping that the former president should become an evangelist and allow "his wife to run the country."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050626/ap_on_re_us/billy_graham_14

Looks like Rev. Graham read into the New Testament as well.....

"The people of Wisconsin have lost a true progressive..."

Joe Wineke's statement on our loss:

Statement from the Democratic Party of Wisconsin on the Passing of Gaylord Nelson
Tuesday, July 5, 2005

Contact: Jessica Erickson (608) 255-5172 x 406 (voice) (608) 255-8919 (fax)

MADISON -- Joe Wineke, Chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, released the following statement today on the passing of former Wisconsin Governor and U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson:

"The people of Wisconsin have lost a true progressive -- a champion of the environment, of civil rights and liberties, who helped make our great state a better place to live, work, and raise a family.

"Gaylord Nelson was a man of humble origins who went on to accomplish great things, yet never forgot his Wisconsin roots. He was a man of principle and passion, who was committed to public service and the work that needed to be done to keep Wisconsin progressive. He was part of an remarkable group of people who built the modern Democratic Party, and his influence remains strong today.

"As a politician, he possessed both the willingness and the ability to work across party lines for the common good. Even as he debated vigorously with those across the aisle, he still showed his political opponents respect, admiration, and friendship.

"Gaylord Nelson is best known as the founder of Earth Day and the modern environmentalist movement. As a young boy growing up in Clear Lake, Wisconsin, his love and respect for the environment grew -- and only deepened throughout his 89 years. He recognized long before most politicians the passion the American people felt for the environment -- and the importance of preserving our natural world for future generations. And he succeeded in placing the environment on the national political agenda.

"Nelson’s influence, however, was much more far-reaching. He was not only a champion of the environment, but also of civil rights, civil liberties, and consumer protection. As a U.S. Senator, he fought on behalf of small businesses and Wisconsin dairy farmers. He worked to fight poverty, and provide jobs and training for struggling workers.

"And even as his health declined in recent years, he continued the fight to protect the environment, calling on President Bush and Congress this past Earth Day to provide real leadership on environmental issues. He kept up the battle because, as he said, ‘our work’s not done.’

"Our work is not done. And it is up to us to pick up the torch Gaylord Nelson long carried, and fill the enormous shoes he left behind.

"Gaylord Nelson’s life is an inspiration to all Americans -- and we are proud to call him a Wisconsin son. Our thoughts and prayers are with the entire Nelson family as we remember his life of service and sacrifice."

http://wisdems.org/index.php?display=ReleaseDetails&id=580598&PHPSESSID=cedcaa1effed523639ab933c0045062e

We were discussing the life and legacy of Gaylord Nelson at an event Sunday night. I found out we have a member of the Winnebago Dems who has been trout fishing with Gaylord Nelson.

What an experience that must have been.

Governor Doyle Announces State of Wisconsin Will End Fiscal Year With a Positive Balance

Governor Jim Doyle today announced that the State of Wisconsin will finish the fiscal year (FY) in the black with an estimated balance of about $6 million. After Governor Doyle inherited a $3.2 billion deficit, FY05 marks the second consecutive year that the State of Wisconsin has been back in the black under Governor Doyle's leadership.

"When I came into office, I inherited a $3.2 billion dollar deficit -- the largest per capita deficit in the country," Governor Doyle said. "It was a hole so large no one thought it could be fixed without huge tax increases ... but by rolling up o! ur sleeves and cutting wasteful spending, we protected our core priorities like education, balanced the budget, and didn't raise a single tax."

http://wisdems.org/index.php?display=ReleaseDetails&id=580122

While I may not always agree with his spending priorities, you cannot argue with his success in keeping his promise to balance Wisconsin's budget.

Gersh is Gone...

I have enjoyed Gersh Kuntzman's humor/interest column on MSNBC for awhile. This week he published his final one:

Parting Shots
My brand of liberalism has been called wacky, but now it’s the GOP that’s gone crazy on us.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8475067/site/newsweek/

I'll miss you, Gersh.

M-W.com's Word of The Day

Interesting...

The Word of the Day for July 1 is:
bunkum \BUNG-kum\ noun
: insincere or foolish talk : nonsense

Example sentence:
Vincent thought he had given strong arguments in support of his theory, but Professor Lyons dismissed it as bunkum nonetheless.

Did you know?
Some words in our language have more colorful histories than others, but in the case of "bunkum," you could almost say it was an act of Congress that brought the word into being. Back in 1820 Felix Walker, who represented Buncombe County, North Carolina, in the U.S. House of Representatives, was determined that his voice be heard on his constituents' behalf, even though the matter up for debate was irrelevant to Walker's district and he had little to contribute. To the exasperation of his colleagues, Walker insisted on delivering a long and wearisome "speech for Buncombe." His persistent -- if insignificant -- harangue made "buncombe" (later respelled "bunkum") a synonym for meaningless political claptrap and later for any kind of nonsense.

Where Have I Been?

Sorry for not blogging much, if anyone is concerned. My beloved laptop went to the great Best Buy in the sky a week and a half ago. Hopefully the new one will be coming this week.

Until then, things will be sparse. I am on a friends PC right now, just wanted to put some neat stuff I read recently out there....

A Few Great Sentiments:

LEGEND has it when Henry David Thoreau went to jail to protest an unjust law, his friend, the philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, visited him and asked, "Henry, what are you doing in here?" The great nature writer replied, "What are you doing out there?"

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/29/opinion/29safire.html?


John Adams and Thomas Jefferson began as friends. The tensions and frictions of the early Republic took care of that. Then, after years of silence between them, a mutual friend persuaded them to write to each other. In 1812, they launched into a correspondence that continued until it was ended by their deaths.

That ending point was on their minds and drove their correspondence. As Mr. Adams wrote Mr. Jefferson, "You and I ought not to die, before we have explained ourselves to each other."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/25/opinion/25limerick.html?ex=1120536000&en=80a762f04a20b32e&ei=5070&emc=eta1


Here is a great editorial on the sacrifices teachers make for their careers. For my money, they are the best deal we as a society have. They catch way too much flack from people.

Here are some facts & figures:

Not counting those who teach summer school, about 20 percent of the country's teachers have second jobs

If you're at the Circuit City in Grapevine, Tex., you might run into Erik Benner, who teaches history and coaches the football team at Cross Timbers Middle School. His work at the school, which averages 60 hours a week, does not come close to paying the way for his family of four, so he moonlights during the year, selling stereos and digital cameras.

If you live in the Bay Area of California, you might find the head of Redwood High School's science department helping customers at the Plumpjack Cafe select a wine to complement the soft-shelled crabs. Skip Lovelady has not missed his Saturday night waiting shift there in 12 years. He can't afford to. If he could get more shifts this summer, he might take them. But they're not available, so he's teaching summer school.

The average salary for a teacher in 2003 was $45,771. A teacher with a master's degree might get an additional stipend of anywhere from $500 to $2,000. Across all professions, however, the average beginning salary for those with master's degrees is $62,820 - about what a teacher might earn with 15 years of experience.

Imagine that scenario in the private sector. A chief executive decides he wants better performance from his company. He issues a mandate that all employees be highly qualified. Then he proposes, as No Child Left Behind does, that the staff members be more tightly controlled, that they conform closely to his top-down directives and that they be tested yearly to keep their jobs. And he wants all of this without raising salaries a penny. Who would want to work for such an outfit?

Is it any surprise that 45 percent of new teachers leave our schools within the first five years?

The editorial end with a suggestion for bonding to increase teacher salaries, just as you would bond to increase physical services. It is an interesting proposition that I think should be discussed. Read it all here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/27/opinion/27eggers.html?ex=1120536000&en=ada10ae795c7c0a6&ei=5070&emc=eta1

I've Always Liked This Guy....

Suddenly a man, out of breath, but still smiling and friendly, tapped me on my shoulder and said, "Ma'am, here are your keys." It was Al Gore, former vice president of the United States. Mr. Gore had gotten off his machine behind me, picked up my keys, handed them to me and then resumed his workout.

It was nothing more than a kind gesture, but at that moment Mr. Gore's act represented all that I yearned for - acceptance and acknowledgment.

Read it all here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/23/opinion/23abdrabboh.html?th&emc=th&oref=login

Answers to Questions

There has been a lot of chatter on the various Oshkosh blogs about a run in I had recently. I thought I'd answer any questions here.

I, personally, did something stupid. I regret it, I own up to it. I paid my fine and co-operated throughout the process. I sincerely apologize to anyone who was affected.

I learned two things from this experience. The first is that my personal actions have consequences that reverberate farther than I knew – I will remember this for the future.

Second, I learned that local politics have become too poisoned. It is because of personal stands that I previously took that this story was pushed.

While I am proud of these past stands on my individual issues, I admit that I may have been shrill. I pledge to stay involved with pushing issues I feel important to Oshkosh, Wisconsin and on; I, however, hope to do so in a more polite manner in the future.

I hope that Oshkosh, from here on out, can be a place where everyone is welcomed into the political process. And that issues can be debated in a forthright and polite manner.

If there is anyone affected by my personal actions, who has further questions, feel free to contact me directly.

The Way Things Look From Abroad....

I don't know if any of you know this, but I was an exchange student - I lived for a year in Ghent, Belgium (thanks Rotary!). I recently received the following email from my Host-Father, asking some questions, I have excerpted it below:

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While sitting in the plane last Saturday, I read the International Herald Tribune of 18-19th June and read a small news clip as follows:

Quote

MADISON, Wisconsin: The Wisconsin Assembly has approved a ban on the so-called morning-after pill on state college campuses, a restriction that would be the first in the United States if approved. (AP)"

Unquote.

Jef, what is happening in Wisconsin? Do your people want unwanted pregnancies and possible abortions as a consequence...

You know, the Belgian Government is making access to the morning after pill as easy as possible for the girls and women in need... We, as far as I know, don't have that culture yet of putting condoms , etc discretely for sale at school level. But here they only have to go to the pharmacist.

Jef, what is the rational behind this decision: is it a return of fundamentalism or is there a more pragmatic reason?

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As I mentioned when I originally posted the story... Is this what Wisconsin wants to be first in the nation/world on?

How will these moves by the legislature look to outside interests looking to move their families or their businesses here?

Some background, my host-Father is an international agriculture consultant, his wife a published historian and volunteer for Catholic charities and causes. They are not considered left-wing in any matter. They are reasonable people.

The sort of people that should read about Wisconsin in the International Herald-Tribune and think, "that is a place I'd like to visit." Not the people we should be chasing away.

2 Great Articles about the War (and the War at Home)

First from Bob Hebert:

It has become clearer than ever that Americans do not want to fight George W. Bush's tragically misguided war in Iraq.

You can still find plenty of folks arguing that we have to stay the course, or even raise the stakes by sending more troops to the war zone. But from the very start of this war the loudest of the flag-waving hawks were those who were safely beyond military age themselves and were unwilling to send their own children off to fight.

It's easy to be macho when you have nothing at risk. The hawks want the war to be fought with other people's children, while their own children go safely off to college, or to the mall. The number of influential American officials who have children in uniform in Iraq is minuscule.

What hasn't changed is the fact that the vast majority of the parents who support the war do not want their children to fight it. A woman in the affluent New York suburb of Ridgewood, N.J., who has a daughter in high school and a younger son, said: "I would not want my children to go. If there wasn't a war it would be different. I support the war and I think we need to be there. But it's not going well. It's becoming like Vietnam. It's a very bad situation. But we can't leave."

The Bush crowd may be bellicose, but for most Americans the biggest contribution to the war effort is a bumper sticker that says "support our troops," and maybe a belligerent call to a talk radio station.

The home-front "warriors" who find it so easy to give the thumbs up to war endanger the truly valorous men and women who are actually willing to put on a uniform, pick up a weapon and place their lives on the line.

The president and these home-front warriors got us into this war and now they don't know how to get us out. Nor do they have a satisfactory answer to the important ethical question: how do you justify sending other people's children off to fight while keeping a cloak of protection around your own kids?

If the United States had a draft (for which there is no political sentiment), its warriors would be drawn from a much wider swath of the population, and political leaders would think much longer and harder before committing the country to war.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/20/opinion/20herbert.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=print

And then from our own James A. Genisio:

I know how to greatly increase volunteers for the military. If the Bush twins, Barbara and Jenna, or even one of them would volunteer for the military, volunteer to fight terror in Iraq, volunteer to establish democracy in Iraq, many others would follow. Imagine if we watched President Bush and the first lady saying goodbye to their patriotic children, Barbara and Jenna, as they went off in uniform to risk their lives for what their father and mother tell us is a great cause. What an inspiration! What an example! What a glorious day that would be.

http://www.wisinfo.com/northwestern/news/opinion/stories/opinion_21474414.shtml