Paul Soglin: Waxing America

Madison Teachers' Union Endorses Soglin For Mayor

Madison Teachers Endorse Paul Soglin for Mayor of Madison

Madison Teachers, Inc. (MTI)  has endorsed Paul Soglin for Mayor, citing his long and dynamic record of thoughtful and progressive action on behalf of Madison residents.

“Paul Soglin has a deep and longstanding commitment to Madison public schools, the children who learn in those schools and the teachers who teach those children ,” said Mike Lipp, athletic director and science teacher at Madison West High School, and president of Madison Teachers Inc. “Paul’s understanding of the challenges our schools face and his fluency with how best to bring the City and the schools together  distinguishes him on these issues.  His involvement with the Madison Schools began in the mid 1970’s, and has continued since that time.”

“It is an honor to earn the endorsement of Madison Teachers,” Soglin said. “I believe strongly that quality public schools are the single greatest asset a City can have. People and businesses want to locate in a City with strong public schools. Over half of the kids in our schools live in homes below the poverty level. We have to focus on fixing that.”

MTI represents about 4700 employees of the Madison Metropolitan School District,  including teachers, social workers, psychologists, educational assistants, librarians, school nurses, clerical staff and other caring, hardworking professionals.

 

Editor's Note: Campaign contributions can be made out to Soglin for Mayor and mailed to PO Box 1228, Madison WI 53701. Please include contact information and whether we can use your name as a supporter.  Let us know if you can volunteer or sponsor a fundraiser. State law requires you to supply employer information (name and address) if your contribution is over $100 in a calendar year. The campaign website at http://www.soglinformayor.com is able to take online contributions, but please feel free to go old school via the US Postal Service.

Walker Defies Wisconsin Constitution

Does Capital One Think College Graduates Are That Stupid? Obviously.

 
The following arrived from Capital One, the charge card company that features idiots in its commercials. It is sent to college students, who Capital One must think are as stupid as the characters in its commercials.

It comes with an introductory offer of 0% until July 2011.  Then the normal rate kicks in. 24.9%

 

 

 

Video of Ron Johnson Opposing Child Victims Act

In case it's been forgottten, early this year Ron Johnson testified on behalf of the Green Bay Diocese Finance Council opposing the Child Victims Act at a Wisconsin Senate hearing because he worried about the bill's financial impact on the employers of child predators. 

Jud Lounsbury has the video and an opinion:

Unbelievably, during his testimony, Johnson asks a jaw-droppingly stupid question:

I think its a valid question to ask if the employer of the perpetrator should also be severely damaged, possibly destroyed, in a legitimate desire for justice?

Well... actually that's not a valid question!   It's an incredibly stupid question!  If the Green Bay Diocese knew that a pedophile priest was in their organization and instead of calling the police, reassigned him to another parrish, of course they should be sued!

Unfortunately, this isn't hypothetical wondering for the Green Bay Diocese.  Their entire leadership has a long, troubling record of reassigning instead of arresting pedophile priests.

It's shameful that Ron Johnson would serve under such an unhonorable group and absolutely disgusting that he would go to the Wisconsin State Senate to defend them and do their bidding. 

Watch for yourself:

 

 

(BTW, love the beard, Ron.  You shouldn't have shaved it for the campaign.)

- Barry Orton

New Barrett Ad Hits Back By Showing He Can Take A Punch

This new ad from the Barrett campaign isn't a direct response to that stupid boxing glove Walker ad, at least not according to the Barrett staff.  Right.

Best response ad ever. (So far this season.)

-Barry Orton

I Will Serve Steven Slater's Prison Sentence. Righteous Dude.

Steven Slater, the angry Jet Blue flight attendant knows that it is often the circumstances that make the hero.

As President Calvin Coolidge said, "Heroism is not only the man, but in the occasion," or perhaps better put by Gerald W. Johnson, "Heroes are created by popular demand, sometimes out of the scantiest materials."

In any case, I volunteer to serve a one tenth share of any prison sentence he receives for doing the right thing. I am sure there are enough of us to fill all of the prisons in this nation for the next decade.

Slater spoke volumes when he said he did it for all of us poor, abused travelers who follow the rules.

In these trying times we should heed the words of Mahatma Gandhi, though he probably did not have obnoxious airline passengers, or the people who run the airlines in mind, "Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good."

Manipulating the Consumer Is Profitable. More Ingenious Ploys

American corporations make more profits manipulating consumers and get away with in. Obviously irritating people like you and me and losing our business is a small price compared to the profits made by controlling the behavior of sheep.

Conde Nast and the New Yorker.Subscribe online and you get a great price of $39.95 a year compared to the standard renewal of $49.95. In fact a three year renewal is less than $100. There is a catch. After you make the purchase, not before you make the purchase, they inform you that upon expiration of your subscription they will automatically bill you for another year. Try to use a charge card that expires before the subscription.

AVIS.The car rental giant which normally provides great service now has a new automatic feature. If you drive less than 75 miles they will assume you did not fill-up the tank and charge you $13.95 for gasoline. Assuming you drive 74 miles and averaged 20 mpg and fuel was in the $3.00 a gallon range, AVIS is making a nifty $7. For those whose time is too valuable to fill 'er up, this is a great service. For those of us who resent manipulation, this sucks. They could offer the service but not make it automatic, which encourages its use. The charge is only removed if you show a receipt for the purchase of your gasoline.

U-Haul.They provide a great rental system given price and availability, but there is a catch. After you choose your vehicle, they offer you a slew of options which range from packages and storage facilities to blankets and some hearty souls to assist in your move. Some of the responses are pre-chosen defaults - you have to remove them. These additional services are nice. Too bad U-Haul does not ask you if you are interested in reviewing the additional services and let you check out. Instead you have to wade through all of their options and keep hitting the continue button before you can complete your purchase.

Ron Johnson Wanted To Limit Liability Of Catholic Church; Opposed Child Victims Act

So Republican Senatorial hopeful Ron Johnson has a bit of a political past after all. Last January, at the suggestion of a Green Bay Catholic official, Johnson testified against the Child Victims Act before the Wisconsin Senate Judiciary Committee. Johnson, a Lutheran who served on the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay's finance council, feared that: "This bill could actually have the perverse effect of leading to additional victims of sexual abuse, if individuals, recognizing that their organizations are at risk, become less likely to report suspected abuse." 

Dan Bice broke the story today in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Peter Isely, the Midwest director for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said the Catholic Church has been more likely to cover things up if it is not faced with court action.

"He's just wrong," said Isely, who was not aware that Johnson had testified.

...The proposal would have eliminated the statute of limitations for future victims of child sex abuse and opened a three-year window for past victims.

It was opposed by the insurance industry and church organizations, including the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, which argued the bill could bankrupt it. The measure had the support of several police organizations, social workers and Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm.

The Child Victims Act bill did not pass.

Ron Johnson should ask Rep. Matt Flynn (D - 4th District) how taking the Catholic Church's side on this issue worked out for him politically.

- Barry Orton

Growing Poverty In Madison - Part I

Last week Mike Ivey of The Capital Times reported Poor flock to city of Madison, not the 'burbs'

(nationally)....The number of poor grew by 25 percent in suburbs from 2000 to 2008-almost five times the growth rate in primary cities-making the suburbs home to the largest and fastest growing poor population in the country.

But the Madison metropolitan area bucked the trend. The poverty rate showed a significant increase in the city and no change in the suburbs over this time period.

The Brookings Institute report "The Suburbanization of Poverty: Trends in Metropolitan America, 2000 to 2008" only goes back to 2000, but this is a trend that began in the early 1980's, as poorer urban families searched for better homes, first in small to medium size cities like Madison, Albany and Harrisburg, PA, as well as the suburbs. The Promised Land, published in 1992, tells the story of black migration in America since the 1940's.

Their goal was not much different than that of their fellow middle and upper income migrants - seeking neighborhoods with employment, good schools and safe streets.

With this pattern of migration came problems. Many communities were unprepared for the increase in poverty. Housing designed for young 27 year old professionals could not accommodate the needs of low income families with children. School systems with limited budgets were challenged to educate kids with little or no pre-school guidance. Housing, counseling, and family enhancement programs were short staffed and underfunded.

Frankly, when you look at the challenge, it is surprising that Madison has done as well as it has. TThe challenge is that political ideology, ignorance, and funding issues all contribute to the problem:

• Liberals refuse to acknowledge that gangsters, extortionists, and drug dealers follow the impoverished families to Madison and a law enforcement response is required.
• Conservatives refuse to acknowledge that law enforcement is just one tool in combating crime and that without programming that empowers families, crime will prevail no matter how many police officers are sent to a neighborhood.
• Housing advocates refuse to acknowledge that no one is helped by continually adding to the supply of more low income housing if employment, child care, transportation, health care, and family enhancement programs are not developed at a comparable rate as the housing stock.
• The employment, child care, transportation, health care, and family enhancement programs are not effective if understaffed, poorly funded and uncoordinated.
• No matter how sincere the commitment, none of this works without government revenues and private sector participation. That means a tax base of businesses, particularly office buildings and retail, must be continually developed to provide the resources to fund effective programming.

Madison's Meadowood: Time to Act

The announcement last week that a group of Meadowood residents are organizing to set community standards,  Southwest Side residents asked to back a 'residents bill of rights'  provides the opportunity for meaningful change in a great Madison neighborhood, presents a real challenge to city officials, and can serve as a model for future progress:

A group of Southwest Side residents, in conjunction with a public affairs organization, is promoting a new social contract for residents in the area intended to address a recent increase in crime and other quality-of-life concerns.

We know that no matter how high the standards of a community, if the residents do not fight to maintain those community values, they can succumb to crime and poverty. That a group of neighbors see this is encouraging.

But there are some problems. The leaders of this effort "are all white, and most of those who are helping organize the effort also are white," and "Another group, calling itself Families and Communities Unite, has begun a similar effort to tackle problems in the area and is led primarily by black residents."

Both efforts willl fail unless they are merged and combined. Both sides of a racial and economic divide must make a unified effort to do two things: make the area safe from thugs and simultaneously improve the real economic condition of all area residents.

Meadowood is not an affluent area - it never was and never will be. The modest owner-occupied homes are the residences of working people who generally do not have the time to engage in much of the philosophical discussions that pepper the Internet. They are undertaking a major effort that requires support.

City officials and other resources including religious organizations and many of the excellent non-profits that serve our community can play a valuable role as resources and facilitators in moving this discussion along and translating the aspirations into reality.

There will be some other challenges. The proposal that the neighborhood have a veto power over the location of Section 8 housing probably flies in the face of federal law. 

The underlying concern is a real one.

Every neighborhood and every community has a limited capacity to absorb low income housing. It is not the question of just the housing - it is a question of all the other support services that come with combating poverty, which paces demands on the public schools, transportation systems, job training resources, and health care providers.

For the past decade, Madison has focused on providing housing without making a commitment to the other services needed to make the housing commitment functional.

These issues must be addressed. The social compact cannot be limited to elements of behavior.

One more thought. It is troubling over the past few decades to see every document, legislative or otherwise, characterized as a 'bill of rights.'

This is not a bill of rights. As the introductory paragraph of the Wisconsin State Journal says, it is a social contract, or perhaps better yet, a social compact.

I have some issues and disagreements with part of this effort - some are minor, some are significant. It in incumbent upon all of us to contribute to making this effort work.

Jim Monroe, a minister at True Worshippers Community Church in Madison and one of the organizers of the families group, said people have a tendency to look at differences, rather than similarities.

“At some point you have to bypass it,” he said.

Monroe said he’ll attend the Wednesday meeting at Falk if he’s invited but said what’s really needed is a dialogue between his group and Severson’s. “They really need to have a few people from their group and a few people from our group meet,” he said.

That's the key.