Paul Soglin: Waxing America

Madison School Referendum

On next Tuesday's ballot there is a referendum for Madison Metropolitan School District residents to vote on supporting public education.

As one Wisconsin business leader put it when discussing the challenges of global competition which includes everything from taxation to environmental regulation, "What I need is an intelligent workforce."

We invest every day. Some investments turn out better than others.

There is really no wiser and prudent investment than the education of our children.

An educated child makes more money and pays taxes. An uneducated child is in need of public support for housing, healthcare, and food. An educated child is less likely to go to prison and more likely to support charities. An uneducated child is more likely to become a parent at a young age and is likely to have greater health problems.

An educated child, obviously, is more likely to go on to college and be even more successful. An uneducated child is more likely to raise children who will also be uneducated.

The cost of less than $60 per household is a small cost for the benefits we will all accrue when this referendum passes next week.

Economic Disaster That A Fool Could Forecast

Like most states, we are caught up in the cruel torture of national policies that are driven by greed, imperialism, and stupidity. Readrers of Waxing America will recall that in the spring of 2007 I forecasted a stock market crash and repeated it last January, Another War; Another Recession. Whatdidyah Expect?

Last  spring I used my limited abilities in forecasting the economy and predicted a stock market crash... For the second time in my lifetime a stupid, foolish war built on lies not only wrecked havoc with another country but it is destroying the American economy.

It does not take a rocket scientist to get it right... Go on take 10% of your income and set it on fire, throw it down the toilet, or just rip it up. And just for good measure, borrow a lot of money and rip it up too.

It is so simple. You cannot destroy your resources and your assets. Imagine the homes and schools that might have been built. Billions of dollars - now that is stimulation for the economy.

I am not a genius in these matters; it is that I am not driven by blind ideology in arriving at conclusions about the ecomony. A few years experience in the public and private sectors, an understanding of history and a willingness to distance myself from bad public planning, or lack of planning, no matter how politically popular the proposal, do help.

As the fall elections approach, candidates for the Wisconsin legislature and Congress from both political parties will warm your frontal lobes with cuddly promises of 'no tax increases,' cutting fat from the budget, and reducing spending.

If you are attracted to those soft sweet sounds, complete the job and instead of voting, just get a lobotomy.

If you want a candidate who will  provide a lump of coal to warm you in your decrepit retirement, and a dull knife so you can remove your spouse's appendix by candlelight in your toothless waning years, I suggest looking for the following promises:

• A pledge to the business community to provide an educated, trained workforce, not lower taxes.
• A pledge to increase spending on education from kindergarten through the University of Wisconsin and Voc-Tech Systems.
• A commitment to spend money on infrastructure that places a priority on the environment, health, and safety.
• A commitment to regulate where appropriate and needed.
• That infratstructure will be funded through borrowing as should any reasonable capital budget item.
• The operating budget, unlike the capital budget, will be funded by general purpose revenues, and only general purpose revenues. No borrowing here.
• It will be necessary to increase taxes. The increase will be progressive and will fall on wealthier taxpayers.
• A commitment to regulate where required for health and safety.
• A declaration that international trade which exports great jobs and imports poisonous pet food and baby formula is not working.
• There will be no reductions of state revenue payments to local units of government. These reductions only end up with increase in the property tax which has the impact of shifting taxes from the wealthy to the middle class.
• On the national level there will be increases in the income tax- progressive increases.
• If we fight a war, there will be honest talk. It is impossible to have guns and butter. If we fight a war there must be sacrifices at home as well as on the battlefield.
• If the candidate tells you they are highly regarded by Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC), tell that candidate to move to Alaska.

 

 

It does not take a rocket scientist to get it right... Go on take 10% of your income and set it on fire, throw it down the toilet, or just rip it up. And just for good measure, borrow a lot of money and rip it up too.

It is so simple. You cannot destroy your resources and your assets. Imagine the homes and schools that might have been built. Billions of dollars - now that is stimulation for the economy.

Bicycle Ride August 23. Vice President.

This morning's ride was on and off, but finally I embarked on a jaunt around Madison. The clouds were ominous so I ruled out the planned trip to Mt. Horeb. Sara does not retrieve me with her sag wagon operation more than five miles from home base. Especially when she is spending the morning replastering the kitchen and bathrooms ceilings, damaged by last winter's roof leaks and the subsequent spring rains. Yes, she did it all herself.

I headed west and then circled back to the Arboretum, crossed Fish Hatchery and Park Street with the plan to do Lake Monona counter-clock wise. I stopped to help a couple headed to the Alliant Center for the pottery show; the were trying to figure out the best route to cross John Nolen Drive.

The Lake Monona Loop was uneventful, except that there was lots of activity as neighbors prepared for the annual Orton Park festival. Many of them, capitalizing on the crowds, were running their own garage sales.

As I passed one house I noticed all of the adult materials spread out in the driveway, drab, mostly browns, blacks and some tans and greens.

The front yard was a sea of pink. The right wing family values crowd should take note that even in Madison's extreme far left radical Sixth District, little girls grow up in a sea of pink and occasional purple.

As usual the closer to the center of the city, the greater the number of helmet-less riders.

As you probably know by now, Obama did not tap me for vice president. I suppose two Hyde Parkers was one too many.

McCain Immaturity in Foreign Affairs: Georgia Russian Conflict

With ego and showmanship, Republican John McCain showed his lack of experience in diplomacy with sweeping commitments to Georgian President Saakashvili when he told him, "that I know I speak for every American when I say to him today, we are all Georgians.''

Such unequivocal statements are misleading on at least two levels.  First, not all Americans support Georgia in this conflict. This is a complicated issue of borders and secession that go back over five hundred years and covers almost the entire history of the Russian Empire.

While it is clear that any Russian move against Poland, the Baltic States or Asian nations are clear signs of Russian aggression and imperialism, the situation in Georgia and Ossetia is not as clear cut.

Secondly, we must understand that the Georgians very cleverly manipulated the Bush Administration with its commitment of 3,000 troops in Iraq. When the rest of the rational world was putting as much distance between themselves and the American lie in Iraq, Georgia stood with us with the third largest contingent there, as they curry favor with NATO.

It makes no difference that both McCain and Obama are clearly opposed to Russian aggression. What does make a difference is that McCain has signaled to Georgia that we will stand with them, unequivocally. That is a commitment we do not make to even the British or the Australians.

Tattoos Cause Firestorm in Los Angeles

When I served as mayor of Madison, if there was an issue as dreaded as endless debates over liquor licenses, it was personnel matters that related to appearance and grooming.

The Los Angeles Fire Department  (LAFD) is caught in a tattoo controversy. According to Sandy Banks in the Los Angeles Times on Saturday, Los Angeles Fire Department tattoo coverup muddles real mission:

At issue is a policy the department announced this spring, requiring firefighters with tattoos to cover their body art whenever they are on duty.

I am not a big favorite of tattoos, especially the massive works which hides, not enhance the human body, but as Banks points out, the LAFD has more important issues to fry than tattoos. Painted or not, in a crisis the citizenry want the firefighter who arrives to be comfortable and ready to perform.

The LAFD has numerous administrative problems that make the inked arms and necks pale in comparison. Frankly, if I was chief, I would do everything imaginable to discourage the men and women of the department from getting tattoos.

This is all reminiscent of thirty years ago when police and fire departments went through the long hair controversy. Then the issue was also grooming, with the added safety issue. Police officers, it was feared, would be vulnerable to assailants pulling their longer locks. Firefighters' tresses could catch on fire.

Most police departments figured out reasonable hair lengths.

The fire departments realized that so long as the hair was covered and protected by the uniform, it was not vulnerable to fire.  The uniform protected their hair just as it protected the skin.

The tattoos might seem unflattering and distasteful to the likes of me, but so long as my firefighter is devoted, professional and prepared to serve, I can live with the ink.

John McCain, you, sir, are no Eisenhower

Dwight David Eisenhower may have graduated only 61st in class of 164 when he left West Point in 1911, but it did not adversely affect his performance as a soldier, a general, or a president. Throughout his career Ike faced his challenges with candor and truthfulness.  He knew the American people.

This was evident in his Presidential Farewell Address delivered January 17, 1961:

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes.

Ike knew the obvious reasons that nations engaged in combat - the struggle over ideology, political destiny, and the myth of natural, racial, or religious superiority. He also understood that profiteering, petty jealousies, century old conflicts, and the struggle for natural resources all entered into the calculations of the architects of war.

John McCain graduated from the Naval Academy, 894 out of a class of 899. He not only performed miserably in his academic pursuits, but as the years went by he failed to understand the nature of war and the nature of the American people. 

Examine a speech that John McCain delivered as recently as April 11, 2008 on the war in Iraq. Thousands of words long, he rambles on about terrorists, the divisions in the Muslim world, and Al Qaeda. Nowhere in the speech does he drill down and acknowledge why these partisans fight. Nowhere does he drill down and explain why we fight. Only the homilies and the flag are there.

Unlike Eisenhower, who spoke truth to both power and the people, McCain tragically provides bromides from Richard Nixon's poisonous Vietnam cabinet:

However it ends, the war in Iraq will have a profound influence on the future of the Middle East, global stability, and the security of the United States, which will remain, for the foreseeable future, directly affected by events in that dangerous part of the world. The war is part of a broader struggle in the Arab and Muslim world, the struggle between violent extremists and the forces of modernity and moderation.

This is a contest of ideas and values as much as it is one of bullets and bombs. We must gain the active support of modernizers across the Muslim world, who want to share in the benefits of the global system and its economic success, and who aspire to the political freedom that is, I truly believe, the natural desire of the human heart.

It sounds good and it says nothing. Throughout history forces of modernity and moderation were confronted by extremists - but war is not inevitable. Just ask those who are struggling for a fair and just America today.

Perhaps it is the tragedy of his years of imprisonment in North Vietnam; perhaps it was his isolation when he returned to the United States. No matter what the reason, John McCain has learned nothing from Vietnam or from the American people.

Finally, in a rather ironic gesture, McCain, who recently opposed extending a GI Bill to this generation of soldiers, invoked the name of General George Marshall, architect of the Marshall Plan which rebuilt Europe after World War II:

George Marshall, whose long, selfless service to our country was of inestimable value in some of the most consequential moments of the last century. As we celebrate this year the 60th anniversary of the Marshall Plan...

If you had asked General Marshall to name the other important legislative work that honored America's military victory in World War II, undoubtedly he would have named the GI Bill.

 

U.S. Supreme Court Engages in Activism: Ask Scalia

One of the phoniest, opportunistic ploys in recent years is the conservative assault on an independent judiciary calling for "judicial restraint" and attacking liberal or progressive justices as "judicial activists."

Rick Esenberg of the Federalist Society, takes this up in a paper used by Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce in the last judicial race, A Court Unbound? The Recent Jurisprudence of the Wisconsin Supreme Court:

Judges who seek to exercise restraint will tend to adopt techniques of construction that confine, rather than expand, their discretion...Judges practicing restraint will exhibit a sensitivity for the role of other branches of government....

Someone better get Esenberg's paper into the hands of the justices serving on the United States Supreme Court, starting with Anthony Scalia who Esenberg fondly quotes: "[a] text should not be construed strictly, and it should not be construed leniently; it should be construed reasonably, to contain all that it fairly means."

Scalia, Justice Anthony Kennedy, and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. are having a difficult time following their own admonitions when it comes time to the "Millionaire's Amendment" to the McCain-Feingold campaign finance act.

The issue is simple enough. Under the law individuals can contribute a maximum of $2,300 to a campaign. The candidate can spend as much as they like. If a wealthy candidate contributes over $350,000 of her own money, then the individual contributors of the opponent can go as high as $6,900.

Simple enough.

Now enter the reactionary justices on the Supreme Court. Hearing a case challenging the act, these conservative justices are wallowing in judicial activism.

Justices Assail 'Millionaires' Amendment'

"The campaign finance regimes we've approved up to now, the significant limitations, have had an anti-corruption rationale," Scalia said. "The only purpose of this is to level the playing field. And I am deeply suspicious of allowing elections to be conducted under a regime whereby Congress levels the playing field. That seems to be very dangerous."

and

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said he found it "a particular vice" of the amendment that it allows the opponent of a self-financing candidate to have greater ties and to receive more money from his political party. "It puts this statute in the position of preferring one kind of speech over another. And we simply do not do that," Kennedy said.

Obviously these justices are substituting their own judgment for that of the legislative body, the United States Congress.

I am waiting for the critics of Louis Butler and Shirley Abrahamson to assail Scalia and Roberts for this exercise in judicial activism.

You can hear the crickets chirping.

Free Tibet Madison Style: The Real Olympic Spirit

I will not be in Madison on Saturday, April 19, 2008,  but if I were, I would be at the State Capital for the rally to focus on Chinese oppression against the people of Tibet.  Among the sponsors are Students for a Free Tibet - UW Madison.

Until a family event sent me off to California for the weekend, I was supposed to join State Representative Joe Parisi and Wisconsin Olympian Casey FitzRandolph.  They will be apart of a different torch relay, the Human Rights Torch that is part of coordinated effort in 37 countries to publicize the incompatibility of Chinese crimes against all of its citizens, not just Tibetans, and the true spirit of the Olympics.

Casey is a great athlete, one who truly understands the nature of humanity in all aspects of life. There are too many people who like to use sports metaphors to draw lessons about life. Casey lives the best of the competitive world both on and off the ice.

We all know that the commercialism of the Olympics far overshadows the games. The athletes deserve to demonstrate their skills with honor, but are relegated to the status of doorknobs or garden rocks serving to enhance the mansion and the landscape, the corporate sponsors and their products.

My guess is that most Americans could select more official sponsors of the Olympics from a a list of hamburger, camera, and automobile companies than could identify the athletes who won medals last time in aquatics, archery, boxing, or even tennis.

Back in the day when the Internet was in its infancy, the only web page that came up when you put my name in a search engine was: The Mayor of the city of Madison, Wisconsin Proclaims March 10 1996 as "Tibetan Independence Day"

It was an honor to participate then; it is an honor now to be part of this world wide humanitarian effort. Tibetan rights and lives are more important than these games.

Someone get Casey's autograph for me. Please.

Overture's Problems Start With the Structure

It is not a surprise that the Madison based Overture Center is in financial trouble. Anyone who follows the stock market would suspect that the first quarter of the year was not kind to the trust fund established by benefactor Jerome Frautschi. The Capital Times noted Overture trust fund falls below $100M:

Frautschi, whose original $205 million gift to the city was the foundation for the world-class arts facility, agreed to fund the center's debt service if the amount of the trust fund dipped below $100 million. At the end of March, the fund stood at $98.9 million, down from $106 million at the end of 2006.

There is a group of civic leaders who will meet on their own time at their own expense to work on the problem:

A group of Overture patrons is in the process of organizing a panel with expertise in financing and public funds to come up with recommendations to tackle Overture's financial woes. Mark Bugher, former state Department of Administration secretary and current director of the University Research Park, said he was asked to get the effort off the ground.

That is a sound contribution to the community, but it does not get at the inherent problem, the structure of Overture. It is neither fish nor fowl, nor mammal for that matter. Cobbled together to meets the needs of a community that wanted Overture, but with no government wanting responsibility, the structure is not conducive to day to day management nor for long range planning.

There is no chief executive responsible to the public for the management of the facility. There is an executive director, who reports to a board, but the board is neither elected itself, nor do they report to any one chief executive.

The staff is hired by one agency, the city who handles hiring and firing. But that staff is directed, not by the city, but rather Overture.

None of this really makes sense.

Any long range solution to financial or management problems will come with an improved structure.

If Jimmy Jumped Off the Bridge, Would Rick Berg?

Rick Berg has a problem.

He is out of sorts over the "anti-smoking Gestapo" pushing a state wide smoking ban in Wisconsin, while the same forces oppose a conceal and carry.

Rick takes exception to the everyone is doing it argument, "Several upper Midwest states have enacted statewide smoking bans, so apparently it's now our turn."

Berg figures that if the everyone is doing it argument holds for banning smoking, then it should apply to the carrying of concealed weapons issue.

It is a sloppy argument since the everyone is doing it argument contains an unarticulated premise. The full implication is that if everyone is doing, it concludes with the inference that the action is wise.

If we look at the states that banned smoking, the conclusion is sound. There is no appreciable economic displacement and air quailty conditions in public places is infinitely improved and will provide long term health gains to the denizens.

If we look at the states that enacted conceal and carry, the conclusion is also sound -conceal and carry is bad. There is no appreciable increase in public safety, and in fact in many of the states, starting with Florida, the long term heath of the denizens is worsened.

As for jumping off bridges, the jury is still out. 

Jump, Rick, jump.