Paul Soglin: Waxing America

Kevin Barrett: Someone Else's Billy Goat

My old friend, AFSCME union leader, Dode Lowe, used to have an appropriate saying for the occasional loose cannon among his members.  When confronted with a questionable individual that the union was forced to defend, Dode used to say, "He may be a billy goat, but he is our billy goat."

Those of us who defended the University of Wisconsin from narrow minded assaults this past year, often had Kevin Barrett held up to us as an example of a misguided teacher who was a waste of taxpayers' money. This is the Barrett who doubts that the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center was the work of foreign terrorists, but offers suggestions that perhaps domestic operatives were responsible for the attack.

Barrett is now running for Congress, as a Libertarian in Wisconsin's Third Congressional District.  As John Nichols notes in The Capital Times column on Friday:

Barrett will shake up District 3 race

...Barrett, a convert to Islam who has argued for a number of years that the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon "had nothing to do with Islam" and that "the war on terror is as phony as the latest Osama bin Laden tape."

...A Republican legislator, Whitewater state Rep. Steve Nass, condemned the university for a man critics describe as "a conspiracy nut."

...A 10-day review by UW Provost Patrick Farrell of Barrett's teaching record and his plans for the introductory class determined that Barrett would fairly represent a variety of viewpoints in his course -- and was thus fit to teach.

Those of us who believe that professors should be left alone to teach as long as they are open and fair, will continue to defend his right to espouse his bizarre world view.

On the other hand, now that Barrett has solidly aligned himself with the Libertarian Party, it gives me great comfort that everyone knows he is someone else's billy goat. It was last year that I repudiated Barrett and Ward Churchill as not being part of the political left.

The Libertarians and the conservatives can have him.

So there.

Crumbling Dollar Lifts Wisconsin Blue Cheese

Another victim of the disastrous Bush economic polices and the war in Iraq is the absence of the finest European cheeses from swank east coast restaurants.  As the Village Voice reports, How Chefs Are Dealing With the Tanking Dollar: Getting creative with imported goods

Recently, I (reporter Sarah DiGregorio) realized that I could no longer afford my favorite stinky French cheese (not that I ever really could, technically)...

At Kellari Taverna...Greek feta, once crumbled over many dishes, is now only on the tomato salad..."It's killing us!" exclaims Gregory Zapantis, the Greek-born chef at Kellari Taverna. "A few years back, it was equal—one dollar to one euro. Now the euro is $1.60."

The concerned New York culinary reporter turned to an economist who specializes in wine economics to discover that, "... the government spends more than it has, putting us in hock to the Europeans, Japanese, and Chinese to pay for Bush's tax cuts and the war in Iraq."

But the inventive mid-town Manhattan chefs now turn to Bucky when times are tough, "Zapantis has fallen in love with the fish he gets from Long Island in the summertime. And he's happy to have discovered Wisconsin blue cheese as an unlikely alternative to feta."

Kutler on Republican Executive Powers

Waxing America's favorite Emeritus Professor in the entire galaxy, the esteemed University of Wisconsin Constitutional scholar Stanley Kutler, reminds us that the Republican Party, with an almost century long record of limiting the power of the president, now embraces what could be called an imperial presidency:

  Hunkering Down in Baghdad

Voltaire had it right: history is nothing but a pack of tricks that we play on the dead...

...Executive power expanded enormously during World War II. After the war, old guard Republicans, still rooted in isolationism, proposed a constitutional amendment to give Congress authority to regulate all executive agreements with foreign powers....Republican concerns that first President Franklin D. Roosevelt at Yalta and then President Harry S. Truman at Potsdam had bargained away too much....The GOP also objected to Truman’s sending troops to Korea in 1950 without congressional approval.

Kulter notes that with the Bush Administration is "... betting that the rest of the world, from Europe to Asia, will quietly accept U.S. troops to defend their economic interests..."

Kutler writes that Bush "may have made a prophet of former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who said last September that “the Iraq war is largely about oil” and essential for the global economy."

Obama Reflects My Core Values...and My Generation - As I See It

There is no question that major events shape a generation and influence their response to events. Growing up during the Great Depression influenced a generation that was to become wary of Wall Street and felt that government regulation of financial institutions was necessary. The war in Vietnam influenced a generation that grew suspicious of government whether they were on the left or the right.

Generational events do not have that profound an influence on core values. Of all the the major candidates, clearly I am more of the generation of Hillary Clinton than John McCain or Barack Obama.

When it comes to core values I am far more comfortable with Obama. Obama opposed the war in Iraq from the outset, questioning both its premises and the assertions upon which that disaster was based. The disappointment I feel about Hillary Clinton is not just that she supported the war, but she should have known better, given that she had already seen another administration lie us into the war in Vietnam.

I share much with Hillary Clinton and the first gentleman, if she should be elected. Gun control, a national fix to the health insurance crisis, and placing a higher priority on education and workforce development are a few examples.

If Obama gets the nomination and runs against John McCain, the generation card will be played even more. Then the real silliness will begin.

Be sure to listen to WTDY, 1670 AM,  when I join Sly, John Nichols from The Capital Times, and others to discuss election results at 8:00 PM Tuesday night.

Senator Russ Feingold. Why He Is the Best

I found it on Wisopinion.com

It needs as much exposure as possible.

Russ Feingold on the New FISA Legislation

 

Another War; Another Recession. Whatdidyah Expect?

Last  spring I used my limited abilities in forecasting the economy and predicted a stock market crash. Now almost a quarter of my retirement account is in cash (I wish all of it was.). I felt stupid during the summer and the fall as the stock market climbed and climbed.

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. The other shoe is going to drop, it always does. The only question was when.

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.

Every bomb we dropped on Vietnam was another $5000 thrown away. Every time a bomber took off another 500 students could go to college - for four years.

The Johnson and the Nixon Administrations convinced the American people they could have guns and butter while the national debt grew. Then to compound the waste and the inflation, the oil embargo followed.

The ideologues said that Carter created the problem and that Reagan solved it. The problem was created by the waste of war and an inflationary rise on fuel prices. That sounds familiar. It simply took time to work itself out. Bonzo could have been president in 1982 and the economy would have recovered.

Now history repeats itself. Though this time we get the benefit of the war and the skyrocketing oil prices taking place simultaneously. So it only took only six years to ruin the economy instead of ten.

And the stimulus package is wothless. A $600 tax rebate in my hands is not going to fix the economy.  Take the money and invest it in needed public infrastructure that will stimulate private investment.

The puboic sector should spend it on projects that will stimulate signifcant private inestment. There I said it. The government should spend more money.

Update 1:45pm :  Jim Rowen notes the impact of a budget  on municipal budgets:  If Real Estate Values Fall Across the Board.....

Then there is the impact on the State budget.  As one of our commentors says, that may be even more significant. The decline in income tax collections and sales tax collections will be devestating.

Sweden Has PaintBall Guns, Invasion Imminent; Halliburton, Burger King Gets $7 Billion Contract

After eight years in office it is clear that we misunderstood George W. Bush. At first we thought he was running the student government or the fraternity house. The recent revelation that Iran's nuclear program was not restarted after suspension in 2003 leaves only one conclusion.

The Bush White House is run by thugs who plan to funnel every tax dollar they raise into the hands of Halliburton and the war profiteers with their scandalous no-bid contracts.

The entire Grover Norquist "shrink government" ploy was designed to divert their real intentions.  After all, no presidential administration in history has spent so much money, so fraudulently, so wastefully, and with such deadly results.

I don't know who thinks Bush has an ounce of credibility left, but those who do need therapy.  Badly.

As for Hallibutron or Burger King, which does not return change in real money to soldiers who purchase their products at the Iraq airport,* all of these companies need to be shaken upside down until every cent is drained from their fat wallets.

Sweden had better be careful.

*U.S. Troops Order Comfort, With Fries on the Side: Soldiers Looking for a Taste of Home Make for a Booming Business at Iraq's First Burger King

...The restaurant probably owes much of its success to its location. The sprawling, heavily fortified airport complex, the nerve center of the U.S. military's operations in Iraq, provides a captive clientele of more than 6,000 soldiers, plus contractors and other civilians. In addition, Washington dignitaries fly in and out, and all mail for U.S. forces in Iraq arrives here...

...Of course, only U.S. bills are accepted. Instead of giving coins as change, the restaurant gives out cardboard chips worth 25 cents each, redeemable at the post exchange.

New York, Murder, DNA, Iraq, and Torture

Sunday's New York Times published a story, about Jeffrey Mark Deskovic, Vindicated by DNA, but a Lost Man on the Outside.  Deskovic was convicted of murder at the age of 17 and recently released at the age of 34 when DNA evidence demonstrated that another man committed the murder in 1989 of high school sophomore Angela Correa.

It appears that Deskovic became a prime suspect, when among other things, he attended her funeral and weeped profusely. In a critical CSI moment,* investigators made him a prime suspect since they were not close friends. Deskovic explained that he was picked on in school and she was one of a few students who was nice to him.

It was the Innocence Project that helped free the young man. What is most disturbing is that in this day and age of Miranda warnings, we still get CSI-type of pressure interrogations which resulted in so many coerced confessions:

• 205 men and one women have been exonerated through DNA testing since 1989.
• Of those exonerated, 53 were convicted of murder.
• And most disturbing, more than a quarter of all exonerated prisoners confessed to crimes they did not commit.

Deskovic, after a seven hour interrogation, confessed to hitting the victim with a Gatorade bottle, grabbing her by the throat, and numerous other details fed to him by law enforcement officials.

All of this was done without the benefit of water boarding and torture. Imagine how good the confessions are coming out of Iraq.

*Plots of Law & Order, CSI Feature Heroic Violations of 4th; 5th Amendments

Anyone who thinks that liberals or the left is in control of network television has a screw loose.  The writers of these shows cannot let an episode pass without coercing a confession or lying their way into an illegal search. 

No wonder only 10% of Americans understand their rights and roll over and play dead when nonsense like the Patriot Act comes up or Bush violates the law.

I enjoy these shows as much as the next person for their entertainment value. In the real world, they suck as a model for respecting our Constitution. Yes, all of these suspects could have been more forceful in asserting their rights, but what good does it do the rest of us when the wrong person is convicted, the case is closed and the real perpetrator is walking the streets?

Mr Berg, We Can Appreciate Veterans By Opposing Militarism

In a moving and poignant article, Rick Berg tells us of the contribution his father made serving in the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II. He goes to honor his father's memory as a soldier, a citizen and a parent. Then he declares that those who oppose military recruiters in our public schools do not show 'gratitude' for that service.

My father served in the Army. One uncle served in the Navy. My father's kid brother was in Europe and when Berlin fell, was shipped to the South Pacific and then on to occupy Japan. Yes, like Rick's Dad my Uncle Seymour moved from one theater to another.

They all knew how I worshiped them and loved them. I played with Dad's medals and ribbons. When I was seven or eight, Uncle Seymour gave me the flag he brought back from Japan; he had no kids at the time.  When he died I gave the flag to his oldest son.

After the war was over, they were all great fathers and citizens. Uncle Marty was still cursing George Bush and the war in Iraq past his eighty-sixth birthday.

They were proud of their military service; so were their families.

And to a man, they all wanted to reduce military adventures and they wanted to keep the military out of the public schools. Especially my father, who was a teacher.

The old 'lambs' like George W. Bush who lied us into wars, who used deceit and a corporate welfare system to line the pockets of their buddies with no bid contracts, besmirched the honor of my father and uncles.

Rick Berg is entitled to his opinion when he says,

I am thankful to him (his father) and every other veteran of the United States military who served our nation when America needed them.

And I agree with him.

But he is dead wrong when he writes:

What these people have forgotten is that millions have fought, served and died to protect the freedom to be a fool, an idiot or an ingrate in America.

I know better because my father and uncles told me so. They told me they did not fight fascism so we could lie our way into a war in Vietnam. And Uncle Marty made it clear that the same was true about Iraq.

Lions for Lambs: Reflecting on Sixty Years of Lying Our Way into Wars

We saw Lions for Lambs Saturday. I spent most of the time watching the film thinking less about the war in Iraq, and more about the last sixty years of treachery, deceit, and treason by Republicans like Bush.

• If the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) was still around, there would be an investigation. In light of the Hollywood Blacklist and what was done to so many writers, directors and producers, Robert Redford must be given credit for telling this story.
• Tom Cruise was despicable as Republican Senator Jasper Irving from Illinois. I wonder how much of that was acting and how much if that was my general distaste for him in recent years.
• As we learned in reading David Maraniss's They Marched Into Sunlight, the story of the soldiers risking their lives is far more compelling than that of those opposing war.
• The weakest of the three story lines was Professor Malley and student Todd Hayes' discussion.
• The film was O.K. but it should have been about Janine Roth (Meryl Streep). That is the compelling story. That was the most relevant in terms of figuring out how we keep getting manipulated and maneuvered into buying the crap the George W. Bush recycled from Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon.
• I keep thinking about the trash-talking-right-wing-bobble-heads from Limbaugh on the national level to Belling on the local level who keep feeding us lines like, "Well, the Democrats are as responsible for this war as Bush. They supported it from the beginning." As though the Bush lies that manipulated and deceived are not to be factored into evaluating responsibility for this impossible disaster.