Paul Soglin: Waxing America

Teachers Strike in Madison: Thirty Years Later

From The Capital Times:  30 Years of Clout: MTI's John Matthews and the '76 Teachers Strike

As I reflect on the strike, I keep thinking about right wing efforts to break the back of public education:

• School vouchers are more about breaking teachers' unions than the education of kids.
• In cities like Madison, where we pay teachers better than most, we get what we pay for---better schools and better educated kids.
• In the rush to create the 'competition' so as to lower the salaries of teachers, you never hear the privateers offer to pay higher salaries for better performance, like they do in the private sector.
• Most failed school districts are the result of burgeoning levels of poverty, not "lazy" or overpaid teachers.  The poverty is a result of urban disinvestment brought on by tax breaks and subsidies created by the conservatives.
• The independent studies show that where private schools do well the following factors exist:
  • Kids with learning and other disabilities are a far smaller percentage of the student population than we find in their public school competition.
  • The biggest difference comes from parental involvement, which really means that a system that has more involved parents will do better--we already knew that.

The obvious: raise corporate taxes to pay for public education.

And for more current commentary on public education and school choice: today, Folkbum's Rambles and Rants has Public School Teachers and Private Schools.

And while we are on the subject, your senses may or may not be offended by the bite in Watchdog Milwaukee on Charlie Sykes.  Woof.

Millions for Ice Trays, Not One Cent for Veterans

Thank goodness for the Bush Administration saving America from itself and making sure we don't squander your hard earned tax dollars.

$20 Ice Trays Rile a Vet But Not Pentagon

Defense Department fraud-hunters dismiss data from retired officer about inflated prices...A retired Army Reserve officer called the Pentagon's fraud hotline last year to complain that the Defense Department had overpaid for kitchen appliances: $1,000 for popcorn makers and toasters, $5,500 for a deep-fat fryer that cost other government agencies $1,919.

Of course:                   Cost of Veterans' PTSD Benefits Is Triggering Debate

The spiraling cost of post-traumatic stress disorder among war veterans has triggered a politically charged debate and ignited fears that the government is trying to limit expensive benefits for emotionally scarred soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan...

...Experts say the sharp increase does not begin to factor in the potential impact of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan because the increase is largely the result of Vietnam vets seeking treatment decades after their combat experiences.

Facing a budget crunch, experts within and outside the VA are now raising concerns about fraudulent claims, wondering whether the structure of government benefits discourages healing and even questioning the utility and objectivity of the diagnosis itself.

"On the one hand, it is good that people are reaching out for help," said Jeff Schrade, communications director for the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. "At the same time, as more people reach out for help, it squeezes the budget further."

Among the issues being discussed, he said, was whether veterans who show signs of recovery should continue to receive disability compensation: "Whether anyone has the political courage to cut them off -- I don't know that Congress has that will, but we'll see."

Much of the debate is taking place out of public sight, including an internal VA meeting in Philadelphia last month.

The Department of Veterans Affairs has also been in negotiations with the Institute of Medicine over a review of the "utility and objectiveness" of PTSD diagnostic criteria and the "validity" of screening techniques, a process that could have profound implications for returning American soldiers.

Fueling the fire

The growing national debate over the Iraq war has added fuel to the fire, some participants said. "It has become a pro-war war versus antiwar issue," said one VA official who spoke on condition of anonymity because politics is not supposed to enter the debate.

"If we show that PTSD is prevalent and severe, that becomes one more little reason we should stop waging war. If, on the other hand, PTSD rates are low ... that is convenient for the Bush administration..."

...The concern by Frueh and Satel about over-diagnosis and fraud -- what researchers call "false positives" -- has drawn the ire of veterans groups and many other mental health experts...

Larry Scott, who runs the clearinghouse www.vawatchdog.org , said conservative groups are trying to cut the VA's disability programs by unfairly comparing it to welfare.

Compensating people for disabilities is a cost of war, he said: "Veterans benefits are like workman's comp. You went to war. You were injured. Either your body or your mind was injured, and that prevents you from doing certain duties and you are compensated for that."

Bush Knew of Possible Katrina Damage; Article of Impeachment II?

Levees for White House, Not New Orleans

The Bush Administration is now moving from incompetence to silence, as the winds of impeachment blow inland.  After it was revealed that the White House had advanced knowledge of the potential damage from Katrina, suddenly the barriers went up, not around New Orleans, but around the White House.

White House Slowing Katrina Inquiry, Senators Say

WASHINGTON --The White House is crippling a Senate inquiry into the government's sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina by barring administration officials from answering questions and failing to hand over documents, senators leading the investigation said Tuesday.

In some cases, staff at the White House and other federal agencies have refused to be interviewed by congressional investigators, said the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. In addition, agency officials won't answer seemingly innocuous questions about times and dates of meetings and telephone calls with the White House, the senators said...

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the committee's Republican chair, said she respects the White House's reluctance to reveal advice to President Bush from his top aides, which is generally covered by executive privilege.

"We are entitled to know if someone from the Department of Homeland Security calls someone at the White House during this whole crisis period," Collins said. "So I think the White House has gone too far in restricting basic information about who called whom on what day."

She added, "It is completely inappropriate" for the White House to bar agency officials from talking to the Senate committee.

This is right out of the Nixon playbook.  Recall the infamous, "What did you know, when did you know it?"

I'll take issue with this bogus invocation of 'executive privilege,' but even if we concede that point to Bush, while they can withhold the nature of advice his aides gave him, they cannot use it to deny access to the facts---the specific times and pieces of information they learned as Katrina approached and struck the Gulf Coast.

Bush and his cruel advisors realize that the information is sufficient to demonstrate their culpability, their malfeasance, and their criminal negligence.

Madison's IZ Discussion Moves On

Anyone with a passing interest in housing or development, Madison resident or not, should take a look at this.

Wednesday morning, while I was participating in a discussion about IZ in Madison, my friend Carl was posting a comment about one of my first IZ pieces, Inclusionary Zoning-A Lesson for the Left. 

Carl's thoughts should not be buried:

Many good points even though I don't see the so called 'Doomsday senario' taking place.

My view comes from someone who is in the lower economic strata and has looked at the ordinance from a possible property purchasers side. The rules, restrictions and limits on equity return make this law helpful to only the most financially challenged buyers who would have no hope of ever qualifying to purchase anything new or in good condition.

The equity return issue is probably the single greatest reason that there is not one accepted offer on any IZ unit as of today.

I cannot justify investing my money for the gain of the city, when I would still have substantial restrictions to deal with in trying to live and improve that property.

Technically the gain is to the city though conceptually, it will be used to make the unit affordable for the next buyer.  To the seller, if that should be you, that is not much compensation.

The 'equity timetable' may be the most frightening part of the ordinance. I am in disbelief that a single alder voted for a rule that has the city telling someone when they should move from the IZ property or else the equity they receive back from that property will be reduced?

How can any potential homeowner know the situation that they will be in five, ten or more years in the future? What if that homeowner decides to try to sell at the 11 equity return peak, but they happen to be in a neighborhood that is undergoing construction due to city projects? Since I live in the Union Corners neighborhood now I know that the next several years will be difficult to deal with the variety of construction and traffic problems here.

One facet of the IZ issue I do not know about is what about developers who wish to undertake projects of modest sized and priced housing which would entirely be within the purchasing ability of those who qualify to be an IZ property purchaser. Will 15% of those units still only be available to sold through the IZ program? Will the developers then have to overprice the remaining 85% of the units to ensure their return, or build a false interest in the units that listed as being in the IZ program?

Yes.  The developers have made it clear that while they are absorbing some of the cost, that the largest share of the subsidization is passed onto to other home buyers in the project or subdivision. Thus, driving up the price of housing in Madison.

The city council would do better to spend their time making sure the condition of current homes, buildings and neighborhoods as a whole are kept well maintained. Instead, we have projects going that leave a neighborhood like my Union Corners area without a grocery store for 3 years at this point, it will be 7 to 8 years by the time the McGrath project is finished and businesses, like a planned grocery store, are reintroduced to the area.

Damn, Carl, you are sounding like the developers. They might make you their poster boy at the age of...how old are you?

Those of us living in that area without vehicles can only hope that a company will be willing to pay the price the developers will require to get back their investment in the project costs. Not to mention getting something in place a little quicker than the several additional years that the west side waited for some company to commit to serve their neighborhood at the former Ken Kopps site. Now the same Union Corners neighborhood that will have almost 15 acres of buildings razed will be undergoing a major street renovation at the same time with the E Wash project in the summer of '07.

For all the problems that my neighborhood may endure in the near future, I am hopeful about the final results of the Union Corners project. I will be interested to see how the additional hoops that the McGrath staff will be required to jump through will effect their offerings among the estimated 500 units being put up in this project. I have also looked into the Capital-West project and found nothing in the IZ units that I could live with (if I did decide to use my IZ income qualifying status) and nothing that I could come close to affording that is not an IZ unit.

Carl, I don't know if the alders, Plan Commission members, and developers will read this, but I hope they do.

The Best of Bush. Stellar Quotes for 2006

It took over three weeks for President George W. Bush to launch his first  Stellar Quote of the year, 2006.

-Bush to Shun Hamas Until It Changes Israel Stance

"A political party, in order to be viable, is one that professes peace, in my judgement, in order that it will keep the peace."

Profound, beyond his imagination.

US Has New Constitution. Adopted and Ratified Last December in Crawford. Who Knew?

mcjoan at Daily Kos nailed the gap between the Bush Administration and the rest of us on the Bill of Rights and the Imperial Presidency: General Hayden: Probable Wha...?

QUESTION: Jonathan Landay with Knight Ridder. I'd like to stay on the same issue, and that had to do with the standard by which you use to target your wiretaps. I'm no lawyer, but my understanding is that the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution specifies that you must have probable cause to be able to do a search that does not violate an American's right against unlawful searches and seizures. Do you use --

GEN. HAYDEN: No, actually -- the Fourth Amendment actually protects all of us against unreasonable search and seizure. That's what it says.

QUESTION: But the measure is probable cause, I believe.

QUESTION: But does it not say probable --

GEN. HAYDEN: No. The amendment says unreasonable search and seizure.. . .

"Just to be very clear -- and believe me, if there's any amendment to the Constitution that employees of the National Security Agency are familiar with, it's the Fourth. And it is a reasonableness standard in the Fourth Amendment. And so what you've raised to me -- and I'm not a lawyer, and don't want to become one -- what you've raised to me is, in terms of quoting the Fourth Amendment, is an issue of the Constitution. The constitutional standard is "reasonable." And we believe -- I am convinced that we are lawful because what it is we're doing is reasonable."

The Fourth Amendment:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. (Strikeout brought to you by the folks in Crawford.)

It is crystal clear.  The sonsofbitches are using a different Constitution.  One night they went out and changed it, probably removed all the dirty parts --you know, the ones that handcuff Bush Administration powers by protecting individual rights, property, free speech, freedom to associate, the freedom from government oppression and tyranny. 

Who knew? Our bad.

Headline: UW Cheerleader Pregnant (page 1); WMD Found In Green Bay (see page 7)

Monday I posted about the Wisconsin State Journal: Madison Newspapers Change the News

The Wisconsin State Journal (WSJ) will allow readers to vote through their website, ensuring that a "Reader's Choice" story appears on the front page...I like what both papers are attempting...  Involvement is one thing; abdicating front page placement is another.  If the readers choose Carolina Panther cheerleader escapades, is that going to trump the city council's meeting?  Sorry, we still need an editor.

Today the AP provides us with: Wis. Newspaper Gives Readers a New Voice:

Wisconsin's second-largest newspaper is letting readers help decide what to put on the front page.

Tuesday's front page included the first "reader's choice," a look at Ford's plant closings and job cuts. The wire story, which received 41 percent of the 192 votes cast, beat out stories on ex-convicts who return to Madison and President Bush's eavesdropping program.

Ellen Foley, editor of the paper, said it was not shirking its responsibility to judge news because editors provide the choices and do not have to follow the readers' pick.

"The smart editors of America ... all understand that interactivity is part of our future," she said. "Doing that in a credible way and in a transparent way is the trick. This particular feature is appealing because it combines both of those values."

Kelley hinted that more sports and columns could wind up on the front page because they generally are the most popular stories on the Web site, .

In a test run last week, readers favored a story about two backup University of Wisconsin-Madison football players who were arrested on marijuana charges over news that Osama bin Laden had issued a new warning of attacks in the U.S.

Former Madison Mayor Paul Soglin gave the paper credit for trying to interact with readers but doubted whether this was the right way to do it.

"Involvement is one thing; abdicating front page placement is another," he wrote on his blog. "If the readers choose Carolina Panther cheerleader escapades, is that going to trump the city council's meeting? Sorry, we still need an editor." (emphasis added).

Some observations:

• The WSJ gets credit for realizing the importance of interactivity with readers.
• It is reassuring that editors can still veto the reader's choice, so we we don't have Pregnant Cheerleaders on page one and  WMD Located in Green Bay on Page 7. The State Journal still has a staff of experienced reporters and editors in the newsroom, whose news judgements we readers can trust. If Ms.Foley allows these pros to do their jobs, we can survive whatever gimmicks management thinks up.
• For the survival of newspapers, particularly those with solid editorial content (which are so necessary for a democracy), the interaction must be more aggressive on the non-Internet side of the news. It's easy to have 200 work-avoiding keyboard-pounders choose a story for page one; it's a lot harder to meaningfully interact with tens of thousands of readers of newsprint.

Bush Knew of Possible Katrina Damage; another Article of Impeachment?

White House Was Warned About Hurricane Katrina Flooding

Keep the following in mind:

Parents Punished by Court for Abandoning Boys for Las Vegas Trip   -San Ramon, CA

Mother Pleads No Contest to Abuse and Abandonment   -New Mexico

NYC Bus Driver Rescues Wandering Toddler - They found the home where the boy's 51-year-old grandmother was passed out drunk on the sofa and his 9-month-old baby sister was in her crib.  The grandmother was charged with endangering the welfare of a child...

GIRL, 3, LEFT ALONE; MOTHER CHARGED - Lexington, Kentucky

If you are part of the Bush administration, you get to abandon an entire city, kill thousands, poison the land and waters, destroy the economy, ruin the education of children, and instead of criminal charges, you get to steal at the public trough, manipulate stocks, and serve another term--in the Senate or the House.

Can you say 'Impeachment?'

Let's see: Americans wake up, vote the Democrats into the majority in the House and Senate in 2006. Impeachment proceedings of Bush and Cheney commence in March of 2007. By October, 2007, resignations.

Can you say 'President Pelosi?'

Paris Hilton Trumps Ann Coulter, Again - Playboy Rebuffed

Paris Hilton has again turned downed Playboy:

Paris Hilton Has Refused to Pose Naked in Playboy

She said: 'They've asked me a million times. Hef has been after me since I was 17, and I got offered a lot of money.

Our research indicates that Ann Coulter has never turned down Playboy, for anything.

Paris Hilton 3

Ann Coulter 0

When asked why she refused the offer, Miss Hilton appropriately responded, "Why? Because I'm Paris Hilton."  ...and Ann Coulter, you're not.

Cutting the Madison School Budget

In the last two days both Madison newspapers ran headlines that focused on cutting spending on education:

The Capital Times (TCT)    Residents Get a Shot to Trim School Budget

The Wisconsin State Journal (WSJ)   Citizens Swing Ax at School Budget

Phooey.

Whether the TCT readers use a scissors, or the WSJ readers use an ax, the budget should not be cut. As a city and a state we are not spending enough on education. There are three critical points:

• There are places to trim the budget, but overall, the district needs more money, not less.
• Property taxes for schools are too high, but that does not mean the spending is too high.  The state has failed to redistribute the funds and find non-property tax revenues to fund education.
• Most of this is a result of conservatives joined by blue dog Democrats:
  • They know that the most important factor in education, particularly in schools with a significant number of kids living in poverty, is pupil-teacher ratios which are determined by one thing--money.
  • They are determined to prove public education does not work.

I would like to see a comprehensive study of the distribution of special education students in Wisconsin public and non-pubic schools, with an analysis of the reimbursement for special ed kids, and the cost of educating those kids.  Who has those numbers?  Are there districts with higher percentages of special ed kids than you would otherwise expect to see in the population, and if so, why?