Paul Soglin: Waxing America

John McCain's Strategic Attack on Voters

One of the oldest rules in politics is 'never attack the voters.'   The concept is simple. Say what you want about your opponent, but lay off the people who cast the votes. Inevitably you want their support.

John McCain did it twice.

First came the "Summer of Love." This ad juxtaposes McCain's capture and status as a prisoner of war  with a generation of dope smoking sex fiends prancing in the park. The historical inaccuracies of the ad are inconsequential. The 'summer of love' was 1967 and McCain's capture was in 1969.

Summer of Love

Not inconsequential are the many voters, now in their fifties and sixties, who opposed the war in Vietnam and participated in the sex, drugs, and rock n' roll of the era.  Now, many are political moderates, who are considering voting for McCain. This ad does not sit well with them. They have changed their views, but they make no apologies for opposing the war in Vietnam.

This week we get the 'celebrity ad' that depicts Paris Hilton and Britney Spears and attempts to associate Barck Obama as another vapid airhead with fame and no content. We at waxingamerica.com enjoy mocking these two tabloid stars but then again, no one here is running for president.

Celebrity

My guess is that a lot of fans of the two blondes do not vote, but some do and more than a few in the red states.

The logic of the ads is fundamentally sound: Obama has a substantial, almost insurmountable, lead and cannot be caught without taking off some the luster and glow.

McCain needs to smack him around and show that Obama is just another flawed politician. Later in the fall, with Obama vulnerable, McCain will advance his own campaign. The tactic is obvious, McCain tries to sow doubts about Obama:

To that end, McCain is helping frame a not-so-flattering portrait of Obama for voters. His ads have become increasingly tough; a third of his commercials portray Obama negatively, a new study concluded...

...A new ad launched Wednesday suggests Obama is nothing more than a lightweight celebrity. Images of him speaking to a 200,000-strong crowd in Berlin last week are interspersed with shots of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. An announcer intones: "He's the biggest celebrity in the world. But, is he ready to lead?"

It is too bad that McCain, a United States senator, must approve of such tactics, revealing the lack of substance and content in his own campaign.

John McCain and Putting Country First

As far back as I can remember, I recall living in the greatest country in the world. I took pride in the wisdom of my grandparents who choose the United States as their immigrants' destination.

America was better than any other country; we had baseball.  We had to share the greatest source of fresh water in the world, the Great Lakes, with Canada, but most of it was ours. All of the great inventors were Americans, at least that is what I thought.

The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Liberty Bell were ours. The Statute of Liberty was a gift from the French, but it was ours. The tallest buildings, the longest bridges, and the greatest highway system were ours.

We had the best form of government, the best food, and the finest automobiles.

In international competition I always rooted for the Untied States, and we usually won. I still do, we still do.

I was devastated when New York was no longer the largest city in the world.

By so many standards our country is first and we ought to put it first.

Yet, I cannot take to a campaign with the slogan, Country First. That takes us from a friendly competition to a chauvinism that needed abandonment in the nineteenth century. It suggests a complacency and acceptance of the imperfections that plagued our society since its founding.

We are good but not that good.

If there was a slogan, and I hate slogans, that we should embrace, it's one that comes from business.

Continuous Improvement.

From slavery to our treatment of native Americans, from the modern day fouling of the water, air and land we inherited, to the outrageous incarceration rate of our fellow Americans, we need to improve.

Smug, chest pounding platitudes do not work in running a  business, and they certainly do not work in running a country. 

Quality of Waxing America Readership Declines; Reds Everywhere

Sunday I posted on bicycling, Weekend Bicycling Report July 27, 2008 and Skippy, with obviously too much time on his hands, left a comment:

Where is your smartass poll about the Brewers melting down, now that they are a game out of first? You loved rubbing it in when they were having a rough patch, but dont mention them when they start to rock and roll...

Not one to admit mistakes, are you, you smug commie piece of...

Recall that on June 13th I posted a poll asking readers:

It is time for the Brewers to:

• Panic 8.5%
• Get a new manager 19.4%
• Stay calm; it is a young team, they will settle down. 37.6%
• Trade Weeks and maybe Hall and Hardy for some pitching 9.1%
• Build a new team around Fielder and Braun 6.1%
• Become a Cub fan 24.8%

The Brewers did make a trade for some pitching though they managed to hang on to Weeks, Hall and Hardy.

Now what I want to know is what does the poll, (yes the Cub offering was smartass), have to do with being a commie? It appears that the political dialog has sunk so low that it even would shame Joe McCarthy. After all, if in the 1950's one were to root for Cincinnati rather than Cleveland or the Yankees, they would not be called a red.

Wheel Tax Made No Sense Thirty Years Ago. Or Now.

The city of Milwaukee is considering a wheel tax. $20 wheel tax advances in Milwaukee

...the city can't legally require suburban residents to pay the wheel tax.

Other opponents have noted that the wheel tax would not apply to heavy trucks, which take a disproportionate toll on roads, but that it does apply to much lighter vehicles, such as mopeds....

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

If memory serves me right, the Wisconsin legislature gave municipalities the authority to impose a local wheel tax sometime in the early 1970's.

It is about as regressive and unfair a tax imaginable, since it does not  correlate the fee to those who increase the cost of the city to serve automobiles. It taxes the less offensive vehicles:

• The  tax can only be imposed upon vehicles that are kept within the city meaning those that might use local roads more often,  like daily suburban commuters, escape the fee. It punishes already burdened city residents and rewards the commuters.
• The fee is flat. Passenger vehicles, regardless of size, value, or environmental impact are all charged the same.

The Wisconsin legislature, despite frequent requests from municipalities throughout the state, refuses to amend the offending statue and make the fee ad valorem which would place a greater burden on more expensive, heavier, or more polluting vehicles. Basing the fee on any one of those criteria would be far more equitable than the present law.

There is a reason that after more than thirty years, Wisconsin's's hundreds of municipalities refused to adopt this proposal with only one or two exceptions. A  mayor supported the enactment of a wheel tax fee in the 1970's and was defeated after its enactment in the next election. It was promptly repealed.

All of which points to a larger problem. The Wisconsin legislature needs to address the entire question - how to properly fund every level of govenment including the state, counties, municipalities, and schools?

Weekend Bicycling Report July 27, 2008

For the first time all summer I was able to do successive weekend back to back rides. I rode Saturday and Sunday last and this weekend.

It's about the back. With three discs fused, it looks like another one is going.

A combination of physical therapy and an epidural a week ago Friday had me back in the saddle though hills are still tough. The ache in the back combined with weakened legs from inactivity made for some very tough rides.

I resumed body pump and added more stretching. If things hold together, pilates is next.

I did a circuitous ride south and east of Madison yesterday with a finale of coming around Lake Monona and home through the Isthmus. Today's ride was a classic shot out to Paoli.

The weather was great both days, especially with the cloud cover today.

Maybe it was random chance but it appears that safety was on most rider's minds. Only a family of three and two other bikers rode sans helmet.

What I did find curious was people biking and smoking at the same time. I doubt that the benefit of one displaces the damage of the other.

I am now convinced that the Fitchburg re-pavement policy needs re-examination.

In an effort to save money and to recycle, Fitchburg is resurfacing its roads with a substance that is made from recycled materials but also has a high coefficient of friction. It obviously slows down all vehicles including bicycles. For bicyclists it means more work to maintain a decent speed. For automobiles, it means burning more fuel.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac 101. An Update from The New Yorker

After posting  Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Your Tax Dollars At Work - Bailing I had the opportunity to read the July 25, 2008 issue of The New Yorker which contained the best succinct explanation on how these two corporations work, or more accurately, do not work. Sponsoring Recklessness by James Surowiecki

Fannie and Freddie are the duck-billed platypuses of the financial world. They’re profit-driven corporations, owned by shareholders and, in theory, beholden only to them. But they’re also so-called “government-sponsored enterprises,” set up by the state with the explicit mission of fostering homeownership, by buying and selling home mortgages. Unlike ordinary corporations, they’re exempt from most state and local taxes and certain S.E.C. requirements, and they have access to a government credit line...

Brett Favre: The Athlete As Hamlet

It does not take a brilliant sports fan or a student of literature to know that athletes, no matter how great their prowess on the playing field, make lousy role models when it comes time to resolving personal problems or establishing themselves as great characters. Just ask Jose Canseco or the latest jailed running back.

Brett Favre, in an instant, transformed  himself from superstar to mortal, and it did not involve an arrest or a public domestic dispute. With a great  career behind him, including one of the finest seasons in any quarterback's career, in what was thought to be his last season, he managed to demonstrate an excessive amount of mortality.

There are exceptions. Lou Gehrig comes to mind in the classic, resonating moment, where he confronted death before 45,000 fans in a live setting of Yankee Stadium that evolved into a poignant moment for millions of viewers over ehe years.

The drama is not  the color of the uniform that Favre will don in the next month, (or not), but his tormented existence which plays out each day after day after day.

The man is mortal and like the most common, ordinary retiree, the future terrifies him.

"To be, or not to be: that is the question." Hamlet Act III,Scene I

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Your Tax Dollars At Work - Bailing

Last week we took a look at lemon socialism, the practice of using public dollars to bail out the failing private companies that were run into the ground though ineptness and greed.

The use of tax dollars is prop up a business is not limited to completely private enterprises. Throughout the country there are hybrid operations that often take on the worst characteristics from the public and the private sectors and combine them.

They can be government licensed or chartered companies like Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. They operate with public protection, but they have independent private money-making characteristics, which allow their directors and officers to accumulate large quantities of wealth no matter how poor their decision making.

There is no question that bailing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is in the public interest. To allow these giant corporations to go under would have a devastating impact on the nation's economy.  But that begs the question. Federal regulators, conspiring in silence with the two mortgage giants, allowed the situation to get out of hand for years.

Another success story brought to you by the invisible hand of the market. Which is not so much invisible as it is cowardly and weak.

As noted, U.S. Senate to Take Up Fannie-Freddie Bill After House Approval     

The bill gives Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson power to inject capital into Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and provides for a federal agency to insure refinanced home loans.

Paulson overcame opposition within his own party after some Republicans said the bill risked taxpayer funds and fell short on overhauling the mortgage-finance firms. The Treasury chief said the measure was critical to U.S. financial-market stability and persuaded Bush to drop a veto threat

The Treasury secretary would get power to make unlimited equity purchases in and lend to Fannie Mae and  Freddie Mac to prevent a collapse in the firms that account for 70 percent of new U.S. mortgages. The bill also provides for a federal agency to insure as much as $300 billion of refinanced mortgages for struggling homeowners.

``The legislation will give the new regulator the tools necessary to ensure the safety and soundness of the GSEs so they fulfill their mission of providing stability, liquidity and affordability to the mortgage market,'' James Lockhart, director of the current regulator, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, said in a statement.

The Congressional Budget Office two days ago estimated the cost of Paulson's plan at $25 billion.

These problems are solved by action before the crisis, not after. But when things look good above the surface, there are cries of too much govenment interference and regulation.

Give Me More Joker and Less Batman

Like so many others who saw The Dark Knight this weekend, I was far more intrigued by the Joker than Christian Bale's insipid Batman.

The combination of  Christian Nolan's outstanding direction and his proper use of Heath Ledger - sparse and quick -  will undoubtedly contribute to cult status for the character who will rank with Norman Bates, Nurse Ratched and Anton Chigurh  (at least he wanted the money) as one of the all time great movie villains.

Before we go any further, I hope no one tries to make a movie about the Joker, inspired by Legder's performance. It doubt that it could work. I would love to see it, but with Ledger's untimely death, any other actor in the role would be a distraction.

That said, there is more to the character than Ledger's perfromance.  This Joker, Michael Keaton's Beetlejuice on steroids, is our greatest fear.

Like our perception of most terrorists, he wants something from us which is more than our wallets, our homes, or even our loved one's.

He wants our peace of mind. Like the real life terrorists, his strength comes from his ability to strike at any time and at any place and make no place secure.

Two Views on The Integrity of the Wisconsin Supreme Court

Sunday the Wisconsin State Journal, troubled by the large amounts of cash Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) spent to elect two justices and reflecting on the recent state Supreme Court decision in the Menasha tax case, observed, Restore public's trust in court:

This month the state Supreme Court decided a tax case that will result in refunds to Wisconsin businesses of up to nearly $300 million at the state 's expense...

...The problem was not the decision itself, which considered vexing legal questions regarding which kinds of software are exempt from sales tax...

...WMC 's influence in Ziegler 's election and Butler 's defeat and the potential for that influence to affect their decisions prompted Common Cause, a watchdog organization, to argue that both justices should have recused themselves from the case.

Clearly, the seeds of mistrust have been planted...

I am not ready to embrace appointed justices, but I share in the conclusion that pubic trust is shaken.

I observed in a post two weeks ago, without commenting about the substance of the decision, Best Joke of the Week. From WMC, of course.

Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the state's largest business lobby, spent an estimated $2.2 million on behalf of Ziegler in her successful race for the Supreme Court last year.

In response  to this, conservative resident Wisconsin legal expert and ethicist Rick Esenberg wrote, Who's "swiftboating" the state Supreme Court?

My good friends at One Wisconsin Now weigh in and Paul Soglin does too. But here's the thing: None of them criticize the Court's reasoning...

...Nevertheless, questioning the integrity - as opposed to the the merits of the matter - of the Court is unwarranted.

Rick is correct, I did not get involved in the reasoning of the court. That is where his correctness begins and ends. The real issue is the the way the WMC activity in the Zielger campaign, unheard of in the entire history of Supreme Court elections, raised serious questions about her ability to independently rule in the matter.

The Wisconsin State Journal gets it, most of Wisconsin gets it, but the judicial ethicist does not.