Paul Soglin: Waxing America

Vonnegut Letter Home After Surviving Dresden Firebombing

On a favorite new site, Letters of Note: Correspondence Deserving of a Wider Audience, Shaun Usher posts original versions and transcripts of "fascinating letters, postcards, telegrams, faxes, and memos."  While most are really interesting, this first letter from Kurt Vonnegut to his family after he survived being a German POW in World War II is gripping.  As Vonnegut readers know, he survived the firebombing of Dresden because the POWs were routinely locked in an underground meat locker of a slaughterhouse; an experience that became the focus of his classic anti-war novel Slaughterhouse-Five.

The letter home, written in May of 1945, was Vonnegut's first since he was captured in December 1944.

On about February 14th the Americans came over, followed by the R.A.F. their combined labors killed 250,000 people in twenty-four hours and destroyed all of Dresden -- possibly the world's most beautiful city. But not me.

After that we were put to work carrying corpses from Air-Raid shelters; women, children, old men; dead from concussion, fire or suffocation. Civilians cursed us and threw rocks as we carried bodies to huge funeral pyres in the city.

When General Patton took Leipzig we were evacuated on foot to ('the Saxony-Czechoslovakian border'?). There we remained until the war ended. Our guards deserted us. On that happy day the Russians were intent on mopping up isolated outlaw resistance in our sector. Their planes (P-39's) strafed and bombed us, killing fourteen, but not me.

Go read the whole thing.

In an introduction to a 1976 edition of Slaughterhouse-Five, Vonnegut wrote:

"The Dresden atrocity, tremendously expensive and meticulously planned, was so meaningless, finally, that only one person on the entire planet got any benefit from it. I am that person. I wrote this book, which earned a lot of money for me and made my reputation, such as it is. One way or another, I got two or three dollars for every person killed. Some business I'm in."

- Barry Orton

Gullible U.S. Journalists Fall for Tax Foundation Nonsense

Again this year the Tax Foundation, from sea to shining sea, fooled the American press. They released the 2010 State Business Tax Climate Index. 

From the Los Angeles Times,  "The state with the best overall business tax climate is South Dakota, ..." to the Sussex Countian,  Delaware's healthy business tax climate earned it a No. 8 ranking among the 50 states in the 2010 State Business Tax Climate Index the journalists republished the Tax Foundation press release accepting the premise that its ranking of taxation state-by-state reflected the quality of the business climate and that was a good thing.

First, the report is fundamentally flawed since, as we have noted numerous times:

• Taxes represent only a portion of revenues to state and local governments.  Fees are a significant source of revenues in those states that are adverse to progressive collection of revenues. That means that states like Wisconsin which are low fee, high tax states, are at a disadvantage in the study.
• The study ignores quality -how operational revenues are spent and the quality of the services provided.
• The study never looks at a comparison of total revenues, on a per capita or income basis, data that is readily available.
• California enacted Proposition 13, lowered taxes, destroyed its public education system, students by the millions dropped out, crime skyrocketed and the state is a mess.
• The study assumes that there is a correlation between its measurement of lower taxes and business climate.
• Not only does the Tax Foundation improperly measure inputs, but it fails to measure outputs.

The greatest sin of the Tax Foundation is that it misleads the reader to assume there is a correlation between business climate and quality of life.

Highlights from the tax foundation report which the journalists failed to note:

The Good: Based on a substantial review of the literature on business climate and Taxes, Wasylenko (1997) concludes that taxes do not appear to have a substantial effect on economic activity among states.

The Bad: States with flat rate (income taxes) score the best...

The Ugly: In reality, exempting groceries from the sales tax mostly benefits grocers, but not the poor...

Every newspaper publisher with a state or business editor who published the Tax Foundation silliness without at least searching for a professor, or honest expert on taxes to balance the story knows who to let go in the next round of lay offs.

For those interested, Wisconsin 'dropped' from 38th to 42nd.

Two Wisconsin House Members Voted with Opposite Party On Wilson Spanking

The House symbolically spanked Rep. Joe Wilson (R-Old Dixie) yesterday.  The Hill reported:

House members formally scolded a defiant Rep. Joe Wilson on Tuesday evening for his "You lie!" outburst after he refused Democratic demands that he apologize on the House floor.

The House passed a "resolution of disapproval," considered the mildest form of punishment for a member, by a 240-179 vote that fell largely along partisan lines. Seven Republicans voted to rebuke Wilson, while 12 Democrats voted against the measure.

The actual roll-call vote had two interesting party outliers from Wisconsin: Rep. Tom Petri (R- Fond du Lac) voted "yes" with most of the Democrats, and Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee) voted "no" with most of the Republicans.

Rep. Petri is senior enough and frequently is independently thoughtful enough to defy his party on some issues, particularly on one that is entirely without real consequence.

Rep. Moore, on the other hand, almost never votes with the Republicans against her party, and as an early and strong Obama supporter, was no doubt outraged at Wilson. So what was up with her vote?

Most of the other Democrats voting "no" were of the "blue dog" variety, with the exception of Moore and Dennis Kucinich.  Maybe they both wanted Wilson defenestrated (look it up).

(hat tip: MyDD)

- Barry Orton

Sarah Palin's Bright Future and the Republican Base: The "Insurgence of the Mediocre"

The Recess Supervisor, a former Wisconsin Assembly GOP staffer, has nailed the appeal of Sarah Palin over on Playground Politics:

Great conservative apparatchiks, whether Lee Atwater or Ralph Reed or others, knew well how to manipulate undereducated, rank-and-file conservatives. It's not hard, since many of them aren't that smart.

That's not to say they aren't God-fearing or hardworking or good parents or fine citizens. But they just aren't that intelligent when it comes to matters of policy or politics. They're not sophisticated enough to have much of a view on anything outside their own community, so they tend to focus on things that can be understood simply and easily - things like morality, a morality often imparted by a local church and taken as gospel without any kind of intellectual questioning.

They don't understand foreign policy or trade policy or tax policy or the kinds of economic matters the GOP power players are interested in. But they do get gay marriage and abortion and school prayer. So for a generation, the GOP talked about the latter in an attempt to gain enough power to influence the former. (N.B. Democrats do this bait-and-switch too, but I'm not talking about them right now.)

Today's conservatives, however, aren't in on the joke. Politically, they came of age hearing these paeans to Christian fundamentalism, without understanding that these were simply techniques of convenience used to sell other parts of the GOP agenda.

They are, in other words, mistaking the sizzle for the steak.

Many modern conservatives soldier on like theocrats, trying to sell this homophobic, xenophobic, Europhobic, Islamophobic, liberal-phobic sizzle as though it's the main course. They think you win debates by proclaiming that policies are "liberal" or "socialist" and then thrusting your arms upward in triumph. Those who come from this camp are rarely interested in honest discussion because they're rarely capable of intellectually defending their positions. They like using one-word labels to dismiss contrarian worldviews, and then quickly retreat to the comfortable surroundings of those who agree with them.

Sarah Palin is tailor-made for these folks. And this is the GOP's trainwreck-in-waiting.

Sorry for the long quotes, but this post is really right on target:

Even as the breadth of her support narrows, the intensity of the support she receives grows greater, a fatal attraction for a political party whose base seems increasingly detached from anything resembling reality. To reinforce their delusion, those folks then go around talking about how the "other side" is afraid of or intimidated by Palin's superhuman political skills.

Hardly. Sarah Palin is an erratic, intemperate politician of average intelligence and below average eloquence. If she ran for President in 2012, she would undoubtedly suffer a loss worse than anyone since Walter Mondale met the Reagan steamroller in 1984. I remain confused as to why anyone would be scared of such a politician, but for the fact that lots of social conservatives are ineloquent and profoundly average and seem enamored by the notion of electing someone equally ineloquent and profoundly average to public office. Call it the insurgence of the mediocre.

-Barry Orton

Madison Schools and No Child Left Behind Nonsense

This morning's Wisconsin State Journal informs us that Two Madison elementary schools fail No Child Left Behind standards.

Leopold and Lincoln fell short of the federal law’s criteria for “adequate yearly progress” for the second year in a row, marking them as “schools identified for improvement,” or SIFI. again ...Under the sanctions, the schools will have to review their school improvement plans, offer more academic services outside of the regular school day and allow parents to transfer their child to any public school within the School District where space allows

All of which demonstrates massive failures at so many levels, but not by the schools in question.

First of all, for years the Madison District inched towards a student body with over 40% below the poverty line and now is approaching 50%. That creates challenges of educating students.

It is a national and a state-wide problem, mostly the fault of states and communities that inadequately fund education and supportive services. Madison has to now take responsibilty for the poor planning and performance of others.

Secondly the schools can only be expected to do so much. The learning environment is influenceed by major external factor. A significant number of Franklin students come from the Town of Madison not the City of Madison. The town provides far fewer resources than the city to combat poverty. 

Both schools cited are heavily impacted by households that do not have stable housing - too many of these kids are homeless.

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is a lousy program. The failures are well documented as well as the cheating in Bush's home state of Texas where high school students are pushed out the door so they are not counted as failures. More importantly, NCLB is based on flawed testing that does not adequately take into account poverty, the early education of the children from outside the particular school or the district, or the resources of the district.

At the local level we are caught in a horrendous dilemma. We know that inadequate shelter is a major part of the problem. In our rush to house the homeless we do not always provide the other necessary services. The expansion of poor people migrating into Madison places demands on services for transportation, childcare, health, and job training.

The principal at Lincoln, Deborah Hamilton noted:

This was not a shock. I don’t know why anyone with any sense would think that students who are in a bilingual program, and required to learn to read and write in Spanish, would be able to accomplish the same thing in English and do it in both languages in the same amount of time.

Leopold principal John Burkholder said:

Most of our parents understand our students are doing well... ( being on the  list) concerns me. For some people, that’s all they know of our school. When you sit and look at the data, it may tell a somewhat different story. But we’re working on it. We’re trying to address this and trying to bring learning up for all kids.

Meantime, Madison Memorial High School came off the list. Good for them. But it is only important because some people erroneously believe that NCLB is meaningful.

Steve Nass Jumps the Shark

A press event was held Tuesday by a coalition of 65 Wisconsin organizations asserting that deep service cuts could destroy Wisconsin families and that increased taxes should not be ruled out. Among the sponsors were the Wisconsin Counties Association, the Wisconsin Council on Children & Families, the Institute for Wisconsin's Future, the Wisconsin Association of School Boards, ADAPT Wisconsin, League of Woman Voters of Wisconsin, Wisconsin Alliance of Cities, Disability Rights Wisconsin, the Coalition of Wisconsin Aging Groups, and the Wisconsin Catholic Conference. Their statement argued:

Families left jobless by the recession, people with disabilities, children, and seniors would be among those hit hardest by proposed budget cuts to state safety-net human service programs...

With so many people in need, this is the worst possible time to cut services.  Now more than ever, we must maintain the safety net and stay true to our Wisconsin values.  Many prominent economists have noted that making cuts during a recession hurts the economy even more than carefully targeted tax increases. 

“These cuts will have real consequences for our communities,” said Fond du Lac County Executive Allen Buechel. Buechel noted that because of the recession, Fond du Lac and other counties are already seeing increasing demand for FoodShare (food stamps), Medicaid, and other services for families in need. Most of these programs are funded by the state and federal government but administered by Wisconsin’s counties.

Buechel and other advocates for families, people with disabilities, children, and seniors warned that those harmful effects will only get worse if lawmakers and the governor try to balance the state’s $6.6 billion budget deficit solely by cutting state spending.

“We need to take a balanced approach that includes spending reductions and targeted revenue increases,” Buechel said. “We simply cannot cut our way out of this crisis.”

The group suggested some sources of revenue:

There are revenue options available that could generate over one billion dollars in the next years, substantially reducing the need for further cuts. The money would be raised from taxpayers with the greatest ability to pay. Options include restoring the estate tax, taxing capital gains like ordinary income, and increasing the top income tax rate by one percentage point more than Gov. Doyle proposed for households with incomes over $300,000. If these revenue options were enacted, the funds generated would almost fill the new budget hole, put people first and protect vitally important human services. 

  Once this group raised the dreaded idea that some taxes might need to be increased, the reactions were swift and of the knee-jerk reflex variety.  Typical was Republican operative Brian Fraley, writing for the WMC sock puppet MacIver Institute for Public Policy:

Especially in tough times, spending decisions must be prioritized. 'Needs' must get priority over 'wants.'  The problem with this loose affiliation of groups, now billed at over 60 organizations, is that they all would obviously prioritize their own niche need.  The only consensus displayed by this confederation is 'More, please.'

Reckless spending and questionable bonding has left Wisconsin's Budget in dire straits, just as the national economy went into the tank. Over-burdened taxpayers and people who have come to rely on government-provided human services will be hit the hardest as the Doyle Administration tires (sic) to right the economic ship after years of neglect.

Now, some of these groups may have a point about their need.

But they err when they assert that the 'tough' thing to do would be to raise taxes. The real tough thing to do would be to examine state spending and prioritize spending so that pressing, legitimate needs are met without increasing taxes.

That "increasing taxes" is the taboo that really should never be mentioned in earshot of the WMC and its allies.

Maybe that's why the event pushed Rep. Steve Nass' hot button and generated this over-the-top reaction:

  State Representative Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) reacted to a press conference orchestrated by the Wisconsin Counties Association calling for higher taxes in Wisconsin.  The Counties Association was joined by two other groups known for their support of unlimited tax increases and unchecked growth in government spending, the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families and the Institute for Wisconsin’s Future.  The groups are upset that Governor Doyle is only willing to raise taxes by nearly $3 billion.
 
     “The Wisconsin Counties Association is a group funded with taxpayer dollars and continues to use those funds to call for punishing families with all sorts of higher taxes.  Almost $3 billion in tax increases during a massive recession isn’t enough for the Counties Association.  These vultures want to squeeze every last drop of blood from the hard working people of this state,” Nass said. (emphasis added)

Vultures? The Wisconsin Counties Association, sure. But the Wisconsin Association of School Boards, ADAPT Wisconsin, League of Woman Voters of Wisconsin, Wisconsin Alliance of Cities, Disability Rights Wisconsin, the Coalition of Wisconsin Aging Groups, and the Wisconsin Catholic Conference? Huh?

Blood squeezing vultures? Don't vultures eat mostly carrion? Maybe Nass meant vampires. Starts with the same letter. It's always hard to tell exactly what Rep. Nass has in mind when he speaks.  Vampires, that's the ticket. The League of Woman Voters of Wisconsin are vampires.

And Nass probably wonders why his releases haven't been getting the media play they used to when his party ran the Legislature.

- Barry Orton

Paul Ryan: Alarmist or Fraud, or Both

Paul Ryan is the Janesville Republican who accuses the Obama Administration of European Socialism after he voted for the massive government bailouts.

Paul Ryan wants to run for president.

Now he is writing articles for the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune. Pleased be alarmed: we can't wait to ignore the crisis in Medicare and Social Security.

...We no longer have the luxury of waiting; with each year of delay, the problem gets exponentially worse, and the likelihood grows that Congress will be forced to react with deep cuts in benefits or increases in tax or debt burdens to intolerable levels...

This is the same member of Congress who served during the eight Bush years and failed, while a member of the majority party, to solve this problem.

But Ryan voted for record spending, record deficits, the war in Iraq, the bailouts and now claims he wants to help solve the problems.

Maybe he should relocate his entire publicity operation to Minnesota.

F. James Sensenbrenner - Defies Logic in Search of Bamboozling Public

As though he did not have enough to worry about in helping the nation recover from the depression launched by President Bush with his help in Congress, Representative F. James Sensenbrenner finds times to lecture Wisconsinites on the state budget.  Governor Doyle and Internet Taxes = Double Trouble

And now, Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle wants to tax the songs you download to your iPod – among all your other online purchases. This means that buying something online will now be double taxed in Wisconsin...

The errant member of Congress, who has done more than any other Wisconsinite to create massive deficits through his support of incredible tax cuts for the wealthy, figures that if the buyer purchases Internet services that are taxed, then purchases made from another vendor cannot be taxed.

Think  of the possibilities:

• If the buyers paid sales tax on their automobile, then there should be no tax on gasoline that fuels the vehicle.
• If you paid sales tax on your refrigerator, there should be no tax on the beer that goes in it.
• If you paid sales tax when the home was sold, you never should have paid property taxes.

It is appealing, but maybe Sensenbrenner should do something constructive, like fixing the disadvantage Ma and Pa brick and mortar retailers face. They have to collect sales taxes from their walk-in customers while Internet sellers avoid paying their fair share of the sales taxes - taxes that would help balance massive state deficits from California to Maine. That is the result of legislation pushed by Sensenbrenner that interfered with states' ability to set fair sales taxes.

Ohio DWI Issued After Crash of "Motorized Barstool" - Doh!

This is both sad and funny.  A 28-year-old Ohio man with a suspended license was busted March 4 after the motorized 5 hp barstool he was driving home rolled over after he had consumed "about 15 beers." The Newark, Ohio Advocate has the whole story here. He pleaded not guilty and has demanded a jury trial. 

Good luck with that.

- Barry Orton

(ht: Scatterplot)

New Wisconsin Ad Theme Identical To A 2004 Bacardi Ad - Doh!

Well, after $50,000 spent on researching color, consumer attitudes, and what-all, we've got "Wisconsin: Live it like you mean it!" in red and green letters and a red guy shaped like an "X" doing a cartwheel.

The green hue of the word "Wisconsin" is designed to represent the state’s natural resources and stewardship of the land. The red in the theme line and the cartwheeling silhouette conveys the attitudes of the state’s people, (Governor) Doyle said...

"The goal here is that by speaking in one voice and presenting a unified image, it helps Wisconsin grow its marketing strength at a time when we need it most," said Kelli Trumble, state tourism secretary. "It really gives us a very distinct look."

One big problem: A 2004 Bacardi rum campaign for "responsible" drinking used the same exact theme. (Hat tip: WTMJ) Oh, well. This is already a source of giggles and snark all over the Cheddarsphere, and it's just been introduced. I give it one season.

What's wrong with the classic "Eat Cheese or Die?"  Better yet, Governor Knowles' chestnut "We like it here" should be revived. The color of the print should be yellow, same as cheesehead hats, the state's real symbol. Send my $50,000 in small bills, please, and lose the cartwheel guy.

- Barry Orton