Category Archives: Politics

Everything from how we choose our leaders to how we manage the public areas of our neighborhoods.

Stupidity Wins Over Statesmanship

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Much like our neighbors in Minnesota, Wisconsin has a proud history of progressive senators with names like LaFollette, Proxmire and Nelson; but every once in a while a right-wing nut-job with piles of corporate money comes along to derail a distinguished career.

After many years away, I came back to Wisconsin in 1992, just as Russ Feingold was campaigning to reclaim the senate seat that Gaylord Nelson had lost some years earlier. His commercials consisted of grainy film of this young lawyer giving a tour of his house. The folksiness resonated and Feingold became our senator.

In 2001, George Bush railroaded the euphemistically named “Patriot” Act thru Congress. It was riddled with provisions designed to turn America into a fascist police state with warrantless searches, electronic monitoring of citizens, defining “terrorist” to include organizers of consumer boycotts, and arbitrary detainment.

But in those days fear reigned supreme, and the bill was rushed thru the Senate on a 99-1 vote. We were in Europe at the time, and people we met understood how insane this law was. But we could proudly say that the one “no” vote came from OUR senator, Russ Feingold.

This year, he got challenged by a guy named Ron Johnson. He runs a plastics factory in Oshkosh where he is not well-liked by his employees. But he had piles of his own money to throw into the race, and he knew how to con tea-bagger types.

Even the most conservative newspapers in the state would not endorse him. If he didn’t refuse outright to meet with editorial boards, he only spoke in vague sound bytes when he did. Every time he opened his mouth, stupid bullslop would come out, so his handlers had him shut up and bombard the state with tv ads, mailers, and robocalls instead. Never mind that it was all the same stupid bullslop in slick packaging.

I predict that Ron Johnson will be the least distinguished Wisconsin senator since Joe McCarthy (interestingly, they both come from the same general area of the state). Maybe in six years, the state will be so nauseated by Johnson’s antics that Feingold can win his seat back.

Russ Feingold is too good a guy to retire from public life at such a young age. I hope he finds a way to stick around and be a champion of all that is good and decent.

It is very rare that I am impressed with anyone who works in the dark realm of politics, but I was proud to have Russ Feingold as my senator. Tonight, I am ashamed of my state for not re-electing him.

An Open Letter to the Tea Party

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As a progressive, I share a lot of fundamental beliefs that you Tea Partiers promote.

You say you want your country back. I’d like my country back, too, and I think we’re talking about the same country. It was the country we knew as kids, where families made a comfortable living on one salary, where there was plenty of honest work for good wages, and where people helped out their neighbors in a time of need.

But now it takes two salaries to support a family (if you’re lucky) while the wealth we produce is hoarded by greedy Wall Street investors who think nothing of dismissing thousands of workers to gain 1% in profit margin.

I’ve been victimized by the same economic injustices that you have, so I can understand the frustrations behind your anger. What I can’t understand is why you are supporting Republicans.

Don’t you know that Republicans are the party of Big Business? They’re sponsored by the same fat cats who trashed our economy, and if elected they will continue to do the bidding of this uber-rich elite. There are no true advocates for working people in the GOP.

Check out the front groups sponsoring your Tea Party rallies. The people paying for those expensive stage sets, tour buses, sound systems and promotion are the same oil billionaires, Wall Street banksters and job exporters who’ve ripped off our country.

If elected, they will resume their orgy of casino capitalism, and they’re tricking you into endorsing it.

Arizona: Let the Boycott Begin

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We have friends in Arizona that we’d love to see. There are places in Arizona we’d love to visit. But while the government of that state continues to pass hateful, mean-spirited, and simply stupid laws, we cannot knowingly spend a penny in that state.

For those who haven’t yet heard, there is now a law in Arizona that says that if a cop doesn’t like the way you look, then he/she can say “your papers, please!”, and if you don’t happen to be carrying your birth certificate or passport, then you will go to jail until you can prove you’re a lawful citizen of this country.

Even though we are not among the “brown people” this law is targeting, let’s look at this more closely. When we were in Vancouver BC, wearing our flashy purple outfits, some people thought we were from Montreal. When we were in Bath, England, someone thought we had Canadian accents. We have a habit of exchanging simple phrases in conversation in a language that is not English. Might it be possible that some rogue cop might be offended by our unconventional look and find “reason for suspicion” that we might not be American citizens?

This new law is offensive to the extreme, so until it is repealed, and those who pass it apologize for this foolishness (or the sane citizens outnumber the insane citizens and vote these fools out of office), Arizona joins Israel and Italy as “no-go” destinations for us.

Yesterday's Big Speech

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On January 27, 2010, the eyes of the world were focused on one man, waiting for news of what they would be talking about – indeed, what they would be OBSESSED about – in the coming year.

Barack Obama presents the iPad at his State of the Union speech.

Barack Obama presents the iPad at his State of the Union speech.

The day was kind of a blur, but that’s how I remember it.

😉

—-

Obbie

McShame

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I could not believe this:

McCain and his wife arrived at the La Crosse Center under heavy security, including Secret Service protection and officers from the La Crosse Police Department and La Crosse County Sheriff’s Department.

McCain stepped out of a silver Chevrolet Suburban at about 10 a.m. The motorcade — which followed a short route from the Radisson — included about 20 vehicles. McCain entered the La Crosse Center on the far south end of the building, using a Jay Street entrance.

Here is the route of the 20-vehicle motorcade:

Route of McShame's motorcade

Now it’s hard to see from this picture, but there is a walkway that leads from the Radisson’s second floor to the second floor of the La Crosse Center, and it’s not that hard to find your way to the South Hall from there. I’ve been on that path several times, so it shouldn’t be too hard for a security person to show him the way.

The following map (it’s rotated a bit less than 90 degrees from the photo above) shows how to get from the walkway on the upper right to the stage at the left. The cluttered nature of the map makes the route look more difficult than it actually is.

getting to the stage without a motorcade

Total walking distance: two blocks. Do we really want a president who can’t walk two blocks, and would prefer to drive TWENTY SUVs instead?

Chewed up and Spit Out

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We just read two very moving letters by Cindy Sheehan. The first, written this morning, was a message of disgust at the Dummycratic party and its inability to stand up to Emperor Bush and stop the war. Then as the day ground on, she apparently suffered from a lot of abuse from all directions, and threw in the towel on her activist efforts.

The political bureaucracy has done what it seems to be designed to do: it has taken another good-hearted person and worn her down to the point that she has nothing left to offer:

I am going to take whatever I have left and go home. I am going to go home and be a mother to my surviving children and try to regain some of what I have lost.

Please read both letters. There’s a lot written between the lines that this country needs to learn.

Hillary, Billary, NOT!

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There are a lot of reasons that Hillary Clinton must not be elected president of the United States. Someone that we read a lot, Bob Harris, presented a laundry list of problems with Hillary, but he missed the most important one: she’s a corporatist.

She’s puts up a progressive facade, but ever since she got elected as a senator from New York, she’s been a whore for Wall Street. Corporate control of our society accellerated during the reign of her husband.

If we end up with another President Clinton, things will not get better for ordinary people. They’ll just get worse a little more slowly.

The Urge to Surge

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First off, don’t get me started on how the Bush regime always tries to find a cute little euphemism to replace a distasteful (but more accurate) word like “escalation.”

The emperor recently announced that he is sending another 21,500 soldiers into Iraq. It invokes images of a primitive warlord… the kind you’d see in some of those Hope/Crosby movies from the 40’s. Things are not going the warlord’s way, so he orders that more virgins be thrown into the volcano. I could say that warlord Bush’s actions were equally stupid, but I would be wrong.

Our hypothetical warlord can be forgiven for his ignorance… that he didn’t know any better. This emperor does not have that excuse. Every thinking person in the world (outside of the oil business) is screaming that this is a Very Bad Idea.

So where is he going to find an extra 21,500 soldiers?

During World War II, President Roosevelt’s sons fought on the front lines. If this Iraq fiasco is such a “noble cause,” Emperor Bush should send his two children of military age who are fit for duty. I don’t think any of us should sacrifice our lives or that of our loved ones unless the people asking us to make that sacrifice are willing to make that sacrifice themselves.