tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51379398059869938772024-03-05T02:03:21.486-06:00Gregory StanfordGregory Stanford comments on developments in the urban Midwest and on current events generallyGregory Stanfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04070893389398189225noreply@blogger.comBlogger43125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137939805986993877.post-78615909617745352742016-08-22T14:07:00.000-05:002016-08-22T14:07:03.963-05:00Trump jiving about connecting to black people<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSJJwVAdsmWiBsYNDHxrpfaKzJmrMuGVnfxtSMQS76f4rWTnI9wDUiRXWacTKqygkHRwApX8flyP-Qqs8rfTeQ336_pNuWfdUFf2royu2Dr9Ezw4w-urY9bwpujzfnJPoTKmqnCVTHfi-v/s1600/protesterss.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a> </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The remains of a gas station torched during civil unrest in Milwaukee</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">What a funny way Donald Trump has of reaching out to black
people. The Republican presidential nominee came to Milwaukee and, skirting black
neighborhoods, drove out to the lily-white suburb of West Bend to urge African
Americans to vote for him – a perplexing pattern he has since repeated in
Michigan and North Carolina.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">In the West Bend speech he accused Hillary Clinton of
“talking down” to African Americans. But what do you call lecturing people
without even bothering to look them in the eye? In contrast, Clinton talks face
to face with African Americans.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">The real estate tycoon could have done so, too. Coming to
town in the wake of the turmoil in the Sherman Park neighborhood, where
businesses were torched, he could have met with, say, business owners there – a
gesture that would have packed more meaning than the empty, albeit clamorous, rhetoric
that he spewed in West Bend.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Trump’s black support barely registers in the polls. He’s
clocking in at one to two percent – the worst showing ever for a GOP
standard bearer. So it’s understandable he would want to boost those numbers.
But the bizarre way he’s going about doing it makes you wonder: What’s his
game?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">There is a history here. The GOP is, as Trump himself has
reminded us, the party of Abraham Lincoln, who freed the slaves. Thus, black
people were solidly Republican after the Civil War. Franklin Roosevelt’s New
Deal, though, drew most African Americans to the Democratic Party. Still, a
sizable minority remained loyal to the GOP.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Richard Nixon fixed that, adopting what’s known as the
“Southern strategy,” which involved winning office by appealing to whites
turned off by the Democratic Party’s embrace of the civil rights agenda. The
strategy chased many of the black loyalists out of the Republican Party. But
the thinking was that the party gained far more in white votes than it lost in
black votes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">That thinking <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">was</i>
correct, with an emphasis on “was.” Now, due to racial changes in the
population, that strategy causes more losses than gains – the reason why wise
men and women of the party have called for a shift away from the strategy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">They face a major roadblock, however. Remember the white
voters the party drew by appealing to anti-black sentiment. Well, now those
voters make up a vital part of the Republican base, and they like the Southern
strategy just fine, thank you. Immigration reform? No way, José. (Anti-black
people tend to be anti-brown, too.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Trump has exploited this ambivalence in the Republican
Party. Rather than abandoning the Southern strategy, he has doubled down on it.
For instance, thrilling the Republican base, the reality show star has called for
a ban on Muslim immigrants and the erection of a wall along the Mexican border and,
of late, has insinuated that black people cheat at the polls. No wonder his
candidacy cheers white supremacists, like former Ku Klux Klan Imperial Wizard
David Duke.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Protesters greeting Trump at a stop he made in downtown <br />
Milwaukee for an interview with Fox News talker Sean<br />
Hannity, before the candidate's trip to West Bend</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">The Southern strategy, America learned, still has enough
juice to win the Republican presidential nomination, but at a high cost: It
chases away so many people of color and fair-minded whites that it imperils
victory in the general election.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">So Trump comes to a white suburb in the hypersegregated
Milwaukee area to connect with black voters. His rhetoric thuds false. A true
dialog would take place face to face, and it must begin with an apology from
the showman about his fanning racial fears for political gain.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">After all, many African Americans have a hard time
forgetting that Trump helped lead the charge to foist an aura of illegitimacy onto
America’s first black president. Trump noisily demanded to see Barack Obama’s
birth certificate, as if the commander-in-chief was an alien who must produce
papers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">* * *</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: large;"><strong>A note to readers</strong></span></div>
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<em>Helping to open and run an art gallery took me away from this blog for several years. But I'm back now. I'm continuing with the gallery, but I think I'm more adept at juggling.</em></div>
Gregory Stanfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04070893389398189225noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137939805986993877.post-89181985889347612572012-07-27T01:00:00.000-05:002012-07-29T16:31:40.159-05:00Erect monument for martyrs to the 2nd Amendment<br />
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They are among the latest martyrs to the Second Amendment – the 70 moviegoers who were shot, 12 fatally, in a Denver suburb last week. Politicians will wring their hands, but won’t rein in guns because they regard as sacrosanct the right of a person to own a ton of firepower. They value that right more than life itself.</div>
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But don’t they at least owe tribute to the innocents who pay for our lax gun laws with their blood? I propose that Congress erect on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., a monument to the Second Amendment martyrs. Private organizations, like the National Rifle Association, could help finance the project.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0Zqp8Dlu0D-xb-BZjw16J4zWaxTgNvMFccBQvQjeQEW3JPhYZjZa6O_X59AGp7oYvi-dEmnOB-gqjuUN94HdI47xmwEcyt1sbFbkgND3F6p02BHR6d250KMg2_lwl-DvaQbM5Cjh-z4yS/s1600/Glock35.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0Zqp8Dlu0D-xb-BZjw16J4zWaxTgNvMFccBQvQjeQEW3JPhYZjZa6O_X59AGp7oYvi-dEmnOB-gqjuUN94HdI47xmwEcyt1sbFbkgND3F6p02BHR6d250KMg2_lwl-DvaQbM5Cjh-z4yS/s320/Glock35.jpg" width="296" /></a>The monument could take the shape of a bullet with the names of the many thousands of martyrs etched on it. Or it could take the form of a giant pistol with thousands of notches on the handle, one for each innocent killed, <span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">à</span></i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> la</i> the Wild West. Or maybe the monument could go high tech, with flashing images of the men and women and boys and girls who spilt their blood for the Second Amendment.</div>
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You’d think that, in the face of bloodbaths – such as at Columbine and Virginia Tech – our politicians would narrow gun rights. Well, they did the opposite. In the last decade, Congress let the ban on semiautomatic weapons expire; one statehouse after another permitted the carrying of concealed firearms, and the nation's top court ensconced the right of individuals to bear arms more firmly in the U.S. Constitution. Even the shooting of one of their own, Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, has failed to move politicians to reverse course.</div>
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International comparisons point to the role our lax gun laws play in our frequent murders and occasional massacres. With <a href="http://www.nationmaster.com/compare/United-Kingdom/United-States/Crime">an assault rate more than twice as high</a> as America’s, Great Britain appears to be the more violent country. Yet, paradoxically, America’s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate">murder rate is almost four times </a>Britain’s. In other words, though violent conflicts happen more frequently in Britain, they are far less likely to end up as homicides there than in the United States. The most logical explanation: The United Kingdom’s strict gun controls mean that guns don’t wildly proliferate there, as they do in America. So Britons are less likely than Americans to reach for a gun to settle their differences. Yes, NRA, guns <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">do</i> kill.</div>
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Canada, which has stricter gun laws than does the United States, shows a similar pattern. Its <a href="http://www.nationmaster.com/compare/Canada/United-States/Crime">assault rate is almost twice </a> America’s. Yet, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate">the murder rate of the United States is almost three times</a> that of Canada’s.</div>
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Tellingly, James E. Holmes, the accused shooter at the movie theater in Aurora, Colo., <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/24/us/aurora-gunmans-lethal-arsenal.html">broke no law</a> in purchasing a semiautomatic rifle with a 100-round barrel magazine and perhaps two semiautomatic pistols, as well as a shotgun. He violated no law in buying over the Internet 3,000 rounds for the rifle, another 3,000 for the pistols and 350 shotgun shells.</div>
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So highly do they value the right to bear arms, American politicians want everybody to have the ability to be armed for combat. Inevitably, that combat will from time to time take place against unsuspecting civilians at a movie theater, in a classroom, at a political event – a price that politicians show through their action and inaction they are willing to pay. But if they’re going to sacrifice lives to the almighty gun, the least they can do is pay homage to those lives with a Second Amendment monument on the National Mall.</div>Gregory Stanfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04070893389398189225noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137939805986993877.post-34605301728419061702012-07-20T18:26:00.000-05:002012-07-20T18:26:34.040-05:00Photo ID beneftits hard to detect, judge notes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7I1cD_uYt8IM6zsZi0Qzlvb6ggwC9qsezYyraOeO9GdlUnINTLE8MRbTnMVpJxST_z1HsxWgMT7zboiV8PKpjUVRZJ7s03Cc21dLY8OyPNK4wYlTZ6PpBXkBOpdBgsxTt2OX4blowMdc_/s1600/wis+id.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div><div class="MsoNormal">In striking down the nation’s most draconian photo ID mandate for voting, a Wisconsin judge <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=CASE+NO.+11CV5492+DANE+COUNTY+WISCONSIN&source=web&cd=6&sqi=2&ved=0CFMQFjAF&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wispolitics.com%2F1006%2Flarge%2F11CV5492.OR10.docx&ei=TUUHULuNEuWg2gWbzJ3YDw&usg=AFQjCNHcZXqr7tw8458xxKXjCLTociL8Zg&cad=rja">said this week</a> of the law in question: “Serious recent efforts to investigate voter fraud have found <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">nothing</i> (emphasis mine) that Act 23 would have prevented.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Critics typically argue that such laws are unnecessary since voter fraud is rare. But they are actually understating their case. After all, tighter identification requirements can prevent just one type of voter fraud: the use of a false identity to vote. Try though they have, the authorities in Wisconsin have uncovered not a single, solitary case of identification fraud at the polls in recent decades.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7I1cD_uYt8IM6zsZi0Qzlvb6ggwC9qsezYyraOeO9GdlUnINTLE8MRbTnMVpJxST_z1HsxWgMT7zboiV8PKpjUVRZJ7s03Cc21dLY8OyPNK4wYlTZ6PpBXkBOpdBgsxTt2OX4blowMdc_/s1600/wis+id.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7I1cD_uYt8IM6zsZi0Qzlvb6ggwC9qsezYyraOeO9GdlUnINTLE8MRbTnMVpJxST_z1HsxWgMT7zboiV8PKpjUVRZJ7s03Cc21dLY8OyPNK4wYlTZ6PpBXkBOpdBgsxTt2OX4blowMdc_/s1600/wis+id.jpg" /></a>In other words, the type of fraud a stricter ID law can possibly curb is rarer than rare. It’s almost non-existent in Wisconsin and, I daresay, throughout the land.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Republicans like to muddy the waters, though, by citing any hint of fraud, however faint, and claiming that a strict photo ID requirement would somehow solve the problem. For instance, official probes of voting have uncovered a few felons who have cast ballots while they were still on probation or parole, in violation of Wisconsin law. The fix? <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/watercooler/2012/jun/5/picket-wi-ag-warns-voter-fraud-can-be-easily-commi/">A sterner ID law</a>, of course. Trouble is, identification isn’t the issue. The voting felons had used their real names, which they backed up in some cases with driver’s licenses – the chief form of ID required by the stricken law. Act 23 has absolutely no capacity – I repeat, none – to stop a felon with a requisite ID from illegally voting.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.7pt;">Chaos and confusion prevailed at the polls during the 2004 presidential election in Milwaukee and elsewhere in Wisconsin, as a large turnout overwhelmed unprepared and understaffed polling sites. Clerical errors and miscues abounded. Republican politicians like to portray this </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.7pt;">bureaucratic bungling as widespread voter fraud – a bogus claim that Wisconsonite Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, </span><a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/rnc-chairman-priebus-alleges-rampant-vote-fraud-2f5jud3-155817075.html"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.7pt;">repeated last May</span></a><span style="letter-spacing: -0.7pt;">. </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.6pt;">The fix is again, of course, a stiffer ID requirement. The real remedy, however, was a staff better prepared to handle a tidal wave of voters, as evidenced by the smoothly run presidential election of 2008. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The law’s scant benefit contrasts with the ample harm it could do to the sacred voting rights of the 300,000-plus Wisconsin voters who lack a requisite photo ID, Dane County Circuit Judge David Flanagan noted Tuesday. He became the second Wisconsin judge to permanently bar enforcement of the law on the grounds that it violated the Wisconsin Constitution, which, unlike the U.S. Constitution, specifically protects the right to vote. (The 15<sup>th</sup> amendment of the federal Constititution does broach the topic, outlawing infringement of the right to vote on account “of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Flanagan ruled on a suit brought by the Milwaukee NAACP branch; Voces de la Frontera, a Wisconisin immigrant-rights group; and 12 individuals. In March Dane County Judge Richard Niess permanently blocked the voter ID law in a case brought by the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The Republican electoral romp in state governments across the country in 2010 led to the passage of tighter ID laws <a href="http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/voter_id_laws_passed_in_2011/">for voting in 11 states</a>, including Wisconsin. Flanagan notes that the Wisconsin law appears to be the strictest in that the range of allowable forms of ID is the narrowest and that the recourse for voters who lack the requisite IDs is the most limited.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The two cases now go to an appeals court, which should pay heed to this insight from Flanagan: “Act 23 addresses a problem which is very limited, if indeed it exists. It does not appear to recognize or account for the difficulty its demands impose upon indigent and elderly citizens who are eligible under the constitution to vote. It offers no flexibility, no alternative to prevent the exclusion of a constitutionally qualified voter. Given the sacred, fundamental interest at issue, it is clear that Act 23, while perhaps addressing a legitimate concern, is not sufficiently narrow to avoid needless and significant impairment of the right to vote.”</div>Gregory Stanfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04070893389398189225noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137939805986993877.post-49763659850927375552012-06-06T00:33:00.000-05:002012-06-06T13:50:44.340-05:00Wisconsin's middle-class still needs saving<br />
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The movement that sought unsuccessfully to oust Scott Walker from Wisconsin’s governorship must by no means disband. Rather, it must dig in for the long haul.</div>
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The fight always centered on the plight of Wisconsin’s middle class – a plight Walker’s victory Tuesday keeps in jeopardy.</div>
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This is no time to sulk. Ousting Walker from office was a long shot anyway. Besides, in the one bright spot, the Democrats did seize control of the state Senate – which should keep Walker from ramrodding more of his right-wing agenda through the Legislature. The movement deserves praise for getting as far as it did. Now, it must keep fighting this good fight.<br />
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The middle-class has gotten weaker in large part because unions have gotten weaker. Private-sector unions were the first to bite the dust. Thus, public-sector unions long carried the torch for the working person. But Walker fixed that. He eviscerated public-sector unions in Wisconsin, in line with the Republican tendency to tilt power away from working people and toward rich corporations.</div>
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I myself have been a critic of public-sector unions, particularly for teachers and police officers. But, in contrast to Walker, I believe in their right to exist. In fact, the role they play in society is vital.</div>
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During the campaign Walker intimated that he would make nice to the other side – a meaningless promise unless he intends to restore to the unions the right to collectively bargain. Which, of course, he does not intend.to do.</div>
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Walker is pursuing policies that would hasten the growth of income inequality in Wisconsin and the decline of the middle-class. His opposition can’t just give in. Rather, it must work out a long-term strategy for winning.</div>
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True, in smashing the unions, Walker is decimating the source of large amounts of Democratic funds, leaving Republican corporate campaign money with no rival. So keeping up the fight for the middle class will become tougher. But that fight must nonetheless be waged.<br />
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<i>This post was revised later on June 6 to reflect the Democratic takeover of the Wisconsin Senate – which had not been clear at the time this article was originally written.</i></div>Gregory Stanfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04070893389398189225noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137939805986993877.post-3589493504706032922012-05-11T18:00:00.000-05:002012-05-12T15:11:40.750-05:00Walker kills Milwaukee jobs, makes Barrett the fall guy<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker</td></tr>
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You’d think you wouldn’t need a Jessica Fletcher of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Murder, She Wrote</i> in this case. After all, <a href="http://gregorystanford.blogspot.com/2010/11/wisconin-gov-elect-walker-has-deep.html">Scott Walker </a><a href="http://gregorystanford.blogspot.com/2010/11/wisconin-gov-elect-walker-has-deep.html">killed jobs in Milwaukee</a> in broad daylight, with eyewitnesses all over the place. He single-handedly idled scores of construction workers, engineers and others when he halted newly initiated work on a planned rail line between Beer Town and the capitol city, handing back to the feds $810 million in stimulus money and the thousands of jobs it promised to stimulate.</div>
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Yet, Walker is pointing a finger at a fall guy. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett is to blame for the city’s sluggish economy, Walker insists. Demonstrating an uncanny ability to fog minds, the governor may get away with this misdirection.</div>
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Amid the bravado with which Walker delivered his victory speech after Tuesday’s recall primary, it was easy to forget a little detail: Under Walker, Wisconsin leads the nation in job loss. Walker kept the focus on Milwaukee, whose unemployment numbers and poverty levels he derided, as if his hands were clean. “We don’t want to be like Milwaukee,” <a href="http://www.wuwm.com/news/wuwm_news.php?articleid=10407">he thundered.</a></div>
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Ouch. The city can’t help but feel like the state’s unwanted stepchild. The <a href="http://worknet.wisconsin.gov/worknet_info/Publications/PressRelease/local.pdf">March jobless rate</a> for Milwaukee was 10.4%. For Wausau, it was 10.1%. Yet, you can’t imagine the governor sneering, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">We don’t want to be like Wausau – </i>even were he running against Wausau’s mayor.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett</td></tr>
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Actually, Walker is deeply implicated in Milwaukee’s plight. Not only did he actively kill jobs, but, for crying our loud, he served as Milwaukee County executive for eight years. True, when he ran for governor in 2010, <a href="http://gregorystanford.blogspot.com/2010/10/in-race-for-governor-milwaukee-county.html">he disowned responsibility</a> for the city – a pattern he’s now repeating. But that denial raises the issue of what was the point of his being county exec. He boasts submitting budgets with no tax increases and keeping light rail out of the city, but none of these “accomplishments” apparently made the city better off, to judge from his own description of how bad things are in Milwaukee.</div>
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Walker helped shape Milwaukee’s plight even before he was county exec. As a state lawmaker, he helped put together Wisconsin Works, which replaced the thoroughly vilified Aid to Families with Dependent Children. To hear Walker and his colleagues talk back then, this new way of aiding needy moms and their kids was supposed to liberate families from poverty. But in noting that Milwaukee has one of the worst poverty rates in the nation, Walker inadvertently indicted W-2 as a failure. <br />
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Barrett, the Democrat chosen to face the Republican Walker in the recall election, has helped attract companies to Milwaukee. One such company is Talgo, the Spanish train maker, which set up shop at the old Tower plant at Townsend and 28<sup>th</sup> Streets. But <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/news/2012/04/04/talgo-to-close-milwaukee-plant-in-june.html">Walker is chasing that company out of town</a> by quashing its business due to the governor’s distaste for rail.</div>
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You’d think this wouldn’t be much of a whodunit. Walker is holding the smoking gun. The corpse is at his feet. The victim’s blood is on his hands. And eyewitnesses saw him shoot. Yet, Walker is brazenly pointing his finger at Barrett.</div>
Gregory Stanfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04070893389398189225noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137939805986993877.post-52573732639437791102012-04-15T16:10:00.000-05:002012-04-15T16:10:16.777-05:00GOP two-faced on stay-at-home moms<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:DocumentProperties> <o:Version>14.00</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/> <w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/> <w:OverrideTableStyleHps/> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div class="MsoNormal">Stay-at-home moms get much homage from Republicans – unless the moms happen to be poor.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">A Democratic operative and talking head by the name of Hilary Rosen made a half-baked remark on CNN last week when she said that Ann Romney, mother of five and wife of Mitt, “has never actually worked a day in her life.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlI2cPzUrcJcMUKW723fIoM4vWwkXudek1605zyRYrB-qu5oK_Gf0t4NyY5tjfaBG-CBy_BJg30TXD2oyKmSMNIMOMuTEiHlthJ5vHwwNwZm6E55hhrruBr7WTUTXbizya44t-JA2BgRA0/s1600/Ann+Romney.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlI2cPzUrcJcMUKW723fIoM4vWwkXudek1605zyRYrB-qu5oK_Gf0t4NyY5tjfaBG-CBy_BJg30TXD2oyKmSMNIMOMuTEiHlthJ5vHwwNwZm6E55hhrruBr7WTUTXbizya44t-JA2BgRA0/s320/Ann+Romney.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ann Romney</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">Dems, like Michelle Obama, almost beat Republicans out of the gate to condemn the tactless comment, which Rosen has since taken back. Nonetheless – surprise! – the GOP is exploiting the incident for political gain.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">"I made a choice to stay home and raise five boys.” Mrs. Romney tweeted. “Believe me, it was hard work." <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Amen</i> went the GOP chorus.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/ann-romney-democrats-charge-she-never-worked-raising-201011407.html">Ann Romney further confided on Fox News</a> that her husband has considered her career choice more important than his: "He would say, 'My job is temporary...Your job is a forever job that's going to bring forever happiness.’"</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">During the welfare debate of the 1990s, however, the Republican Party pooh-poohed such reasoning. Needy, single moms who stayed home to raise children got scorn, not sympathy. They should get their lazy butts off the couch and get a job, the party said, by which the GOP did not mean a job inside the home.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The reasoning behind Aid to Families with Dependent Children, welfare as we used to know it, sounded a lot like Ann Romney’s defense of her stay-at-home role. <a href="http://sp.oxfordjournals.org/content/1/2/190.extract">A presidential panel wrote in 1935</a> that the program was designed to "release from the wage-earning role the person whose natural function is to give her children the physical and affectionate guardianship necessary not alone to keep them from falling into social misfortune, but more affirmatively to make them citizens capable of contributing to society."</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">But the mood changed by the ’90s as AFDC recipients morphed into Cadillac-driving, steak-buying, couch-lounging welfare queens in the GOP’s fervid imagination. Thus, the Republican Congress, along with Democratic President Bill Clinton, ended the guarantee of financial assistance to such mothers – the only entitlement program Congress has mustered the nerve to eradicate.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.socialdesign.org/welfare/research/abrief2.html">The truth is most AFDC recipients did work.</a> The trouble was, both low-end jobs and their own lives were too unstable for them to sustain work. A child’s illness, babysitting problems, transportation issues would lead them to leave their jobs and use AFDC as a safety net until they got another low-paying job. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Another truth is that welfare as we knew had to end. It lacked popular support and gave the Republicans too big a club to use against Democrats. The replacement, however, should have been more humane. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">But the point here is simply that, despite all the self-righteous indignation they have expressed over Rosen’s inferred put-down of stay-at-home motherhood, Republicans actually subscribe to that put-down for some women.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Ann Romney photo is by Brad Skidmore </i></div>Gregory Stanfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04070893389398189225noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137939805986993877.post-28565450159261849752012-03-23T15:13:00.003-05:002012-03-23T22:41:52.204-05:00Not knowing Jack and running for the U.S. Senate<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_Dqu3a9dWpCoDtSRNqDfWofUsOmcOPVG0glHXKy8mUkQa3ejn_1aa_ZNDHCsrETjj4jWyD46ELJ_2VBWgFs-OUvxDzjxfNGwK3FxYFdClC6fQTENGUESee5Mq1u5y5ly0KG2Bi4TZALBj/s1600/fitzgerald.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_Dqu3a9dWpCoDtSRNqDfWofUsOmcOPVG0glHXKy8mUkQa3ejn_1aa_ZNDHCsrETjj4jWyD46ELJ_2VBWgFs-OUvxDzjxfNGwK3FxYFdClC6fQTENGUESee5Mq1u5y5ly0KG2Bi4TZALBj/s320/fitzgerald.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jeff Fitzgerald</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Wisconsin's education system has failed 45-year-old Jeff Fitzgerald. Neither at Hustisford High School nor at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh did he learn an elemental fact of American life: The world is slanted against black people.<br />
<br />
If you don't grasp that basic reality, documented as it is by a mountain of studies, you don't grasp America. Yet Fitzgerald holds a powerful post: speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly, where, alarmingly, his ignorance helps shape state policies.<br />
<br />
Now the Republican is seeking a new office: the U.S. Senate seat that Democrat Herb Kohl is vacating. His mis-education casts doubt on his fitness to represent a racially diverse state in an even more racially diverse America.<br />
<br />
I brought up the taboo topic of race when Fitzgerald visited the Milwaukee Press Club this week. I noted these three facts:<br />
<ul><li><a href="http://www.bls.gov/web/empsit/cpseea16.htm" target="_blank">The federal unemployment figures for February</a> continued to show that young black high school grads had a harder time finding jobs than did young white high school dropouts. The unemployment rate was 35% for the black grads and 33% for the white dropouts. (Notes: 1. "Dropouts" is my term. The feds describe them as people who are not enrolled in school and have not graduated. 2. The disparity was actually less last month than usual.)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/mullainathan/files/emilygreg.pdf" target="_blank">When sending resumes to an employer</a>, Mary is more likely to get a response than Tameka even when they have identical backgrounds and qualifications. </li>
<li><a href="http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1991-05-15/news/9105150398_1_black-and-white-urban-institute-discrimination" target="_blank">When applying in person for entry-level jobs</a>, young whites get further in the hiring process than do young blacks with equal credentials (and similar grooming, I could have added.) </li>
</ul>Then I asked whether government had a role to play in addressing such racial disparity in the labor market.<br />
<br />
Fitzgerald's responses were two:<br />
<ul><li>"There are laws in place against discrimination."</li>
<li>The Democrats killed a bill earlier this month that would have boosted mining in Wisconsin and thereby boosted jobs at Milwaukee companies that make mining equipment.</li>
</ul>FYI, the bill would have also loosened environmental regulations and reduced the opportunities for the public to weigh in on mining decisions.<br />
<br />
My follow-up questions:<br />
<ul><li>Even if the bill was passed, the trend suggests that whites would be preferred for any new jobs over equally qualified blacks. What can be done about the preferential treatment that the data suggest whites get?</li>
<li>Are laws against discrimination sufficient? After all, young white dropouts still fare better in the job market than do young black high school grads despite the laws.</li>
</ul>Fitzgerald's retort:<br />
<ul><li>Yes, the anti-discrimination laws are sufficient.</li>
<li>Referring to my data, "I don't know what those stats are based on."</li>
</ul>His air was like: <i>Why are you bothering me with this trivia?</i><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe5fnX2y8ggOGBvFALUuwV3FrGpg1v-UhRC9J96kkzn8Vxul8BS6ICh_0-IzGgLdE8-9329Ztp85HZqF0sUiYb9a3emiqW4KIcNcy2Kq8Ox7I-eSyX-rvZGNNenkb-GkhVciRug_pjkFAp/s1600/neumann.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe5fnX2y8ggOGBvFALUuwV3FrGpg1v-UhRC9J96kkzn8Vxul8BS6ICh_0-IzGgLdE8-9329Ztp85HZqF0sUiYb9a3emiqW4KIcNcy2Kq8Ox7I-eSyX-rvZGNNenkb-GkhVciRug_pjkFAp/s320/neumann.jpg" width="295" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mark Neumann</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
In truth, to say that the world is slanted against black people opens you up to scorn. <i>You are just trying to appeal to white guilt or just trying to evade responsibility for problems that African Americans themselves created.</i> The trouble is, though, the world <i>is</i> slanted against black people. To ignore that slant is to ignore reality.<br />
<br />
Besides jobs, for instance, white people have dibs on <a href="http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/program_offices/fair_housing_equal_opp/lending/fairlend" target="_blank">bank loans</a> and <a href="http://www.huduser.org/portal/publications/hsgfin/hds.html" target="_blank">choice housing</a>, in comparison with black people with equal characteristics. White people have s<a href="http://www.sentencingproject.org/detail/publication.cfm?publication_id=52" target="_blank">tay-out-of-jail-free cards</a> that black people lack.<br />
<br />
The last thing I want, however, is for white people to feel guilty about that slant. After all, it's not really their fault. It's just how society is. But I do expect believers in the American creed of equal opportunity to work to neutralize this inbred racism and not to work in the opposite direction, as Fitzgerald has done, <a href="http://city.milwaukee.gov/ImageLibrary/Groups/ccCouncil/2011-PDF/01-Governorsbudgetslip-in2.pdf" target="_blank">by making it impossible for cities to consider race or residency</a> for awarding contracts and<a href="http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/legislature-moves-closer-to-repealing-racial-profiling-law/article_ed8f4e48-80e8-11e0-b6b6-001cc4c03286.html?mode=story" target="_blank"> by repealing a law that would have had law officers collect data</a> on the race of drivers involved in traffic stops. To counteract a racial bias built into society, you have to take race into account. <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8iN88iGLSlfu-okdl3Dz3thGuQ_uuvCJbFbzEOn6dPEwWNgrFFZTrhY21TLfgjsWYH8zjsSELVOvpEkvmtYidiYN1RYmavr8l9nzIxCcB90SkRbXB03lHL7quxC9v-AWBHwUcjtE-LooS/s1600/Thompson+4.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8iN88iGLSlfu-okdl3Dz3thGuQ_uuvCJbFbzEOn6dPEwWNgrFFZTrhY21TLfgjsWYH8zjsSELVOvpEkvmtYidiYN1RYmavr8l9nzIxCcB90SkRbXB03lHL7quxC9v-AWBHwUcjtE-LooS/s320/Thompson+4.jpg" width="288" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tommy Thompson</td></tr>
</tbody></table>At the same time, I expect African Americans not to use that bias as a crutch, as an excuse for not fully applying themselves. Rather, the forces arrayed against us are all the more reason to hang tough. The wisdom of our foreparents still holds: You have to work twice as hard as a white person to get ahead.<br />
<br />
Mark Neumann, the Republican ex-congressman who's also running for the Senate seat, showed some inkling of the racial disparity that hampers black people when I questioned him at his appearance at the Press Club earlier in the week. He suggested that the solution was putting jobs in the black community.<br />
<br />
A third Republican candidate, Tommy Thompson, demonstrated some sensitivity to that racial disparity when he was governor.<br />
<br />
Fitzgerald, in contrast, wallows in blissful ignorance of a crucial feature of American life.<b> </b><br />
<br />
<b>Note:</b> There is<a href="http://dwd.wisconsin.gov/dwd/newsreleases/2012/120323_cwi.pdf" target="_blank"> breaking news</a> as I post this commentary: Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development Secretary Reggie Newson announced Gov. Scott Walker was creating a task force to develop "action steps that address minority unemployment in metro Milwaukee, particularly the unacceptably high unemployment rate among black males." Co-chairs will be Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and state Rep. Elizabeth Coggs. The task force represents a departure from the pattern of hostility the Walker administration has shown toward black Milwaukee. The "action steps" should include ways to counter the preferential treatment whites receive over better qualified African Americans in the labor market, as demonstrated by a comparison of the jobless rates for black high school grads and white high school dropouts.<span style="font-size: small;"> </span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>More samples of studies pointing to a slant in American society against black people: </b></span><br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1894645762"><span style="font-size: small;">"Opportunities Denied, Opportunities Diminished:</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.urban.org/publications/204580.html" target="_blank"> Racial Discrimination in Hiring,"</a> Urban I<span style="font-family: inherit;">nstitute.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"<a href="http://www.knowledgeplex.org/kp/text_document_summary/scholarly_article/relfiles/jhr_0402_carr.pdf" target="_blank">The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Study on Mortgage Lending Revisted</a>," Journal of Housing Research.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://forums.focaljet.com/team-pit-stop/446591-blacks-pay-more-honda-car-loans.html" target="_blank">"Blacks pay more for Honda car loans,"</a> Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.covers.com/articles/articles.aspx?theArt=137816" target="_blank">"Report: Study suggests racial bias in calls by NBA referees,"</a> The New York Times.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://books.google.com/books/about/Marked.html?id=f067Pjis-T0C" target="_blank"><i>Marked: race, crime, and finding work in an era of mass incarceration</i></a>, Devah Pager.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/health_med_fit/article_1175c506-9b4a-11df-828c-001cc4c002e0.html" target="_blank">"Racial disparities found throughout organ transplant process,"</a> Madison Capitol Times.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/21/business/blacks-face-bias-in-bankruptcy-study-suggests.html?pagewanted=all" target="_blank">"Blacks Face Bias in Bankruptcy, Study Suggests,"</a> The New York Times.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.sj-r.com/breaking/x19209746/Illinois-minorities-more-likely-to-do-time-for-drugs" target="_blank">"Illinois minorities more likely to do time for drugs,"</a> Associated Press.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.suntimes.com/news/transportation/6498710-418/minorities-more-likely-to-get-tickets.html" target="_blank">"Study: Minorities more likely to get tickets, have vehicles searched,"</a> Chicago Sun Times.</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span>Gregory Stanfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04070893389398189225noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137939805986993877.post-75946794407739126872012-02-29T09:25:00.000-06:002012-02-29T09:25:00.129-06:00Blockbuster musical thrills audience at North<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwl0r1mRb7ULR3tEfQRt-LGziAphSAAm-i60nhTXPV4UWhmnKvgnWbZKh-ABK0TIHkRMe7cJWSP7zLWXIx1L0T33Na9OrWeWICefhGHaP7EKFSNcR4__AkcClurwdWDatiNIlmlL1U-eQg/s1600/CAPITA_Highlights_5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkedNlWEao8_X27bnwXV6Agc6UT3xxTB5DqeQNLdh8donjoUh9E0YbqwonRguwgqurNZhjKoQUJR8SBsuTWTdU3095SZrwJJ016KaDJJ7ArJT0tmreLSFDui56g_T4E0LMPsf-Eav1uc8Q/s1600/CAPITA_Highlights_6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkedNlWEao8_X27bnwXV6Agc6UT3xxTB5DqeQNLdh8donjoUh9E0YbqwonRguwgqurNZhjKoQUJR8SBsuTWTdU3095SZrwJJ016KaDJJ7ArJT0tmreLSFDui56g_T4E0LMPsf-Eav1uc8Q/s400/CAPITA_Highlights_6.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
So mesmerizing was the performance of "We Are the Drum" by Capita Productions over the weekend, I had to keep reminding myself I was in Milwaukee's North Division High School, not on New York City's Broadway. Everything about this high-energy, community-based musical, featuring mostly non-professionals, was superb: the choreography, the singing, the costumes, the story line, the staging.<br />
<br />
This blockbuster traces through music and dance the African-American experience - from Africa to present-day America, with some emphasis on Milwaukee. A live band performs in a pit, and vocalists demonstrate impressive talent on stage. <br />
<br />
Does the cast number about 100? It seemed that way. A good share was kids, and the tiniest were among the most vigorous dancers<br />
<br />
Capita Productions was founded in 1990 by the late Brother Booker Ashe, a Capuchin monk famous for serving Milwaukee's poor. Its president is <span class="center">Arlene Skwierawksi, the fabled music teacher who did wonders with the North Division choir.</span><br />
<br />
The show drew hundreds of people last Friday. Still too many seats were empty in the voluminous North Division theater. The artistry and craftsmanship, the sweat and tears that went into this community production deserve a full house. At the same time, Milwaukeeans owe to themselves the honest-to-goodness high the musical induces.<br />
<br />
There is good news, though. The show repeats this weekend, at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, March 2 and 3. Tickets range from $10 to $20. <a href="http://www.capitaproductions.org/tickets.html" target="_blank">Click here for details. </a>It's worth your while to attend.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwl0r1mRb7ULR3tEfQRt-LGziAphSAAm-i60nhTXPV4UWhmnKvgnWbZKh-ABK0TIHkRMe7cJWSP7zLWXIx1L0T33Na9OrWeWICefhGHaP7EKFSNcR4__AkcClurwdWDatiNIlmlL1U-eQg/s1600/CAPITA_Highlights_5.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwl0r1mRb7ULR3tEfQRt-LGziAphSAAm-i60nhTXPV4UWhmnKvgnWbZKh-ABK0TIHkRMe7cJWSP7zLWXIx1L0T33Na9OrWeWICefhGHaP7EKFSNcR4__AkcClurwdWDatiNIlmlL1U-eQg/s400/CAPITA_Highlights_5.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<i>Photographs are courtesy of Capita Productions.</i>Gregory Stanfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04070893389398189225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137939805986993877.post-79912958069033120962012-02-16T02:44:00.002-06:002012-02-16T14:50:25.812-06:00Hoping for a glimpse of the prez<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>The Master Lock company, which President Obama visited Wednesday, sits right smack in the middle of Milwaukee's black community. Onlookers gathered at N. 33rd and W. Clarke Streets, across from the plant's parking lot. A festive atmosphere prevailed.</i></span></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMy_cZTfALLtMAF9Nml8F_ik45IoxaaLr6UNYVvU4C4HrU0X95um0brjTES4b3iYqiE2ZC9CGhmRAPiOFE0SaISigs6pDFi_zH8R4_A-JPtZNjpR0IcJGKdx8m6Ew024synvSo9FaJuj_i/s1600/obama+visit+1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMy_cZTfALLtMAF9Nml8F_ik45IoxaaLr6UNYVvU4C4HrU0X95um0brjTES4b3iYqiE2ZC9CGhmRAPiOFE0SaISigs6pDFi_zH8R4_A-JPtZNjpR0IcJGKdx8m6Ew024synvSo9FaJuj_i/s400/obama+visit+1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMy_cZTfALLtMAF9Nml8F_ik45IoxaaLr6UNYVvU4C4HrU0X95um0brjTES4b3iYqiE2ZC9CGhmRAPiOFE0SaISigs6pDFi_zH8R4_A-JPtZNjpR0IcJGKdx8m6Ew024synvSo9FaJuj_i/s1600/obama+visit+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br />
</a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Kathy Vincent of Brookfield displayed a sign about union-busting Gov. Scott Walker. The sign proved to be popular.</i></span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1Dn7PUhUed2n54-O6Z0Bmix1h18kCnOcdUp6kYdgG_qwX1kUydoHGGrSb9-GdwM4sPaYaMgFtMyEcjsUax1jmPHrnKSgYkrpoqXGgl6qoVkT0VkFCW8WrHSp-yAMn_xWUmPxBJuqXnlNZ/s1600/obama+visit+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1Dn7PUhUed2n54-O6Z0Bmix1h18kCnOcdUp6kYdgG_qwX1kUydoHGGrSb9-GdwM4sPaYaMgFtMyEcjsUax1jmPHrnKSgYkrpoqXGgl6qoVkT0VkFCW8WrHSp-yAMn_xWUmPxBJuqXnlNZ/s400/obama+visit+2.jpg" width="303" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Here's a fuller look at the boarded-up house in front of which she stands. Board-ups, often the result of foreclosures, are not uncommon in the neighborhood.</i></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA0U16e_WG5e-N-H11mylB1XaZGYP88fTbULUDkV6il_mKCfHK9BEG4ei5n-J1xjAplwxURwYm2Qe520yAqQXOMQRwRB-UHvs_VWhNcJRYLvbbbKkU82hma07BGqFP_ul7imdCh42kHfLl/s1600/obama+visit+15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA0U16e_WG5e-N-H11mylB1XaZGYP88fTbULUDkV6il_mKCfHK9BEG4ei5n-J1xjAplwxURwYm2Qe520yAqQXOMQRwRB-UHvs_VWhNcJRYLvbbbKkU82hma07BGqFP_ul7imdCh42kHfLl/s400/obama+visit+15.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">This couple wear their support for Obama. Ernest Boyd says his niece gave him the jacket as a Christmas present after Obama was elected president. Not to be outdone, his wife Carolyn sports an Obama sweat shirt and a Michelle and Barack watch and pin. Ernest has a Barack pin, and they both wear Obama caps.</span></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgmFNWoXr5Xp3RWHPqo-5tRJk1TjiCWy0lqvpABhjWDkvh5zr07yts-8mx5-aD0Lg1Os_YV-oB2WGVJGNl1Kv8mXUNwDNzGsx6HkZ3Gd8hJwE7LF52XajOQwuDOF_cOdjUTIA8jJVAwt8Y/s1600/obama+visit+10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXuTayodG7d3_EHTb1XnXappwUqYKWGHrbzDIvMV7TN0hz5RsZxfAcZyULwJd-H_oKgvIRm8RKtmFJYB7MoIyKHao-SiZ5xom60HOzK2fNvQn3HOJR3GCjGWivxs66h4tvtAbzT465dgHX/s1600/obama+visit+8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXuTayodG7d3_EHTb1XnXappwUqYKWGHrbzDIvMV7TN0hz5RsZxfAcZyULwJd-H_oKgvIRm8RKtmFJYB7MoIyKHao-SiZ5xom60HOzK2fNvQn3HOJR3GCjGWivxs66h4tvtAbzT465dgHX/s400/obama+visit+8.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">As the president talks inside the plant about how businesses should follow Master Lock's example and bring jobs back from overseas, the crowd waits, hoping to get a glimpse of Obama as he leaves.</span></i></span></div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZojxQaQpzr3mVbKkls25WAz4YvAftbIQ1uSfYdFwAyuBMEBNPXzL76v2C0bVpzBp4XBxCuesyjhyXpiyhclH1hUwmK4qC0TV9HTWcBlhw0H6jVvU-SLlkovO2Rrf5DbqzYraZBo55wQle/s1600/obama+visit+9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZojxQaQpzr3mVbKkls25WAz4YvAftbIQ1uSfYdFwAyuBMEBNPXzL76v2C0bVpzBp4XBxCuesyjhyXpiyhclH1hUwmK4qC0TV9HTWcBlhw0H6jVvU-SLlkovO2Rrf5DbqzYraZBo55wQle/s400/obama+visit+9.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgAxIKdoSps2L-9DfoOcbhEReD3NtJL5XrUt1Ns4UFLVZz5A76oiGpCagzzW24JyT5Q8fi0hLX0AtS2mNR4i7Ge-BsoSdRFwI187Wyp1KyrECRmrUjI40kgPLwC_-E6GsME_Cjjd34ZXX2/s1600/obama+visit+14a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>The first dignitary to exit from the plant is state Sen. Lena Taylor of Milwaukee. She gets a hero's welcome from the crowd. She says Obama gave an excellent speech.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgmFNWoXr5Xp3RWHPqo-5tRJk1TjiCWy0lqvpABhjWDkvh5zr07yts-8mx5-aD0Lg1Os_YV-oB2WGVJGNl1Kv8mXUNwDNzGsx6HkZ3Gd8hJwE7LF52XajOQwuDOF_cOdjUTIA8jJVAwt8Y/s1600/obama+visit+10.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="347" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgmFNWoXr5Xp3RWHPqo-5tRJk1TjiCWy0lqvpABhjWDkvh5zr07yts-8mx5-aD0Lg1Os_YV-oB2WGVJGNl1Kv8mXUNwDNzGsx6HkZ3Gd8hJwE7LF52XajOQwuDOF_cOdjUTIA8jJVAwt8Y/s400/obama+visit+10.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><i> </i></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Dogs seek to sniff out trouble outside the parking lot.</i></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdPFEyG2RXPe1AaXizAuHb21ST66ua1KCipv4xznH_2NGMZZLCdqVQ99qkr_a78DNNKB-OjbpE9TJyrw9KibLpsozaoPjHAy0GvKmRv7jzYOP3yid4ZQicp6xeIJjgil8RDOFQLcF_rqFJ/s1600/obama+visit+11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="323" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdPFEyG2RXPe1AaXizAuHb21ST66ua1KCipv4xznH_2NGMZZLCdqVQ99qkr_a78DNNKB-OjbpE9TJyrw9KibLpsozaoPjHAy0GvKmRv7jzYOP3yid4ZQicp6xeIJjgil8RDOFQLcF_rqFJ/s400/obama+visit+11.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The calvary arrives. Members of the Occupy Milwaukee movement join the gathering. With their chants and signs, they add a hard edge to the assembly. While supportive of Obama, they demand that he do more. "Make the banks pay!" they chant. </span></span></i></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC6qy8fY-m3UrzKTNz3yo3JVvF97eoHPkatKvSEvmVluZM-Kwn__aeD53Ft6-vBKr2P9o9KnB8jMtbLJPXQInWnjd-Xcz0bnaKaBfeBkg7F3BHtQypIDJjqpnve_GxOtfyM0dW-XHF9AaD/s1600/obama+visit+12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC6qy8fY-m3UrzKTNz3yo3JVvF97eoHPkatKvSEvmVluZM-Kwn__aeD53Ft6-vBKr2P9o9KnB8jMtbLJPXQInWnjd-Xcz0bnaKaBfeBkg7F3BHtQypIDJjqpnve_GxOtfyM0dW-XHF9AaD/s400/obama+visit+12.jpg" width="233" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>James Causey, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial writer and columnist, exits and checks a photo he shot.</i></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW22KND950zZnnxqU5jyO_AFthlX3FpyfmEoYE32et27eoRorjMZnmcqabsbWbBrzSUcY02cSB4BmVXn8q4ByjKL2r2ZLI9GRXoySI7hDk7xLY9z8qgrXCG3yt0yrRUuaoaGShEECeT3u5/s1600/obama+visit+13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW22KND950zZnnxqU5jyO_AFthlX3FpyfmEoYE32et27eoRorjMZnmcqabsbWbBrzSUcY02cSB4BmVXn8q4ByjKL2r2ZLI9GRXoySI7hDk7xLY9z8qgrXCG3yt0yrRUuaoaGShEECeT3u5/s400/obama+visit+13.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>The need for jobs is a major theme. More examples of chants: </i></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Jobs, not jail</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>and</i></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Money for school and education,<br />
not for banks and corporations</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i></i></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i></i></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><br />
Suddenly, local, county, state and federal law officers speed north on 33rd, toward Center Street in their cars. They came from the south, not from the lot across the street, as many in the crowd had expected. Black limousines follow. "He's in the second one," someone says. But the cars are but a blur. Nobody catches a glimpse of the prez. The action was so quick I couldn't take a decent shot with my camera. Still, echoing the crowd's general sentiment, a gentleman says aloud, "It was still worth coming." There is something awe-striking about being in the presence of the nation's live symbol, moreso when that symbol gives you hope. </i></span></span></div>Gregory Stanfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04070893389398189225noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137939805986993877.post-50106994110855875082012-01-26T14:07:00.001-06:002012-01-26T20:55:29.440-06:00Political landscape shifted on Tommy Thompson<div class="MsoNormal">Don’t let the gray hair fool you. Tommy Thompson is as spunky as ever. But back when he was top dog in Wisconsin, politics was a mere boxing match. Now it’s Mortal Kombat. Can he master the new game?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEF1uW7yPsR3eNvirEC5OgPcQT4xjoNR-AGnkBxx07pfGzGsMzRDQFBYo5kNPeEv6uN_RTcLo72rfhRYARZZy54rELLwgK5NCd5FhqcHLMnjQLgIcP92sLe9sxy5cwtI_lSqicAyGxHwxc/s1600/Thompson+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEF1uW7yPsR3eNvirEC5OgPcQT4xjoNR-AGnkBxx07pfGzGsMzRDQFBYo5kNPeEv6uN_RTcLo72rfhRYARZZy54rELLwgK5NCd5FhqcHLMnjQLgIcP92sLe9sxy5cwtI_lSqicAyGxHwxc/s400/Thompson+4.jpg" width="360" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The state’s longest-serving governor stopped by the Milwaukee Press Club the other day to explain why he would be an “excellent” choice to fill the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Democrat Herb Kohl. Like many a politician, the Republican Thompson, who’s 70, made his case with truths, half-truths and exaggerations.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">An impressive truth is that in all but 18 months of his 14 years as governor, Democrats controlled the Legislature. Yet, "nobody can't say I didn't accomplish a great deal.” Amen to that. Trouble is, the Republican Party now views as a character flaw playing nice with the other side to get things done.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The former Bush cabinet member did his obligatory attacks on President Obama. Thompson said that, under Obama, the national debt has soared from $10 trillion to $16 trillion – which is a teeny bit less deceitful way to put it than do the Republicans on the presidential campaign trail, who say outright Obama <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">caused</i> the rise. <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/07/the-chart-that-should-accompany-all-discussions-of-the-debt-ceiling/242484/">Actually, the lion’s share ($5 trillion) of the increase stems from the continuing impact of President Bush’s economic policies</a>, especially his tax cuts and two wars. In seeking to end the tax cuts for the wealthy, Obama has tried to slow the hemorrhaging, but the Republicans have blocked him at every turn.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Like Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, Thompson is milking so-called welfare reform. Gingrich was speaker of the House when Congress and President Bill Clinton did what was never done before or since – end an entitlement program: Aid to Families with Dependent Children. The replacement was Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, which is not an entitlement. The Wisconsin version of TANF is Wisconsin Works. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Thompson boasted that the switch, which indeed he did spearhead, led to a 90% reduction in the state welfare caseload – whch he views as an astounding success. Trouble is, cutting off life support for needy, powerless kids and and their moms takes neither brains nor guts. It just takes a cold heart. The correct measure of success is how are poor families faring. On the streets desperation seems to have only intensified..</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Don’t get me wrong. Welfare as we knew it needed reform, mainly because it was losing almost all political support. And the alternative had to be work-oriented. But imbedded in W-2 are wrong-headed policies that reflect a disdain for poor people and keep the program from being the help it ought to be. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">When asked about the successful effort to date of current Gov. Scott Walker to eliminate the right to collective bargaining for public employees, Thompson made clear he would not criticize his successor. “He’s the governor, and I support him. I was not there when he was making his decision based upon the facts and evidence that he had. I’m not going to come now and Monday morning quarterback and say I would have done it different. I probably would have, but I don’t know.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">He gave a similar reply when asked whether he would have sent back to Washington the $810 million Walker returned for high-speed rail from Chicago to Milwaukee to Madison. A rail buff and former chairman of the Amtrak board, Thompson said he supported Walker, but he would have made the Milwaukee-to-Madison leg truly high speed. As it was, he said, the train would have had too many stops to go fast.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I swear I could almost hear Thompson thinking something like this: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">That kid made some boneheaded decisions, but I have no choice but to support the top Republican in the state.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Once it was not uncommon for Republicans to openly back collective bargaining or high-speed rail. But times have changed. Thompson made note of the new landscape: When he first ran for governor, he was criticized as being too conservative. Now, he said, the criticism is that he’s not conservative enough.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Thompson admitted that the negative tone of today’s politics turns him cold: "We have just way too much of tearing things down in the country,” he said. ”I don't believe in this politics of destruction."</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The other Republican candidates are state Assembly speaker Jeff Fitzgerald and former southeastern Wisconsin Congressperson Mark Neumann. The sole Democrat running for Kohl’s seat is Madison-area congressperson Tammy Baldwin </div>Gregory Stanfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04070893389398189225noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137939805986993877.post-73132485269901246042012-01-23T02:21:00.003-06:002012-01-24T08:47:10.043-06:00Newt gives new life to Southern strategy<div class="MsoNormal">Dear Newt:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Your victory in South Carolina has made me proud. Though we have never met, I have come to think of you as my second son. You were floundering in the race for president until, wisely, you borrowed from my playbook. Some of them “elite” (heh, heh) commentators said my game plan had lost its clout, but you showed ’em. The Southern Strategy – that’s how the eggheads christened my playbook – still has some life in it.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTWkpdNKOw8cj7C7gjFRuT964uiqc8BZNav5Hd6cuZr5SL3L5olRBeb0FTdwyQsXmMsO5zK8rkfT52VSxorIJwh4nGmFRDehC-41nEEVLAuv2qK3bjSmHM6S5ALWaW2hkaa0_3UKqXAZoA/s1600/465px-Newt_Gingrich_by_Gage_Skidmore_3.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTWkpdNKOw8cj7C7gjFRuT964uiqc8BZNav5Hd6cuZr5SL3L5olRBeb0FTdwyQsXmMsO5zK8rkfT52VSxorIJwh4nGmFRDehC-41nEEVLAuv2qK3bjSmHM6S5ALWaW2hkaa0_3UKqXAZoA/s320/465px-Newt_Gingrich_by_Gage_Skidmore_3.jpg" width="248" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo credit: Gage Skidmore</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">The way you put that black journalist Juan Wiliams in his place – well, that was just masterful. He was calling you out on your use of the Southern Strategy by your implications that black people lack a work ethic. Not only did you stand your ground, but you also used the question as a platform to attack Barack Obama. The audience went wild. The idea of the Southern strategy is, of course, that you win votes by appealing to white prejudice against black people. Even the way you said “Juan” was masterful; it sounded almost like “Boy.” The audience got the message, if only subconsciously.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTWkpdNKOw8cj7C7gjFRuT964uiqc8BZNav5Hd6cuZr5SL3L5olRBeb0FTdwyQsXmMsO5zK8rkfT52VSxorIJwh4nGmFRDehC-41nEEVLAuv2qK3bjSmHM6S5ALWaW2hkaa0_3UKqXAZoA/s1600/465px-Newt_Gingrich_by_Gage_Skidmore_3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a>Your labeling President Obama “the food-stamp president” was a coup. Amazingly, you may have even outdone me in sophistry. The cracks in the free enterprise system widen during bad times. Hence, regardless of who’s president, more people will fall through the cracks into the social safety net, of which food stamps are a part. But saying that Obama has broken records in putting people on food stamps feeds nicely into stereotypes many whites have of blacks.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">You doubtless know the story of my first run for Alabama governor. It was 1958, and my Ku Klux Klan-backed opponent, John Patterson, portrayed me as a friend of the Negro, and I lost. With the bitter aftertaste of defeat in my mouth, I swore I would never, ever be outniggered again. And the rest is history. I became the symbol for defiance against integration. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>The beauty was the strategy worked up North, too, when I ran for president. Of course, I couldn’t use the N-word, like politicians used to do in Alabama. I just talked about law and order and "sissy-britches welfare people." The audience got the code. I won a third of the vote in the Democratic primary in Wisconsin in 1964.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlFifq9rz5Grq6WdxC-KRPrH9maBiR3dxWF96K3A8YHtp1gzOXt_hmKLzZpdILoDP2mDJyQ-DJGJLtF3ovJVp1Z-SKWUDtPdVSzkJKXIevfbGciPO-WMJdYQPxt-5rMZT32_-gC74KJG7_/s1600/408px-George_C_Wallace_%2528Alabama_Governor%2529.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlFifq9rz5Grq6WdxC-KRPrH9maBiR3dxWF96K3A8YHtp1gzOXt_hmKLzZpdILoDP2mDJyQ-DJGJLtF3ovJVp1Z-SKWUDtPdVSzkJKXIevfbGciPO-WMJdYQPxt-5rMZT32_-gC74KJG7_/s320/408px-George_C_Wallace_%2528Alabama_Governor%2529.png" width="217" /></a><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">My playbook wasn’t copyrighted, and the Republicans stole it, making in short order the solidly Democratic South solidly Republican and making inroads into white, blue-collar neighborhoods up North.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Some in the media, doubtless old hippies, have said that my playbook will soon run its course because it will start turning off more voters than it turns on – thanks in large part to the dastardly Voting Rights Act and out-of-control immigration. Even Karl Rove, George Bush’s brain, subscribed to that theory. Well, your showing in South Carolina demonstrates the strategy still has juice. Of course, the Confederate flag still flies at the Statehouse. So Republican South Carolinians may be more susceptible to that strategy than their compatriots elsewhere.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I wish you well and will continue to watch with interest your race for the Republican nomination for president. We get Fox News down here. I hope to shake your hand soon. I know a tavern we can go to. The beer is not too horrible.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Yours sincerely, </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">George Corley Wallace</div>Gregory Stanfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04070893389398189225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137939805986993877.post-9093003267514304092012-01-19T00:57:00.011-06:002012-01-19T13:54:52.709-06:00The torch has passed to a new generation<embed flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&captions=1&hl=en_US&feat=flashalbum&RGB=0x000000&feed=https%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2F108963108572434115032%2Falbumid%2F5699201030593399265%3Falt%3Drss%26kind%3Dphoto%26hl%3Den_US" height="267" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" src="https://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400"></embed>> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal">The nation’s Occupy movement has picked up the torch that Martin Luther King Jr. once carried to light the path to justice. That was the theme at the King birthday rally this week at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Milwaukee.<br />
<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal">"The gap between the rich and the poor continues to grow,” said George Martin, a grizzled Milwaukee peace activist who noted that King was focusing on that gap near the end of his life. “The United States has become the wealthiest Third World country on Earth."</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Martin pointed out that the Occupy movement was trying to narrow the wide gap between the top one per cent of personal income in America and the bottom 99%.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Peggy Rozga saw parallels between the youthful Occupy movement in Milwaukee and the city’s NAACP Youth Council, which led a marathon series of open housing marches and other demonstrations in the 1960s. "Milwaukee has a history of young people standing up for justice," said Rozga, a poet and writer and widow of Father James Groppi, the civil rights leader who was adviser to the Youth Council.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Echoing that sentiment, Danielle Meyer of Occupy Milwaukee said of the struggles waged by King and Groppi, “Their movement is our movement.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Besides King, the rally honored Groppi and Father Matthew Gottschalk, former pastor at St. Francis. The rally’s sponsor was the Milwaukee Justice Coalition.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Meyer accused Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker of giving tax breaks to millionaires while cutting BaderCare, Wisconsin’s health care program for poor people.. Many on Wall Street own several properties while Milwaukeeans lose their homes, she said. <span class="blogtext" id="ContentPlaceHolder1_lblArticle">The one per cent caused the current economic crisis, she added, but the 99% pay the price. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Angela Walker, legislative director of Local 998 of the Amalgamated Transit Union, noted that, when he was a bus driver, Groppi was president of the union. She said the battleground was no longer Selma or Montgomery. Rather, it was in places like the state capitol, where public schools are defunded and union rights are stripped away.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Khalil Coleman, of the Occupy the Hood movement, called on Milwaukeeans to stand up for justice with action, not just words.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Chance Zombor, of Decolonize the Barrio, warned that the gains of the civil rights movement “are being pulled out from under us.” There is more war and more economic injustice, he said, and even President Obama is a culprit with his stepped up deportations and measures curtailing civil liberties.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Many at the rally marched four blocks from the church at 1927 N. 4th St. to the Martin Luther King statue at Walnut St. and Martin Luther King Dr., where members of the crowd spoke at an open microphone and elaborated on the themes voiced at the church.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>Note: The graininess of the photos inside the church is due to technical difficulties. After much debate with myself, I decided that they were worth posting anyway.</i></div>Gregory Stanfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04070893389398189225noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137939805986993877.post-34563003992152439052011-11-13T17:43:00.001-06:002011-11-13T21:52:35.293-06:00Education not paying for young African Americans?<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjA3QXV64E9hy4-as59PCYgDylTjZpKJPWRT358roapZLb2QyRuhHa6CPGNkjA-b_zmrhwRne4JYrjPVA5N_tccPPQW6M8kDhDJywS_CJt9xAiB3ZLe8rD3T7pl0NYhqmoz6w9PaKHvjg6/s1600/chart.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjA3QXV64E9hy4-as59PCYgDylTjZpKJPWRT358roapZLb2QyRuhHa6CPGNkjA-b_zmrhwRne4JYrjPVA5N_tccPPQW6M8kDhDJywS_CJt9xAiB3ZLe8rD3T7pl0NYhqmoz6w9PaKHvjg6/s400/chart.jpg" width="331" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Source: <a href="http://www.bls.gov/web/empsit/cpseea16.pdf">U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<br />
CNN rightly noted recently that the unemployment rate for young people had risen to alarming levels. What's even more alarming, however, is how these numbers play out race-wise - which CNN did not touch on.<br />
<br />
As the accompanying chart suggests, among 16- to 24-year-olds not currently enrolled in school, a <i>white</i> person <i>without</i> a high school diploma has a better chance of landing a job in America than does a <i>black</i> person <i>with</i> a high school diploma.<br />
<br />
In October, the black grad's big brother armed with a four-year college degree only matched the employability of that white person who had not yet completed the 12th grade.<br />
<br />
Such black-white disparity has long marked the job front. Still, it's news to many people - likely due to the inattention of the media. The disparity conflicts with the narrative now holding sway across the land: America is post-racial. Blacks don't fare as well as whites in the job market simply because blacks don't have as good of an education as whites - due to either bad schools or the failure of black students to apply themselves.<br />
<br />
The figures paint a different picture: Young black people who do the work to acquire the proper credentials have a harder time making it in the job market than young white people with fewer credentials.<br />
<br />
The lessons these numbers teach:<br />
<ul><li>CNN correctly fretted that that the persistently high unemployment rate among young people in recent years is creating a class of adults with no job experience -- which bodes ill for the nation. Well, that worry doubles with respect to young African Americans, who are being ravaged by unemployment. </li>
<li>The nation, which preaches that education pays, is failing to demonstrate that fact to black children. The high jobless rate for black high school grads means that many African American kids have older brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, and neighbors and acquaintances who have earned diplomas, but can't get jobs. If children could see that education really does pay, then they themselves would take schooling more seriously and be less likely to drop out.</li>
<li>It'll take more than better schools and anti-truancy campaigns to close the racial gap in employment. It'll take programs to counter the disadvantage black people suffer in the job market on account of their race - in other words, affirmative action.</li>
</ul>Gregory Stanfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04070893389398189225noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137939805986993877.post-24714273631455844992011-10-07T01:48:00.000-05:002011-10-07T01:48:21.770-05:00Milwaukee still leads nation in black-white jobs gap<div class="MsoNormal">Milwaukee remained among the toughest metro areas in America for black people to find work in 2010, according to new federal estimates.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQkQKZOKDLn8JfT0uzx0Q4jZ7D3zuDjvEH6KasISXnbeeXUfQ5WG9T8ynwuTm2l1PTogPgZrVEN2y-YJr8RMUEj8zFbl1HrELM-hBkl_pEStBUm2r5g7R1WD5D-GvS-Pt5yYe34e7J6jVz/s1600/employ+table+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQkQKZOKDLn8JfT0uzx0Q4jZ7D3zuDjvEH6KasISXnbeeXUfQ5WG9T8ynwuTm2l1PTogPgZrVEN2y-YJr8RMUEj8zFbl1HrELM-hBkl_pEStBUm2r5g7R1WD5D-GvS-Pt5yYe34e7J6jVz/s640/employ+table+1.jpg" width="196" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Asr-s8nO4wnZdDlEYkh4M09hajNXWFFTaE9ULUEzRmc&hl=en_US">For complete tables, click here.</a></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Metro jobless rates by race for last year <a href="http://www.bls.gov/opub/gp/pdf/gp10_27.pdf">have recently come out</a>, and the black rate for Milwaukee is 25.6%, on its face the second worst rate in the nation. What’s more, the gap between how blacks and whites fared job-wise is on its face wider in Milwaukee than in any other major metro area.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The caution you may hear is because wide margins of error (due to small samples) make the federal estimates fuzzier than the percentage points imply. Thus, the Milwaukee black unemployment rate was likely somewhere between 23.2% and 29.8%, putting Brew City in a statistical 10-way tie for the worst black jobless rate among 53 major metro areas in the nation. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">But don’t breathe a sigh of relief, Milwaukee. Almost every year over the last quarter century, the federal data put Milwaukee at or near the top in worst black unemployment rate and in widest gap between white and black rates – a pattern suggesting the high ranking is no fluke.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Here are some general reasons for that ranking (reasons that admittedly raise more questions than they answer):</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 39.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQnRc8wzHXP_UoplljzXiohTvAOu4rbLmNOoSIAaZH9qp6BHI1ttooaa52hw2b_cgZUjZTJrXw_LgsY5rtfYkefjWmnRnExTmBAzBbPcmN4_pZlv_KPiWjo3NEJlqRJW05BACDoG_P_zbk/s1600/employ+table+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQnRc8wzHXP_UoplljzXiohTvAOu4rbLmNOoSIAaZH9qp6BHI1ttooaa52hw2b_cgZUjZTJrXw_LgsY5rtfYkefjWmnRnExTmBAzBbPcmN4_pZlv_KPiWjo3NEJlqRJW05BACDoG_P_zbk/s1600/employ+table+2.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Source of data:<a href="http://www.bls.gov/opub/gp/pdf/gp10_27.pdf"> U.S.Bureau<br />
of Labor Statistics</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Shuttered factories.</b> It’s no accident that, of the 10 worst areas for black people to find jobs, five – Milwaukee, Buffalo, Detroit, Minneapolis and Rochester, N.Y. – are part of the old northern Rust Belt, where abandoned or reconverted factories only hint at the prosperity that once was. Those factories used to be the mainstay of black employment. Their collapse idled black workers by the legions. Whites, in contrast, were not quite as reliant on manufacturing for their livelihood. What’s more, white blue collar workers had better luck finding new jobs, albeit often with pay cuts, than did black workers.</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 39.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Hypersegregation.</b> No matter how you measure it, blacks and whites live more apart in the Milwaukee metro area than in almost any other metro area in the nation. One historic purpose of racial segregation is to make it easier to discriminate against black people. You could put the “whites” sign over the good water fountain and the “colored” sign over the bad one. Hence, jobs are cropping up mostly in outlying areas, where white people live almost exclusively, rather than in the metro core, where the vast bulk of the area’s African Americans resides.</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 39.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Lack of transit.</b> Many black workers lack the means to get to the new outlying jobs. They lack cars or legitimate driver’s licenses, and public transit doesn’t get them there.</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 39.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Young black brain drain.</b> Anecdotal evidence suggests that young, talented African Americans are steadily fleeing Milwaukee because they feel they don’t get a fair shake from the town’s business community. Indeed, the management of private businesses in metro Milwaukee <a href="http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Tu4eAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Pz0EAAAAIBAJ&pg=5008,6667659&dq=job+ceiling+black+milwaukee&hl=en">ranks among the least racially diverse in the nation</a>. The brain drain lessens the pool of black workers who could hold professional or skilled or managerial jobs or start their own enterprises.</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 39.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">School ills. </b>Schools that don’t work and students who don’t do the work are certainly factors—but overrated ones, in my opinion. No question, we need to fix the schools and prod students to perform, so that young people will be better prepared to hold jobs. Still, were black high school <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">grads </i>merely to get the same job opportunities that white high school <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">dropouts</i> get, the black jobless rate would decline, and the argument that a diploma pays would gain more force among young people. Nationally last year, among workers 25 years old and up, African Americans with high school diplomas had <a href="http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat7.pdf">an unemployment rate of 15.8%, which compared to 13.9% for white dropouts</a>. Now imagine the even greater change were black grads to be treated more like white grads, who boasted an unemployment rate of 9%.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Another reason used to be proffered, particularly by conservative talking heads: the welfare state. Wisconsin’s generous welfare benefits were said to somehow cause high black unemployment in Milwaukee. That analysis ignored one relevant detail: To be counted as unemployed, you have to be looking for work. So if you were lounging at home, eating bonbons, watching “Oprah,” and not looking (the image the talking heads liked to paint), you wouldn’t be added to the unemployment rolls. Still, high black unemployment was among the many ills Wisconsin’s welfare reform was touted to cure.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Wisconsin dumped Aid to Families with Dependent Children and started Wisconsin Works, one of the stingiest welfare programs in the country for needy moms and their kids. Almost all public aid is tied to work. The sky-high black jobless rate persists in metro Milwaukee, nonetheless.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Gregory Stanfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04070893389398189225noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137939805986993877.post-53644132671121556202011-09-06T01:41:00.004-05:002011-09-06T13:00:55.950-05:00Black activists look inward to solve youth violence<div class="MsoNormal">Enough with the hand-wringing. To reduce violence by teens, get involved in their lives. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJI1Nquw_vyLllxYkK5Ine70gb2y8SD5Rz7akxn6I0qtVEZfk0xeWTbx6NHG6T7AmpENuJUHyvfEfpbqZgJdnk-5ISRlJP6oHliQIkAvzmX2KAquMm9ErLs7b9cKDoNJnr-ixEPgR53A9o/s1600/antiviolence2.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJI1Nquw_vyLllxYkK5Ine70gb2y8SD5Rz7akxn6I0qtVEZfk0xeWTbx6NHG6T7AmpENuJUHyvfEfpbqZgJdnk-5ISRlJP6oHliQIkAvzmX2KAquMm9ErLs7b9cKDoNJnr-ixEPgR53A9o/s200/antiviolence2.jpg" width="171" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Rev. Linda M. Words</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">That’s the message black Milwaukee activists are preaching after last month’s stunner of a shooting. Sharon Staples, hard-working mother of seven, with two more in her womb, lost her life allegedly to teens after she refused to give them her purse, and as one of her sons, 13, watched.<br />
<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">'Don't talk about, ‘Well, I don't know what we're going to do with them,’” Janette Herrera of the Campaign Against Violence demanded at a community meeting Saturday. “The reason you don't know is because you're not involved. Get involved."</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The Rev. Nathaniel Stampley invited men to join him this Friday in his group’s fifth walk down streets in Milwaukee’s black community to engage with young people.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDI2H46anxd4dRGKQCajc4_0wz0fmhv0ECj38JkJJC8xhyCVBz5BflZe8n23bo954jJx97FDjarDh7rB7wuza2XR71UM8Z85uKDqciuXFWamUOWWbMuXOZf7qoIFf0En4I2wyPfOuphzAb/s1600/antiviolence1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="154" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDI2H46anxd4dRGKQCajc4_0wz0fmhv0ECj38JkJJC8xhyCVBz5BflZe8n23bo954jJx97FDjarDh7rB7wuza2XR71UM8Z85uKDqciuXFWamUOWWbMuXOZf7qoIFf0En4I2wyPfOuphzAb/s320/antiviolence1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Audience at Coffee Makes You Black panel discussion</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">Strikingly, black activists are aiming their message of involvement squarely at black people, rather than the larger society, which the activists view as hostile. Milwaukee is among the most racist areas in the nation, Stampley said, citing exceptionally wide racial gaps in statistical measures of well-being here (such as unemployment and poverty rates). But, he added, that fact mustn’t stop black men from doing what they must do to reconnect with young people.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">"We have got to do our own thing," said the Rev. Linda M. Words of Women Informing the Community. "We need to understand our own issues, what we're dealing with so we can come together and be more productive in our own community."</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWuPal41MFSxwyMPRrTxDjGnQdyaQHC1PS1Bbjy5OhJoa4B8pBXojTGBZ0V4BSb0CFyTQAKMs_YlD9UWVKMItlRDWLvvZ5xBOpIFW8ayic501FCr-F6Qat9hnqOp3MtocfYKEDfoekEEj1/s1600/antiviolence8.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWuPal41MFSxwyMPRrTxDjGnQdyaQHC1PS1Bbjy5OhJoa4B8pBXojTGBZ0V4BSb0CFyTQAKMs_YlD9UWVKMItlRDWLvvZ5xBOpIFW8ayic501FCr-F6Qat9hnqOp3MtocfYKEDfoekEEj1/s400/antiviolence8.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Paradign Drumline put on a dazzling show at anti-violence picnic Sunday in Washington Park. In foreground are drummers Tony Hibbler, the director, and Josiah Young.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="text-align: right;"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">She added: "I want to say to all my brothers, ‘I don't care how much they beat you down …. Don't look to the left. Don't look to the right. Stay focused on your goal because we love you.’"</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>She said she once worked in corporate America and “their issues are not your issues.”<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7GiRwJ2FtYCdd4Ru5MGLjLrpNZvEOsoOOJ1gBo9HN5klF7z-usg7g_9-LCKVIiEI12w4Gp_Wam0QFiwHRVqykAypfE3fKdEOkA7fZv4AiU7dn-11Zh7sXi-iCs_3u3gyI52iPdh8O1Jd0/s320/antiviolence6.jpg" width="227" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Phil Martin Jr. and Marna Windosa</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">The activists spoke at a panel discussion at Coffee Makes U Black coffee house, 2803 N. Teutonia Ave. The next day the Campaign Against Violence staged its annual picnic and rally at Washington Park.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Stampley, a former Milwaukee County supervisor, said that his group, Kingdom Builders of Milwaukee, was marching at 6 p.m. this Friday from his church, Heritage International Ministries, 1036 W. Atkinson Ave. and would likely walk down King Dr. Up to 25 men have participated in previous marches, Stampley said, and “many wonderful stories” have unfolded. They engaged young people playing basketball on two different playgrounds, he said. They got the young people to join in circles in which the men prayed for the boys and gave them bottles of water.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBzU-70LAk5r6CNU5Ed2iIM9HBzq244aklt8U_E3rVkLPlCVOZngA83axZ11e9D4gUeiI2gmHyaK0ggoPJvdHjAcZCdlBEf8y6pItrY3iMVuEY6LQMFiE_RHBk8CW1dk1VSogKfRgRF2nL/s1600/antiviolence9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBzU-70LAk5r6CNU5Ed2iIM9HBzq244aklt8U_E3rVkLPlCVOZngA83axZ11e9D4gUeiI2gmHyaK0ggoPJvdHjAcZCdlBEf8y6pItrY3iMVuEY6LQMFiE_RHBk8CW1dk1VSogKfRgRF2nL/s200/antiviolence9.jpg" width="193" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Janette Herrera </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">The problem with many teens is the lack of male participation in their lives, Stampley said, “and boys thinking they’re men just because of their size.” In Africa, which he has visited 24 times, fathers and uncles <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">are </i>involved in the lives of boys. But here, many boys lack such involvement and, often as a result, cultural values.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Continuing the theme of self-reliance, Tony Courtney, who emceed the panel discussion, and Ruben Hopkins, who chairs the Wisconsin Black Chamber of Commerce, encouraged the audience to buy from black businesses and to start their own businesses.</div>Gregory Stanfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04070893389398189225noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137939805986993877.post-68245316018345910682011-08-17T14:54:00.002-05:002011-08-18T09:21:10.230-05:00Voters bless Dems' flight from Wisconsin<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMQ2Lh8arFkNgmzkzm_P0Ih2MSxRlmghZrRQqBP0pWPd-0KYidxc4t5eCZsY1HYMtqYU-Xy48qheYRw8a7HSNTxnRx-FH0HVEBAvdx_Id_aX4cKOOtscBFwUqFSAJmo8S7aSFdti57lAVP/s1600/jim+holperin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmvrV4jMreXonbJbse3dSbEL61Pk89SOXMBFXpQsFAAzB4QL6ZwPYBcmwR80JBsPvCVy_sDm-HcKVLeUkxxXpgkuZfhAhXfy4zpuBvUaK4HLHrDfnPMvo5RpOz_FnzWGiX4XzKQrxvqehv/s1600/robert+wirch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br />
</a></div>The dust has settled. Two Republican state senators lay fallen in Wisconsin. All Democrats remain standing.<br />
<br />
Lessons to draw from the state's historic series of recall elections: <br />
<br />
<ul><li>The flight of state Democratic senators from Wisconsin earlier this year enjoys the blessing of the voters. </li>
<li>The proponents of returning Wisconsin and America to the days of Herbert Hoover are a force to be reckoned with.</li>
<li>Hence, true believers of the Wisconsin state motto – "Forward" – must dig in for the long haul.</li>
</ul><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmvrV4jMreXonbJbse3dSbEL61Pk89SOXMBFXpQsFAAzB4QL6ZwPYBcmwR80JBsPvCVy_sDm-HcKVLeUkxxXpgkuZfhAhXfy4zpuBvUaK4HLHrDfnPMvo5RpOz_FnzWGiX4XzKQrxvqehv/s1600/robert+wirch.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmvrV4jMreXonbJbse3dSbEL61Pk89SOXMBFXpQsFAAzB4QL6ZwPYBcmwR80JBsPvCVy_sDm-HcKVLeUkxxXpgkuZfhAhXfy4zpuBvUaK4HLHrDfnPMvo5RpOz_FnzWGiX4XzKQrxvqehv/s200/robert+wirch.jpg" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Robert Wirch</td></tr>
</tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMQ2Lh8arFkNgmzkzm_P0Ih2MSxRlmghZrRQqBP0pWPd-0KYidxc4t5eCZsY1HYMtqYU-Xy48qheYRw8a7HSNTxnRx-FH0HVEBAvdx_Id_aX4cKOOtscBFwUqFSAJmo8S7aSFdti57lAVP/s1600/jim+holperin.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMQ2Lh8arFkNgmzkzm_P0Ih2MSxRlmghZrRQqBP0pWPd-0KYidxc4t5eCZsY1HYMtqYU-Xy48qheYRw8a7HSNTxnRx-FH0HVEBAvdx_Id_aX4cKOOtscBFwUqFSAJmo8S7aSFdti57lAVP/s200/jim+holperin.jpg" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jim Holperin </td></tr>
</tbody></table>On Tuesday Democratic Senators Robert Wirch and Jim Holperin easily prevailed in their recall elections in the Kenosha area and the North Woods, respectively, just as Dave Hansen did a month ago in the Green Bay area. The stated motive of the recalls was to punish Democratic senators for vacating the state rather than vote on Gov. Scott Walker's proposal to strip public employee unions of collective bargaining rights. <br />
<br />
But voters were in the mood to reward rather than punish. Remember, not only did they return the three Democrats to office, but earlier they thwarted Republican efforts to get enough signatures to force a recall for five other targeted Dems.<br />
<br />
Voters thus displayed sympathy for the Democrats' drastic tactic of leaving the state to delay a vote on Walker's drastic union-busting bill. Republicans like to argue that, in fleeing Dairyland, the Democratic senators abdicated their duty as lawmakers. But voters apparently believe the Democrats were actually doing their duty. Their departure delayed a vote on the bill and thus bought time for public reaction, which came in the form of huge protests at the state Capitol. <br />
<br />
Democrats did gain. They had been outnumbered in the Senate by five. [An earlier version of this post had the wrong number.] Now, the margin is just one. But truth be told, they had dared hope for even more: control of the Senate. That Republicans held onto the majority testifies to their tenacity (and possibly to lousy campaign ads on behalf of the Democratic challengers.)<br />
<br />
The Republicans are not the party of the future. The ranks of white voters – whence the Republican Party strength hails – is shrinking. Its three-note economic policy – cut taxes on the rich, rules for businesses and help for the poor – leads to disasters (such as the current economic doldrums in which the nation is stuck). And the future will not regard kindly the party's other quaint notions, such as anti-environmentalism. But maybe a party is most tenacious when it's dying.<br />
<br />
Perhaps sensing their time is lapsing, Repubican leaders are going all out to extend their rule (for instance, through redistricting and voter ID laws, which makes voting more complicated and thereby a tad less likely, particularly for poor people, older people and students.) And like the Dems, the GOP threw everything it had and then some into the recall battle and succeeded in keeping its losses to just two.<br />
<br />
That the Senate didn't turn over is no reason for progressives to lose faith. The political momentum is still theirs – momentum helped by the flow of history.<br />
<br />
<br />
Gregory Stanfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04070893389398189225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137939805986993877.post-58665957952316014212011-07-26T20:09:00.003-05:002011-07-27T14:57:27.648-05:00Maybe tax cuts will work one of these years<div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQNBPhj2Ckyfpyqqztjf6C17SZmE1TDr983mdicPESKA-_UlXSGRsKeU6LtG7Xk7NoZicYU9e9tXAsjIzx6_BQk982tcIZUZEhF-wmk-4aEIODG8b0-XnSCyYxQA8SQI_1vseoVvSExEj6/s1600/job+growth+chart+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQNBPhj2Ckyfpyqqztjf6C17SZmE1TDr983mdicPESKA-_UlXSGRsKeU6LtG7Xk7NoZicYU9e9tXAsjIzx6_BQk982tcIZUZEhF-wmk-4aEIODG8b0-XnSCyYxQA8SQI_1vseoVvSExEj6/s1600/job+growth+chart+2.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The Creed still has power: Raising taxes on the wealthy kills private-sector jobs. Cutting taxes on the wealthy spurs private-sector jobs.</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Nobody – certainly not the mainstream news media – bothers to ask after a decade of reduced taxes, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Well, where are the jobs? </i>Instead, Republicans just keep mouthing the Creed. To keep taxes from being raised on the rich, House Republicans are even willing to block the United States from paying its bills – a move that promises to throw the nation into financial chaos.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">President George W. Bush took a big bite out of taxes for the rich. So the number of private-sector jobs soared, right? Wrong. In fact, the Bush presidency saw a drop in such jobs – from 111,634,000 to 110,981,000 – according to the <a href="http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymost?ce">U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics</a>.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal">(Public-sector jobs rose, by 1.7 million. But the Creed holds that cutting taxes boosts <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">private-sector</i> jobs and that government jobs are a net negative for the economy.)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">History has no relevancy to Republicans. Bosh to facts! Their belief is in things unseen. Tax cuts are their religion – their salvation. Thus, they put intense pressure on Obama to keep Bush’s tax cuts. And against his better judgement he did. Now, Republicans characterize Obama’s fiscal policies as a failure. They thus implicitly acknowledge that the extension of the tax cuts flopped.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Yet, they fight raising taxes to help close the federal deficit and, instead, propose to take from the needy to give to the greedy, as is their wont. Confronted by the rare journalist who points to the long history of tax cuts that didn’t yield jobs, they speak louder and in a more indignant tone. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The problem is not that taxes are too low; the problem is that spending is too high. </i>Yeah, yeah.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Actually, the problem is their belief that, if they keep doing the same thing again and again, they will one of these years see a different result.</div>Gregory Stanfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04070893389398189225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137939805986993877.post-34984729156004266452011-07-20T08:22:00.000-05:002011-07-20T08:22:48.684-05:00How the Republican Party got crazy<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/> <w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/> <w:OverrideTableStyleHps/> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div class="MsoNormal">The name the “Radical Republicans” has been taken and is now retired like the No. 42 that baseball legend Jackie Robinson wore. The radicals were noble politicians, who pushed valiantly before and after the Civil War for full civil rights for black people.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Sadly, the nation failed to heed these prophets crying in the desert of racial oppression. If it had, the gains the 1960s civil rights movement made would have come a century earlier. Still, the radicals’ vision haunted the nation and helped inspire the 1960s movement.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">No, “Radical Republicans” is too honored a name to describe the current crop of "hell-no" Republicans in Congress. A more apt term for politicians eager to plunge the nation into financial ruin if they don't get their way without compromise: "Crazy Republicans."</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVIzS10o3Mixmuj6oGHod5EkxH-ERQfuB9oV_5CQhIxnJRddHEVR3tTXHRAwLJMm408_k_Iy40oG6Z78JUxyf3fycOs7QHRZetQ6yE2EViLXUDETy8C5ZllU1EifdsUZ_0Z4F9LHYhwENc/s1600/sumner-bachmann1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVIzS10o3Mixmuj6oGHod5EkxH-ERQfuB9oV_5CQhIxnJRddHEVR3tTXHRAwLJMm408_k_Iy40oG6Z78JUxyf3fycOs7QHRZetQ6yE2EViLXUDETy8C5ZllU1EifdsUZ_0Z4F9LHYhwENc/s320/sumner-bachmann1.jpg" width="320" /></a>Maybe, crazy is what you get when you court folk who despise the Radicals' vision, as the Republican Party did in a pact it made with the devil.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The Democratic Party had a fateful choice to make in the 1960s. Would it side with the civil rights movement or the resistance to civil rights, with its Negro base or its white Southern base? Jack Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson came down on the side of equality for all, alienating white supremacists, South and North.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The Republican Party went after those disenchanted voters with a passion, promising – in code, of course – to keep black people in their place. This "Southern strategy" turned the South from solid Democratic to solid Republican and enabled the GOP to form majorities to win elections.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Now the party is paying the price for selling its soul. It dangled intolerance and fear to draw new voters. So, not surprisingly, intolerance and fear are now a major part of the Republican base, which had fits when a black man was elected president.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The base staged tantrums and demanded its country back and called itself the Tea Party. It lashed out at President Obama, calling him simultaneously and contradictorily a Muslim and the disciple of a mad Christian preacher; a Communist and a Nazi. The base questioned the president's citizenship, pooh-poohing even notices of his birth in Honolulu newspapers at the time he was born.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The Republican base's vitriol, born of the Southern strategy, also shows in its opposition to immigration, gay rights and "big government."</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The problem for the party is that the Southern strategy is not the winner it once was. It used to be that the strategy gained far more in white votes than it lost in black votes. No longer. The white share of the electorate is shrinking; the non-white share is expanding.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Karl Rove (President Bush's brain) recognized that fact and tried to push comprehensive immigration reform to woo Hispanics. But the GOP base blocked that move. And <a href="http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/just-facts/election-2008-recap-electoral-landscape-and-what-it-means-immigration-reform">Hispanic support for the Republican Party dropped</a>.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Not that the base cares. The vituperative base views any compromise as betrayal, whatever the consequences.So presidential candidate Mitt Romney is forced to downplay his singular achievement as Massachusetts governor: health care reform. And Republicans in Congress are barred from making concessions that would raise taxes on the rich just modestly even though that's what the country wants.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The GOP finds itself in a policy straitjacket that will hamper the party in winning elections – a straitjacket the party weaved for itself out of intolerance and fear.</div>Gregory Stanfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04070893389398189225noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137939805986993877.post-13364750899097763212011-06-25T08:42:00.003-05:002011-06-27T09:18:31.605-05:00Mischief lurks in closed concealed carry records<div class="MsoNormal">Guns are not the only things that will be hidden from the public under Wisconsin’s <a href="http://legis.wisconsin.gov/2011/data/AB-126.pdf">concealed carry law</a>. Any information about the license holder – name, age, residence – will also be secret. That concealment will hamper the ability of the public to monitor the law.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">Investigative work by the <a href="http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=CC&s_site=contracostatimes&p_multi=CC&p_theme=realcities&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=1064A4119197DCEC&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM">Los Angeles Times</a> showed that, despite being barred from owning firearms, hundreds of convicted criminals, including rapists and armed robbers, received concealed-carry licenses in Texas, and many then proceeded to commit more crimes, ranging from drunken driving to murder.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">Will outlaws likewise get licenses in Wisconsin? Keeping license holders secret will make it tough for the public, including news organizations, to check.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">The National Rifle Association has been wildly successful in their campaign to get state legislatures across the country to enact concealed carry laws. In only nine states in the 1980s were you legally able to carry a pistol in your pocket either without a license or with a license that must be given merely for the asking. Now you can do so in 40 states. At the same time, the number of states that completely bar concealed carry<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Rtc.gif"> has dropped from 15 to 2</a>. Make that one. The Wisconsin Legislature has sent Gov. Scott Walker a concealed carry bill, which he is sure to sign, leaving Illinois as the sole holdout.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">The NRA insists on inserting into these laws provisions keeping the records secret, and Wisconsin lawmakers happily obliged. Although all other licenses the state issues – for motorists, barbers, lawyers, dentists, hunters, day care providers and so forth – are open to public inspection, records on concealed carry licenses will be sealed.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">Even police officers in hot pursuit of a suspect are barred from asking the state whether the guy they’re after has a license to carry a gun, which, of course, he could use against them. (Only should he produce a license once they nab him will officers be able to check with the state whether the license is authentic.)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/Bersa_Thunder_380_Concealed_Carry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="343" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/Bersa_Thunder_380_Concealed_Carry.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">Reasons the pro-gun forces give for the secrecy are far-fetched, as illustrated by <a href="http://www.creators.com/opinion/john-stossel/gun-owners-have-a-right-to-privacy.html">Richard Pearson of the Illinois State Rifle Association</a>: "Once this information is released, it will be distributed to street gangs and gun-control groups, who will use the <span class="itxtrst"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">data</span></span> to target gun owners for crime and harassment.” Note that this fantastic argument runs counter to the gun lobby’s own rationale for the unfettered right to firearms. Gun possession makes you safer.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">The real reason the NRA insists on keeping concealed-carry records secret is likely that their release could spoil the narrative the organization spouts (as put by the <a href="http://blog.bradycampaign.org/?p=3192&s=1">Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence</a>): Good people with guns prevent harm from bad people with guns.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">The hard truth the NRA doesn’t want you to know is that some bad people will get the licenses, too, which they will sometimes use to wreak havoc. To keep that secret, the Legislature has shamelessly turned its back on Wisconsin's tradition of open records.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #cfe2f3; margin-top: 12pt;"><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Negative news</b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b></b></span><br />
The likely purpose of keeping concealed carry records secret is to cut down on the bad press concealed carry gets from time to time. Here’s a sampling of such press. All the gun wielders here boasted concealed carry licenses:<br />
<br />
“The mixture of guns and alcohol exploded at a Lynchburg restaurant Saturday night when a customer accidentally shot himself in the thigh with a concealed weapon.” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www2.newsadvance.com/news/2010/sep/16/troubling-mixture-guns-bars-ar-507417/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Lynchburg (VA) News & Advance</span></a></i> ,<span class="MsoHyperlink"> </span><span class="articleinfostamps">Sept. 16, 2010.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="articleinfostamps"> </span>“One Indiana man pressed the barrel of a loaded handgun into the chest of a woman holding her 1-year-old son. Another's handgun was confiscated by police three times – twice for shooting in public. … And in all of these cases – and hundreds of other questionable ones uncovered by The Indianapolis Star – the Indiana State Police granted [the gunmen’s request to carry concealed handguns]. Even worse, many of those people committed subsequent crimes, some with the guns they were legally permitted to carry.” <a href="http://www.indystar.com/article/20091011/NEWS14/910110365/"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Indianapolis Star</i></a>, Oct. 11, 2009</div><div style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">“Houston police said Richard Calderon, 24, hit the teen's mother's car at about 8:20 p.m. Wednesday and then left the scene. The mother … tried to catch up to the vehicle to get its license plate number. As she drove by … , Calderon fired shots at her car, police said. Alexis Wiley, 13, was shot in the head. She was taken to Memorial Hermann Hospital, where she died a few hours later.”<a href="http://www.click2houston.com/news/22750812/detail.html"> KPRC Local 2</a>, Houston, March 5, 2010.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">“Jacksonville police said a woman was killed Monday afternoon by what appears to be the accidental discharge of a concealed firearm. Police said a man with a concealed weapons permit went into the Allied Veterans Cyber Center Internet café … Police said the man's gun was mishandled or dropped and discharged, striking a woman in the back. Witnesses said the gun fell from the man's belt.” <a href="http://www.news4jax.com/news/21341869/detail.html">News4 Jax.com</a>, Oct. 19, 2009.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><br />
</div><div style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">“Federal investigators have searched the home of a North Carolina terrorism suspect, seizing counterterrorism literature, ammunition and portable electronics. A search warrant released Wednesday shows agents searched the home of Anes Subasic….The warrant says <b><span style="font-weight: normal;">Subasic had a concealed handgun permit</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">.</b> Agents reported taking boxes of ammunition, knives and an empty box for a 'super sniper' rifle scope. Subasic is one of eight North Carolina suspects accused of plotting international terrorism.” <a href="http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2009974739_apusncterrorarrests.html" style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Associated Press</i></a><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">, Sept. 30, 2009.</span></div><div style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><br />
</div><div style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">For many more such stories, see the <a href="http://blog.bradycampaign.org/?cat=86">Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence</a>. For an overview of crimes committed by concealed carry license holders, check out the <a href="http://www.vpc.org/ccwkillers.htm">Violence Policy Center</a>.</div><div style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;"><br />
</div>Gregory Stanfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04070893389398189225noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137939805986993877.post-26886554508345159062011-06-05T23:58:00.003-05:002011-06-06T14:51:24.497-05:00My brush with food stamp fraud<div class="MsoNormal">I was tempted with welfare fraud some while back. I was putting my groceries in the trunk of my car outside the old Uptown Supermarket on North Ave. in Milwaukee, when a young woman with a cartload of bagged groceries asked me for a ride.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">“I’ll give you $10 in food stamps,” she said.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I gave her the ride, but rejected the stamps – and thereby avoided a crime. It is illegal to exchange food stamps except for the purchase of food, as an <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/watchdogreports/123172423.html">exposé in Sunday’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel</a> notes. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Actually, her offer wasn’t much of a temptation. She was plainly needy – sufficient reason to give her a ride. It’s one of the Beatitudes, I believe.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBKlUcLpsU_0SXdPnBkbznzd46fGgHcDmYu7T-4S61WPgWKpQ06utmMgCaN9YmMRL5xpYRaOTTCkIG6rovP698jywSH0yy20c5Dxi1XUWz8PXe6y-49MYyR8PDrDy7w8IDl5CoUiK7SEEA/s1600/food+stamp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="158" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBKlUcLpsU_0SXdPnBkbznzd46fGgHcDmYu7T-4S61WPgWKpQ06utmMgCaN9YmMRL5xpYRaOTTCkIG6rovP698jywSH0yy20c5Dxi1XUWz8PXe6y-49MYyR8PDrDy7w8IDl5CoUiK7SEEA/s400/food+stamp.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From U.S. Department of Agriculture</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">Still, I couldn’t help but think that, had I been broke myself with no job in sight – the plight of a whole bunch of people – I doubtless would have accepted the food stamps, middle-class morality be damned. (He who has never fudged on his 1040, cast the first stone.) In fact, I might have hung around the store’s parking lot giving rides for cash or food stamps to people with lots of groceries and no cars.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Which is why I find it hard to get worked up over the Journal Sentinel’s blockbuster story finding that nine people in Milwaukee and 70 nationwide were using Facebook to buy or sell food assistance benefits illegally. The people caught in the newspaper’s dragnet apparently lacked the sophistication to deploy a privacy shield over such transactions – an option Facebook gives them.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">My brush with food stamp fraud preceded the Internet’s social networks, which have expanded the reach of people seeking to buy or sell the coupons. So maybe real big-time crime is now afoot. What’s more, the Journal Sentinel (where I spent most of my journalism career) has been doing superb exposés of late. Still, I find it hard to work up outrage over this particular peek at a struggle for survival on the part of poor people.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I don’t know whether my passenger knew that she was proposing to break the law. But she was in a bind. She lived close enough to the store to walk there, but had too many groceries to walk back. She knew she would need a ride, so she frugally reserved enough of her precious food stamps to pay for it.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Though she was ready to break the law, she looked more like a mom struggling to make ends meet than a crook.</div>Gregory Stanfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04070893389398189225noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137939805986993877.post-5802867748139402212011-05-19T18:18:00.005-05:002011-05-19T21:56:29.634-05:00About fire truck chasers and collateral damage<div class="MsoNormal">I own a duplex on Milwaukee’s west side, about seven blocks from where I live, and it was set afire. One recent morning, while playing catch-up on putting together my neighborhood newsletter, I got a phone call.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">“Are you Gregory Stanford who owns a house on 41st St.? “</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">“Yes, I am.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">”I can board the house up for you.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">“What do you mean, board it up? The house is not vacant. It doesn’t need boarding up.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1tfyMapGAYiyxq4i6baDR5Fo46_g0l1d9G_ssbx6CYYg-MeZGjWTosNhUyMQMi5j-K8bR-hiYKqU45BYPmpbZgKz3oXGA01aQWhjPqAdtFBzlbL0G8uFrs4M0X7Pi0qI6cD8ZCstXri0L/s1600/fire1.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="322" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1tfyMapGAYiyxq4i6baDR5Fo46_g0l1d9G_ssbx6CYYg-MeZGjWTosNhUyMQMi5j-K8bR-hiYKqU45BYPmpbZgKz3oXGA01aQWhjPqAdtFBzlbL0G8uFrs4M0X7Pi0qI6cD8ZCstXri0L/s400/fire1.jpg" width="400" /></a> </div><div class="MsoNormal">“It’s on fire. I’m standing right across the street from the house. Fire trucks are out here. Flames are coming out of the roof.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">So that’s how you learn about a fire at your rental, I thought as I rushed to the scene. Your calamity is somebody else’s opportunity.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">As firefighters flooded the roof and the second floor with water, I found myself surrounded by contractors seeking the board-up work. A police detective rescued me.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I once covered fires as a newspaper reporter. I combed the crowds for witnesses and victims – anybody with a link to the burning structure. But I never ran into this phenomenon: contractors pitching their services. I knew about the ambulance chasers – lawyers hawking their services after a car crash – but not about the fire truck chasers. Then again the last fire I covered was in the 1980s.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The mom who lives in the upstairs flat was huddled in an alley with her two grown daughters. They confirmed what I had guessed. The fire was set, and the likely suspect was the ex-boyfriend of the younger daughter. The couple had once lived downstairs and when they broke up, the flat was vandalized, reportedly by him – an incident for which he’s facing charges.<br />
<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">She and he have a baby, And he had come to the house the night before the fire ostensibly to see the child, the daughter said. (I had instructed her never to let him on the premises again.) Then she spotted him the next morning in the neighborhood as she was leaving to take the baby to the day care center.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The fire investigator said the side door was kicked in, and fuel appeared to have been taken from the lawnmower I had in the basement. The fire started in the second-floor living room. Thank goodness, nobody was home. I was between tenants downstairs.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi80xLPduj8WEdmzaVlseAy4WCRwgk9iV1-Oe4aaZpp7L4POwWWjRsspXuWnLhGMJi1fjHUJSA2SErya7wcuWADfqYUpDmZQZopWaVVo-tQVpiAEBBJtU_Wo1RQ2mllS074nCi3FmR2a1A6/s1600/fire2.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi80xLPduj8WEdmzaVlseAy4WCRwgk9iV1-Oe4aaZpp7L4POwWWjRsspXuWnLhGMJi1fjHUJSA2SErya7wcuWADfqYUpDmZQZopWaVVo-tQVpiAEBBJtU_Wo1RQ2mllS074nCi3FmR2a1A6/s400/fire2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
Check your insurance. I was under-insured. The last time I got the bill, I remarked aloud that the amount of coverage listed was not enough and that I was going to get more. I was still intending to do that when the fire broke out. Don’t you follow suit. As it turned out, the settlement I received matched the vastly deflated assessment value of the house, but it does not come anywhere close to the quotes I’ve gotten so far to rebuild.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">In the opinion of the claims adjuster and the fire investigator, despite extensive damage, the duplex was not totalled. The fire was confined to the front rooms upstairs and the front of the attic. The rest of the structure suffered smoke and water damage.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The truth of the matter is that, after a fire, immediate board-up is a necessity. Contractors’ coming to you does save you the trouble of going through the Yellow Pages. The tough part is choosing the right contractor. I ignored the advice of the insurance company and instead gave work to an African-American firm with the proper bona fides – a firm I figured was outside the good ole boy’s network that leads to contracts.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>In my immediate neighborhood houses remain boarded up for months, even years – giving me the impression that I had at least two or three months to weigh my options. Wrong. The city building inspector is acting wth lightning speed in my case, condemning the building and ordering it razed even as I continue to get quotes on reconstruction. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi80xLPduj8WEdmzaVlseAy4WCRwgk9iV1-Oe4aaZpp7L4POwWWjRsspXuWnLhGMJi1fjHUJSA2SErya7wcuWADfqYUpDmZQZopWaVVo-tQVpiAEBBJtU_Wo1RQ2mllS074nCi3FmR2a1A6/s1600/fire2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br />
</a></div><div class="MsoNormal">I had kept the property in good shape, recently spending a small fortune on a new roof and a rebuilt chimney. Not too long ago, I rebuilt the entire porch, upstairs and downstairs. My property record downtown is clean.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I can’t help but think about the prime suspect. I doubt that he ever thinks about me. It was his ex-mate, not I, who was on his mind when he vandalized the downstairs and later torched the upstairs. Yes, I may be out tens of thousands of dollars, but that’s just collateral damage in his holy war against his ex-woman.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">This reckless, self-centered buffoon is behind bars, where he needs to remain for a long, long time.</div>Gregory Stanfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04070893389398189225noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137939805986993877.post-41976118626766058462011-04-16T16:04:00.000-05:002011-04-16T16:04:43.702-05:00A tightly guarded secret: Dems do better on economy<div class="MsoNormal">As a rule, the economy does better when a Democrat occupies the White House. That’s a clear-cut, longstanding statistical fact, which holds up whether you’re looking at jobs, the stock market, the nation’s total output of goods and services or some other economic measure. (See citations below.)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Now here’s what I puzzle over: How come this amply documented fact is such a well-kept secret?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg48KbJ6sS0pen7TY-mrxRYAHzh50L-xc3w5V0lrLFMYs6HkkVLQ8XY-U3pIksyhpKCiyMniJSPy_eUvDlOWz2WzXJAF6dd72tILvxuxhAnF7ZwfR7-zydDH4Sf6ysuAqTAQt0LgTtJOj5s/s1600/economy.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg48KbJ6sS0pen7TY-mrxRYAHzh50L-xc3w5V0lrLFMYs6HkkVLQ8XY-U3pIksyhpKCiyMniJSPy_eUvDlOWz2WzXJAF6dd72tILvxuxhAnF7ZwfR7-zydDH4Sf6ysuAqTAQt0LgTtJOj5s/s320/economy.jpg" width="226" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal">Just imagine for a moment that the two parties’ economic records were switched. Every man, woman, child, cat and dog in America would know that the economy does better under Republican presidents than under Democratic ones, so powerful is the right-wing publicity machine. Fox News, talk radio and conservative think tanks would constantly hammer on that fact. And in reporting on budget debates, the mainstream media would routinely insert a boilerplate line noting the superior performance of the economy when a Republican is the chief executive.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">But it’s the Dems that own the better record, so their accomplishments go unnoticed. Meanwhile, the GOP makes up in repetition what it lacks in a record. For instance, the party and its media spokespeople keep asserting several times a day that cutting taxes even on the wealthy creates jobs. Never mind that President George W. Bush spectacularly demonstrated otherwise. Make a dubious assertion often enough, and it starts sounding like solid fact.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Interestingly, all income sectors – the poor and the rich as well as everybody in between – do better under a Democratic president. Sure, the rich pay more in taxes, but because the economy is doing so well, they easily make up the difference with stock dividends and other income.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">By the way, Bush’s fiscal policies (like President Reagan’s before him) have led to whopping budget deficits, which have spilled over into the Obama years – spillage that the right-wing publicity machine has exploited. Thus, President Obama’s getting the rap. Republicans are going spastic over deficit spending, arguing it is a blight on America and must be wiped out. They skip over one little detail: Their party is the one largely responsible for that spending.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The major parties have two different economic approaches. Republicans tend to push money up the income scale by reducing programs for the poor and the middle class and cutting taxes for the rich. Democrats tend to push money down that scale by enhancing programs for the poor and the middle-class and raising taxes on the rich. Also, the GOP tends to relax regulations on the marketplace, and the Dems tend to tighten the regs.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The results over decades are in: The Democratic approach apparently works better – a fact that is relevant in the present budget debate, in which House Repubicans are supporting Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan’s budget bill, which is, in today’s parlance, the Republican approach on steroids.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Articles on economic data showing better performance under Democratic presidents:</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">“Congresswoman says Democratic presidents create more private-sector jobs,” <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2010/jan/25/carolyn-maloney/congresswoman-says-democratic-presidents-create-mo/"><i>St Petersburg Times</i></a> .</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">“How the U.S. Economy Performed Under Democratic and Republican Presidents,” <a href="http://currencythoughts.com/2008/08/19/how-the-us-economy-performed-under-democrat-and-republican-presidents/"><i>Currency Thoughts</i></a>. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">“REPUBLICANS vs. DEMOCRATS ON THE ECONOMY,” <a href="http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_05/006282.php"><i>The Washington Monthly</i></a>. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">“Politicians Lie, Numbers Don't,” <a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2199810/"><i>Slate</i></a>. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">“Would Obama’s Plan Be Faster, Fairer, Stronger?” <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/business/31view.html%20"><i>The New York Times</i></a>. (See chart showing all income sectors do better under Democrats.)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">“Democratic vs. Republican Presidents: Economic Prosperity,” <a href="http://blueworksbetter.com/PresidentsGDPGrowth"><i>Blue Works Better</i></a>. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">“Which Party Has Posted The Strongest Economic Numbers In The Modern Era?” <a href="http://www.davemanuel.com/2010/11/20/the-presidential-smackdown-democrats-vs-republicans-by-the-numbers-in-the-modern-era/"><i>DaveManuel.com</i></a>. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Articles on the budget deficit:</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg48KbJ6sS0pen7TY-mrxRYAHzh50L-xc3w5V0lrLFMYs6HkkVLQ8XY-U3pIksyhpKCiyMniJSPy_eUvDlOWz2WzXJAF6dd72tILvxuxhAnF7ZwfR7-zydDH4Sf6ysuAqTAQt0LgTtJOj5s/s1600/economy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br />
</a></div><div class="MsoNormal">"Critics Still Wrong on What’s Driving Deficits in Coming Years," <a href="http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3036">Center on Budget and Policy Priorities</a>. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">“CNN Fact Check: Is the annual deficit under Obama 12 times the deficit under Republicans?” <a href="http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/01/30/cnn-fact-check-is-the-annual-deficit-under-obama-12-times-the-deficit-under-republicans/">CNN</a>. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Gregory Stanfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04070893389398189225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137939805986993877.post-63106701748115086982011-03-25T23:59:00.003-05:002011-03-26T14:18:04.503-05:00Worker rights coalition may fracture over residency<div class="MsoNormal">A mighty coalition came together to fight the Republican effort to weaken collective bargaining for public employees in Wisconsin. Now a Republican effort to void one result of collective bargaining in Milwaukee – the requirement that teachers and police officers live in the city – has the potential of driving a wedge through that coalition.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Bargaining rights for public employees enjoy widespread support among Milwaukee residents, but so does the residency rule for public employees – a rule some public-sector unions hate. Thus, as the proposal to do away with that rule sails through the Legislature, many Milwaukee residents will find themselves at odds with government workers the residents are now backing.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The residency rule is a vital self-help tool for cities, which find themselves assailed on all borders. An unspoken but real struggle over class and race has raged for untold decades in metropolitan America. The metro area is the organic whole. Suburbs are artificial communities that cropped up primarily to wall out poor people (and non-whites) while sucking in the wealth of cities. The result is that the hub city shoulders the metro area’s burden of poverty and its related ills with fewer and fewer resources. One resource the city does have is its own jobs. By reserving them for its own residents, the city fights poverty, boosts local commerce and stabilizes neighborhoods.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The residency requirement is a big reason why, as bad as poverty and unemployment are in Milwaukee, the city is not quite <a href="http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2011/mar/22/tom-barrett/milwaukee-mayor-tom-barrett-says-53-percent-detroi/">Detroit, whose decline sped up after the requirement was outlawed there</a>. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Getting rid of the residency rule was long a top agenda item of Milwaukee teacher and police unions. They failed to reach that objective at the bargaining table or in court. So they resorted to political wheeling and dealing.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The Milwaukee Teachers Education Association, however, dropped that effort about 15 years ago, when the reform faction took over. One reform leader told me she personally backed the residency rule, but the union never took its repeal off its agenda; the union just stopped pushing repeal. Notably, <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/117330723.html#">MTEA President Mike Langyel has not voiced enthusiasm about the current repeal drive</a>.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The Milwaukee Police Association never lost enthusiasm. The historically anti-black union, which gives aid and comfort to Republican politicians, has abstained from the coalition backing bargaining rights. In a transparent effort to reward the MPA, Gov. Scott Walker exempted police and fire unions from the bill to curb those rights, although several such unions have nonetheless joined the coalition.<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">After it started downplaying the residency rule, the MTEA became more community-friendly – doubtless one reason it enjoys broad residential support in its battle for bargaining rights. In contrast, the MPA is still widely perceived as hostile to the community.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifI48QRRzIQKGZzA_O16ojH2Sas4zIO8Ffo9bok7sieHFU6fnCp8BE5ea4eZkGkuYx4ToGESRf4yZSgAhvVLMbhf8Boipj9WVsig0hSP1_reEL2H3S7ZsZ5LqFPOXeSk8kSrxD4dzOkGte/s1600/jackson.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifI48QRRzIQKGZzA_O16ojH2Sas4zIO8Ffo9bok7sieHFU6fnCp8BE5ea4eZkGkuYx4ToGESRf4yZSgAhvVLMbhf8Boipj9WVsig0hSP1_reEL2H3S7ZsZ5LqFPOXeSk8kSrxD4dzOkGte/s400/jackson.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Milwaukee residents recently rallied for the bargaining rights of public employees.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">Gov. Scott Walker and other Republicans have tried to stoke resentment among taxpayers against public employees, saying they get the generous pay and benefits that average workers don’t enjoy. That rhetoric has thus far had only limited success. But lifting the residency rule could make the ground more fertile for such thinking in Milwaukee. <i>Not only are municipal employees more generously paid than the average Milwaukee worker, but many don’t think enough of the city to live here. These suburbanites are taking away jobs that could go to city residents and our hard-earned taxes are supporting their comfortable lifestyles outside the city.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The racial implications of repealing the residency rule are obvious in a city whose suburbs are among the whitest in America. Also, the city’s decline, which repeal of the residency rule will accelerate, will hurt city employment in the long run due to a withering tax base. Public employee unions could and should head off fractures in the labor rights coalition by doing an about face and endorsing Milwaukee’s residency rule.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Further reading:</i></div><div class="MsoNormal">“<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ppZdkY0PBc1MSXMeUgCPyTXhY4ILbQNLkSDyZu-mE1c/edit?hl=en">Why city needs residency rule</a>” by Gregory Stanford</div><div class="MsoNormal"> “<a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/118271999.html">The residency rule helps keep Milwaukee strong</a>” by Milwaukee Common Council President Willie Hines</div><div class="MsoNormal">“<a href="http://city.milwaukee.gov/thebarrettreport">The Barrett Repor</a>t” (3/18/11) by Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett</div><div class="MsoNormal">“<a href="http://gregorystanford.blogspot.com/2010/09/detroit-sporting-waves-in-his-close.html">The suburbs are killing Detroit - and themselves</a>” by Gregory Stanford</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://legis.wisconsin.gov/2011/data/SB-30.pdf">Wisconsin Senate Bill 30</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://legis.wisconsin.gov/2011/data/SB-34.pdf">Wisconsin Senate Bill 34</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Gregory Stanfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04070893389398189225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137939805986993877.post-5979232660190989172011-03-05T15:04:00.003-06:002011-03-07T19:09:22.016-06:00Walker draws ire at rally led by Jackson<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ6951t6rjifwSsV-TfVPic1rZqrIXvZ-jN8cUhPFIsOaWXI_K5WTV_SfkbFg7m75HCPCHMDxwOaXEA_wCYhq2CtZtrzoFUTemYVibqnPgRjgb-2NLFN8LFSAocmXYzTNAIJHLlA5v0vSc/s1600/jesse+4.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ6951t6rjifwSsV-TfVPic1rZqrIXvZ-jN8cUhPFIsOaWXI_K5WTV_SfkbFg7m75HCPCHMDxwOaXEA_wCYhq2CtZtrzoFUTemYVibqnPgRjgb-2NLFN8LFSAocmXYzTNAIJHLlA5v0vSc/s400/jesse+4.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal">The Rev. Jesse Jackson led a rousing Milwaukee rally that gave vent Friday night to outrage over the abruptly new direction in which Gov. Scott Walker is taking Wisconsin.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">“Suddenly we have gone from Wallace to Walker,” Jackson told some 550 cheering people – a full house – at the Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church, 1345 W. Burleigh St. As an aide to Martin Luther King Jr., Jackson helped challenge the segregationist policies of the defiant 1960s Alabama Gov. George Wallace. Jackson said Wallace was denying black people the right to vote and that now Walker was denying working people the right to collectively bargain.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Jackson called for a mass march for jobs and voter registration in Milwaukee, and an organizing meeting for such a march was set for 6 p.m. Tuesday at the offices of the Milwaukee County Labor Council, 633 S. Hawley Rd.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Another speaker – Sheila Cochran, head of the Labor Council – called Walker “the devil.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The rally merged two anti-Walker movements. The first came in response to his rejection of $810 million in federal funds to build a high-speed rail line between Milwaukee and Madison – a project that promised to create thousands of jobs. That movement morphed into a general demand for jobs. The second movement came in response to Walker’s effort to strip away almost all collective-bargaining rights from public employees. That movement has featured continuous protests by tens of thousands at the Capitol in Madison and a walkout by Senate Democrats to thwart a quorum and thereby delay action on the bill.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvS8OreH9Ah3CYJNj5FkHYxApFPLEASni1y2J__eWogMnYu8RBn5i9-V77qneorAaewfoutuDpHbIAawmfVhYRb-0sScsFrNJiJxkLpGqCyQUd2YG7EP52NqIo8Ps70L39NYn-QE8fQnan/s1600/jesse+1.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvS8OreH9Ah3CYJNj5FkHYxApFPLEASni1y2J__eWogMnYu8RBn5i9-V77qneorAaewfoutuDpHbIAawmfVhYRb-0sScsFrNJiJxkLpGqCyQUd2YG7EP52NqIo8Ps70L39NYn-QE8fQnan/s200/jesse+1.jpg" width="186" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sheila Cochran</td></tr>
</tbody> </table><div class="MsoNormal">By taking place in the heart of Milwaukee’s black community, the rally highlights the depth of animosity toward Walker among African Americans – a fact that may be visually lost in the mostly white Madison protest. African Americans make up 6% of Wisconsin residents and live mostly in Milwaukee. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>"There will be collective bargaining no matter what the governor does," Jackson thundered. “The boycott in Montgomery was collective bargaining. The march in Birmingham … was collective bargaining. The march to free South Africa was collective bargaining. The march in Egypt, in Cairo, was collective bargaining. The march in Wisconsin is what collective bargaining looks like."<br />
<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKNC3RO6yAtwoPu2zXSIXiZHBdRA1RYHO1McaiZbTltV3oUDr2FOR9DZGuRGYmEBuIUbi4cYFaVwcp_8zI54PfEg7irx8M1qfef5Yy0ynSG5j3NSJMMy3330nqV-UCTP24UCt8FbMwpSCh/s1600/jesse+14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKNC3RO6yAtwoPu2zXSIXiZHBdRA1RYHO1McaiZbTltV3oUDr2FOR9DZGuRGYmEBuIUbi4cYFaVwcp_8zI54PfEg7irx8M1qfef5Yy0ynSG5j3NSJMMy3330nqV-UCTP24UCt8FbMwpSCh/s200/jesse+14.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">James Hall</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">Cochran said, "Scott Walker is the devil and he needs to be stopped." She termed him “foolish” for turning down the $810 million. If Walker was as concerned about the money as he claims to be in making draconian budget cuts, He would have accepted the federal funds and put black people to work, she said. Unemployment is rampant in Milwaukee’s black community.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">"He created a hole of some 140-odd million dollars,” she said, referring to the tax cuts he pushed through the Legislature shortly after he was sworn in. “And thern he decided the best way to get it back was off the backs of the people who work for the state."</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3tMBzgim7UQE2m25YS1E_sA60h1wIB0a4Cv58MQitipp5BopHwb2so4URjhoP6eUN0eab59WfkJCNFkUth87rvxR5lBGdmUSy2E4lIhtzex3FF67TnbtTDeNlvbkqFyAcq0v3Xm6Ignw1/s1600/jesse+12.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3tMBzgim7UQE2m25YS1E_sA60h1wIB0a4Cv58MQitipp5BopHwb2so4URjhoP6eUN0eab59WfkJCNFkUth87rvxR5lBGdmUSy2E4lIhtzex3FF67TnbtTDeNlvbkqFyAcq0v3Xm6Ignw1/s200/jesse+12.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fred Kessler</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Among others paying for his tax cuts, Cochran said, were grant recipients under Wisconsin Works, the jobs-oriented replacement for welfare. Their grants are being cut.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">"We can go up to the capitol and we can scrub it down with holy water," she said.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">James Hall, president of the Milwaukee NAACP branch termed Walker’s efforts to strip away bargaining rights "a direct attack on middle-class principles and values." He called collective bargaining a "key factor in allowing people the ability to move into the middle class."</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The crowd cheered State Rep. Fred Kessler like a battle-scarred war hero. He told of the Democrats’ losing battle to stop the budget-repair bill in the Assembly. “The battle is not over,” he said, adding that Walker was cutting many valuable programs.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The meeting was sponsored by MICAH (Milwaukee Inner City Congregations Allied for Hope) and the Milwaukee NAACP branch as well as the Amalgamated Transit Union, Milwaukee Area Labor Council, Voces de la Frontera, League of Young Voters and Wisconsin Citizen Action. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKWvHp7vtdpoIpD2zBgOxj-o4ri2QBNv5mWq-sNGlNx6q-OlSU9VK9IWVXHi1cLZhrENbNNRaPLATx-H_tYjc_KdQuAnBP1cXtfMCINJ_thsakNnBq_NmVFomwzPtU18loMTkibcpI_dfr/s1600/jesse+11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKWvHp7vtdpoIpD2zBgOxj-o4ri2QBNv5mWq-sNGlNx6q-OlSU9VK9IWVXHi1cLZhrENbNNRaPLATx-H_tYjc_KdQuAnBP1cXtfMCINJ_thsakNnBq_NmVFomwzPtU18loMTkibcpI_dfr/s400/jesse+11.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Gregory Stanfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04070893389398189225noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5137939805986993877.post-29533085184079129692011-02-27T16:37:00.001-06:002011-02-27T16:51:34.579-06:00Arousing the green-eyed monster<div class="MsoNormal">In their campaign to stifle the rights of public employees in Wisconsin, the would-be masters of the universe are fanning the embers of a human vice: envy.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>You no longer have the nifty pension or health insurance or the decent pay or the union protection that you or your parents once enjoyed. You may have even lost your job. Yet, look at those fat-cat public employees, strutting around with their good salaries and benefits and their union rights – all made possible with your hard-earned money. That’s so unfair. They should suffer just like you do.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjccUOZ0h3SwPU1xvO2Sv1mL_bZjz52VV8EQfXeCmN_r4zOtKE9clCiBwudhQV6GoJGoK-pfN2GzS_dUYT-bt22bulKk7iNZDOldJk9oThVWYD_S9qHgDPNOTy_F30ZSQPpIQx3atnphBH1/s1600/walker+protest7.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjccUOZ0h3SwPU1xvO2Sv1mL_bZjz52VV8EQfXeCmN_r4zOtKE9clCiBwudhQV6GoJGoK-pfN2GzS_dUYT-bt22bulKk7iNZDOldJk9oThVWYD_S9qHgDPNOTy_F30ZSQPpIQx3atnphBH1/s320/walker+protest7.jpg" width="320" /></a>The upshot is that this message is being brought to the working stiffs in the private sector by the very people who helped make them suffer: our corporate overlords (think brothers Charles and David Koch among others). They helped shove those workers onto a downward economic spiral. Now these tycoons are counting on their victims to reach up and grab their public-sector brothers and sisters and pull them down that spiral, too.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Some Wisconsin workers have bought that message, as indicated by signs on display at a relatively small counter-protest at the Capitol in Madison on Feb. 19. (<i>See photos on this page.</i>) One sign – “IT’S MY MONEY NOT YOUR HUMAN RIGHT” – particularly reflects the anti-government message coming out of talk radio and right-wing think tanks (financed by our corporate oligarchy) over the last three decades. </div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">We don’t tell workers at our cable TV company or our computer store they shouldn’t bargain for fair wages because that’s our money they’re dealing with. Rather, we figure that once the money leaves our hands, it’s no longer ours. What’s ours is the 200 TV channels or the 500-gigabyte computer we got in exchange. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal">Likewise, in exchange for the money we give government, we get valuable services. Public-sector workers lock up bad guys, plow snow on the route to work, teach first graders their numbers and letters, make sure rat feces don’t flavor our pasta dish, put out house fires before they reach our homes and maintain our favorite parks. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBhYcAgCtrQFyjsVGHNaCf8ULyyYFlTkqU-eour9qrxyur7MdW_E3sYsdxIA07dXcB_HUF2fvqTsB4wnWOOjpUlRJUilSfMuFyjDBTguChxwZi1ai69S2IAB3YoXGhSJhP7E0HtZDJfqDi/s1600/walker+protest21.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBhYcAgCtrQFyjsVGHNaCf8ULyyYFlTkqU-eour9qrxyur7MdW_E3sYsdxIA07dXcB_HUF2fvqTsB4wnWOOjpUlRJUilSfMuFyjDBTguChxwZi1ai69S2IAB3YoXGhSJhP7E0HtZDJfqDi/s320/walker+protest21.jpg" width="186" /></a>True, unlike in the private sector, we are not just consumers; we are also collectively the boss of public employees – which gives us the right to debate how the money ought to be spent, but also the moral duty to be a fair boss and to give just compensation for work done. Collective bargaining helps ensure we fulfill that duty.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Fortunately, the appeal to envy has had only limited success, polls suggest. Most people in <a href="http://www.wisconsinreporter.com/new-poll-wisconsinites-split-on-walkers-budget-proposal">Wisconsin</a> and in <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20110223/1awisconsinpoll23_st.art.htm?loc=interstitialskip">America</a> side with the effort of public employees to maintain their bargaining rights (though Wisconsin residents are evenly split on Gov. Scott Walker’s budget bill). Doubtless, labor’s readiness to concede on all economic issues has helped it in the battle of public opinion. The governor’s refusal to compromise in the face of that concession shows that his real goal is to castrate the unions.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">A big reason America’s middle class has receded is that labor unions have eroded in the private sector. One possible response of workers there is to resent their compatriots in the public sector, where labor strength has grown over the last several decades. But most workers have not succumbed to that temptation. Rather, they astutely recognize that the middle class is less likely to rebound if public-sector labor unions lose their strength, too.</div>Gregory Stanfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04070893389398189225noreply@blogger.com0