FightingBob.com

• Say what?

  Now that newspapers are in decline it is hard for most of us, called anything but "insiders," to separate political wheat from the chaff. Where do we get the "good stuff"? That's easy--it comes from "anonymous experts." And, hey, if you can't trust anonymous experts, whom can you trust?
  
  The Cap' [...]
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  Fetched: December 11, 2009, 8:20am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• Cognitive dissonance

  Hamid Karzai, apparently unfazed by the 18-month deadline set by Nobel Peace Prize winner Barack Obama, said he anticipated a U.S. combat presence in his country for five more years with funding (ah, yes, funding) to continue for 15 years. That's $10 billion a year!
  
  Secretary Clinton suggests' [...]
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  Fetched: December 10, 2009, 9:23am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• The buck doesn't stop

  When it comes to standing up to Congress and special interests in the finance industry, Obama is no Harry Truman. [...]
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  Fetched: December 09, 2009, 3:54pm EST
  by Stanley I. Kutler

• Making sense of the surge

  The more one examines our latest Afghanistan “surge” the more it seems that President Obama wants us to suspend logic. War is peace, black is white, and up is down.
  
  Let's get this straight. We're sending in 30,000 troops so we can pull out in 2011? Our new mode is' [...]
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  Fetched: December 09, 2009, 3:54pm EST
  by Bob Menamin

• Special session?

  Jim Doyle has been hollering wolf for months. He shouts that unless the Legislature passes his ill-defined plan to rescue Milwaukee Public Schools Wisconsin might not get any of the cash President Obama has set aside for this unproven experiment he calls "Race to the Top." Doyle whines "don't blame'" [...]
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  Fetched: December 09, 2009, 9:47am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• Hide and Seek?

  Read and weep from the Washington Post: "Afghan lawmakers demand a full, not partial, list of President Karzai's new cabinet." Impertinent, I say. The article says, "This is the first test of the embattled leader's commitment to clean up graft and bribery in his government." Karzai's response--he will release the' [...]
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  Fetched: December 08, 2009, 7:25am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• Prosser's process

  Justice David Prosser can prove that impartial justice works, or he can cast his lot with the corrupt, cynical status quo. [...]
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  Fetched: December 08, 2009, 5:25am EST
  by Bill Kraus

• Drugs and banks and Afghanistan

  Washington Post, December 6, 2009: "Two shootouts between troops and gunmen in northern Mexico have killed 13 people including a drug trafficker...Morales, killed in the attack was accused of working for the Zetas, drug traffickers..." and on and on and on and on.
  
  Our "war on drugs" is a [...]
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  Fetched: December 07, 2009, 7:55am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• Obama's unabated Afghanistan problem

  It's Bush's policy and Obama's war now in Afghanistan.
  
  President Obama has decided to send more than 30,000 troops requested by General Stanley McCrystal to shore up the fight against the Afghan insurgency. Robert Baer, a former CIA agent, says what the U.S. faces when it comes to an "Afghan" [...]
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  Fetched: December 06, 2009, 2:17pm EST
  by Bob Menamin

• Not the enemy of the good

  Barack Obama is not a progressive, but he is still the progressives' best chance.' [...]
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  Fetched: December 06, 2009, 8:56am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• Face it Mr. President, they won't support you

  A day or so after the disappointing speech on Afghanistan, where the war got a new owner with no valid warranties, I listened to the hawks' response to the Obama plan. Predictably, they jumped all over the president--"uninspired...too late...insuffiient support...the enemy will pull out calendars and mark July 2011 as'" [...]
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  Fetched: December 05, 2009, 3:23pm EST
  by Ed Garvey

• Face it Mr. President they won't support you

  A day or so after the disappointing speech on Afghanistan, where the war got a new owner with no valid warranties, I listened to the Hawks response to the Obama plan. Predictably, they jumped all over the president--"uninspired...too late...insuffiient support...the enemy will pull out calendars and mark July 2011 as" [...]
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  Fetched: December 05, 2009, 9:13am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• OK, who pays?

  Dave Obey sometimes refers to Speaker Nancy Pelosi as "our quarterback." Well let's see how the QB responded to team player Obey's proposal to create a "war tax" to, as David suggested, "spread the sacrifice." She joined with Steny Hoyer and Harry Reid to kill the idea.
  
  OK, Wisenheimers, how [...]
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  Fetched: December 04, 2009, 3:34pm EST
  by Ed Garvey

• OK who pays?

  Dave Obey sometimes refers to Speaker Nancy Pelosi as "our quarterback." Well let's see how the QB responded to team player Obey's proposal to create a"war tax" to, as David suggested, "spread the sacrifice". She joined with Steny Hoyer and Harry Reid to kill the idea.
  
  OK, Wisenheimers, how will [...]
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  Fetched: December 04, 2009, 7:28am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• Poor Harvard!

  Harvard Law School is not cheap. Most students graduate with a huge debt. So, to encourage students to take jobs in the non-profit or governmental worlds, Harvard did something. The law school offered to waive tuition for third-year students if they would spend five years working for nonprofit organizations or [...]
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  Fetched: December 03, 2009, 9:37am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• Leave it to Sheldon?

  When a new policy idea was presented to FDR, he reportedly said, "Clear it with Sidney." That would be Sidney Hillman.
  
  It would appear that Governor Doyle is increasingly content to have his ideas vetted or created by Sheldon Lubar, or perhaps Lubar is only the trial balloon floater [...]
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  Fetched: December 02, 2009, 8:21am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• Leading the blind

  David Plouffe’s book shows how Obama won by convincing non-voters to vote—and vote for Obama. [...]
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  Fetched: December 01, 2009, 6:53pm EST
  by Dick Vander Woude

• Been there heard that!

  The moment has arrived. Toughen up, folks! Tonight President Barack Obama will proclaim that he is a lot like those who preceded him to a carefully crafted speech that will roll out of a TelePrompTer as the young cadets at West Point sit and listen. Had the speech been delivered [...]
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  Fetched: December 01, 2009, 10:01am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• Loud and clear

  Anti-war protests are starting to get to Dave Obey and other members of Congress. [...]
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  Fetched: November 30, 2009, 8:13pm EST
  by Steve Carlson

• Jobs-Afghanistan-Jobs

  Start your day by reading Bill Kraus' excellent Guest Blog post focused on the GOP, then read the NY Times editorial on the corrupt campaign funding system in New York. Good start to your week.
  
  There were weekend news reports about efforts to hire Afghans away from the Taliban.' [...]
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  Fetched: November 30, 2009, 11:53am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• Jobs Afghanistan Jobs

  Start your day by reading Bill Kraus' excellent guest Blog focused on the GOP, then read the NY Times editorial on the corrupt campaign funding system in New York. Good start to your week.
  
  The weekend news reports on efforts to hire Afghans away from the Taliban. Jobs not guns. The' [...]
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  Fetched: November 30, 2009, 10:13am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• Anarchy in the GOP

  Before the behavioral huns overran the party, the biggest thorn in the side of the big-tent moderates who used to run the Republican Party were the “true” conservatives.
  
  Or to put it another way, even if the people who run what remains of the party and the more powerful and numerous [...]
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  Fetched: November 30, 2009, 11:19pm EST
  by Bill Kraus

• HARD TO BELIEVE

  "Afghans Detail A Secret Prison On a U.S. Base." Can't be true. Our president broke from the past and issued an order to eliminate so-called "black prisons." Yes we can!
  
  Ah, Catch-22--The NY Times reports that the "order did not apply to this jail"! Get ready--why didn't it apply? [...]
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  Fetched: November 29, 2009, 7:21am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• Inconvenient truths

  The noise machine that opposes healthcare reform has many heads and no shame. [...]
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  Fetched: November 28, 2009, 6:23pm EST
  by Margaret Krome

• Gone Fishing

  Day off--back on Sunday. [...]
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  Fetched: November 28, 2009, 6:14am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• C'mon, bishop!

  Bishop Tobin of Rhode Island is again in attack mode. Patrick Kennedy must repent and disavow his position on the right of a woman to seek or not to seek an abortion. If not? Then no communion for Patrick.
  
  Headline in NY Times: "In Dublin, 700 Pages on the" [...]
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  Fetched: November 27, 2009, 4:28pm EST
  by Ed Garvey

• C/mon Bishop!

  Bishop Tobin of Rhode Island is again in attack mode. Patrick Kennedy must repent and disavow his position on the right of a woman to seek or not to seek an abortion. If not? Then no communion for Patrick.
  
  Headline in NY Times: "In Dublin,700 Pages on the Church's sins." The [...]
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  Fetched: November 27, 2009, 10:54am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• Oh no!

  The President will take ownership of the Afghan war on Tuesday in a speech to be delivered at West Point. Yikes. (I'm not kidding.) The War Council and the other hawks have him in their talons.
  
  I'm reminded this morning of FDR. He spoke at Chautauqua, New York, in 1936: "I" [...]
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  Fetched: November 26, 2009, 9:16am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• Recipe needs more FDR, less W

  Roosevelt's first Thanksgiving Proclamation expressed the need for a new economic order. [...]
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  Fetched: November 26, 2009, 9:16am EST
  by The Capital Times

• Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!

  The NY Times article's second paragraph says it all. The White House said Mr. Obama had completed his consultations with his war council. I'm not making this up. "His War Council." (The Times did not say if Robert McNamara, McGeorge Bundy and Henry Kissinger were in attendance.)
  
  And then this' [...]
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  Fetched: November 25, 2009, 9:14am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• Thanksgiving is here

  We should give thanks that Obama has not caved (yet) to the military request for thousands of new troops for the graveyard called Afghanistan. Bill Moyers just devoted an entire program to LBJ's decision to bomb North Vietnam and send tens of thousands of troops to fight and die.' [...]
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  Fetched: November 24, 2009, 7:58am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• Get a job

  The high cost of campaigning is one reason there are so few candidates for governor, but only one reason. [...]
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  Fetched: November 23, 2009, 7:14pm EST
  by Bill Kraus

• Mad as Hell!

  Looking forward to a mild start to a new week? Don't read the NYT story, "Executives Kept Wealth as Firms Failed." Who says so? Three profs at Harvard Law School. At Lehman, the top five executives received cash bonuses and proceeds from stock sales totaling $1 billion between 2000' [...]
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  Fetched: November 23, 2009, 8:55am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• Never, never on a Sunday

  I have noticed recently that Catholic bishops are very actively lobbying around the issue of health care reform.
  
  Churches are exempt from property taxes and sales taxes. In exchange for that privilege they are not supposed to be involved in partisan political activity. Churches routinely break this rule, and [...]
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  Fetched: November 22, 2009, 4:53pm EST
  by Bob Menamin

• Calm down, Alan

  Alan Borsuk, JS cheerleader and occasional education columnist for the paper, is scared. He is, needless to say, in favor of elimination of the elected school board governing Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS). Alan is so in favor of the Duncan/Doyle/Barrett plan he writes as if panicked now that it [...]
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  Fetched: November 22, 2009, 4:53pm EST
  by Ed Garvey

• Calm Down Alan

  Alan Borsuk, J-S cheerleader and occasional Education columnist for the paper, is scared. He is, needless to say, in favor of elimination of the elected School Board governing Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS). Alan is so in favor of the Duncan/Doyle/Barrett plan he writes as if panicked now that it appears [...]
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  Fetched: November 22, 2009, 10:22am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• Driving ourselves to death

  Boosting the federal gas tax would motivate more people to find alternatives to driving. [...]
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  Fetched: November 21, 2009, 9:21pm EST
  by Bill Berry

• Share the Sacrifice!

  Three weeks ago, Bill Moyers suggested that if the "governing class" in America, insists on fighting (unwinnable) wars, then it should share the sacrifice--bring back the draft. Moyers argued that no one should be forced into service to get health insurance or because of a lost job. I agree. [...]
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  Fetched: November 21, 2009, 8:31am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• Want to cry?

  I never heard of "pink sheeting" and suspect you haven't either. NYT carried a disturbing account of the practice. A union, Unite Here, has been accused of this outrageous practice. "Union members and staff were brought to high-pressure meetings where they were brought to tears as supervisors pushed them'" [...]
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  Fetched: November 20, 2009, 6:17am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• Polls and polls

  Tom Barrett doesn't like the results of the UWM poll that found 57 percent of the residents in the four-county area oppose the Doyle/Duncan/Barrett/Sykes/Fuller/Bradley Foundation plot to replace the elected MPS school board with a Barrett/Curley appointed board to be called the "toady board." (Note for those living' [...]
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  Fetched: November 19, 2009, 6:48am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• Legislated to death

  Obama needs to find his inner executive before it is too late. [...]
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  Fetched: November 18, 2009, 8:51pm EST
  by Ed Garvey

• Stats don't lie!

  Or do they? Take a look at the "640,000 jobs created or saved" by the Obama $160 billion stimulus spending. Challenged by ABC, the network took a harder look and concluded that 60,000 jobs should be culled from the list.
  
  Then, on Monday, ABC reported that the government had claimed [...]
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  Fetched: November 18, 2009, 10:54am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• Hunger in America?

  "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet," wrote Shakespeare. "A rose is a rose is a rose," said Gertrude Stein. President Reagan told us there was no "hunger" in America. So we changed the name not the reality. NYT headline: "49 Million Americans Report a Lack" [...]
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  Fetched: November 17, 2009, 8:52am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• Sick politics

  Businesses and politicians oppose paid sick days for workers even in the face of the H1N1 pandemic. [...]
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  Fetched: November 16, 2009, 9:14pm EST
  by Roger Bybee

• So much for platforms

  Jim Doyle has been very consistent when discussing the proposal to return the appointment authority of the DNR secretary to the DNR board of directors. For 14 years he never wavered. Not as attorney general nor as a candidate for governor. Never, that is, until it mattered.
  
  When it [...]
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  Fetched: November 16, 2009, 7:24am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• The healthcare dance

  Two great political adages are at play in the prolonged, complicated, contentious attempt to put together a new health care system for this country.
  
  The first is that no one should have to witness sausage or legislation being made.
  
  The second is that when major, complicated legislation is in the making (which [...]
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  Fetched: November 15, 2009, 12:55pm EST
  by Bill Kraus

• Lots to worry about

  Gubernatorial candidate Tom Barrett is, apparently, taking advice from Jim Doyle on schools and the gubernatorial race in 2010. That's a little scary. We can only hope that the mayor will quickly establish his own path on all issues.
  
  To name a few: Fundraising now but public funding of' [...]
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  Fetched: November 15, 2009, 9:55am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• Bracey's last stand

  Before education researcher Jerry Bracey died last month he issued a report that should serve as a dismissal of the Doyle-Barrett plan to take over Milwaukee's public schools. [...]
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  Fetched: November 14, 2009, 5:19pm EST
  by Todd Alan Price and Thomas J. Mertz

• Sound the trumpets

  JS says Barrett is running for governor. So, no problem. This should be easy. Well, there are a few obstacles, but no reason to dwell on them today.
  
  Eminent domain: The king can do no wrong. "Look what they did, They stole our home for economic development. It was all" [...]
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  Fetched: November 14, 2009, 7:57am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• Good News and bad

  We begin with a quiz and the good news. The Puffin Foundation/The Nation gives a Creative Citizenship award to one who has challenged the status quo through distinctive, courageous, imaginative and socially responsible work of significance. Guess who won the award this year, along with $100,000? Jim Haney of WMC [...]
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  Fetched: November 13, 2009, 6:52am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• [nt]

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  Fetched: November 12, 2009, 7:18am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• [nt]

  [...]
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  Fetched: November 12, 2009, 7:18am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• We Got Answers

  Feed me some soft balls and I'll try to knock 'em out of the park. OK? Q. Who is Bishop Tobin? Before yesterday I would have shrugged and said "dunno." Now I know. He is the Bishop (Catholic not Anglican) of Providence, Rhode Island (suburb of Boston), and likely [...]
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  Fetched: November 12, 2009, 7:18am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• We Got Answers

  Feed me some soft balls and I'll try to knock 'em out of the park. OK? Q. Who is Bishop Tobin? Before yesterday I would have shrugged and said "dunno." Now I know. He is the Bishop (Catholic not Anglican) of Providence, Rhodie Island (suburb of Boston) and likely soul-mate [...]
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  Fetched: November 12, 2009, 7:18am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• Taking on Trotsky

  A Hoover Institute fellow tells us something about Leon Trotsky and something about neoconservatives. [...]
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  Fetched: November 11, 2009, 8:21pm EST
  by Dick Vander Woude

• Whither Doyle?

  What does it mean that Jim Doyle calls himself a Democrat? Peek at Education policy. Jim Doyle promises to call a special session of the Democratic-controlled Legislature (with an hour or two of debate) to take up his bill that would "cede control of Milwaukee Public Schools to the mayor" [...]
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  Fetched: November 11, 2009, 9:16am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• Time to think

  Our nation has had one crisis after another. Katrina, 9/11, war in Iraq, war in Afghanistan, depression/recession, torture by American troops, Gitmo...it has not been an easy couple of years, so, the argument goes, cut Obama some slack.
  
  I agree, but it must be said that the administration has not [...]
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  Fetched: November 10, 2009, 8:15am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• Keeping up with Tajikistan

  Obama's visit shines a light on Wisconsin's K-12 schools, and some of what we see isn't pretty.' [...]
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  Fetched: November 09, 2009, 10:21pm EST
  by John Smart

• Kastenmeier Lecture

  A reminder--the free lecture at the Law School is this Friday at 4:00. Professors Walter Dickey, Cecelia Klingele and Michael Scott will join Bob Kastenmeier to "Re-Imagine Criminal Justice." Call (608) 262-5918 for reservations. Join this vital discussion. See you there.
  
  Milwaukee commute? Dan Bice, JS columnist, called the other [...]
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  Fetched: November 09, 2009, 8:54am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• A bird in the hand

  The Impartial Justice legislation that was passed in the closing hours of the recent fall legislation session is the first attempt in 30+ years to clean up and contain campaign spending.
  
  It has the virtue of being attacked from both sides. Those who like the status quo think [...]
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  Fetched: November 08, 2009, 9:18pm EST
  by Bill Kraus

• Who can you trust?

  Nearly every article informing us of the poor prospects for daily newspapers includes a plea to save the newspapers because, unlike blogs, papers are reliable. Well, those who write that don't read Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel education columnist Alan Borsuk. Borsuk believes to the core that Milwaukee schools need mayoral control;' [...]
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  Fetched: November 08, 2009, 8:18am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• The grease of corruption

  Wisconsin's Supreme Court outpaces the rest of the nation in the race to the bottom. [...]
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  Fetched: November 07, 2009, 9:53pm EST
  by Stanley I. Kutler

• What's your bid?

  Joel McNally once again pins the tail on the donkey in today's Cap Times. His thoughts on the odd Doyle/Obama/Barrett rush to destroy the coalition that brought victory to Obama and Wisconsin Dems just a year ago mirrored my own when I waited to speak at the anti-Doyle/Duncan/Barrett rally' [...]
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  Fetched: November 07, 2009, 9:57am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• FINALLY!

  Impartial Justice. Close your eyes and say it slowly. You can almost feel reform hitting the Supreme Court of Wisconsin. The vote--19-13 in the Senate and 51-42 in the Assembly. It is not perfect but an old friend once stopped to assure me that "perfection is for the next world--mistakes" [...]
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  Fetched: November 06, 2009, 8:24am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• Wishful thinking?

  Everyone was excited to see President Obama in Madison. Arne Duncan, his Secretary of Education--not so much. Things change quickly in politics. Prior to Tuesday's election results, Obama's advisers could argue that they don't need the base because the base (you, me, poor people, particularly African Americans, struggling to' [...]
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  Fetched: November 05, 2009, 7:16am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• Doth protest too much

  Justice David Prosser loses his self-control in defense of Big Money. [...]
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  Fetched: November 04, 2009, 7:54pm EST
  by Dave Zweifel

• Hold your applause

  Drove to an anti-Barrett rally at City Hall in Milwaukee yesterday to hear what our friends are saying about the proposed (by Governor Doyle and Mayor Barrett) takeover of Milwaukee's public schools. You know, the system Tommy, Howard Fuller, John Norquist and the Bradley Foundation "saved" with vouchers--the system they' [...]
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  Fetched: November 04, 2009, 10:55am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• War

  For 60-odd years, some form of "war" has dominated the American agenda. Never content to permit the U.N. the resources to settle disputes, we have fought the Koreans, indirectly China, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Grenada, Iraq, Afghanistan and, of course, wars on drugs, terrorists, poverty, the Cold War...and on and on. [...]
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  Fetched: November 03, 2009, 7:19am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• Wealth: primary

  There are two political parties for the monied interests and none for the rest of us. [...]
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  Fetched: November 02, 2009, 10:23pm EST
  by Ed Garvey

• Memo to Mayor Barrett

  Think about it, Tom. Is Jim Doyle setting you up to fail? Are you sure he is on your team? If you listen to him and run for governor, fundraising will be your full-time occupation. Why? Because Doyle has done nothing to control the cost of campaigns. Nada. To win, [...]
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  Fetched: November 02, 2009, 8:15am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• Death by wedgie

  The Republican death spiral started with the unintended consequences of the Watergate reforms. The party went from the main slater and funder of the campaigns of Republican candidates to a sideshow. The money got loose from what Ody Fish described as “the kinder mistress” and campaigns became entrepreneurial. The new [...]
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  Fetched: November 01, 2009, 7:14pm EST
  by Bill Kraus

• Gosh! Wish I had thought of that!

  I didn't realize that the reason some schools are not doing better is and has been right in front of your eyes and mine. I feel kind of embarrassed that it took me so long to figure out that we spend way too much time worrying about the impact of' [...]
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  Fetched: November 01, 2009, 7:52am EST
  by Ed Garvey

• A big day for Big Money

  Rules that would have required a judges and justices to recuse themselves in cases involving large campaign contributors would have restored confidence in the courts. Would have. [...]
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  Fetched: October 31, 2009, 4:17pm EDT
  by The Capital Times

• Governing class

  Where would we be without Bill Moyers? His editorial on Bill Moyers Journal this week hit the nail on the head. He said, "If our governing class wants more war (in Afghanistan) let's not let them fight the war with young men and women who don't have jobs or" [...]
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  Fetched: October 31, 2009, 9:17am EDT
  by Ed Garvey

• Be careful! His bite is worse than his bark

  First some basics. If you want to practice law in Wisconsin, you must a.) Graduate from an accredited law school (cost: about $200,000, including wages you would have earned had you resisted the urge to make this a better world as a lawyer); b.) Be sworn into the profession, called [...]
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  Fetched: October 30, 2009, 8:17am EDT
  by Ed Garvey

• Bias? Heavens no!

  The JS story begins, "A deeply divided state Supreme Court adopted a rule..." OK, close your eyes and think about the influence of money on governors, legislators, or Justices of the Supreme Court. That is the issue the seven-person court had on its plate yesterday. Did they go for public [...]
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  Fetched: October 29, 2009, 7:16am EDT
  by Ed Garvey

• Kids and their kids

  The Healthy Youth Act would address health problems caused by unplanned teen pregnancies. [...]
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  Fetched: October 29, 2009, 11:16pm EDT
  by Chris Taylor

• Where were you when the revolution began?

  Before plunging into the educational revolution discussion, some hot news. By 96-0 the Assembly passed the puppy mill regulation bill. (I would like to know the names of the three members of the Assembly who didn't vote. Puppy haters, I'll bet.) Yup!
  
  Puppies throughout the state will sleep better [...]
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  Fetched: October 28, 2009, 7:17am EDT
  by Ed Garvey

• Now what?

  The news shocked most political people. Barbara Lawton has opted out of the gubernatorial race! The timing of the announcement, on the heels of the MJS report that President Obama was urging Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett to run, raised some suspicion. The idea of notifying friends and supporters [...]
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  Fetched: October 27, 2009, 1:13pm EDT
  by Ed Garvey

• A complicated man (and we mean that in a good way)

  Gerald Bracey was a serious gadfly who believed in statistics but insisted that students could not be reduced to numbers. [...]
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  Fetched: October 27, 2009, 12:14am EDT
  by Todd Alan Price

• Puppy Love

  We know about the "dog-days-of-summer." Parents warned kids to stay away from strange dogs in August when dogs are panting to cool down. Now "puppy love" (long the preserve of high school kids) has dominated the Democratic agenda.
  
  There was a reason to give control of the Legislature to Democrats--I [...]
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  Fetched: October 26, 2009, 9:14am EDT
  by Ed Garvey

• Partial for nonpartisanship

  In my positions of more or less importance in over 30 political campaigns of more or less importance I have learned many things. One of the most important is that judicial campaigns are and should be different from campaigns for partisan offices.
  
  Both campaigns are about the candidates, their character [...]
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  Fetched: October 25, 2009, 10:14pm EDT
  by Bill Kraus

• The agony of victory and the thrill of defeat

  Hatred of Obama has spawned the rise of anti-American Republicanism. [...]
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  Fetched: October 25, 2009, 9:16am EDT
  by Joel McNally

• I miss the

  Remember when Madison had two daily newspapers? It was interesting. I rarely agreed with Wisconsin State Journal (WSJ) editorials, but there was, at minimum, some editorial consistency. Today, "Wisconsin's Independent Voice" (WIV) the moniker the WSJ gave itself, opts to "Tie teachers to testing." Why? Well the sub-head announces that [...]
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  Fetched: October 25, 2009, 9:16am EDT
  by Ed Garvey

• Mencken was right

  I watched Governor Doyle roll out his solution to under achievement in Milwaukee public schools this week and I thought of H.L. Mencken, who wrote, "There is always a well-known solution to every human problem; neat, plausible and wrong." And he added, "It is the dull man who is always" [...]
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  Fetched: October 24, 2009, 7:16am EDT
  by Ed Garvey

• We miss Jerry Bracey Already

  We were thrilled when author, NCLB critic, and friend of public education Gerald Bracey agreed to speak at Fighting Bob Fest in 2004. I will never forget the look on his face when I had to tell him, just before he spoke, that overheads would not work. He always used [...]
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  Fetched: October 23, 2009, 7:37am EDT
  by Ed Garvey

• Good News for a change

  The tide has turned, or so it seems. More and more members of Congress are approving "Medicare for all." Take that Fox!
  
  I think the doctors started that call and it seems to work even for "Blue Dogs" who until yesterday were busy raising a back leg on real health [...]
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  Fetched: October 22, 2009, 6:40am EDT
  by Ed Garvey

• Tainted Justice

  Michael Gableman has shown that he cannot fairly rule in cases involving criminal defendants or WMC. [...]
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  Fetched: October 22, 2009, 3:09am EDT
  by Ed Garvey

• I must be dreaming

  Pope beckons disaffected Anglicans to the Catholic Church. What? Married clergy? Women in the clergy? Whoa Nelly! Ah, the Catch 22: The Anglicans are in turmoil over gay clergy. It turns out the Anglicans broke out in 1534. I remember it well... So the faux unity may be at [...]
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  Fetched: October 21, 2009, 8:47am EDT
  by Ed Garvey

• One arm or another

  We might not mind media bias if news channels just did a better job of reporting. [...]
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  Fetched: October 20, 2009, 7:17am EDT
  by John Smart

• Governor doesn't respect Milwaukee's elected school board

  Jim Doyle tells us that he is moving forward to help Milwaukee in the so-called educational "Race to the Top." No one knows, or so it seems, what that clever slogan means but a Madison Avenue created title may be more important than substance.
  
  Mayor Barrett has taken the [...]
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  Fetched: October 20, 2009, 7:17am EDT
  by Ed Garvey

• What next?

  This week we meet with Fighting Bob Fest veterans from Eau Claire. We will make plans for a progressive Chautauqua in the northwest and discuss the mission of Fighting Bob. Should FB hold festivals around the state? Remain focused on Baraboo for number 9? Is it possible to bring [...]
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  Fetched: October 19, 2009, 8:46am EDT
  by Ed Garvey

• Don't I know it

  Always something to be wary about. The charge is that I, as a reformer, think it’s still 1978. The fact is that a lot of the trouble that I see with politics and political campaigning is that I know it isn’t 1978.
  
  In 1978 the the two statewide papers and regional [...]
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  Fetched: October 18, 2009, 10:14pm EDT
  by Bill Kraus

• Supreme courts

  Yes, we have two of them. One appointed (U.S.) the other elected (Wisconsin). Both influence our daily lives. Both have been embarrassed by corporate money. The Wisconsin State Journal (WSJ) calls itself (I'm not making this up) "Wisconsin's Independent Voice." WSJ assures us that if we permit the elites to [...]
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  Fetched: October 18, 2009, 8:18am EDT
  by Ed Garvey

• Too far gone

  The Democrats in the Wisconsin Legislature just can't handle what every other state legislature has already done: regulating payday loan sharks.' [...]
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  Fetched: October 17, 2009, 6:14pm EDT
  by Dave Zweifel

• Too far gone

  The Democrats in the Wisconsin Legislature just can't handle what every other state legislature has already done: regulating payday loan sharks.' [...]
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  Fetched: October 17, 2009, 6:14pm EDT
  by Dave Zweifel

• Too much--the system is broken

  Before getting to the broken system, enjoy a quote from Charles Blow, writing in the NYT op-ed pages about the Obama record on everything from New Orleans to Gitmo to gay rights. The headline is "Impatiently Waiting", and the article says, "The fierce urgency of now has melted into" [...]
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  Fetched: October 17, 2009, 9:49am EDT
  by Ed Garvey

• Wow! WPRI is breaking news

  If you occasionally wonder what self-proclaimed "think tankers" do when there are no elections to play with, wonder no more. The super-right Wisconsin Policy Research (sic) Institute (WPRI) has issued a study that will change the world. What have they discovered?
  
  Well, in 1997, they inform us in [...]
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  Fetched: October 16, 2009, 10:44am EDT
  by Ed Garvey

• It is fun to have fun

  I get more than my share of fun, so let me share with you a quote from Florida Congressman Alan Grayson. He's the guy who summarized the Republican health plan as, "Get sick. Die quick." (Pardon the grammar.) The GOP, probably from their insurance industry department, demanded an apology.' [...]
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  Fetched: October 15, 2009, 8:16am EDT
  by Ed Garvey

• It is fun to have fun

  And I get more than my share so let me share with you a quote from Alan Grayson, Dem.Fla. He's the guy who defended the Republican health plan. Their plan: "Get sick. Die quick." (Pardon the grammar) The GOP, probably from their insurance industry department, demanded an apology. He responded [...]
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  Fetched: October 15, 2009, 8:16am EDT
  by Ed Garvey