]]>Dear Milwaukeean liberal drinkers,
Tomorrow is a very special event for our humble little chapter: Living Liberally co-founder Justin Krebs is coming to Milwaukee! Krebs is the author of "538 Ways to Live, Work & Play Like a Liberal." It's full of little ideas for embracing your progressive values everyday life, as well as the big ideas of what it means to be a "liberal" in America today.
Justin's bio describes him as a "political & cultural entrepreneur based in New York City. He is co-founder of Living Liberally and serves as one of the organizations National Directors. He is one of the founders and Artistic Directors of The Tank, a non-profit venue for performing arts and public affairs in Manhattan. Over the past decade, he has been an Activist Fellow for CREDO in San Francisco, managed issue advocacy campaigns in New York City, produced an award-winning documentary for PBS on youth civic engagement, and served in the office of US Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. He has published 'Grounds For Play,' a history of playgrounds in New York. He is a [New Jersey] native, Harvard alum and New Yorker for the past decade."
Well, let's give this Yankee a proper Brew City welcome! Justin helped start DL, and got us to where we are today. Come say thanks by getting a copy of his book. Copies will be available for your purchase and perusal.
It will happen at our standard time and place -- 7 PM at Sugar Maple. It's like an extra round of Drinking Liberally, all for the low low price of one good book!
Date: Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm
Location: Sugar Maple, 441 East Lincoln Ave., Milwaukee WITill morrow,
Jason & the Milwaukee DL crew
In addition to a few very heated arguments over the nature of taxation, we had a lot of genuine discussion and debate over the role and nature of government, and the nature of efficacy of representative government. In short, there was some anti-incumbency in the air, though a lot of it seemed to be based in the very nature of representative democracy. Do we elect people to Congress to think for themselves, or to listen to their constituency and vote on their behalf? That question was never addressed. But it's kind of hard to ask such heavy questions when you're having such a fun time with all these people about having a grand time feeling their way about the very institution we're discussing.
Anyway, pictures are on my [main blog](http://haas414.wordpress.com/2010/05/20/lively-debate-at-last-nights-drinking-liberally/), in a post which astonishingly resembles this one!
]]>Let's accentuate the positive first with Senator Russ Feingold's new ad, "Forward." The ad focuses on the meaning of our state's slogan, which is that very word, and urges continued movement in that direction. While many would like to see the state's politics slide backwards, Feingold is pushing for movement in the proper direction. Feingold makes no attempt to place himself among the forward-thinking individuals that are shown in the ad, such as former Gov. Gaylord Nelson or the world-famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright, both Wisconsin natives. Rather, it appeals to the desire to improve and elevate the whole of society. It's a thoughtful ad, and doesn't specifically mention any issues, nor people. It doesn't need to, as it represents some of the best thinking and values to come from Wisconsin in the past hundred years.
Terrence "Terry" Wall, the multi-millionaire who for over a decade hasn't found it necessary to personally pay a dime to support the state, has some ads too. The ad "Liberal Leinie" was posted two weeks ago, and predictably bashes Wall's probable Republican opponent Dick Leinenkugel for being part of the Doyle administration and helping write the state budget, and for Wisconsin losing jobs. While the Cheddarsphere had already questioned Leinenkugel running as a Republican immediately after serving in the Democratic administration, Wall's ad paints him as a dreaded tax-raising liberal. The economy going out of control was hardly Leinenkugel's fault, but the people in charge always take heat when things go poorly. Leinenkugel set himself up for taking those hits, light as they may be.
This video says much more about Wall than his nasal pronouncements about jobs in his introductory video. Compare the tone of the Feingold and Wall ads. Feingold refers to our state's legacy of producing great thinkers and creators. It emphasizes the importance of keeping up our great intellectual and creative traditions. Voting to return our scholarly senator to the Senate would do that.
Wall's ad is smug, dismissive, and insulting. The tone of the woman's voice is designed to raise the hairs on the neck of people who have been trained by talk radio and Fox News to automatically hate anyone and everyone who is associated with the Democratic Party. It doesn't employ dog whistles so much as bullhorns to shout the words "HIGHER TAXES" and "LIBERAL" -- a gaudy attempt to embroil the conservative audience. If the ad is successful in raising the blood pressure of the viewer, they probably will give the throwaway line at the end of the ad a gut laugh. Which is more than it deserves.
Thoughtful, effective. Feingold.
Snobby, pandering. Wall.
Choose wisely.
]]>According to the latest numbers from Rasmussen, Feingold would beat tax-evading millionaire Terrence "Terry" Wall, 49%-43%. Feingold's numbers stay even for the a match-up against Dave Westlake, who would net 38%, and amazingly, Dick Leinenkugel would only get 37%.
Dick Leinenkugel served in the Democratic administration of Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle until his abrupt resignation a few weeks ago. He's rumored to be running against Feingold as a Republican. And he has been widely mocked for doing so after being in a secretary in the Democratic Doyle administration.
Neither Wall or Leinenkugel have come to Drinking Liberally, so I'm not sure how Wall is ahead of Westlake. Must be all that money he gave his own campaign. (Did it come via Delaware?)
]]>"While I appreciate the willingness of all parties to engage in good-faith discussions, I do not support proposals that would replace the public option in the bill with a purely private approach. We need to have some competition for the insurance industry to keep rates down and save taxpayer dollars. I will base my vote on the bill on the entirety of what is in the bill, and whether I think the bill is good for Wisconsin." -- Senator Russ Feingold]]>
Barrett faces two hard-line Republicans. My early prediction is that he will face Mark Neumann in the general, and Barrett will win.
While I would hope the token Republican challenger is not going to be John Gard, who's already lost to Kagen twice, it would be rather amusing to see him try again only to have his voters get scozzafavaed by Stern.
Niagara is very likely a lovely town in the northeast corner of Wisconsin. Surveying the area on Google Maps, we see that it is right on the Wisconsin-Michigan border, and located near the Spread Eagle Barrens State Natural Area. That area actually sounds like a pretty good place to visit. It's also near the Ford Airport, all of which could make for a great reason to have a friend fly us up there some time. (Cuz we have the time...)
(h/t TPM.)
This is from The Register:
"As previously reported by TechFlash in December, Microsoft has posted
job listings for positions at its Musiwave subsidiary that involve
incorporating Musiwave technology into the Zune Marketplace." 'The Zune organization is making a strategic change from a 3rd party
content provider to in-house," reads one Musiwave job post. 'We need
to rebuild, re-architect, and revitalize a content ingestion pipeline
[emphasis added] that powers the entire Zune business. And we have a very
short time to do it.' "
While I've only seen a few listings for employment at Apple, I never saw one that had such overwhelming and buzzword-compliant groupthink in its core. Groupthink was at the antithesis of what made Apple such a revolutionary company in the early 1980s, and probably some of what led to its near downfall in the mid-90s. While Microsoft has used groupthink to its advantage to achieve a de facto (and now slowly eroding) monopoly, it's still nothing that I want to be a part of, or use if I don't have to.
Apparently a man provoked some of the teabaggers, eventually causing a large group of them -- incluing Joe the Unlicensed Plumber -- to chase him. What we know for sure is that he was beaten, and that Joe the Unlicensed Plumber may have taken a swing at him. Blogger Renee Crawford saw what happened and provides a detailed report. She writes:
"Then Joe the Plummer joined the tussle. I kid you not. I have no idea his role in it, just that he was IN THE MIDDLE of the crowd. The sheriffs get there, I turn to look at Joe the Plummer and the next thing I know the guy being assaulted by the crowd is bloody on the ground under the knee of two sheriffs and being cuffed. His face was bloody, there was something about a broken camera and I became scared of the crowd who were cheering and congratulating the sheriffs for "doing a great job"...
We will have to wait until the sheriff's report comes out tomorrow.
I can't help but wonder if our DINO right-wing sheriff will attempt to
tamper with the report, or prevent Joe the Contractor Plumber from being listed as an assailant -- if he indeed was in on it. I wasn't there, so I just don't know.
A proglottide, if you're wondering, according to the New Oxford American Dictionary, is a "segment in the strobila of a tapeworm, containing a complete sexually mature reproductive system." That is a fitting word here, as I imagine that there are some sad people who think that any message from our good president is nothing better than a tapeworm segment. Where were you while the last president was misspeaking his way to a futile, expensive war and getting us into the current financial mess that our grandchildren are going to be paying for?
]]>Insurance costs going through the roof as the industry that profits on people's ill health prospers.
More people losing their jobs and homes because of it.
The economic hole deepens worse than before.
All thanks to you.
]]>What is Milwaukee County First?• • •
Milwaukee County First is a grassroots network of organizations and individuals from all walks of life, united to amplify their voices in the cause of stopping the decline of Milwaukee County, restoring its assets and services to their former first class status, and keeping Milwaukee County a place where people will want to work, to play, and to live.
Milwaukee County is a shadow of what it once was. Its parks, once a necklace of jewels, are now unkempt and overgrown. Its transit system, once a yardstick for the nation, is now fighting for its very survival. The social services and safety net that Milwaukee County once provided has been scaled down so much that the State of Wisconsin had to intervene to protect the most vulnerable of the county's citizens. Its infrastructure is crumbling and years behind in necessary repairs.
The causes of this decline in Milwaukee County's status are many, from the dire economic times we are in, to local leaders, past and present, who have put their self-interests before those of the people they serve. It is time, if not beyond time, for civic leaders to once again put the interests of Milwaukee County first. It is time to make Milwaukee County a first-class economic and social region for the State of Wisconsin and the entire Midwest. This is why residents from throughout Milwaukee County have come together to form Milwaukee County First.
Milwaukee County First is a registered 501(c)4 non-profit organization based in Milwaukee County.