Randomness is fundamental; fundamentalists, not so much

At Doc's Home, Doc ("an evangelical Christian by faith and a physicist by education") nails the Intelligent Design/ Creationist faction to the wall again with this post from yesterday. If you remember my ID essay from the soon-to-expire Open Source Politics, ID is not actually science; it's much more about phiosophy and statistics. One of its central legs is the idea of specified complexity: This is the idea, formulated by mathematician William A. Dembski, using probability and the general public's misunderstanding of probability, to argue that random chance is not enough to explain how changes in organisms can develop over time. Dembski believes that while "[j]ust about anything that happens is highly improbable, [. . .] when a highly improbable event is also specified (i.e., conforms to an independently given pattern) undirected natural causes lose their explanatory power."

Anyway, Doc tears that notion apart:

[T]he basic issue is randomness. Evolution suggests life evolved through a series of random mutations in simpler organisms. Randomness suggests, well, randomness, whereas creation suggests order and method. Hence, the two are inexorably opposed, right?

I am glad these anti-evolutionists have not apparently studied modern physics. Randomness is the cornerstone of quantum mechanics, which is founded on the assumption that nature works through probabilism, not determinism. Here's the idea. In classical physics, all the way back to the Greeks, nature was assumed deterministic. That means if I repeat an experiment 1000 times under the same conditions, the exact same result will emerge 1000 times. If I know the initial conditions and the forces involved, I know exactly what will happen. Probabilism, on the other hand, says I have no idea what will happen each time I run the experiment. There are any number of possible outcomes, each with a certain probability of happening. The best I can say is how often I would expect to see some given outcome.

This is necessarily abstract and hard to understand if you haven't studied physics. I will try to illustrate. If I pick up a pencil and let it go, it will fall due to gravity. In a deterministic universe, all I need to know is the height of the pencil to determine exactly what will happen. I can calculate exactly how long it will take to hit the ground, and the speed at which it will be moving when it does hit. More importantly, I can calculate the exactly trajectory of that pencil, marking its exact position at every moment during the fall. And if I do the experiment 1000 times, I will get the exact same results.

In the quantum realm, it is much more complex. I have to consider the straight line path, yes. But I have to consider a trajectory with a single loop, one with two loops, one where it makes a 90 turn, etc. (This sounds weird, I know. At the size scale we are talking about, the probability of each of these paths is 0, except the straight line path, which is why we don't worry about quantum effects in our everyday world. But a proper quantum solution would have to consider all these. The example illustrates the process involved in understanding interactions at much smaller size scales where quantum effects do matter.) Each trajectory has a probability, so repeating the experiment 1000 times, I can estimate how often I would expect to see each path. The same thing will not necessarily happen each time. (Quantum also has the uncertainty principle which says I cannot know the position and momentum of the pencil simultaneously, and other fun effects.) [. . .]

It is crucial to understand that this probabilism is a fundamental property of nature, not some mathematical tool. [. . .] In quantum we give up trying to understand the motion of a single electron around a nucleus because it is fundamentally not possible to understand that motion. The uncertainty principle tells us that the better we know the momentum of an electron, the less we know its position, and vice versa. Even attempting to make a measurement changes the state of what we're measuring.

I don't know how many people have made it this far but I'll press on with the point I'm trying to make. It seems to me that at the core of intelligent design is a resistance to the notion of randomness. The ID supporters want to remove the random mutations of evolution with a more orderly process guided by a designer. This is very similar to the debate in the physics community in the early 20th century when quantum physics began taking hold. Many physicists rejected quantum for exactly the same reason. Einstein and Niels Bohr had a celebrated exchange of letters arguing this philosophical point, with Einstein making the famous comment, "God does not play dice with the universe."

Randomness is not simply an element of evolution. It is a fundamental property of nature. To resist evolution because it is makes use of random processes is to also resist all of modern physics.

I am also glad that I have not studied modern physics, as this sounds far more complicated than my sad little right-brained head can handle. But it precisely this kind of problem--the truth is complicated and lies can be so simple--that gives Intelligent Design such great purchase in our society. I'm glad that folks nominally on their side, like Doc, have the patience and good will to explain it to them.

A couple of print stories

One, the follow-up to yesterday's military recruitment post. MPS did pass a modest policy designed to increase parental awareness of opt-out options.

Two, Xoff's Bill Christofferson writes a good summary in this week's Shepherd about how "Pro-Life" Wisconsin has crossed an ugly line:

An extremist “pro-life” group, not content with opposing abortion, birth control and stem cell research, has attacked the family and caregivers of a Wisconsin Marine, critically wounded in Iraq, for following his express directions and allowing him to die.

The Marine, Staff Sgt. Chad Simon of Monona, suffered a severe brain injury in November when a roadside bomb hit his Humvee, injuring Simon and killing three other Marines from his Madison-based Reserve unit. Surgeons removed two-thirds of Simon’s skull. He never regained consciousness.

He died nine months later, on Aug. 4, at a HospiceCare facility in Madison, after his family, following his wishes, disconnected his feeding tube. “He did have a living will, and it was very explicit. There was nothing to question,” said the Rev. Jeff Mannel, pastor at Madison Church of Christ, and a close family friend.

Jack Schuster, the family’s attorney, said Chad’s wife, Regina, made the decision after much soul-searching and with a judge’s approval.

While the family seemed to be at peace with carrying out Chad’s wishes, others who didn’t know the Marine weren’t happy with the family’s decision.

Pro-Life Wisconsin, which calls itself “your 100% pro-life voice,” accused HospiceCare of murder.

Read the rest.

Friday Random Ten

The Last Friday of Summer Edition

1. "All That Hammering" John Gorka from Temporary Road
2. "Last Night of the World" Bruce Cockburn from Anything Anytime Anywhere
3. "Pablo's Lights" Vance Gilbert from Somerville Live
4. "Soldier After All" John Gorka from Old Futures Gone
5. "Killing the Blues" Chris Smither from Live at McCabe's Guitar Shop
6. "Get a Little" G.E. Smith and the Saturday Night Live Band from Get a Little
7. "The Other Side" Don Conoscenti from Paradox of Grace
8. "The River, Where She Sleeps" Darryl Purpose from A Crooked Line
9. "Time Brings" Great Big Sea from Great Big Sea
10. "Crowded in the Wings" The Jayhawks from Hollywood Town Hall

Moderation in Recruiting High Schoolers "Unpatriotic"

One of the more insidious but lesser-known provisions of ESEA 2001 (AKA NCLB) is that schools must provide the name, home address, phone number, and other personal identifying data to military recruiters, unless parents specifically opt out of it. In addition, military recruiters have virtually unfettered access to high schools. Some days at the high school where I teach it's like a scene from A Few Good Men, all the uniforms stalking the hallways and pacing the cafeteria.

But my district, the Milwaukee Public Schools, may be taking a step to preserve students' privacy:

The effort, led by board member Peter Blewett and backed by some students and parents, puts Milwaukee among a growing number of cities where opponents of the war in Iraq have targeted provisions of federal law that were little-noted until recently. [. . .]

As a result [of the law], recruiters visit high schools frequently, often setting up tables in cafeterias or making presentations to groups of students. Around age 17, teenagers receive frequent mailings from all branches of the military and may be contacted directly by recruiters.

MPS officials estimate that "opt-out" forms are filed for less than 1% of students. The percentage in other school districts in Wisconsin is believed to be in the same ballpark. [. . .]

A Milwaukee School Board committee spent more than two hours Tuesday night debating changes proposed by Blewett, which would restrict military recruiters to three visits a year at high schools and aggressively seek to make parents aware of how to keep student information from going to recruiters.

The committee passed a milder proposal that calls for increased efforts to inform parents of the opt-out rules while awaiting legal advice on what limits can be set for recruiters in schools.

This modest reform--which does nothing to limit access to students by military folk--has been identified by the bad half of the Cheddarsphere as unpatriotic and an attempt by "anti-war zealots" to "deny a future" to MPS students.

From where I sit--my futon, literally, but think metaphorically--this measure by MPS is a way to preserve students' privacy. The information that we are required to hand over to the military is information that, if we gave it to just about anybody else, we'd get sued under FERPA. Even if we accidentally left confidential student contact info in the fax machine at Kinko's, we'd be screwed. Yet we have to hand over the info to the military so that their sagging recruitment numbers can look better.

My students by and large are not stupid: They tell me (without my saying a word) that they hate Bush and his war in Iraq. They know that Republicans haven't done much for African Americans in general and urban African Americans in particular. A handful of seniors every year choose the military, but the vast majority--I'd say upwards of 98%--decide for themselves that fighting Bush's war is not the future for them.

Carnival of the Badger

The second weekly installment of a tour of the Cheddarsphere is up at Wigderson's place. I'm in there somewhere.

You just know it was Republicans

Not for this part (since it's obvious Fox News is Republican):

In what Fox News officials concede was a mistake, John Loftus, a former U.S. prosecutor, gave out the address Aug. 7, saying it was the home of a Middle Eastern man, Iyad K. Hilal, who was the leader of a terrorist group with ties to those responsible for the July 7 bombings in London.

Hilal, whom Loftus identified by name during the broadcast, moved out of the house about three years ago. But the consequences were immediate for the Voricks.

Satellite photos of the house and directions to the residence were posted online. The Voricks told police, who arranged for the content to be taken down. Someone even removed the street sign where the Voricks live to provide some protection.

But for this part:

Last weekend, someone spray-painted "Terrist" on their home.

They could have called it, "Walker Drowns Kittens"

But "Walker looks at cuts in health care for poor" works almost as well, since it is time to draw attention to the real problem.

That problem is, of course, that suburbanite Walker seldom misses the chance to balance the County budget on the backs of the poor black folk in Milwaukee. It's a consistent theme of his, from cutting bus service (watch for more cuts--and a drastic jump in fares from high gas prices) and threatening to cut mental health services to closing public pools that serve those without air conditioning, Scott Walker never met a program targeting poor minorities that he didn't want to cut. Reminds me of his bluster during the last campaign about how his "truth in sentencing" bill kept criminals off the street--though he didn't say the "black" part out loud.

's gonna be a long, long campaign for governor, isn't it?

The alma mater strikes again

You know it's August: The yellow jackets are back, your humble host is losing sleep pending the start of the school year, there's no good network TV, and my (and Stacie's) alma mater, Beloit College has released its "Mindset List":

Each August, as students start to arrive, Beloit College releases the Beloit College Mindset List, which offers a world view of today's entering college students. It is the creation of Beloit’s Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride [I know him!] and Director of Public Affairs Ron Nief.

McBride, who directs Beloit’s First Year Initiatives (FYI) program for entering students, notes that "This year’s entering students have grown up in a country where the main business has become business, and where terrorism, from obscure beginnings, has built up slowly but surely to become the threat it is today. Cable channels have become as mainstream as the 'Big 3' used to be, formality in dress has become more quaint than ever, and Aretha Franklin, Kermit the Frog and Jimmy Carter have become old-timers." [. . .]

The list is distributed to faculty on campus during the New Students Days orientation. According to McBride, “It is an important reminder, as faculty start to show signs of ‘hardening of the references,’ that we think about the touchstones and benchmarks of a generation that has grown up with CNN, home computers, AIDS awareness, digital cameras and the Bush political dynasty. We should also keep in mind that these students missed out on the pleasures of being tossed in the back of a station wagon with a bunch of friends and told to keep the noise down, walking in the woods without fearing Lyme Disease, or setting out to try all of the 28 ice cream flavors at Howard Johnson’s.”

According to Nief, “This is not serious in-depth research. It is meant to be thought-provoking and fun, yet accurate. It is as relevant as possible, given the broad social and geographic diversity of our students, who are drawn from every state and 50 countries. It is always open to challenge, which has an additional benefit in that it reminds us of students’ varied backgrounds. It is still a good reflection of the attitudes and experiences of the young people that we must be aware of from the first day of their college experience.”

Last year, I actually had a chance to call in to Ben Merens's public raido show (Ben was on vacation, though) and share my recollection with Beloit professor and ex-husband of the state senator Art Robson, since I was at Beloit when the first mindset list was released. Now it's all very formal and even comes with a little ®. And, as usual, it's a bizarre collection of things that supposedly identify this post-millenial generation.

I won't reprint the whole thing (the ® may will mean a lawsuit!), but here are a few favorites:

1. Andy Warhol, Liberace, Jackie Gleason, and Lee Marvin have always been dead.
14. Car stereos have always rivaled home component systems.
18. The federal budget has always been more than a trillion dollars.
26. Dirty dancing has always been acceptable.
32. Judicial appointments routinely have been "Borked."
53. They do not remember "a kinder and gentler nation."
75. They have always been challenged to distinguish between news and entertainment on cable TV.

In a couple of weeks, I will be turning 29 for the third time. (I like my shirts roomy, hint hint). I am so old.

Some Wednesday Links

Barbara O'Brien is back from vacation. As usual, she's the smartest person on the internet.

Joe from Shut Up and Teach! has once again done yeoman's work on an Advocate Weekly. I always shine a little bit when I get called a "must-read."


I was remiss in not noting the inaugural "Carnival of the Badger" last week. These "carnivals" are a conservative tradition, of which I don't partake. However, I did submit one for this week's, which will run here.

One Last Thing About Fraud

The conservative Cheddarsphere is all exercised about this morning's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial (see Owen, for example) calling for the state Republican party to apologize to the people they publicly smeared when they claimed that nine people double voted, casting ballots in Milwaukee and either Chicago, Madison, or Minneapolis. They did it standing in front of an East-Side home--when the residents were out--and used the occasion to mark the third time they sent a voter-ID bill to be vetoed by J-Dizzle.

The complaints are that somehow the MJS editorial somehow mimics Democratic party talking points. Let's see: For months, the MJS says voter ID won't solve the problems, and today they repeat that. In the original story covering the big "fraud" announcement, you could hear the skepticism:

While the party did not release names or addresses, the city lists three voters at the house where the news conference took place: Stuart and Gayle Schenk and their son Joseph, who moved to Chicago last August.

Both Stuart and Gayle Schenk said Joseph did not vote in Milwaukee or request an absentee ballot here. Gayle Schenk said her son is in Chicago studying to join the Franciscan order of the Roman Catholic Church.

The GOP needed two minutes to make a phone call, and they could have avoided the awkward situation of accusing a brother-to-be of a felony. So the once-skeptical newspaper now asks for the courtesy of an apology. Moreso, the GOP chose a bad example to try to make the case for voter ID, as I noted at the time, and the MJS said so too, in a way that is completely consistent with their editorial policy since time immemorial. The editors are still being kind, because they have yet to nail GOP chair Rick Graber for his admission that voter ID is not a full solution.

So, three for three, the MJS is either holding consistent to old positions or making a common-sense call for an apology over a completely avoidable besmirching of a young man's character. That Joe Wineke also called for an apology (.pdf) is not evidence of a conspiracy; calling it so speaks only to the deafness of conservative bloggers to how out of touch their Republican party is.

I'm finally getting all Tigerfied

I finally managed to wrangle a Tiger--OSX 10.4--and I'll be upgrading from Jaguar (!) shortly. If you never hear from me again, it means something went horribly wrong.

[UPDATE: Seems to be working so far. I'm all in one piece.]

TABOR strangling Colorado, despite recovering economy

The conservatives in the audience will be pleased that the beast is starving:

Colorado expects to spend less than 1 percent more on government services this fiscal year than last, while nationwide, spending growth will be almost 6 percent, a new study shows.

The numbers are evidence that Colorado is hamstrung by the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, unable to recover from the recession like other states, say some analysts [. . .].

The numbers in the preliminary report on state budgets and tax actions, presented to lawmakers from all 50 states on Wednesday, show that most states collected tax revenues this year at a rate of about 5 or 6 percent above last year's rate. Next year's collections won't be up as much, about 3 percent, but spending on government programs is expected to rise 5.7 percent.

Colorado's economy also has improved, which translates into a projected 7 percent increase in tax revenues. But because TABOR limits how fast government can grow, most of those additional tax revenues will be returned to taxpayers or special-interest groups. [. . .]

Higher education will get a 1.5 percent bump in Colorado, compared with the national average of 7 percent. K-12 education is expected to grow by 3 percent overall, compared with the national average of 6 percent.

Henry Sobanet, director of Colorado's Office of State Planning and Budget, said the numbers show that other states are able to take advantage of the economic recovery better than Colorado can.

Colorado's TABOR caps "will not allow the budget to recover," said Sobanet, whose boss, [Republican!] Gov. Bill Owens, backs the referendums. There is a misconception in Colorado that "because the economy is coming back fine, the state government must be as well," Sobanet said.

But Colorado had to cut spending by tens of millions of dollars during the recession years, and because of TABOR, can't ratchet back up from those lowered numbers, he said. "Next year, we expect to be refunding money while simultaneously cutting programs," he said.

I started writing this post this morning, but after several nights of below-average sleep, I couldn't muster anything like coherent outrage.

Frankly, I still can't. It boggles my mind that some people want this for Wisconsin.

Now, I am not the kind of liberal who believes in spending for the sake of spending (come to think of it, I don't personally know any of that liberal), but the situation in Colorado demonstrates why artificial controls on spending under laws like the misnamed "taxpayer bill of rights" (TABOR) are a bad idea. In times of economic growth, such as the nation is seeing to an extent right now, states need the flexibility to use the higher tax revenue to shore up the budget and programs that lose out in lean years. What makes Colorado's position worse is that inflation is running considerably higher than they allowable increase in spending, which puts them in the awkward position of having to keep trimming despite the capacity to maintain present progam levels without overburdening taxpayers.

Anyway, if you have outrage, feel free to share it in the comments. I'm plum out.

"Voter Fraud" not actually . . . fraud

The U.S. Attorney released his findings on the nine supposed cases of double-voting in Milwaukee last November, which turned out not to be fraud at all. I was going to link to the story, but Xoff beat me to it and even pulled out the most salient paragraphs. So I defer to him.

Interview with Our Man Russ™

Key quote:

We were way ahead on domestic issues, but the Democratic Party and Democratic leaders decided to take a pass on the Iraq war.  They decided to defer to the President, and I have to tell you many Democratic leaders knew better.  This was a bad idea, but they allowed the Bush administration to brilliantly intimidate them into not standing up and saying this doesn't fit in with the fight against Al Qaeda and the terrorists that attacked this country on 9/11.  Of course, I didn't buy into this and I voted no, but I was even in the minority among Democrats in the Senate.  And now were making the same mistake, now that it's clear that the administration took us into Iraq under false premises.  We have a situation where they are doing a terrible job managing this war.  They are doing a terrible job of having a plan to win the war and win the peace.  Yet, Democrats are allowing the President to set the terms of the debate.  If somebody says "what about a plan to bring the troops home", the President labels it cut and run.  Democrats have become silent, so I do think perhaps that we have allowed this to become a taboo.  My purpose this week is to break that taboo, let other Democrats know it's safe to go in the water.  It's safe to talk about how we can succeed and bring our troops home.  Why shouldn't we Democrats be talking about that?

Go read the whole thing.

Connecticut sues over NCLB

Connecticut today became the first bold state to sue the federal government over the outrageous testing requirements contained in the No Child Left Behind provisions (NCLB) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Authorization Act of 2001 (ESEA). From the AP:

The lawsuit argues the law is illegal because it requires expensive standardized tests and other school programs it doesn't pay for. It asks a federal judge to declare that state and local money can't be used to meet the law's goals.

"Our message today is give up the unfunded mandates, or give us the money," said Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.

The legal action is the latest chapter in a heated fight between Connecticut and the federal government over standardized testing.

Connecticut currently tests students in grades four, six and eight. But, under No Child Left Behind, the state is required to start testing children in grades three, five and seven this school year.

State education officials say that they already know that minority and poor children don't perform as well as their wealthy, white peers, and that additional tests aren't going to tell them more.

The federal government cites annual testing is a cornerstone of the law, and U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings has repeatedly denied requests from the state for more flexibility.

There are two main thrusts to the testing provisions of NCLB: One, they are used as a yardstick, if you will, to judge the performance of students against each individual state's standards. Each state long before NCLB fell prey to the "standards" movement and developed academic benchmarks for students in all subject areas. As I am not from Connecticut, I cannot speak with much authority about their standards. But I do know Wisconsin's standards pretty well, and they are thorough. A student who scores "proficient" or higher has truly done well.

The second function of the NCLB testing regime is to act as a device for figuring out which schools are failing which students. After a state develops its standards, writes tests to measure them, and administers the tests to students, the data collected are disaggregated for every measurable sub-category of student you can imagine. Each school gets back its test results broken down by sex, economic status, English language fluency, special needs status, and race. Every school must make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in all subject areas and in all measurable subgroups. (What makes a subgroup measurable varies by state; in Wisconsin, for example, in any school, a group with fewer than 40 students is not reported separately.) Schools that do not make AYP are placed on a list of Schools Identified for Improvement (SIFI), and depending on how long a school has been on the list, various punishments are laden on the schools, up to and including reconstitution. By 2014, all measurable sub-categories--including special education students and non-native English speakers--must show 95% proficiency for a school not to be SIFI.

The resoning behind all of this is twofold, and, in a very real way, makes a lot of sense. One, it is important for parents to know both how well their children are doing in terms of meeting state standards. This used to be conveyed through such arcane methods as parent-teacher conferences, report cards, and news that children had been promoted to the next grade. This is no longer enough; test results are the preferred method for distributing this information now. Second, it is important for states, districts, schools, and parents to know in what ways schools are failing which students. These days you hear a lot about the "achievement gap": We have known this gap--high achievement by wealthy and/or white students compared to low achievement for poor and/or minority students--has been highly visible for decades through such things as SAT resuls, graduation rates, and anecdotal evidence provided by pioneering education researchers such as Jonathon Kozol. However, this gap becomes more and more apparent the more we make available disaggregated testing data--and, therefore, the more we test students.

So this testing regime does exist for a reason that is not solely to drive public schools into the ground, though the way the feds have chosen to implement it, you wouldn't know. The regime of testing is so time-consuming that it is crowding out funding for the arts and physical education. The need for impossibly high levels of proficiency are driving the rest of the budget into skill and drill exercises for students. And the testing itself is absurdly expensive, which makes the Fed's claims that "the funds have been provided for testing" surreally idiotic:

The federal government is providing Connecticut with $5.8 million this fiscal year to pay for the testing, [Connecticut Education Commissioner Betty] Sternberg said.

She estimates federal funds will fall $41.6 million short of paying for staffing, program development, standardized tests and other costs associated with implementing the law through 2008.

The question NCLB advocates need to answer is whether or not the significant annual cost of this extensive testing regime is worth it for the data that we collect. I mean, don't we already know there's an achievement gap? Isn't the infusion of states' standards into classrooms a good start, with alternate-year testing a fine measure? Wouldn't it be wiser to use $40 million per state for professional development or to recruit the best and brightest college graduates to teach at the worst-performing schools? Okay, so that's more than one question, and, I know, the answers are not multiple-choice. But how the administration and states all over the country handle the implementation of No Child Left Behind is probably the toughest test we face.

Who's really mainstream on Iraq?

The big editorial in the paper this morning is labeled, It's time to plan an exit from Iraq.

Call me silly, stupid, ignorant, or a lily-livered peacenik, but shouldn't the "exit" from Iraq have been "planned" back in early 2003 before we started a war there?

While I'm not surprised that the editorial board--or, in fact, the Bush administration--is running two-and-a-half years behind, I am surprised that it has taken so long for otherwise smart politicians to recognize that the hole we are digging over there is getting deeper and deeper. The editorial mentions a few:

Republicans, too, are beginning to worry about the impact of the war on the 2006 elections. One Maryland Republican, Rep. Wayne Gilchrist, who at first supported the war but who has since turned against it, told The New York Times he had encountered "a lot of Republicans grousing about the situation as a whole and how they have to respond to a lot of questions back home." Even such stalwart Republicans as [decorated Vietnam veteran] Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel and North Carolina Rep. Walter Jones Jr. have broken ranks with the president on the war.

These men here seem to be reflecting a considerable consensus among the population at large: The numbers at pollingreport.com tell a story. Many of those who supported the war initially now agree that it was "a mistake" or "not worth it."

I was amused to see some of the misguided critics of Cindy Sheehan, for example, complaining that she had changed her mind about Iraq. They dug up out-of-context quotes to show supposed support for Bush and the war effort and contrasted those with her current stance. Even if this were true, that Cindy Sheehan had flip-flopped in her opinion, Sheehan reflected that shift in a growing number of regular Americans. If you keep reading down the pollingreport.com page, you'll find that 56% of people want some or all of our troops to be withdrawn from Iraq now. When Republicans or conservative commentators suggest that Sheehan or my guy Russ Feingold is out of the mainstream for wanting the US out of Iraq or suggesting that things are not going well, they are lying. Feingold may have been outside of mainstream thought when he voted against the Iraq war resolution, but a majority of Americans have now come around to his position. When it comes to opinions on Iraq, Russ Feingold is the mainstream. Cindy Sheehan is the mainstream. George Bush and those who support him unconditionally are the extremists.

Let's face facts, here: As more and more Americans also realize that the U.S. seems perfectly happy to let the Iraqis write fundamentalist Islam into the constitution--which obviates rights for women and non-Muslims that, ironically, Iraqis enjoyed under Saddam Hussein--I think even more will jump from the Bush ship. As conservative pundit Andy McCarthy wrote this morning:

For what it’s worth, this is where I get off the bus. The principal mission of the so-called “war on terror” – which is actually a war on militant Islam – is to destroy the capacity of the international network of jihadists to project power in a way that threatens American national security. That is the mission that the American people continue to support.

As those who follow these pages may know, I have been despairing for a long time over the fact that the principal mission has been subordinated by what I’ve called the “democracy diversion” – the administration’s theory that the (highly dubious) prospect of democratizing Iraq and the Islamic world will quell the Islamists. [. . .] Now, if several reports this weekend are accurate, we see the shocking ultimate destination of the democracy diversion. In the desperation to complete an Iraqi constitution – which can be spun as a major step of progress on the march toward democratic nirvana – the United States of America is pressuring competing factions to accept the supremacy of Islam and the fundamental principle no law may contradict Islamic principles.

[. . . T]he American people were never asked whether they would commit their forces to overseas hostilities for the purpose of turning Iraq into a democracy (we committed them (a) to topple a terror-abetting tyrant who was credibly thought both to have and to covet weapons of mass destruction, and (b) to kill or capture jihadists who posed a danger to American national security). I doubt they would have agreed to wage war for the purpose of establishing democracy. Like most Americans, I would like to see Iraq be an authentic democracy – just as I would like to see Iran, Syria, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, etc. be authentic democracies. But I would not sacrifice American lives to make it so.

But even if I suspended disbelief for a moment and agreed that the democracy project is a worthy casus belli, I am as certain as I am that I am breathing that the American people would not put their brave young men and women in harm’s way for the purpose of establishing an Islamic government. Anyplace. [. . .] And if the United States, in contradiction of its own bedrock principle against government establishment religion, has decided to go into the theocracy business, how in the world is it that Islam is the religion we picked?

Of course, Bush and his supporters will trumpet the completed constitution, no matter how ignoble, as a great victory. The warbloggers will be satisfied, the media enablers of this war will feel justified, and Bush will smirk like he's never smirked before. But the American people will remain displeased--it is not worth 2000 lives and $200 billion to establish extremist Sharia law in yet another Muslim country. (Bilmon is also worth a read on this issue.)

I guess while it's nice to see the state's largest daily paper stepping into the mainstream on this issue (and I am sure the conservative half of the Cheddarsphere will roundly abuse them for it), it is a little bit too late. They blew a golden opportunity to be opinion leaders on the issue, rather than followers. In fact, the whole impetus for the editorial seems to be Russ Feingold's steps this week to remind Democratic presidential primary voters that he has always had a spine on the Iraq war issue. It's kind of sad, really, that that is what has embarassed them into saying that now is the time to plan an exit, rather than, say, the repeated bungling of the conflict since May 2003.

Unless something drastic changes--like fundamentalis Islam being dropped from the Iraqi constitution and the casualty rate dropping to nil--Bush's legacy will be his miserable failure in Iraq. The Bush Doctrine--remember that? It was a big deal not that long ago--is dead. The mainstream now sees Iraq for what it is: A deadly, expensive mistake.

Milwaukee's murders, close to home edition

Numbers 85, 86, and 87 were just a couple of blocks away.

Former Harambee Finance Chief Convicted

Yesterday, the former chief financial officer of the Harambee choice school was convicted of embezzling up to three-quarters of a million dollars of taxpayer money:

Cleveland Lee, 55, was found guilty of two counts of theft, 10 counts of forgery and three counts of filing false income tax returns, party to a crime, after a four-day jury trial that began Monday. [. . .]

The charges came after a two-year investigation of Lee's work at the school by the Milwaukee County district attorney's office. Lee left the school in 2002 and was arrested in January in Houston.

According to the criminal complaint, between 1998 and 2002, Lee diverted hundreds of thousands of dollars into two accounts, labeled hot lunch and day care, and then wrote checks from those accounts to himself, to businesses he controlled or to others - including a contractor who did remodeling on Lee's house.

In February, Lee pleaded not guilty after a judge ruled he should stand trial.

This is the sort of thing that may very well be less likely under the new permanent rules that increase the level of oversight DPI has over the financial dealings of these schools. But this case also points out one clear difference between the Milwaukee Public Schools and the often murky finances of voucher schools. There are many layers of oversight for every school's budget; in fact, I just went through the audit process for a program I oversee. And believe me, they are thorough. While I know some people probably hope that they can enrich themselves as a public school employee--and I have seen some questionable things--there is very little actual fraud going on.

Harambee school itself has been troubled of late, even without this guy. I noted it a few months back. That is a shame, since a decade ago it was a model for what a non-secular private community school could be.

Friday Random Ten

The No Tornadoes Here Edition. It didn't even rain very hard.

1. "Brand New Companion" Townes Van Zandt from Live at the Old Quarter
2. "Sebastian's Girl" The Common Faces from Real Life
3. "Be Here Now" Willy Porter from Dog Eared Dream
4. "Don't Talk to Her at Night" Marc Cohn from The Rainy Season
5. "River" Natalie Merchant from Tigerlilly
6. "Help" Martin Sexton from Live at the Gathering of the Vibes 2004
7. "January Rain" David Gray from Lost Songs
8. "Altoona Waltz" Michael Smith from Time
9. "No One Here But Me" Susan Werner from Time Between Trains
10. "I'll Go Too" Carrie Newcomer from The Gathering of Spirits

You can set your watch to it

The paper this morning has a rerun of its regular "lift the cap" editorial. Whine, whine, whine.

I have one question: If we lift the cap on voucher school participants, where will these new students go? Into established, accredited, quality schools, or into one of the many fly-by-night operations that start up every year? Hm? There's an analogy somewhere about frying pans and fires.

Anyway, I renew the call I made yesterday, for someone in the legislature to introduce a bill requiring accreditation of voucher schools and a history of independent operation without the aid of my tax dollars. When these two commonsense provisions become law, then we can talk about finding places for additional students in the program.

Eek. Time to unplug.

The red boxes are the tornado warnings. My house is at the bottom of the circle around Milwaukee. Our county will turn red any minute now, since the red boxes have been following the storm across the state . . .

Let us hope that all our blogging brothers and sisters between here and Madison are all okay.

Super Superintendent!

Here is the full text of an email that found its way to my inbox:

TO: All Legislators
FROM: Senator Alberta Darling, Senator Ted Kanavas
DATE: August 10, 2005
RE: Co-Sponsorship of LRB 2442/1 relating to the employment contract and powers of the superintendent of a 1st class city school district

Recent non-partisan news and education reports indicate MPS is showing marked improvement in many areas.  Graduation rates have increased.  Attendance rates, drop out rates, and test scores are slowly creeping up.  Administrative proposals to cut the central office budget, the number of teaching positions and the number of school buildings now better reflect the district's current student population, which continues to shrink after years of declining enrollment and increasing competition.

However, there are many potential future ideas for both budget and inside-the-classroom improvement and reform that must be considered.  we believe the current superintendent has some significant, reform-minded proposals that ultimately will not be implemented, in part because of the outside pressures put on the school board to block them.   Over the years, the constant shifting of the board's leadership and make-up has led to the constant shifting of the board's agenda, goals and reform beliefs.  It remains increasingly frustrating that a school board with an ever-changing political view can derail months if not years of a superintendent's efforts.

As state policy makers, we can and should provide help to the MPS superintendents that are able to demonstrate fiscal accountability to the taxpayers, and a commitment to helping the children and parents they serve.

In many areas, MPS dministration could make immediate improvements that would benefit both the students and the taxpayers if this bill were to become law.

We propose to:

1) Give the MPS superintendent 2/3rds veto power over the annual budget as well as final authority over all financial, purchasing and contractual school board decisions.

We believe the MPS superintendent should have the same power to formulate the district's annual budget as the Milwaukee mayor and the Milwaukee County executive.   Too many times, we have seen problems arise and stalemates occur when the teacher's union or an opposition school board try to "wait out" a reform-minded superintendent.

2) Require the MPS board offer a longer contract to their superintendents (three years instead of two).

The loudest complaints heard by staff and parents is the lack of a consistent, strong, vocal leader for MPS.  Change takes time and it takes political clout.  A longer contract would lead to more stable leadership.  The leader of such a large organization, with a billion dolllar annual budget, should be given more time to implement his ideas, and more time to judge the success or failure of each proposal.

If you are interested in co-sponsoring this bill, please contact Senator Darling (6-5830) by the deadline date of Monday, August 22nd.

Analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau
Under current law, the term of each employment contract of a school district superintendent may not exceed two years. This bill requires that the employment contract of the superintendent of schools in a first class city school district (currently, only the Milwaukee Public Schools) be for a term of at least three years. The bill also authorizes the first class city school district superintendent to veto any action taken by the school board and requires a two-thirds vote of the members of the school board to override the superintendent's veto.

I am not entirely sure where to start with this. For one, this is a real bill. A contact at the Capitol got me a copy (.pdf form, or I'd post it) of the Legilsative Research Bureau's mark-up of it. Darling's email seems to be an accurate retelling in layman's terms of the legalese presented in the bill. Let me limit comments to three things right now:

1. Once again, we have non-Milwaukeeans (Alberta Darling and Ted Kanavas represent mostly suburban Milwaukee--Darling's district includes like a block-and-a-half on the East Side, which voted heavily against her, 71-29) writing laws that would affect only Milwaukee. I will bet you a nickel that not one single elected official who represents Milwaukee signs on as a co-sponsor. My question is this: Where do they get off doing this? If "the parents" are complaining about things, "the parents" have every right contact their own damned legislators and school board members, demand action, run for elected office themselves. Ms. River Hills and Mr. Brookfield don't have to step in and baby us. If they don't like what's happening in Milwaukee, they don't live there and have no right to complain!
   
2. There is a possibility that Darling is doing this to get back at Jennifer Morales. Morales, if you recall, is the Milwaukee school board member who happens to live in that block-and-a-half on the East Side that is stuck in Darling's district, and who ran against Darling in 2004. Morales, like me, is not a big fan of the current superintendent. This bill would significantly weaken the board in general and, specifically, any minority coallitions on the board. Could this actually be a giant middle finger at the woman who made that race closer than expected?
   
3. "Reform-minded" is quite the misnomer. Our current superintendent used to be a middle school principal, and he's running this 100,000-student, 10,000-employee district as if it were just one big middle school. He has surrounded himself with yes-men and -women who do whatever he asks, however idiotic. He's still pushing his small-school agenda, which I have written about at length and won't repeat here, with uncritical acceptance from virtually everyone in a position to ask pointed questions about the plan's problems. And there's more, which I won't go into, except to point you here, where I ranted about the "reform" label before.
   
   While I agree with the sentiment that MPS superintendents should have significantly longer tenure than they often do, this is not something that should be done by state law, but rather by efforts of the board to hire someone in the first place willing to stick around and do the job. I kind of liked the previous guy, Spence Korté, who had a real plan to address our shrinking enrollment, a plan largely forgotten since the board bought out Korté's contract early. The current guy's plan to address our shrinking enrollment is to pull school closures out of his behind and present them to the board like a kid who found a pretty rock. Oh, and then spend millions on consultants to do the real work for him. That's not actually, you know, leadership. That's childishness.
   
   And the current guy has lacked leadership in almost everything else he has done, largely because he doesn't seem to acknowledge that there's anyone besides his inner circle that he needs to lead. Take the contract dispute: Today is day 780 that I have worked without a contract. The reason I do not have a contract is that the superintendent decided, back at the beginning of the process, that he would not accept anything less than a full dismantling of the district's health care plan. Even when presented with the union offer that has most employees paying more in co-insurance than the district's plan and a "health and productivity management" option that, empirically, has been shown to save more than the district's plan, he petulantly said no, since it was not exactly what he wanted, despite the likely additional savings to the taxpayers of Milwaukee. Is that leadership? No, it's childishness.

I could go on--and believe me, I want to. But I will simply say that yes, the parents, children, taxpayers, teachers, and citizens in general of Milwaukee are, as Darling writes, bemoaning the lack of a strong, vocal leader at the helm of MPS. But it has nothing to do with statutory weakness in the superintendent's job; rather, it has to do with weakness in the superintedent himself.

Your Voucher Post for the Day

Imagine my joy when I saw the banner headline in today's paper: Choice school rules tighten.

Then imagine my disappointment when I learned that the Assembly merely codified the temporary rules that were put in place last year to allow DPI to shut down voucher schools that are physically unsafe or financially mismangaed. There is still nothing about being able to address schools that fail academically.

I've been mulling some options about that. Here's my proposal: I will contribute the maximum to the re-election fund of any legislator who introduces legislation to do two things. One, require that within two years all schools accepting voucher students must be accredited by an independent agency. (Many choice schools--mostly the parochial ones--already meet this requirement.) Two, all new schools applying to the program must have been in operation for at least one full academic year before accepting voucher students (and tax money), and must achieve accreditation within two years of becoming part of the program.

So there's nothing there about mandating tests, telling schools what they can and cannot teach, and so forth. Just two simple, commonsense provisions. And I know everyone in the legislature reads my blog, so, how about it, folks?

Superintendent to get Super Powers?

I'm on the trail of something that may be coming from non-Milwaukee legislators to screw Milwaukee voters. More tomorrow, I hope.

Which reminds me of this post from Xoff this morning, noting that State Sen. Ron Brown (R-Eau Claire) has raised every single cent of his re-election fund so far from out of the district:

Where did the money come from? Of the total, $9500 was from individuals, all in checks of at least $250. A pro-school choice conduit passed through $5,600 to Brown, including $1700 from Milwaukeean Howard Fuller and his wife, Deborah McGriff. The other $3,900 in conduit money was from people in California, Michigan, and Virginia.

Then there are the Waltons, and I don't mean John-Boy and Elizabeth. The Wal-Mart, school choice Waltons, whose addresses are in Wyoming and Arkansas, kicked in $3,900. That's chicken feed to a Walton, but quite a bit of dough for a State Senator who's not raising any money anywhere else.

Here we have a state senator who is not from Milwaukee. Not even close. And yet, voucher proponents are pouring money into his campaign so that, I guess, in the future he will vote to support and expand the voucher program in the Milwaukee Public Schools. This is just another example of legislators who were not elected by the people of Milwaukee making law that affects only Milwaukee. The irony is that Milwaukee leglislators consistently vote against the expansion of the voucher program--the voters here elect people wanting to curb the growth of the program and install reasonable standards. Non-Milwaukee legislators, often elected with the help of pro-voucher money, love the vouchers.

Is this fair, reasonable, or even remotely democratic? I don't think so, but then again, I'm just the one getting screwed, not the one screwing. I guess things look different from where they are.

Thoughts on the Gov Race

SurveyUSA, whose methodology is sometimes suspect--it's all robocalls, not real people asking the questions--has been doing monthly approve/disapprove on a state-by-state basis of both Bush and the governors. (See the full 50-state Bush results and governor results.) Here in Wisconsin, Bush is doing poorly, with a 41% approval and 55% disapproval rating. You can see all the results since May on a cute little graph, if you like.

The good news for Jim Doyle--J-Dizzle, if you will--is that he polls better than Bush. Barely. He's clocking in at a 43% approval and 48% disapproval level. This is not good, but not significantly different from where he has been polling for the last several months.

This leads me to two conclusions about J-Dizzle's chances next year. Conclusion one: They are not so good, and the Dizzle needs to show some leadership--not his usual re-active stance--in the next few months or there will be no one left to protect us from the theocratic flurry that will erupt from the Gards and Lasees in Madison.

Conclusion two: Mark Green probably has an even slimmer chance than our hero, señor Dizzle. Why? Well, it will be a very simple thing to tie Mark Green to George W. Bush. Virtually everything that Bush wants, Green tries to give him. I haven't run the numbers (someone will, I'm sure), but I can't recall anytime recently when Green stood up and said that the interests of his district and of Wisconsin conflict with those of the president, followed by a vote against his president and his party. Green can be tied to the Iraq war debacle, what with his being a charter member of the "Victory in Iraq" caucus. Green even had the bad sense to vote for CAFTA, a bill that virtually everyone in the state spoke against.

Note, for example, Bush's 60% disapproval rating among "Independents" and 65% disapproval among self-identified "Moderates" in this poll. Those are the Ed Thompson voters that swung the 2002 race to J-Dizzle in the first place. As long as Bush's numbers stay low--or if they keep dropping further--Green's ties to the national Republican party and to Bush will make him less electable than our milquetoast incumbent.

I do not, unfortunately, have a conclusion about Walker: Tosa Ranger's chances with regard to the info in this poll. It will be much harder to hang Bush around Scott Walker's neck--Walker's place of honor in Bush's Wisconsin 2004 campaign notwithstanding. On the other hand, as I noted last night, Walker is developing a serious habit of digging holes for himself. He may eventually find himself in one he can't get out of in time to beat Doyle.

At any rate, the choice between Walker and Green is one that I am fortunate enough not to have to make. It's bad enough I'll be holding my nose in November . . .

Your Walker: Tosa Ranger post for the day

First, from Eye on Wisconsin:

Let me tell you a little story about Scott Walker.  Every year he wants to cut or privatize many social programs.  I have someone in my life that benefits greatly from a program at the Behavioral Health Division and every single year Walker wants to cut it.  Now, he would tell you that he is just privatizing it, but it is not that simple.  This program is the Targeted Case Management program for those with mental illness.  It teams the client up with a case manager that usually becomes a mentor and friend.  The case manager helps the client with daily life tasks and provides a stable force which helps the client live more productively in the community.  The clients, who sometimes have real problems trusting people, often rely on their case managers for much in their life.  I can personally attest to the major changes, for the better, for the person that I know as a result of the program.  Now to ask these clients to be cut off from this program and be forced into a new and unknown situation is very callous. 

One of the last few years I was helping the person that I know lobby the County Board to restore the Targeted Case Management program.  This person told me that they had an appointment with Scott Walker.  They asked me if I would come with them, and I agreed.  In that meeting I asked Walker that if the managers for the program could rework their staffing and other issues and came up with a slimmed down version of the program would he keep the program.  Walker told me that he would “look at it.”  The managers of the program did exactly that, and the result was a program budget that would not call for an increase in the tax levy to pay for it.  What did Walker do?  He once again tried to privatize it.  It was at that point that I knew that Walker’s cuts and efforts at privatization where not about the budget, but about ideology and/or something more.

Since that meeting, I have learned that Scott Walker has received thousands of campaign dollars from executives from a company called Phoenix Care Systems.  This company has received several large contracts with Milwaukee County’s Behavioral Health Division.  An attempt at making an open records request last September regarding the original bidding process involving this company has yielded nothing almost a year later.  I am still waiting for Behavioral Health Division’s Jim Hill to send me what I have requested.  Phoenix Care Systems has a division called Bell Therapy.  Guess what one of their programs is called at that division?  If you guessed Targeted Case Management, you were correct!

On vacation, I happened to catch the episode of "The Simpsons" where Lisa enters the Reading Digest patriotic essay contest, and while in DC catches her congressman taking a bribe from a logging company. She blows the big prize in order to speak out against corruption, and her congressman goes down in a sting. If only it were that easy to catch even this most transparent of corruption in real life. Of course, campaign contributions are not bribes--technically--but you have to wonder why Walker: Tosa Ranger would try to "privatize" a program that is revenue-neutral, helps people who need help, and relies on continuity of care, unless it was specifically to throw business to Phoenix. Maybe there's an innocent explanation, but I doubt we'll get it.

Why do I doubt that we will get such an explanation? Because, as Xoff summarizes for us, Walker: Tosa Ranger can't tell the truth even when he is innocent. It probably was just an oversight that someone somewhere on his team neglected to add a disclaimer from his campaign to a taped phone message, and if Walker: Tosa Ranger had just come clean about it, he would have been okay. Instead, the state elections board looked at the complicated wriggling, shifting, and dodging that Walker: Tosa Ranger and his staff did and slapped him with a $5000 fine. Remember, this is the one that started with Walker's trusted friend and ally--and Walker appointee to the county elections board--Doug Haag who dismissed the notion that there may have been any wrongdoing at all. Xoff picks up the threads:

If Walker had acted the way most candidates do when a complaint is filed with the board, he probably would have gotten a slap on the wrist, too.

Instead, he falsely claimed the issue had already been resolved by the County Election Commission. The board, predictability, found out that wasn't true.

He claimed the disclaimer was left off by the vendor, accidentally, and that the problem was corrected when his campaign learned about it. But his campaign offered no evidence to back up the claim that it asked for a disclaimer, and the vendors didn't back that up either.

When a complaint was filed, Walker asked for two extensions on his reply and then still missed the deadline and filed incomplete responses.

Finally, Walker dissed the board by not coming to the meeting himself and sending someone--John Hiller, his treasurer--who had nothing to do with placing the calls and couldn't really offer any useful information. [. . .] George Dunst, the Elections Board attorney, investigated the case and wrote a memo (.pdf) to the board before the meeting, basically saying in lawyerese that Walker's response did not ring true. I wrote a post about in before the meeting, saying that Dunst clearly didn't believe Walker.

It still might have gone OK for Walker if he--or someone responsible for the violation--had showed up, taken responsibility, explained how it happened, and promised to take steps to make sure there was no repeat. Instead, Walker ducked it and sent Hiller, whose lack of information simply irritated board members.

This man wants to be governor! He acts like a prima donna, obfuscates when he doesn't need to, shuffles people between his campaign and his office staff like lovers on a soap opera, and whines when an independent body nails him for it. (Some people disagree that the State Elections Board is independent, but they are grasping at straws.) Jeebus knows I am no fan of Jim Doyle, but if Walker: Tosa Ranger is what's behind curtain number two, then J-Dizzle it is.

Two Links for You

Eye on Wisconsin. Good stuff there.

LeftyBlogs/Wisconsin, the Wisconsin aggregator part of the LeftyBlogs site.

Still working on a blogroll update.

RIP, Big Dan

So I go on a little vacation, and I miss the sad news that Dan Champion passed away last Friday. Ralph mentioned it in the comments to the last post, below; my thoughts are ith Mrs. Dan and the family.

Something to think about

If Russ doesn't run for president, I may have to support this guy.

Slow blogging the weekend

Doing stuff. Peruse the blogroll, down and to the right.

"The West Wing"/ Rove-Plame redux

In light of Think Progress's fully-sourced list of 21 Bush Administration officials who may have slightly dirty hands in the scandal surrounding the leak of CIA agent Valarie (Plame) Wilson's name to the press, I thought I would revsist my earlier post which lined up players in the scandal with characters from "The West Wing." Here are Think Progresses 21, with their "The West Wing" counterparts.

1. Karl Rove - Josh Lyman (Deputy Chief of Staff)
   
2. I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby - Will Bailey (Chief of Staff to the Vice President)
   
3. Condoleezza Rice - Lewis Berryhill (Secretary of State)
   
4. Stephen Hadley - Nancy McNally (National Security Advisor)
   
5. Andrew Card - Leo MacGarry/ CJ Cregg (Chief of Staff)
   
6. Alberto Gonzales - Alan Fisk (Attorney General)
   
7. Mary Matalin - Random Extra! (Advisor to the Vice President)
   
8. Ari Fleischer - CJ Cregg (Press Secretary)
   
9. Susan Ralston - Donna Moss (Assistant to the Deputy Chief of Staff)
   
10. Israel Hernandez - Charlie Young (Personal Assistant to the President)
    
11. John Hannah - Random Extra! (Assistant to the Vice President)
    
12. Scott McClellan - CJ Cregg (Press Secretary)
    
13. Dan Bartlett - Toby Ziegler (Communications Director)
    
14. Claire Buchan - Carol Fitzpatrick (Deputy Press Secretary)
    
15. Catherine Martin - Random Extra! (Assistant to the Vice President for Public Affairs)
    
16. Colin Powell - General Percy Fitzwallace (Fitz never made it to Secretary of State, but you know Powell is who his character is based on)
    
17. Karen Hughes - Ed and Larry (White House Aide--although Karen Hughes was much closer and more influential than either Ed or Larry, or even both of them combined)
    
18. Adam Levine - Annabeth Schott (Communications Aide)
    
19. Bob Joseph - Albie Duncan (Undersecretary of State--in Joseph's case for Arms Control; I don't know what Hal Holbrook's character does)
    
20. Vice President Dick Cheney - Bingo Bob Russell (Vice President)
    
21. President George W. Bush - Jed Bartlett (President)

If you know people who aren't taking this scandal seriously, email them this list, and then tell them to imagine that all of these people were involved in blowing Kate Harper's cover. Then they will get it.

Friday Random Ten

Another Coolness-Factor Edition

1. "Nineteen" Old 97s from Fight Songs: Oh, to be 19 again. Or to have been 19 when this song came out. "Watch me now," indeed. 9/10.
   
2. "When You Come Back Down" Nickel Creek from Nickel Creek: They say the Holy Trinity is carrots, celery, onions. I say it's fiddle, mandolin, guitar. Though this isn't a favorite song. 5/10.
   
3. "I'm Not Down" Jon Svetkey from yeahyeahyeah: "I'm not down/ I'm just not looking up too far/ I would rather hold your hand on this earth/ than keep reaching for the stars." From memory, since I wore this CD out in college. 7/10.
   
4. "Second Chance at Romance" Kate MacLeod from Waterbug Artists' Collective Anthology 2: She's from that genre of songwriters who are really, really talented, but whose music I don't care for. Great lyric, mediocre listen. 3/10.
   
5. "Maori" Girlyman from Remember Who I Am: There are some songs from this record that I really, really dig. This is not one. 6/10.
   
6. "All in the Groove" Blues Traveler from Travelers and Thieves: Remember when listening to Blues Traveler meant you were cool? And this song is so dated--back up vocals from that guy from the Spin Doctors, an in-line reference to MC Hammer . . . But it rocks, even yet. 8/10.
   
7. "Lied" Myshkin's Ruby Warblers from Vote in November 2004: Election Anti-Theft Device: Yes, that's what it's about. While I generally agree with the sentiment ("The first time I saw your bastard face," is how it starts, "I knew you lied"--it gets more heavy-handed after that), I can take or leave the song. 5/10.
   
8. "Shape I'm In" The Band from The Last Waltz: Once, in high school, a debate teammate (yes I was a nerd!) asked hypothetically, "Wouldn't it be funny if someone formed a band and called it 'The Band'?" I explained it to him. 9/10.
   
9. "Lovers in a Dangerous Time" Bruce Cockburn from Anything Anytime Anywhere: I hate that the production dates this song inevitably to the eighties, but, man, is it a good lyric. 9/10.
   
10. "You Can Go Now" Vance Gilbert from Unfamiliar Moon: "You can go now/ I will not celebrate this leaving in a song," with that light jazzy guitar belying the sadness of the story. 8/10.

Total: 69, dude! Or 69% cool. A little better than last time.

There's an irony here

The Buddhists are upsetting people:

Shortly after the Wat Lao Wattanaram Buddhist Temple of Wisconsin submitted applications for the building and zoning of a Buddhist colony in Caledonia, some area residents started pooling their resources to halt the possible construction on 13 acres that would include a temple, meditation building, fellowship hall, Buddha building and nun facility.

Some residents contend that Caledonia needs a larger tax base and is an odd choice for a Buddhist temple, but supporters argue that larger factors - mainly discrimination - are at work.

"Why did they pick Caledonia?" resident Holly Due said. "Does Caledonia have a huge Buddhist community? I don't see it."

Residents near the proposed development have been meeting informally and have filed letters of concern with the Racine County Economic & Land Use Planning Committee. [. . .]

"A great deal of it has to do with not knowing," said the Rev. Tonen O'Connor of the Milwaukee Zen Center. "Buddhism is not very well understood by a great many Christians."

Robert Mason, associate professor of Geographic & Urban Studies at Temple University in Philadelphia, said communities often rally against building of religious institutions. He also said a conservation subdivision is tough to assemble.

"A Caucasian community and a Buddhist temple . . . there could be additional issues there," Mason said.

I think we need to airlift in some cream for that NIMBY infection, STAT.

Okay, okay, I see that there is an argument to made that it's more important to have another housefarm subdivision full of taxpayers. But, really, I think the Buddhists would make good neighbors.

I have one simple question:

Where's my contract?

I mean, really: The two-year contract still in the hands of the arbitrator expired six weeks ago. So, Professor Grenig, if you are reading this, give me a sign, will you? Please?

I'm not a praying man

But for those of you who are, Big Dan needs 'em.

Poor old predictable me

This new round of voter fraud allegations--that up to nine people may have voted in Milwaukee and a second city--again show the need for some comprehensive reform in voting laws but not, contrary to those who like to grandstand about such things, a photo ID requirement.

For example, if you move to Chicago near the election date, and want to vote twice, you can request an absentee ballot before you go. When it arrives in your Chicago mailbox, fill it out and mail it back. Nowhere along the line do you have to show ID, nor, in fact, would it be feasible to do so. Then, on election day, stroll down to the polling place in Chicago and flash your new Illinois license. Even with a brand new voter ID bill passed into law here, this exact scenario can play out as many times as unscrupulous voters may want to try it and there's not a damned thing you can do about it. The same can happen--though it may be easier to track--with moving voters within the state, as well, and an ID requirement won't stop it.

Instead of seeking real voting reforms (remember that "legislative task force" that was supposed to be researching reform options months ago? Where is that now?), Republicans keep rolling the same lousy boulder up the hill. Democrats have offered ideas, like Tom Barrett's a while back, or Doyle's efforts to compromise. Republicans don't care; they know that they can suppress Democratic turnout--turnout in general, even--with a photo ID requirement, and they won't stop until they get it.

See previous posts here, here, here, and here.

"Pop" is not just one of the Rice Krispies

I tend not to write much on the housing bubble, but today's story about how salaries continue to lag behind increases in home prices deserves notice. As much as the economy may be recovering, and as much as stocks may be doing better, the cost of housing and the cost of health care--both outpacing inflation and real wage growth--continue to make it hard for the working poor and the middle class to makes ends meet neatly. Throw in the price of gas and new, restrictive bankruptcy rules, and, well, we have a recipe for disaster when the bursting finally comes.

What disturbs me most, though, is the news that the median home price--that's with an equal number of houses more and less expensive--is nearly $200,000. It's bad enough that my house has increased 25% in value since we bought it, meaning we probably couldn't afford it now; there's no way that we could reasonably afford that median price, even with two incomes, without something dangerous like an interest-only loan or additional home equity borrowing. I know that I am not rich, and never will be on a public school teacher's salary, but I do know that my wife and I are above the median in household income. So how can that level of median home price be anywhere near sustainable?

Omens

Via Scott Feldstein (known, Bond-like, as S in the comments here), I see that Microsoft has released a test version of its new Longhorn Vista OS, which might--might--be available by the end of 2006. Scott also points us here:

An Austrian hacker earned the dubious distinction of writing what are thought to be the first known viruses for Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Vista operating system. Written in July, the viruses take advantage of a new command shell, code-named Monad, that is included in the Windows Vista beta code. [. . .]

Most security experts had not expected to see a Windows Vista virus so soon, Hyppönen said. “The only surprise here is that it came so early,” he said. “It’s been eight days since the beta of the operating system was out.” Monad was released several days prior to the Windows Vista beta. [. . .]

Microsoft “got burned,” by including similar software, called Windows Script Host, by default in its Windows 2000 operating system, he said. “Since it was on the system, all the virus writers were exploiting it,” he said.

Duh. Just, duh.

Oh, and get a Mac.

Off to State Fair

But I wanted to say, I always kind of liked Mark Cohn. I hope he comes out of this okay.

Regional News, Out-of-Hat Commentary

Let's start with today's news that early favorite Jenifer Finley will not run for her husband's seat as Waukesha County Executive. (McBride, of course, is on top of it.) Sounds like Vrakis is probably in.

I do not live in Waukesha County, and have not been following the race over there. But I do have an interest in how things turn out, since we are quite possibly on the cusp of a new regional cooperation battle.

The first Finley, Dan, stirred up quite the hornet's nest when he suggested, in his new capacity as PresidentandCEO of the Milwaukee Public Museum, that it may be time for a new "cultural district" in Southeastern Wisconsin. When I heard that, I thought, Hm. A cultural district might be a good way to economize and share audiences, kind of a UPAF on steroids. Anti-tax knee-jerks heard NEW TAXES.

At any rate, the local rag says, No, not necessarily:

Finley said he wasn't talking about a new tax, adding that "it's way too early to know how" the district would look. He noted that the idea goes back to a 1996 regional task force, led by Milwaukee County Supervisor Dan Diliberti. It recommended coordinating recreation and culture in five counties, including sharing some services to reduce costs. The task force made no mention of a tax or other regional financing.

Unfortunately, Finley's critics erroneously linked that task force to another Diliberti-led task force in 2003 that looked at culture, parks and recreation in Milwaukee County, suggesting that instead of paying for them with the property tax, the county levy a dedicated sales tax. [See, for example, Charlie Sykes.] To make sure county residents didn't end up paying twice for those services, the task force wisely recommended the state require the county to permanently reduce its property tax levy by the amount of taxes previously spent on parks and culture. The task force did suggest the Legislature create a task force to "develop a recommended funding mechanism" for cultural facilities that draw a majority of their visitors from outside the counties in which they're located but was no more specific.

I got to thinking about inter-county cooperation when I learned of another cooperative venture that seems to be moving ahead without a hitch: Chicago's Metra Line is finally getting into Milwaukee. This is good news for commuters, and is another example how regional authories can work together to make things happen that benefit, you know, the people.

Now, I know that the regional public doesn't always care about "culture." Some of the regional public is even ready to write off Milwaukee, culture and all:

For many of us, the city is something that we have to go around on our way to Chicago. There’s nothing really special about Milwaukee that can’t be found elsewhere. Sure, the art museum is cool, but there are other art museums. The beach is nice to look at, but I wouldn’t want to swim there. The restaurants there aren’t anything special. The universities there are okay, but nothing about them makes them better than any other university. The sports teams are nothing to write home about. The stadium is cool, but it’s either an enclosed stadium or an open stadium, not the cool convertible stadium we were promised. There are theaters and performing arts centers, but nothing that can’t be found in other smaller cities in the state.

I doubt that adding a half a percent to Wendy's sales tax is going to make her feel any more invested in the Milwaukee Ballet or those cute little Irish dancers. But what a cultural district might do--tax or no tax--is boost the ability of those miscellaneous dancers to do their whatnot at more reasonable ticket prices in front of wider audiences.

Dan Finley seemed to undestand that whole thing about regional cooperation, the kind of can-do attitude that make the trains run (we'll wait and see about on time). Anyone who even has to ask if Milwaukee is worth it--or who can't see a forest for the imagined taxes--doesn't.

RIP, Peter Jennings

I long ago gave up on watching network news--the internet and TiVo killed it for me--but when I did, I preferred "World News Tonight" with Peter Jennings. I will miss that wily Canadian.

Live and in Person

I'll be working the Democratic Party of Wisconsin booth at State Fair this Tuesday morning, August 9, until at least 11 a.m. Come on down and see what all we have. If you bring your own Sharpie, I will autograph any body part within reason.

Friday Random Ten

The Blisters on My Fingers Edition

1. "What We Talk About (When We Talk About Love)" (Live) The Loomers from Shine
2. "I'd Fall for You" Cosy Sheridan from Quietly Led
3. "Watching a Good Thing Burn" Vance Gilbert from Summerville Live
4. "Reflections of Lucy" Bela Fleck and the Flecktones from Bela Fleck and the Flecktones
5. "Gamble's Guitar" Michael Smith from Time
6. "Kerosene Hat" Cracker from Kerosene Hat
7. "16 Days" Whiskeytown from Strangers Almanac
8. "Clarity" John Mayer from Heavier Things
9. "Bought and Sold" Dar Williams from End of the Summer
10. "Smokers" Old 97s from Drag It Up

More honors for your humble host

In addition to winning MKE's blog of the week a few weeks back, turns out I am also August's blog of the month at WisPolitics/ WisOpinion.com. As of this writing, the July BotM--a Blog Which Shall Not Be Named--is still at the top; however, the notice has gone out to WisOpinion subscribers that I'm it.

I think my work here is done.

More ACVR/ Fraud

Ben has moved his Badger Blues to a new address, and--while I will update the blogroll, soon, I promise--I will point you to his own take on this ACVR nonsense. I thought he put things into an excellent perspective, comparing the "fraud" of 2004 with Florida, 2000. Xoff also roasts ACVR, including a nice, close-up color photo of their headquarters.

Bill also follows up on Walker: Tosa Rnger's electioneering antics.

I'm sad

[Update: Never mind. Apparently "The Daily Show" got it in time. Sarah and I TiVo TDS and watch it the next day--it's on past our bedtimes, don'tch know--so I'll see it tomorrow.]

By now, you've probably heard that Bob (Douchebag of Liberty!) Novak had a meltdown tonight on CNN (there's video at that link), swearing and storming off. (And if you haven't heard by now, you need to read more blogs than just mine.) Seems CNN has finally suspended him for this--apparently, publishing the name of a covert CIA operative isn't a suspendable offense at CNN.

I'm not sad that Novak is suspended; rather, I'm sad that all this went down after Jon Stewart's 6 p.m. taping of "The Daily Show," and there won't be another one until Monday. I can't wait that long for Jon's take . . . I can't even guess what he'll do. But it will be good.

Okay, this one really is about fraud

The right half of Wisconsin's blogo-cosmos is all over the story of a new report from the American Center for Voting Rights Legislative Fund that makes Wisconsin--particularly Milwaukee--out to be the armpit of electoral fraud. Kevin--the Lakeshore Laments guy--has the story (I first saw it in his BBA post), gleefully linking to a state GOP press release. But none of them did their due dilligence, apparently.

Blog-neighbor Scott beat me to John Cole--perhaps the only sane Republican left--who did the research, and says, basically, that he's not buying it. I'm not, either; a Googling led me to BradBlog's page on ACVR, impeccably sourced even if BradBlog is biased: The ACVR is little more than a Republican front group.

At any rate, Milwaukee is the Number Two Election Fraud Hot Spot in America (behind Philadelphia), with absolutely nothing new in the report that hasn't already been discussed to death here (including the silly November 2000 incident of a New Yorker allegedly offering cigarettes to absentee voters). The righty bloggers and the state GOP are using the report's release, though, as an occasion to call again for a voter ID bill that, as we have discussed previously, would not have stopped any of the fraud--at least, not any better than actual enforcement of existing law would have.

At any rate, I wonder what the righty bloggers think about the wrap-up of the investigations into Ohio's 2004 fraud and intimidation (while Cleveland is number 5 on ACVR's list, it's all about problems caused by Democrats in that city!). Barbara O'Brien points us to this month's Harper's, which has a pretty good round-up of the Ohio story. (There's an excerpt up now at the Harper's website, though the whole story should be there eventually.)

Fraud!!!!

Well, not exactly, but the state Elections Board has fined Walker: Tosa Ranger for violations of campaign law. Unfortunately, they didn't also fine the bejeebus out of Doug Haag, the Walker-appointed head of Milwaukee County's Election Commission who said, when it happened,

that Walker had violated nothing. Haag said he had not read Walker's written request and was unfamiliar with the facts but felt that there likely was no problem. The dispute might not even have to come to the full commission, he said. Haag [is] a Republican Party leader in the county and active Walker supporter.

Who's watching the toothless watchdog?

The Big Fall Tour

Which is really only a tour if you can ignore the fact that it's just one show so far . . .

Friday, October 7, I'll be playing an 8:00 p.m. show at the Coffee House, part of a food pantry benefit. Brett Kimnetz, who organizes the benefits, likes to do "themes," and the theme for the October benefit is Pink Floyd. I'll be sharing the stage with Don Schiewer, of the Remedies, Gary Kitchen, and Fred and Ethel.

My set, as of right now, will be the following (keep in mind, this is solo acoustic guitar with my moderately irritating, nasally singing voice):

• "Fearless"
  
• "Wot's . . . Uh, the Deal"
  
• "If"
  
• "Coming Back to Life"
  
• "Learning to Fly"
  
• "Point Me at the Sky"

As you can see, I'm leaving all the popular songs to the rest of the performers. Yes, you can rest assured that "Wish You Were Here" and "Comfortably Numb" will be played at some point.

So, mark your calendars! With any luck, I'll add a couple shows here and there, so keep an eye on the sidebar, too.

Paul Hackett, OH-2

The OH-2 CD is my parents' district, and the district I grew up in. To see a Democrat lose in that district by less than four points is amazing; I didn't know there were that many Democrats in the district at all.

What's more, when last I spoke to my parents--this was Saturday, I think--they were leaning towards voting for the Democrat, Paul Hackett. That would be a major, major victory. I know that my dad has been disappointed in his Republicans lately (as you all should be!), but I have a hard time accepting that he would even consider voting Dem. And if he really pulled the trigger to vote for Hackett, well, wow. (He did vote for Perot in 1992; I voted for Clinton and my mom voted for Bush, so we all cancelled each other out. 1992 was my first election, and my only one in Ohio--I've been voting in Wisconsin since 1994.)

Number 77, with no additional comment

In a photo taken by his father in May, Brandon Sprewer flashes a wide grin while decked out in a blue cap and gown. [. . .]

Sprewer, 17, was shot to death about 11:20 p.m. Saturday in an alley behind his father's home in the 2800 block of N. Grant Blvd. while on his way home from the grocery store.

The day before, Sprewer was one of a group of 205 teens addressed by Mayor Tom Barrett at a picnic celebrating the end of the first year of a pilot program that gave teenagers from low-income areas jobs throughout city government. At the picnic Barrett talked about the wave of violence that has killed a disproportionate number of black men this year and urged the teens to be safe. [. . .]

Just before the picnic, Sprewer learned he had received a $7,000 scholarship to attend ITT Tech as part of a pilot program that would allow him to get college credit while attending high school, said Sondra Rhodes, principal at Cornerstone Achievement Academy.

"The city has lost a good kid," Rhodes said.

Small schools in the Journal Sentinel

Sarah Carr, an education reporter down to the local rag, has a brief profile in Monday's paper on some of the small schools opening in MPS this fall. I am quoted in the article, right after "The initiative has not come without its critics."

I am not taken out of context or anything--and those of you who know me and have followed my writings on small schools know where I stand--but I do want to make a few things clear about my position, and state them all in a concise manner for anyone just Googling me today:

1. I do not believe small high schools are inherently bad. On the contrary, there are very real data and very real stories from all over the country that point to the potential success of small schools, and I support the movement in general.
   
2. My problem with the way small schools are being implemented in Milwaukee lies with its top-down approach. An edict has come down from on high that all 9-12 schools will be converted to small-school multiplexes. (The paper's story, and the editorial board's unsurprising cheerleading.)
   
3. Marty Lexmond, whom I have a story about that maybe I'll tell you later, is quoted right after me:

   But Marty Lexmond, who is heading up the district's high school reform efforts, said "there continues to be a good deal of excitement from teachers who find this intriguing, and we continue to get calls from teachers who want to know how they can submit proposals." He added that attendance rates have been above district averages at nine of the 10 new small schools that have opened in the last two years.

   This might give the reader the impression that I do not support teachers' rights to start these new schools. I do--anything that re-energizes the teaching and learning process is good. I have some major worries about funding and long-term support, not to mention ramifications to district initiatives standardizing curricula across schools and the real threat to union solidarity. What I do not support is the way the teachers who had been at Washington or Marshall were unceremoniously told to shrink or die. Small schools grow best from the bottom-up; too many MPS teachers feel the pressure from the top down.
   
   In addition, the district throws out lots of meaningless stats concerning small schools, including attendance and graduation numbers. There are no data, as far as I know, comparing student-to-student attendance rates between small schools and their old comprehensive schools. And as for graduation rates, a number of the pre-existing small schools whence the data came--Lady Pitts and Project STAY Senior Institute, for example--have as their sole focus getting students graduated by any means they can.
   
4. This also worries me (and my wife, who had it jump out at her, too):

   At Alliance, teachers are thinking about more short-term hurdles. "I am the math department," said [. . .] a first-year teacher who joined the school three weeks ago.

   Alliance sounds like it will be a good school, and I am sure the teachers there will do everything they can to educate the students to the fullest extent possible. But, especially since MPS cut the mentors a few years back to save money, I wonder if enthusiasm will make up for inexperience. As long as we're throwing around data, very real data do exist that show teachers' effectiveness improves with experience. I know, personally, that my first year of teaching was my worst; I am embarrassed now to think about what I did--and did not--do.
   
5. I have a massive, massive problem with the fact that 1/3 of the $17m in Gates start-up grant money went TALC, an organization founded by a fellow named Danny Goldberg. You may recognize that name because Goldberg now sits on the MPS school board, where he chairs the school reform committee--the committee that oversees the small schools transition and which can direct funds right back to TALC.
   
6. Finally, I do not like the implication that large, comprehensive high schools are worthless. I am the product of one, for example, and I think I turned out okay. And the comprehensive high school where I teach has made considerable strides in the last few years, increasing our graduation rates, average GPA, attendance rates, and, this past year, significantly, our truancy rate. We have densely populated college-bound classes and career tracks for students planning to enter the workforce after graduation. Students have a chance to find a niche and grow. That doesn't mean students can't find a crack and hide, I know; but I do believe that there is a place in MPS for the comprehensive high school.

So there you have it. If you did not read my earlier series on small schools, the final edition is here, with links to the previous parts right at the top.