... open your eyes.
June 7, 2011
A sex therapist on CNN attributes Anthony Weiner's troubles to "high levels of testosterone."
Not long after Weiner's news conference yesterday, at about 5:20, Wolf Blitzer interviewed Dr. Laura Berman, who said (my transcription):
Interestingly, Berman's website calls her "America's leading expert in female sexual health." She has a show on the Oprah Winfrey Network called "In the Bedroom with Dr. Laura Berman."
Anyway. Speaking of Dame Edna and high testosterone, here's Dame Edna interviewing Charlton Heston (in 1987):
By the way, Heston talks about his gray velour g-string. "What a practical color, Chuck — gray! — isn't it?" Not to be confused with Weiner's gray panties.
[Weiner is] known for being very aggressive, for being very volatile. He clearly — even his hairline and his jawbone — he clearly is a man who has a tremendous amount of testosterone. That's not an excuse, but if you look at him, if you look at Arnold Schwarzenegger, if you look at most of these high power men, who are highly aggressive men, and they get into all this sexual trouble. It's often hand in hand with high levels of testosterone, which means that he has an extremely high libido.His hairline and his jawbone, eh?
Interestingly, Berman's website calls her "America's leading expert in female sexual health." She has a show on the Oprah Winfrey Network called "In the Bedroom with Dr. Laura Berman."
Watch as this New York Times best-selling author and a Sirius XM radio host makes house calls to help couples confront their intimacy issues head on.House calls, eh? That's so Dame Edna's Neighborhood Watch.
Anyway. Speaking of Dame Edna and high testosterone, here's Dame Edna interviewing Charlton Heston (in 1987):
By the way, Heston talks about his gray velour g-string. "What a practical color, Chuck — gray! — isn't it?" Not to be confused with Weiner's gray panties.
I talk with Jim Pinkerton about Weiner... and Wisconsin.
ADDED: Snippet #1: I express sympathy for Weiner and make Pinkerton laugh...
"State Supreme Court justices expressed skepticism Monday about a Dane County judge's ability to halt a law limiting collective bargaining by public workers..."
"... giving Republicans who control the Legislature hope the court may act quickly in their favor.... Tough questions came for both sides during 5 1/2 hours of arguments that seasoned attorneys said were the longest in memory, if not in state history."
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports:
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports:
Robert Jambois, the attorney for Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha), told the justices they should issue a ruling that makes it clear lawmakers cannot keep the public away from its business - especially when it is considering controversial legislation.
"If the open meetings law doesn't mean anything to the Wisconsin Legislature... then it doesn't mean anything ever," Jambois said....
The open meetings law has an exception that allows the Legislature to write rules that exempt it from the meetings law. The two sides disagree whether lawmakers have established a rule on when meetings must be noticed for joint committees.
Teachers' union leader: "They're ready to do whatever it takes."/"It's going to get down and dirty."
John Matthews, executive director of Madison Teachers Inc., says:
School Board member Maya Cole criticized Matthews for harboring an "us against them" mentality at a time when the district needs more cooperation than ever to successfully educate students. "His behavior has become problematic," Cole said. "In his mind he is doing the right thing. But he doesn't see that in the political process, he's preventing good people from coming forward and running for office for the right reasons."
Board member Ed Hughes recently wrote on his blog that teachers unions "aren't all that necessary" because the district isn't "running a sweatshop." "It may be that John Matthews' ramped-up rhetoric is best understood not as a protest against school district over-reaching in bargaining, since that did not happen, but as a cry against the possibility of his own impending irrelevance," Hughes wrote.
"I've been fangirling him for years and every time I see something like this I fangirl him a little bit more. THIS is what leadership looks like."
The second comment — right after "Wow!" — at a post called "Rep. Anthony Weiner for President" at the "progressive feminist blog" Shakesville. It's from last July, when Weiner got "quite rightly, mad as hell about it—and he's not going to take it anymore" at the blogger Melissa McEwan saw it, responding to this Weiner freakout on the floor of the House:
Other progressive feminist comments:
Other progressive feminist comments:
I've watched this clip about a thousand times today. I absolutely adore him....Clone his backbone? Clone his frontbone!
I just saw this piece on CNN. Maude bless him. THIS is what we need more of....
I adore this. I may have to watch it later with headphones after the kids are in bed, so that I can REALLY turn it up. "The gentleman is correct in sitting" may quickly become part of my lexicon, right alongside "here we have pie."
I gotta say, I totally dig this guy. I love that he rants and tells it how it is in these moments. I love his passion.
Someone clone his backbone NOW and send it in pretty packages to the rest of the do-nothing Dems in office. He is made of 50% win and 50% badass.
Probably they can hear my loud, excited SQUEEEEEEE all the way to Washington....Well, now, there's a progressive feminist with great hearing. She could hear all the way into next June.
Swoon! I love this guy!...
*giggle* Hate to say it, but I can already hear all the "Clinton/Weiner" jokes now....
Whenever Anthony Weiner is on Rachel Maddow, I get this big, goofy smile on my face.You think Huma is suffering, but have some sympathy for all the progressive feminist fangirls who'd thought they'd found true love this time.
Romney tops Obama in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
WaPo reports Romney ahead 49% to 46%, among registered voters. (Among all Americans, the 2 men are tied at 47%.) Obama is ahead of the other 5 Republicans, and "[a]lmost two-thirds of all Americans say they “definitely would not” vote for Palin for president."
The Post-ABC poll asked Republicans and GOP-leaning independents whom they would vote for if a primary or caucus were held now in their state. Romney topped the list, with 21 percent, followed by Palin at 17 percent. No one else reached double digits, although former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who has suddenly shown interest in becoming a candidate, is close, at 8 percent. Without Palin in the race, Romney scores 25 percent, with all others in the single digits.Surely, a lot of that is name recognition. It's not really fair to Pawlenty. But let's see if the Republicans have the cohesiveness to resist tearing down Romney. Meanwhile, Democrats ought to make Palin their new McCain. Give her a free ride, until she's clinched the nomination... and then destroy her.
"Have a couple of iterations of: 'This is silly. Like so many others, I follow Rep. Weiner on Twitter..."
"... I don't know him and have never met him. He briefly followed me and sent me a dm saying thank you for the follow. That's it.'"
Weiner's June 2d email advising porn star Ginger Lee "to have a short, thought out statement that tackles the top line questions and then refer people back to it."
Weiner's June 2d email advising porn star Ginger Lee "to have a short, thought out statement that tackles the top line questions and then refer people back to it."
"When the wife does not focus in on the needs and the feelings sexually, personally, to make him feel like a man, to make him feel like a success..."
"... to make him feel like our hero, he's very susceptible to the charm of some other woman making him feel what he needs. These days, women don't spend a lot of time thinking about how they can give their men what they need."
Something Dr. Laura said back in 2008... about Eliot Spitzer.
What reminded me of it? Something Chris Matthews said about Anthony Weiner's wife Huma Abedin: "But maybe she’s party responsible if she knew about it?"
Something Dr. Laura said back in 2008... about Eliot Spitzer.
What reminded me of it? Something Chris Matthews said about Anthony Weiner's wife Huma Abedin: "But maybe she’s party responsible if she knew about it?"
I'm about to record a Bloggingheads on the Weiner thing.
What topics would you most like to hear discussed in real time?
Where's Huma Abedin? What should she do?
The Daily News headlines: "Huma Abedin is notably absent from husband Anthony Weiner's tearful sexting confession."
The New York Post headlines: "Weiner & wife worlds apart/:Snake slithers when Huma is globetrotting with Hill."
Unlike Bill and Hillary, Weiner and Abedin have only been married a year, and they have no children. And the husband's career is deeply compromised at this point. They're not going to become the Democratic Party's next Bill and Hillary. The glamorous power couple is defunct. What happens to the private Tony and Huma?
Huma Abedin wasn't standing by her man....No intention of splitting up over this. Those last 2 words jumped out at me.
A top aide to Secretary of State Clinton, Abedin issued no statements of support for her embattled husband. She was a no-show Monday at two public State Department events.
"I love my wife very much, and we have no intention of splitting up over this," Weiner insisted. "I love her very much, and she loves me."
Several political pros cheered her absence yesterday.Ha ha. He's a PR expert! He's not advising Weiner in advance. He's dealing with the facts he's stuck with. This is what the PR man says when the wife isn't there. What did the Democratic consultants say when Silda Spitzer stood by her man?
"In general, it's very difficult for women constituents to look at the grieving wife up there," said Democratic consultant George Arzt. "It's bad PR."
The better move for Weiner, Arzt said, was "to look like he can take it all by himself and stand up there."
University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato took to Twitter with a similar view: "At least Weiner didn't make his wife come out and gaze lovingly at him."
The New York Post headlines: "Weiner & wife worlds apart/:Snake slithers when Huma is globetrotting with Hill."
As the "body woman" to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Huma Abedin is tasked with accompanying the former first lady on diplomatic globetrotting missions.I wonder what conversations Huma is having with Hillary — the world's most famous stander by of her man.
Weiner, it seems, uses the timing of her foreign affairs to pursue domestic ones online.
For instance, last month, while Abedin and Clinton were in Rome meeting with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Weiner was chatting up Texas nursing student Meagan Broussard.
The political power couple met while Abedin was on the campaign trail during Clinton's 2008 White House bid. By 2009, they were engaged....Didn't Abedin know the kind of man she was marrying? He was 45, and had never married previously. As Hillary's close assistant, she had to be sophisticated about the ways of oversexed, extroverted, narcissistic husbands. What was the marriage supposed to be, anyway? They were conspicuously a glamorous "power couple," for public purposes, but what was he allowed to do in private? What were their understandings? At the press conference yesterday, Weiner said that she asked how he could be so dumb, which made me think what mattered most was that people found out and she was shamed and embarrassed. Was it the public image that mattered, or was it to be a loyal, deeply bonded marriage in private?
Unlike Bill and Hillary, Weiner and Abedin have only been married a year, and they have no children. And the husband's career is deeply compromised at this point. They're not going to become the Democratic Party's next Bill and Hillary. The glamorous power couple is defunct. What happens to the private Tony and Huma?
"It’s really outrageous. The implication is outrageous. First of all, if you ask the question, if it’s outrageous, I have a right to say it’s outrageous. It’s outrageous..."
Replaying Anthony Weiner when he was in full liar mode. This interview with ABC's Jonathan Karl is now hilarious. Don't just read it. Play the clip to experience the intensity of the pressure Weiner brazenly applies to Karl. He tries to shame Karl: you did "zero research," you don't "understand how social networks work," you're impugning the ordinary people who follow me, you're making "a pretty charged supposition," "Do you really think that’s fair question? I mean do you?," I am "a person who’s married"...
Every would-be journalist should study this clip. This is what lying looks like. This is how a powerful, ambitious individual endeavors to push you back.
Do some perceptual learning. Develop an eye and an ear for lying.
... I want you to take it seriously that when you ask a question like that it is charged with implication and it is simply not fair. It is not fair to me. It’s not fair to my family. It’s not fair to that poor girl who’s now been besieged because of the implication.... I would urge you. I would urge you my friend to refocus on what you think the actual issue is. This is a Twitter hoax, a prank that was done. I was the victim of this. This poor girl was the victim of this.... This poor girl! I was the victim! Unfair! Unfair! What a terrible journalist you are! Shame!
Every would-be journalist should study this clip. This is what lying looks like. This is how a powerful, ambitious individual endeavors to push you back.
Do some perceptual learning. Develop an eye and an ear for lying.
Perceptual learning — developing an eye for problem solving.
Some cognitive scientists think it's something schools could teach in addition to learning the rules and theorems:
The brain is a pattern-recognition machine, after all, and when focused properly, it can quickly deepen a person’s grasp of a principle, new studies suggest. Better yet, perceptual knowledge builds automatically: There’s no reason someone with a good eye for fashion or wordplay cannot develop an intuition for classifying rocks or mammals or algebraic equations, given a little interest or motivation.
“When facing problems in real-life situations, the first question is always, ‘What am I looking at? What kind of problem is this?’ ” said Philip J. Kellman, a psychologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. “Any theory of how we learn presupposes perceptual knowledge — that we know which facts are relevant, that we know what to look for.”The article discusses teaching children math, but I work at teaching adults law. In math, the problems have specific answers, in law, people disagree about the answers. When judges and lawyers disagree about how various texts apply to real cases, we tend to accuse each other of being biased in one way or another. But we see that bias — and our own supposedly right answer — with the eye that we have developed.
The challenge for education, Dr. Kellman added, “is what do we need to do to make this happen efficiently?”
June 6, 2011
"Protesters opened doors and 30-40 people rushed into the building with several people arrested following for bypassing Capitol security."
Writes Blue Cheddar Blog, prompting Meade to comment:
Rushing the building, rushing the bank, trying to block traffic – the police, who could not have been more accommodating to and patient with the protesters during February and March – this is the thanks the police now get. It would not be inappropriate for the protesters to now sing to themselves, in harmony, with feeling, and all together now, their well-practiced chant of "shame, shame, shame."(Meade's comment has to go through moderation over there, and as I post this, it has not yet appeared.)
"Any updates on how someone hacks the truth?"
The last comment on the much-updated Daily Kos post "Breitbart's #TwitterHoax - How It Went Down (updated w/ smoking gun)."
Andrew Breitbart took over the Anthony Weiner news conference.
Why didn't I blog about it, when I was standing by to blog Weiner? Because I was watching CNN! CNN did not show Breitbart. There was some talk about it, but I was recording on a DVR and fastforwarding. At one point, they showed Breitbart, who was talking, but they were not including the audio track. The CNN folk were talking amongst themselves. Anyway, here's the Breitbart stuff, via Politico:
Next time there's an unfolding news story that moves me to put on the television, I am not going to CNN.
ADDED: Another thing about the CNN coverage, they kept referring to Weiner as "tearful." On screen, the text said "tearful." What nonsense! The man did not cry. He did a Clinton-at-Ron-Brown's-funeral eye-wipe, but he did not cry.
Next time there's an unfolding news story that moves me to put on the television, I am not going to CNN.
ADDED: Another thing about the CNN coverage, they kept referring to Weiner as "tearful." On screen, the text said "tearful." What nonsense! The man did not cry. He did a Clinton-at-Ron-Brown's-funeral eye-wipe, but he did not cry.
"Let’s all watch the Scopitone!"
"15 never-too-popular obsolete entertainment formats."
I never fell for any of them. But I did have a Betamax.
I never fell for any of them. But I did have a Betamax.
Anthony Weiner: "To be clear, the picture is of me and I sent it."
Transcribed from the live feed.
ADDED: He's deeply sorry. And he confesses that "over the past few years, I have engaged in several inappropriate conversations conducted over Twitter, Facebook, email, and occasionally, on the phone with women I had met on line. I have exchanged messages and photos of an explicit nature with about 6 women over the last 3 years. For the most part, these communications took place before my marriage, though some have sadly took (sic) place after. To be clear, I have never met any of these women or had physical relationships at any time. I haven't told the truth, and I have done things I deeply regret. I brought pain to the people I care about the most, and the people who believed in me. And for that, I'm deeply sorry."
On to questions from the press.
MORE: A reporter asks about an "X-rated photo" that Andrew Breitbart has implied that he has: "Can you say that is not true?" Weiner: "No, I cannot."
AND: Asked what his wife has known and when, he talks about her awareness of the things done before the marriage, then is pinned down into saying that he deceived her about the famous gray-underpants-tweet just as he deceived the rest of us.
ALSO: Describing his wife's reaction, he says she called him dumb.
AND: I think Weiner did a fine job of coming clean, taking responsibility, and apologizing. I had predicted that he would "announce he's entering treatment for sex addiction. Possibly with a grim/stoical Huma Abedin at his side." I'm glad he didn't do that. He didn't blame anybody else or any "outside force." He didn't use the nonapology "sorry if you were offended" form.
Now, it seemed pretty obvious that he would have continued deceiving us if he could have gotten away with it, but having made the decision to confess and apologize, he did that well. Of course, I'm assuming that there is nothing more to this story than what he spilled today.
He's not resigning, and he's not splitting up with his wife, he said. I don't know if he can control all that. If you were his wife, would you leave him? Realize that you don't know what their understandings are. She may very well accept this behavior. He doesn't physically contact the other women. He does things on line that sophisticated people might characterize as more like enjoying pornography than like having an in-person sexual affair.
NOTE: I'm not suggesting you're unsophisticated if you don't minimize this behavior and liken it to the use of pornography. I'm not even saying that you're unsophisticated if you expect husbands to refrain from using pornography... and from masturbating. But I do think that intelligent spouses draw their lines in different places.
ADDED: He's deeply sorry. And he confesses that "over the past few years, I have engaged in several inappropriate conversations conducted over Twitter, Facebook, email, and occasionally, on the phone with women I had met on line. I have exchanged messages and photos of an explicit nature with about 6 women over the last 3 years. For the most part, these communications took place before my marriage, though some have sadly took (sic) place after. To be clear, I have never met any of these women or had physical relationships at any time. I haven't told the truth, and I have done things I deeply regret. I brought pain to the people I care about the most, and the people who believed in me. And for that, I'm deeply sorry."
On to questions from the press.
MORE: A reporter asks about an "X-rated photo" that Andrew Breitbart has implied that he has: "Can you say that is not true?" Weiner: "No, I cannot."
AND: Asked what his wife has known and when, he talks about her awareness of the things done before the marriage, then is pinned down into saying that he deceived her about the famous gray-underpants-tweet just as he deceived the rest of us.
ALSO: Describing his wife's reaction, he says she called him dumb.
AND: I think Weiner did a fine job of coming clean, taking responsibility, and apologizing. I had predicted that he would "announce he's entering treatment for sex addiction. Possibly with a grim/stoical Huma Abedin at his side." I'm glad he didn't do that. He didn't blame anybody else or any "outside force." He didn't use the nonapology "sorry if you were offended" form.
Now, it seemed pretty obvious that he would have continued deceiving us if he could have gotten away with it, but having made the decision to confess and apologize, he did that well. Of course, I'm assuming that there is nothing more to this story than what he spilled today.
He's not resigning, and he's not splitting up with his wife, he said. I don't know if he can control all that. If you were his wife, would you leave him? Realize that you don't know what their understandings are. She may very well accept this behavior. He doesn't physically contact the other women. He does things on line that sophisticated people might characterize as more like enjoying pornography than like having an in-person sexual affair.
NOTE: I'm not suggesting you're unsophisticated if you don't minimize this behavior and liken it to the use of pornography. I'm not even saying that you're unsophisticated if you expect husbands to refrain from using pornography... and from masturbating. But I do think that intelligent spouses draw their lines in different places.
What will Anthony Weiner say?
It's 17 minutes past the time given for his statement to the press. Waiting, I'm reading this, in Radar, and noticing the ad placement:
Is that just an accident or is Oscar Mayer edgier than I'd thought?
Anyway, Radar reports that there's some other woman who got over 200 texts from Anthony Weiner back on May 16th. Reports of phone sex too. And the two never met in person.
UPDATE: Ah! Here he is. He's "made terrible mistakes" and has not been honest. He did send the picture and lie about it.
Is that just an accident or is Oscar Mayer edgier than I'd thought?
Anyway, Radar reports that there's some other woman who got over 200 texts from Anthony Weiner back on May 16th. Reports of phone sex too. And the two never met in person.
UPDATE: Ah! Here he is. He's "made terrible mistakes" and has not been honest. He did send the picture and lie about it.
"Walkerville Summer Camp is officially in session, and there were minimal problems to report..."
"... in spite of David Blaska’s doom and gloom about some sort of Leftist Apocalypse happening as a result of the event’s city approval. Police presence was high, including mounted units for some reason. They were met with what mostly turned out to be an eclectically assembled, awkwardly located family camping trip in downtown Madison. There’s still lots of camping left to do, so let’s hope the eggs being tossed from high-rise condos on the square continue to miss the friendly protest."
Says The A.V. Club.
Says The A.V. Club.
Boston University history professor Brendan McConville backs up Sarah Palin's account of Paul Revere...
... but said she got "lucky."
Is there anyone else in American public life who is treated like Sarah Palin? Here's this historian, forced to say she wasn't wrong — after all the Sarah-haters have mocked her — and he instinctively grasps for a way to knock her down again. If she got something right, it must just have been an accident.
And here's Andrew Sullivan commenting on Palin's refusal to back down on here Revere story:
In another post, Sullivan says "I fear I'm headed to crazy-land." But he's talking about his beard.
Is there anyone else in American public life who is treated like Sarah Palin? Here's this historian, forced to say she wasn't wrong — after all the Sarah-haters have mocked her — and he instinctively grasps for a way to knock her down again. If she got something right, it must just have been an accident.
And here's Andrew Sullivan commenting on Palin's refusal to back down on here Revere story:
One of the most pernicious and dangerous features of Palin is her clinical refusal to understand reality, to accept error, to acknowledge when the facts she has cited are not actually facts, but delusions. And her vanity and pathologies are so deep she will insist that black is white until her minions actually find a source to prove it.We must keep reminding ourselves... isn't that the attitude of someone with a clinical refusal to understand reality, to accept error, to acknowledge when the facts cited are not actually facts, but delusions. You have something you want to believe about Sarah Palin, and whatever new information you receive, you reflexively remind yourself that she is a farce. Applying your own standard, at what point would you be a farce?
She's dangerous; she's shrewd; she's an exhibitionist. But she is also, we must keep reminding ourselves, a farce. What worries me about this political leader incapable of telling fantasy apart from fact is that, in a long and deep recession, someone who can lie that readily and manipulate religious and cultural resentment as well as she does is a danger. Not just to America, but to the world.
In another post, Sullivan says "I fear I'm headed to crazy-land." But he's talking about his beard.
Oh, no! It's Weiner's naked...
... torso. Please, make it stop. He went for the full Chris Lee!
To some other other woman.
So hum(a)iliating.
UPDATE at 2:12 Central Time: CNN is saying that Weiner will be making some kind of statement "from a Sheraton Hotel" in NYC at 4 ET. My prediction — and you heard it here first! — is that he'll announce he's entering treatment for sex addiction. Possibly with a grim/stoical Huma Abedin at his side.
To some other other woman.
So hum(a)iliating.
UPDATE at 2:12 Central Time: CNN is saying that Weiner will be making some kind of statement "from a Sheraton Hotel" in NYC at 4 ET. My prediction — and you heard it here first! — is that he'll announce he's entering treatment for sex addiction. Possibly with a grim/stoical Huma Abedin at his side.
"Pie is an interloper trading on a false history and a tangle of confusion about its cultural role."
"Its past is unremarkable and un-American. As you may recall from your middle-school history books, many accoutrements of Western life first appeared in Egypt and then spread to the Romans via Greece. Prophylactics are a notable example. Pie is another one. The pies of the ancients, rather than being oozing desserts, were combinations of savory foods baked in a pot made of tough dough. (In our evolutionary tree of Western cooking, pies, tellingly, share a branch with the most hit-or-miss of all edible things, the casserole.) This crust-pot baking method spread through Europe and gained popularity through the Middle Ages, since the dough shell, called a bake-meat (later, just as appetizingly, a coffin), allowed meats to stew without losing moisture. It also helped seal off the meal and slow down spoilage. "For hundreds of years," Janet Clarkson points out in her jaunty account of pie development, Pie: A Global History, "it was the only form of baking container—meaning everything was pie." Pie culture grew with the advent of modern pastry dough during the 16th century, at which point cooks in more ambitious kitchens started to experiment with sweeter fillings. (Queen Elizabeth is said to have eaten some of the first fruit pies.) This is the true origin of our pie tradition. Early apple pies weren't American and sweet at all. They were unsugared, tough, and manufactured by the British."
The anti-pie rantings of Nathan Heller.
Speaking of pie and tradition: "After I see a movie I like to go get a piece of pie and talk about it. It's sort of a little tradition I have."
"Do you like to get pie after you see a good movie?" "Yeah, I love to get pie after a movie."
The anti-pie rantings of Nathan Heller.
Speaking of pie and tradition: "After I see a movie I like to go get a piece of pie and talk about it. It's sort of a little tradition I have."
"Do you like to get pie after you see a good movie?" "Yeah, I love to get pie after a movie."
Can you get any more loved and hated than Scott Walker?
He's got a 78 point partisan approval gap, with 87% of Republicans approve and only 9% of Democrats approve. The only other governor who's close is Mark Dayton, the Democratic governor of Minnesota.
Being polarizing is not quite the same thing as being unpopular. In Walker’s case, that partisan divide reflects both a strength and weakness.
The weakness is Walker’s horrible standing with Democrats. Walker’s approval rating among Democratic voters (9%) is the very worst on this list. The strength is his remarkable popularity with Republicans. Walker’s job rating among GOP voters is the best on this list....
Walker’s numbers in this regard look much less like a governor’s than a president’s. Presidents are such omnipresent public figures that virtually everyone has an opinion about them.
The extreme polarization over Walker is also more typical of presidents than governors. Walker is the only governor in these polls who generates as much partisan division in his or her state as President Obama does.
June 5, 2011
I'm so close to going live with the revamped blog.
We're in the final testing phase! I think it looks beautiful — very crisp and clean. And I think you're going to love what the comments page looks like. It will have buttons to make it easy to do links, blockquotes, boldface, and italics.
After all these years, I will be breaking out of Blogger. The new blog will be here.
After all these years, I will be breaking out of Blogger. The new blog will be here.
Walkerville at midday.
Here's how the tent city protest looked at about 1 p.m. today. (Meade shot the video. I edited.)
We were up at the Capitol Square riding bikes, as many Madison streets were closed for the "Ride the Drive" event.
(I'm not too enthusiastic about "Ride the Drive," by the way. Clearing out all the car traffic makes an occasion, which attracts attention and gets a big crowd of people biking at the same time. But it sends the message that the cars are a big nuisance, so I don't think it really encourages people to bike on other days, and it may even discourage them. It did work to get children out biking on the streets, but I don't think it's especially safe or enjoyable to bike with children. Unlike cars, children tend not to proceed in a straight line.)
"Defense Secretary Robert Gates bluntly told Marines... that they won't be able to opt out of their enlistment..."
"... just because they disagree with a government decision to end a ban on gays serving openly in the military."
Wasn't it bizarre even to ask? I mean... as they say... don't ask.
Wasn't it bizarre even to ask? I mean... as they say... don't ask.
Veronica Penny just wants to spell. She doesn't have to smile for you people.
And she stops by the comments section at Throwing Things to let them know they were stupid and mean to talk about how glum she looked at the Spelling Bee:
I am a happy, fun girl, and my mother gives me joy and laughter every day of my life! She is one of the most hilarious people on the planet! That fact we both tricked all of you is the biggest joke of all. You people are supposed to be intelligent, but all you have demonstrated is ignorance. When I spell, I am in what I call "the zone". Which, if you paid attention to after I was out, you would've noticed us joking around in our chairs. I know I don't smile enough on stage, and she usually sits in the audience making funny faces to make me laugh and I cannot see her when she is on stage.By the way, Veronica Penny was a special favorite here at Meadhouse.
Basically what you have spent hours doing, is making fun of what I look like, and my mother's appearance. It appears that you are all the ones with personality disorders to pick on a fellow speller like this. You are all cruel people, and my mother's love will get me through how miserable YOU ALL MAKE ME!!!
Nice Austin-Healey!
This was my favorite car at the "Cars on State" show in Madison yesterday:
I got the impression a lot of women responded extremely positively toward this car:
Men not so much:
I don't have a theory about the gendered response to this car. It's just an observation.
I got the impression a lot of women responded extremely positively toward this car:
Men not so much:
I don't have a theory about the gendered response to this car. It's just an observation.
What is Glenn Reynolds saying about the Wisconsin protesters?
In this Washington Examiner op-ed:
Although there have been some violent incidents and death threats, overall, despite the talk from many right-leaning pundits about "union goons," the actual danger posed by the union members appears to have been very small by labor-historical standards.The protests have been huge, and organizers have tried very hard to keep them nonviolent, but now are they to be criticized for not threatening violence? Reynolds says in the old days, union protests involved "miners, steelworkers and the like," who, working together, developed a mindset like combat troops. The unstated implication is that these were macho men.
But miners and steelworkers are one thing. When the public employees of, say, Wisconsin hit the streets, it looked more like a bunch of disgruntled DMV clerks and graduate teaching assistants, because, well, that's what it was.He doesn't come right out and say, now we're talking about females and less manly men, but isn't that the implication? I'm sure Glenn would acknowledge (and encourage) women to take on mining, steelworking, and combat, but it seems clear that he is valuing the traditional male stereotype over the traditional female stereotype.
America's DMV clerks aren't known for toughness and dedication on the job, and it would be asking a lot to expect them to display such characteristics for the first time when they're off the job.I think the protesters who chanted and slept on the Capitol floor for weeks on end and marched in the Wisconsin winter over and over again, deserve credit for dedication and for keeping things nonviolent. They are back now with their tent city — Walkerville — and it seems pretty positive and well-organized. They haven't abandoned the demonstrations and protests, even as they have also applied themselves to court battles and elections. Reynolds characterizes them as having moved on first to an election and then to the courts:
When the street protests didn't work out, the public employee unions decided to make a "nonpartisan" judicial election a referendum over Wisconsin's anti-union legislation.
The Service Employees International Union and other labor groups went all in on the election, but still lost....So they lost that election, but they've got 6 recall elections coming up next month. The demonstrations continue and election maneuvers continue.
[T]he public employee unions have been better in the legal system than on the streets, getting Wisconsin's Democrat-friendly judicial system to rule in favor of the unions despite rather shaky grounds for doing so.Why isn't that a good thing? Working through the courts, respecting the rule of law? I know, you might not like the rulings they extract from the judges — judges that you may think are partisan. But what are you saying? They should scare us with street violence? You say you want a revolution? Why taunt them as "an army of DMV clerks" when they work within the system? Isn't that a good thing? I understand that you want their side to lose, but this is an op-ed about tactics.
But mastery of rules and discretion in employing them is exactly what you'd expect from an army of DMV clerks, as opposed to steelworkers, isn't it?
"Walkerville" tents — required to be taken down — by 7 a.m. were still up at 7:02 a.m....
... as Meade and I drove around the square this morning. Video coming soon.
AND: Count the tents on East and West Mifflin Street and North and South Carroll Street, which are the 2 legs of the Capitol Square that meet at the westernmost corner of the Square with State Street. [See the update below to understand which tents are within the permit and which are not.]
ADDED: I don't know whether the tents were still up because the protesters were sleeping in and delaying until they are rousted, or if the protesters really do intend to flout the restrictions in the permit. Obviously, the protest is most valuable if it is seen, and the idea of a tent city is to create the impression that people are really living here out of dedication if not economic necessity. If a tent city is supposed to express dire poverty, this one fails amusingly, because these folks have awfully nice tents. Are these brand-new tents bought for this protest?
We didn't see the police this morning, but there were plenty of police last night. The question is: Will the police enforce the restrictions in the permit? This is a test, I believe, of the City of Madison Police, not the Capitol Police that we saw in action during the protests in the rotunda in February and March.
ALSO: Some details about the permit:
AND: Count the tents on East and West Mifflin Street and North and South Carroll Street, which are the 2 legs of the Capitol Square that meet at the westernmost corner of the Square with State Street. [See the update below to understand which tents are within the permit and which are not.]
ADDED: I don't know whether the tents were still up because the protesters were sleeping in and delaying until they are rousted, or if the protesters really do intend to flout the restrictions in the permit. Obviously, the protest is most valuable if it is seen, and the idea of a tent city is to create the impression that people are really living here out of dedication if not economic necessity. If a tent city is supposed to express dire poverty, this one fails amusingly, because these folks have awfully nice tents. Are these brand-new tents bought for this protest?
We didn't see the police this morning, but there were plenty of police last night. The question is: Will the police enforce the restrictions in the permit? This is a test, I believe, of the City of Madison Police, not the Capitol Police that we saw in action during the protests in the rotunda in February and March.
ALSO: Some details about the permit:
[Madison's Street Use Staff Commission] required that most sleeping tents be broken down and removed from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Friday and from 4:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday. However, sleeping tents at three sites — in front of Grace Episcopal Church on Carroll Street, in front of the former Anchor Bank on West Mifflin and in front of the Manchester office building on East Mifflin — will be allowed to stay up during the day....So, some of the tents in the video above are in the range that is permitted during the day.
The committee gave the city's police and fire departments authority to close down the village at any time if they see fit.UPDATE: So, reading that report about the permit, I can see that some of the tents in the video are allowed to stay up after 7 a.m. and some are not. I think that the first tents you see, beginning at 0:15, are permitted. The next set of tents, beginning at 0:37, are on West Mifflin, in front of a luxury condo building. I honestly don't know if that counts as the former Anchor Bank (but there are different colors of chalk marks on the street distinguishing the different areas, so the campers themselves know). Just after that, beginning at 0:53, is a tent-free area, in front of the Veterans Museum. At 1:19, we see a single tent in front of Atticus and J. Taylor's, which, based on the linked story, is not permitted. (In fact, the linked story quotes email from the shopkeeper John Taylor, who opposed the permit.) We see 2 more late tents before we get to Grace Church, which is tent-free. At 1:15, you see a group of 5 tents in a place where, according to the linked article, tents are not permitted after 7 a.m.
The proposed camping area, across the street from the state Capitol, includes: North Carroll Street from State Street to West Washington Avenue; South Carroll between West Washington and Main Street; West Mifflin Street from State Street to Wisconsin Avenue; and East Mifflin Street from Wisconsin Avenue to North Pinckney Street. It also includes the "30 on the Square" cul-de-sac at 30 W. Mifflin St. and the Philosophers' Stones area between the Wisconsin Historical Museum and Myles Teddywedgers Cornish, 101 State St.
Saturday night in Walkerville.
The Wisconsin protesters are moving in, making a tent city on the square. I shot this video at about 9 p.m.:
June 4, 2011
Scott Walker replaces artwork in the Governor's mansion — a painting of 3 children of different races, blowing soap bubbles.
And the artist, one David Lenz, is "deeply disappointed":
Here's another Lenz work, the portrait of Eunice Shriver referred to in the article.
"This seems symbolic," said Lenz, referring to Walker's proposed cuts in state funding for Milwaukee schools and city and county services, something he said would have a disproportionate impact on low-income youngsters. "You would think we could all agree on the need to support the hopes and dreams of children."See, I think we could all agree that Lenz's painting is atrocious and that this seems symbolic of nothing more nefarious than good taste. But the linked article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is insinuating that Walker is a racist and doesn't care about children. Can you imagine having that maudlin nonsense hanging over your mantle and feeling like you can't get rid of it without people thinking you're a terrible person?
Here's another Lenz work, the portrait of Eunice Shriver referred to in the article.
Grilled cheese and cows.
That's all we've got here: the cooking of mass quantities of grilled cheese sandwiches and a brief interview about a Guernsey Jersey calf named Haley.
Meade shot this video at the "Cows on the Concourse" event today near the Capital Square in Madison, Wisconsin. There was a grilled cheese sandwich eating contest later, but we didn't catch that. It's just cooking sandwiches in the first half of this clip, and, then, in the second half, it's that calf, with Meade's voice in the audio track, asking questions.
Meade shot the video, and I did the edit. I hope you enjoy seeing these ultra-wholesome things that took place in our beautiful city, which is not all protests and tent cities.
Meade shot this video at the "Cows on the Concourse" event today near the Capital Square in Madison, Wisconsin. There was a grilled cheese sandwich eating contest later, but we didn't catch that. It's just cooking sandwiches in the first half of this clip, and, then, in the second half, it's that calf, with Meade's voice in the audio track, asking questions.
Meade shot the video, and I did the edit. I hope you enjoy seeing these ultra-wholesome things that took place in our beautiful city, which is not all protests and tent cities.
The "Walkerville" tent-city protest was supposed to start at 7 a.m., but that's not what Meade found on the Capitol Square this morning.
"All the assholes are over on the other side," says a man on the street, beginning my edit of what Meade caught on camera as he biked around the square a couple hours ago.
I think the anti-asshole man is anticipating the Walkervillians — Walkervillains? — but the closest thing to anybody camping out is that one guy at the very end, but he might not be protesting Scott Walker. But you know, nobody's ever taught you how to live on the street, and now you find out you’re gonna have to get used to it.
UPDATE, 2 p.m.: Absolutely no sign of Walkerville. Lots of action around the Capitol today, though, with the Farmers' Market (which is there every Saturday) and the annual Cows on the Concourse event, both of which are seen in the video. There was also "Cars on State," which is an exhibit of classic cars on State Street. That's not in this video, but I'll have some photos of it soon.
UPDATE, 10:25 p.m.: We went over to the square around 8:30 and saw plenty of tents set up for the night, including directly in front of the hotel on the square and right next to a restaurant's sidewalk café. The protesters were completely mellow. There was a group of people standing in a circle at the foot of the Forward! statue and they were singing "We Shall Overcome" and other civil rights/labor movement songs. I shot some video and photographs, which I'll put up in a new post soon.
I think the anti-asshole man is anticipating the Walkervillians — Walkervillains? — but the closest thing to anybody camping out is that one guy at the very end, but he might not be protesting Scott Walker. But you know, nobody's ever taught you how to live on the street, and now you find out you’re gonna have to get used to it.
UPDATE, 2 p.m.: Absolutely no sign of Walkerville. Lots of action around the Capitol today, though, with the Farmers' Market (which is there every Saturday) and the annual Cows on the Concourse event, both of which are seen in the video. There was also "Cars on State," which is an exhibit of classic cars on State Street. That's not in this video, but I'll have some photos of it soon.
UPDATE, 10:25 p.m.: We went over to the square around 8:30 and saw plenty of tents set up for the night, including directly in front of the hotel on the square and right next to a restaurant's sidewalk café. The protesters were completely mellow. There was a group of people standing in a circle at the foot of the Forward! statue and they were singing "We Shall Overcome" and other civil rights/labor movement songs. I shot some video and photographs, which I'll put up in a new post soon.
"It wouldn't be advertisement after advertisement after advertisement."
"They've talked about a lot of ways to ease people into it, and not just slam people with advertising."
Why not give people more reason not to use public transportation? And once everyone who can avoid the bus stops taking the bus, what products will be advertised on the bus? The bus riders will not only have to listen to ads, they'll have to hear about products that remind them how poor they are.
In the future, everyone will wear earbuds.
Why not give people more reason not to use public transportation? And once everyone who can avoid the bus stops taking the bus, what products will be advertised on the bus? The bus riders will not only have to listen to ads, they'll have to hear about products that remind them how poor they are.
In the future, everyone will wear earbuds.
"Fluoridated water. Artificial sweeteners. Genetically modified foods. Power lines. Vaccines"
"Now cellphones have officially been served with their own baseless indictment, by no less than the World Health Organization."
Those who pollute science with politics, emotion, and other things that are not science deserve our contempt. Expose them. Criticize them. They are great malefactors.
Those who pollute science with politics, emotion, and other things that are not science deserve our contempt. Expose them. Criticize them. They are great malefactors.
Everybody's talking about...
... Paul Revere.
Let me help you with the real "Legend of Paul Revere":
... "Creeque Alley."
But I know, you want the real story of the real Paul Revere, which every jackass knows, is the poem by Henry Wordsworth Longfellow, so here, listen carefully, because there will be a quiz:
Let me help you with the real "Legend of Paul Revere":
In a little town in IdahoWow. In the list of greatest songs telling the story of the singer(s), that's so far below...
Way back in '61
A man was frying burgers
Gee - it seemed like lots of fun
But to his friend the bun boy
He confessed his misery
I think I'd like to start a group
So come along with me...
... "Creeque Alley."
But I know, you want the real story of the real Paul Revere, which every jackass knows, is the poem by Henry Wordsworth Longfellow, so here, listen carefully, because there will be a quiz:
June 3, 2011
The Government Accountability Board "said politics played no role in its decision" but "it was able to get through the [recall] petitions against Republicans faster than the ones against Democrats."
Hmm. So the Board has certified the 6 Republican recall elections (for July 12), but it has needed an extension to finish up on certifying the elections against the 3 Democrats for whom petitions have been filed. Consequently, the recall elections against the Democrats, assuming they are certified, will happen a week later.
The Democrats have submitted more than 200 affidavits that they say show fraud was committed. The board has said it is obligated to review all that material, which will take more time.So that — rather than partisanship — seems to explain the speed difference.
In contrast, the Republicans made a purely legal argument that paperwork was filed improperly. The same argument was made in all six cases, so once the board got through one of them, there was comparatively little work to do on the others.
Republicans argued if the deadlines were delayed for Democrats, the recall elections should be delayed by a week for the Republicans.Is it really disadvantageous to go a week later? At that point, Republicans will know if any Democrats need to get ousted to preserve their majority in the state senate. Or will it light a fire under Democrats? If on the other hand, the Democrats fail to oust enough Republicans to get a senate majority — they need 3 of the 6 — then voters may blow off the elections against the Democrats.
"Chaos erupted at Thursday night’s budget committee meeting as lawmakers tried to start debate on funding cuts to cities and counties money for 'choice schools; and recycling programs."
The State Journal reports:
As the meeting began at about 7 p.m., some six hours later than expected, protesters tried to speak over lawmakers and began chanting “Whose house? Our house!” Some argued with both Republican and Democratic lawmakers. Others tried to give speeches about the budget and were carried out by police to the chants of “police state” and “shame!”They're starting to get nervous. Will the protests screw up the recalls?
“You could be doing more harm than good,” Sen. Bob Jauch, D-Poplar, warned them as the pandemonium continued.
"It's not that we're against raccoons and skunks."
"We'll go through the proper channels now."
Just another gun rights issue here in Wisconsin.
There's also: "Walker says concealed carry bill should require training, permits."
Just another gun rights issue here in Wisconsin.
There's also: "Walker says concealed carry bill should require training, permits."
Why should Madison allow a tent city — "Walkerville" near the Capitol Square? Because it's unique and because it's going to happen anyway.
That's the gist of the argument presented to the Street Use Staff Commission hearing this morning by the "We Are Wisconsin" group. They got their permit, and Walkerville will begin tomorrow, June 4th, and continue until June 20th. Meade was there, and I edited his video. The first speaker in this clip, representing We Are Wisconsin, is David Boetcher. After him comes Jeremy B. McMullen, who represents the Madison Fire Department on the Commission, and then Peter Rickman, who, according to this recent student newspaper editorial byline, is a University of Wisconsin "Law & Graduate Student," chair of the TAA Political Education Committee, and chair of the Democratic Party of the 2nd Congressional District.
0:00 — Boetcher likens the historical concept of Hooverville to the current protests over the Wisconsin budget, which is supposed to explain why camping on the street says something that people carrying signs does not say. (Click on that Hooverville link to see that the real "Hoovervilles" were makeshift places of residence for people who were actually homeless during the Great Depression. The thousands of people who want to come to Madison to protest are not homeless. They are protesting on behalf of employed people who are losing some of their benefits and collective bargaining rights.)
0:21 — McMullen clearly states the crucial legal principle: The nature of the message to be conveyed is irrelevant to the commission, which is mainly worried about setting a precedent that might require granting other permits in the future for other protesters.
0:30 — Rickman says this event is "unprecedented," and if anyone in the future tries to rely on it as a precedent "distinctions — differentiations — will be able to be drawn." He says he's sure there are "plenty of capable city, uh, city, uh, staff who are law trained, who can go ahead and help you all make that distinction and difference." Yeah, don't worry about the precedent. Let it go and when the time comes you all can go ahead and distinguish the precedent. Rickman adds that he's "not a real lawyer yet" and has only had "a few years of law school." (Law school is only 3 years. If you've done "a few years," aren't you done? Maybe there's some distinction that I should have my staff go ahead and figure out for me. I don't have time for that now.)
1:36 — Boetcher takes over with less legalistic idealism and more hardcore reality. These thousands of people are going to come to town anyway, permit or no. But if We Are Wisconsin doesn't have a permit, they can't provide port-o-potties. Even though he's leading the group that is promoting the rally, he's acting as if he's just passively expecting the crowds and trying to help out the city out with crowd control. If you don't give them the permit, you'll still have people camping out... but — what? — pissing in the street?
2:05 — Boetcher says that if you put restrictions in the permit, then you're forced to decide what to do if it's violated, "and what is that going to do to the whole rest of the trust" with respect to everything else that you might want to try to get people to do. Once people are in violation of one thing, they'll lose interest in avoiding violating other matters. (I would note that as a general principle, this is a good reason to regulate sparingly: It preserves respect for the law and increases compliance. If the rules are too picky and constraining, people scoff at rules and become rule-breakers, and maybe they lose track of the value of a system of rules. But does that general principle really apply to this tent city?)
2:42 — "It would be a bit of a sham to create a permit that basically automatically goes against what's going to happen and then expect people to follow any of the rules that are in the permit." Think about what that means. There's a huge crowd about to descend on the city, to do something they will do whether or not there is a permit — Boetcher keeps referring to the "mindset" of this descending crowd — so the city ought to grant a permit that accepts those things that are going to happen, in order to preserve respect for the rule of law. As a law professor, I find this notion fascinating. Make the law embrace the things people are going to do regardless of the law, or people won't follow even the rules that they would follow if you didn't undermine their desire to comply with the law.
0:00 — Boetcher likens the historical concept of Hooverville to the current protests over the Wisconsin budget, which is supposed to explain why camping on the street says something that people carrying signs does not say. (Click on that Hooverville link to see that the real "Hoovervilles" were makeshift places of residence for people who were actually homeless during the Great Depression. The thousands of people who want to come to Madison to protest are not homeless. They are protesting on behalf of employed people who are losing some of their benefits and collective bargaining rights.)
0:21 — McMullen clearly states the crucial legal principle: The nature of the message to be conveyed is irrelevant to the commission, which is mainly worried about setting a precedent that might require granting other permits in the future for other protesters.
0:30 — Rickman says this event is "unprecedented," and if anyone in the future tries to rely on it as a precedent "distinctions — differentiations — will be able to be drawn." He says he's sure there are "plenty of capable city, uh, city, uh, staff who are law trained, who can go ahead and help you all make that distinction and difference." Yeah, don't worry about the precedent. Let it go and when the time comes you all can go ahead and distinguish the precedent. Rickman adds that he's "not a real lawyer yet" and has only had "a few years of law school." (Law school is only 3 years. If you've done "a few years," aren't you done? Maybe there's some distinction that I should have my staff go ahead and figure out for me. I don't have time for that now.)
1:36 — Boetcher takes over with less legalistic idealism and more hardcore reality. These thousands of people are going to come to town anyway, permit or no. But if We Are Wisconsin doesn't have a permit, they can't provide port-o-potties. Even though he's leading the group that is promoting the rally, he's acting as if he's just passively expecting the crowds and trying to help out the city out with crowd control. If you don't give them the permit, you'll still have people camping out... but — what? — pissing in the street?
2:05 — Boetcher says that if you put restrictions in the permit, then you're forced to decide what to do if it's violated, "and what is that going to do to the whole rest of the trust" with respect to everything else that you might want to try to get people to do. Once people are in violation of one thing, they'll lose interest in avoiding violating other matters. (I would note that as a general principle, this is a good reason to regulate sparingly: It preserves respect for the law and increases compliance. If the rules are too picky and constraining, people scoff at rules and become rule-breakers, and maybe they lose track of the value of a system of rules. But does that general principle really apply to this tent city?)
2:42 — "It would be a bit of a sham to create a permit that basically automatically goes against what's going to happen and then expect people to follow any of the rules that are in the permit." Think about what that means. There's a huge crowd about to descend on the city, to do something they will do whether or not there is a permit — Boetcher keeps referring to the "mindset" of this descending crowd — so the city ought to grant a permit that accepts those things that are going to happen, in order to preserve respect for the rule of law. As a law professor, I find this notion fascinating. Make the law embrace the things people are going to do regardless of the law, or people won't follow even the rules that they would follow if you didn't undermine their desire to comply with the law.
"I just want this to be over," says Weiner-pic recipient, posing, yesterday, for a picture in the NY Post.
Is anyone interested in this person? The focus is on Weiner, a politician of some significance. I can see why Gennette Cordova has stepped forward to make a statement and why she might want to pose for a more dignified photograph than the one that had been making the rounds, but I am not hearing anyone saying anything negative about her. Melt back into private life. Close the door.
At the Street Use Staff Committee meeting about setting up "Walkerville" campsite near the Wisconsin Capitol.
(Background on the Walkerville proposal here.) WKOW reporter Colby Robertson tweets:
Stay tuned! I have exclusive video from the meeting.
UPDATE 2: Here's the edited video with commentary.
Resident just spoke. Says, "We've patiently endured horn blowing, drumming. It seems incomprehensable to allow ppl to camp outside my home"So Alderwoman Lisa Subick wants the government to exercise its discretion for the purpose of agreeing with this particular group of protesters?! If Robertson's tweet is accurate, Subick is advocating the violation of core free speech principles. Government discretion over permits should be viewpoint neutral, not a way for the government to express itself.
Speaker in favor of permit. Says its a great opportunity for Madison to help us express voices since they can't be in Capitol.
Another in support says the protests are going to happen with or without permit, but tents give more structure.
Alderwoman Lisa Subick speaking in support of permit. Asks committee to show Walker Administration you stand behind ppl of Madison.
Member from board asks why is a tent with a sign more powerful than people holding signs? Organizers want constant present of ppl at CapitolUPDATE: Robertson tweets:
Commission approves motion. Tents will be allowed between 9 pm-7 am Sat-Thurs. 9 pm-4:30 am Friday overnights...Oh, okay. Wouldn't want to interfere with businesses or buses!
Mayor Soglin isn't here but spokesperson just came in and said he was under the impression SOME tents would be allowed to stay up during day....
So three designated areas (not determined yet) will allow tents up 24 hours. Areas will not interfere with businesses or buses
Stay tuned! I have exclusive video from the meeting.
UPDATE 2: Here's the edited video with commentary.
"The case of USA v. Johnny Reid Edwards contains six counts..."
"... including conspiracy, four counts of illegal campaign contributions and one count of false statements..."
ADDED: Gregory Craig, Edwards's lawyer said: "John Edwards has done wrong in his life — and he knows it better than anyone — but he did not break the law... The Justice Department has wasted millions of dollars and thousands of hours on a matter more appropriately a topic for the Federal Election Commission to consider, not a criminal court."
What? The FEC isn't enforcing law? When John Edwards was a Senator, did he not vote for laws that made campaign finance matters into crimes? Is Craig trying to say that some kinds of crimes aren't really crime crimes?
ADDED: Gregory Craig, Edwards's lawyer said: "John Edwards has done wrong in his life — and he knows it better than anyone — but he did not break the law... The Justice Department has wasted millions of dollars and thousands of hours on a matter more appropriately a topic for the Federal Election Commission to consider, not a criminal court."
What? The FEC isn't enforcing law? When John Edwards was a Senator, did he not vote for laws that made campaign finance matters into crimes? Is Craig trying to say that some kinds of crimes aren't really crime crimes?
Politico says: "Sarah Palin's bus tour leaves GOP cold."
Evidence?
Conclusion: The evidence in Politico's article is best seen as evidence of Politico's desire to undermine Sarah Palin.
While Palin has reveled in giving an extended one-fingered salute to the national press, refusing to give out details about her travel schedule and forcing reporters to literally chase her vehicle up I-95 in order to cover her, she reached out to precious few activists and party leaders in the states she visited.So "leaves [them] cold" means that she was cold to them? In normal English usage, when you say X leaves Y cold, it means that Y isn't responding to X's overtures. It's not another way of saying X cold-shouldered Y.
Pennsylvania Republican Party Chairman Rob Gleason, whose state hosted Palin on visits to Gettysburg and the Liberty Bell, voiced a common exasperation about Palin’s tour: “I don’t think theater wins elections.”How far down on the list did Politico go to get a GOP politico to give the quote it wanted for an article disparaging Palin's bus tour? (And I love the locution "whose state hosted." Americans have a right to travel from state to state. We don't need the state to extend any invitation or hospitality. )
“Running for president is a very serious thing and you need to deal with it as such,” Gleason said. “I’m looking for party builders.”
In New York – where Palin stopped at Ellis Island – GOP Rep. Peter King mused that the Alaskan “probably has more hardcore support than any other candidate.”So... King is pushing another candidate.
“But she needs to show that she can go beyond that, and this tour doesn’t accomplish that,” said King, who is urging Rudy Giuliani to enter the 2012 race.
To former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu, Palin’s visit to his state seemed more or less irrelevant. Asked for his thoughts on her arrival Thursday, the Republican shrugged: “I don’t think she’s running.”Because nobody's more relevant than John Sununu.
Conclusion: The evidence in Politico's article is best seen as evidence of Politico's desire to undermine Sarah Palin.
"In my house growing up, The Times substituted for religion. If The Times said it, it was the absolute truth." — The NYT deletes that quote!
Whoa! That quote was the centerpiece of my blog post linking to the NYT story about Jill Abramson taking over as the new executive editor of the New York Times. I thought it was rich material for contemplation. The new editor grew up idealizing the newspaper, and now she's in control of it. What will happen? Will we get more truth?
I didn't expect such a sharp slap in the face! The first thing that happens is the quote about truth disappears down the memory hole! Not a word about the excision appears at the site.
I wasn't the only one who called attention to the now-missing quote. James Taranto did:
The instinct to delete... is that what Abramson would like us to think of as the mark of her leadership?
The Church of the New York Times seems to be one of those shame-based religions.
IN THE COMMENTS: Meade said:
ADDED: In Politco, Burgess Everett carries water for the NYT"
I didn't expect such a sharp slap in the face! The first thing that happens is the quote about truth disappears down the memory hole! Not a word about the excision appears at the site.
I wasn't the only one who called attention to the now-missing quote. James Taranto did:
It may be the most revealing quote ever published in the New York Times.... The Times has of late acted a great deal like a corrupt religious institution. This column has chronicled its often vicious and dishonest attempts--both on the editorial page and in the news sections, which Abramson will head--to shore up its own authority by trying to tear down its competitors....Instapundit did:
SO IF READING THE NEW YORK TIMES IS A RELIGION, then does that make Jill Abramson pope?Jay Nordlinger at the National Review did:
I was just writing a column for tomorrow. I was going to say something — not worth getting into the context right now — about not belonging to “the Church of the New York Times.”...
Wanting to take a break from writing... I checked the news. I was reading about Jill Abramson, just tabbed to be the new chief editor of the New York Times. I read this: “In my house growing up, The Times substituted for religion. If The Times said it, it was the absolute truth.”Deleting the quote is so pathetic. Abramson held the newspaper in such high esteem, then takes over, and behaves as if the story announcing her ascent is some sort of accidental tweet to be taken down before anybody sees it. But everybody already saw it! We're in the middle of talking about it! How about contributing to the dialogue? But no, we get coverup. As if the lesson hadn't be learned long ago: It's the coverup that gets you.
The instinct to delete... is that what Abramson would like us to think of as the mark of her leadership?
The Church of the New York Times seems to be one of those shame-based religions.
IN THE COMMENTS: Meade said:
The NYT was hacked!Maybe it was a prank. Can't say with certitude.
ADDED: In Politco, Burgess Everett carries water for the NYT"
Of the quote’s removal... Taranto wrote that the editing process was the likely culprit for the quote’s removal, but added: “It's obvious that an editorial decision was made to ‘rectify’ a quote that made the Times look foolish.”But if that were true, wouldn't the version with the quote still exist in the archive? I searched for the quote, using the NYT's archive search function, and what came up was:
Not so, Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy told POLITICO. “Space was clearly a consideration,” as the story was used in the newspaper, Murphy said, adding that because the original version of the story was online all day, it needed to be freshened for the paper edition, which did not contain the quote.
“The entire story was rewritten after Jill, [publisher] Arthur Sulzberger [and editors] Bill Keller and Dean Baquet addressed the newsroom, swapping out nearly all of their old quotes for fresh quotes that came from their speeches. Everyone’s quotes in the second version of the story differed considerably from their quotes in the first version of the story,” Murphy said.
Murphy said the “religion” quote was on the Times’s webpage for nearly 12 hours before being replaced by the newspaper version. “This is just the revising, updating and condensing for space that happens every day at The Times,” she said.
IHTPressEngine v. 1.3.12 2011-06-02T12:49:18-0400 A legal fight ...Click on the link for a page full of code gibberish, not the original version of the article with the quote.
"In my house growing up, The Times substituted for religion,” she said. “If The Times said it, it was the absolute truth." ...
June 2, 2011
Rush Limbaugh goes after Krauthammer.
On the occasion of Krauthammer's disrespect for Sarah Palin:
Krauthammer was on Fox the other day, I happened to see it. He said that Sarah Palin still doesn't cut it for him. She's got good instincts but she's just not properly schooled. And he said I don't mean schooled in the right places. She's just not learned. She's had two and a half years to school herself on matters of policy. She hasn't done it. She can't demonstrate it. She's just not properly schooled. And Tom Rowan, "Analyzing the Analyst" in the American Thinker, says why in the world do we sit here and bow down at the opinion of somebody that used to write speeches for Walter Mondale.The segment at the link begins and ends with thoughts on Weinergate, by the way. Read the whole thing if you want to see how he weaves these themes together.
Now, Rowan's theory is that people's pasts matter. So here you have Dr. Krauthammer, who was a speechwriter for Mondale who obviously at a point in his life thought Ronald Reagan was a total idiot, you know, probably not schooled. So Rowan's theory is, analyzing the analysts, that Krauthammer sees Reagan in Palin. Wasn't particularly enamored of Reagan. George Will was not an early Reaganite, for example, became a good friend and associate later on. But this got me to thinking about this whole notion of who earns respect and why. And Mr. Rowan, the American Thinker, said, why is it that everybody stops what they're doing and when Krauthammer issues an opinion that's it?...
Now, Krauthammer in many ways has acquired this respect because in many of the venues he appears he's the only conservative....
Wisconsin protesters want to set up a "Walkerville" campsite around one corner of the Capitol Square.
The Wisconsin State Journal reports:
And if you actually care about free speech, you'd better be ready to hand out camping permits in a viewpoint neutral way in the future. It can't be that the budget protesters get special privileges.
ADDED: Here's the agenda for the special meeting (PDF). 8:30 a.m. on Friday, June 3. Parks Conference Room 210 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. Room 108 (City-County Building). "Tent city rally with art, music, teach-ins and food. Discuss set-up, schedule and activities."
UPDATE: Tweets from the meeting.
The city’s Street Use Staff Commission will have a special meeting Friday to consider the permit application for a state budget rally that would begin Saturday and continue through June 20....Go ahead, Madison politicians. Grant that permit. Let the whole state know how hostile Democrats are to business interests. That campsite is right next to a hotel.
[Gov. Scott] Walker’s proposed budget is being debated by the Legislature’s powerful budget committee this week and is expected to be sent to the full Legislature by the weekend....
The city, which granted a permit for a smaller camp on the terrace of Pinckney Street across from the Capitol in March, is working to balance the rights of free speech with the needs of local businesses, said Ald. Mike Verveer, 4th District, who represents most of the Downtown area.
Kelly Lamberty, community events coordinator for the city’s Parks Division, said concerns also include the impact on other permitted events, including the Dane County Farmers’ Market, and licensed vendors assigned to the area.
And if you actually care about free speech, you'd better be ready to hand out camping permits in a viewpoint neutral way in the future. It can't be that the budget protesters get special privileges.
ADDED: Here's the agenda for the special meeting (PDF). 8:30 a.m. on Friday, June 3. Parks Conference Room 210 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. Room 108 (City-County Building). "Tent city rally with art, music, teach-ins and food. Discuss set-up, schedule and activities."
UPDATE: Tweets from the meeting.
Drudge finally shows interest in the Weiner.
Let's check out the display. Closeup:
The links are:
Is the proximity of the hog an intentional juxtaposition?
The links are:
IT MIGHT BE MY WEINER...A longer view:
'This Could Be The End For Him'... — the quote is something some "political consultant" said.
'I was a little bit stiff yesterday' — this is something Weiner himself actually said, intentionally making a penis joke!
'Have You Ever Taken A Picture Like This Of Yourself?'...
HUMA STAYS QUIET...
Done in by the social network...
Probe could give Weiner more headaches...
Is the proximity of the hog an intentional juxtaposition?
Mitt in.
WaPo reports:
Romney’s announcement was a marked contrast to his presidential rollout four years ago. Then, he delivered a soaring speech before some 800 supporters at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich., that covered an array of issues from jihadism to American ingenuity. Then he flew by private jet to campaign in Iowa, New Hampshire and Florida before staging a major fundraiser in his hometown of Boston.
This time, Romney aimed for a lower-key rollout, with a simple gathering on a rolling hayfield in New Hampshire.... Tickets to the kickoff event say, “A Cookout with Mitt & Ann,” and indeed campaign volunteers were serving his wife Ann Romney’s favorite chili recipe from a line of crockpots.
"In my house growing up, The Times substituted for religion. If The Times said it, it was the absolute truth."
The true believer is Jill Abramson, the new executive editor of the New York Times, replacing Bill Keller (who replaced).
Let's analyze the analogy. A newspaper is like religion, believed in, and taken, unquestioningly, as true. Then what happens when you are in charge of it?
1. You have a deep moral obligation to insure that it is absolutely true, to respect the faith that others put in it and to preserve and grow the community of believers because of your dedication to truth, or...
2. You are embedded in the faith, carrying on the commitment to the idea that it is the truth and impressing that faith that it is the truth on readers, so that they keep looking to you as the mouthpiece of truth and don't go wandering off looking for some other viewpoints.
It could be #1 or #2 or both or neither.
Let's analyze the analogy. A newspaper is like religion, believed in, and taken, unquestioningly, as true. Then what happens when you are in charge of it?
1. You have a deep moral obligation to insure that it is absolutely true, to respect the faith that others put in it and to preserve and grow the community of believers because of your dedication to truth, or...
2. You are embedded in the faith, carrying on the commitment to the idea that it is the truth and impressing that faith that it is the truth on readers, so that they keep looking to you as the mouthpiece of truth and don't go wandering off looking for some other viewpoints.
It could be #1 or #2 or both or neither.
Happy birthday to the 2 people in our family who have birthdays on the same day.
Do you have a co-birthdayist in your immediate circle? What's that like for you?
Of course, everyone has celebrities born on their birthday. For example, born today, were the Marquis de Sade... and Cornel West!
Of course, everyone has celebrities born on their birthday. For example, born today, were the Marquis de Sade... and Cornel West!
"Snigdha Nandipati is up first. Her word is 'meridienne' and she gets it right!"
"She likes collecting coins and reading mystery novels. I love her geeky cheer."
It's time for the National Spelling Bee again, and that means the best place to hang out — other than in front of ESPN — is at Throwing Things, where they are bursting with knowledge... and geeky cheer.
I appreciated the prompt to go set the DVR. I hate when I find out from the news that the spelling bee was on because so-and-so spelled some word. The whole point is to live through the dramatic emotions of young kids who really care about doing something difficult really, really well. I'll watch it on HDTV, pores and all. Are the kids self-conscious about the close inspection they're getting? They never seem like they are, which is cool.
Please don't tell me I should watch one of those movies about the spelling bee. I've seen them and find them tedious, in part because they skip over the tedium that you need to live through to feel the highs.
It's time for the National Spelling Bee again, and that means the best place to hang out — other than in front of ESPN — is at Throwing Things, where they are bursting with knowledge... and geeky cheer.
I appreciated the prompt to go set the DVR. I hate when I find out from the news that the spelling bee was on because so-and-so spelled some word. The whole point is to live through the dramatic emotions of young kids who really care about doing something difficult really, really well. I'll watch it on HDTV, pores and all. Are the kids self-conscious about the close inspection they're getting? They never seem like they are, which is cool.
Please don't tell me I should watch one of those movies about the spelling bee. I've seen them and find them tedious, in part because they skip over the tedium that you need to live through to feel the highs.
"Porexia."
A newly coined word for people who've gone all obsessive about the size of their pores. And speaking of words...
And maybe somebody needs to show these porexic whiners what real skin damage looks like.
High-definition television has arguably upped the ante. Consider the celebrity with glistening teeth and yogic arms, but a jarringly pock-marked nose in close-ups. Viewers think, “If her pores look like that, what do mine look like?” said Dr. Mary Lupo, a clinical professor of dermatology at Tulane University School of Medicine.... somebody needs to tell the New York Times that pock marks are not pores.
And maybe somebody needs to show these porexic whiners what real skin damage looks like.
"I can’t say with certitude" ranks "somewhere below ‘no controlling legal authority’ and above ‘wide stance.'"
Said Chris Lehane, according to the Washington Post, which called him a Democratic "crisis-management specialist." (Cool job title.)
Lehane was comparing Anthony Weiner's statement about whether the notorious panties-pic depicts himself to "the infamous phrase that Vice President Al Gore used in 1997 to describe questionable fundraising activities, and then the one that then-Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-Idaho) used in 2007 to explain how he came to be arrested for lewd conduct after tapping the foot of an undercover officer in a restroom stall in the Minneapolis airport."
Ah, yes! It's a new entry in The Annals of Ineffective Denials.
Lehane was comparing Anthony Weiner's statement about whether the notorious panties-pic depicts himself to "the infamous phrase that Vice President Al Gore used in 1997 to describe questionable fundraising activities, and then the one that then-Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-Idaho) used in 2007 to explain how he came to be arrested for lewd conduct after tapping the foot of an undercover officer in a restroom stall in the Minneapolis airport."
Ah, yes! It's a new entry in The Annals of Ineffective Denials.
June 1, 2011
"The blood drive at the state Capitol was cut short Tuesday because American Red Cross workers decided it was too loud inside the rotunda to continue."
What the hell? We've quit monitoring the protests at the Capitol. What is going on these days? Stopping a blood drive?!
This is why it was the right decision to vote for Paul Soglin for mayor.
He's actually using his brain to make real decisions. Not bullshit gestures to pander to Madisonians... like Mayor Dave.
"Sunday's travel theme here in Rome was death."
"OK, for an anthropologist you have to imagine this is more cheerful than it sounds...."
It is not the distance of time that touches me about these people. I study bones that are tens or hundreds of thousands of years old, distances so vast as to be unimaginable in human terms. Yet the bone persists. The individual is marked in it, and touching her bones creates an immediacy of connection, like traveling through time.
"Rep. Anthony Weiner follows only a select 198 of his nearly 49,000 Twitter fans — and a surprising number of them are total babes."
The NY Post does some investigative journalism.
And includes this video, where Weiner looks so uncomfortable that I'm feeling pretty sorry for him... and then he up and calls CNN's Capitol Hill producer Ted Barrett a "jackass."
The man is stressed. Would it really be so bad to check out who's following you on Twitter and — there's always a little picture — click "follow" if the follower looks cute?
IN THE COMMENTS: johnroberthenry questions the veracity... of the pie scenario:
And includes this video, where Weiner looks so uncomfortable that I'm feeling pretty sorry for him... and then he up and calls CNN's Capitol Hill producer Ted Barrett a "jackass."
The man is stressed. Would it really be so bad to check out who's following you on Twitter and — there's always a little picture — click "follow" if the follower looks cute?
IN THE COMMENTS: johnroberthenry questions the veracity... of the pie scenario:
Weiner talked several times about a guy in the back of an audience of 145,000 people throwing a pie at him.
I would be amazed if he could attract an audience of 145,000 people. Where would he make this speech? I suspect that only a NASCAR track would be big enough.
And then a guy in the back throws a pie at him? I'd like to meet that guy. He must have one HELL of an arm.
"A Curious Case Of Foreign Accent Syndrome."
Hmm.
ADDED: Listen to the audio so you can hear the accent — some British-Scottish-Irish concoction. The woman likes the new accent and says it's made her "more outgoing." Compare it to the case of the Norwegian woman during WWII who acquired a German accent and was ostracized.
ADDED: Listen to the audio so you can hear the accent — some British-Scottish-Irish concoction. The woman likes the new accent and says it's made her "more outgoing." Compare it to the case of the Norwegian woman during WWII who acquired a German accent and was ostracized.
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