Friday, October 26, 2007

Gov Doyle signs the budget

After a long wait, Wisconsin finally has a budget! Governor Jim Doyle signed it this morning in a packed Main Lounge of the UW-Madison Memorial Union. Many UW-Madison College Democrats and college students from across the state were present and standing behind the Governor, in addition to legislators, firefighters, police officers, union members, etc.

I was there. My good fortune had me standing in the front row, next to UW System President Kevin Reilly, Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch, and quite near Senator Judy Robson.

My favorite line from the entire morning: as Mr. Reilly prepared to introduce the Governor, he said that he would use the same introduction that the Speaker of the House uses to introduce the President. Except in this case, he "would actually mean it."

I don't really have that much to say about this budget except.... it exists. Keep an eye on the papers and news stations tonight and tomorrow for more and also some visuals. Apparently I was on CNN, standing right behind the Governor as he signed the budget.

Labels: budget, UW

posted by Suchita Shah at 6:33 PM 1 comments Post to DemWire

Thursday, October 25, 2007

The State Budget

By tomorrow morning, Wisconsin will have a budget. After over 100 days of being overdue, Democrats and Republicans finally settled on a compromise budget, voted on it, passed it, and sent it off to Governor Doyle for signing.

Neither side is particularly happy with the budget. Democrats got expansion for health care, but not the universal health care plan they had hoped for. Republicans got an overall decrease in spending percentage-wise, but not as much as they had hoped. Everybody wins, but everybody feels like they lost at the same time.

That's the nature of compromise - no body gets exactly what they want, but everyone agrees to it. In this era of partisan politics, we often forget that the very reason democratic government exists is to allow lawmakers with opposing viewpoints to come together and create law that everyone can live with, if not agree on. As we can clearly see from this recent battle for the budget, when no one is willing to compromise, the government, and society, comes to a screeching halt.

Government agencies were shutting down, unsure of how much money they had on hand to spend. Public schools were |---this close---| to starting to consider cutting programs due to lack of funding. People were growing restless, and the Legislature became the laughingstock of not only the state, but I'm pretty sure that much of the nation was shaking their head. This is not representative government. This is schoolyard bickering.

I'm glad the budget passed. I'm also glad nobody is completely satisfied with the results. Perhaps it will send a lesson to our state representatives that they need to come to the table and negotiate before trying to pass budgets. But, since I read news that legislators will be trying to amend the budget with legislation soon, maybe I'm just naive.

Democrats and Republicans are both at fault here. Neither side is willing to listen, and both are so wrapped up in their own agendas that sometimes they fail to understand that by negotiating, compromising, and making deals, legislators are actually doing the job that we elected them for - establishing laws to help guide the people of Wisconsin, and to provide for their needs.

On a related note, I look forward to seeing many people at the Union tomorrow morning to watch Governor Doyle sign the new budget. May we all quickly celebrate, and get on with our lives past this utterly ridiculous ordeal.

Labels: budget, debate

posted by Paul Axel at 8:34 PM 0 comments Post to DemWire

A Sad Day

I would just like to point out to everyone that 5 years ago on this day a great politician died. A man who idealized what American Politics should be about. Paul Wellstone never lost sight of the concerns and morals of the people he represented. I am proud to say that Paul Wellstone was once my senator. As we get wrapped up in the hubbub of the up coming election, please take a moment today to remember a great leader of this country.

posted by Anna Smith at 3:12 PM 0 comments Post to DemWire

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Take 2?

So SCHIP is dead, thanks to President Bush's veto. However, there is hope for the millions of uninsured and underinsured children. As Reuters covers, there is a new bipartisan initiative that will achieve almost the same effects as an SCHIP expansion would have. There will be a vote Thursday in the House on the bill.

The big change is one that accounts for concerns that illegal aliens would have benefited from the healthcare. "The new version requires more rigorous background checks."

President Bush is once again saying the price tag is too much, and this bill could be the next that gets his veto. As Rep. Obey pointed out, we can't let "ideology become political theology," as is happening in this case where the main argument that President Bush has is that the bill will raise taxes.

"During nearly seven years in office, he has voiced opposition to all tax increases." Mr. President, do you expect us to fight a war without raising taxes and still providing the necessary domestic services? I don't think you get it -- the money has to come from somewhere, and even if you keep digging that hole the rest of the world calls a deficit, I guarantee you won't stumble upon a golden treasure chest. Or find water.

Labels: Bush, healthcare

posted by Suchita Shah at 9:38 PM 0 comments Post to DemWire

Tonight's meeting

Congratulations, fellow College Democrats of Madison! At tonight's meeting, the new CDM Constitution was unanimously ratified. Thanks to everyone who came out and offered their input.

This evening's meeting featured Wayne Bigelow and Russell Wallace, the two candidates for Chair of the Democratic Party of Dane County. Mr. Bigelow, the current Chair, is running for re-election, and Mr. Wallace, current Vice Chair of Nominations, is challenging him. Both candidates gave a brief stump speech of sorts and took questions from the audience. At the beginning of the Nov. 12th CDM meeting (the state legislator forum), there will be an endorsement in this race. Nov. 14th is when the DPDC will be electing their new board, so be sure to be at the Madison Concourse Hotel that night! As always, to vote in these elections, you must be a member of DPW.

More commentary later on the merits of the two candidates. However, I will say that several past Chairs of CDM, the current Chair of CDM, and many other individuals have endorsed Mr. Bigelow in this race.

Labels: meeting

posted by Suchita Shah at 9:07 PM 0 comments Post to DemWire

What's in a name?

As seen on "The Caucus" (NY Times political blog):

While campaigning in South Carolina yesterday, Mitt Romney attempted to speak about terrorism and how we must fight them there so we don't have to fight them here. Here's what he ended up saying:

“Actually, just look at what Osam — uh — Barack Obama, said just yesterday. Barack Obama calling on radicals, jihadists of all different types, to come together in Iraq. That is the battlefield. That is the central place, he said. Come join us under one banner."

It's a simple slip-up, one that many have done in the past. However, in Romney's case, it wasn't just a last name. He used the full first and last name...twice. You'd think after he finished his thoughts, he might have realized what he just said and try to correct himself.

I enjoyed Bill Burton's (of the Obama campaign) response:
"Apparently Mitt Romney can switch names just as casually as he switches positions."

Screwing up someone's name, especially when that someone is a US Senator and viable candidate for President of these United States, is unacceptable. And juvenile. It conveys a message that Romney doesn't respect Sen. Obama enough to even get his name right. Yes, yes, it's a mistake, he's tired... but Presidents do get tired and there is no way any world leader would tolerate this kind of mistake if a President slipped up this badly. I can picture it now:
Pinochet --> Pinocchio
Bhutto --> Buddha
Mandela --> Mandolin
King Hussein of Jordan --> Saddam Hussein
Ehud Olmert --> Stephen Colbert
Romano Prodi --> Prada
Hu Jintao --> Hu's on First

Anyways, it's a funny story. Laugh a little. Feel free to take a jab at my game, Romney style.

Labels: 2008

posted by Suchita Shah at 8:16 AM 8 comments Post to DemWire

Monday, October 22, 2007

Question & Answer

And here's where it all kinda went downhill in a hurry.

It really didn't start with the audience, it started with both. Mr. Horowitz got nasty with some of his comments about Democrats, the "leftists," and actually every Democratic Senator who voted for the war. It's kind of become a time for people in the audience to get up and give speeches about stuff they are obviously uniformed about and for Mr. Horowitz to blow them off.

It's funny, when it comes time for him to share the microphone and engage in dialogue he really gets hostile.

I guess it's a good conversation as long as he's the only one who's talking.

Some of my favorite quotes:

"The stupidity here is mind-boggling."

"Do you really think the Bush Administration is listening to American feminists? I mean, come on..."

"This is just another example of a person who can't see that two plus two equals four."

"The answers are tailored exactly to the answers."

"A professor should not be preaching, they should teach."

"You can't read." -to Sofi Khaleel

"I think Iran has to be dealt with. I'm not the President or one of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to say what should be done about them."

"We have lost immense freedoms in this country because of Islamic radicals"

"This is mind-numbing stupidity."

"As a leftist, your principle is that everything that has gone wrong in the world America did."

The MSA is inviting Mr. Horowitz to their panel discussion on Contemporary Muslims in America tomorrow evening.

Question of the night goes to Ammar Ali for calling our Mr. Horowitz on questioning where the MSA gets their funding, impling that they receive their funding from Hezbollah, the Saudis, and the Muslim Brotherhood. "If we got our funding from the Saudis I'd be up on the stage with you. I'd have some major bling going on here. We get our funding from the university and local people."

More thoughts and a recap later, but for now I have to study for astronomy.

posted by Oliver Kiefer at 8:46 PM 2 comments Post to DemWire

8:21

He drew a short round of applause from the twelve Republicans in the room when he said that the campus anti-war networks will not succeed in their goal to end the war.

He says he's finishing up now, and that he wants to end with a few comments on the Iraq war.

He's talking about how how he thinks that people on the left before the war wanted to prevent the overthrow Sadaam Hussein. I don't think that's really a far characterization of what I was opposed to before we went to war in 2003. I walked on Bascom Hill as a sophomore in high school with 250 of my classmates at West High School. We joined UW-Students and people from all over Madison in a protest against the spending of billions of dollars on a war that had nothing to do with the terrorists who attacked our country on September 11th. There are so many other ways we could have spent the $500+ billion that we have spent in Iraq today, but all of that cost pales in comparison to the cost of lives that have been lost, both those of Americans and our allies and those of Iraqis.

"We need to win the War in Iraq in order to avoid a World War that will be much more costly."

The end. Time for question and answer.

posted by Oliver Kiefer at 8:20 PM 0 comments Post to DemWire

8:12

He's still talking about Israel and Palestinian refugees. I can't figure out exactly what his point is here. Either he has nothing more to say about "Islamo-Facism Awareness Week" and the threat to America, or he is just trying to rile up the ISO and CAN. I think that the latter is quite probable, we'll see if the crowd is able to stay cool.

Shameless plus as he drones on about stuff unrelated to the week. This week's Democrat of the Week is Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, the first Muslim to ever serve in the United States Congress. I hope you take a couple minutes to read it, he has an amazing story.

So the whole time he's been up there he's been giving us these little nuggets of wisdom on things ranging from respecting freedom of speech to how a campus anti-war network was in bed with the terrorists. It's incredibally condesending, and more so because the audience has been so good and respectful towards him.

posted by Oliver Kiefer at 8:12 PM 0 comments Post to DemWire

8:04 - So far, the only real problems from the audience have been some coughs, scoughs, and laughs from the CAN/ISO people sitting behind me. Don't get me wrong, I love their passion but they are playing right into Mr. Horowitz's gameplan when they try to cut him off. It hasn't been bad yet, but I'm a little worried it might get their if he says something really contraversial.

He's now explaining the history of the name of Palestine, it seems a little off topic for this debate. I mean, I love me some history but let's get on to current events, I think we can move on from the Romans and the Philistines.

8:08 - What interesting is that he still says that all of the liberals in the crowd are attacking the event. He says that "we" are the ones who aren't complaining about the political situation in Jordan... Mr. Horowitz, we're here, we're listening, we're not attacking you. Part of me thinks he only prepared about a ten minute lecture because he thought we weren't going to behave.

Come on team, we're doing well. Let's hold it together here. Be respectful, give the man his freedom of speech, and let's get to the question and answer period.

posted by Oliver Kiefer at 8:04 PM 1 comments Post to DemWire

Kevin Barrett...

Making what is hopfully his last stand at UW-Madison, Kevin Barrett apparently thought he was cool enough to stand up and ask Mr. Horowitz a question mid-sentence. On the plus side, he had been speaking for 20 minutes before the first serious disruption arose.

Props to the crowd of evil liberals here who booed Mr. Barrett out of the Theatre. SO to the freshman who almost got arrested for throwing a wab of paper at him. Careful dude, you don't want to get tasered.

He just slammed Jimmy Carter's politics... now I'm sad.

posted by Oliver Kiefer at 8:00 PM 0 comments Post to DemWire

Live Blogging David Horowitz

We're in the Theatre at the Memorial Union right now, it's five past seven and there's already a really good-sized crowd. The protest went really well. There was a fantastic turnout from College Dems, the ISO, CAN, the BSU, and the MCSC. As we were chanting outside the entrence to the Union Theatre by the lake we could see that the protestors certainly outnumbered the folks in support of Mr. Horowitz.

Perhaps a little background is in order. David Horowitz is a "radical" conservative writer who is sponsoring a nationwide campaign called "Islamo-facism Week." He has speakers all over the country giving talks about the dangers of racidal Islam and Muslim abuses of women and homosexuals. What makes this all a little ironic is that one of the speakers he has helping him with I-FW is conservative author Ann Coulter, who has insinuated publicly that both Sen. John Edwards and Vice President Al Gore are "fags." On the women's rights front, she has stated that women are too irrational to have the right to vote...

OK, 7:23. Getting down to gametime here. The bottom level of the theatre is starting to fill up now, but the crowd doesn't seem as rowdy as it could be. My one big hope for tonight is that the audience remains respectful of his freedom of speech.

There are things that are more dangerous in this country than David Horowitz, like not having freedom of speech.

posted by Oliver Kiefer at 7:03 PM 5 comments Post to DemWire

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