Or, at the very least, mind your manners, because Madison-style intimidation and confrontation is wearing thinner than Barack Obama in a Speedo.
The entire Siege of The Capitol has been anti-intellectual. Banging plastic buckets, blowing vuvuzelas, threatening business reprisals, stalking elected officials, and shouting down those with whom you disagree is not a governing philosophy.
Nor is fleeing Wisconsin rather than addressing the Doyle-Miller-Pocan $3.6 billion state budget hole. (The joke is that new state senator Jessica King of Oshkosh will be sworn in Monday at the Clock Tower Inn, Rockford, Ill.)
That is not what democracy looks like. If the Republican victories in Tuesday's recall elections were not enough of a sign that our Democrat(ic) adversaries had best adopt a new songbook, here comes the normally cautious Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Referring to the unionistas' disruption the opening of the Wisconsin State Fair "at what is normally a family-friendly event," the J-S today writes:
Trying to drown out the governor's speeches is rude and unproductive. ... Most of those in the crowd at Walker's State Fair appearance wanted to hear what he had to say. The demonstrators refused to allow that with their shouts and noisemakers. ... It strikes us as a counter-productive tactic, doing far more to annoy than persuade.
It is a shame that The Capital Times can't bring itself to instruct its liberal readers. Or that Peter Barca and Mark Miller won't use their bully pulpit to demand a small measure of civility -- if for tactical reasons only. The clenched-fist, bully-boy image is a huge turn-off for most folks.
That is what Democrats have chosen to look like. But Republicans have replaced the clenched fist with the can-do thumbs up!
I'm nutty for Mayor Nutter of Philadelphia
Some of us care deeply about getting black teenagers onto the path of success. Into this category I put Bill Cosby, Kaleem Caire, Police Chief Noble Wray, your faithful Squire, James Monroe, Richard Harris of Vision Beyond Bars, and now Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter.
In the wake of an epidemic of random muggings in Madison, wilding at Milwaukee Riverfest and the State Fair, and the London riots, Mayor Nutter has something to say:
- "Take those God darn hoodies down, especially in the summer. Pull your pants up and buy a belt 'cause no one wants to see your underwear or the crack of your butt. Nobody."
- "If you walk into somebody's office with your hair uncombed and a pick in the back, and your shoes untied, and your pants half down, tattoos up and down your arms and on your neck, and you wonder why somebody won't hire you? They don't hire you 'cause you look like you're crazy!"
- "Parents who neglect their children, who don't know where they are, who don't know what they're doing, who don't know who they're hanging out with, you're going to find yourself spending some quality time with your kids in jail."
...and Derrell Connor of Madison
Add WIBA radio host Derrell Connor, on whose program the Squire has spoken, to that list of Madison leaders. He writes, for Channel3000:
Please spare me the speeches about poverty ... The breakdown of the family is destroying the black community. We have allowed too many of our youth to run the streets unsupervised, with no discipline, no direction and no hope. ... Too many of our so-called black leaders have failed to address this issue, instead choosing to run to every television camera they can get in front of, repeating the same old talking points about institutionalized racism.
Can we get Paul Soglin to stand up at the head of a group of community leaders and say the same? Dave Cieslewicz had a chance to do so and whiffed.
Corporations are people
So sayeth Mitt Romney and, of course, he is correct.
Corporations are made up of people (think Steve Jobs at Apple or Warren Buffet at Berkshire Hathaway and their many thousands of shareholders, managers, and workers). Corporations are also "persons" to the extent that a corporation can be sued and that Apple and Berkshire Hathaway will survive their leaders' eventual demise. So, of course they have speech -- just as does the Democrat(ic) party and the Sierra Club. The Atlantic notes:
Democrats have been known to overestimate the populism and anti-corporate sentiment of the American people, who -- even when they poll as fed up and angry -- routinely turn to wealthy businessmen as the alternative to the bums they want to toss from office. Think of "the people versus the powerful," or -- more recently -- the recall election results in Wisconsin.
The Atlantic's headline calls Romney's rejoinder to a heckler a "gaffe" but the article explains why it isn't and why Romney, increasingly, is being seen as the adult in the room. Plus, in Thursday's Iowa debate, he was nimble on his feet and carries a certain gravitas.
The Blaska Policy Research Factory finds a Mitt Romney/Herman Cain ticket quite electable, right now. Two business people, two governors (Cain of a Federal Reserve District), two hues, the first a button-down eastern establishment type, the other a tea partier.
We could do worse and, at present, are.
Democrats run/ruin Illinois
The Chicago Tribune asks: Which state has the worst balance of assets and liabilities? Why, it's Illinois, "the deadest deadbeat," where the Doyle/Miller/Pocan party still prevails.
Why ... does Illinois incessantly find itself competing with California over who gets rated closest to Greece? Because Illinois' leaders have failed and continue to fail. ... [Yet] the governor and state Senate Democrats again tell us what they want: more spending and more borrowing to fatten the current fiscal year's state budget.
Once again, Wisconsin under Walker and the Fitzgeralds looks mighty good.
A slam dunk
As I wrote Wednesday, Governor Walker will not be recalled. Joint Finance Committee co-chairman Robin Vos will recall the recalls. He'll get an extra vote from senator-to-be-elected Kim Simac.
Liar, liar, pants on fire
The Democratic party and John Nichols on the Mr. Ed Show alleged or inferred on recall election night that Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus was rigging the vote. Politifact gives that a "pants on fire" rating.
Today's chuckle
Since the Democrats recaptured Congress in 2006, the national ceiling has been increased six times -- from $9 trillion to $14.3 trillion. So what's the problem this time? Maybe that is the problem. Here's another way to look at the debt ceiling (Thanks Chollie):
Let's say you come home from work and find there has been a sewer backup in your home, and you have sewage up to the ceiling.
What do you think you should do: raise the ceiling or pump out the crap?
