It's a Different World
OK, so I'm a single issue voter at times. But when I step back and look at the big picture, I realize that some places are, um, pretty blue.
Take a look at The Capital Times' endorsements for Madison, Wisconsin district races. See if you detect something in these excerpts:
\ District 3:Lauren Cnare....
She's a small business owner and a progressive who has run a campaign that has succeeded in winning the support of advocates for the environment and business....
\ District 8: Austin King....
He led the fight for the Fair Wage Ordinance, one of the most progressive pieces of legislation to pass the council in years. He's been a tenants' rights champion, working hard to pass the city's universal inclusionary zoning ordinance, and to fund the Affordable Housing Trust Fund....
King's challenger, Kami Eshraghi, the owner of downtown Madison's Kimia Lounge, thinks King is too tough on business interests. But even Downtown Madison Inc., which promotes central city development, backs King. The reason is clear: Even those who may disagree with King on a specific issue or two recognize that he is one of the council's most energetic and effective members.
\ District 10: Ken Golden
When he is focused on a task, eight-term incumbent Ken Golden can be the most effective member of the council....
But Golden has not always been so focused in recent years; in particular, he was too slow in putting the finishing touches on the "big box" ordinance that sets design and land use standards for large commercial developments. To his ultimate credit, the measure was approved this week. Golden concedes that family emergencies and illnesses drew more of his attention than usual -- and that has earned him a spirited challenge from Chris Kratochwill, a Green Party activist who has been doing a good job of hitting the doors and raising important issues. Kratochwill is an impressive newcomer, and we're glad he has prodded Golden. But the fact remains that Golden, who takes the same progressive stances that Kratochwill does on most issues, is far better positioned to get things done for the district and the city.
\ District 12: Brian Benford
Ald. Brian Benford is anything but a typical politician. Though he is a committed progressive who has been a leader in fights for Madison's minimum wage ordinance and fair housing initiatives, and a stickler for ethics and fairness in the distribution of city resources who is not afraid to ask tough questions even about popular initiatives, Benford is anything but a doctrinaire ideologue....
Benford's challenger, Michael Welling, takes more conservative stands on the issues and says he would be a more "independent" alderman. But the claim is a tough sell. Few members of the current council have displayed the independence and the integrity of Benford....
\ \ District 13: Isadore Knox Jr.
Both candidates for the open District 13 seat representing Madison's south side are progressives. Both are deeply involved with the concerns of the neighborhoods where they live, and with the district as a whole. Both understand the issues facing Madison. Both would be welcome additions to the council. But only one of them will be elected Tuesday, and we prefer Isadore Knox Jr....
\ District 15: Lori Nitzel
The two candidates seeking the open District 15 seat, attorney Lori Nitzel and Madison school district employee Larry Palm, are both able contenders who would serve well on the council. In a close contest, we prefer Nitzel because of her energy, her enthusiasm and her creativity....
Palm would also work hard for the district. And, like Nitzel, he would be a progressive member of the council. But our sense is that Lori Nitzel can bring to the task a level of commitment and new thinking that will quickly make her a leader on the council.
\ District 20: Gary Poulson
The race for the District 20 seat on the southwest side comes as close as Madison will get this year to a contest between two incumbents: Ald. Cindy Thomas, who currently holds the seat, faces an aggressive challenge from former Ald. Gary Poulson, who represented much of the area from 1997 to 2003.
Both Thomas and Poulson are experienced city hall hands who understand the issues facing the city and care deeply about the neighborhoods they seek to represent. They differ when it comes to the issues.
Thomas remains one of the most conservative members of the current council. She voted against the city's minimum wage and anti-smoking ordinances, a stand that was popular with some business interests but hardly in tune with the values of a city that prides itself on being in the forefront of progressive policy-making.
Poulson would have voted for both ordinances; indeed, when he served on the council, he was a leader on public health issues such as the ordinance that curbs smoking in restaurants. We prefer Poulson's progressive positions to Thomas' more conservative stances....
And here's what TurnLeft has to say, quoting from various sources:
Madison is the home of the progressive movement, led at the turn of the century by Battling Bob La Follette. Today The Progressive magazine, one of the country's most left-leaning publications, is still published here. The University of Wisconsin adds an intellectual environment to the city, giving it one of the highest levels of bookstores per capita. Madison also has some of the most tolerant policies of any American city with regards to homosexual rights. Anyone who has walked in downtown Madison can attest to the city's liberal, friendly feel, in the proud Midwestern liberal tradition.
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Madison also has the lowest unemployment rate and the third lowest crime rate in the nation, as well as an AAA bond rating. Madison was also rated as "the number one city in America to live and raise a family" by Money magazine. All of these accomplishments were made under a liberal democratic city government. Madison should be seen as a model city and as proof that liberalism works.
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Everything said about Madison is true. It is a wonderfully liberal and socially aware place--to the extent that conservatives get very annoyed especially Wisconsin Gov. Tommy G. "Herman Goering" Thompson We have a an openly gay state represntative and probably one of the most progressive and innovative mayors in the country: Paul Soglin. Unfortunately, he's retiring. Nobody will ever fill his shoes, but, we do have two competent leftist candidates running. If any Madisonians read this: vote for Bauman!
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Madison is the annual Cannabis Harvest Festival, Gay Rights marches, leftist lectures, honors to visitors like Noam Comsky and Ralph Nader and a population that is very protective of their ducks. I love Madison.
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Madison now has its first woman mayor. Not only that, but Dane County (the county that Madison is in) has its first woman county executive, Kathleen Falk. Falk's former position was the state Public Intervenor. Her job was to stop businesses from engaging in environmentally damaging behaviors.
A couple years ago, Gov. Thompson gutted the public intervenor's office. Soon afterward, Exxon was permitted to begin preparations on a dangerous mine in northern Wisconsin. This mine is at the head of the Wolf River, which empties into the Wisconsin River (Wisconsin's largest), which empties into the Mississippi. Coincidence??? Thankfully, the State Legislature has temporarily stopped the project from proceding and is currently debating a statewide mining moratorium.
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yes Madison is a great city. I used to live there, and now live in Orlando. Madison is not great because of liberal democrat politicians. Madison is great because it is largely filled by decent,hardworking people who show up for work everyday and basically have conservative values. If you want to talk about any govt policies improving things in Madison, how about gov. thompson's welfare reform, mmmm? Now that's improvement.
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Madison is chock full of WHITE, college-educated affluent people who openly claim that when a murder occurs on the streets of the southside, it must be due to drugs and gangs. Yes inded, very liberal. The pampered white college students have no problem riding bicycles naked down State Street for a cause, but they only go to Allied Drive to buy their drugs. It's a place where hoards of baby-boomers worry about the long-term effects of marijuana usage and thank god everyday that their next door neighborh now has three kids and works for the Primate Reasearch Center and doesn't have AIDS because they used to have orgies together with their friends in the commune they started in 1972. Only in Madison could you have loonies like Ron Greer handing out flyers on the steps of the city hall outing his allegly lesbian boss, yeah, very open to whom????? In my opinion, Madison is quintessentially liberal
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Recently, after a local church put up billboards bashing gays, the Madison government passed a resolution (unanimously) stating Madison was a City of Tolerance which welcomes all people, including gays. Hundreds of locals also counteracted the hateful billboard by putting out yards signs welcoming gay people. I am proud to live here.
Some more on Ron Greer, written in October 2002:
Back in 1996 a BI-vocational pastor who worked full time as a fireman in Madison, Wisconsin was fired for standing his moral ground. Ron Greer publicly complained when an openly lesbian fire chief was appointed even though she did not have the experience for the job. She was picked by the ultra-liberal city of Madison simply because she was a lesbian. Pastor Ron Greer, who is black, publicly stated that there were many white men who were passed over for the job because they weren't open homosexuals.
A lesbian state legislator, Tammy Baldwin, wrote a letter to the newspapers calling Ron Greer's comments a "hate crime" and demanding that he be fired. The homosexuals of Madison were not happy with just getting him fired. He received death threats, and a service he preached at Trinity Evangelical Church was invaded by 400 homosexuals who shouted and swore, claiming that Saint Peter was a homosexual. The homosexual group urinated on the floor in public and threw rocks at the windows. The police took no action.
That same year Tammy Baldwin won a seat in the United States Congress by busing in homosexuals from the entire region into already liberal Madison to vote for her. Wisconsin has this strange law which allows people to come to the poll on election day and say, "I just moved here," and they get to vote. This allows massive fraud. Despite the bus loads of homosexuals, she received just 51% of the vote. Since then she has never received more than 53% to be reelected and last year received only 51% again.
This time lesbian Tammy Baldwin can lose in November!
Ron Greer, the fireman against whom she led the charge to get him fired back in 1996, is her opponent this year. Ron Greer won the Republican primary by a wide margin, despite being outspent by more than two to one and having the Republican establishment against him. Republicans in Wisconsin don't believe a conservative can win against a lesbian. Ron Greer is a different kind of conservative.
Ron is an evangelical preacher. He was converted to Christ in a military prison when he was nineteen years old, through the preaching of a visiting former athlete who runs a prison ministry. He was a good Marine until the "angry black male" in him punched an officer. He was sentenced to eighteen months' hard labor. In his cell he committed himself to Jesus and to serving others. Out of prison, Ron Greer returned to school, first studying engineering and then going to Bible college. He became an associate pastor of a church and then moved to Madison. There he received award after award for his community service.
For many years Ron Greer worked with Prison Fellowship Ministries. This past March he stepped down from his position with that ministry to open a faith-based transition home for ex-offenders. His basis for everything he does is Biblical and conservative in nature. All of his work has been to help people help themselves rather than to make them captives of welfare systems operated by the state.
In the Republican primary this year Ron Greer activated the conservative base in the Republican Party of Wisconsin as it had never been before. His victory was overwhelming with more than sixty percent of the vote.
The 2nd congressional district has the city of Madison at its heart. While the surrounding counties are conservative, Madison is considered by many as the "Berkeley of the Midwest." Madison is the heart of the homosexual movement in the Midwest and it is the headquarters of the "Freedom From Religion Foundation" a rabid atheist group.
I have had the privilege to meet with Ron Greer and I can honestly say that his conservative views are deep in his heart. He understands that the answer is not in government, but in God. This is the kind of man I look forward to working with in Washington, DC and it is the reason I support Ron Greer in his election against Tammy Baldwin in November. In my capacity as chairman of Government Is Not God -PAC I arranged meetings for Ron in Washington, DC and my PAC has given his campaign financial assistance.
Well, he didn't do so well. Even his archived web site (no longer online) indicates the magnitude of defeat:
Ron Greer 34%
Tammy Baldwin 66%
So, what does a progressive Congresswoman work on? Casinos, of course:
I have traditionally supported local projects after they have earned a strong community consensus. I feel the Beloit Casino has met that threshold and am proud to advocate for the project with federal officials.
And now Dennis Hastert's involved:
The state line may double as a battle line, with City of Rockford and other Illinois politicians mounting an effort to thwart Beloit's plans to open a tribal gaming facility and resort.
During a visit to the Illinois capital in Springfield Wednesday, Rockford Mayor Doug Scott petitioned Gov. Rod Blagojevich to intercede on Rockford's behalf, saying the casino complex proposed by the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians and the St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin would threaten Rockford's economic well-being.
Blagojevich agreed to ask U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Yorkville, to work with the federal government to halt the process.
James Caruso, director of community development for the City of Rockford...admitted there are other interests at stake, saying a Beloit casino would interfere with Rockford's push for riverboat gambling.
"There's no question it's going to attract individuals to spend money," he said. "It's well within reason that those dollars would not be spent in our community. There's no question that that's a concern."
Caruso said he does not believe two casinos could coexist.
"I think that having two of them in such close proximity would reduce the revenues that would accrue to one or another," he said.
Beloit City Manager Larry Arft had strong words for Rockford officials after hearing of Wednesday's plea to Blagojevich.
"We are very disappointed," Arft said. "Any effort to interfere would be at the very least improper and maybe illegal. To attempt to use political interference to sabotage this project is absolutely outrageous and will not be tolerated."...
Though Rockford's opposition is veiled in objections to the tribes moving off reservation, Arft said the real issue is that Rockford wants to protect its riverboat plans - plans he said are probably little more than "fantasy."
So, I ask my blue readers which is more progressive - a riverboat casino, or Indian gaming?
Now that I've completely veered away from the topic of traffic calming, I will veer still further.
Agriculture is Wisconsin's largest industry at an estimated $51.5 billion. Within it, dairying is the largest segment. In fact, the dairy industry's impact represents $20.6 billion in Wisconsin's economy – larger than both manufacturing and tourism. Like any industry, new strategies and innovations are keeping this economic engine growing and progressive in Wisconsin.
Progressive dairies? Cows that hate Israel? Now that's what I call a red heifer.
Comments
"Although often portrayed as progressive, former Vermont governor and Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean falls short on several issues important to progressives, with the Middle East being one of the more glaring....
"In a major foreign policy speech earlier this year, Dean, while calling for an end to Palestinian violence, did not call for an end to Israeli violence, let alone an end to the illegal Israeli occupation.
"And when asked whether his views are closer to the dovish Americans for Peace Now (APN) or the right-wing, Sharon-supporting American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), he stated unequivocally in an interview with the Jewish weekly The Forward, 'My view is closer to AIPAC's view.'
"'At one time the Peace Now view was important, but now Israel is under enormous pressure. We have to stop terrorism before peace negotiations,' he said.
"Similarly, Dean's official campaign position on solving the Palestinian-Israeli problem is that 'terrorism against Israel must end,' but there is no mention of the Israeli violence that has resulted in over 2,391 deaths since September 2000.
"Last December, Dean told the Jerusalem Post that he unequivocally supported $8 billion in U.S. loan guarantees for Israel. 'I believe that by providing Israel with the loan guarantees ... the US will be advancing its own interest,' he said. His unconditional support for the loan package, in addition to $4 billion in outright grants, went further than even some of the most pro-Israel elements in the Bush administration, like Paul Wolfowitz, who wanted to at least include some vague restrictions like pushing Israel to curtail new settlements and accept a timetable to establish a Palestinian state.
"On the illegal Israeli settlements, Dean seems to be waffling of late. A pro-Dean blog quotes his campaign as calling for the ultimate removal of only 'a number of existing settlements.' (The link back to the official site was no longer operational as of this writing.) However, in what may signal a softening of his position to woo progressive voters in the just passed MoveOn.org PAC Democratic 'primary' vote, Dean called last month for 'ultimately dismantling the settlements.' So which one is it?..."