Political Heat

I write a column for a local blog called Dane101 , which focuses on issues pertaining to Dane County, Wisconsin. I will be posting my columns periodically on this blog as well, but do check out their site too. It's chock-full of goodies for Dane County residents. Without further adieu, my column on the State's Superintendent race ... The choice should be a no-brainer: you should vote Tony Evers for Wisconsin Superintendent of Public Instruction on April 7. With over 34 years of experience serving the students of Wisconsin, Evers definitely has the experience to lead in our state and our schools. There is, however, a surmountable challenge facing Evers this April in the form of Rose Fernandez, an advocate of many conservative initiatives regarding education in Wisconsin. Fernandez, a former pediatric trauma nurse with no relevant teaching experience, is a strong supporter of school vouchers as well as the recently controversial virtual school in Wisconsin. She also supports keep...

So a new poll by CNN shows that, in 2012, social conservatism will be the driving force behind who will be the Republican nominee for president. Twenty-nine percent of Republicans questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Friday say they are most likely to support Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for the next GOP presidential nomination. Right behind the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, and well within the poll's margin of error, is former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. Twenty-six percent of those questioned say they are most likely backing Huckabee, the surprise winner of the 2008 Iowa GOP caucuses. Sarah Palin is likely to get the guns rights crowd as well as the "security moms" who voted for George W. Bush in 2004 amid fears of another terrorist attack. Huckabee, a former minister, will likely get the die-hard religious vote. Are they a threat to Obama? Palin is very popular with the Republican base, and Huckabee certainly shook things up for the Repu...

Over 800 thousand abortions were prevented through public funding of family planning services in 2006. I'll say that again because it bears repeating: over 800 thousand abortions were prevented through public funding of family planning services in 2006. In addition to that, over 2 million unwanted pregnancies were also prevented. And, for every dollar spent on family planning services towards preventing pregnancies, $4 were saved in costs in taxpayers' dollars towards providing mothers and their children with Medicaid. All this according to a recent study by the Guttmacher institute , which is a "reproductive-health think tank whose research is generally respected even by experts and activists who don't share its advocacy of abortion rights" (Associated Press). It is disheartening, then, to see conservative lawmakers and pundits argue against publicly funding family planning clinics. These places do so much more than provide women with abortions -- they provide wo...

Visiting some friends in Milwaukee this weekend, my fiancée and I decided to take the opportunity to go to one of our favorite breakfast hangouts, the Comet Cafe. While there, and while waiting for a table to open up in the very crowded restaurant, I noticed a petition calling for the removal of the Wisconsin Constitutional Amendment that passed in 2006 that officially banned any form of domestic partnerships – marriage or otherwise – for gay couples. I immediately signed the petition. I am an ardent supporter of marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples. There is no justifiable excuse for refusing these couples from marrying one another if they want to do so. The religious argument – that homosexuality is a sin and that marriage is between one man and one woman – doesn’t hold any weight, especially when you consider the fact that religion plays no factor in marriage rights in America (atheists are allowed to wed as well as other non-Judeo-Christian religions). The ban in Wisconsin, ...

Paul Begala suggests that Republicans who didn't vote for the stimulus bill that recently passed should refuse its funds. I wouldn't go that far, but I do take issue with representatives who voted against the bill now taking credit for provisions of the bill that benefit their constituents. People like Sen. Kit Bond of Missouri, who fought to get a provision added into the bill but in the end voted against it as a whole. A great way to win no matter what the outcome, if you ask me...but not exactly admirable. You can't have it both ways; you can't oppose something then honestly believe and say you were responsible for the good things that come from it. It will be interesting to see how Republicans will react should the stimulus bring us out of economic turmoil. Will they celebrate it, or stick to their principles and continue to insist that Reaganomics is the only way to go? Either way, you can bet on them not giving credit to those who actually voted for it in the fir...

Bristol Palin, the famed daughter of former vice presidential nominee and current Republican Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin, recently had an interview with Fox News' Greta van Susteren, in which she gave a candid opinion on her views of abstinence. The teen mother said she felt that telling other teens to be abstinent was just "not realistic at all," meaning that teens would have sex regardless of what their parents preached. This is precisely why I am supportive of sexual health classes including other birth control methods in their teachings. Abstinence-only education does not work, as study after study confirms. Teens are still going to have sex, and as we see all too often, it is likely to be unprotected sex. The best method of teaching teens about sex lies in telling them the truth: abstinence IS the best way of protecting oneself from becoming pregnant or from catching a sexually transmitted disease; but if they're ever in the situation where they may find thems...

The stimulus package backed by the Obama adminstration has passed both houses of Congress. Originally at just over $800 billion, the package has been cut to $787 billion. A lot of talk has come up about the importance of bipartisanship in the weeks leading up to the bill's passage. Obama stuck his neck out, trying hard to appease to conservatives in hopes of getting their votes. Despite working with both sides, not a single Republican in the House and only three moderates in the Senate voted for it, along with the Democrats. Is bipartisanship over-rated? I for one hold out hope that it isn't. Despite my liberal tendencies, I feel that there exists an opportunity in every bill proposed for bipartisanship and cooperation so that a law can be passed that most, if not all, can be happy with. Whether the Republicans want to cooperate with Obama or not, that's up to them. It may behoove them to do so, for they'll get a lot more work done -- and look better in the eyes of the...

I wrote this late last night, while Congressional leaders were busy hammering out a deal between the House and Senate version of the stimulus package. Today, it has been announced that a deal has been made , with President Obama stating that he hopes to sign it by Monday. I think it's still relevant to say what I had written last night. The sentiments I had laid out still remain -- I still feel for those affected by the recent recession, still hope that this bill will help people like Mrs. Hughes, and still resent being labeled a socialist simply because I support programs and services that help people. Henrietta Hughes is not a misnomer. An unemployed secretary and recently homeless, she and her family represent those Americans who have been hit hardest by this recession. It’s difficult to keep your eyes dry when, at a town hall meeting held by President Obama in Florida this week, she pleads with him to somehow, someway help her. I bring this up because it’s hard to imagine how a...

Recently, I wrote a letter to the editor for the Wisconsin State Journal regarding another reader's complaint. They wrote that it was hypocritical for liberals to criticize conservatives for dissenting with the president -- after all, it was once considered “patriotic” by those on the left to disagree with him. But suddenly, according to this reader, it was no longer patriotic to show dissent. Here is my response : Dissent fine, but be prepared to defend it I've heard a lot of complaints from conservatives about liberals only welcoming dissent when it's a Republican president running things. From conservative media to recent readers' comments, you'd think that liberals have taken a complete about-face on the whole subject of dissent being patriotic since President Barack Obama came into office. That is hardly the case. Obama's reaching out to conservative lawmakers for their opinions and concerns shows quite the opposite. In criticizing conservative dissent, li...

Barney Frank makes an interesting point : The largest spending bill in history is going to turn out to be the one in Iraq. If we're going to talk about spending, I have a problem when we leave out that extraordinary expensive, damaging war in Iraq, which has caused much more harm than good in my judgment. I don't understand from my conservative friends, building a road, building a school, helping to get health care, that's wasteful spending. But that war in Iraq, that's going to cost us over a trillion dollars, yeah, I wish we hadn't done that we would have been in a lot better shape fiscally. I know that people are concerned when it comes to things like national security, and that can sometimes cause us to act in a rash manner. However, the war in Iraq -- which has been proven to be a mistake -- was a war of choice, orchestrated by conservatives who derided liberals as soft on security simply because they wanted to take a moment to think about things before droppin...