Political Heat

Former Vermont Governor and 2004 presidential candidate Howard Dean recently spoke out about the need for President Barack Obama to reclaim his progressive base. "You can't turn your back on [those who helped elect you] because if you do, it's going to be hard to find any friends," the former head of the Democratic Party told the AP . Dean's right -- turning on the base is sure to keep Obama in trouble. Almost half of all Democratic-leaning voters would support a challenger to Obama in the 2012 Democratic primaries. If that happens Obama may seem weak, making it more difficult for him to win a re-election campaign.

Two tales of religious intolerance in a single community end with two different outcomes, one of them a sigh of relief, the other a tragedy. On Friday evening, Mohamed Osman Mohamud, a Somali-born teen, attempted to set off explosives at a Portland, Oregon, Christmas tree lighting . The plot failed when Mohamud attempted to detonate the explosives from his cell phone twice, not realizing that the explosives provided to him were part of a sting orchestrated by the FBI. Many lives could have been lost had Mohamud actually carried the act out with legitimate explosive devices. His capture is something everyone can be happy about. Unfortunately, the event brought about violent backlash towards the peaceful Muslim community in Portland.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Despite these hard times, we have much to be thankful for. Enjoy your turkey (or any other meal you might have today)!

On the day after her new book release, as well as the day after her daughter got third place on Dancing With The Stars, it seems appropriate to discuss just why it is that former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is so gosh-darn intriguing to millions of Americans. Of course, "intrigue" can mean different things to different people. There is a positive aspect to being intriguing and a negative one as well. Most Americans fall into the latter: more than half have an unfavorable view of her , and most believe the Tea Party endorsed conservative would be unfit to run the country , an office she has recently made clear she is considering pursuing . Still, those who have a positive views of Palin do so with stark enthusiasm -- mimicking in some ways how liberals were excited over a senatorial candidate from Illinois in 2004. To truly understand that enthusiasm, from where it stems (and possibly, for us on the left, how to properly contain it), requires a deeper look at the h...

Reasonable people within society can see problems associated with things being left unregulated. Most people don't like to admit it, but they do support regulation of some kind on most everything in life. An unregulated sport can result in massive amounts of injuries , or in illegal drug use to enhance performance on the field. Unregulated speech rights can allow a person to divulge state secrets to foreign enemies without reprimand. Unregulated rights to own any weapon desirable may lead some Americans someday to demand private nuclear arsenal. The examples could go on and on. So why do some minds in our culture insist upon creating a completely unregulated marketplace? It's silly to believe that, in this singular aspect of life, things would actually be BETTER if left untouched, especially given the historical context of what types of societies unregulated markets create. It was under less restrictive governments that we saw child labor, inhumane working conditions, unsanit...

Airports all across the nation are investing in full-body scanners to help prevent terrorists and other criminals from bringing weapons onto planes. The scanners are widely controversial, seen by critics as an invasion of privacy -- the images produced by the scanners allow those viewing them to see airline passengers as they would appear naked. Though most Americans support the use of the scanners , a growing number of airline passengers are starting to have doubts about the machines. Dane County Regional Airport is likely to get the scanners sometime soon, and General Mitchell in Milwaukee already has them. If Wisconsin travelers refuse to do the full-body scan, they must be patted down before boarding the plane -- a practice that is getting more invasive for many airline passengers across the nation, who often describe the pat-downs as "groping" or as coming close to what many consider sexual harassment in any other context. Most believe the scanners are necessary -- bu...

GOP leaders this week announced they will push for a moratorium on all earmark spending -- the little bits of spending that appear in bills that have little to do with the actual bill in question. (Think "bridge to nowhere") Commonly called "pork" by insiders, the ban on earmarks by the GOP plays right into the hands of Tea Party proponents, who voted largely for candidates that promised to end the practice of sliding unwanted spending into important bills being voted upon by Congress. Any cuts to spending should be celebrated, especially if they're cuts that aren't necessary. Pork spending can be voted upon separately, can be created through bills on their own and, if believed to be important enough, passed by Congress and signed by the president, making them into law. But while we can look at this moratorium as a good deal, it shouldn't be celebrated TOO much: earmarks make up less than three-tenths of a percentage point of federal spending. This cha...

More signs that the American people are shifting to the left, and that the recent election results favoring Republicans are just a blip in the long run. A new poll released last week shows that, while most Americans favor keeping the Bush tax cuts in place, a sizable number (44 percent) favor repealing them outright, or at the very least repealing the tax subsides for the top one percent of income earners -- those making over $250,000 per year. On the issue of health reform, Americans are even more liberal: less than four in ten Americans want to repeal the bill that Obama and Democrats passed, while 58 percent of Americans want the reforms to either stay in place or go even further in changing the health industry. Opposition to the health reform law is only strong among Republicans -- 61 percent of those in the GOP want its repeal. But both independents and self-identified Democrats want the reforms to stay in place or to do more to change health care in the United States, with two-...

I wrote the following letter to Scott Walker, the governor-elect for the state of Wisconsin: Dear Governor-Elect Scott Walker: When I first heard about the proposed rail line between Milwaukee and Madison, I was pretty excited. As a Madison native who also has ties to Milwaukee, I knew that I would frequent the train several times a year as a passenger. I could visit friends, go to a few Brewers' or Bucks' games, take my son to various museums and events, and maybe even enroll in a once-a-week class through my Alma Matter, UW-Milwaukee. My trips to Wisconsin's largest city would no longer be constrained by time restraints -- it would be as easy as hopping on a train and getting there without the hassle of preparing for a semi-lengthy car trip (no gas to purchase, no lunches to pack, etc.). I also learned the project might eventually tie Milwaukee and Madison up to the Twin Cities area, making it easier to visit family I have there as well (no more six hour mind-numbing car ...

Today is Veterans Day . Many will overlook its importance, will forget to even think about it, or might not even pay attention to the many observances going on around our country. But today is an important day nonetheless. We must not ever forget the important sacrifices our Veterans made in order to defend our country. These sacrifices included separation from loved ones, extended stays in lands not familiar to them, and in some cases perishing on the battle lines defending America from her enemies. We may not always agree with the wars our country has waged. We may not always agree with the policies our leaders have established, the doctrines they have put in place that don't necessarily coincide with the values that Americans have long respected. But this day isn't about our leaders; it isn't about political figures that have created wars, about lawmakers that have sent our soldiers into battlefields, whether justified or not. This day is about those who served our count...

Originally posted at Dane101.com : With the political defeat of Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold, we're left to wonder: what's next for Wisconsin come 2012? First, we're going to see a larger electorate. This year's election was crippled by the fact that just under one-half of eligible voters bothered to show up . In 2008, nearly 70 percent of Wisconsin voters who could vote did . Those voters were widely influenced by the presidential election -- and their votes for other offices trickled down respectively. Democrats running for federal as well as state offices cleaned house, riding on the coattails of Barack Obama as he coasted easily to electoral victory. In 2012, strong Republican districts held by Paul Ryan, Tom Petri, and Jim Sensenbrenner will likely stay Republican. The same can be said of strong Democratic seats held by Tammy Baldwin and Gwen Moore. But expect Wisconsin's 8th Congressional district to once again be up for grabs -- and to be influenced by which...

I've had a short hiatus from this blog (my last post was about five days ago). In that time, I've been taking a break, working on some other writings (a book among them!), and overall just relaxing after what was a pretty stressful election season. Tomorrow, you should expect a blog. And Veterans Day is Thursday -- don't forget to thank a Vet. Expect a blog on that day, too. Ok. Bye now.

Originally posted at Dane101.com : Democratic incumbent Sen. Russ Feingold lost his bid to convince voters that he deserved another six-year term serving the state of Wisconsin. In his place come January will be a pro-corporate, anti-government conservative who has no political experience whatsoever in his lifetime. How did this happen? Many of us are asking that question, some of us out loud to family and friends. Feingold was a champion of progressive causes, but also a staunch defender of the U.S. Constitution, so much so that his defense of gun rights went further than what Ron Johnson ever articulated during the campaign. Much of what led to his loss, however, transcended what people thought about Feingold himself and involved the national outlook, disregarding what candidate Johnson would provide for the state and focusing entirely on misidentifying factors in Feingold's career as Senator. There are four main reasons as to why Feingold may have lost this race. First, Johnso...

Despite anything that happens today -- whether Democrats pull off an upset or Republicans take over total control of Congress -- we cannot fault the system of democracy, nor of the system of governance that was guaranteed to us by the founding fathers, the U.S. Constitution. Every two years, we are afforded the opportunity to select our representatives to be our voices in national government. This tradition has gone uninterrupted since our nation's inception, unaffected by wars, extreme poverty, or national disasters great and small. There aren't many countries on this small planet of ours that can make that claim, can say that their tradition of democracy has consistently worked for over two hundred years. Yes, we've had some problems in our past. There have been a small handful of presidential elections chosen on the basis of the outdated Electoral College system, which doesn't always respect the democratic will of the people. There have been scores of people, over th...