In the world according to ALEC, competing firms in free markets are the only real source of social efficiency and wealth. Government contributes nothing but security. Outside of this function, it should be demonized, starved or privatized. Any force in civil society, especially labor, that contests the right of business to grab all social surplus for itself, and to treat people like roadkill and the earth like a sewer, should be crushed.
Category: Opinion
Madison 360: Biddy Martin leaves Madison as an enigma
Capital Times
Gauging by decibel level, the best moment in a 21-point Badger basketball victory last Dec. 8 was a free-throw contest between Biddy Martin and her fellow chancellor from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the Badgers? foe that night. Madison?s chancellor hardly missed, drilling 12 free throws with a rapid-fire, line-drive delivery to win easily. As with most things during her three years in Madison, Martin came prepared. Just before the shootout, she had sneaked off to warm up on the Nicholas-Johnson Pavilion practice courts next to the Kohl Center.
When a UW official first shared that anecdote last winter, it fit my evolving impression of Martin as a person who left nothing to chance. That, plus being smart, broadly experienced and charismatic, won her the chancellor?s job. Yet she also seemed oddly cautious and sensitive to what others said about her.
Now she?s history. Her last day here was Friday, and the one-word summary that comes to mind is ?enigmatic.?
Health care law encourages innovation
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
A lot of political venom is still directed at the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. But this landmark legislation has provisions that promote health care innovations that can cut Medicaid costs while preserving coverage and quality of care.
A recently proposed health care delivery system for Medicaid patients would combine five features of the law: the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (the Innovation Center); community health centers; teaching health centers; the National Health Service Corps; and reform of graduate medical education and reallocation of its support. [A column by Richard E. Rieselbach, professor emeritus of medicine and Patrick L. Remington, professor of population health and associate dean for public health at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.]
Public workers retire in droves
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
One out of about every 14 public employees in the Wisconsin Retirement System asked for “the numbers” – estimates of what their pensions would be if they retired – in the first half of this year.
A new report from the Department of Employee Trust Funds, which runs the pension system, says the 18,759 state and local government workers who asked what their pension would be was 75% more than those who made the same request in the same period last year.
Capital is needed to keep success stories in state
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Spinback is a much more recent story. Founded by three University of Wisconsin-Madison graduates, it was sold recently to Buddy Media, a New York company that markets a Facebook advertising program. Spinback, which helps e-commerce retail firms track social media traffic and sales, was a New York company with six employees when it was sold.
Chris Rickert: Blame and punishment not enough to keep kids safe
Wisconsin State Journal
Quoted: Tim Smeeding, director of the Institute for Research on Poverty at the UW-Madison La Follette School of Public Affairs.
Chris Rickert: Did Biddy really deserve all those accolades?
Wisconsin State Journal
It can?t just be my party-pooping perspective that caused my eyebrows to elevate at news of the farewell soiree for Biddy Martin on Bascom Hill Wednesday. Brats were served, the marching band played, and well-wishers signed a copy of “The University of Wisconsin: A Pictorial History” for the outgoing UW-Madison chancellor Now, I know Martin was well-liked among students; they gave her props for appearing in the “Teach Me How to Bucky” video and for calling a snow day in February, among other things. But I was struck by how disproportionate the outpouring of love seemed in light of Martin?s timing and relatively short tenure.
The Unemployment Factor – Room for Debate
New York Times
The past two years of data suggest exploding mortgage payments are not the cause of the foreclosure crisis. Prime mortgages account for the majority of mortgage defaults. Instead, there are two ?triggers? that cause foreclosures. [A column by Morris A. Davis, business professor and academic director of the Graaskamp Center for Real Estate at UW-Madison.]
Plain Talk: State must make it easier for voters to get IDs
Capital Times
Doug Erickson?s story about Wisconsin?s new voter ID law, which ran in the State Journal over the Fourth of July weekend, ought to open a few eyes around the state. Truth is, of course, that election fraud in Wisconsin is virtually nonexistent, but it was a convenient excuse to get what the Republicans wanted ? to discourage classes of state citizens, mainly the 18- to 21-year-old college kids, the poor and senior citizens from voting because they tend to favor Democrats.
Dave Zweifel’s Madison: Dr. James Allen, a life worth remembering
Capital Times
I didn?t know Dr. James C. Allen personally, but had heard a little about him over the years. He was seldom in the papers, yet was one of the most revered faculty members at the UW-Madison Medical School?s Department of Ophthalmology and as an extraordinary eye surgeon at the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans? Hospital during a career that spanned 40 years.
According to colleagues and others who knew him personally, Dr. Allen was one of those rare individuals who never tired of helping others, but never sought recognition.
Laura Dresser: NLRB change is modest and needed
Wisconsin State Journal
Written by Laura Dresser, Madison, labor economist and associate director, Center on Wisconsin Strategy at UW-Madison.
Plain Talk: We?ve become laughingstock of the nation
Capital Times
A longtime friend who now lives in Washington, D.C., called the other day.
?What the hell is going on in our state?? he demanded. ?People are making jokes about Wisconsin all over the place.? He?s right, of course. Our once proud state that long had the reputation for being on the cutting edge of everything from social justice to clean, honest government has become a laughingstock to many outsiders.
John Nichols: State poised to renew progressive legacy this summer
Capital Times
The most progressive legislative session in Wisconsin history took place precisely 100 years ago, when a coalition of rural Republicans and Milwaukee Socialists united to enact reforms that broke the grip of the robber barons and finally put state government on the side of working Wisconsinites, small-business owners and farmers.
….Wisconsin established the standard by which other states were measured. It was the most innovative, the most humane, the most responsible and, above all, the most politically progressive state in the nation. And the ideas that came from Wisconsin formed the underpinning for the labor, farm, civil rights and social justice movements that would eventually come to the fore two decades later, as Franklin Roosevelt imported University of Wisconsin professors and veterans of the state?s legislative and political battles to forge a ?New Deal? for America.
Hawks: CultureLab– The latest chapter in the story of our ancestors
New Scientist
I ADMIT it was with some trepidation that I began to read Chris Stringer?s new book, The Origin of Our Species, on a long train journey. I mention the train because I wondered if I was fit to survive hours spent captive with the Darwinian prose suggested by the title. I needn?t have worried. Stringer has a crisp style that helps lighten what might have been heavy material.
Rob Nixon: Slow Violence
Chronicle of Higher Education
Environmentalists face a fundamental challenge: How can we devise arresting stories, images, and symbols that capture the pervasive but elusive effects of what I call “slow violence”? Climate change, the thawing cryosphere, toxic drift, deforestation, the radioactive aftermaths of wars, oil spills, acidifying oceans, and a host of other slowly unfolding environmental crises confront us with formidable representational obstacles that hinder efforts to mobilize for change.
Wineke: Shameful Budget Hurts Wisconsin Children – Madison News Story – WISC Madison
WISC-TV 3
And so, after six contentious months, the state of Wisconsin has a budget, a $66 billion spending plan balanced on the backs of the state?s children….We are already paying a price for this. UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin is gone. She may have been the university?s best hope for adapting to the future but she got caught up in Gov. Walker?s schemes and her position became untenable. I expect we?re going to see many of our best faculty members leave, too. It?s one thing to work here for less money than you can earn elsewhere; it?s another to work in an environment where the Legislature takes pride in cutting schools.
Colin Goddard and Patrick Korellis: Concealed carry no answer to campus violence like we experienced
Capital Times
We are two extremely lucky people. We lived through the horrific experience of being the targets of a pair of students who, in separate crimes, carried guns into college classrooms at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007, and at Northern Illinois University on Feb, 14, 2008. All around us, the lives of our classmates were senselessly ended. It was the most intense, stressful and frightening experience of our lives.
Wisconsin state politicians believe the way to deal with such campus violence is to allow college students to bring loaded, hidden guns onto campuses. This provision is part of the concealed carry legislation that passed the Wisconsin Senate and is set for a vote in the state Assembly on Tuesday.
Jena McGregor: For the Class of 2011, a lesson on earning
Capital Times
It?s commencement time and, for newly minted grads facing a long and potentially futile job search this summer, there?s at least one bit of good news. According to its recent Spring Salary survey, the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that starting salaries are up 5.9 percent for 2011 college grads.
The news is not so good, however, for young women starting new jobs. In a separate study, the same organization found that the average Class of 2010 female with a new bachelor?s degree received a $36,451 starting salary ? 17 percent less than the $44,159 her average male peer received.
(This column appeared first in the Washington Post)
Madison360: Suri says Biddy Martin’s departure is a sad result of ?attack politics’
Capital Times
Jeremi Suri, the prominent history professor who is leaving the University of Wisconsin-Madison in frustration to join the faculty at the University of Texas, emailed me today about his analysis of university Chancellor Biddy Martin?s resignation posted today on his blog at Global Brief. It is passionate and blunt, a great read.
Chris Rickert: Worry less about mice, more about humans
Wisconsin State Journal
I watched the video of fighting mice posted on the Madison-based Alliance for Animals website as part of the complaint it and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals filed against UW-Madison, which apparently has been pitting mice against one another in laboratory studies of aggression..It?s hard for me to see much blood lust in a pair of mice that are fighting, which in the short video looked more like a kind of bloodless wrestling. So it?s hard for me to see why it should be illegal.
Rhonda Puntney: Crippling WiscNet would hurt libraries and schools
Capital Times
On June 3, the state Legislature?s Joint Committee on Finance slipped several policy items into the state biennial budget that would change the way the Internet service provider WiscNet operates and require the University of Wisconsin to return more than $32 million in federal grant money awarded in August 2010 for a broadband expansion project.
The proposed changes to WiscNet could result in schools, libraries and institutions of higher education paying two to three times more for Internet access from for-profit providers. Actually, it?s more accurate to say that taxpayers would foot the increased bill, or library patrons and students would no longer have the access they need and want. The policy changes would also disrupt the ability of the UW to pursue its research and education mission.
Jessica Valenti: SlutWalks and the future of feminism
Capital Times
….When I speak on college campuses, students will often say they don?t believe that a woman?s attire makes it justifiable for someone to rape her, but ? and there almost always is a ?but? ? shouldn?t women know better than to dress in a suggestive way? What I try to explain to those students is part of what the SlutWalk protests are aiming to relay on a grander scale. That yes, some women dress in short, tight, ?suggestive? clothing ? maybe because it?s hot outside, maybe because it?s the style du jour or maybe just because they think they look sexy. And there?s nothing wrong with that. Women deserve to be safe from violent assault, no matter what they wear. And the sad fact is, a miniskirt is no more likely to provoke a rapist than a potato sack is to deter one.
As one Toronto SlutWalk sign put it: ?Don?t tell us how to dress. Tell men not to rape.? It?s this ? the proactive, fed-upness of SlutWalks ? that makes me so hopeful for the future.
(This column appeared first in The Washington Post.)
Bousquet: China and the United States, A Tale of Two Views on Education
Chronicle of Higher Education
?We will be hiring dozens of new faculty across disciplines. Would you have some Ph.Ds ready??
David J. Mladenoff: No fire sale for North Woods mine
Wisconsin State Journal
Column by David Mladenoff, a professor of forest biology at UW-Madison.
UW discussion needs to be thoughtful, deliberative
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
As the Wisconsin Idea has long been a model for public higher education in this country, it is a propitious time to at once reaffirm and replenish our public commitment. Just over a half-century ago, Helen C. White reaffirmed Wisconsin?s motto of public higher education, calling again for a “continual and fearless sifting and winnowing in the pursuit of truth.”
Now is the time to reaffirm that creed, seize the moment and re-imagine public higher education both in Wisconsin and across our nation. [A column by Geoffrey Mamerow, a doctoral student in higher education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; and Clifton Conrad is professor of higher education at UW-Madison.]
Tom Oates: Tressel latest to lose grip
Madison.com
….With new allegations surfacing that Buckeyes players have been selling memorabilia and getting sweetheart deals on cars since 2002, the message being sent is even more loud and clear: This isn?t a Jim Tressel problem or an Ohio State problem, it?s a college football problem. At its highest levels, the sport is out of control.
Michael W. Apple: Why I stay at the UW
Capital Times
As I watch many valued colleagues leave the University of Wisconsin-Madison for other institutions, I react with dismay. Not at them, but at the lack of any substantive educational vision that now seems to pervade the governor?s officer and the Legislature.
We do a disservice to any serious understanding of the importance of education if we simply see it as a vocational path to more money and jobs. When the governor said that he didn?t need to finish college because he already had a job, he demonstrated how limited was his view of education as a self-making process.
Beer at Camp Randall: Nope
Isthmus
It ain?t gonna happen. Much to the chagrin of The Sconz circa 2009, UW students will never be able to drink at Badgers games. The idea of selling beer at Camp Randall popped onto the radar screen recently when West Virginia athletic director Oliver Luck proposed such a plan for Mountaineers football games. In addition to tapping into a lucrative revenue stream, Luck told his Board of Governors that allowing and controlling beer sales would help cut down on the problem of fan intoxication.
It is ironic that West Virginia, which surveys show has one of the lowest rates of alcohol consumption in the country, is considering a more liberal drinking policy than Wisconsin, the heaviest drinking state in the country, and home to Memorial Union, perhaps the proudest university-sponsored drinking venue in American history.
Peterson: Dual governance a bad idea
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Now that the political winds at the state Capitol are blowing against separating the University of Wisconsin-Madison from the UW System, a new idea has surfaced that is just as ill-advised.
Mark Bradley column: UW System still needs tools
Wausau Daily Herald
As state legislators move through the arduous process of drafting a two-year budget, the lingering economic recession creates difficult political choices and significant financial challenges.
Ford: All UW campuses deserve flexibility (Milwaukee Small Business Times)
I recently joined with my colleagues Mike Lovell, the new Chancellor of UW-Milwaukee; UW-Whitewater Chancellor Richard Telfer, and the leaders of other UW System campuses in signing a letter renewing our request to state legislators for new leadership flexibility.
UW-Madison has unique mission, needs
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
I joined the University of Wisconsin-Madison as a faculty member in 1973, two years after the merger of UW-Madison with the UW System. The merger was met with much apprehension.
“The University of Wisconsin: A History, 1945-1971” notes that the 1971 merger was “imposed by state political leaders over the deep misgivings of most UW regents, administrators and Madison faculty members, alumni and students.”
These misgivings were well-founded. In the 40 years following the merger, UW-Madison has been less than it can be. The reason is straightforward. [A column by Ronald Kalil, a professor of neuroscience in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences in the School of Medicine and Public Health at UW-Madison.]
Margaret Krome: State workers too discouraged to stay
Capital Times
I?ve become much too good recently at writing accolades about retiring public workers. I?m glad to praise the praiseworthy, of course. It?s just that there are too many inspiring public servants departing state government right now. I?m losing words to express my sense of loss and outrage.
….State workers who have worked for decades under multiple administrations suddenly are leaving in droves.
A different perspective on Madison split
Green Bay Press-Gazette
In a recent guest column (Opinion, May 10), a University of Wisconsin System regent and member of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Advisory Council stated her case against the New Badger Partnership. As an alumnus of UW-Madison, I would like to offer a different perspective.
Round 2 on tap at state Capitol
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Numbers from the state Department of Administration and the University of Wisconsin-Madison show how important the dues of public-employee union members are to those unions – dues Walker?s changes would dramatically cut, if not eliminate.
In one year, UW-Madison unionized workers and workers in agencies of state government controlled by the governor, paid $13.9 million in union dues, And, of that total, $8.2 million – or 59% – went to the Wisconsin State Employees Union.
Madison360: Barrett steps up, but for another shot at Walker?
“What I saw early this year (in Madison) was not our Wisconsin. You clearly had ideological forces trying to divide rather than bring us together.”
Another example of dividing people is Walker?s effort to try to split the “flagship university” from the rest of the system, a reference to the plan Walker developed with UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin to separate the UW-Madison campus from the rest of the UW System. Walker is acting more as a king than a governor, according to a Barrett speech line.
Harry Peterson: Proposed UW System split is bad for UW-Madison
Capital Times
….the chancellor is pushing a new argument, insisting that the only way to save UW-Madison from certain peril is to split from the UW System, creating an independent governing structure for the flagship campus. This is a major departure from the earlier argument, and many people think it is a bad idea ? both for UW-Madison and the other UW campuses.
I write as a longtime administrator at the UW-Madison and former chief of staff to Chancellor Donna Shalala. For eight of those years, I spent a great deal of time lobbying in the state Capitol for the university. I strongly agree that the restrictions on construction, hiring and budgeting should be changed. A separate governing board for the UW-Madison, however, would be harmful to my university.
Brec Cooke: Washington Post, New York Times Fail on FOIA
Huffington Post
A somewhat ugly and unfortunate debate has occurred in the national press in recent weeks over the use of freedom of information laws. The controversy began when the Wisconsin Republican Party asked the University of Wisconsin for e-mails of William Cronon, a history professor at Madison, whose records, as a state employee, are subject to Wisconsin?s open records law.
Aaron M. Brower: Why UW-Madison needs more flexibility
Capital Times
Granting public authority status to the University of Wisconsin-Madison would help us provide a better, richer and more valuable experience for our 29,000 undergraduate students. With public authority, we would offer more of the kinds of educational experiences that students ? and employers ? want us to provide.
Madison360: Biddy Martin has right diagnosis but the wrong remedy
Capital Times
First, let?s pause to celebrate. Over the past two decades, the University of Wisconsin-Madison has come to deserve the descriptor ?world-class research institution,? one that attracts more than $1 billion per year in grants.
And let?s stipulate to this: Really smart people agree that to protect and extend UW?s top-tier stature, its chancellor and other campus leaders need to have operational flexibility to compete in the global arena. And, further, let?s agree that other UW System schools would benefit from freedoms scaled to their situations.
….Martin clearly believes in her cause, that only through her version of change can UW-Madison succeed as an international player, but it appears to be time to punt.
UW?s players should let bygones be bygones and hope that the university?s brain trust ? which aptly describes the intellect and energy on campus ? can reunite to effectively confront the grave threat posed by dwindling state financial support and Capitol meddling.
So let?s applaud Martin for placing the issue in the brightest of lights and then turn quickly to achieving greater flexibility not only for UW-Madison but for the entire system, keenly mindful that Madison is vastly different from other schools.
Quoted: Former UW-Madison chancellor John Wiley.
Plain Talk: Walker needs national economy to soar
Capital Times
Scott Walker promised to create 250,000 jobs during his four years as governor providing he makes it that far and so he?s got his staff trumpeting every small sign that he may be on his way to that goal. Trouble is, in his zealousness to pat himself on the back at every uptick in the economy, he?s making himself look foolish ? even more so than he?s already done in just four months in office.
Mentioned: Professor emeritus of economics Don Nichols
Hands on Wisconsin: Badger ball and chain
Wisconsin State Journal
I can?t resist an opportunity to draw Bucky, and I thought the ball and chain was a good metaphor for the relationship between the UW-Madison and the UW-System.
Bill Berry: While Americans shout about health care, Canadians love theirs
Capital Times
STEVENS POINT ? Imagine living in a country where parents don?t take their sick kids to the doctor because it costs too much. Turns out, we do ? even if parents have health insurance coverage. Call it America?s working-class lament.
A research team from the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health told us this in a recent report.
Stephanie Lee Swartz: Splitting off UW would benefit the entire state
Together, Wisconsin?s public universities, two-year colleges, technical schools and private institutions produce a highly educated workforce. The University of Wisconsin-Madison is proud to be a part of this collaboration and shared legacy of excellence. [A commentary by Stephanie Lee Swartz, a member of the UW-Madison School of Nursing Board of Visitors and the Wisconsin Alumni Association Board of Directors.]
Mills: Understanding (or not) the New Badger Partnership
Isthmus
On Tuesday I finally had a chance to take in some of the new Union South in person and it is, as I?ve been reading for weeks now, quite lovely. The design is sleek and modern without feeling sterile. There are multiple food options encompassing a decent range of health and diet options. Students were seated everywhere, working on laptops or noses buried in books.
Carpenter: Autonomy allows Madison campus to compete
Superior Telegram
Freshwaters are Wisconsin?s crown jewel. Lakes and rivers of our forests and farmlands provide natural beauty, fisheries, water sports and other benefits. Bordered by two Great Lakes and the Mississippi River, and with thousands of inland lakes and streams, Wisconsin is truly a place where land, people and water meet.
Plain Talk: Even loyal workers reach a tipping point
Capital Times
….We?re already seeing some of our most dedicated and experienced teachers leaving their jobs, fearful that their employers either can?t or won?t hold up their end of the bargain on pensions. Further, their governor has decided that in addition to giving up benefits, they shouldn?t even have the right to bargain on their working conditions or fair treatment on the job.
Not only are they going to have to give up what amounts to about 8 percent of their take-home pay, they?ve been vilified by state leaders, small-minded politicians and a host of petty complainers as being shiftless, selfish and pampered.
The Badger Herald: Without alternative focus, Mifflin may well be an indefensible event
Badger Herald
Like most Madisonians and veterans of Mifflins past, I read with dismay the news that two partygoers were stabbed ? leading to ?multiple life-threatening injuries? requiring emergency surgery in one case ? at this year?s celebration. Equally disturbing is that three police officers were injured ? including a female officer who was punched in the face when she tried to stop a reveler ? and that four times as many partygoers ended up in detox as compared to last year.Not surprisingly, Mayor Paul Soglin and other city leaders want to see Mifflin come to an end.
Attack on New Badger Partnership fueled by partisan divide
Badger Herald
Apparently, I attend Koch University.At least, that?s what a flier from last week?s protest of the New Badger Partnership atop Bascom told me. The flier also had a picture of Chancellor Biddy Martin photoshopped onto the body of Queen Elizabeth.
Hands on Wisconsin: An academic take on the Royal Wedding
Wisconsin State Journal
I decided to use the wedding as a sort of topical prop to help me draw a cartoon on a topic that I do care about, UW-Madison?s attempt to split off from the rest of the UW-System.
Giving the UW-Madison more freedom with the New Badger Partnership makes sense
Isthmus
Since I graduated from the UW-Madison last May, my sense of attachment to the university has actually increased. Still, I couldn?t help but feel like a poseur as I filled out a Wisconsin Alumni Association membership form online.
Chancellor online: PR guru or genuine Twitter extraordinaire?
Badger Herald
This Monday, in a not-at-all out of character message, Biddy Martin tweeted ?@alison1690,? ?I like the opportunity to learn about and communicate with students in a medium you find appealing.? The next day, our chancellor held an impromptu discussion with student protesters occupying Bascom Hall. Coincidence? Political savvy? Biddy being Biddy?
Tom Lyon: Don?t dismantle UW System as part of rancorous budget debate
Capital Times
If the current proposed legislation designating UW-Madison as a public authority is adopted, I would anticipate the following changes over the next decade and beyond:
Giving the UW-Madison more freedom makes sense
Isthmus
Since I graduated from the UW-Madison last May, my sense of attachment to the university has actually increased. Still, I couldnt help but feel like a poseur as I filled out a Wisconsin Alumni Association membership form online.
Chancellor online: PR guru or genuine Twitter extraordinaire?
Badger Herald
This Monday, in a not-at-all out of character message, Biddy Martin tweeted ?@alison1690,? ?I like the opportunity to learn about and communicate with students in a medium you find appealing.? The next day, our chancellor held an impromptu discussion with student protesters occupying Bascom Hall. Coincidence? Political savvy? Biddy being Biddy?
J.B. Van Hollen: Alcohol is most prevalent date rape drug
Capital Times
The month of April has been designated Sexual Assault Awareness Month, a month focused on raising public awareness about sexual violence and educating communities and individuals on how to prevent sexual assaults. Sexual assault is a pervasive problem in our society. It is estimated that one in six American women has been the victim of sexual assault or attempted assault. However, sexual assault can affect people of any gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation or ability.
Chris Rickert: Hey kids ? date night and politics don’t mix
Wisconsin State Journal
I was disappointed last week to read in this newspaper?s “Labor?s last stand?” series that some UW-Madison students have been breaking up with their honeys over disagreements about what?s been happening at the Capitol.
Bob Lehrman: How unions make professors better
Capital Times
We?d never met. But when I walked into my class at American University a few weeks ago, I knew instantly who she was. She came up quickly, like someone who didn?t have much time. She was a grad student working at American University for the Service Employees International Union to organize adjunct professors like me. She hoped I would sign up. What surprised me was my reaction. I wished she hadn?t come.
(Bob Lehrman, a novelist, former White House aide and author of ?The Political Speechwriter?s Companion,? was American University?s adjunct of the year in 2010. This column first appeared in the Washington Post.)
Alfred McCoy: Washington in a bind as local despots fall (Salon.com)
In one of history?s lucky accidents, the juxtaposition of two extraordinary events has stripped the architecture of American global power bare for all to see. Last November, WikiLeaks splashed snippets from U.S. embassy cables, loaded with scurrilous comments about national leaders from Argentina to Zimbabwe, on the front pages of newspapers worldwide. Then just a few weeks later, the Middle East erupted in pro-democracy protests against the region?s autocratic leaders, many of whom were close U.S. allies whose foibles had been so conveniently detailed in those same diplomatic cables.
Administrative Excellence initiative Biddy?s back-up plan
Badger Herald
Last week was bad for the New Badger Partnership?s prospects in the state Legislature. Reps. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, and Robin Vos, R-Burlington, each said they had doubts that the University of Wisconsin-Madison will garner the votes to split from the UW System, casting a pall over Chancellor Biddy Martin?s hard-won successes thus far.