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Inside LOCAL
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They really think we're stupid.
OPINION: During the past week, the new right-wing scare puppet is Sharia Law. Is anyone really stupid enough to think anyone is actually trying to impose Sharia Law on Americans? Or is this just another cynical ploy.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) --I don't know when it really started, but I first noticed it on the Rush Limbaugh diatribe: The right wing is now trying to convince us we are in danger of being put under Sharia Law.
Sharia Law is a code maintaine
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Breitbart, Shut Up. Please Shut Up!
OPINION: Having kicked off a national uproar by falsely accusing a Department of Agriculture official of practicing racism against whites, conservative hero Andrew Breitbart continues the lies. This is disgusting.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Conservative blogger and media personality Andrew Breitbart got what he wanted: He convinced the Obama administration to fire a black Department of Agriculture employee for being biased against whites.
He did so by taking a speech Shirley Sherrod made at a recent NAACP convention, editing it to make it say the exact opposite of what she said, and, then, peddling it to the news media, to FOX News in partic
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It is time to condemn overt racism
OPINION: Overt racism is becoming an every-day occurrence in the nation's political fabric and it is past time for decent people to demand that it end.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- This is starting to get really depressing.
The news Tuesday was that a black Department of Agriculture employee in Georgia was asked to resign because of a speech she made at an NAACP convention in which she described how her views on race had changed to include white victims of poverty.
That speech, a rather moving one, reached one Andrew Breitbart, a truly disgusting practitioner of right-wing propaga
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A Mosque Near Ground Zero?
OPINION: A Muslim group wants to build a 13-story mosque in the vicinity of the "Ground Zero" attack on the World Trade Center. Sarah Palin says, "no." And her reasons are?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Sarah Palin is back in the news, this time for associating her vocabulary choices with those of William Shakespeare. Each of them made up words, she says.
It's all very funny and I heard the reports all day Monday. But what the reports brushed over was the context.
This is the context: Palin used her Twitter account to plead with Muslims not to build a 13-story mosque near Ground Zero in New York City. She said having a Muslim worship center near the site where terrorists destroyed the Twin Towers
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Equating Catholic Unequals
OPINION: When the Vatican issues new guidelines about disciplining priests who commit sex abuses and, then, equates them with those who would ordain women, well, it does help to understand Vatican thinking, I guess.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- The Vatican is back in the news with its new statements about disciplining priests for sex abuses. The guidelines extend the time molested people are allowed to complain, says some nasty things about priests possessing child porn -- just in time, Diocese of LaCrosse! -- and, generally, take some steps in the right direction.
But the guidelines, announced by Cardinal William Levada, a former American bisho
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The GOP Agenda
OPINION: Contrary to popular opinion, politicians actually try to do what they campaign saying they want to do. So, it might be worthwhile listening.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- A couple of years ago, Barack Obama was running for president and was making all sorts of promises about what he would try to do should we elect him.
He promised to enact comprehensive health care reform. He promised to enact reform of financial institutions. He promised to concentrate on global climate change and on immigration reform.
So far, Obama has achieved the first two and is working hard on the others. That's not surprising. Politicians usually tell you what they stand for and what they wa
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Unprivatizing Space
OPINON: I might have thought Republicans would rejoice when President Obama decided to turn much of the space program over to private industry. I might have been wrong.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- The New York Times reports today that Democratic and Republican members of the Senate Commerce Committee are nearing an agreement on a plan to thwart President Obama's plans to revamp the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Obama has cancelled current plans to take a new trip to the moon. Instead, he wants NASA to contract with private industry to build space craft that will ferry astronauts around in low earth orbit and, at the same time, start concentrating on longer-term projects.
Now,
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Eating 80 hotdogs
OPINION: Can civilization really survive in a day wen there is an organization promoting Major League Eating?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- The rest of you may be concerned about which major league basketball team LeBron James will choose today.
My concern remains with the future of Major League Eating. It seems that good sportsmanship is sorely lacking from Major League Eating contests.
For example, after Joey Chestnut won the July 4 Nathan's Hotdogs eating contest -- by gulping down some 80 hotdogs -- a would-be competitor, one Takena Ko
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Giving Scandal in the Church
OPINION: Arizona Bishop says politicians who defy Catholic bishops should be called out for "scandal." I guess it depends on how we define scandal.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- One of the things that normally brings juice back to my tired soul is reading a blog published by the Rev. Rick Heilman, of Pine Bluff, called "Mary's Anawim." It's sort of the local outlet for those who reject Vatican II.
So, I'm reading now about Phoenix Bishop Thomas Olmsted and his call to the church to stand up against politicians who bring "scandal" by not toeing the line when it comes to following
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Michael Steele, Huh?
OPINION: The chairman of the Republican National Committee says the war in Afghanistan is just a whim of President Obama. Apparently, he's forgotten 9/11.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- I don't agree with Republicans on much, but I bet I agree with most Republicans on one thing: How in hell did Michael Steele ever become head of the Republican National Committee?
His latest escapade was to attack President Obama for the way he's prosecuting the war in Afghanistan, That's pretty much in the Republican mainstream. What isn't pretty much in the Republican mainstream is that Steele thinks the President is fighting too hard.
"This was a war of Obama's choosing," Steele told a GOP fundr
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Down With Thurgood?
OPINION: Republican senators, in an effort to discredit Supreme Court nominee Elana Kagen, trash the late civil rights here Thurgood Marshall. Is this sane?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Supreme Court nominee Elana Kagen began testifying at hearings leading to her confirmation.
The Republicans on the committee aren't sure she's qualified. They fear she might be an "activist judge" and they wasted no time in pointing out the kind of person they don't want her to be: The late Justice Thurgood Marshall.
Now, there was a time that Marshall was considered a hero in this country. He was the lead attorney in the case that desegregated public schools. He was the first black justice of the
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Channeling Hitler
OPINION: Columnist and think-tanker Thomas Sewell is the latest to compare Obama to Hitler. It's time, really, to stop this crap.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- We're getting used to the idea that nut-jobs at Tea Party rallies equate President Obama with Adolf Hitler, but when this crap moves into the intelligensia, it's really going too far.
The latest example is a column by Thomas Sewell, a conservative columnist who is a fellow at the Hoover institution. Sewell says the actions by Obama in convincing BP to put up a $20 billion escrow fund are similar to the strong-arm tactics Hitler used against businesses in Germany.
Not surprisingly, Sarah Palin thinks
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Financial Reform Passes, Another Democrat Victory
OPINION: The House and the Senate have now each passed the most sweeping financial reform laws since the Great Depression. Didn't get a single Republican vote, though.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- The House of Representatives has now passed the most sweeping financial reform bill since the Great Depression.
It is aimed at giving consumers a fairer shake in dealing with finance companies, restrict the ability of banks to make outlandish loans and, generally, try to rectify the free-market mania, based on faith in the goodness of capitalists, that led to the current recession. The Senate recently passed a similar measure.
Congressman Barney Frank says the bill is stronger than even he hoped a co
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Justice for the Rich
OPINION: The Supreme Court suggests Enron's Jeff Skilling and media mogul Conrad Black may have been convicted unfairly because, maybe, the had the right to fleece their companies of tens of millions of dollars.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- When I look at the courts, I'm beginning to feel like a 1990s conservative activist. These unelected judges have gone mad with power.
In Louisiana, Judge Martin L.C. Feldman refused to stay an order blocking the federal government from denying oil drillers a chance to start work in the ocean. Feldman, who, apparently, has lots of investments in the energy sector, says the government must prove that an oi
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Prayers for Oil
OPINION: Louisiana proclaims a day of prayer for an end to the oil spill and Sarah Palin calls for "divine intervention." Why would God do that?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Sarah Palin, who once told us she should be vice president because of her oil expertise, is now explaining how to end the gusher in the Gulf Coast: Pray for divine intervention.
"Gulf disaster needs divine intervention since man's efforts have been futile," Palin Twittered.
She doesn't explain why God has waited this long, though, I suppose, he may have been waiting for the Louisiana legislature to declare a day of prayer, which it has now done.
New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymons called the Day
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Drill Baby, Drill?
OPINION: What seems to be the biggest lament of those on the Gulf Coast? That the federal government has put a six-month moratorium on offshore oil drilling.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- This is why I will never understand the South: Virtually all the politicians on the Gulf Coast are demanding that President Obama lift his moratorium on offshore oil drilling.
Now, think about that: The BP well is still gushing 60,000 or so barrels of oil into the sea. The beaches and marshes are getting covered with crude. There is no serious end in sight. Friend and foe alike admit it is the greates
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Apologize to BP?
OPINION: Texas Congressman Joe Barton apologizes to BP because President Obama "shook down" the oil giant by demanding $20 billion in compensation for victims of the oil spill. Nice work, Joe.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Well, the Republican Party has a new line: It does not really intend to apologize to BP for inconveniencing the oil giant.
That wasn't the attitude Thursday morning when BP CEO Tony Hayward testified before Congress. Then, Congressman Joe Barton, a Texas Republican, began his questioning by apologizing to the oil giant because President Obama convinced BP to put $20 billion into an account to be used for
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A Good Word for BP
OPINION: Can you believe the big story coming out of the White House/BP meeting Wednesday was an unfortunate comment by the company's Swedish chairman?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- I frequently despair of the thought that the Washington press corps will ever focus on anything of serious importance.
Take Wednesday, for example. The top leadership of BP, the company responsible for the oil spill, went to the White House and spent four hours with President Obama. At meeting's end, Obama announced that BP has agreed to put $20 billion into a fund to make whole victims of the company's oil spill.
The money will be distributed by a neutral party and the $20 billion is just a first st
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Afghan Riches a Mixed Blessing
OPINION: Afghanistan may have a trillion dollars worth of previously unknown mineral wealth. Can we ever end the war now?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- I suppose that if you told me I was heir to a trillion dollars worth of mineral wealth, I'd be quite pleased.
But if I were a citizen of Afghanistan, I don't know how I'd feel.
The United States announced over the weekend that Afghanistan may be sitting on a fortune in previously unknown minerals, ranging from copper to some trace minerals that are essential for modern technology, minerals worth, perhap
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Give Me This Job!
OPINION: Obviously, BP has failed to hire a public relations expert to advise it on how to market its response to the oil spill. I think they should hire me.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- My job as an interim minister in New Glarus will end July 4 and I am looking for work.
Where I am looking, specifically, is at BP, the oil company that is responsible for the catastrophic gusher beneath the Gulf of
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Why Are Republicans Doing This?
OPINION: Do Republicans really think the nut-jobs they're nominating for high office are actually capable of running the country?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Nevada Republicans have their candidate to topple Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Sharron Angle. Angle believes Social Security should be phased out, that the IRS Code is a conspiracy, that it would be better if beer were illegal and that abortion causes breast cancer. That's just for starters. Republicans in Nevada figured she was better than the candidate who thought we should pay our medical bills with chickens.
Oh, yes. Angle also thinks the answer to the oil spill is to further deregulate
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The Chevy Off the Levy
OPINION: Chevrolet has asked its employees to stop calling the car a "Chevy" because the nickname might confuse the brand. Right!
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- For a while I entertained the hope that General Motors might one day regain its prominence as a major automobile manufacturer.
It was a slim hope, I realize. The company had already trashed Oldsmobile and Pontiac,
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Helen Thomas, R.I.P.
OPINION: No, the 89-year-old Hearst Newspapers columnist didn't die -- but she did kill herself professionally. It's kind of sad.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- What, in heaven's name, was Helen Thomas thinking?
Thomas, 89, has been a Washington reporter for more than 50 years and is best-known for asking absolutely impertinent but often important questions to American presidents. Her latest encounter with President Obama, for example, involved her demand that he explain just what we hope to accomplish in Afghanistan. A worthwhile question, I would say.
But,
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Cashing In or Serving the City
OPINION: The Wisconsin State Journal has started a new expose of City of Madison workers who make tons of overtime. Is this really the question to ask?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Every few years or so the Wisconsin State Journal discovers that some Madison city employees collect overtime for working. . .overtime.
This week, the paper is running a new series, "Cashing In" that explains city employees collected something like $15 million in overtime and benefits payments last year. Such stories usually include the tale of a $100,000 a year bus driver or a top manager who collects mo
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Bears in Verona, Oh, My!
OPINION: Actually, I'm not ready to have bears raiding my back-yard bird feeder. Shouldn't they stay in the woods up north?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- The most unfriendly news I've heard locally is that a black bear was spotted in Verona near the bike path.
Normally, I wouldn't care -- but I grew up in Verona and I still like to ride my bike on the bike path. I am not ready to be attacked by grizzlies.
O.K., I know. A black bear is not a grizzly. Black bears avoid contact with humans. I am probably at greater danger of being attacked by a cougar.
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Grasshopper Plague Averted?
OPINION: Idaho scientists say recent rains may have averted a grasshopper plague. If so, it's the only disaster we've avoided recently.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- When I started preparing this report, I was ready to warn you about the expected grasshopper invasion of the Western plains.
Seems that ranchers there are fearing the worst grasshopper invasion in a generation, one
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The End of Magic
OPINION: We've been risking outright disaster with our lax environmental policies for decades. It is now time to grow up.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- So, now, BP has a new plan. The giant oil company is going to equip its little submarines with diamond-studded razor wire and cut off the pipe coming out of the ground si that it can put a funnel over the pipe and si
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Should Obama Have Drama?
OPINION: The chattering class is agreed on one thing: President Obama needs to show some passion about the oil spill -- and that will help, how?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Well, it's official now: Maureen Dowd, the New York Times' snarkiest columnist has had it with President Obama's aloofness.
She thinks he ought to be down in the Gulf showing passion about the oil spill. Chris Matthews, an MSNBC host, says the president "scares me" because he is so dispassionate about events. Rush LImbaugh just says he's incompetent because he hasn't stopped the spill -- of course, Limbaugh's preferred solution was to just let the oil spout.
The one thing that unites the commentari
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Atlas Shrugged: A Model for Wisconsin
OPINION: Washington Post columnist George Will hails Wisconsin GOP senatorial candidate Ron Johnson as a Tea Party candidate with feet firmly planted in Ayn Rand objectivism. Really?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Like most people, I really don't know much about Ron Johnson, the businessman the Wisconsin Republicans have tapped to topple Sen. Russ Feingold this fall.
His candidacy is so new that he doesn't even seem to have a web site or a decent photograph to share.
But he has excited conservative Washington Post columnist George Will, who wrote a glowing column about him Thursday extolling Johnson's roots in Ayn Rand's classic novel, "Atlas Shrugged."
"Atlas Shrugged is a novel that tends to turn on colleg
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Rand Paul: Racist or Victim?
OPINION: Kentucky Senate candidate Rand Paul is taking all sorts of heat for his questioning of civil rights legislation. But isn't this a debate we really ought to be having?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Tuesday night, Rand Paul was riding high.
The Kentucky eye doctor had just won the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate and was proclaiming proudly that the power of the Tea Party had arrived. Look out, big government, the people are coming to take back power.
By Thursday, the conventional wisdom was that Rand Paul is a bigot who wants to repeal both the Civil Rights Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Actually, neither accusation is true. Paul says he thinks the Civil Rights Act was ne
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The Meaning of the Primaries
OPINION: Even though this week's primary elections didn't really prove anything, pundits are eager to explain what they prove.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- The nation is awash in anger and political incumbents should run for their lives.
At least, if you listen to the Washington pundits, that's the meaning we should gather from Tuesday's primary elections. Of course, that's the meaning the pundits were telling us to gather even before the elections.
The elections, I would think, didn't prove much of anything. Sen. Arlen Specter, of Pennsylvania, was defeated by an admiral/congressman which is, either a huge setback for President Obama or a reflection o
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Abortion Dilemma
OPINION: The Bishop of Phoenix excommunicates a nun who approved an abortion for a woman in order to save her life. That's the problem with moral clarity.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- The debates about abortion usually tend toward the theoretical but, once in a while, the issue gets presented in stark terms.
The National Catholic Reporter reports that the Roman Catholic Bishop of Phoenix, Ariz. has excommunicated and reassigned a nun who, as a member of a hospital ethics committee, approved an abortion for a woman whose life was threatened by pregnancy.
Bishop Thomas Olmsted excommun
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Did God Write the Declaration of Independence?
OPINION: Glenn Beck tells a college audience that God wrote the Declaration of Independence. That might come as a surprise to Thomas Jefferson.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- I suppose the first question has to be why would Liberty University give an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree to Glenn Beck?
I mean, Beck goes on national television every night and tries to pit one group of Ame
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The Water Tower Burns? What's next?
OPINION: A water tower on Madison's West Side catches fire and burns. Can the news of the day possibly get any weirder?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- I know, I know. The water tower was empty. Painters were using a torch for some reason and insulation around telephone and power wires apparently caught fire.
But, still. . .The news of the day is that a water tower on Madison's West Side caught fire -- on the inside -- and caused an estimated $400,000 damages.
That is one weird story. It's a 100,000 gallon water tank. I didn't even know we painted
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Paying Taxes is Moral; Not Paying Taxes Isn't
OPINION: What do you think of all those television ads gloating about saving rich people millions in tax liability? I think we ought to pay our taxes.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- I don't know about you, but I'm getting tired of all those television ads for tax services that promise to defend us against Internal Revenue Service goons.
The one that comes to mind right now is Patrick Cox's Tax
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If His Dad Wasn't Billy. . .
OPINION: Franklin Graham doubles down on is description of Islam as an "evil" religion and accuses the entire nation of being "soft" on Islam. Would the evangelical movement embrace someone else who held these wacko views?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Franklin Graham, Billy's son and successor, was recently disinvited as principle speaker at the Pentagon's National Day of Prayer service and, if you wonder why, just take a look at his interview in this week's edition of Newsweek magazine.
Editor Jon Meacham sat down with Graham and tried to ascertain his real feelings about Islam. Nine years ago, Graham called Islam and "evil" religion. Today, he still thinks that.
"I just have to ask you: What they do to women, is that wicked or evil?" Graham e
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Golf Balls?
OPINION: Now British Petroleum wants to stop the oil leak by stuffing golf balls down the blowout? Really?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Stuff happens, but it is good to know that when British Petroleum creates what might turn out to be the greatest natural disaster in current history the company has a few back-up plans to save the day.
To be sure, none of those plans actually seems to have worked. After a drilling rig off Louisiana blew up and sank, an oil well located a mile beneath the Gulf of Mexico has been spilling 5,000 or so barrel
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Nihilism in Utah
OPINION: Now even Sen. Bob Bennett isn't "conservative" enough for the crazies taking over the Republican Party.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Stupid me, I'd thought that Utah Sen. Bob Bennett was one of the more conservative members of the United States Senate.
But Bennett made a big, big mistake. Faced with the prospect of the nation plunging into another Great Depression that might have crippled us economically for decades to come, he voted for the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
That was enough for Utah Republicans. Saturday, they voted to deny him their endorsement for a fourth term.
It's just another example of the Republican Party
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He hires help from
OPINION: Another anti-gay activist is discovered to be, well, you know. ..
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- I suppose the law of averages would suggest there must be someone, somewhere, who is both an anti-gay Christian activist and is also heterosexual.
But, then again, time will tell.
This week's news is filled with
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Down a Slippery Slope
OPINION: Back in the Bush administration "conservatives" argued that non-citizens should not enjoy Constitutional rights. Now, Sen. Lieberman says we ought to strip Americans of their citizenship and then deny them rights.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- So, we had this problem with the would-be Times Square bomber: He was an American citizen and, thus, was guaranteed rights under our Constitution, the so-called Miranda right to remain silent and to have legal counsel.
From everything I've read, those "rights" didn't convince him to remain silent. It seems his interrogators almost have trouble shutting him up.
But that's not good enough for those who demand that terrorists be locked away in Navy brigs. First, Sen. John McCain demands that the suspe
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Dave Obey Retires
OPINION: Why would a man as powerful as Rep. Dave Obey retire from Congress? Possibly because he's accomplished everything he set out to do.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- The national press is at it again.
When Congressman Dave Obey announced Wednesday that he will retire at the end of this term, the pundits leaped for joy.
Obey, who has served in Congress for 41 years and has never really faced a serious challenge, is chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, making him one of the most powerful members of Congress. The fact he isn't running for reelection must mean something, they crowed.
This is what Obey said: He said he is "bone tired" and that he want
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Don't be Pathetic, John
OPINION: Former Presidential candidate John McCain says the would-be terrorist bomber in New York shouldn't have received Miranda rights when he was arrested. The guy is an American citizen, John.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) --It was Barack Obama who said a couple of years ago that Sen. John McCain is an "American hero."
But, I'm afraid the poor guy is becoming just pathetic. I do feel sorry for him; he's served his country well and served his party well. Why he should have to battle a clown like J.D. Hayworth for the Republican nomination to retain his seat in the Senate is beyond comprehension.
Still. . .
When authorities arrested Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistan born American citizen who, apparently, tried to leave a car
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Blaming BP
OPINION: Everyone has an idea about why the oil well blew up in the Gulf of Mexico. Everyone is probably wrong.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- The oil keeps gushing from the ruptured well and the residents of the Gulf Coast keep waiting for disaster to strike -- and no one is sure just how or when it will end.
This is a situation that makes American pundi
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Will the Vatican Actually Follow Through on Abuse?
OPINION: After all these years, it's beginning to look as if the Roman Catholic Church is finally going to take action against bishops who winked at perversion. The consequences might be ugly, however.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Pope Benedict XVI has arranged for the Vatican to take over control of the Legionaries of Christ, a rich and massive religious order based in Mexico whose founder and long-time leader was a pervert of the first order.
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Drill Baby, Drill!
OPINION: An exploding oil rig near Louisiana now threatens the greatest ecological disaster in history. Didn't the pro-drilling folks tell us this couldn't happen?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- So there's this British Petroleum oil rig in the Gulf and it explodes, killing 11 workers. Sad, but it's the price we pay for plentiful supplies of petroleum.
And, a few days later, we discover the rig has sunk.
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Defending Racial Profiling
OPINION: Republicans are bending over to defend an Arizona law aimed at punishing people for being Hispanic. They can't do it.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Arizona now has a law on its books not only permitting, but requiring, cops to demand proof-of-residency papers from people whom officers think may be illegal immigrants.
If the cops don't detain someone who may, or may not, be an illegal alien, private citizens, under the law, may sue the cops.
In other words, if you should visit Arizona next winter and some police officer sees you walking down the str
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Franklin Graham, You're No Billy
OPINION: Want to know the problems with national days of prayer? Take a look at Franklin Graham, who, last week, equated Islam with car bombings and slavery. He was slated to be the Pentagon's main prayer speaker.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- If you need one single example of the wisdom of Judge Barbara Crabb's ruling that national days of prayer are unconstitutional, witness the weird case of Franklin Graham.
Franklin is Billy Graham's son and successor. He made headlines in 2001 by calling Islam an "evil" religion but kind of redeemed himself in the public eye by saying he didn't really mean it.
He meant it.
This year, the Pentagon, for reasons no sane person can imagine, asked Franklin Graham to be the major speaker at the Pentagon
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Investigating the Investigators
OPINION: The Securities and Exchange Commission charges Goldman Sachs with fraud. Congressional Republicans respond by subpoenaing the SEC. Tin ear, I'd say.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- The Securities and Exchange Commission, at long last, has started to regulate Wall Street (which, I would suggest, is its job); it has filed fraud charges against Goldman Sachs.
What Goldman did, the SEC charges, is to arrange a bet -- a legal process, believe it or not -- between people who believe a bundle of home mortgages will increase in value and those who think it will lose. The company wasn't selling the mortgages, you understand, it was selling the bet.
What it didn't tell the buyers, howeve
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Understanding Goldman Sachs
OPINION: Well, I can't really understand the Wall Street firm, but it sure sounds crooked, doesn't it?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- I'm not sure that mere mortals are supposed to understand Wall Street.
For some reason, the nation's entire economy depends on a gambling casino where a relative handful of wizards reap rewards in the millions or b
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That Amazing Volcano
OPINION: While we were squabbling about politics, a volcano in Iceland shut down Europe. It's what you don't expect that does you in.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- My own explanation is that God got tired of reading about the Tea Parties and President Obama.
So he opened up a volcano in Iceland, a country known mainly for a really bad national bank and, previously, for a low-priced airline, and in the process shut down Europe.
I mean, isn't this the craziest thing you ever saw? Europe is shut down to air travel and no one has any serious idea when it will reopen
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Would You Get On That Plane?
OPINION: The airlines are outraged that Europe's airports have been shut down because of volcanic dust. They say they sent their own planes into the dust and none crashed. Perhaps, but would you get on a plane heading into the volcanic dust? Me, neither.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- The weirdest story to come out of the Iceland volcano is that many of the world's major airlines are petitioning European airports to let them fly again.
They say they sent test planes through the volcanic dust tha
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Good Decision, Tommy
OPINION: Tommy Thompson says he won't run for the U.S. Senate. I'm not quite sure what the basis of his campaign would have been had he decided to go for it. He's no longer in the mainstream of the Republican Party.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Tommy Thompson told a Tea Party gathering in Wisconsin Thursday he has decided against running for the U.S. Senate against Russ Feingold.
I'm sure Tommy would have run a good race but I have no idea what the basis
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Bishop Wants Only Submissive Nuns
OPINION: A Pennsylvania bishop won't let a religious order advertise for new recruits because it backed national health care legislation. Where do these guys come from? The Vatican.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- I know this feels as if I'm just piling on, but today's news, reported in the National Catholic Reporter, is that a Pennsylvania bishop has refused to let a woman's religious order advertise in the diocesan newspaper.
Why? Because the order signed on to a national statement by some women religious backing President Obama's health care legislation.
Bishop Lawrence Brandt, of Greenburg, Pa., denied permi
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Defining Scandal
OPINION: Archbishop Raymond Burke, head of the Vatican's equivalent of the Supreme Court, thinks nuns who supported President Obama's health care reform should quit the church. Well, that's one way of serving Christ.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- One reason I am highly skeptical of the Vatican's claim that it is taking sex abuse claims seriously is that Archbishop Raymond Burke serves as the Vatican equivalent of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
Burke was Bishop of LaCrosse in the 1990s and he made a name for himself by suggesting Catholic Democratic politicians refrain from taking Communion. That made him so popular that he was named Archbisho
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Slavery Now Doesn't Amount to a
OPINION: Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour doesn't think slavery is worth mentioning in proclamations honoring the Confederacy. Didn't the GOP once call itself the "party of Lincoln?"
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- First Virginia Gov. Bob McDonald issued a proclamation making this Confederate History Month. He drew flack for a proclamation that avoided mentioning slavery and, belatedly, apologized.
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour thinks the apology was unnecessary; he didn't mention slavery in his proclamation, either and thinks the controversy "doesn't amount to diddly."
Let me translate that: What Barbour means is that his party is the party of White southerners and that if black Americans don't like his proc
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Judging Apologies
OPINION: How did we get to a place where we in the general public get to judge the sincerity of others' apologies?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Tiger Woods failed to win the Master's Tournament Sunday, so I guess the gods of golf are continuing to punish him for infidelity.
Or, maybe, when you play a tournament matched with the world's best golfers, sometimes you are going to come in fourth.
I don't know much about that, but I am relieved that we can all now go back to our favorite Tiger sport, judging the sincerity of his apologies. By and large, we've decided he isn't sufficiently sincere and we'd like him to try again, television cameras
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Do They Really Hate Abortion?
OPINION: The announcement by anti-abortion Congressman Bart Stupak that he will retire next year brings shouts of joy from anti-abortion groups. You'd think they'd be unhappy that one of their own was leaving. That is, if they really had any integrity.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Michigan Congressman Bart Stupak is an unusual Democrat.
He is fiercely pro-life and was willing to sink a health care reform package that he has long endorsed and to cut President Obama and Speaker of the House
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Potty Mouth Sarah, please shut up
OPINION: The former vice presidential candidate likes to display her knowledge of history -- which seems to be non-existent.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- I have a feeling that Sarah Palin's 15 minutes of fame are coming to an end.
She's been kept alive -- as a public figure -- these days by the press, that loves to quote her every time she says something outrageous
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Crisis Averted -- Will It Be Forgotten?
OPINION: The chairman of the Federal Reserve says that if government hadn't acted decisively, the recession of 2008 might have been worse than the depression of the 1930s.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says the recession that crippled the American economy last year had all the makings of a economic catastrophe worse than that which stopped the world in its tracks in the 1930s.
During the Great Depression, unemployment rose to include one in four Americans. Bernanke told a Washington gathering Tuesday that the current recession was headed in the same direction.
The
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Is Sex Education Now a Crime?
OPINION: The Juneau County District Attorney warns that teaching the state's education curriculum can lead to arrest. Huh?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Juneau County District Attorney Scott Southworth is one conservative politician who always leaves me feeling confused.
He's one guy who, I think, lives a life of integrity. He talks up the values of the military -
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A Doctor Not to See
OPINION: A Florida urologist says his patients who voted for Obama can go find another doctor. Seems like a good idea to me.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Now that the health care debate has descended into urology, I would guess it has passed officially from controversy to satire.
Dr. Jack Cassell, a Florida urologist, made all sorts of new last week when he posted a sign on his office door advising patients who had voted for Barrack Obama to find themselves a new urologist.
This, of course, made him a right-wing hero, especially after he gave interviews
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Courting the Yahoo Vote
OPINION: A serious candidate for United States Senate calls global climate change "hogwash." Why is it that Republicans are still taken as if they are sane?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- One of my friends says I obsess in these columns about Catholic bishops and Republicans.
He's right, of course. But I have a defense. My defense is that it drives me crazy to see the bishops out destroying the wor
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Blame the Press for Clergy Sex Abuse? Really?
OPINION: You kind of know the battle is lost when you see big shots accused of wrong-doing respond by blaming the press.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- In the past couple of days I've seen online reports that priests in New York and around the country are now calling for a boycott of the New York Times because the paper is picking on the Vatican.
The bishop of Portland, Oregon, is asking his priests to cancel subscriptions to the Oregonian. Ditto.
In Madison, the Catholic Herald blames the "media" for being persistently anti-Catholic. I don't know if
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This is getting disgusting
OPINION: The right wing is taking some heat for protesters who spit on Congressmen and call them by racial epithets. So what does it do? It denies anything actually happened. This is disgusting.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Americans are actually pretty fair-minded and decent people. So, when they saw anti-health care reformers calling a hero of the civil rights movement a "nigger," they were upset. When they saw people spitting on Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, they were upset.
Even people who were against the legislation were embarrassed to see yahoos presumably speaking in their name act in such a vulgar manner.
But not the ring leaders of this disgusting activity.
Rep. Michelle Bachmann, the Minnesota congresswoman who s
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Now the GOP wants health care credit?
OPINION: The head of the Republican Senate election committee is telling GOP Senators to claim credit for much of Obamacare. He's kidding, isn't he?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Sen. John Cornyn, the Texas Republican in charge of getting fellow Republicans elected this November, is telling his candidates to take credit for much of what is popular in the just-passed health care reform legislat
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Does the Pope Suffer Like Jesus?
OPINION: New York's Archbishop Timothy Dolan argues that questions about Pope Benedict's role in priest sex abuse is similar to the unjust persecution of Jesus. Really?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- New York's Archbishop Timothy Dolan received a standing ovation in St. Patrick's Cathedral after he issued a ringing defense of Pope Benedict XVI's role in the priest sex abuse scandal, equating criticism of the pope with the persecution of Jesus on Good Friday.
The former Milwaukee archbishop said Benedict, in his pre-pope role as a Vatican insider, did more than anyone else to stop priestly abuse and sug
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A British Model for American Pols
OPINION: A British lawmaker wants politicians to be able to travel first class so they can avoid mingling with the common folk. You've got to like a guy like that.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- The first thing I like about him is his name: Sir Nicholas Winterton. With a name like that , you just know a member of Parliament is going to be trouble.
And so Sir Nicholas is. A Conservative member of Parliament for the past 39 years, Winterton got into trouble for telling a radio interviewer he thinks legislators should be able to travel first class in order to avoid exposure to common folk.
"They are a totally different type of people," he explained. "There's lots of children, there's noise, t
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Just Who Vandalized Eric Cantor's Office?
OPINION: House Minority Whip says someone shot at his office. But the Richmond, Va. police say that's a crock. Can't we believe anything these guys say?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) --Well, it made sense to me when I heard it.
After Democrats started complaining that they were receiving death threats by opponents of health care reform and that their offices were being vandalized, Republican House Minority Whip called a press conference to say that Republicans, too, are the victims of the times.
Why he, himself, Eric Cantor, had not only received ugly e-mails but his campaign office in Virginia had had a window shot out, Cantor said. He went on to accuse the Democratic Party leader
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Bad Timing, Bishop
OPINION: Thursday may not have been the best day for Madison Bishop Robert Morlino to assert the primacy of bishops in determining how Catholic politicians ought to vote.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- The timing might prove a bit awkward.
In Thursday's edition of the Catholic Herald, official paper of the Madison Catholic Diocese, Bishop Robert Morlino attacked the just-passed health care reform legislation and, with it, Catholics who support the measure, because the refuse to acknowledge the authority of the nation's bishops, who opposed it.
He said the bishops receive their teaching authority from
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Why the Catholic Sex Scandal Won't End
OPINION: In 1996, a Wisconsin priest who molested more than 200 deaf kids was exempted from discipline by the man who later became pope. Oh.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- If you wonder whether the scandal involving child abuse by Roman Catholic priests seems never to end, you might want to check Thursday's edition of the New York Times.
It tells the story of one Father Lawrence Murphy, a highly popular priest who worked with deaf children in the 1950s and 1960s. Turns out the good father was accused of molesting more than 200 boys in his care.
The first thing that happened is the late Bishop William Cousins transferred Murphy to a northern Wisconsin diocese, where he
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Don't Be Jerks
OPINION: The Republican Party seems to think it can regain power by promoting jerks. Is that really a good idea?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Two days ago, the nation was wondering what kind of idiot called Rep. Bart Stupak a "baby killer" on the floor of the House of Representatives.
Turns out it was Rep. Randy Neugebauer, a Texas Republican. He quickly announced that he wasn't calling Stupak, personally, a baby-killer. He just meant the bill was a baby killer.
Not likely, but give him the benefit of the doubt. After all, only a true jerk would call a fellow Congressman a baby killer. Only a stupidly true jerk would say that about Stup
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The Unmaking of Paul Ryan
OPINION: The Janesville Republican could be a voice of reasoned opposition to Democratic policies but he keeps falling into the trap of dumb jingoism.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- I do keep trying to respect Congressman Paul Ryan, I really do.
The Janesville Republican is a leading voice in Congress for conservative economics and he periodically keeps coming up with solutions to the nation's problems which, though I think them wrong, are at least sane alternatives to what the Democrats offer.
But the guy also keeps saying dumb things.
In voicing outrage about the Democrat's health reform bill, for example, Ryan said "Our founders got it right when they wrote in the Declarati
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Health Reform Wins: Is This an Obama Defeat?
OPINION: Congress just passed health care reform legislation that progressive leaders have wanted since the days of Teddy Roosevelt. So, why is the press playing this as a potential defeat for Democrats?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- The House of Representatives voted Tuesday by a margin of 219-212 to endorse health care legislation first passed by the Senate during the last days of 2009, thus making law protections for the American people desired by presidents beginning with Teddy Roosevelt.
For all the controversy about "reconciliation,' the fact is that the heavy lifting on health care reform is now accomplished. Future votes by t
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The Pope is Sorry. . .Again
OPINION: Pope Benedict XVI is most likely sincere when he apologizes for the actions of his church in perpetuating child abuse -- but he doesn't seem to have a clue as to what to do about it.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- The scandal of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests against children just seems destined to continue forever.
Saturday, Pope Benedict XVI apologized to Irish Catholics for the actions of priests who, over decades, abused thousands of children and whose actions were covered up by their bishops. He called the priests' actions "sinful and criminal" and he said the bishops committed "grave errors and failures of leadership."
But no one lost a job over those sinful and criminal actions. No American bis
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Nuns Vs. Bishops: Who Wins?
OPINION: A letter signed by leaders of orders representing 60,000 American nuns urges passage of the health care bill now before Congress. A statement by the National Council of Catholic Bishops opposes it. That figures.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Now it's Catholic vs. Catholic in the national health care reform debate.
A letter signed by the heads of orders representing most American nuns was released Tuesday. It urges Congress to pass the health care reform measures now before it. The bill has safeguards against abortion funding and it does all sorts of things to guarantee health care to people who either don't have it or who can't get it at a r
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Strange Places: Texas
OPINION: The Texas School Board has issued its latest textbook demands. This time, Thomas Jefferson is out. Seems he wasn't sufficiently religious. Are these people truly insane?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Can you imagine what it must be like to live in Texas? This is a state where looney tunes reigns supreme, surpassing even Georgia and South Carolina in terms of bizarreness.
The latest example -- as if Gov. Rick Perry wasn't sufficient in and of himself -- is the Texas Board of Education, which just voted to eliminate Thomas Jefferson from a list of philosophers whose writings inspired revolutions.
I guess that makes sense. I mean, what did Thomas Jefferson ever write that might have inspired a revo
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Now It's the Pope?
OPINION: The priest sex abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church just won't go away. Now, the pope is caught up in the controversy.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Good grief!
The news this week is that Pope Benedict XVI is getting caught up in the priest sex abuse scandal.
It seems that while he was an archbishop, his diocese transferred a pedophile priest to another parish, where the priest sinned again.
The Vatican says the pope, then an archbishop, didn't know about the transfer. This is a story that hardly rings true.
Also, when Cardinal Ratzinger, the pope's previous name, was chief adviser to the late Pope John Paul II, he issued a directive that rep
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The Shame of Kansas City
OPINION: The Kansas City Board of Education is considering closing half the city's schools in order to close a $50 billion budget gap. How, in heaven's name, did a major American city get into this pickle?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- I guess I'm just naive, but I always thought Kansas City was a major American metropolis.
So, when school Superintendent John Covington announced this week he is considering closing half the city's schools in order to close a $50 million budget gap, I assumed we must be talking about some other Kansas City.
But, no. This major American community is seriously considering closing half its schools.
This has to be the most embarrassing microcosm of current American values that we have yet seen. We've
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Is Obama a Failure?
OPINION: If you listen to the left, you have to conclude that the president is too weak to govern. The right says that, too, but the left means it.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- In this divided world, one thing seems clear: A good part of the media punditry yearns for the days of President Bush.
The part that yearns for the good-old days of Bush is the left wing, of course. To the far left -- and, perhaps, to the less far left -- Barack Obama just doesn't have the testosterone to lead.
Comedian Bill Maher said it best Wednesday night: Speaking on a MSNBC show, Maher said the Democrats have to learn to invoke fear the way the Republicans do.
He's not alone. Listen to
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Short-Lived Right Wing Hero
OPINION: The Limbaughs and Becks of the media found a new hero in New York Congressman Eric Massa -- and then fell back out of love.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- The funniest turn-about I've seen in a while took place in kook radio and television Tuesday.
It seems that New York Congressman Eric Massa, who resigned Monday amid charges of sexual harassment and claims of recurring cancer, decided to blame the White House for his predicament. He said the Democratic Party, of which he is a member, orchestrated a campaign to drive him from Congress because he opposes health care reform.
And, also, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel, naked and fresh from a gym
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Who Says Americans Don't Want Obamacare?
OPINION: It is a gleeful talking point of the right that Americans don't want Congress to pass health care reform legislation. And just how do they determine that?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- I really try not to spend too much time learning more about the health care debate, since nothing new has been said for months.
But I do get especially weary of Republican leadership intoning that Americans "don't want" the current health reform proposals and that Democrats will pay a heavy price at the polls in November if they pass it.
Or, as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell -- and virtually every other Republican and Republican apologizer in the country puts it, "cramming it down our throats.
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Close Madison Schools?
OPINION: The Madison School Board, faced with a $30 million hole, considers firing teachers and closing schools. But, doesn't this mean we've lost all community values?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- The Madison Public Schools are facing a $30 million budget deficit and the choices facing the Board of Education include closing a couple of schools, laying off a bunch of teachers -- or raising taxes on a $250,000 home by about $300.
School Superintendent Dan Nerad says the choices are difficult but are necessitated by a change in state aid to education. You can't spend money you haven't got and we don't
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Liz Cheney's Celebrity Envy
OPINION: Now Darth Vader's daugher is questioning the patriotism of lawyers who defend terrorist suspects. Is there any American value the Cheney's trust?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Liz Cheney, the former vice president's daughter, is back in the news. Her outfit, Keep America Safe, is running an ad attacking Attorney General Eric Holder for hiring Justice Department officials who once provided pro-bono legal counsel to Guantanamo Bay terrorist suspects.
"Whose values do they share?" the ad questions.
That's too much even for conservative critics of the Obama administration, several of whom called the attack McCarthylike.
You see, in this country, we have this quaint idea th
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Terrorists in Bossier Parish?
A Louisiana sheriff has pulled together 200 volunteers and armed them with a makeshift tank so that they can battle Islamic terrorists in Bossier Parish. No terrorists in Bossier Parish? Effective, isn't it?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- This constant drum-beating of fear carried on by the right wing in this country is having its effects.
The news this week is the Louisiana's Bossier Parish Sheriff Larry Deen has gathered a group of 200 volunteers for quasi-military training to fight attacks by Islamic terrorists in the Northwestern Louisiana parish.
Among other things, the posse has equipped itself with a "Battle Wagon" carrying a .50
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Is This Really Wisconsin's Future?
OPINION: Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker fires 27 union employees and replaces them with private security guards -- even after the County Board denies him the power to do so. In that case, why have laws at all?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker thinks he should be Wisconsin's next governor and he's trying to build a record as a decisive executive to make his case.
That's fine with me. Our governors ought to be decisive executives. I never voted for Tommy Thompson but I've said in print many times that I think he was an excellent governor who truly had the best interests of Wisconsin at heart.
Walker is
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Bad Idea, Tommy
OPINION: According to Washington pundits, Wisconsin Republicans have found their latest hope of defeating Russ Feingold -- former Gov. Tommy Thompson. It will never happen.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- The Washington chatter is filled with speculation that Tommy Thompson might run for the U.S. Senate and dislodge Russ Feingold.
Aside from the fact that we hear that in every election -- senator, governor, you name it -- I don't think Feingold has much to fear.
It's not that Thompson wouldn't be formidable. Though, when you think about it, the guy is older than I am, hard-of-hearing and given to gaffe
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Keep Eating Pie, Mr. President
OPINION: Obama's doctor says he should cut back on fatty foods and desert. Not when the country has this many problems, please.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- President Obama has visited his doctor and learned he has to stop smoking and start eating healthy.
That's the best news I've heard for a long time.
This country has a lot of problems, two wars, a recession, no
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McCain Wants to Protect Medicare? Give Me a Break!
OPINION: Sen. John McCain said Sunday he wants to introduce legislation to keep Congress from cutting Medicare spending as part of a health-care reform plan. Isn't he the same guy who campaigned in 2008 to cut Medicare?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Sen. John McCain has now decided he is a befriender of Medicare.
He said Sunday on "Meet The Press" that he will introduce legislation that would block Democrats from including cuts in Medicare spending from welfare reform legislation in the Senate. The Democrats who favor reform want to cut some spending that goes to subsidize private insurance companies. It's one way they plan to pay for health care reform.
McCain has fancied himself an opponent of government spending and he likes to posture as on
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Driving the Bus
OPINION: A Madison bus driver is the city's highest-paid employee. Cool!
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- I see Madison is in one of its occasional snits about the pay of bus drivers.
It seems veteran driver John Nelson was the city's highest-paid employee in 2009, earning almost $160,000 in salary and overtime. That's a fair amount more than Mayor Dave Cieslewicz earns; the mayor gets about $113,000.
Of course, if I were to ride on a Madison bus, I'd far rather see Nelson driving it than Cieslewicz.
Bu
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What the Health Care Summit Demonstrated
OPINION: After Democrats and Republicans met for seven hours to discuss health care reform, the American people ought now be able to distinguish between honest competing positions.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- President Obama met with Democratic and Republican leaders Thursday to discuss health care reform and, though most of the press seems to have deemed the meeting a failure, I thought it was a great success.
It was a success because each party made its position clear and, also, because it proved the Republicans have no intention of backing any health care reform package under any circumstances. That is impo
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Global Warming Continues
OPINION: Although record snow and cold has shut down much of the country, the climate scientists tell us January was actually the warmest on record in the United States and seventh warmest around the world.
By William R. Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- You'd never know it to turn on the television news and see photos of New York City buried in snow, but January was actually quite a warm month.
Worldwide, it was the second warmest January in history, accordi
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Oops!
OPINION: One guy I have to feel sorry for is that Dutch speed skating trainer who cost his protege a gold medal.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Every once in a while you see something happen that you know will haunt some poor dude for the rest of his life.
For example, during the Olympics 10,000 meter speed skating competition Tuesday when coach Gerard Kamkers called on champion skater Sven Kramer to change lanes.
Oops!
Turns out Kramer didn't need to change lanes but, when he did, he was disqualified. He skated well enough to earn a gold medal -- but you have to skate in the right lane.
Kramer kind of threw a temper tantrum about that
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Losing Faith in Toyota
OPINION: It's hard to maintain faith in an auto maker after you learned its executives boasted of saving $100 million by duping government safety officials.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- The fact that Toyota has had to recall many cars for accelerator and brake problems didn't really bother me, though I drive a Prius.
Modern cars are very complicated machines and problems that occur only rarely can
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Now He's Just Playing With Them
OPINION: President Obama says he wants the federal government to have the right to curb exorbitant health insurance premiums. My guess is the president is just playing with the right wing.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- President Obama, press reports claim, is going to ask for legislation giving his administration the right to curb exorbitant health insurance premiums.
That would seem like a popular and absolutely unworkable idea. Popular because we are all tired of seeing massive increases in premiums every year. Unworkable because the proposal would do little to limit the actual increase in health care costs.
The proposal will certainly give ammunition to the right wing, which is already claiming Obama wants powe
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Let's Vote for Beck?
OPINION: The Conservative Political Action Conference knows who it wants to lead the country: Glenn Beck.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- The Conservative Political Action Conference continued to draw national attention Saturday as those attending took a straw poll on whom they might trust to run the country.
Winners included Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Sen. Jim DeMint.
You do have to wonder whether this whole conference was just a put-on to pimp the national media.
I mean, here we have a conference co-sponsored by the John Birch Society -- I didn't even know those kooks still existed. They gained notoriety in the 1950s by asse
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Is Tiger Sincere?
OPINION: The airwaves were filled Friday with people trying to determine if Tiger Woods was sufficiently sincere in his public apology. Who died and made us God?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- I spent a good part of Friday in my car listening to talk radio and the big subject of the day was Tiger Woods, more specifically, the Tiger Woods televised apology.
The question appeared to be one of whether the f
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Who are these guys trying to kid?
OPINION: The Conservative Political Action Conference demands a cut in federal spending -- and then asks Dick Cheney to speak. These people are not serious.
By William R. Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- The conservatives believe, falsely, I think, that they are on a roll. They opened their Conservative Political Action Conference this week by pretending the Bush administration was populated by aliens who betrayed conservative principles and vowed that, this time, they mean business.
Then they allowed former Vice President Cheney to give a stem-winder speech about conservative values and about how President Obama will be a one-termer.
Dick Cheney.
Well, we'd never link him to the Bush admini
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What Supermajority?
OPINION: The press loves to gloat about the Democrats losing their "supermajority" in the Senate -- but that supermajority never existed in the first place.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- I think that if I read one more piece about the Democrats losing the "supermajority" in the United States Senate, I may have to vomit over the offending column.
A "supermajority" is 60 votes, a sufficient number of votes to block a filibuster. The Republicans,with the enthusiastic backing of the press corps, has determined that any vote worth taking in the Senate must achieve 60 votes. What this means in practice is minority rule. The majority can't pass anything unless the minority agrees -- and the
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Why We Need Health Reform
OPINION: Forget the posturing in Washington. Two callers to a Wisconsin Public Radio program explain what is at stake.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Two anonymous callers to a Wisconsin Public Radio program on cardiology explained exactly what is at stake in the national battle over health reform.
Dr. Jonathan Keevil, a University of Wisconsin-Madison cardiolog
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Demagogues Cry Foul
OPINION: Those Republicans who keep assuring the world Obama is weak now scream foul when the administration hits back.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- The squawk shows are filled with irate Republicans these days. The irate Republicans are calling for the head of John Brennan, President Obama's intelligence advisor.
It seems the honorable Mr. Brennan has had the audacity to suggest that when prominent Republicans go around explaining that Obama doesn't understand the danger to the country and is leaving us ripe for terrorist attack they are serving to e
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One Step Back for Insurance Gouger
OPINION: A California health insurer agrees to desist for two months in its plans to raise insurance rates by 39 percent. Wow.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- The California Blue Cross affiliate, Anthem, raised public hackles a few days ago when it announced plans to increase insurance rates in California by as much as 39 percent.
It seemed like kind of an insensitive thing to do just as the nation was about to consider national health insurance reform legislation. But, then, health insurance companies have billions of dollars to invest in politicians and Anth
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Here's a Bi-Partisan Health Plan. . .Not
OPINION: Georgia Republican Congressman Dr. Tom Price insists the Republicans have a real alternative to the Democrats' health plan -- but he sees no need to share it.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- I've been listening to the Republicans and I think they're beginning to panic about President Obama's invitation to meet them on C-Span and discuss health care.
It's a trap, they say. Obama will just sound reasona
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Who Owns the Media?
OPINION: The nation's right-wing media proclaim to be holier than thou when it comes to Americanism -- but the ownership of two leading voices raises questions.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Rupert Murdoch's media outlets virtually define the right-wing voice in America.
The News Corporation owns FOX News, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post and on and on. Voices of this corporation, including Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly, spend a vast amount of time questioning the patriotism of the President of the United States and criticizing the nation's institutions, most assuredly its legal system.
So, you have to wonder who it is that owns the News Corporation.
The chief owner is, of
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Newt Explains All
OPINION: Newt Gingrich says he misspoke when he said the "Shoe Bomber" was an American citizen. Rather than referring to Richard Reid, he was thinking of Jose Padilla, Newt explains. Really?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was the subject of some derision (including this column) Tuesday after he inaccurately said the "Shoe Bomber" Richard Reid was afforded Miranda rights because he was an Americ
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Making Stuff Up
OPINION: Newt Gingrich explains the difference between the "Shoe Bomber" and the "Underwear Bomber" is that the Shoe Bomber is an American citizen. Except, of course, he isn't.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- So I'm watching Jon Stewart interview former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich last night and Gingrich explains President Obama is soft on terror because his Justice Department let the FBI interview the Underwear Bomber rather than turn him over to the military.
How does that differ from the way the Bush administration treated Richard Reid, the so-called "Shoe Bomber," Stewart asks.
"He was an American citizen!" Gingrich crows, explaining that American citizens have constitutional rights that should
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Sarah, Meet George Wallace
OPINION: The Sarah Palin phenomenon has a long history in American politics, one that encompasses Huey Long and George Wallace.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- As I watched Sarah Palin's speech to the Tea Party Convention Saturday night, I realized I had seen this movie before.
Although she sounds like an idiot to people like me, and, although those who cheer her seem truly scary, she is the latest example of an ongoing phenomenon in American politics, the populist demagogue.
Huey Long of Louisiana rose to public fame by stoking the anger of the populists. So did Alabama Gov. George Wallace, who railed against "pointy-headed intellectuals" and harnessed the
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Taking Racism to a New Low
OPINION: Former Congressman Tom Tancredo calls for a return to literacy tests for voting. Is this really the image the "Tea Party" wants to project?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- News stories about the National Tea Party convention in Nashville tend to center on Saturday's speech by Sarah Palin.
Almost overlooked is the keynote speech by former Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo and the reaction of the Tea Party patriots.
Tancredo said this:
He said President Obama was elected by "people who could not even spell the word 'vote' or say in English." These presumed ignorant voters "put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House whose name is Barack Hussein Obama."
O
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The Inscrutable Toyota
OPINION: The general opinion of Toyota is that it makes blemish-free cars. My own experience is that Toyotas are the auto equivalent of human.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Wow! Toyota is having a bad week.
First, it shuts down its entire American production line because a few of its cars seem to have a tendency to start accelerating without cause. Then, just as it is ready to annou
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Et tu Collins?
OPINION: Now the Republicans even have Sen. Susan Collins defaming the nation's legal system. I'm beginning to lose hope.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- I know the nation's military is obligated to stay out of politics and I know that is a very good idea.
I do wonder, however, if the military doesn't occasionally get sick of watching Republican leaders smear the military justice system.
In its unending eagerness to smear President Obama as someone who is soft on terror at best and a terrorist agent at worst (how else can you read the diatribes by Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh?) the right wing consistently asserts that there is no justice in military ju
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Listen to the Military -- Unless You Disagree
OPINION: Wasn't it the Republican leadership that once demanded unquestioned agreement with military leaders? Or was that only when a Republican sat in the White House?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- This is what Joint Chief of Staffs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen told congressional leaders about his views on gays in the military:
"No matter how hard I look at the issue, I cannot escape being troubled by the fact we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens. For me, it comes down to integrity -- for them as individuals and for us as an institution."
That's a pretty forceful statement for a four-star admiral, the highe
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Baptists in Haiti: Saints or Sinners?
OPINION: The arrest of 10 Baptist do-gooders for trying to remove 33 Haitian "orphans" to the Dominican Republic is one of the weirder stories in a weird land.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- If I understand correctly, this is what happened:
Members of Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho got the idea some time ago that they should begin an orphanage/school in the Dominican Republic. When the earthquake hit Haiti a few weeks ago, they decided to speed up their plans.
Ten members of the congregation travelled to the Dominican Republic, leased a motel, and then went to Haiti to fi
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Crystal Cathedral Faces Hard Times
OPINION: Yet another mega-church is facing hard times. The Crystal Cathedral of the Rev. Robert Schuller is pulling back its television program and laying off staff.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) --The California-based Crystal Cathedral of the Rev. Robert Schuller announces this week that it is curbing release of its television broadcast, "The Hour of Power," laying off 50 staff members and selling valuable property.
The main reason is financial. The church took in about $30 million two years ago and only $22 million last year. It blames the economy.
It is true that the economy, especially in Cal
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Should Priests Twitter?
OPINION: Pope Benedict XVI says his priests should learn how to Twitter and use Facebook to communicate the Gospel. Who knows? It might work.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Pope Benedict XVI is urging his priests around the world to learn to use new media, like Twitter and Facebook, to better communicate the Gospel to young people.
He says he doesn't want the priests to become geeks but notes that the church has a responsibility to youth that is greater than just waiting for young the young to show up in church and preach to them.
Well, maybe.
I have to say, however, th
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Obama in the Elephants' Den
OPINION: I wonder if it was a good idea, politically, for Republicans to allow C-Span to tape their session with President Obama. It seemed to me he dominated the conversation.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- It was all said in jest, but had an under-tinge of seriousness: When President Obama spoke to the House Republican Caucus Friday, he apologized for complimenting the family of Rep. Paul Ryan, of Janesville.
"I don't want to hurt you man," the president joked. Part of the problem in today's Washington, Obama said, is that any gesture of civility from one party to another is quickly used against the civil
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Grow Up, Obama Tells Us
OPINION: President Obama used his State of the Union address to tell Congress to shape up and start dealing with the nation's problems -- and he suggested we might want to grow up, too.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- I thought it was a good speech.
President Obama went before Congress Wednesday night and reminded it that the problems the nation was facing a year ago are still there.
We still have an economy that doesn't work for the middle class, which, when you take inflation into account, saw its income drop during the past decade. We still face the problems of global climate change. We still have an education s
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More South Carolina Weirdness
OPINION: The lieutenant governor of South Carolina opposes free school lunches for poor kids because it will encourage them to breed.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Perhaps it is something in the South Carolina water.
It produced Sen. Jim DeMint, who is personally responsible for the fact the nation does not yet have a director of its airline security office -- DeMint put a block on President Obama's pick because he feared unionization of security screeners more than he fears terrorist attacks.
It produced Gov. Mark Sanford, best known for his tryst with a beautiful Latin American hottie.
And, best of all, it produced Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer, who is in the news
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Bin Laden in Underwear
OPINION: Osama bin Laden hails the "Underwear Bomber." There was a time when he wouldn't associate himself with such a botched operation.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- I don't know if it is good news or bad news, but I'm impressed that Osama bin Laden is now associating himself with the Underwear Bomber who tried to blow up an airplane Christmas Day.
I'm impressed because it seems to me that if bin Laden now must resort to rejoicing in failed attempts, he has lost a great deal of his mo jo.
I mean, this is the guy we hold responsible for the destruction of American embassies, for the near sinking of an American war ship and, tragically, for the destruction of the W
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What Happened to the Depression?
OPINION: The pundits assess President Obama's first year and miss his greatest achievement: We no longer fear a second Great Depression.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- I keep promising to stop paying attention to pundits, but I lie.
I keep reading them and wondering at all the wisdom, most of it contradictory, that I receive in return.
This week, they've all been evaluating President Obama's first year in office and, pretty much, finding it wanting. They find it wanting, pretty much because he seems to have ignored their best advice -- though, since no two of them a
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Is the Republic Doomed?
OPINION: The latest Supreme Court decision giving corporations the right to overwhelm the political process may be the end of the American system as we know it -- or not.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- One thing is pretty clear: When Chief Justice John Roberts told the Senate during his confirmation hearings that he would be a modest justice who respected precedent, he lied through his teeth.
The Roberts Court now defines judicial activism. This week, it upended a century's worth of precedent on campaign finance regulation and offered corporations the right to spend whatever money they wish to swing elections.
If big banks don't like President Obama's criticism of their plans to give out billions
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Forgetting Ted Kennedy
OPINION: You've got to love a country that will replace Ted Kennedy with a guy who posed nude for Cosmopolitan.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Republican Scott Brown won Ted Kennedy's Senate seat in Massachusetts and, from what I can see, he won it fair and square.
The good voters of the Bay state sent a tough message to Washington. They don't want no st
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Ignoring Massachusetts
OPINION: Yes, there is an election in Massachusetts. No, I don't think the fate of Western civilization is at stake.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- I took a new job a couple of weeks ago and am now serving as interim senior pastor of Swiss Church in New Glarus.
It's a great job and I'm having the time of my life, I doubt that there is any job in the world more satisfying than being a parish pastor. But, I've found serving a congregation has necessitated some changes in my personal life.
The main change is that I have severely curbed my watching of cable television news.
I find that I cannot build the stockpile of optimism and hope that a pas
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The Story is in the Singing
OPINION: It isn't "news" when desperate people riot for food. It is news when desperate people sing hymns in the midst of devastation.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- If you've watched television news at all, you have seen recurring images of marauding Haitian youths carrying machetes and grabbing food from women and children.
The stories about rioting and despair among earthqua
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Mugging the Banks
OPINION: President Obama wants to put a surtax on earnings of the nation's 50 busiest banks. It may be unfair -- but so was the way those banks destroyed the life savings of millions of Americans.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- A pretty good case can be made for the idea that Franklin Delano Roosevelt's policies saved the American capitalist system in the 1930s. The banks don't believe it, but I think it's true.
It may also be true that President Obama is trying to save Wall Street this year by suggesting a special surtax on earnings of the nation's 50 biggest banks. He says the United States loaned those banks the money and
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A Stillness in Haiti
OPINION: The magnitude of the devastation in Haiti demands decent people leave their differences behind and work together to ease suffering.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- I keep trying to imagine what it would be like if an earthquake struck Washington, D.C. and both the White House and the National Cathedral just collapsed.
That happened in Haiti. The palace of the president colla
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A Private Tea Party?
OPINION: The National Tea Party Convention will be in February. Sarah Palin will speak and the press is not invited. Fine. But aren't these the people who keep whining that the press ignores them?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- I guess I still don't understand the Tea Party people.
They're holding a convention in Nashville, Tenn. next month, charging delegates $549 to attend a banquet and hear Sarah Palin speak and banning the press from the event.
That would be fine with me since I can't imagine wanting to go to a convention with a bunch of tea party adherents. They always strike me as being more than a little spooky. And I cannot imagine anything important that Sarah Palin might have to say, since she has not yet said any
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Feingold May Denounce Reid?
OPINION: The online publication Politico says Sen. Russ Feingold isn't sure whether he will support Sen. Harry Reid to continue as majority leader because of Reid's comments about Barrack Obama. Russ, don't be an idiot.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- The online publication Politico says Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold is still thinking about whether he will call for the resignation of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid because Reid called President Obama "light-skinned" and said he has no "Negro dialect."
Feingold says the remarks are troubling and he will have to consider whether they are a deal breaker in his support for Reid.
I've known Feingold sinc
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And Just How Did Harry Reid Defame Obama?
OPINION: A new book says Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid once referred to President Obama as a "light-skinned African American with no Negro dialect. . ." Well, isn't he?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- We're only a week into the new year and, already, political dialogue has sunk to absurdity.
The latest is a flap over a comment attributed to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who, apparently, once referred to Barack Obama as a "light-skinned" African American who doesn't speak in a "Negro dialect unless he chooses to."
The quote is contained in a new political book, "Game Changers," and it was a press splash all weekend.
The chairman of the Republican Party, Michael Steele, called on Reid to resi
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Are the Democrats Doomed?
OPINION: Having watched cable television news entirely too long, it has finally dawned on me that the pundits offer nothing to help my understanding of the day's news.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Sitting through about the 119th interview with some "Democratic strategist" or "Republican strategist" explain to me that the Democratic Party is doomed, I finally realized that these people don't know what they're talking about.
The latest bout of hand-wringing came when two Democratic senators, Chris Dodd and Byron Dorgan, announced Wednesday they will not seek reelection this year. Each of them has bee
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Should Tiger Become a Christian?
OPINION: Retired commentator Brit Hume says Tiger Woods should become a Christian so he can be forgiven his infidelities and become a beacon to the world's youth. That's not usually the way it works.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Commentator Brit Hume has been in the news all week because he thinks Tiger Woods should stop being a Buddhist and, instead, become a Christian because Christianity offers a clearer path of forgiveness and redemption than does Buddhism.
Hume does admit that he doesn't actually know that Woods is a Buddhist. It is possible that Woods is a Christian, though, Hume notes, if Woods were a Christian, that fact
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Labeling Terrorism
OPINION: The conservative attack on Obama seems to boil down to the idea that he won't label terrorism "terrorism." The fact that the does doesn't seem to make much difference.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- So I've been watching the Republican response to President Obama's handling of the attempting Christmas terrorist attack on an American Airlines plane and it seems to pare down to three complaints.
First, he didn't go on television soon enough to express his outrage. Second, his outrage wasn't outraged enough and, third, he maintains this stubborn unwillingness to torture.
My favorites are former Vice
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Let Glenn Grothman Set City Policies -- and Let the State Pay
OPINION: State Sen. Glenn Grothman says he will introduce a bill giving the state power to set snow plowing policies in Madison. More power to him, so long as he picks up the city streets budget as well.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- I confess I have not studied every proposal introduced by Sen. Glenn Grothman, a West Bend Republican, so it is possible that one or two of them weren't stupid.
But, then, who are we kidding? They were all most li
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Blackwater Whitewash
OPINION: Do the conservatives who decry the use of federal courts to try suspected terrorists also denounce the court decision to free Blackwater guards in Baghdad who murdered 17 civilians?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) --The facts are not much in dispute: Back in 2007 a group of Blackwater security guards in Iraq opened fire on Baghdad civilians, killing 17 of them.
They guards were arrested and charged with murder. Last Thursday, a federal judge threw out the charges and freed all but one of the guards, a hapless guy who made the mistake of pleading guilty.
The ruling, apparently, isn't popular in Iraq, where the citizens take some issue with the ability of private Americans coming into their cities, killing residen
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We May Actually Be Winning the War on Terror
OPINION: In the midst of all the wrangling by spy agencies about who let the Nigerian terrorist get on an airplane emerges on tantalizing possibility: This clown may be the best Al Qaeda can do.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- O,K, let's begin by stipulating the obvious: There was a massive screw up involved in letting Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian terrorist, on that Northwest Airlines plane Christmas Day.
I'm not so convinced
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Be a Tiger?
OPINION: Researchers say the stock of companies endorsing Tiger Woods has dropped by as much as $12 billion -- which is one good reason not to be in the stock market.
By WILLIAM R. WINEKE
Madison, WI (YN) -- My favorite news story of the week involves a Tuesday report suggesting that the stock of companies endorsing Tiger Woods has decreased by as much as $12 billion in the days since the golfer was caught cheating on his wife, Elin.
The market value of Accenture, AT&T, Gillette -- you get the picture -- have plummeted as Woods' image as a perfect human being has faded.
Now, the report by researchers
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The System Worked?
OPINION: Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano says the fact that passengers on a Northwest Airlines flight managed to avert an onboard bombing shows the success of the "system." Some system!
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Our politicians have managed to say a lot of dumb things over the past year, but Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Homeland Security, saved the best for last.
Speaking on a CNN news show Sunday morning, Napolitano discussed the Detroit flight that almost ended in catastrophe when a Nigerian student attempted to detonate a bomb on a Northwest Airlines plane Christmas day.
"One thing you have to understand is that the system worked," Napolitano explained.
The system "worked?" Well, I guess if you look
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Flying the Dangerous Skies
OPINION: So, this Nigerian guy gets on an airliner with a bomb strapped to his leg and no one notices? I think I'll travel by mule train from now on.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- This is what I don't understand:
Whenever I fly, I have to go through all sorts of airport security, take off my shoes, sit in a seat so cramped I couldn't bend over if I tried, and, generally have a miserable time
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Who Can You Trust?
OPINION: Rush Limbaugh says we can't trust the government, the media, science or academia, that they all live in a universe of lies. Think about that for a moment.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- I keep telling myself I will never again waste valuable electrons writing about Rush Limbaugh and his demented minions; then, he does something so otherworldly that I get pulled back into the web.
A few days ago, I heard him denounce the "Four Corners of Deceit," namely, government, science, the media and academia. He says they all inhabit a "universe of lies" and that it is up to good conservatives to de
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Mary and Joseph Didn't Have Health Care, Either
OPINION: It's easy to whine our way into thinking we live in the worst of times. Most of history would be happy to trade us problems.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- During this season, I always try to think through the Christmas story through the eyes of those who led it.
We tend to look at the story of the angel appearing to Mary and informing her she would give birth to a son as a beautiful tale of God's love. Mary, a teenage girl, must have been terrified.
We don't really know who the father of Jesus actually was. Those of us who are Christians say the father was God. Non-believers have pointed to all sorts of other possibilities. The one person we know wa
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The Environment Goes to the Dogs
OPINION: New Zealand researchers estimate pets create bigger "carbon footprints" than do SUVs. So, do we eat Fido to save the planet?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Things I would never know if I didn't surf the web:
Two New Zealand researchers have studied the carbon footprints of pets and determined that a dog causes more environmental damage than does a SUV.
They figure it takes two acres of land to provide the grazing needs of animals used for dog food and the carbon expenditure so engendered actually is greater than that engendered by driving your trusty Expl
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Why Liberals Don't Control Government
OPINION: Democrats seem on their way to delivering health care reform hoped for since the days of Teddy Roosevelt. Their liberal supporters promise to abandon them next November.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Frankly, I didn't think I would live long enough to see major health care reform in this country.
I suppose it is possible that I still won't live that long. But the Democrats in the United States Senate seem to have put together 60 votes and even manage to wheel ailing West Virginia Sen Robert Byrd into the Senate chambers at 1 a.m. to cast deciding votes.
It's an amazing feat. Over the next 10 years
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Health Care Breakthrough?
OPINION: Sen. Ben Nelson says he will now vote for health care reform. Why aren't "Progressives" cheering?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- It's kind of a truism in American politics that all major changes squeak through with no votes to spare.
Since we rarely make any major changes, it is easy to forget that. I guess that's one reason the world needs
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Why I Want Obama to Succeed in Copenhagen
OPINION: Since I don't believe global climate change is a hoax, I'd really like us to help keep the world livable for my grandson.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- President Obama flies to Copenhagen today to try to nail down a serious program to combat global climate change.
Naturally, he is opposed by most Republicans, who have, for some inexplicable reason, decided that g
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Remembering Oral
OPINION: Evangelist Oral Roberts was a bizarre kind of character, but he represented an era where religious frauds at least promised good things and didn't try to drive Christians apart.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- The Big Five of Verona Union Free High School in the 1950s was, in some ways, a religious bunch.
We'd sit up until all hours of the morning debating the existence or non-existence of God. Three of us ended up becoming ordained clergy, including the member who professed atheism in high school.
At any rate, when evangelist Oral Roberts came to the Dane County Fairgrounds sometime in the late 1950s -- I'd
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Can Democrats Actually Govern?
OPINION: Health care reform is almost upon us -- so the Democrats who have championed it for decades now talk about killing it for another generation. Are these people really capable of governing?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Now it's Howard Dean who says health care reform bills should be defeated.
It seems that Dean, a physician and former chairman of the Democratic Party, is upset that Sen. Joseph Lieberman has been successful in killing an expansion of Medicare to cover people aged 55 and older who are without health insurance.
I agree with Dean and with other Democrats who would like to roast Lieberman on a spit. Thre
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And the Glaciers Keep Melting
OPINION: Apparently, there's "controversy" over the concept of global warming. Too bad no one told that to the world's disappearing glaciers.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- If you want to put the global warming argument into perspective, try Googling "Bolivia" and "Glacier."
What you will find is a long list of stories warning that the Chacaltaya glacier in Bolivia has pretty much disappeared. That's the most recent story. As you follow other listings, you will find warnings that it is in danger of disappearing, that it might disappear in a decade and so forthl.
The thin
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Entering the Medicare Maze
OPINION: I am told the competition between Medicare plans is a good thing. All I know is that it gives me a headache, costs not covered by Medicare.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- For those of us older than 65, this is the time of year we get to select a Medicare plan.
We can choose either traditional Medicare, which provides hospital care and, for another $100 a month or so, physician care, or we can go to a razzle-dazzle Medicare Advantage program, or choose a Medicare supplement program or a drug program.
It all seems like something designed by Rube Goldberg, a famous cartoonist known for creating bizarre cartoon machines.
A year ago, I surveyed the plans at hand and foun
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More Bad News for the News Biz
OPINION: In order to save money, major newspaper chains are firing their copy editors and contracting the work out. This is a really, really bad idea.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- I suppose writing about the problems facing newspapers is kind of in-joke stuff, of interest mainly to those of us who make our livings -- or who once made our livings -- producing news professionally.
But, when n
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Obama's Nobel Speech Echoes Niebuhr
OPINION: The president's Nobel lecture was the finest dissertation I've heard on the relationship between power and peace. It echoes his theological mentor, Reinhold Niebuhr.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Whatever merits President Obama's policies may have, I think most serious people will admit that he makes the nation proud of him when he stands on the world stage.
Obama's Nobel Lecture Thursday was the finest exposition I've ever heard on the relationship between a leader's obligation to pursue peace and his obligation to protect his country.
It had many similarities to the ideas of the late Yale theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr, which is not surprising since Obama has actually studied and thought abou
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Cheney, Please Shut Up
OPINION: When a former vice president of the United States accuses the current president of treason, it's time for people to protest.
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- Former Vice President Cheney is so consistently in the news for trashing President Obama that it gets easy to ignore the latest outburst.
But, when Cheney, in an interview with FOX Television commentator Sean Hann
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Spending for Jobs
OPINION: Haven't the Republicans been demanding that President Obama do something to help create jobs? Then why are they so opposed to his latest effort to create jobs?
By Bill Wineke
MADISON, WI (YN) -- I figured that, this time, President Obama would receive Republican support for one of his ideas.
All summer and all fall, the GOP leaders have been lamenting the high unemployment rate and have been demanding the Obama administration change its policies and promote new jobs.
So, Monday, the president announced that he wanted to take some of the money banks are repaying to the national TARP program and use it to make loans available to small businesses and to build infrastructure around the country.
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