Hook 'em

Thought I'd update y'all subjected to my past incessant harping about law school.

I'm gonna be a Longhorn next year.

At the beginning of the year I thought I'd take the highest ranked school I could get into, or the best offer. But I ended up doing neither, and instead taking the offer in the warmest climate. (Maybe I shouldn't have made the decision after a winter w/ 100+ inches of snow.)

But I'm a little freaked about law school (I imagine it'll be a bit more taxing than a Poli Sci degree from UW-Madison), as well as the 1300 mile move that is coming up shortly. So I'd appreciate good thoughts from everyone.

"What's my name again"

Obama and his rival for the Democratic nomination, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, have accused McCain of being economically illiterate and out of touch with ordinary Americans' pocketbook concerns.

Can you imagine if Hillary called Barack "economically illiterate"? She'd be called a racist from Plaisted to Arianna.

But because she called John McCain that name, she's not getting any flak, based on the color of his skin.

And that's not racism, we're told.

Success!

In this story about surrogate mothers, intrepid Newsweek reporters have finally figured out what Communication Arts majors can do with their degrees:

That sense of empowerment and self-worth is one of the greatest rewards surrogate mothers experience. "I felt like, 'What else am I going to do with my life that means so much?' " says Amber Boersma, 30, of Wausau, Wis. She is blond, outgoing and six months pregnant with twins for a couple on the East Coast who could not bear children on their own due to a hysterectomy. Boersma, married to a pharmaceutical rep, is a stay-at-home mom with a 6-year-old girl and 4-year-old boy, and a college graduate with a communications degree.

I foresee a panel convened in the CA department immediately.

Of course, I'm kidding. There is nothing wrong with being a surrogate mother (provided all ethical tightropes are walked, if one is concerned with such things), and I'm sure Amber is going to bring great joy into that couple's life. Further, I'm sure CA majors are only the best and brightest young people, all intent on making the world a better place than when their wonderful lives began.

No really, CA degrees are just as demanding as any other degree in any other school or college at UW.

Dammit...there really is no way to praise CA majors without tinges of sarcasm seeping through, I think.

In other news, I've finally decided which law school I'll be attending next fall, lifting a huge weight from my shoulders.

I'm Confused

So there's a new remark made by another one of the campaigns that everyone is all hemorrhoidal about, and that doesn't really interest me. But this does:

Obama aide Susan Rice called for Clinton to fire Geraldine Ferraro, the only woman yet to run on a major party's presidential ticket, after her comments Friday to a Los Angeles newspaper.

"That's a really outrageous and offensive comment," Rice said on MSNBC television after Ferraro, who sits on Clinton's finance committee, had said: "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position."

[...]

"And if he was a woman -- of any color -- he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept," Ferraro said.

The Clinton campaign had no immediate comment. Late last year, the New York senator fired two junior aides for spreading emails claiming falsely that Obama is secretly a Muslim.

Isn't the person Ferraro is working for, Hillary Clinton, a woman in exactly that position? That position being a viable, if not likely, presidential candidate? Momentum, etc., aside, the two of them are in exactly the same position. Am I missing something?

So either Ferraro is that stupid, and that incapable of making logical, consistent arguments, or she has accidentally let it slip that Clinton is not actually female.

Boo to you, Ted Thompson

This made me smile for the first time since I heard the news. Thanks, Jib.

Not the sensory experience they were hoping for

Is it just me, or does the chant in this:



....remind anyone else of this from the Wizard of Oz?

When will we be issued our monkey suits?

Hey, UW:

Do me a favor. At least allow me to graduate before trying to hit me up for money.

I tell ya what--May 19th, I'll take every call you want to throw my way. But just hold off 'till then, mkay?

What am I, chopped liver?

There's something to be said for the clean break...

Dear Wisconsin,

It's not you, it's me.

Sure, we had some good times together. I mean, I've been here for almost 22 years. 22 l-o-o-ong years. When we first started out, I loved your winters. I loved the snowfights, snowballs, all of it. I remember taking snowmobile trips until my knees got frostbite. I remember waking up and seeing freshly fallen snow weighing down the pine tree branches. There were some good times in there, somewhere.

You didn't do anything differently, but I need to move on.

I'm sorry, I've just seen that it can be better. You have kept me so sheltered I didn't even know there were places on Earth where the sun emerged from October through April.

I had really hoped you could handle this in a mature, adult fashion.

But you just had to throw me out with one last "fuck you," didn't you.

Well, fine. I guess I'll just leave (in June) with only my memories of the never-ending winter.

I hope you're happy.

Hugs and kisses,

Jenna

Damn, it's cold

I saw a Weather Channel remote feed van parked on the Capitol square this evening.

It's kinda like sending bomb-sniffing dogs to Baghdad.

Pointing out the horrible, but obvious.

It just doesn't relate...

I love this line:

Complaining about smoke in bars is like complaining that Old Country Buffet doesn’t utilize enough organic ingredients — it’s just not the right complaint for the forum.

Coddling Students at UW

Ok, now they're just taunting helicopter parents.

University of Wisconsin System graduates might soon have two transcripts to show potential employers.

The traditional one would still list classes taken and grades earned. But a second would describe the student 's personal development during college, such as whether the student interned for a company, directed a play, or edited the student newspaper.

President Kevin Reilly said the System would be the nation 's first to use a second transcript on all campuses. Reilly will propose the idea to the Board of Regents on Thursday and is forming a task force to hammer out details.

The idea comes as colleges and universities search for ways to better assess students ' learning. Employers are increasingly complaining that universities don 't do enough to tell them whether applicants have the skills they need.

This might be a stupid question, but why isn't that information ON STUDENTS' RESUMES. Perhaps I was naive, but I had assumed employers would prefer students who are enterprising enough (I can't believe I'm saying this) to describe relevant work and extracurricular experience on their résumé or even in the interview.

This just seems like the perfect opportunity for, Option A, the UW administration to waste millions of dollars and countless man hours on another project with no beneficial conclusion, or, Option B, the UW to give helicopter parents even more things to call their kids' Chancellors about. Either way, it doesn't reflect well on students.

Speaking of helicopter parents, at the LSAT administration last June, I was amazed how many students showed up with their parents. For the love of God, these people were all 21, 22, 23 years old or older. Do you really need your mommy and daddy there to hold your hand before a test? Those people are going to make GREAT lawyers.

Really, NOW? Wow

Folks, if you're one of those people who has a problem with how much I swear, this is not the post for you. So go away.

Everyone else, go here. (Via MM, via Charlie) You don't have to read the whole thing, just the last sentence of the first paragraph.

That is fucking disgusting. What in God's name is NOW's problem? How dare they compare a horrific, traumatic, criminal event to their candidate losing a meaningless political endorsement?

I think most people knew NOW had no real interest in women, neither supporting nor advancing them, but this should convince everyone else. It is unbelievable for them to be so glib with such a serious matter as fucking rape.

It is not a "betrayal" for Teddy Kennedy to endorse someone other than Hillary Clinton. It's a political choice, nothing more, nothing less. And for NOW to draw an analogy to rape is pretty damned repulsive.

This is the fucking president of the statewide organization for New York. It wasn't just an offhanded reference, but an entire press release arguing this endorsement was like a "gang rape" of Clinton. I understand she's bitter because her girl is going down in flames. But to trivialize something as disgusting as rape is taking that bitterness to its lowest level.

My Lord.

A little ray of sunshine

As I'm trying to block out the last 24 hours or so, this cheered me up.

Doesn't that about sum up Kevin Barrett in his entirety?

Trying to get attention for a discrimination complaint he claimed to file--but he didn't, actually--to an agency with no jurisdiction. Oh, and one more thing--the discrimination he alleges is over his well-documented academic (and apolitical) insanity.

Top notch job, per usual, Kev.

Lombardi is rollin' in his grave

While watching that little 'ol game yesterday, I happened to see a commercial for Fox's coverage of the Super Bowl.

I didn't believe it at first. I thought it was a joke.

Boy, was I wrong.

Fox is doing a red carpet for the Super Bowl, manned by none other than Ryan Seacrest.

Is nothing sacred? Do they have to pussify the freaking Super Bowl too?

Burning down the house

This is the worst idea ever. I hate those people that say, "If Candidate X wins, I'm moving to Canada" or something equally silly.

But if the government ever comes in and tries to control my thermostat, that really will push me to give up my citizenship. Sitting here, watching the BCS Championship (which somehow ended up being the least exciting bowl game this year) I have my thermostat set at 84 degrees and I'm still huddled under two blankets. And today's a (relatively) warm day in Madison.

In my old age, I've come to not handle the cold well, which explains the locales of my potential law schools later this year, and I greatly value the ability to keep my apartment as warm as humanly possible. When they come to install a "programmable communicating thermostat" in my house, they'll have to pry my heat control out of my cold, dead hands.

This...

...is heartbreaking.

In which I provide unsolicited advice to the City of Madison

From a Daily Page article on a proposal to change snow removal tactics in Madison, part of which includes:

Expand notification efforts when a snow emergency is called. Work with the University, downtown neighborhood associations, business organizations and others to help notify downtown on street parkers when a snow emergency has been called. Other notification options will be explored as well (e.g., text messaging, etc.)

I have an alternate proposal. Instead of spending taxpayer dollars on unnecessary collaboration or a text messaging notification system, the logistics of which would be, to put it mildly, interesting, let's try this four-step notification system:

1. Pull head out of one's arse, and look out the window.

2. See if it is snowing, and if snowing, if accumulating.

3. If it is accumulating, they're probably going to have to, um, plow the freaking roads.

4. Move your damn car.

I really cannot believe that in an area with such a high density of citizens with higher degrees that we are unable to collectively figure this out. It's pretty obvious when the city will have to plow. It's pretty obvious that if your car is parked on the street, that might cause a problem for the plows. C'mon, do we really need a multi-level, taxpayer-funded notification system to alert us to this?

Unbelievably...

...disingenuous.

This race is going to kill me

I swear, I'm going to poke my eyes out.

As Huckabee made stops Monday, it was clear that while he has momentum, voters are also hearing the attacks on him. At a speech at Principal Financial Group in downtown Des Moines, a man asked Huckabee if he was a "tax raiser" and "soft on immigration." Huckabee backed some tax increases while in Arkansas and supported a bill that would have allowed the children of illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition, something Romney and other GOP candidates have lambasted.

He faced questions about taxes throughout the day, and he noted frequently that a conservative named Ronald Reagan had supported tax increases both as governor of California and later as president. "Does anyone in the Republican Party call Ronald Reagan a liberal?" Huckabee said.

Just because "Ronald Reagan did it" is not a $*#@ing justification for raising taxes. If he is so proud of his record, he should give us the reasons he supported higher taxes without mentioning the name of a former president. I'm sure he can think of several perfectly good justifications (at least in his mind) for raising taxes.

But for the love of God, because a governor from California did it decades ago is not one of them.

Ambush!

Wow. Major kudos to the Governor's staff for failing to do even the slightest checking into the students invited to today's bill signing. I bet your boss loved being put in that position. Congrats all around.

From the inbox:

I'm really getting sick of this cutesy crap:


Might I suggest Governor Romney's team help him find his balls and re-enter this race like a man. And heck, while I'm suggesting things, y'all might want to take another look at that "Wisconsin statewide finance steering committee."

Stop pointing fingers and start fixing the problem

Ick.

The national debt has hit $9 trillion for the first time.

The Treasury Department, which issues a daily accounting of the debt, said Wednesday that the debt subject to limit was at $9 trillion on Tuesday. It was $8.996 trillion on Monday.

Last month, Congress passed and President Bush signed into law an increase in the government's borrowing ceiling to $9.815 trillion. It was the fifth debt limit increase since Bush took office in January 2001. Those increases have totaled $3.865 trillion.

Given that every single candidate for President is hardly qualified to be a burger flipper, let alone the leader of the free world, I've completely erased my entire slate of expectations, and only want one thing from them: do something about the debt. This is an issue that will have a real effect on my life for the next 40 years. The candidate who seems most likely or most able to do this will earn my vote.

November 4th...be there

'Nuff said.

From me to you, Professor

I find it absolutely amazing that in a span of five minutes, a literature professor can state that Ronald Reagan was a "vicious, vile racist," that the Republican party has its entire roots based in racism, that states' rights is solely about segregation, and then giggle manically about U.S. military "losses in Korea, Vietnam, and now Iraq."

Excuse my language, but stick to literature, asshole. Your complete idiocy when it comes to politics and history precludes you from ever speaking on those matters. If only your grades were not so subjective...

For relocation purposes...

In the future, if Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and the Madison city government could let us all know which neighborhoods will be tolerant of crime and which will not a bit sooner, that would be peachy.

Quote of the Day

“Honestly, I don’t really buy into the American ideals that the more money we have the better."

Alyse Pfeil, UW-Madison freshman.

Then really, Alyse, you must immediately withdraw from school. I guarantee you, the only thing a college degree will do for you is ensure you make more money throughout your lifetime. As that clearly disgusts you, you have no place here. You are simply wasting your, and/or your parent's, and taxpayers' money being here.

Gym Etiquette

Super Secret Message to the two men in the sauna at the Princeton Club this afternoon talking about how "fluent" the male dancers on "Dancing with the Stars" were: shut the hell up.

I really don't understand this

I know there's so few people left at the McCain camp that John himself is probably sending out these emails to his list serv, but even so, is this really the best message to have your campaign?

"Sustain McCain?" Why not just release a picture of him literally on life support?

SCOTUS peeves off WaPo Columnists

E.J. Dionne thinks the Senate should refuse to give consent to another one of Bush's nominees.

The sins of the previously accepted nominees on the Supreme Court? Increasing free speech rights. Breaking down racial barriers. And, most shockinglyrightwingcrazynutjob conservative decision of them all: blocking the execution of a mentally ill prisoner.

Madmen. They must be stopped.

Sarcasm aside, this brings up the age-old question of exactly to what extent the Framers meant "consent" in terms of presidential nominees. I tend to think that nominees are one of the spoils of winning the presidency, and the Senate must only debate the most minimal of background and qualification questions. No litmus tests, no blocking of candidates based on ideologies. Dionne clearly disagrees...until the next president comes along.

Well, since it's for local government...

I guess even libertarians have to get re-elected.

Life isn't always about "group-modified consensus"

My God, are these kids in for a rude awakening when they enter the real world.

Except for, of course, the dude who is 33 and still living in the co-op with a bunch of college kids. I have a feeling he'll go from the co-op straight back to his mother's house.

Not one tax left unlevied

Crap.

There's a commodity we've forgotten to tax.

We must remedy this immediately.

Overheard in class today...

(Not so much overheard, but stated as fact by the professor.)

Christians who advocate for using torture during interrogation procedures (she was referring to Don Rumsfeld) are just like 'pro-lifers' who also support the death penalty.

A girl without a candidate

I'm so not on the Fred bandwagon yet. (via LMS)

There's nothing that he brings to the table that's not already there, in some form or another. People like him just for the sake of liking someone different, I think. That, plus I'm opposed to John McCain because of BCRA--which Fred voted for, so it'd be a tad hypocritical to forget about that.

I'm still hoping a darkhorse will come around with the business sense of Mitt Romney, the likeability of Rudy Giuliani, and the stones of Ron Paul.

I'm Back

Maybe...I think so.

I had to step away from a little while as I studied for the LSAT. Every spare moment went into it, including my moments I used to read the news in the morning and enthrall y'all here. But now, (thank God) that's over.

Where's the quote saying fundraising is despicable?

Gosh, I just don't know how to handle a campaign finance news article without a quote from Mike McCabe. He analyzes everything and puts it into perspective for me so well. I think I'll wait to see what he has to say about it before I make up my mind.

More speech supression proposed

Owen (and others, I'm sure) is pretty concerned about the latest incumbent-protection legislation proposed in Wisconsin.

I always think of A. Scalia whenever "campaign finance reform" gets mentioned:

The first instinct of power is the retention of power, and, under a Constitution that requires periodic elections, that is best achieved by the suppression of election-time speech.

What a loss

Stupid, stupid man.

Let me get this straight...

So this guy "retires" and then comes back with two blogs? I think the Glamour Shots (and Melanie Conklin) have gone to his head.

It's time to take action

As the sexual assaults and crime in Madison seem to reach an ever-increasing intensity, one candidate for mayor is trying to do something about it, and one is sitting on his hands.

Women afraid to be on Madison's streets after dark have a pretty easy choice this April.

Doing the people's business

Real big things happening downtown, you know.

This is his inspiration?

C'mon, Mayor Dave, you can do better than this:

Edward Uhlir and Mayor Dave on Millennium Park and ideas for Madison, Academy Evening free talk, Tues., March 13, 7 pm, Promenade Hall, Overture

Chicago’s new Millennium Park transformed 24 acres of commuter rail lines, neglected parkland, and a parking lot into a vibrant cultural showcase on the lakefront. Edward Uhlir, Millennium Park’s director of design, architecture and landscape, describes how they did it, and Mayor Dave Cieslewicz responds with ideas for Madison in “Millennium Park: A Triumph for Chicago, an Inspiration for Madison—Edward Uhlir and Mayor Dave Cieslewicz” at 7 pm Tuesday, March 13 at Promenade Hall, Overture Center for the Arts, 201 State Street in Madison. We welcome a lively discussion with all who care about parks, urban design, and sustainable growth in our city. The discussion will be moderated by Susan B. King.

Really? $350 million over budget (three times its original projected cost) and four years late? A project wrought with charges of cronyism? That is their "triumph" and our "inspiration?" I don't think so.

Chicago's Mayor Daley was desperate to have a legacy in Chicago that would "live on for a millennium," no matter what the costs. Is Mayor Dave heading down the same egotistical path?

Giuliani and his judges

While Rudy Giuliani is getting a lot of attention as the "new front runner," the Politico digs up this gem:

"I would want judges who are strict constructionists because I am," he told South Carolina Republicans last month. "Those are the kinds of justices I would appoint -- Scalia, Alito and Roberts."

But most of Giuliani's judicial appointments during his eight years as mayor of New York were hardly in the model of Chief Justice John Roberts or Samuel Alito -- much less aggressive conservatives in the mold of Antonin Scalia.

A Politico review of the 75 judges Giuliani appointed to three of New York state's lower courts found that Democrats outnumbered Republicans by more than 8 to 1.

Now, that being said, I care very little about party ideology of judges if it were strictly that. But party ideology often correlates with one's adherence to orginialism, or the lack thereof. And that ratio is worrisome.

He's been trying to make social conservatives forget about his ideological stances, and making these judicial promises for some time now. It still bothers me, it is still disgustingly transparent, and now seems to be completely baseless.

Blanchard changes state penalties

I'm glad to see Blanchard takes the penal code so seriously.

"There's been some adjustment in our policies." Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard knows the state defines possession of marijuana as a crime. But from now on his office won't be treating it like one. "We're simply going more wholesale to saying 25 grams or less of possession of marijuana-not a crime."

Blanchard isn't trying to decriminalize marijuana. He simply doesn't have the staff to prosecute minor possession cases. "We're about to have the same number of prosecutors in this office that we had in 1988."

A recent analysis by the state says Dane County needs eight more prosecutors to keep up with a growing caseload.

Blanchard says he has to prioritize. "We struggle to staff child abuse cases, when it comes to something like marijuana possession we are not going to be handling it as aggressively as we could."

This doesn't mean marijuana possession is legal in Dane County. But instead of facing 6 months in jail and a $1,000 fine, criminals are looking at a citation.

"I don't like it. I'll be honest, I don't like it," says Town of Madison Police Chief Scott Gregory. He says he won't have his officers change anything. "Our job as a law enforcement agency is to make those arrests when we have probable cause and let the District Attorney's Office do what they believe is best."

Brian Blanchard is king, at least in Dane County. He can do whatever he wants, regardless of legal ethics or state statutes, and has apparently lost all respect for what the law means. I wonder if he caught Scott Jensen with marijuana, he would charge him with a municipal citation.

Juicy narcissism

Wow. In an article to try to refute the point that college kids are self-centered, this guy proves it unequivocally.

Sex offender license plates

As much as these criminals revolt me, I just don't know about this:

Lawmakers in Ohio said on Wednesday they want to force convicted sex offenders to use a fluorescent-green license plate on their cars so they can be easily identified.

A Republican and a Democrat in the state legislature in Columbus have joined forces to propose the law, which echoes measures in several U.S. states that require convicted drunken drivers to use a yellow, pink or red plate on their cars.

"The fluorescent-green license plate will make the most egregious sex offenders easily identifiable," state Democratic Rep. Michael DeBose said in a statement.

Police said the green plates would allow them to track sex offenders, who are already required to register with the local sheriff's office and are prohibited from living within 1,000 feet of a school.

They are the most disgusting people within our society, and in some ways, I like the fact that the public at large would be aware of who and where they are...but this seems like it would be an invitation to violence. Most folks have a visceral reaction to sex offenders. We can track sex offenders using GPS devices, and there isn't so much of a Scarlet Letter significance. And it is not like these license plates would prevent them from committing additional offenses.

And if these folks are the "most egregious sex offenders," perhaps they should just stay in jail.

Latest Podcast

Aaron and I recorded a podcast with that profit-lovin' freshman Representative, Bill Kramer.

Listen here.

Giuliani extends his lead

I know, I know, polls at this point don't matter...but I just can't help myself:

In the Republican race, former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who recently made clear his intentions to seek the presidency, has expanded his lead over Sen. John McCain of Arizona. Giuliani holds a 2 to 1 advantage over McCain among Republicans, according to the poll, more than tripling his margin of a month ago.

The principal reason was a shift among white evangelical Protestants, who now clearly favor Giuliani over McCain. Giuliani is doing well among this group of Americans despite his support of abortion rights and gay rights, two issues of great importance to religious conservatives. McCain opposes abortion rights.

I think Sean spoke for quite a few demographics when he said,

Since the Sep. 11 attacks Rudy and constantly stood with President Bush in destroying America’s enemies. He hasn’t relented. The passion he felt in defending New York has been transfered to the nation.

Because of his leadership the GOP base has embraced Rudy. He’s a popular speaker wherever he goes. This despite his pro-abortion, anti-gun views that set him apart from most Republicans.

With the war as my most pressing issue I could vote for Rudy Giuliani for President. Worry about abortion and gun control can wait until the Islamist threat is diminished. I don’t think I’m the only pro-lifer who feels that way either.

But, as we all know, barring a major change in Iraq, a proudly pro-war Republican will have a pretty tough time at the polls.

But still, nothing here has lifted my complete apathy about this race.