Lisa Mux, writing at Blogging Blue, describes a well-attended Americans for Prosperity event that touted the Walker Administration’s record:
The entire event was carefully orchestrated and the true reality of what Walker has done to the middle-class in Wisconsin was scrubbed, sanitized, and handed back to the audience in an easily digestible format. From the nine minute video to the messaging that never once veered off track to the panel discussion that allowed the audience to feel included, the AFP had it going on.
It was executed with military precision; not a second was wasted. It felt less like a political event and more like a motivational seminar.
The AFP even told the audience up-front that they weren’t there to talk politics; they were there to spread the “good news” about the reality-that the Walker Way was working. The whole event was slightly evangelical in nature, but it was damn effective. Eight hundred and fifty people left that Town Hall, free dvd in hand, invigorated, empowered, and eager to spread The Word of Walker.
Mux is of the Left, and she thinks that “it would behoove liberals to utilize their methods.”
One sees her point, but many of AFP’s methods on display are, in fact, borne of weakness and defensiveness.
In the end, an expensive meeting like this is more motivational than evangelical. These are not the same thing – the first inspires those attending, the second leads to new supporters of Walker’s agenda. Although motivation is necessary for political evangelization, it’s neither sufficient nor certain to produce new political followers.
If one knew that those attending would use those expensive materials, and take the enjoyment of that precision-timed affair, to win many new followers, then AFP’s money would be especially well-spent.
That’s not likely, however: No matter how motivated the attendees, I’d guess most will share their support only with like-minded people, rather than win others over to Walker’s cause. Motivation in a meeting room is far easier than political canvassing in neighborhoods, workplaces, etc.
Americans for Prosperity knows this, and that’s why most of this meeting money is meant to inspire (and bolster) existing Walker supporters, rather than win anyone over. These supporters have seen independent-minded friends waiver in their support of Walker. Critical press coverage of Walker’s administration leaves his backers on the defensive, and events like this give them a comforting sense of powerful, well-funded forces behind their views.
They shouldn’t, though, need this kind of expensive motivation at this late stage. That AFP feels the need to spend money on this meeting — rather than use it on additional TV and radio to reach uncommitted residents — suggests Walker’s in a defensive position.
Gov. Walker may win a recall, but meetings like this show that his financial backers see how much work there is to do on his behalf.
Whitewater looks to hit a high of about fifty today, with sunny skies. In Manchester, New Hampshire, voters will go to the polls on a mostly sunny day with a high temperature of forty-three.
The Wisconsin Historical Society recalls a terrible Wisconsin fire from this day in 1883:
1883 – Newhall House Fire
On this date in 1883, one of America’s worst hotel fires claimed more than seventy lives when the Newhall House burned at the northwest corner of Broadway and Michigan Streets in Milwaukee. Rescued from the fire were The P.T. Barnum Lilliputian Show performers Tom Thumb and Commodore Nutt. The fire, shown here, was discovered at 4:00 a.m. on the 10th, but sources give the date variously as 1/9/1883 or 1/10/1883. [Sources: The History of Wisconsin, Vol. 3, p.452; WLHBA]
Genetic traces of a supposedly extinct giant tortoise species have been found in living hybrids on the Galapagos island of Isabela.
A few pure Chelonoidis elephantopus almost certainly still exist, hidden in the island’s volcanic redoubts. The hybrids have so much C. elephantopus DNA that scientists say careful breeding could resurrect the tragically vanished behemoths.
“To our knowledge, this is the first rediscovery of a species by way of tracking the genetic footprints left in the genomes of its hybrid offspring,” wrote researchers led by Yale University biologists Ryan Garrick and Edgar Benavides in a Jan. 9 Current Biology paper….
For the new study, the researchers traveled to Isabela island. On the island’s northern tip, on the slopes of Volcano Wolf, they took genetic samples from 1,600 C. becki individuals. Of these, 84 contained so much C. elephantopus DNA that at least one recent ancestor must have been a purebred C. elephantopus.
None of the purebreds was spotted, but because of the genetic signals’ strength and the hybrids’ youth — many were juveniles — the researchers estimate that about 40 purebreds still survive….
Later this year the researchers will return to Isabela, where they hope to establish a captive breeding program using hybrids and, if they can find them, a few true C. elephantopus. The tortoises could roam again, their slaughter an evolutionary chapter rather than an end.
Google’s puzzle for today: “Starting at the White House, walk directly north on 16th Street NW to reach a traffic circle named for a famous American general. This man ran for president and lost to what Democrat?”
Quite the mess: Gov. Romney pushed big-government solutions while he was in public office, and his GOP rivals have pushed anti-market rhetoric as criticism of his private-sector career.
Hard to find, other than Paul, a consistently free-market man in the lot.
How predictable, really, that struggling GOP candidates are attacking Gov. Romney’s time at Bain. Many of those candidates have talked about economic opportunity, but they’re truly more comfortable with favored businesses than free markets. Denying the truth about capitalism — and trying to make Romney’s success into evidence that he’s Ebeneezer Scrooge — must seem a small price to these big-government Republicans.
Gingrich, Santorum, and Perry, all find themselves compelled, just compelled, to attack private economic accomplishment as a social sin. (Paul is the welcome exception.)
Why not? These gentlemen have benefited from the public, the political, the governmental – using public roles to advance their own notoriety while directing and regulating the efforts of more industrious private citizens.
One need be neither a Romney supporter nor a Republican to see how opportunistic Romney’s GOP opponents are.
I’ve received a press release, appearing below, on UW-Whitewater’s Young Auditorium grant to host a Community Big Read. Embedded immediately below is a video from the National Endowment for the Arts about the program, followed by information about events in Whitewater.
The Young Auditorium is partnering with the Arrowhead Library System (Rock County Public Libraries), and the Irvin L. Young Library in Whitewater to engage the communities of southeastern Wisconsin in a diverse range of activities related to American author Mark Twain.
The effort was awarded a $17,000 grant by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). A total of 76 not-for-profit organizations have been recommended for grants totaling $1,000,050 to host a Big Read project between September 2011 and June 2012. The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts designed to restore reading to the center of American culture. The NEA presents The Big Read in cooperation with Arts Midwest.
The last year’s Big Read included the participation of 20 libraries, 18 schools, and 11 additional partners. Their efforts reached 2,351 children and 3,013 adults at over seventy events throughout southeastern Wisconsin.
For 2012 the theme of Twain in the Rock River Basin will link our community’s physical location, as part of the greater Mississippi River Basin and our connection as a nearby hub on the Underground Railroad. Investigating Twain’s seminal novel will take place in our community’s Big Read through the written word, the spoken word, visual images and cultural engagement bringing together diverse groups for fellowship.
Check your local library for their participation and event calendar. Updates will be available at the Big Read Blog: http://youngauditorium.wordpress.com/
Big Read 2012 Highlights:
Hal Holbrooke presents Mark Twain Tonight! On April 21, 2012, 7:30. Legendary actor Hal Holbrooke presents his historic portrayal of Mark Twain. Hal Holbrooke has been awarded an Emmy and Tony Award for his indelible personification of Mark Twain, a role that he has been performing since 1954.
And Glory Shone by The Rose Ensemble. April 10, 2012, 7:30. This award winning ensemble from St. Paul, MN, will perform a special selection of early American hymns, ballads and spiritual songs that will evoke Tom Sawyer’s America.
No Foolin’ A Free Book. 4/1/12 or 4/2/12.All public library partners will kick-off the Big Read by offering give-away of books, student designed t-shirts and tickets to the performance of The Rose Ensemble.
Mark Twain’s Racial Relevance. Free lecture and discussion by Dr. Alan Gribben on Monday April 9, 2012, 7:00 PM. Part of the College of Letters and Sciences Contemporary Lecture Series. Dr. Allan Gribben is a nationally recognized Mark Twain scholar who sparked considerable controversy when he published versions of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn in 2011 that removed a racial pejorative as an attempt to reverse the trend of school districts removing both books from their reading lists.
Big Read T-Shirt Design Competition K-12 Students.
Big Read Mural. Joel Schoon Tanis, a noted children’s book illustrator and muralist will engage four area schools with hands-on workshops that demonstrate the nature of translating words into larger than life visual representations. Students will delve into specific works by Twain to create visual art that capture the mood and emotions of the author’s work. The last week of March, Joel will return for a week-long residency and each school will complete a panel of a Mark Twain mural. The mural will be unveiled at the Big Read Kick Off at the historic Horticultural Hall in Lake Geneva, Thursday March 29th, 6:00 pm.
Moments with Mark Twain. Geneva Lake Art Association 2012 Spring Exhibit. February 3-29, 2012. 10:00 am – 4:00 pm. Opening reception February 3, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm. GLAA Gallery. This show highlights GLAA Member works recall images of the 19th Century time period, Twain’s stories, the grandeur of the Mississippi, or other images that are inspired by this literary icon. The Geneva Lake Art Association gallery and art school are located inside the North Shore Pavilion Mall at 647 E. Main Street, Lake Geneva.
Through the Eyes of Jim. A new production by Uprooted Theatre. Milwaukee’s Uprooted Theatre Company,whose mission is to engage the community through the performing arts for the exploration and expression of African-American voices and cultural experiences, will present a performance as part of the Young Auditorium’s Horizon Matinee Series. The performance will give a unique point of view of Twain’s work as interpreted through the slave Jim’s perspective. A community performance will take place at the Milton House Museum, as part of the Big Read finale, Friday, May 4th. Time TBA. The Milton House Museum is Wisconsin’s only authenticated stop on the Underground Railroad.
National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has selected 76 not-for-profit organizations have been recommended for grants totaling $1,000,050 to host a Big Read project between September 2011 and June 2012. The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts designed to restore reading to the center of American culture. The NEA presents The Big Read in cooperation with Arts Midwest.
The Big Read provides communities nationwide with the opportunity to read, discuss, and celebrate one of 31 selections from U.S. and world literature.. Among the organizations receiving a Big Read grant are libraries, humanities councils, museums, theater companies, literary centers and presses, public broadcasting stations, universities, YMCAs, and boys & girls clubs. The selected organizations will receive Big Read grants ranging from $2,500 to $17,000 to promote and carry out community-based programs….
NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman said, “Since 2006, nearly three million Americans have attended a Big Read event, more than 39,000 volunteers have participated locally, and nearly 27,000 community partner organizations have been involved. The Big Read’s success depends on these commitments of time, energy, and enthusiasm and I look forward to seeing these 76 communities come together in celebration of a great work of literature.”
Participating communities also receive high-quality, free-of-charge educational materials to supplement each title, which also are available for download on neabigread.org. Reader’s Guides include author biographies, historical context for the book, and discussion questions. Teacher’s Guides are developed with the National Council of Teachers of English and State Language Arts standards in mind and include lesson plans, essay topics, and classroom handouts. The Big Read Audio Guides feature readings from the novel along with commentary from renowned artists, educators, and public figures.
Each community’s Big Read includes a kick-off event to launch the program; activities devoted specifically to its Big Read book or poet (e.g., panel discussions, lectures, public readings); events using the selection as a point of departure (e.g., film screenings, theatrical readings, exhibits); and book discussions in diverse locations aimed at a wide range of audiences.
“It’s easy, when you get away from the coast, to think of the oceans as a homogeneous blue. It’s a lot more complex than that,” said biologist Craig McClain of the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center.
Like terrestrial snow, the deep-sea-life-sustaining version doesn’t collect uniformly but gathers in drifts and eddies. In a paper published last year in Marine Ecology, McClain and others showed that, depending on snowfall, seafloor communities could vary wildly in the space of a few feet. In terrestrial terms, it was a bit like finding deserts and swamps separated by footsteps.
Google’s puzzle-a-day for 1.9.12 comes from Mason, aged 13, of Menlo Park: “Franz Liszt, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and Antoine d’Abbadie all shared what perceptual variation that allowed them to see the world differently?”
Wisconsin Foodie is an always-interesting, always-informative show from Wisconsin Public Television. (“Wisconsin Foodie is an Emmy nominated independent television series dedicated to discovering the stories behind the food we eat.”) In the episode embedded below (all the episodes are available online), viewers
Visit Kettle Moraine with chef David Swanson from Braise Restaurant and Culinary School to hunt for spring morels. Also meet publisher and editor-in-chief of Fungi Magazine, Britt Bunyard. Britt serves as our foraging guide, maneuvering us through the forest and pointing out what is edible and what is not. Later, chef Swanson uses only foraged items to cook a completely local and seasonal meal.
Friday’s FW poll had the overwhelming majority of respondents voting against snow (being happy that we have yet had so little in Wisconsin). Consider, though, all the antics that a snowy day makes possible —
Neal McCluskey contends — accurately — that No Child Left Behind legislation has been a failure. He makes arguments against the decade-old federal law in a brief video, embedded below. It’s a summary only, but a good summary of a bad law. (For an earlier post on NCLB, see Whitewater Has No Reason to Worry About ‘No Child Left Behind’ Results.)
