It’s a snowy day for Whitewater, with a high of twenty-seven, and one to two inches of accumulation predicted.
The New York Times recalls that on this day in 1935, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Pacific, from Honolulu to Oakland:
She entered her plane with a wave of her hand and a smile to the mechanics as she ordered the blocks pulled from in front of the wheels. Taxiing to her starting point, she gave the heavily loaded Lockheed Vega the full gun and after a run of 3,000 feet rose into the air.
Think that “clean” elections laws keep elections, well, fair and clean? You might be surprised. The U.S. Supreme Court is considering an Institute for Justice challenge to the fairness of Arizona’s supposedly clean election laws.
Here’s a video from the IJ entitled, “The Dirty Game of AZ’s “Clean Elections.” Below the video, I have placed the part of the text of a web release about what’s a stake: privately-funded candidates lose out as taxpayer money drowns out the message of candidates who rely on their own supporters’ voluntary contributions rather than government money.
Arlington, Va. – On, Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to decide whether to hear a challenge by the Institute for Justice to Arizona’s “Clean Elections” Act in the case of Arizona Free Enterprise Club’s Freedom Club PAC v. Bennett. Actions taken by the High Court earlier this year lead many to believe there is a better-than-average chance the Court will accept this case for review.
For a brief, funny video explaining how the “Clean Election” system rigs political races in favor of government-funded candidates, visit: www.ij.org/AZCleanElectionsVideo.
Arizona’s “Clean Elections” Act gives public money to politicians to run for office and squelches the free speech of independent groups, as well as candidates who choose to forgo taxpayer dollars and instead raise their own funds for their campaigns. For every dollar an independent group opposing a publicly financed candidate or a traditionally funded candidate spends above a certain amount, the government hands taxpayer dollars over to the publicly financed candidates in the race. This allows the government-subsidized candidate to “match” the spending – and thus the speech – of the independent group or privately funded candidate opposing him. The harder an independent group or traditionally financed candidate works, the more the government-subsidized candidate benefits. The Act curbs speech, discourages participation and limits what voters will hear about politics.
Only the tiniest handful of people—most of whom are already behind bars, in psychiatric institutions, or on psycho-meds—can be driven to kill by political whispers or shouts. Asking us to forever hold our tongues lest we awake their deeper demons infantilizes and neuters us and makes politicians no safer.
Today’s forecast calls for a mostly cloudy day with a high temperature of twenty-nine (with small accumulations of snow likely tonight and tomorrow).
In Whitewater today, there’s a schedule meeting of the Park and Rec Board at 10 a.m. The agenda is available online. Later, at 6:30 p.m., there’s a meeting of the Library Board. That agenda is also online.
In our schools, there will be a special meeting of the WUSD board at 6 p.m., at Central Office. The meeting agenda concerns a possible (and likely) charter school for Whitewater.:
Call to Order and Roll Call
Charter School Authorizer Training – Mr. John Gee, Executive Director, Wisconsin Charter Schools Association
Charter School Contract Review
Research Request Approval (Action Item)
Adjourn
Quick note: items on the district’s website are virtually unlinkable, leaving that website far less useful than it might otherwise be.
On this day in 1776, Thomas Paine first published anonymously the pamphlet Common Sense. The full text is available at Google Books.
The UW-Whitewater junior running back was featured in Sports Illustrated’s Faces in the Crowd section celebrating his 299-yard, three touchdown effort Dec. 18 that helped the top-ranked Warhawks beat Mount Union Ohio 31-21 to win their second consecutive NCAA Division III national championship and third in four years.
The unemployment rate fell to its lowest point in 19 months in December, but the 103,000 jobs created fell well short of the tally needed to bring about a sustained recovery in the labor market.
