Ayes 53, Nays 42, Not Voting 1 March 10, 2011, 3:42 PM Full list Via Wisconsin Assembly. A few of these seats are likely to flip, with all the political promises in the world inadequate to save their incumbents.
Politics
Freedom of Speech, Liberty, Politics, Press
Lament of the Chicken Littles
by JOHN ADAMS •
There are lot of people who are very sure that protests in Madison are proof of a disordered society. They’re quick to wail and cry that the sky is falling, and that these protests are the end of Polite and Civilized Society as Understood by Polite and Civilized People. They sky’s not falling; society’s doing…
City, Government Spending, Politics, Taxes/Taxation
Cuts to State Shared Revenue: Whitewater’s Politics of It All (First Take)
by JOHN ADAMS •
Whether Gov. Walker’s proposal to restrict public-employee collective bargaining is victorious or abandoned, cuts to state shared revenue are on the way, for Whitewater and its school district. I have supported cuts to government spending, not as a matter of budget repair, but as a long term-goal — for smaller, more limited, more responsible government.…
City, Education, Government Spending, Politics, School District
State Aid to Cites, Schools Sure to Dry Up
by JOHN ADAMS •
Walker did offer a fuller rationale for his insistence on stripping public employees of their collective bargaining rights. “You’re going to see major cuts in local government,” he said of his upcoming budget, now set to be unveiled March 1. He argued that the only way he can ensure these cuts do not lead to…
Libertarians, Politics
Why Scott Walker’s Not a Libertarian
by JOHN ADAMS •
This post’s title is a bit of a joke: it should be obvious that Gov. Walker’s not a libertarian. (He’s certainly not a Libertarian; he’s a career, and careerist, Republican.) Libertarians advocate liberty, individual rights, limited government, and peaceful international relations. Libertarians place liberty first. Walker talks little about individual rights, about freedom of the…
Politics
Gov. Walker Gives the Left a Cause
by JOHN ADAMS •
Libertarians, Politics
Crybaby Whiner Upset About Libertarian Popularity
by JOHN ADAMS •
Over at FoxNews.com, Kevin McCullough disparages libertarians, and whines that libertarians somehow ‘hijacked’ the Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll, a survey in which libertarian Ron Paul took first place. McCullough sees libertarians as both disrespectful and dangerous. Oh, please; he should reflect on his own faction’s many shortcomings rather than cast aspersions on the…
City, Politics
Our New Jeffersonian Era?
by JOHN ADAMS •
Salena Zito offers a forecast: Today we are in the midst of a cultural U-turn away from a Hamiltonian meritocratic-elitist, centralized-power society to a more Jeffersonian Main Street focus, with state and local governments as the primary powerbrokers. I don’t believe that local government is less elitist; it’s just that the quality of municipal managers…
Liberty, Politics
God and gods
by JOHN ADAMS •
I’ve mentioned something of Nietzsche recently, but it’s another German philosopher I’ve in mind today. (Of Nietzsche, see Nietzsche and the Dark Hope Against a Better Local Politics.) Centuries before Nietzsche, a German theologian observed that everyone has a god, if not a faith in God: So, too, whoever trusts and boasts that he possesses…
Charity, City, Politics
Public Choice Theory and Its Opposite
by JOHN ADAMS •
Over at the Library of Economics and Liberty, there’s a section on public choice theory. Here’s a definition from that website: As James Buchanan artfully defined it, public choice is “politics without romance.” The wishful thinking it displaced presumes that participants in the political sphere aspire to promote the common good. In the conventional “public…
Free Markets, Laws/Regulations, Politics
Postville judge calls proceedings “travesty” in new documentary
by JOHN ADAMS •
The massive meat packing plant raid in Postville, Iowa – and the prosecutions of immigrant workers arrested there – have been drawing heat since agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement swarmed Agriprocessors Inc. in May 2008. Via Grass Roots: Postville judge calls proceedings “travesty” in new documentary.
City, Politics
Nietzsche and the Dark Hope Against a Better Local Politics
by JOHN ADAMS •
It’s been a while since I last read anything of Nietzsche, but his work — even when profoundly wrong — is memorable. There’s a passage from Advantage and Disadvantage of History for Life, that is, itself, about memory. It’s useful for understanding a certain, irresponsible view about how Whitewater’s politics should work. Imagine the lack…
Government Spending, Politics
E.J. McMahon: State Bankruptcy Is a Bad Idea – WSJ.com
by JOHN ADAMS •
The biggest state budget gaps will never be closed until politicians use the tools they already have to challenge the overweening power of public employee unions. Meanwhile, Washington can help by lifting some of the burdens it imposes on the states. Converting Medicaid into a block grant, for example, would remove one big excuse governors…