Blaska's Bring It!
with David Blaska
January 2014
01/29/14Gov. Walker: Revoke this teacher’s license!This is Scott Walker’s equivalent of Ronald Reagan’s “Tear down this wall.” Politically adroit, the governor’s latest challenge to the education establishment is also good policy. The governor is trying to help students and their parents, if they would only realize it. Name another governor (and legislature) who froze UW tuition for two years running. Posted at 11:29 AM | Permalink | Comments: 25 |
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01/27/14Want to help? Then quit blaming successGrit. When’s the last time you heard that word, outside of a John Wayne movie? But two Yale Law School professors use that word in a most remarkable article in the Sunday New York Times titled “What drives success?” Posted at 08:30 AM | Permalink | Comments: 10 |
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01/24/14Civility is a one-way street on Madison’s isthmusDemocrats took great glee in marginalizing presidential candidate Mitt Romney as a member of the despised One Percent two years ago. When Republicans returned the favor in the case of the Democrats’ candidate for governor of Wisconsin, the emeritus editor of The Capital Times (the corporation that speaks as if it were a person) cried foul. Posted at 06:13 AM | Permalink | Comments: 9 |
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01/23/14Under Gov. Walker, cows giving more milk but Democrats still sourScott Walker in his State of the State address Wednesday night proved that Democrats will cheer for walleye but not tax cuts. Walker cheekily drew attention to that exception to the opposition’s sour mood. I’m not sure the Democrats could bring themselves out of their funk when the governor announced that Wisconsin’s cows are giving more milk. Posted at 07:05 AM | Permalink | Comments: 18 |
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01/20/14Can anyone derail Mary Burke?Time magazine’s current cover asks, “Can anyone stop Hillary?” Wisconsin progressives are asking, “Can anyone stop Mary Burke?” Burke, the Fifth Amendment candidate, is in the driver’s seat for the Democratic nomination for governor, if you will pardon that snarky allusion to the unfortunate traffic accident that knocked Kathleen Vinehout out of the running. Or the train wreck in Caledonia. Posted at 09:02 AM | Permalink | Comments: 6 |
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01/16/14Why does Madison speak no evil of political censorship?Calling Bill Lueders of the Freedom of Information Council. Calling Scott Milfred and Chris Rickert of the Wisconsin State Journal. Calling John Nichols and Paul Fanlund of The Capital Times. Calling Neil Heinen of WISC-TV3. Calling Jay Heck of Common Cause and Mike McCabe of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. Calling all who value the First Amendment’s guarantee of free political speech. Where are you? Posted at 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments: 12 |
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01/14/14Are today’s young turning away from welfare state liberalism?Barack Obama is one of this nation’s youngest presidents, but his party is skewing old. (Some would say that Democrats are also skewing the young.) Today’s young adults may be turning Churchill’s adage upside down — the one about being young and liberal, old and conservative. Posted at 12:01 PM | Permalink | Comments: 11 |
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01/10/14Suspected federalist freethinker outed and ousted at University of WisconsinWe do not know whether Robert King, one of the three finalists for president of the University of Wisconsin System, was shoved or pushed. But either way, he was out. Yes, Wisconsin dodged a bullet. King was a suspected conservative and his offenses are many. Posted at 06:32 AM | Permalink | Comments: 9 |
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01/07/14We are going to miss the old college football systemThe sportswriters appear to be unanimous in wishing a not-so-fond farewell to the Bowl Championship Series. Never understood that. Big fan of Andy Baggot in the Wisconsin State Journal, but he dropped the ball on third down this morning. He writes, “No more computers ... no more bias and secrecy ... no more hype and prejudice ...” Posted at 08:58 AM | Permalink | Comments: 2 |
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01/06/14MSNBC’s racist road rage is spinning out of controlThe Stately Manor is hunkered down for the coldest day in 18 years. The drive-through window at the Policy Research Werkes (and Tanning Salon) is closed. The indentured servants are wearing their mukluks. The airborne visitors to the Experimental Work Farm and Penal Colony get extra rations of suet, safflower, and Niger thistle seed. Aide de camp Ruben Mamoulian appears to be hibernating after consuming the last bag of Fiddle Faddle during the Packers’ futile, game-ending defensive stand. The Squire refuses to leave the Manor to get more. Posted at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments: 10 |
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01/02/14Walker, Epic rule in the year 2014It was touch and go, but the pallet of vacuum tubes arrived from North Korea (don’t ask) just in time to fire up Old Sparky, the venerable Sperry-Rand Univac computer. The white lab coats here at the Blaska Policy Research Werkes and Tanning Salon fed the balky mainframe a binful of punch cards encoded with the latest empirical data. Our mission: forecast the future so that you, the businessperson, can prosper in the new year come hell or global warming! After much whirring and clanking, the rusty wreck issued a puff of smoke and these startling 2014 predictions. Posted at 06:59 AM | Permalink | Comments: 37 |
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01/01/14Madison’s progressive heroes of 2013, Part 2The Emerald City of Madison churns out collectivist scolds like the Sorcerer’s Apprentice in Fantasia. Tuesday’s classic blog was not enough to contain the plentitude. (Two popular movie references in one sentence!) Truly, this is the land of Oz. Pay close attention to these wizards in front of and behind the screen. Posted at 07:33 AM | Permalink | Comments: 17 |
Raised on a farm near Sun Prairie, David Blaska is a recovering liberal who spent 18 years in daily newspapers, including 12 at The Capital Times in Madison as a reporter and editor. He served Gov. Tommy Thompson as acting press secretary in 1998 and is a veteran and survivor of 19 years in state government. He served 12 years on the Dane County Board of Supervisors. From December 2007 to November 2011 he wrote the consistently popular "
