BABBLEMUR!
Seeking Common Sense in a World Gone Mad

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"Is it journalism? Is it
babble? Is it something
else? Or is it simply scary."

Who the Heck is...
Babblemur
Akaoni

ABOUT BABBLEMUR.COM
Past Issues:
May 31, 2005
May 27, 2005
May 23-25, 2005
May 20, 2005
May 19, 2005
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2 June 2005
Feingold launches
Progressive Patriot
Fund
Presidential bid likely
by babblemur

    "The Progressive Patriots Fund is
    dedicated to promoting a
    progressive reform agenda and
    supporting candidates across the
    country. The organization will
    enable Feingold to be a part of a
    larger national effort to build the
    Democratic Party throughout
    America as he travels across the
    country, listens to others, and
    speaks out on important issues."

    Russ Feingold, rumored to be
    considering a presidential bid
    in 2008, has stepped up his
    'exploration' by launching the
    Progressive Patriot Fund for
    fund raising, and an
    accompanying web site.  Both
    are being advertised
    throughout the web and
    blogosphere.  Feingold, an
    ethical liberal, is coming off a
    solid third term victory in
    2004 in a state that seems to
    be increasingly leaning to the
    right.  

    I, for one, would support a
    Feingold Presidency.  
2 June 2005
Wisconsin Legislature retaliates against the
University of Wisconsin for being too damn liberal
by babblemur

The Joint Finance Committee of the Republican held Wisconsin State Legislature has
voted 12-4 on party lines to slash the UW budget even beyond Democrat Gov. Doyle's
cuts.  

There is great coverage of this at Lake Winneblogo and other places, so allow me to just
state my opinion.  

Conservative legislators are lashing out at the University of Wisconsin for a number of
reasons, none of which are related to the budget crisis.  Among these are:

  • Ward Churchill's 2004 UW-Whitewater visit;
  • UW-Stout's ROTC ban based on gay discrimination (although it was recinded);
  • UW System's desire to be fair to gays and lesbian couples and provide them with
    the same benefits married couples get;
  • University attacks on the Grantsburg, WI school board for suggesting
    'creationism' be taught along side 'evolution';
  • University student health departments providing 'day after' birth control pills to
    students prior to spring break;
  • UW stem-cell research progress and advancement;
  • etc, etc, etc,

In other words, the University of Wisconsin has found itself opposite the Republican
activists in the state legislature and in the middle of the culture war that is being fought
in Wisconsin, whether the University knows it or not.  To the Far Right, Academia is a
'left wing brain washing machine', and the faculty are all communists, socialists, and
worst of all - liberals.  So how can the Right Wing take on this Billion Dollar Behemoth?
Starve it out.  How can they reduce the influence of the Heathen Faculty?  Shift the
teaching burden on to 'non-tenure track' academic staff and freeze faculty hiring.  And
how can the state legislature help to 'protect' the youth of Wisconsin from being 'brain
washed' by this education system?  Raise tuitions and slash student aid so that only a
select number of students can even attend the University for 'brain-warshin'.  

Its just a theory of mine, kind of like Evolution.  
Family Carcass
reprinted with permission
by Steven Stwalley
MEET THE GREENS!
Could YOUR neighbor be...
Green???
Meet Elaine Fleming, Mayor of Cass
Lake, MN!  

"She is the first woman and the first Native
American to hold the office. Until last year,
Cass Lake had always had a white mayor,
though nearly three-quarters of its
population is Native American—mostly
Ojibwe.  Fleming also became the first
Native American woman ever elected to the
position of mayor in the state of Minnesota,
and she is the only Green Party mayor in
the state.

Fleming is also a mother, a teacher, a writer
(several of her plays have been produced,
and she’s working on a novel) and an
environmental activist.

The mayor’s political success was
something of a surprise—even to her. In an
August interview with Winona LaDuke
[MWP Aug. 27-Sept. 9], Fleming said, “I
hated politics because my dad was in
politics. I always figured there was another
way to get things done.” But a politically
minded friend helped change Fleming’s
mind and convinced her to run for office."
(Entire text from an article by Kelly Westhoff,
Minnesota Women's Press, December 31, 2003)