Change The Mascot

By Jeff Simpson

We brought up the topic recently about the Washington Redskins and their racist name.  How many are pushing to do the right thing and change it and how topics like this bring out the worst from our friends on the right like Ron Johnson and Kevin Binversie.  

It was not just us, 50 US Senators sent a letter to Daniel Snyder asking for the name to be changed also.  

A grassroots movement has now started and it is a powerful one.  It has also gathered many high profile supporters! 

Change the Mascot!  

Unintimidated is Unaccountable

 

By Jeff Simpson

The Steve nASS(R-I dont pay child support)  racist protection bill is sitting on the Governor's desk, he thinks! 

“I have nothing to do with it,” Walker said. “Other than that I have to choose whether or not I am going to sign it or veto it, it is nothing that I have advocated. In fact, all the while they were debating it I was asked at press conferences what I thought about it, and I would say, ‘It is not on my radar. If it is not about jobs, lower taxes, improving schools, it is not on my priority list.’”

Adding, “I don’t know exactly what I am going to do with it,” Walker suggested that he favored simply repealing the 2009 law and leaving the decision up to local school districts rather than signing into law the “weird hybrid” that passed this month.

Apparently, since Scott Walker only cares about jobs

But what didn't change is the fact that Wisconsin continues to be the worst economy in the Midwest since Walker and WisGOP came to power in January 2011. 

Lower taxes :

 Gov. Scott Walker's plan to shrink the state's BadgerCare program could end up costing the state about $250 million more by 2020, according to a Legislative Fiscal Bureau memo.

and improving schools:

 

The number of teachers working during the 2012-13 school year marks the first time in about 15 years the number of positions has dropped below 66,000. From 2000 to the 2010-11 school year, the number of licensed staff in public schools held steady around 68,000 with its peak during the 2002-03 school year when 70,079 teaching positions were recorded. In the last five school years, the state’s teaching ranks have decreased by about 3,000 positions.

“(Student) enrollment, over the last five years, has gone down by three-tenths of a percent,” said DPI spokesman John Johnson. “That’s about 3,000 kids, but we’ve lost about 3,000 teachers in the same time period. That’s almost a teacher per kid, which is unusual.”

 The three things that Scott Walker has made a "priority" he has failed miserably at all three.

When exactly, was the last "jobs" bill that Scott Walker signed?   I can not think of one! 

Racism Rules The Day

 

By Jeff Simpson

"Hey old man, how can you stand to think that way, and did you really think about it before you made the rules"  Bruce Hornsby

Yesterday, the Wisconsin State Senate passed the Steve nASS racist mascot preservation bill, which allows white people to continue making fun of American Indian heritage no matter how stupid, racist and imbecilic it is.  

Rep. Stephen nASS, R-Whitewater, who represents a portion of Mukwonago, introduced a bill in August that requires a complainant to collect signatures equal to 10 percent of the school district's population to trigger a state review. Complainants would have to prove discrimination at hearing. The Department of Administration, which is controlled by the governor, would make the final call on whether the name must go, rather than DPI, which is run by an elected superintendent. The bill also would invalidate all previous DPI orders forcing schools to drop their nicknames.

 Senator Bob Jauch said it best:

A sad day in the Senate as the majority party adpted the race-baced mascots bill and created unachieveble barriers to the general public to end the use of Native American mascots and logos in wisconsin. The bill was adopted on a 17-16 vote with Senator Schultz offering a sensible compromise that encouraged collaborative discussions between school districts and the Great Lakes Indian Tribal Council as well as Tribes to address the prejudicial affect that these outdated logos and mascots have to demean Native Americans and their culture. It is a bill adopted by a racially insenstive majority who seem clueless to the need for society to act like the 21 century instead of the early 20th century when Native Americans were punished for speaking their language and assmilation was the code for annihilation of a culture. The legislation dishonors our 11 Native American Tribes. Even more embarrassing is the fact that the bill was scheduled during Native American Heritage Month. What a pathetic way to celebrate the incredible contribution of native American culture and traditions that enrich our lives.

 As for what the Wisconsin Indian population feels:

Barbara Munson, an Oneida Indian who chairs the Wisconsin Indian Education Association's Indian Mascot and Logo Task Force, said she hoped the governor has more sense than legislators and will reject the bill.

"This clearly is about race. You can tell some people know that and some people don't," Munson said. "There's a lot of white privilege going on."

let's hope that in election season, Scott Walker has enough sense to veto it.  I am guessing that he will sign it discretely, some Friday afternoon around 4:58 PM.  

PS:  For those scoring at home, Kathleen Vinehout voted against this bill and Mary Burke refuses to speak up about it!  

In other answers, Burke said she opposed a law passed by Republicans requiring voters to show a photo ID at their polling place and said she was skeptical of an effort to change the state's American Indian mascot law for schools.