gdp's Comments

North Park Street : Can a White person be African-American?

Fri, 3 Feb 2012 20:20:45 +0000

I've always had a thought that was almost the reverse of this. I don't like using the term African-American for most black people. For the vast majority of them, their ancestors last lived in Africa longer ago than most white people's ancestors lived in Europe. Since most white people identify first and foremost as just an American, I see no reason why black people should be relegated to the second class American-ness of being a hyphenated American. While I don't care how anyone self-identifies their own heritage, I prefer to reserve hyphenated American terms for immigrants or the children of immigrants if I ever feel a need to use them.

North Park Street : New ASM Constitution: Now Gosselin Free!

Thu, 2 Feb 2012 07:20:05 +0000

Agreed. Even most of my knowledge of a lot of what Kurt did on SSFC is second hand after the fact type stuff that I learned dealing with SSFC when I was the President of WSL.

North Park Street : New ASM Constitution: Now Gosselin Free!

Wed, 1 Feb 2012 07:06:37 +0000

In addition to question who exactly Kurt & Co. were, I'm very curious what Rainey meant when he said: "that doesn’t stop me from disagreeing with his tactics or politics." What kind of tactics does he think Kurt used? The reason people didn't like Kurt was because he was so damn effective at making quality arguments on behalf of the legislation he wanted passed and getting the votes to get things passed. His political opponents couldn't beat him over the table where it mattered, so they resorted to fabricating lies, slandering his character and plotting to remove him from positions. And in terms of his politics, what is an example of something he advocated for that you so disagree with? The cause of the major complaints against him and his signature policy achievements were SSFC reforms. Do you think MCSC needs a million dollar budget again?

North Park Street : New ASM Constitution: Now Gosselin Free!

Wed, 1 Feb 2012 06:38:34 +0000

Haha. I think that post was one of my best observations.

North Park Street : USSA Issues a "Student Response" to SOTU

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 07:02:38 +0000

How was your first comment not suggesting that he wear a suit? It's making me question how well I know you.

North Park Street : What is it that makes ASM not work well?

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 05:40:30 +0000

Yes obviously, we are answering two different questions and your question and framework do have merit. However, before there is the kind of discussion of monumental once a decade change in and attempt to improve things within your framework as it seems people are attempting to have, I think the questions my framework poses require answers and discussion. For year to year changes and blog posts, your framework is much more useful because the kinds of changes my framework forces people to address are often too large of an undertaking to be useful.

North Park Street : What is it that makes ASM not work well?

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 20:57:39 +0000

I must say that I reject Kurt's premise that the ineffectiveness of ASM must be blamed either on structure of leadership. If we really want to start this discussion from the beginning, I think we ought to be asking whether a student government is in the first place is the most effective organization to accomplish a given goal and in fact discuss what are the goals that a student government ought to be pursuing. I personally think that in my time on campus the most effective arms of ASM have been the ones that a student government is most suited for, such as allocation of student funds to student groups through SSFC. Many of the things that ASM fails at, such as attempting to unite students behind common political goals for advocacy outside of the UW, ASM fails at because a student government just isn't the best organization for such purposes.

North Park Street : A short rebuttal on money as speech

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 20:45:58 +0000

That's a whole different argument that I will leave most of for another day. However, I am curious, if you believe that free speech rights ought to differ between individuals and corporations, do you also believe that corporations ought to be subject to lesser freedom of the press protections? Both are rights protected by the First Amendment.

North Park Street : A short rebuttal on money as speech

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 19:58:19 +0000

That's a good way to look at the counter arguments. I've come to realize that a lot of the anti-Citizens United advocates really aren't against money in politics so much as they are advocates of equal speech for everyone.

North Park Street : Guest Post: The Inconsistency between SOPA and Citizens United

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:17:13 +0000

I agree that Google/FB/Reddit aren't relying on First Amendment protections, however I think there is a strong case to be made that stopping these sites has a "chilling effect" on free speech and therefore they are deserving of First Amendment protections. I don't think they rely on free speech rights, but I do believe they could use a First Amendment defense in some cases.

North Park Street : Fire Bielema?

Thu, 5 Jan 2012 09:14:11 +0000

I don't really feel a need to have a big discussion about what constitutes great recruiting, but however you define it, great recruiters are picking the recruits they want rather than settling for second choices because the players they wanted went elsewhere. I only pay attention to recruiting for one day before national signing day and then on signing day and from my observations we end up losing out on quite a few players that people report we are recruiting heavily. Top recruiters end up telling kids who thought they might get one that there are no scholarships left. It always seems to me that BB is offering one to a kid who was prepared to walk on without a scholarship because there are one or two left over. He does ok, but schools like OSU under Tressel were out-recruiting BB.

North Park Street : Fire Bielema?

Tue, 3 Jan 2012 21:28:55 +0000

Bielema is one of the greatest recruiters

This is simply not true. Despite being clearly a top 25 program in the Bielema era, Wisconsin almost never has a top 25 recruiting class. Some programs have more than half their recruits rated 4 stars or better. We usually only have 1 or 2. Bielema's strength has been getting the most out of unranked and 2 start recruits by turning them into All-Big 10 performers.

North Park Street : Recall finance reform and corruption

Mon, 7 Nov 2011 03:47:38 +0000

I did a report on judicial elections a while back, and one study found that non-partisan and publicly funded elections improves peoples positive views on government by perceiving it as less corrupt. Though, I suppose that positive assessments of government are only important to the point that it inhibits direct rebellion against said government.

I know there are plenty of studies showing the opposite as well. There are ones for example showing that public perceptions of corruption weren't changed by McCain-Feingold. I also have a hard time for example believing that people viewed Obama as more corrupt because he didn't take public financing.

Exhibit A, the current republican presidential field. Seems like a candidate is flip flopping every week on some issue in an effort to conform to what the extreme right groups pulling the purse strings want them to say.

I think your alternate definition of corruption is very similar to what some people call "democracy", but more importantly, I think almost everyone believes Romney is pandering to voters and taking his positions based on what poll numbers say not special interest groups. Whether or not money influences who wins elections is a whole different debate, but money past a certain threshold doesn't really help very much. Unlimited donations would serve to help challengers against incumbents more than anything else.

North Park Street : OSU Student Paper: Badgers' fans 'worst in the Big Ten'

Tue, 1 Nov 2011 21:58:35 +0000

Well the excerpt I picked made you go seek out the rest of the article when I forgot to include the link, so I must have done something right.

North Park Street : OSU Student Paper: Badgers' fans 'worst in the Big Ten'

Tue, 1 Nov 2011 21:43:54 +0000

What about the excerpt I picked wasn't an accurate reflection of the article? The article was mostly quotes from Wisconsin fans talking about how bad Wisconsin fans and students are. I think the passage I picked was a fairly representative example of that. No passage of a news story is ever likely to be a perfect summary. I have only been to 1 Badger game home or away not as a member of the marching band, so I'm really not in great position to make comments like Matt's.

North Park Street : OSU Student Paper: Badgers' fans 'worst in the Big Ten'

Tue, 1 Nov 2011 20:19:53 +0000

Forgot to include the link. I know I left out quite a bit. My intention was just to pick out a quote that would compel people to read the rest. The article basically consisted entirely of quotes from interviews with Archie Griffin and 3 Badger fans. I don't really know what context was needed.

North Park Street : ASM Budget: By the Numbers

Tue, 1 Nov 2011 16:05:17 +0000

The point about Kurt is a good one. Given that Kurt is perhaps the most knowledgeable person in the world about some important SSFC related legal issues, it's hard to think of a better litmus test for the execution of the program.

North Park Street : ASM Constitutional Crisis Day 20, Assault on SSFC Continues

Tue, 1 Nov 2011 01:28:27 +0000

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem

North Park Street : ASM Constitutional Crisis Day 14 - Preliminary Budget Reactions

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 17:52:45 +0000

Perhaps an amendment needs to be proposed that bans anyone who votes in favor of the legislation from being eligible to be paid.

North Park Street : A Case for the Backroom

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 17:33:30 +0000

I can say the same thing about closed door meetings. In theory they allow politicians to negotiate in good faith and speak their minds to reach a compromise that wouldn't have been otherwise possible and is necessary for a well functioning government. However, in practice, they allow politicians to cut shady back room deals that reward certain constituencies as the expense of the rest of us and allow them to say things they wouldn't say in public because they are things that shouldn't be said at all. Compromise sounds great in a fantasy world of how government is explained to you in 4th grade, but in my opinion the worse things governments do are often done through compromise. It's been that way ever since the founding fathers agreed to use the Constitution to sanction slavery in the three-fifths compromise. What in theory is the best aspects of 2 positions being joined together is all too often sanctioning something the majority knows is a bad idea in exchange for sanctioning something else a different majority knows is a bad idea. At best, closed door negotiations can be sold as two wrongs making a right. Democracy has flaws that need to be corrected through intentionally flawed, less democratic mechanism. Lastly, I disagree that the super-committee agreeing on any cuts is even part of a minimally functioning government. If the committee doesn't agree on cuts, there are other cuts that will go into place. As someone agrees with the majority of those cuts, I am rooting for the supercommittee not to agree on anything because I don't think it will be any better.