Andre's Executive Order

I wanted to write briefly about how hard it is to be married to a public school teacher. Particularly in recent months, with all the protests and bitter battles over benefits and state salaries, I thought I'd chime in and really let you see how much of a pain in the ass it is to have a teacher as a wife. It's hard to do my taxes at the end of the year and realize just how much of our income was spent on school supplies and specific tools for student needs that the district couldn't or wouldn't provide. It's equally hard to keep my mouth shut about it because I know she will defend those expenses to her last breath. It's hard to watch her leave every morning at 6:30am and know that if I'm lucky I'll see her at 7pm that night. Once in a while she's out by 4pm, but usually I don't see her until after dark, and there are times – frequently – that I get that call from school saying 'go ahead and eat, I won't be back until after 10.' ...

Politics (from Greek πολιτικός, "of, for, or relating to citizens"), is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs...[3] I'm going to make the case that conservatives and independents in Wisconsin should vote to put Democrats into the majority in the Senate using the recall elections to achieve it. It might sound counter-intuitive, but I'm going to make a few very specific points that I think will be compelling even to Republicans. The argument is that this would be a good idea for conservative politics in the long run even if you disagree with almost everything the Democrats stand for. The Mess What is 'slash and burn' politics? Well let me give you an example outside of the political arena. Consider football. There are certain strategies in football where you use advantages created by the realities of the rules to achieve in-game goals. A ...

America is struggling with something deeper than budgets and individual issues. Follow me through a few points and tell me if I'm right. Republican Dichotomy The Republican party has always been an odd mix of two broad groups. No matter how you squint, libertarian conservatives and social conservatives don't have a lot in common. The fact that they live under the same basic roof is a testament more to our two party system than it is to a sense of real common purpose behind the groups. Now let me be clear, my use of the word 'libertarian' is not to be confused with the Libertarian party. The group I'm referencing is also called the 'fiscal' conservatives, the people who generally see government as an expensive interference into America's free market capitalism that should be minimized and mostly managed locally. In order to be a social conservative, however, you have to support big government. You are effectively calling for the government to legisl...

What is a liberal? Do you know? To Fox News, their employees, and many conservatives, a liberal is someone who doesn't agree with them. I am a member of a few bipartisan political threads on Facebook, for instance, and it doesn't take much for me to be called a socialist or a 'typical' liberal. Strangely enough, it's not usually because I forwarded a liberal idea or solution, but rather because I questioned a conservative stance or talking point and provided evidence that the conservative position was either inaccurate or incomplete. This idea was reinforced when I went to the book store this weekend for my birthday and took a look at the literal swarm of conservative books lining the Barnes & Noble's political book section. Flipping through everything from Ann Coulter's 'Demonic' to Pinheads and Patriots by Bill O'Reilly or Broke by Glenn Beck, what struck me was two separate observations. First, that the books were mostly incoherent. It was...

Barack Obama said something in his speech that completely floored me. Obama said that Paul Ryan's budgetary plan for America wasn't just wrong for America, but it ended America as we know it. The reason it floored me was that it was a stark plain statement of exactly the conclusion I have been suggesting concerning the current Republican approach to politics for the last six months. Let's be clear about some facts up front. Corporations have made more profits last year than they have since the 1950s. Corporate CEO salary has gone up 27% in the last year alone. Median salary for American workers had steadily declined over the last three decades. Private sector job growth has, by comparison to profits, stalled. Despite record tax cuts in the last decade, predicted job creation has not materialized. We do still remember there was a stock crash, right? The whole sub prime mortgage thing. The economy was hemorrhaging jobs as Bush left office. Millions of jobs were gone before Ob...

What does it look like when a social organization, like a church, corporation, or political party, is fundamentally changed by a new interest? Let's assume that interest is one that might sing a similar tune to the existing choir, but is just different enough that it ultimately shifts the direction and purpose of the group to something novel. Would you know it if it happened to you? Chances are you wouldn't. At least not at first. Let's explore. First let's distinguish between two core components within the Republican party's membership (not the only divisions with, but the two important to this point). The corporatists represent big business. They are generally wealthy and because of that money and other resources they are the engine of Republican campaigns. Politics cost money, businesses have it, therefore these men and women representing private industry are generally the de facto leaders of the party. The second group is the average American conservative. This ...

I am a liberal. I am that fellow that a certain part of rural America thinks is out to get them. I am a member of that group that Fox News tells it's viewers hates American wants to hand this nation over to the Europeans, the Marxists, the Russians, the Chinese and the Atheists. I am a liberal and this is the core of what I believe. I believe in the American individual. I believe that every individual is born with a certain abilities that could make America stronger and deserves the chance to thrive. However we live in a country of unequal opportunity where circumstance and situation often define whether or not that potential will ever have a chance to grow. When individuals are mired in poverty or violence or ignorance we all lose the benefit of their gifts. I believe it is our duty as Americans to establish structures to prevent individuals from regularly falling so far away form their potential that they become anchors on the best of us instead of assets to all of us. I believe ...

In today's world, we've lost the ability to be meaningfully critical about our politicians. I don’t mean that we've lost our ability to CRITICIZE them – far from it; We make a celebration out of criticizing political officials and our government. What I mean is that we have lost the ability to look at the actions of a politician and to compare those results to what we voted for and what we were promised. We have a hard time holding the specific person we put into office accountable for their decisions and policies. The tendency, today, is to line up on party or candidate lines and to do everything and anything we can do defend or attack a specific politician no matter what they do. Critically evaluating patterns in politics is how one achieves clarity. As officials make choices, you look at the information you have like jigsaw puzzle pieces handed to you day by day. You then look at the explanations provided by those political leaders as an assertion of the puzzle will look...

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Scott Walker's intentions, presuming no underlying plans, are admirable. In fact, my first impression of the prank call played on the Governor was the stark realization that he genuinely believes in what he's doing. However the methods he has chosen to enact this agenda have overshadowed those goals and sent Wisconsin down a destructive road. Here's how we got where we are in short. The Budget Repair Bill was introduced with the heavy taint of deception: Assembly Democrats being given no warning for the 144 page document that would be dropped in their laps for a same day vote on its introduction. The plan was to rush sweeping changes to government employment through the Legislature in five days to avoid backlash from the unions. Wisconsin Republicans legislators didn't come to the legislative process to create a law fixing the budget, it was already written. Instead they were essentially told in advance how the process ...

Governor Walker says the deadline to refinance Wisconsin's debt it today. The word 'refinance' suggests we will seek a lower interest rate and save money. But if you listen to Walker, he never actually says that. He says it will help him avoid having to lay off workers which is possible. But the truth about the money itself is that he's borrowing allocated tax funds for the May debt payment to balance his current budget. That borrowing will result in another 14-25M in interest owed by the State turning 165M into nearly 200M. The argument can be made that that losing jobs is worse for the economy than acquiring some additional debt. But that argument rings hollow when you consider the impact of Walker's and the Republican's budgets on the economy as a whole. Beware those who treat fiscal responsibility as an ENDS instead of a MEANS. Cutting spending by the by government during a recession when the general public and private enterprise is skittish about THEIR spen...

Today I'm going to walk you through an analysis of the logic behind protesting the Budget Repair bill that I think anyone regardless of political orientation can follow. First, some facts taken from Scott Walker and his Administration. I've placed some citation sources in the margin for areas I thought might be helpful. Campaign Promises The cornerstone of Scott Walker's campaign promises were on numerous items including stopping the train, cutting taxes, cutting spending, and creating 250,000 jobs. He also made numerous smaller promises none of which are relevant to this discussion one way or another. These promises are pretty standard Republican election points, the only thing particularly interesting is that the number of jobs promised is very ambitious – but good for him. Set your sights high. We need jobs. State of the Budget In Scott Walker's State of the State address, he referred to the budget in dire terms: “First, let me be clear: we have an economic and fisca...

I heard what sounded like political wisdom last night on the Lawrence O'Donnell show. I'll share that in a moment, but first an update on the protests. The Wisconsin protests are striking their long stride at this point. While the sheer numbers of people showing up at the capitol have started to ease, the determination of those present has if anything grown deeper. I was at the capitol for about three hours last night and got a chance to talk to a lot of people. The icy damp air had pushed most of the protesters into the capitol building which was still crowded and loud, but the streets and walkways around the capitol were still moving with signs and chants. The diversity of people I talked to was impressive. Of course they included teachers, firefighters, and other public union members but they also included private sector non union employees. I talked to an electrician of 23 years who had moved to Madison from a 'right to work' state and had told union friends 'ne...

“John Kotter suggests that for change to be successful, 75% of a company's management needs to "buy into" the change. So for change to happen there needs to be a shared a sense of urgency around the need for change. And this will result from honest and open dialogue with your people about what's happening in your market and with your competition. If many people start talking about the change you propose, the urgency can build and feed on itself. To lead change, you need to bring together a coalition, or team, of influential people whose power comes from a variety of sources, including job title, status, expertise, and political importance. You can find effective change leaders at all levels within your organization - they don't necessarily follow the traditional company hierarchy. It is important to get an emotional commitment from these key people as you build a team to support your change initiative.” The above excerpt is taken from John Kotter, as stated, an ex...

As an attorney, one of the things I have to constantly be concerned with is a conflict of interest. It's a term that you hear on the news every once in a while, but most folks don't really truly get it. This is mostly because it just doesn't come up in normal conversation if you're not an attorney, an accountant, or a public official. In simple terms, a conflict of interest is when a person or organization benefits or has a relationship with a certain cause or outcome of a situation and is then approached to do something asking them to go in the opposite direction. For example: If I have shares of stock in a IBM, and someone pays me to sue IBM, I have a conflict of interest. My interest in the profitability of IBM and my interest in doing right by my client and taking money from IBM run counter to each other. In simpler terms, if I'm on a diet and decide to order cake, I have a conflict of interest. My diet and the cake work counter to each other and it is questiona...