Opinion

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Union choice in recall may not be best

Last week, Democrats successfully turned in over one million signatures in the first step of the state's gubernatorial recall process. While it will take the state's Government Accountability Board weeks to verify the 540,208 signatures needed to begin a recall election against Gov. Scott Walker, unions throughout the state will be hard at work to find the perfect candidate who supports their ideas and ideologies. Chief among these concerns will be to restore collective bargaining rights as they see fit.

Letter: Student involvement is key to taking Wisc. back

Education reform vital for Wisconsin

In the face of recall, Gov. Scott Walker is continuing to push for changes. His most recent plan calls for education reform, focusing mainly on teacher evaluations and improving reading levels. While these programs will improve Wisconsin’s public education system, Walker would do the state’s students even more good if he looked at reforms happening on America’s coasts.

ASM needs new constitution, student input

Parliamentary style questioning keeps leaders in check

When Newt Gingrich triumphantly challenged President Obama to seven, three-hour Lincoln-Douglas style debates in early December, the prospect appeared to coincide with his image as the intellectual Republican candidate. Yet since his impressive performances in GOP debates, the professorial Gingrich appeal has tapered significantly. His disappointing fourth-place finish in the Iowa Caucus-due, in part, to a horde of negative advertisements in the state-shattered any hopes of the utopian, debate-based primary Gingrich desired. A strong showing in Florida could give a jolt of energy to his candidacy, but with a limited war chest and reservations about his personal life, Gingrich would best avoid buying new milk. 

Letter: Campus student workers need more rights

What group constitutes the greatest percentage of the staff employed by UW-Madison? Is it Faculty? Graduate Assistants? Academic Staff? Classified Staff? In fact, it's none of these. All of these are dwarfed by the number of student hourlies on campus. 

Mercury and other pollutant regulations beneficial for Wisconsin citizens

On Dec. 21 the mercury pollution saga finally came to an end. The long awaited Environmental Protection Agency regulations were finalized and put into effect. The new Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) are the first ever national limits on mercury and other toxic emissions from power plants. These new regulations will ultimately improve people's health by requiring power plants that contribute to air pollution in Wisconsin to use widely available, proven pollution control technologies. These technologies will help protect families from pollutants such as mercury, arsenic, chromium, nickel and acid gases.

Worst decisions made at the Capitol

Voter ID law suppresses citizens' rights

Worst ASM decisions of the year

Failure, thy name is ASM

Letter: It's Christmas people! Get over it.

I just read an article titled “Keep the baby Jesus out of politics,” and while it brings up a few good points, I disagree with the majority of it.  To begin with, stating that a pine tree has no claim to Christmas is like stating the Green Bay Packers have no claim to the G logo that is now property of, and synonymous with, the team. It is true that conifers played no part in the first Christmas. In fact, they first mention of them being part of the Christmas celebration was in the 16th century in Germany and Livonia. However, tradition makes up a large part of every event, and I mean every event, after its inaugural year. After five centuries of being the only light up decorated tree widely known to the Western World, I think its safe to say that yes, a Christmas tree is a Christmas tree. Calling something by its name whether its good or bad from your point of view is the proper thing to do. As stated in Harry Potter, “Fear of the name only increase fear of the thing itself.”

Congress must act to save U.S. Postal Service

It is a seemingly "self-supporting enterprise" that collects no tax dollars to support its expenses. It relies completely on products and services to subsidize its operations. It generates approximately $67 billion a year in revenues and has been named the "Most Trusted Government Agency" for six consecutive years and the sixth "most trusted business in the nation" by the Ponemon Institute. What agency did I just describe? The answer is the United States Postal Service. This important agency is currently in a financial predicament and this problem is something that all of America should begin paying attention to.

Too big to fail

The United States Postal Service is burdened with high health-care, pension and labor costs, not to mention falling sales. It faces fierce competition in e-mail and private delivery systems, yet bailout talks are in the works.  Are big banks and auto manufacturers the only organizations that are too big to fail?

Keep the baby Jesus out of politics

As the holiday season rolls around, religious tensions are sure to follow. Just a month ago, Gov. Scott Walker ignited a slight controversy by calling Madison's holiday tree a Christmas tree in a press release (because pine trees were an irreplaceably sacred part of Jesus' birth in the middle of a desert and have been key throughout 2000 years of subsequent Christian tradition). As you can tell, this particular issue seems quite petty. However, it signals a more important problem: America's inability to properly recognize the separation between church and State and the consequences the joining of the two bring.

Moderate Republicans wrong choice

The Republican primary season is certainly going to be interesting, if the preceding months are any indication. However, most people are going to draw the wrong lessons from it. It is true that the polls have fluctuated because there is no clear frontrunner. But the conclusion most draw from this—that there is no frontrunner because the field is weak—is almost certainly wrong. On the contrary, the Republican base’s problem is that its candidates are too strong.

Permits for protesting unconstitutional

What are the ultimate principles behind issuing a permit? To grant privileges to individuals that would otherwise be turned away if certain qualifications weren’t met. What is the purpose of a rally or demonstration? To further advocate a cause that otherwise isn’t being addressed. What is the overarching reason behind Gov. Scott Walker’s updated facilities policy? Take one guess.

Student can help UW recycle electronics

Recycling old electronics has been an important step in keeping our environment safe.  And yet, based on personal experience, not many people take advantage of cell-phone and computer recycling centers. 

Blagojevich prison sentence appropriate

Horse trading sounds fun, but political horse trading is exactly what former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich committed to receive 14 years in jail. He was charged with 17 counts of corruption pertaining to his willingness to trade political favors and donations for facilitating public funds to certain projects, including children’s hospitals, race tracks and President Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate seat.

Letter from ASM Chair Allie Gardner

“Students are here primarily for an education, and to serve the public good. Their involvement is different than that of other governance groups because it’s not just about their personal experience while they’re here, but the generations of students that follow them.”  This was the explanation I was given on the role students play in shared governance in the UW System by a former president of the Wisconsin Student Association (the student government predecessor of ASM), and one of the many academic staff that I have had the pleasure of discussing shared governance with.

Personhood wrong focus for state GOP

Transportation to jobs grants have no wheels