University of Wisconsin-Madison Complete campus coverage since 1892 dailycardinal.com Thursday, March 24, 2011l

“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”

Health-care amendment faces long roadBy Adam WollnerThe Daily CarDinal

One year after President Barack Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law, state Sen. Joe Leibham, R-Sheboygan, and state Rep. Robin Vos, R-Rochester, proposed a con-stitutional amendment to make Wisconsin exempt from the law.

Leibham and Vos intro-duced the Health Care Freedom Amendment Monday, saying there are still “serious questions” remaining about the constitu-tionality of the law.

In a joint statement, Leibham and Vos said the amendment would protect the rights of indi-viduals to decide what kind of health care they want.

They said it would also prohibit the government from requiring individuals to partici-

pate in any health-care program, public or private.

“The Health Care Freedom Amendment will protect citizens from the unconstitutional take-over of health care,” Vos said in a statement. “ObamaCare is an assault on our precious freedom to choose the right doctor and health insurance.”

The amendment must be adopted by two successive leg-islatures and approved by the citizens of Wisconsin through referendum to take effect.

Wisconsin is one of 26 states currently suing the federal gov-ernment over the constitution-ality of the health-care law. Eight states have already passed legislation against it.

Leibham and Vos said they

Speakers discuss benefits, cultivation of medical marijuana at presentationBy Ben SiegelThe Daily CarDinal

Members of the UW communi-ty attended a lecture to learn about the legal, medical and physical envi-ronment of medical marijuana at an event sponsored by the UW Horticultural Society.

Gary Storck, president of the Madison chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, spoke about the historical and scientific back-grounds of medical cannabis before delving into recent medical and legal developments.

Storck said using marijuana for medical purposes is not a recent development.

“A Chinese emperor’s stash was recently discovered in his tomb: two pounds of herbal cannabis that still contained THC,” Storck said.

Storck described various con-ditions that medical cannabis can treat, such as multiple sclerosis and post-traumatic stress disorder. A 40-year user of medical marijuana, he reflected on his own experiences.

“I’ve had glaucoma my entire life, and although my vision has greatly decreased, I can still see, and that’s a tribute to the medicinal power of can-nabis,” Storck said.

Present local policy has its origins in Madison City Ordinance 2320, which, in 1977, decriminalized pos-session and allowed for marijuana use with proper certification.

Storck said Republicans have frustrated recent attempts to for-ward marijuana legislation in the state Legislature but also men-tioned the success of the cannabis referendum on November ballots in Dane County and River Falls.

“Medical marijuana is something that residents support,” Storck said, “Unfortunately, with the legislative changes, people in control could care less about medical marijuana.”

Troy Sedlak, the author of “Anarco Grow,” a fiction novel about a Costa Rican-American marijuana pipeline, spoke about the basics of indoor marijuana cultivation.

Sedlak took the audience through the basics of growing, identify-ing ideal conditions and practices employed during stages of cultiva-tion. He described the process from planting through the vegetation, flowering and drying stages.

After debating the merits of various light sources and growing techniques, Sedlak said growing marijuana is more difficult than is commonly thought.

“The common misconception of growing is that it’s easy to do,” Sedlak said. “People think, ‘Cool, I’m going to grow and have pounds and pounds of pot.’ It’s not that easy. It takes a lot of time to learn how to do it the right way. It’s really an art form.”

DA asks to continue injunction on repair billA Dane County District Attorney

filed a brief Tuesday asking to continue the injunction on the Budget Repair Bill following an appeal by the State Department of Justice.

In the brief, Attorney Ismael Ozanne said Dane County Judge Maryann Sumi’s restraining order on publishing the bill responds to a violation of the Open Meetings Law, not the content of the bill itself.

Ozanne said the court case cited by the DOJ in its appeal does not apply to this case because that case attempted to stop the publication of a bill due to

the its unconstitutionality, unlike the current case.

“The District Attorney here does not seek to block publication simply to prevent an allegedly unconsti-tutional bill from becoming law,” Ozanne wrote in the brief. “Rather, he seeks to redress past violations of the rights of the public to suffi-cient prior notice of and meaningful access to the March 9, 2011 Joint Committee of Conference meeting.”

The current injunction delays Secretary of State Doug LaFollette’s ability to publish the bill.

The bill passed on March 10, and LaFollette originally said he would take the full 10 business days allowed before he published it.

Before LaFollette published, and Sumi found on March 18 that the Joint Committee violated the law.

In the DOJ appeal, state lawyers said Sumi does not have the author-ity to issue such an injunction and argued the open meetings law is a legislative rule and therefore not in the jurisdiction of the courts.

—Scott Girard

ASM candidates share positions on student issues in Q&A sessionBy Anna DuffinThe Daily CarDinal

Students gathered to ask the Associated Students of Madison’s spring electoral candidates ques-tions regarding their vision for the university and the student govern-ment Wednesday night.

Candidates are running for 29 seats on student council and five seats on the Student Services

Finance Committee.Some candidates agreed that

while issues such as finances and safety are important for ASM members to address, it is equally as important to inform students that these problems exist.

Letters and Sciences candidate Dan Shanahan said student aware-

kAtHryn Weenig/The Daily CarDinal

health care page 3

q&a page 3

aSM candidates shared opinions on diversity, segregated fees and student government outreach at a Q&a session Wednesday.

kAtHryn Weenig/The Daily CarDinal

The UW horticultural Society presented a lecture to students about benefits of medical marijuana and its current position in state politics.

troy Sedlakauthor

‘anarco Grow’

“The common misconception of growing is that it’s easy to do.”

rural Alberta Advantage to headline at high noon tonight

ArtS PAge 4l

MArDi grAS, rOUnD tWOUW takes on Cinderella team Butler in tonight’s Sweet 16 matchup

SPOrtS

PAge 8

page twol

I am often astounded by the things people do in public. This is not to say I myself do not par-

take in questionable activities from time to time before the eyes of hun-dreds of strangers, but I try to keep it to a minimum. Every time I ven-ture outside my apartment, though, I never fail to witness some borderline inappropriate behavior by my fellow pedestrians or classmates.

One of the behaviors I have the pleasure of spotting almost daily is a twenty-something-year-old picking their nose. Occasionally, the culprit will at least attempt to be stealth about it by pretending they have an itch that has crept up into their schnoz, but more often than not the said nose picker just digs like there is no tomorrow without even realizing the horrified looks on surrounding faces. Picking your nose was totally normal behavior in preschool and

the early years of elementary school when teachers and friends common-ly referred to it as “digging for gold.”

Once you’re old enough to vote and pick up a bottle of Pinot Noir after work, though, I think it’s time to call it quits and learn a new strat-egy for taking care of those pesky boogers. Like a Kleenex.

Behold the next all too common behavior: The crotch itch. I can’t say I’ve witnessed many females perform-ing this behavior while takin’ a stroll down University Ave, but the men on this campus and everywhere else on the planet have this move down pat. Granted I do not know what it is like to have all that junk chillin’ in the front (I’m only familiar with a lil junk in my trunk). But when I am face-to-face talking to a person of the opposite sex, especially when we do not know each other too well, and he blatantly read-justs his groin I am unfailingly shocked. I wonder if he notices my eyes bug out of my head, or if this is just such a com-mon behavior for him it’s like second nature. Maybe it’s unconscious, and he doesn’t even realize he keeps reaching down under and thinks I have some kind of tic that makes my eyes bulge

every two minutes. Hands down the most uncanny

behavior I observe almost weekly is the person I am next to in the bathroom at Grainger or what have you going num-ber two on the pot and then casually walking out of the stall without wash-ing their hands. Which is why I carry around a Purell wherever I go and detest holding hands and/or being touched by someone if I don’t know for certain that they exercise normal hygiene. God for-bid I shake hands with someone who has just wiped their rump.

On the other hand, there are certain things I witness that just put me in the peachiest mood ever. For example, I absolutely love when I observe people singing and/or danc-ing to whatever is playing on their iPod while struttin’ to class. It kills me every time. Sometimes I try to discern the words they are mouthing or actually singing so I can rock out in my head along with them (as long as it isn’t Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, or Katy Perry). And I must give them props for being able to bust a move in the middle of the street because I typically cannot reveal my, let’s call them peculiar, dance moves

without a few Sam Adams first. I also love when I see little munch-

kins who are skipping down the streets with their parents for the day suddenly bolt away from them. Those damn seven-year-olds cannot be restrained and I can’t get enough of watching their poor parents scramble after them even though there is no way a 40-something with a hernia and/or arthritis in their knees is going to catch up to that spry little nugget. What makes the situation even better is if the little tot is wearing a T-shirt and shorts in 30 degree weather. It takes me back to the days when I had so much energy myself that I swear cold never scathed my body. Damn I wish I was seven again.

People watching is pretty darn entertaining. You never know what you’re going to observe. It could be a little whipper-snapper fleeing their parents, or a 22-year-old finance major perusing their pelvic region. The plea-sure lies in the anticipation, even though the observations can some-times be mildly traumatizing.

What crazy antics have you observed while people watching? E-mail your stories to alt2@wisc.edu.

2 Thursday, March 24, 2011 dailycardinal.com/page-two

Really? Did you seriously just do that?

Rebecca altctrl+alt+delete

Corrections or clarifications? Call The Daily Cardinal office at 608-262-8000 or send an e-mail to edit@dailycardinal.com.

For the record

Editorial BoardHannah Furfaro • Miles Kellerman

Emma Roller • Samuel Todd Stevens Parker Gabriel • Dan Tollefson

Samantha Witthuhn • Nico Savidge

Board of DirectorsMelissa Anderson, PresidentEmma Roller • Cole Wenzel Parker Gabriel • Vince Filak

Janet Larson • Mara Greewald Jenny Sereno • Chris Drosner

Ron Luskin • Joan HerzingJason Stein

Editor in Chief Emma Roller

Managing EditorParker Gabriel

FriDAY:mostly cloudyhi 32º / lo 18º

tODAY:partly sunnyhi 29º / lo 18º

An independent student newspaper, serving the University of Wisconsin-Madison

community since 1892

Volume 120, issue 1092142 Vilas Communication Hall

821 University AvenueMadison, Wis., 53706-1497

(608) 262-8000 • fax (608) 262-8100

News and Editorialedit@dailycardinal.com

News team

Campus Editor Kayla JohnsonCity Editor Maggie DeGrootState Editor Ariel Shapiro

Enterprise Editor Alison DirrAssociate News Editor Scott Girard

Senior News reporter Adam Wollner

Opinion EditorsDan Tollefson • Samantha Witthuhn

Editorial Board Chair Hannah Furfaro

Arts EditorsJeremy Gartzke • Todd Stevens

Sports EditorsMark Bennett • Ryan Evans

Page two Editor Victoria Statz

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Dustin Bui • Bob Sixsmith

The Daily Cardinal is a nonprofit organization run by its staff members and elected editors. It receives no funds from the university. Operating revenue is generated from advertising and subscription sales.

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© 2011, The Daily Cardinal Media Corporation

ISSN 0011-5398

Who wants to write about what you did last weekend, the awesome road trip you

took or even how many cartoon series you watched over the past month?

C’mon, we all have a bit of narcissist in us, and the best way to use it is as a

PAGE tWO COLUMNiSt!E-mail vstatz@wisc.edu if you’re interested or just want more information about being a columnist next fall!

WritE FOr PAGE tWO

newsdailycardinal.com/news Thursday,March24,2011 3l

ness needs to be addressed.“The thing that separates every-

one is who can take the issues and make students aware of what’s going on,” Shanahan said.

During the Q&A session, can-didates also discussed how they would incorporate diversity into the university.

While some candidates said the media could be useful in pro-moting diversity, others, includ-ing Nikolas Magallon, said face-to-face communication is more important.

“I think that ASM needs to get out of 333 East Campus Mall and go into spaces of diversity,” Magallon said.

All candidates who were asked what changes need to be imple-mented said outreach needs to be increased. Many candidates also said ASM needs to push for more student power in shared gover-nance.

Letters and Sciences candidate Olivia Wick-Bander said ASM needs to work harder to let students know what they do.

“I saw e-mails from ASM, but I didn’t see people from ASM. I didn’t

know what they did, and I had to do a lot of reading to figure that out. I don’t think there’s enough outreach,” Wick-Bander said.

Some SSFC candidates said they want to be on SSFC so they can better educate students on how their segregated fees are allocated.

Current SSFC Chair Matt Manes and SSFC candidates Daniel Gibbs and Joe Vanden Avond said educating students is not as impor-tant as lowering fees.

“Unlike the rest of these candi-dates, I don’t really care if campus knows about segregated fees,” Manes said. “My job is to keep the amount people pay as low as possible.”

Many SSFC candidates also said that while maintaining the mindset that they want to lower segregated fees is important, actu-ally accomplishing this is not always realistic.

The candidates noted that with segregated fees funding ongoing construction projects, lowering segregated fees within the next school year is unlikely.

Other candidates said although it would be difficult, they would try to lower segregated fees by looking at what students use least and cutting those services.

plan on moving the bill forward in the spring legislative session.

UW-Madison political science professor Charles Franklin said

this is another example of how polarized the country still is over the controversial health-care law.

“A year later, we are at least as divided as we were when it passed,” Franklin said.

q&a from page 1

brett blaske/the daily cardinal

Members of the Madison arts commission, along with Mayor dave cieslewicz, presented the city’s new cultural arts plan Wednesday night.

City unveils new cultural arts plan, seeks public inputby taylor Harveythe daily cardinal

The Madison Arts Commission unveiled a brand new Madison Cultural Plan Wednesday to promote the city’s cultural identity.

The event’s purpose was to col-lect ideas from the public to prog-ress Madison culturally in order to establish a more vibrant center of creativity and innovation.

“This plan gives us the oppor-tunity to connect businesses and families to arts and culture,” said.

Steven Goldberg, member of the Madison Cultural Plan Steering Committee. “We will have that brand engrained in all of us.”

According to MAC members, Madison’s cultural identity will allow institutions to experiment

with new ideas to advance capacity and earn income.

“The business community is waiting for this kind of alignment that says if you invest in the culture of this community, your dollar will go much further because there is alignment and a sense of purpose,” Goldberg said.

Five themes of the cultural plan were introduced as a platform in an effort to create a brand for Madison. The themes are com-munity identity, connectivity, voice, place and sustainability, all of which offer avenues to enhance the city’s unique qualities.

“We can protect and enhance the unique character of the place in which we live, we can give voice to creative issues and we can move more intentionally towards sus-tainability,” said Mary.

Berryman Agard, a MAC con-sultant, about the presented themes.

MAC used various roundtable discussions, surveys, interviews, and focus groups to further understand the public’s current perspective of Madison’s culture and to construct the themes of the city’s cultural plan.

According to Agard, Madison’s community identity is not clearly defined, and as a result, there is nothing to help shape or drive a community spirit.

“This is a kickoff of a long, fruitful, rich discussion about where we want to take culture and to broadly define it in our community,” Mayor Dave Cieslewicz said. “This is a liv-ing, breathing document, not something set in stone, just as creativity is not set in stone.”

athletic board says criminal background checks are unfairby kelly kallienthe daily cardinal

The Academics and Compliance Committee of the UW Athletic Board discussed the ethics of run-ning criminal background checks when considering the recruitment of a student athlete Wednesday.

Discussion began in early March after Sports Illustrated and CBS conducted criminal back-ground checks on student athletes and found athletes across the coun-try with criminal records.

Both outlets wrote an article questioning the ethics of allowing student athletes to play football for a university despite having a criminal background.

Among those with criminal

records is UW-Madison line-backer Kevin Claxton, who was charged with home burglary in November 2007.

Wisconsin football head coach Bret Bielema decided to allow Claxton to play on the team, and since being admitted to the uni-versity, Claxton has adhered to Wisconsin’s academic and behav-ioral requirements.

Dale Bjorling, an ACC com-mittee member who ran the meeting, said he opposed requir-ing background checks on stu-dent athletes.

“On the surface, it makes a lot of sense,” Bjorling said. “No one wants a felon to be on campus. But at the same time, to make a

hard and fast rule that says, ‘OK, we’re going to run a criminal back-ground checks,’ is that fair? Does that mean we have to run a back-ground check on every applicant to the university?”

The committee unanimously agreed that requiring background checks for athletes should be left to the discretion of the coaching staff. This is the way the policy currently stands.

Committee members said they felt it unfair to require criminal back-ground checks for student athletes while non-athletes are exempt.

Bjorling said a vote regarding the implementation of a required crimi-nal background check on student ath-letes will not occur in the near future.

UW chancellors ask legislators to keep UW-Madison in system

Chancellors from 13 UW System schools sent a let-ter Wednesday to state legisla-tors asking for support on the Wisconsin Idea Partnership in the 2011-’13 biennial budget.

The proposed partner-ship would include keeping UW-Madison in the UW System. That goes against Chancellor Biddy Martin’s proposed New Badger Partnership, which Gov. Scott Walker included in his bud-get proposal.

A summary of the bill, attached to the letter, said UW-Madison

would still get the flexibilities Martin seeks, but within the framework of the UW System.

The chancellors said Wisconsin universities will need to deal with $250 million in proposed cuts to funding in Walker’s budget.

“More than ever, that flexibil-ity is needed to preserve broad access to a high-quality UW edu-cation,” the chancellors said in the letter.

The UW System Board of Regents passed a resolution in support of the Idea Partnership at their meeting March 10.

health care from page 1

UW-Madison signs contract with Huron Consulting GroupIn an effort to cut departmen-

tal costs, UW-Madison has signed a contract with Huron Consulting group to examine the university’s financial productivity.

To help offset the $125 million cut in state funding, Chancellor Biddy Martin said the university would increase efficiencies, tuition and budget cuts.

The university hopes with Huron’s help, it can develop organizational structures, business processes and staff competencies to foster efficiency.

UW-Madison will aim to improve administrative structure, accounting and financial report-ing, human resources, facilities, construction management, infor-mation technology, internal audit-ing and budgeting and procure-ment, among other areas, accord-ing to a statement.

To ensure Huron meets UW-Madison’s expectations of orga-nization and operation, three groups will advise the project.

According to the university, a

steering committee including Martin, Provost Paul M. DeLuca Jr. and Vice Chancellor Darrell Bazzell, and will oversee the effort on behalf of UW-Madison.

An advisory committee with rep-resentatives from shared governance and labor will offer perspectives to inform Huron’s analysis and test the consultant’s recommendations.

Faculty, staff, students and other stakeholders will collect data and work through potential solutions with Huron.

artsl4 Thursday, March 24, 2011 dailycardinal.com/arts

Showdown at High NoonBy Cole WenzelThe Daily CarDinal

At 8:30 p.m. Thursday, the ever warm and welcoming High Noon Saloon will host three acts, each dis-tinctive in their own right. The soul-ful Irish soul singer/songwriter James Vincent McMorrow and eclectic Midwesterner Erik Hall’s solo “band,” In Tall Buildings, will open on the bill for prairie rocking Canadians, The Rural Alberta Advantage.

I had the privilege of speaking with Hall via conference call to discuss In Tall Buildings, side project His Name Is Alive and the self-titled album. In Tall Buildings manifests as a project and album that is completely esoteric and different from, for instance, Hall’s afro-beat band NOMO.

“There wasn’t really a specific plan for this album, it was really just kind of a natural output as solo musician. This is actually the kind of music that I end up coming up with when it’s my thing entirely,” Hall said of In Tall Buildings. “It’s just a more honest output for me because I play drums as well as the guitar and whatever other instruments end up on the album. That’s the music I want to create. For this album I didn’t want to have a big, giant cast of differ-ent personalities. I really wanted this particular album to be a reflection of me as a musician. As a writer, a record-er, and a recording engineer,” Hall said.

Hall recorded the album when he had a break and returned to Chicago. Roots play a significant role in the way

Hall sees life and formulates his music. Continuing on notes of inspiration, we moved to lyrics and I asked him of one song in particular, “Good Fences,” in which he alludes to Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall” and sings in near whisper that “Good fences make good neighbors /So misunderstood”.

“I’m not really trying to say any-thing more than what I think Robert Frost is saying,” Hall said, “What I’m talking about or specifically thinking about when I was writing the lyrics was how segregated the city of Chicago can feel, sometimes, with regard to the neighborhoods and the people who live in those neighborhoods.”

I also had the privilege of speaking with keyboardist Amy Cole from Rural Alberta Advantage to discuss the story behind the band and their new album, Departing. Cole moved from a small town to a big city, a mutiny to mirror the transitive period of growing up.

“It was, for me, a daunting experi-ence. I moved to Toronto for univer-sity and for me it was a bit of culture shock. It made me nervous moving to the big city for school. In terms of music, I wasn’t really exposed to ‘cool’ music growing up. You could find it but you really had to seek it out,” Cole said. For her, as for many of us, college was training for the better things to come.

“Of course, coming to Toronto, I made all these friends who were in bands, who were the coolest people, and I always had something to do,

to go out and watch my friends play music. Eventually, to myself, I said ‘why not play music’ and that’s how I got into playing in a band and in The RAA,” Cole said.

From a small town girl who played and sung classical numbers to a big-city music admirer, Cole landed in a highly successful band that is touring worldwide.

“We’ve all been in bands and have tried to make things happen, but some-times they just don’t,” she said, “With us, it’s been connecting from almost the start and we’ve been extremely lucky.” Connection and trust is a verity of the band’s success. The RAA signed to Saddle Creek Records following the release of their debut, Hometowns.

“[Saddle Creek is] very support-ive and really cool and have given us the freedom to really do what we wanted. They released Hometowns without editing anything from our initial self-release and with Departing, it was the same thing. We would send them demos and they’re not the kind of label that is going to give you a lot of notes,” Cole said. What The RAA does so well is connect emotionally, which is the essence of quality art.

“Nils always said that when he’s writing a song he has to feel it emotion-ally because, if he doesn’t, if we don’t, then no one else is going to,” Cole said, “So I guess it’s just trying to evoke these emotions and these sentiments through our music, hopefully the way it makes us feel when we’re playing it.”

IN Tall BuIldINgS PHoTo (lefT) CourTeSy WHISTler reCordS/rural alBerTa advaNTage PHoTo (rIgHT) CourTeSy Saddle Creek reCordS

WEEKEND MUST-SEES

Fri. Feb. 25 at 10:00 p.m.The Frequency

The Smith Westerns caught on with their light, poppy lo-fi sound in 2009 with the self-titled debut LP. Now that they’ve released their sophomore album Dye It Blond to criti-cal acclaim, it would be a crime to miss them when their tour stops in Madison. With two albums under their belt the band of freshmen-aged kids has developed a mature sound many music vets would envy. Check it out and “Weekend” will be stuck in your head all, well, weekend. PHoTo CourTeSy FaT PossuM reCorDs

AMC Best Picture ShowcaseSat. Feb. 26 at 11:00 a.m.AMC Star Fitchburg 18

Want to follow the Oscars this year but haven’t seen any of the movies nominated? You can take care of at least half of the films up for best picture in one fell swoop at the AMC Fitchburg, which is showing “Winter’s Bone,” “Black Swan,” “Inception,” “The Social Network” and “The King’s Speech” all in a row this Saturday. Grab an extra large popcorn, strategically plan bathroom breaks and you’ll be an Oscar expert in no time.

PHoTo CourTeSy THe WeINSTeIN Co.

American Psycho

WEEKEND MUST-SEES

Chicago Afrobeat ProjectFri. March 25, 9:30 p.m.Der Rathskeller

Dropping by to visit Madison in cel-ebration of the Peace Corps’ 50th anni-versary, the Chicago Afrobeat Project brings their eclectic sound to the Memorial Union’s der Rathskeller Friday night in a show that will be nothing if not energetic. At times working in big band, jazz, and of course Afrobeat sounds, usually all at the same time, Chicago Afrobeat Project is an act not to be missed.

PHoTo CourTeSy CaBP

Sat. March 26 at 11:59 p.m.Memorial Union Play Circle

Once upon a time, Christian Bale wasn’t the loveable crack addict of “The Fighter.” He wasn’t even Batman yet. No, after a decade of work as a child actor, Christian Bale had his breakthrough role in the film “American Psycho,” starring as an 80s New York yup-pie who moonlights as a serial killer. Brutally violent, oddly insightful and incredibly hilari-ous, Bale’s performance in “American Psycho” remains his best, and it’s enough to make you want to go rent the video tape. PHoTo CourTeSy lions GaTe

American Psycho

6 Thursday, March 24, 2011 dailycardinal.com/comicscomics

Pasta al dente© Puzzles by Pappocom

Eatin’ Cake By Dylan Moriarty EatinCake@gmail.com

Cardinalistas By The Graphics Editors graphics@dailycardinal.com

Solution, tips and computer program available at www.sudoku.com.

Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9.

Today’s Sudoku

QuiTE a Pair

aCrOSS 1 Amino or boric 5 Trail for Hansel and

Gretel 11 Bond girl Green 14 Crescent shape 15 Visit a restaurant 16 The point of writing? 17 Big names in frozen

treats 19 Steeped beverage 20 “Let sleeping dogs

___” 21 “Underwear” of yore 23 Extremely pale 26 Munched on 28 Adolescent

development 29 Nobel Prize winner,

e.g. 31 Trojan War survivor 33 Greedy sort 34 Took control of the

ship 36 Leaders of a famous

expedition 41 Mean 42 “I’d like to buy ___,

Pat” 44 Wickerwork 47 Persistently annoying

people 50 Bassoon relative 51 According to

52 Veins of riches 53 Venice vehicle 56 Powder container 57 Engine’s throttle 58 Grade-school couple? 64 Santa Barbara-to-Las

Vegas dir. 65 Flatware company

named after a tribe 66 Share a border with 67 Insecticide banned by

the EPA 68 Colorful variety of lawn

grass 69 It presents problems

DOWN 1 White clerical gown 2 “The Hustler” prop 3 Place to stay overnight 4 Blackjack opponent 5 Formally surrender, as

territory 6 British rule in India 7 4x4 vehicle, for short 8 Telegraph patent-

holder 9 Bacharach or Young 10 Eyelid inflammation 11 Tempt 12 Capital on the Danube 13 Shames 18 Workday start, for

many 22 Bearlike mammal 23 Yodeling setting

24 Travel like Columbus 25 Bigger than big 26 Floral perfume 27 ‘Twixt 12 and 20 30 Balance sheet listing 31 Traveled a curved path 32 A sniggler snares it 35 Painter Degas 37 Roused 38 “Now ___ seen

everything!” 39 All bets are off after

this 40 ___-slapper (good

joke) 43 Biblical mount 44 Mired (with “down”) 45 Teem 46 Fourteen-line poem 48 Went on the lam 49 Severe backup 51 Wore a hole in the rug 54 Air-freshener target 55 Toe the ___ (be

obedient) 56 Word with “sack” 59 Baby beaver, fox or

raccoon 60 Hubbub 61 Organization of lawyers

(Abbr.) 62 Wacko 63 Biblical verb

attachment

answer key available at www.dailycardinal.com

Today’s Crossword Puzzle

Hoop Dreams

The Sounds of Silence: The 1976 comedy ‘Silent Movie’ by Mel Brooks has exactly one WORD of dialog—“NO!”—spoken by the famous mime Marcel Marceau.

Washington and the Bear By Derek Sandberg kalarooka@gmail.com

The Pipesmokers By Joseph Diedrich jsdiedrich@wisc.edu

Evil Bird By Caitlin Kirihara kirihara@wisc.edu

By D.T. dtollefson@dailycardinal.com

l

T he Capitol hasn’t exactly been the most friendly place lately. Gov. Scott

Walker has made it his mission to go after Wisconsin’s ferociously greedy teachers and prison guards, the Fitzgerald brothers struck a decisive blow against Democratic senate staffers by taking away their copy machine privileges and state Sen. Lena Taylor, D-Milwaukee, apparently feels that she can com-pare Wisconsin’s Republicans to gang rapists. With all the vitriol flying around, it makes the lat-est proposal from state Sen. Tim Cullen, D-Janesville, all the more refreshing.

Cullen proposed to rewrite the state Senate’s quorum rules for budgetary matters. Instead of the supermajority needed for a quorum, Cullen’s proposal would require only a simple major-ity, effectively stripping the state Senate of its form of the filibuster. Under these new requirements, tactics like the Senate Democrats’ recent odyssey to northern Illinois would be rendered moot.

In light of these recent events, we applaud Cullen for his will-ingness to reach across the aisle. It is hard to find some ulterior motive for Cullen’s proposal, see-ing as he is not eligible for recall and he won his latest election by a comfortable margin in a strong year for Republicans. It is pos-sible there may be some underly-ing interest, but considering his role as a mediator during the Capitol crisis, for all we can tell

he seems to genuinely believe in the legislation.

We stand with Cullen in favor of the rule change. As policy, it takes away a legislative technicali-ty that has too much opportunity for abuse. But just as importantly, such a proposal can act as an olive branch in a starkly divided Senate chamber. Now, people like state Sen. Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend, and the Fitzgeralds are about as likely to accept that olive branch as they are to accept public unions’ concessions. But moderate Republicans may now see Cullen as a man they can work with. And in a Senate with only 33 members, a mere handful of senators from different par-ties working together can make a huge impact.

With this in mind, we call on the members of the state Assembly, remaining members of the Senate and people of Wisconsin to join Cullen in a showing of bipartisan-ship. With the state as divided as it is, this is just the occasion where we would expect Democrats in the legislature to dig their heels in the opposition.

However, this is not the time to be shortsighted. One day the Democrats will be back in the majority, and at that point this sort of proposal will look very appealing to them. This is the time to look to the future, and look toward it together.

Or we can just continue to call one another Hitler. Your choice, legislators.

opinionldailycardinal.com/opinion Thursday, March 24, 2011 7

A s our country faces its worst economy in decades, as our national

debt surpasses the entire GDP of India, as worldwide turmoil threatens our energy security and as a horrific tragedy in Japan claimed the lives of the thou-sands, the leader of the free world found time to pick Kansas as the champion of his 2011 March Madness bracket.

It’s not that president Barack Obama picked Kansas as the national champion that has myself and many other Americans per-plexed. It’s the fact that during a time when a leader is supposed to be leading, Obama seems to be doing anything but. Instead, as The Los Angeles Times recently put it, it appears as though the president is already in “campaign mode.” How?

Nearly a week after the trag-edy in Japan took place, the president addressed the nation on the disaster. But not before he found time to address two posh Democratic National Committee fundraisers, one of which, Politico reports, cost each attendee $30,800. Moreover, the president has been spend-ing more and more time in key

battleground states, giving inter-views to local TV stations in Pennsylvania and Florida.

What Obama fails to see is the fact that both the nation and the world need a leader who is willing to take a stand, not a campaigner who is able to give a speech. Even before the crisis in Libya began, the world seemed in chaos. The price of oil was skyrocketing, while a tsunami devastated one of our strongest allies and trade part-ners—Japan. Additionally, our own government was facing the threat of a shutdown if Congress didn’t agree on a budget.

Then came Libya.It seems as though the most

egregious demonstration of our president’s lack of leadership is his response to the current crisis in Libya. Before it began, Obama offered little direction to the inter-national community on what should be done. Instead, he allowed Britain and France to determine the best course of action.

Now, American airmen and sailors are risking their lives executing a mission ordered by Obama and authorized by no one but the United Nations. Once a consensus in the inter-national community seemed to have been reached, instead of seeking authorization from Congress, the president consid-ered authorization from the UN reason enough to send American forces into harm’s way.

Since when does the inter-

national legislative body in New York trump the author-ity of the one in Washington? Furthermore, why hasn’t Obama sat down with the American people to discuss his rationale behind the use of force?

Any time an American presi-dent sends American forces into battle, an address to the nation from the oval office explaining both the action and the mission are usually in order. Instead, after a brief statement on the issue at 2 p.m. Friday, the President boarded Air Force One for a five-day trip to South America.

Based on the President’s lack of leadership, it seems as though “American Exceptionalism” is being replaced by “American Acceptionalism.” That is, the United States accepts the will of the international community and becomes just one country among the many.

This cannot be allowed to happen. America needs to provide

solid leadership in times of tur-moil and in times of peace. We cannot afford to have a president who wants to vote ‘present’ in a world where action is demanded. Obama must stand up and do the job he was elected to do. He needs to lead, not offer an analysis of the NCAA basketball tournament in a time of crisis.

Matt Payne is a junior major-ing in Chinese and econom-ics. Please send all feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.

Cardinal View editorials represent The Daily Cardinal’s organizational opin-ion. Each editorial is crafted independent of news coverage.

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quorum proposal a breath of fresh air

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sportsl8 Thursday, March 24, 2011 dailycardinal.com/sports

Men’s Basketball

Sweet feelings in the ‘Big Easy’

Matt MarhEinE/cardinal file phoTo

after instrumental performances in the Badgers’ first two ncaa contests, Mike Bruesewitz will look to contribute further in the Sweet 16.

By Jeremy WodajoThe daily cardinal

The city of New Orleans is known for its infamous Mardi Gras celebration each year, and although head coach Bo Ryan and his players are still dancing in this year’s NCAA Tournament, don’t expect any early celebrations.

The Badgers are preparing to take on No. 8 seed Butler Thursday night in the Southeast Regional Semifinals in the Big Easy. Despite the Bulldogs’ lower seeding and Horizon League roots, Wisconsin is not taking victory over last year’s national runner-up for granted.

“I think Butler has won not because people have underesti-mated them,” Ryan said. “I dis-agree with that because coaches and players are pretty astute when it comes to recognizing success and what people do to get there. So I really don’t think they’ve been underestimated.”

Butler, who finished second in the Horizon, is a team similar to Wisconsin in that they both focus on defense and taking care of the ball. Bulldog head coach Brad Stevens has built his team around recruiting average athletes, much like Ryan, and creating chemistry to produce success.

Despite competing in a mid-major conference, Butler has sepa-rated itself once again as a national power this year. But after dominat-ing the Horizon League in 2010 they struggled this season, going 13-5, and had to defeat UW-Milwaukee in the conference championship to earn their fifth consecutive NCAA

tournament bid.“Obviously they’re a team that

was here in this position last year,” senior forward Keaton Nankivil said. “You just get the feeling that nothing is going to rattle them so we’re going to have to play a pretty solid game and do whatever we do well in order to win this one.”

In four seasons, the 35 year-old Stevens has compiled a 114-24 record and took Butler to its first Final Four.

“There’s a guy that got an opportunity and he’s putting the pedal to the metal,” Ryan said. “The important thing as a coach is you see the game a certain way, your players have to see it that way. And he’s done that with his teams.”

On the other hand, Ryan has advanced to his fourth Sweet 16 since becoming head coach for the Badgers in 2001.

Ryan has never battled with Butler since joining UW, but is still familiar with the Bulldog program. Ryan went 0-5 against Butler during his two seasons as head coach at UW-Milwaukee, and the Butler program was under a different coach then, Ryan has gained mutual respect for Butler.

“[Stevens] is in a program where assistants took over the head job because they were suc-cessful,” Ryan said. “That’s a pretty good thing to have at an institution where you have that trust factor in the so-called fam-ily of coaches. It’s a good situa-tion where basketball is extremely important at Butler ... and it’s a great environment.”

Despite the comfort of being one of a handful of teams still competing, Ryan’s ultimate goal lies in Houston and the Final Four, a stage he has yet to obtain in his career.

“There’s 16 of us left, we’ll see what four end up there,” Ryan said. “Obviously that’s what every-body is trying to do. It would be nice to get there.”

Spring baseball spurs October dreams

S pring training is filled with hope, and hope is a wonderful feeling. I say that as someone

who identifies as the most hardcore cynic this side of Snake Plissken. In 2008, I would listen to President Barack Obama talk about hope and change, and it would go in one ear, out the other, then get crushed to death by a panda-killing oil tycoon.

But generally, that cynicism only applies to real life —you know, things that matter. Like who will be our next president or whether I will get into a good law school or if anybody besides my editor will ever read this column.

That’s where baseball comes in. In the grand scheme of things, sports don’t mean anything. And that is spectacular, because you can then make them mean everything with no repercussions. It’s what makes this time of the year great. Because right now, hope springs eternal, and there is nothing any-body can say to change that.

Let’s take my designated baseball allegiance, the Minnesota Twins, and use them for an example. Right now, their ace is Carl Pavano. That sounds like a joke that Tony Kornheiser would use in a “Pardon the Interruption” cold open. Second

in the rotation is Francisco Liriano, a pitcher with an absolutely mind-bending slider, but who can be a similarly mindbending head case.

The Twins’ biggest offseason acquisition was Japanese infielder Tsuyoshi Nishioka, who, granted, has a pretty good stat line for the Chiba Lotte Marines. But the last infielder the Twins signed from a Japanese league was Tony Batista, who spent two whole months with the team before being designated for assignment.

Then there are questions about whether third baseman Danny Valencia can continue his Rookie of the Year-caliber play from last year, if Joe Mauer’s knees will suddenly explode in the middle of a game and how Justin Morneau will recover from the infinite concussion he suf-fered last summer

I care about none of this, because right now, I am 100 per-cent convinced that the Twins will lock up the American League Central in their September home-stand against the Chicago White Sox, face the Yankees in the ALDS and sweep them for a change, roll through whatever unfortunate opponent wins the AL West and bring home the World Series tro-phy a week later.

It’s the same kind of anticipation people feel when watching the NFL Draft, only less nerdy and with con-siderably less Mel Kiper Jr. At the

beginning of every baseball season every team (excluding the Pirates) is an unproven commodity with infi-nite upside, as teams like the Rays and the Marlins have proven.

Of course, this is true for many sports, but baseball allows fans to tap into a child-like sense of wonder that no other sport captures nearly as well. Football will never have its own “Field of Dreams,” because baseball is the only sport where its fans’ affection provides something matching the level of mysticism.

This is what life is for every team at spring training. Brewers fans can hope Zack Greinke’s rib heals quickly and that he never plays pickup bas-ketball ever again. Phillies fans cur-rently believe they have the greatest pitching staff in the history of man. And for a brief moment, Cubs fans can think that maybe, just maybe, God won’t hate them this year.

Meanwhile, I will be spending the next week playing out my ideal storybook ending for the Twins over and over in my head, as Jim Thome nails a 3-2 pitch over the Target Field fence for a walk-off game seven home run in the World Series. Because every time Thome hits a homer for the Twins, a White Sox fan screams in agony, which is just as good as an angel getting its wings.

God loving the Cubs? The Twins beating the Yankees? Is Todd delu-sional? E-mail him with your thoughts at ststevens@dailycardinal.com.

todd StEvEnSstevens’ points

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The Daily Cardinal has complete original coverage straight from our staff of student reporters and photographers in New Orleans with in-depth analysis online at dailycardinal.com/sports, the Red Zone blog and minute-by-minute updates on Twitter @DailyCardinal.

Badgers, Bulldogs ready to dance in new orleans Thursday evening