University of Wisconsin-Madison Complete campus coverage since 1892 dailycardinal.com Wednesday, September 29, 2010l

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

Ben Pierson/the daily cardinal

Over 26,500 people waited over three hours to hear two words yesterday: “Hello, Madison!”

President Barack Obama spoke at the “Moving America Forward” rally Tuesday in Library Mall, accompanied

by fellow Democrats gubernatorial nominee Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis.

Musicians Ben Harper, The National and local brass-band the Mama Digdowns performed at the “Moving America Forward” rally in support of the president and the Democratic Party.

Obama vouched for importance of the youth vote, their enthusiasm of the Democratic Party and his administra-tion’s successful commitment to the ideals that drew stu-dents to his campaign in 2008.

“[Republicans] are counting on you staying home. They’re counting on your silence, they’re counting on amnesia, they’re betting on your apathy,” Obama told the sea of students. “So Madison, you’ve got to prove them wrong.”

Steve Olikara, the diversity chair of Associated Students of Madison and the event’s emcee, also urged his peers to take action.

“This fall, I want to see record numbers of young people

from this campus coming out to vote, organizing their friends, making phone calls, going door-to-door, being as engaged as you were in 2008, this fall in 2010!” Olikara said.

During Baldwin’s speech, the congresswoman stressed the importance of student votes in an election she believes will prove critical to the university.

“This election, we will decide between supporting the University of Wisconsin in obtaining and hiring the best faculty, making education affordable and keeping this great school a world class institution, or holding its growth back and driving its standards down,” Baldwin said.

The enthusiasm gap, a term used recently by national media outlets and politicians, refers to Democrats’ sup-posedly plummeting fervor between the 2008 presidential elections and the upcoming midterm elections, on Nov. 2.

Obama said he recognizes the concerns of Democrats anxious for change, but does not believe the so-called enthusiasm gap exists.

Feingold, whose appearance at the rally was unexpected, said the enthusiasm gap is exaggerated.

Referring to the large turnout at the rally, Feingold said, “It’s a myth. It’s phony. Does this look like an enthusiasm gap to you?”

Obama urged the American public to be patient for change and asserts that his administration is ahead of sched-

ule in accomplishing all they set out to achieve.“I understand that people are frustrated,” Obama said.

“I understand that people are impatient with the pace of change. Of course they are. But I also know this: now is not the time to lose heart. Now is not the time to give up. We do not quit, and we cannot forget that this nation has been through far worse.”

“I’ve only been here two years, guys,” said Obama. “So I figured I’d need to have something to do for the next couple of years.”

Although the president said change takes time, he believes his administration has taken the steps to improve the quality of life for young people in these challenging times.

Obama said the new health-care reform provides a safety net for young adults.

“Every single one of you, when you get out of college, if you have not been able to find a job that offers you healthcare, you are going to be able to stay on your parents ‘health care until you are 26 years old and not take the risk of being sick and going bankrupt,” the president said.

Obama addressed his administration’s dedication to helping all young Americans to afford a college education.

The president stressed the Republican Party’s plans entail a $700 billion tax cut for the wealthy that would

obama page 2

news2 Wednesday, September 29, 2010 dailycardinal.com/news l

‘Billionaires for Obama’ protest president with satire

By Anna BukowskiThe Daily CarDinal

Debate continued over the own-ership and staffing model for the Overture Center during an Overture Ad hoc committee meeting Tuesday.

A publicly owned and private-ly operated “focused model” was proposed to the committee.

Local banks will resolve the Overture Center’s $28 million debt, but their resolution is con-tingent on the Overture Center being run by a private non-prof-it, according to City Attorney Michael May.

The Overture Center is current-ly owned by a private development corporation and operated by a non-profit corporation, Committee Chair Mark Bugher said.

Members of the work-ers’ unions associated with the Overture Center expressed con-cern over the proposed public-pri-

vate model. Local 60 labor union representative, Lori Keif, said she favors a publicly owned facility that is also publicly run by a union who “care about the city and the product they provide day in and day out.”

Paul Soglin, committee mem-ber and former Madison mayor, said he was frustrated with the committee.

“[We are] basically being told take or leave it,” Soglin said. “We are told if we do anything else, the crash [of the Overture Center] is inevitable.”

Some community members spoke on behalf of the proposed model. Much of their support drew a connection between the plan and a plea to keep the Overture Center open.

Deirdre Garton, committee member and board member of the 201 State Foundation, the

fundraising arm of the Overture Center, said she is in favor of the focused model.

“[A] public building without debt and private operation gives us the best chance to fulfill the dream of the Overture,” Garton said.

As in previous meetings, com-munity and committee members were concerned with the objectiv-ity and quality of the research for the focused model.

Committee member and Ald. Tim Bruer, District 14, suggest-ed an independent entity should review the research to avoid con-flicts of interest.

The Overture Center Ad Hoc committee said they would meet again before submitting a final report to the Common Council by their deadline of Oct. 13.

“We’re going to have to come to a conclusion whether we like it or not,” Bugher said.

Overture Center ownership comes under question

By Ellen MolinaThe Daily CarDinal

The Republican Party of Dane County, the Republican Party of Wisconsin and the Dane County Young Republicans held a “Billionaires for Obama” pro-test Tuesday immediately follow-ing President Barack Obama’s rally on Library Mall.

It was not a typical protest— the satirical event was intended to raise awareness of Obama’s policies that the RPDC believe only benefit the country’s “bil-lionaires.”

Protestor Jeff Waksman spoke at yesterday’s event, at which the protesters portrayed Fortune

500 CEOs such as George Soros, Paul Allen, Jeffrey Immelt and Robert Eckert, as well as U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis.

“We didn’t want to do a stan-dard protest. Instead, we wanted to draw people’s attention with a sense of humor,” said Waksman, who portrayed the role of George Soros, founder of Soros Fund Management.

The group said its goal was to raise awareness about how Obama’s economic stimulus benefits billionaires more than working-class people.

Protestors said theses new laws are hurting our economy by fundamentally support-

ing Fortune 500 companies such as General Electric and Constellation Energy.

Some observers yelled at the “Billionaires for Obama” to stop during the protestors’ speeches.

“Does he think yelling accomplishes anything? Who is he convincing?” Waksman said-in response to an angry observer.

The protestors believe UW-Madison students are not well informed about new federal laws being passed.

“People in Madison haven’t thought about what Obama’s policies really are. What has he accomplished? Why do we sup-port Obama?” Waksman said.

“When you want to go forward in your car, what do you do? You put it in D. When you want to go backwards, you put it in R. Don’t go back into the ditch.”

—President Obama

LOrEnzO zEMELLA/The Daily CarDinal

Students and citizens of Madison, adorned with digital cameras, Slrs and video cameras, captured photos and footage of the president and his Democratic colleagues at the rally Tuesday.

be supported by a 20 percent decrease in education funding.

“They want to cut financial aid for 8 million college students, including some of the people who are out here today,” Obama said.

These plans are similar to repub-lican policies of the last decade that drove the economy into the ditch,” the president said.

According to Obama, Democrats have been working tirelessly to pull the economy out of the depths, Republicans were “just standing there, sipping on a Slurpee.”

The president said keeping Democrats such as Barrett and

Feingold in office is vital to contin-ue with the progress Democratic leadership in Washington has made since 2008.

Barrett emphasized the need the same enthusiasm as was pres-ent in the presidential election.

“In November of 2008, we saw something in this country we had never seen before in our lifetime, people who had never voted before, people who had given up on democ-racy, young people, people of color, people who lost their jobs, people who had felt this country was no lon-ger responding to them decided it was time to take back our democracy,” Barrett said. “And you … all came out to vote. We saw that two years ago. We’ve got to see it again.”

obama from page 1

College republican Second Vice Chair Johnny Koremenos: The president “placed a lot of blame on the republican administration,” despite the republicans not being in power for two years and spoke “as the head of the Democratic Party and not as president.”

Student thoughts during the rally

Watch highlights from Tuesday’s rally at

www.dailycardinal.com

Couldn’t get through the 1.1 mile line?

Chair of Students for Tom Barrett Jaci Kent: “Students were really excited. he rallied up the crowd with issues that are important to us and showed how important our issues are to him.”

Sophomore Mitch Heffernan: Obama’s speech “brought enthusiasm to the students,” which he thinks will get more students to vote in november.

artsldailycardinal.com/arts Wednesday, September 29, 2010 3

Drum corps are so hardcore

By Elana SiegelWUD COLUMNIST

With its loud playing, fun spirit and unmatchable style, the UW Marching Band is a staple of the UW-Madison’s campus. You would be hard pressed to find anyone, even a freshman, who hasn’t heard the band play. Yet an entirely separate world of marching music exists outside of the university setting, one that very few people have heard of: Drum corps. As much a physical sport as an arts activity, march-ing music’s “major league” is an intense, highly demanding activ-ity that explores a new frontier of the arts. I experienced this hid-den marching world when I saw the Drum Corps International Championships in Indianapolis this past August.

Drum corps are non-profi t entities made up of young people ages 16-21. Members audition for a spot in one of these highly selective organizations. If accepted, they “move in” to their corps in late May to begin pre-season rehearsals. From this time until cham-pionships in August members live, rehearse and travel with their corps. A corps consists of three sections: The hornline (brass players), drumline (per-cussion players) and color guard (danc-ers and fl ag/rifl e spinners). These three sections come together to perform one 10-minute show they perfect through-out the season. Shows are scored by judges on the fi eld on the basis of how well the musical and visual pack-ages are executed and how well they fi t together.

The crowd-favorite performance this year was The Cavaliers’ “Mad World,” based on the song of the same name by Tears for Fears and covered by Gary Jules. Throughout this show, members of the corps por-trayed a growing level of insanity that culminated in an a capella rendition of the “Rifl eman’s Creed” from The U.S. Marines. The performers were stunning; they portrayed the intensity and violence inherent in such a show convincingly and without creating caricature. The haunting music was transferred into the movements of the performers so the two complemented but did not confl ict with each other.

The Madison community boasts its own drum corps, the Madison Scouts, which came from a disap-pointing 17th place fi nish last year to

place in the top 10 at this year’s cham-pionships. The Scouts announced early in the pre-season that they planned to march 20 tubas, about double the standard amount. Their announcement was met with some skepticism, both that the sound of the corps would be unbalanced and the tuba section itself wouldn’t be able to blend with such a high num-ber of instruments. Despite these concerns, the tuba sound turned out to be a benefi t for the Scouts. The rich, dark tone the section produced provided a strong foundation for the Scouts’ show, and the publicity gen-erated by marching 20 tubas created a strong buzz of interest throughout the drum corps community.

The 2010 champions were the Blue Devils, based out of Concord, Calif. The Blue Devils excel in cre-ating a strong visual package that pushes the boundaries of the activ-ity; unfortunately, this creativity often comes at the expense of their musical package. The Blue Devils’ show featured members running with their elbows at a strict 90 degree angle and then stopping suddenly to strike a pose or form a picture with other members. Brass players did barrel turns (where one turns in the air on an axis), a move usually reserved for the more dance-oriented color guard. These feats were visually exciting and executed well.

Yet the Blue Devils’ total playing time was under fi ve minutes of a 10 minute show. A corps’ score is sup-posed to be based half on the visual presentation and half on the musical presentation of the performance; it seems impossible that the Blue Devils could win championships when they played only half of their performance time. The quality of the Blue Devils’ playing was worse than some of their competitors as well. Phantom Regiment from Rockford, Ill., played a beautiful and emotional rendition of the Second Suite from the HBO series “Band of Brothers” that far outshone the playing of the Blue Devils, and yet the latter placed in fi rst.

Regardless of placements, the opportunity to see the physical intensity and artistic maturity of these artists certainly gave me a different view of what “the arts” can mean. The Scouts host a drum corps show every summer. You can fi nd out more information about their shows at madisonscouts.org.

Think drum corps are totally awesome? Chat with Elana about it at esiegel3@wisc.edu.

BEN PIERSON/THE DAILY CARDINAL

Ben Harper was one of the musical acts preceeding President Barack Obama’s speech. His participation in the Moving America Forward campaign is not surprising as the artist is a long-time Obama supporter.

Harper sings sincere in opening for Obama By Kalie RiemerTHE DAILY CARDINAL

President Barack Obama vis-ited campus Tuesday as part of his Moving America Forward campaign, speaking specifically about the role of the young voters in the upcoming mid-term elections. His visit marked the first appearance by a sitting president on the UW-Madison campus in 60 years.

A stirring performance by Ben Harper set the stage for this major political event. Harper first performed at an Obama fund-raiser for him back in 2007 in New York City and in the spring 2008 he publicly announced he was backing Obama, channeling his support into performances at Vote Obama rallies throughout the primary season. So when the President invited Harper and his staff to perform in Madison, he jumped at the opportunity.

“Any time you get to share the stage with a president who has true humanity in his heart like President Obama, it’s just super special for me,” Harper said, conveying his excite-ment. “It’s quite an opportunity and I really feel proud and privileged.”

It is clear Harper has a dis-tinct admiration for the presi-dent. When asked what sepa-rates Obama from other political

leaders, Harper struggled to find the right words to do the presi-dent justice. One quality that especially stood out in his mind was his humility, a trait Harper admires in Obama and works to embody in his music.

“I would just love for the songs that I write to resonate in a soulful, sincere way,” Harper said.

In front of approximately 17,200 people Tuesday, he attained that goal. With an audience of this size, it can be diffi cult to reach the level of intimacy a musician might strive for. This was not a problem for Harper, however, who achieved an honest, personal performance. He began with a soft guitar solo fol-lowed by songs that showcased his voice, including “With My Own Two Hands” and “Better Way.”

Although his time on stage was short, the songs he chose were relevant.

Obama used Harper’s song “Better Way” to kindle excitement over his presidential campaign. The song was just as fi tting Tuesday given the upcoming midterm elections. Harper sang, “What good is a man who won’t take a stand?” an appropri-ate lyric given the evening’s theme of confronting apathy. President Obama addressed the “enthusiasm gap” among voters, and reminded every-one at the rally the purpose of his visit: To inspire the public, especially students, to vote.

Harper does not have a concrete answer on what message he wants the public to walk away with, maintain-ing that what each individual takes from music relies solely on them.

“Messages are a challenging subject only because messages should come from messengers,” Harper said. “I’m not a messenger. I just love to write songs and hope

that they can convey a feeling that’s meaningful in people’s lives.”

Harper admits he does not know whether or not music can inspire people to get involved in the political process. A self-pro-claimed “hyper realist,” Harper is hesitant to measure music’s infl u-ence in the political realm.

“I recognize the limits of what music can do and I also recognize the limitless nature and potential of music,” Harper said. “I approach it with that perspective.”

We have all heard plenty of mechanical speeches and a great deal of Auto-Tuned music. Most people have come to recognize Obama as a remarkable speaker, and any-thing but mechanical. His words are inspiring because of the manner in which he delivers them: He is sincere. Harper, too, proves honest in his delivery. The passion in his voice is undeniable. It is evident that Harper believes in what he sings, just as Obama believes in what he says.

At Tuesday’s rally, this sincerity is what made Harper and Obama’s messages so effective. People want the truth and respect those that give it to them. This common thread allowed Harper’s opening act to subtly complement the president’s address. The audience was left enthusiastic about how they could embody messages of the politician and the performer: Vote.

Harper sang “What good is a man who won’t take a

stand?” an appropriate lyric given the evening’s theme

confronting apathy.

Ben Harpermusician

“I’m not a messenger. I just love to write songs and hope that

they can convey a feeling that’s meaningful in people’s lives.”

science & technology4 • Wednesday, September 29, 2010 dailycardinal.com/features

By Andrea SnowThe Daily CarDinal

Research on the corpse flower sounds like a bad joke: What do carrion flies and chemical ecolo-gists have in common? They are both attracted by the smell of rotting flesh.

Unlike carrion flies, however, chemical ecologist Ken Keefover-Ring is not interested in finding a tasty meal at the end of the scent trail—he is more interested in the scent itself.

Keefover-Ring is a postdoctor-al scholar, having received both his masters and Ph.D. from the University of Colorado-Boulder. His Ph.D. work involved study-ing the chemicals that give plants their aroma, specifically the volatiles from thyme plants in southern France. Volatiles are the chemical compounds found in plants that produce their aro-mas.

“So, through this work I became very interested in plant volatiles and floral scents,” Keefover-Ring said. “When I saw that the Titan arum was going to bloom, I couldn’t resist setting up my equipment to col-lect the scent.”

To collect scent samples, Keefover-Ring usually wraps the plant in plastic bagging material, such as Reynolds Oven Bags, to make sure he captures enough of the scant scent.

“This technique is really

important if volatiles are being released in low amounts, but this was obviously not the case with this flower,” Keefover-Ring said. “I have yet to analyze the samples, but it is clear by the smell that I collected plenty of the compounds.”

Once the scent is collected, Keefover-Ring will bring it to a lab and put a sample into a gas chromatograph, which uses a tube and oven to electronically separate and identify different compounds in a bouquet.

“[It is] easy to think of most flowers using the word bouquet, but a little hard with this stinky one,” Keefover-Ring said.

The sulfur-like stench of the corpse flower, also called the Bunga Bangkai or Titan arum, is its claim to fame and the reason for so many curious visitors at the D.C. Smith Greenhouse on Bascom Avenue last week.

“We are able to smell sulfur compounds in very low amounts, which probably evolved to keep

us from being poisoned by rotten food. Keefover-Ring said, “The earlier hominids that could smell rotten meat lived better and went on to reproduce.”

Producing this strong, unique odor is very costly to the plant. The heavy sulfur-based com-pounds do not become airborne easily, so the corpse flower must heat itself up to volatilize and spread its “perfume.” While in bloom, the tip of the spadix (the central spike) is about human body temperature.

The corpse flower’s odor is strongest at night, and used to attract the pollinators of its native Sumatra, Indonesia: carrion beetles and flesh flies. Because of the enormous amount of energy this plant expends attracting pollinators, it only blooms once every few years and only for a few days. With blooms so rare, a chance to analyze the scent compounds is an exciting opportunity for researchers like Keefover-Ring.

“[It is] funny that we don’t think much about the nice-smelling chemicals that attract bees or butterflies, but a really nasty-smelling plant that attracts carrion flies as pollinators gets a lot of attention,” Keefover-Ring said. “I guess it should because it is pretty cool. [It is] just a slightly different solution to the same problem of getting your genes out there.”

By Matt LeitchThe Daily CarDinal

Dear Mr. Scientist: I’m going to keep this one simple: magnets, how do they work?

—Juggalo As you probably know, electrons

travel about the nucleus in orbit-als. Each electron can either spin upwards or downwards. Usually an electron will pair up with another electron that has an opposite spin to fill an orbital. As the electrons move about they create tiny mag-netic fields. In most things all of the electrons are paired so the mag-netic field created by one electron is canceled by its opposite spinning partner. The electrons in elements used to make magnets aren’t in pairs so the tiny magnetic fields are able to form a larger, stronger field which you can feel.

Dear Mr. Scientist: I went to Yosemite National Park earlier this year and saw a full-on double rainbow. It was so intense, it literally brought me to tears. What’s the secret to such a mind-blowing phenomenon?

—Paul V.

A normal rainbow occurs when sunlight enters a raindrop, bounces off the back and is separated into the color spectrum we see as it passes through the front. The same thing

happens with a double rainbow except now some light bounces not once, but twice inside the raindrop before passing through the front forming a second rainbow above the first. Because the light bounces twice, the second rainbow will be fainter and also inverted with the order of colors going VIBGYOR instead of the usual ROYGBIV.

Dear Mr. Scientist: What makes leaves change from their normal green to red, orange, and brown during the fall?

—Erin P.

Leaves usually appear green because they contain the chemical chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is used to convert sunlight, carbon dioxide and water into a sugar called glu-cose. In winter there isn’t much sunlight or water so leaves slowly stop producing chlorophyll during the fall. Once the chlorophyll fades away we are able to see shades of yellow and orange which had been there the whole time but were cov-ered up by the chlorophyll. The short days and cool nights of fall cause the glucose in the leaves to become red. Brown leaves are a result of the leftover waste inside the leaves.

Got a question for Mr. Scientist? E-mail mleitch@wisc.edu with all of your queries.

Corpse flower attracts carrion flies, ecologists

Ask Mr. ScientistThe Daily Cardinal’s resident nerd answers all of your questions about the natural world

Titan arum’s rotting flesh aroma is irresistible to researchers

Ken Keefover-RingDept. of entomology

UW-Madison

“The earlier hominids that could smell rotten meat lived better and went on to reproduce.”

Ben PieRSon / cardinal File Photo

The Titan arum, or corpse flower, bloomed for the first time in its nine-year life at the D.C. Smith Greenhouse on campus last Tuesday.

sports

Badgers fall to Marquette, Big Ten loomsMen’s Soccer

By Matthew Kleistthe daily cardinal

The Wisconsin men’s soccer team (1-6-1) fell to in-state rival Marquette (3-3-2) Tuesday night. The 1-0 loss marked the first time Wisconsin has lost to the Golden Eagles since 2003, and only the second time in the past decade. Tuesday’s one-goal loss is just another in a rough start to the Badgers’ season.

Lead by freshman midfielder Nick Janus, Wisconsin started the game strong, taking the first two shots. Both Janus and and fresh-man defender Luke Goodnetter produced attempts with headers, and the Badgers were able to force Marquette’s keeper David Check to make saves on each.

Unable to keep the pressure on the Golden Eagles, Wisconsin only forced Check to make one more save for the remainder of the game. The Badgers would end the game with six shots, three on goal. Janus had three of the Wisconsin shots, putting two on net himself. Unable to break the Marquette defense, the Badgers suffered their fifth shutout of the season, and their fourth consecutive. In those five games, Wisconsin’s record stands as 0-4-1.

On the defensive side, fresh-

man goaltender Max Jentsch start-ed for Wisconsin. In the first start of his colligate career, Jentsch made three saves and turned in a solid performance in net. Despite his effort and general success, Maquette was able to beat the young keeper in the 37th minute.

Because of a UW penalty, the Golden Eagles took a free kick just outside of the 18-yard box. Marquette’s Calum Mallace scored the game’s first and only goal off of the kick as Jentsch was unable to make the save. The goal was Mallace’s third of the season.

A loss to Marquette was the last thing that head coach John Trask and the team needed. With this match being the last non-conference game before entering Big Ten play, the Badgers have a challenging road ahead of them as they get back to practice.

“Tonight’s result was disap-pointing,” Trask said. “We need to get back to work at practice this week as we have a tough task ahead of us at Indiana on Sunday. We need to play better as we move forward, especially entering Big Ten play.”

Although Wisconsin got solid goaltending from Jentsch on Tuesday, the Badgers will need to make significant improve-

ments on both sides of the ball between their return to practice on Wednesday and this week-end’s matchup.

Wisconsin opens its Big Ten

season on the road against Indiana Sunday afternoon. The Hoosiers enter the game with a 4-3-0 overall record, 1-0-0 in Big Ten play. The Badgers are back at

home on Wednesday, Oct. 6 when they host the University of Northern Illinois.

—uwbadgers.com contributed to this report.

danny MarchewKa/cardinal file photo

freshman midfielder nick Janus accounted for two of Wisconsin’s three shots on goal tuesday night against Marquette. the Badgers have not scored a goal since Sept. 12, a four-game span.

dailycardinal.com/sports Wednesday, September 29, 2010 5l

6 Wednesday, September 29, 2010 dailycardinal.com/opinionopinion

l

Open-carry is not OK

I magine you are enjoying a but-terburger when a group of men walk in with guns strapped to

their hips. Are you going to just go back to your meal, or are you going to be worried about the gang’s intentions? I’d high-tail myself out of there.

Last week, customers of a Culver’s on Madison’s east side were faced with this exact dilemma. A 62-year-old woman called the police because she was uncomfortable. When authorities showed up, they asked the men to pro-vide identification to prove they were not felons. Two refused and they were later cited with disorderly conduct.

From the initial disturbance to the eventual response of open-carry advocates across the state, the whole situation shows the poor approach gun lobbyists take.

The five men who showed up at the Culver’s should have thought twice about their location. When people go to Culver’s, they expect to eat at a family-friendly restaurant. By com-ing in with guns, these men created a uncomfortable situation for parents and their children. Though they have the right to openly carry their firearms, they should consider how their weap-ons would affect the average family’s restaurant experience.

Just having the right does not mean that it needs to be exercised. Law-abiding citizens use guns for per-sonal security and recreation. The men wouldn’t be using their guns for those reasons at Culver’s, where the greatest danger is a heart attack.

After the incident many organiza-tions came to the defense of the men.One of the saddest comments came from opencarry.org co-founder Mike Stollenwerk. He compared carrying a gun to “carrying a carrot down the street, or a cell phone.” That is just incorrect and truly saddening. This statement alters the implica-tion of guns, which are meant to intimidate, hurt and kill. They’re not a good source of vitamins; they don’t let you call friends. Statements like Stollenwerk’s makes it difficult to

respect open-carry advocates.Wisconsin Carry, another open-

carry advocacy organization, is plan-ning to sue the city because the men were charged with disorderly conduct. They claim it’s illegal to ask for iden-tification without cause. But from a police perspective, there is cause for concern: If police can’t check the identification of people carrying guns in public, what’s to stop felons from carrying guns?

The police were just looking out the safety of the public, which is just as important as the individual right to bear arms. That right is meant to ensure people can protect themselves, but if the police are not allowed to protect the public in an orderly man-ner then anarchy ensues.

The group at Culver’s hopes to desensitize the public to firearms. They want to make open-carry more regular and “less threaten-ing,” according to a Wisconsin State Journal report. The last thing this nation needs is more desensitization to devices solely meant to kill.

Guns, and the people who fire them, are responsible for thousands of deaths each year. America has one of the highest firearm murder rates in the world. If gun rights activists are unwill-ing to address this, they will have a hard time convincing people to loosen gun restrictions.

Pro-gun organizations seem to worry more about their own agendas than public safety. After all, why is carrying a gun in Culver’s important?

If they feel like it is so very impor-tant to carry a gun, they should do so appropriately. Limit it to a private resi-dence, business or location of another open-carry advocate.

Like many constitutional rights, the right to bear arms is not abso-lute. There should also be common-sense limitations. Exercise the right at appropriate times, like when your house is being robbed, you are being attacked or you are in danger. But when you are trying to get a burger at a restaurant, don’t bring your Glock, unless you plan on shooting the cow yourself.

Matt Beaty is a sophomore major-ing in mathematics and computer science. Please send all feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com

matt beatyopinion columnist

A s I sat behind the stage star-ing at the back of President Barack Obama’s head

Tuesday evening, my thoughts cen-tered not on the leader of the free world standing before me, but on the senator fighting for his political life who spoke minutes earlier.

Maybe U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold D-Wis., has just been getting over-shadowed by Republican Ron Johnson’s primary victory, but it feels like ages since we last got to see the fiery, not-apologizing-for-anything Feingold that made him a Wisconsin political staple. But Tuesday’s Moving America Forward rally brought that Feingold back in a big way.

Of course, it’s not particularly surprising that this Russ went off the radar for a bit. The polls hadn’t been good, with Rasmussen putting him seven points behind Johnson in the race for Wisconsin’s U.S. Senate seat. More bad news came later, as even a poll from liberal blog Daily Kos put him behind by double digits.

It’s pretty clear Feingold is in trouble, and he has been acting like it lately. Even before the recent batch of bad polling numbers came out, the junior senator from Wisconsin had been doing his best to separate him-self from President Barack Obama as best as he could. He had been avoiding appearances with Obama, particularly all of the president’s prior visits to the Dairy State. And when your opponent is painting you as the lackey of a president currently suffer-ing from middling approval ratings, political conventional wisdom would deem that a good strategy.

But that doesn’t mean it was the right strategy for Feingold. His long-standing popularity in Wisconsin has been rooted in his knack for bucking political conventional wisdom. To see Feingold run away from Obama seemed out of character for him, and that was disappointing. What I wanted to see, and what I bet a lot of diehard Feingold fans wanted to see, was the senator sticking to the praise that he had lavished upon Obama since the 2008 election. I didn’t want to see Feingold run from Obama merely because it was politically con-venient. If he supported Obama—and everybody knew he supported and still supports Obama, that is something no amount of downplay-ing could hide–– he should stand by that support and stand by it proudly.

And Feingold did exactly that at Tuesday’s rally. One could argue just how successful Obama was in motivating the youth vote—for a rally focused on college-aged voters, a lot of people seemed to be get-ting up there in years, and a lot of students were left frustrated once the gates to Library Mall were shuttered. But Feingold did exactly what he needed to do: He took a stand. He stated firmly, “I call Barack Obama a friend,” putting his foot down in what he firmly believed in as opposed to what is popular.

There is precedent for stands like this benefiting candidates in elec-tions. In the 2002 Minnesota senate race between Paul Wellstone and Norm Coleman, Wellstone actually began to pull ahead of Coleman after steadfastly opposing the then popular Iraq War, only to have his life cut tragically short in a plane crash days before the election.

Hopefully Wisconsinites will be similarly impressed with Feingold’s determination to stand beside Obama. Hopefully they will realize their state is represented by one of the few respectable public servants left in Congress. Hopefully, come Nov. 3 Feingold will still have a job.

But regardless of how that all turns out, it’s good to have you back, Russ.

Todd Stevens is a senior majoring in history and psychol-ogy. Please send all feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com

tOdd stevensopinion columnist

Nice to have Russ back

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To see Feingold run away from Obama seemed out of char-acter for him, and that was

disappointing.

dailycardinal.com/comics Wednesday, September 29, 2010 7comics

Thinking about your fi rst midterm© Puzzles by Pappocom

Evil Bird By Caitlin Kirihara kirihara@wisc.edu

Branching Out By Brendan Sullivan bsullivan3@wisc.edu

Crustaches By Patrick Remington premington@wisc.edu

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

I’M HERE TO HELP

ACROSS 1 Hoopster 6 Tiny amount 9 ___ nova (Brazilian

dance) 14 Draw ___ in the

sand 15 Be behind in

payments 16 Frome or Hawke 17 Cattle drive locale 18 Become cohesive 19 “Feed ___, starve a

fever” 20 Cult leader, in a way 23 Always used by a

poet? 24 Indefi nite degree 25 Standoff 27 Bright butterfl ies 32 “Oh, well” noise 33 Make a mistake 34 In one’s salad days 36 Breaks one’s back 39 Jungle monarch 41 1777 Philadelphia-

area battle site 43 Biting midge 44 Noted ski resort 46 English subjects? 48 “The Three Faces of

___” (1957) 49 It may follow a

shuffl e 51 Prefax communique

53 Incited 56 Pie-mode bridge 57 Fleur-de-___ 58 Street- cleaning

machine 64 Sinus cavities 66 Deliverer’s need,

perhaps 67 Garlic portion 68 Clay-pigeon game 69 Gilbert & Sullivan

princess 70 “... a thousand ___

no!” 71 Large crowd 72 Choose for

membership 73 First word of a

Pacino fi lm

DOWN 1 Pasta or potatoes, to

an athlete 2 Banned fruit tree

chemical 3 Lollobrigida of fi lms 4 “I think I can, I think

I can” speaker 5 Admission back in 6 “Animal House” party

attire 7 Inspires wonder 8 Large city in India 9 Part of a zoo 10 One way to sell

medicine (Abbr.) 11 One with polish and

a buffi ng rag 12 Yard or garage

events 13 “Giant” of wrestling 21 Cry of excitement 22 Tommy has a couple 26 Tingling with

excitement 27 The Sail (southern

constellation) 28 Part of the eye 29 Agricultural fl ier 30 Chinese monetary

unit 31 Snobbish person 35 Model airplane kit

requirement 37 Magma on the move 38 Cherry handle 40 ___-do-well 42 “Family Feud”

teammate, often 45 Provide a voice-over 47 Hand-picks 50 Zodiac sign 52 Celtic language 53 Cut drastically, as

prices 54 Commie 55 Lifeboat crane 59 Arp’s art movement 60 Gingery cookie 61 Apple or pear, e.g. 62 Square 63 Observe the Sabbath 65 Moscow’s ___

Square

Answer key available at www.dailycardinal.com

Today’s Crossword Puzzle

First in Twenty By Angel Lee alee23@wisc.edu

The Martian Grand Canyon: A canyon on Mars would reach from Los Angeles to Chicago if it was on Earth.

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

Beeramid Classic By Ryan Matthes graphics@dailycardinal.com

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photo8 Wednesday, September 29, 2010 dailycardinal.com

Above: ASM Diversity Chair and Tuesday’s emcee Steven Olikara. Below: Milwaukee Mayor and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Barrett mingles with the large crowd on Library Mall.

Above: Students waited for hours in lines that stretched for more than a mile to enter the event. Below left: U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis. Below right: Chancellor Biddy Martin.

Above: Obama finishes his speech to the crowd of more than 17,000. Below right: U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis.

Photos by ben Pierson & lorenzo zemella/The DAiLy CARDinAL