Commentary Update for October 1, 2002: Brooks/Hughes, Underheim/Genisio, Chavez Stamp, Poverty Wage Jobs in Winnebago, IMF Protests, Iraq

Dear Friends of Commentary:

This week's Commentary guests are the candidates for Winnebago County Sheriff, Republican incumbent Mike Brooks and Democratic challenger Bob Hughes. If you get a chance to tune in you will find that there are real differences between these candidates.

Speaking of real candidate differences, the Oshkosh Northwestern Editorial Brigade (ONEB) today allowed front page coverage of yesterday's debate between District 54 Republican incumbent Gregg Underheim and Democratic challenger James Genisio. Oshkosh Cable Access Television did not cover the debate live, but they did tape it and will show it at these times:

*Monday, October 7 at 10 p.m.
*Thursday, October 10 at 5:30 p.m.
*Friday, October 11 at 11 p.m.
*Monday, October 14 at 10 p.m.
*Thursday, October 17 at 5:30 p.m.

The ONEB has been very good to Genisio so far--will that translate to an endorsement?

It probably won't be as popular as the Elvis stamp, but did you know the United States Postal Service in 2003 will unveil a stamp in honor of the late United Farm Workers founder Cesar Chavez? Randy McSorely wrote about it in Sunday's Post-Crescent. I hear the USPS is considering a stamp dedicated to the Wisconsin tobacco settlement: you pay a dollar for the stamp, but it's only worth 37 cents. On the stamp will be a picture of Scott McCallum, Chuck Chvala, and Scott Jensen with the phrase "In Accounting Tricks We Trust" at the bottom.

The Center on Wisconsin Strategy has recently broken down poverty wage jobs in Wisconsin by county. You can find Winnebago County in this chart.

Huge protests accompanied the IMF, World Bank meeting in DC this past weekend. The Washington Post has a good primer explaining what the IMF is and what are the key issues being protested.

Finally, on the brewing Iraq war. The UK's Tony "nothing could be bloody finer than kissing the ass of an American President" Blair recently released The Mother of All Dossiers, a compilation of intelligence documents designed to rally the globe against the Butcher of Baghdad. The UK Independent's Robert Fisk debunked the dossier. Meanwhile, Blair's efforts were met with one of the biggest peace demonstrations in a generation in central London.

All the best,

-Tony