Commentary Update for November 26, 2002: Lawton Show, Ron Heilmann, Homeland Insecurity, Poll Power, Oxymoron Balance, Barrett Interview, Buy Nothing Day, Peace

Dear Friends of Commentary:

Last week's interview with Lt. Governor-Elect Barbara Lawton received much attention. Yesterday, UW Oshkosh Chancellor Rick Wells requested two copies of the show, one of which he plans to send to UW System President Katherine Lyall, the other to UW System Vice-Chancellor for University Relations Linda Weimer. On the program, Lawton was passionate about the need to ensure adequate higher education funding even in these difficult budget times.

This week's guest is Dr. Ron Heilmann, the Superintendent of the Oshkosh Area School District Board of Education. The OASD is facing a $1.77 billion budget deficit. We question Dr. Heilmann about 4 budget balancing plans he recently presented to the Board of Education. The Oshkosh Northwestern on November 21 provided a summary of the plans. The Oshkosh Area School District website can be found here.

Governor-Elect Doyle is going to have to find a way to reform the way we finance K-12 education in Wisconsin. The Institute for Wisconsin's Future (IWF), a nonpartisan advocacy organization, recently produced a report arguing for an "adequacy" model of funding. They argue that "If the cost of achieving educational standards is too expensive, then either the standards must be lowered or a long term plan adopted for gradually obtaining the needed funds. What should NOT happen is continuing to rhetorically support artificially high standards, while providing inadequate funding with no road map for reaching adequate funding in the future."

IN OTHER NEWS:

Homeland Insecurity:
A few weeks ago on Commentary, Melanie Fonder of wispolitics.com and Steve Walters of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel predicted that Dubya would get a Homeland Security Bill through the Congress in the lame duck session. I didn't think the Democrats would cave, but I was wrong again. Here are the 9 senators who voted against the Homeland Insecurity Bill:
Democrats Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Paul Sarbanes of Maryland, Daniel Akaka and Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, Fritz Hollings of South Carolina, and Carl Levin of Michigan, and independent James Jeffords of Vermont.

The major supporter of the Homeland Insecurity Bill was of course Pope John Ashcroft I. Pope John believes that civil libertarian objections to the bill, especially as regards privacy invasions, are overstated. Interestingly, when Pope John was in the College of Cardinals (known as the United States Senate before the calling of the new millennium crusade; i.e. "war on terror" in late 2001) he said this: "Every medium by which people communicate can be subject to exploitation by those with illegal intentions. Nevertheless, this is no reason to hand Big Brother the keys to unlock our e-mail diaries, open our ATM records, read our medical records, or translate our international communications." Pope John's complete 1997 statement can be found here:

In a recent column, leftish pundit Molly Ivins has an interesting take on the politics of Homeland Insecurity: "For those who relish irony, there's a comical extent to which liberals are the new conservatives, exactly where the old principled Republicans used to be — reluctant to get involved in foreign wars, harping on fiscal responsibility and worried about constitutional freedoms." Molly says these are "scary times in the USA."

Pollin' on the river:
Some pundits argue that one of the big losers on November 5th were the nation's pollsters, many of whom underestimated pro-Republican sentiment across the land. However, Gallup Report editor in chief Frank Newport takes an opposite view. Read what he has to say about Gallup's "Random Digit Dialing" and it becomes clear that polling has become much more sophisticated than most people think: http://www.gallup.com/poll/FromtheEd/ed0211.asp?Version=p

If Newport is correct, we'll probably see a growth in the Torricellization of American politics: candidates removing themselves from the ticket when convinced by their handlers that the polls cannot be overcome.

Oxymoron Balance: In last week's update I identified "Democratic leadership" as one of my favorite oxymorons. An Appleton reader wrote in to suggest "compassionate conservatism" and "Republican promises" as oxymorons. Let the oxymoron wars begin . . .

Tom Barrett Interviewed:
As most of you know, Wisconsin Congressman Tom Barrett ran in the Democrat primaries for governor this year, finishing second to Jim Doyle. Since Barrett's congressional seat was eliminated due to census redistricting, Barrett is now out of work. Melanie Fonder recently interviewed Barrett for wispolitics.com.

Buy Nothing Day:
Thanks largely to media hype, the day after Thanksgiving has become the busiest shopping day of the year. For almost a decade now, a group of international activists have tried to establish the day after Thanksgiving as "Buy Nothing Day." Be sure to check out Adbuster's Buy Nothing Day website (be sure to scroll down to the "take the tour" section) :http://adbusters.org/campaigns/bnd/

Anyone in Oshkosh who would rather rally for peace instead of shop on Friday can come to Opera House Square Park on Main St. from 4-6 p.m. Students for Peace are sponsoring weekly peace rallies, and all are invited.

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone.

Peace,

-Tony