Commentary Update for December 3, 2002: Dedow/Eiden/Prade (Labor Issues), Media Tonys, Lobbyist Power, Jeffords Muddling In The Middle, Iraq Cost, Photos

Dear Friends of Commentary:

Yesterday (Dec. 2) we taped our last show of the fall semester in the Titan-TV studios. Our guests were Steve Dedow (President of the Winnebago County Labor Council), John Eiden (Secretary Treasurer of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 73A), and Karen Prade (UFCW International Organizer). We discuss a variety of labor issues, including the recent national day of protest against Wal-Mart. Good coverage of that event can be found in the Milwaukee Shepherd-Express. Karen Prade is also a registered nurse and on the show she talks about the UFCW's efforts to organize workers at Mercy Medical Center in Oshkosh.

For more union information, see the AFL-CIO website. The South Central Federation of Labor also keep a good archive of labor related activities across the state.

In other News:

*Media Tonys, Y not aid 'em?
My latest Media Rant for the Valley Scene gives out "Tony" (Palmeri) Awards to deserving Fox Valley media. Since 2002 was a palindrome year, all award titles are in palindrome form. I think this is something Michael Palin of Monty Python's Flying Circus might have written, though he would have become Michael Palindrome in the process. Yuck yuck.

*My name is Elmer J. Fudd, lobbyist millionaire, I own a mansion and a yacht:
As if lobbyists did not have enough control of Wisconsin's so-called government, now we find out that they've even been sucking up to governors through making "donations" to the governor's mansion, as revealed in the Appleton Post-Crescent.

Here's a telling line from the story: "In a formal garden outside the mansion, a cement bench is engraved with 'Philip Morris USA.'"

Actually, Commentary has long been aware of Philip Morris' influence in Wisconsin government, as revealed in this exclusive photo we obtained of former governor Tommy Thompson at his Secretary of Health and Human Services confirmation hearings 2 years ago.

All of this of course calls for serious campaign finance reform in the state. Neenah Republican Senator Mike Ellis has now been joined by Democrat Jon Erpenbach in his crusade to reform our system. This press release from Common Cause explains the core elements of the Ellis/Erpenbach Bill.

*Mandate for the Middle? Or More Muddling?
Senator Jim Jeffords, the Independent from Vermont who left the Republican Party in May of 2001 because he claimed they were veering too far to the Right, wrote an op-ed for the New Times recently in which he claimed that the Nov. 5 election results were a "Mandate for the Middle." Jeffords' piece for me reinforced what I said in the May of 2001 about the "Jeffordsonian Era."

*We can't afford national health care, but at least we have the money to kick Saddam's ass:
The Washington Post estimates that an Iraq War could cost upwards of $200 billion. Meanwhile, the UW Oshkosh Student Environmental Action Coalition released this statement in opposition to a war. And somehow no one can figure out how the Eli Lilly corporation ended up being protected against certain types of lawsuits as part of the Homeland Insecurity Bill.

*Picture this:
Some recent Commentary photos for your viewing pleasure:
--Eye on Oshkosh
--Oshkosh Schools Superintendent Ron Heilmann
--Lawton and Palmeri in 2006?
--Lawton and Mather
--Professor Andrew Schroeder on Military Globalization
--GOP v. Dems on Commentary
--Political journalists on Commentary

All the best,

-Tony