Commentary Update for March 24, 2003: Our patriotic Congress, Why Assassinate?, Support our Troops resolution, Embedded Idiocy?, Two Old Liberals, The Wisconsin Greens, The Military Industrial Complex, Doyle the Vichy Democrat, More Graft Tax, Oshkosh Inspection Department Flap

This week's Commentary guests are Oshkosh Area School District Board of Education candidate Amy Weinsheim and local pundit Dan Rylance. Amy discusses why she should be elected to the Board while Dan provides some insights on the Board race, the Common Council race, and other matters affecting the community, state, and nation.

In Other News:

Our Patriotic Congress: You gotta hand it to that Republican Congress. While we see images of POWs and soldiers killed in action on our TV screens, the Republican budget proposal actually cuts veterans benefits by $15 billion over the next decade. The Minneapolis Star Tribune editorialized against this madness. Meanwhile, Dubya' now acknowledges that the war will probably cost around $80 billion. Hey, consider it chump change in the battle against the evildoers.

Why Assassinate When You Can Decapitate?: One of the more fascinating uses of language during the early stages of the war was the prime time attempt to "decapitate" Saddam. The Washington Post published an interesting history of the "art" of decapitation.

Support our Troops Resolution: Cities for Peace, an organization that has been able to get 162 cities to pass antiwar resolutions, has now provided language for what they are calling a "genuine" support our troops resolution. Meanwhile, the Department of Defense on its website allows us to say Thank You to the US military.

Embedded Idiocy?: Just when you thought American media coverage of war couldn't get any more irresponsible or inane, on the scene arrives the era of "embedded" coverage. This is somewhat like "COPS" in the desert: "Sad-dam, Sad-dam, whatcha' gonna do? Whatcha' gonna do when they come for you?" Kevin Moore's In Contempt cartoon pretty much sums it up.

Two Old Liberals Get Worked Up: It took them a long time to turn against Kennedy and Johnson on Vietnam, and they didn't have much to say about Clinton's "humanitarian" bombings in Kosovo, Iraq, and Sudan, but old Kennedy liberals Jimmy Breslin and Anthur Schlesinger, Jr. are absolutely apoplectic about Dubya's Crusade. Breslin finds Bush's March 19th speech to feature the "familiar, haunting words" of Hitler's address to the Reichstag on the invasion of Poland on September 1st, 1939. Meanwhile, Kennedy historian Schlesinger says it is we Americans who now live "in infamy." Schlesinger says that "The Bush Doctrine converts us into the world's judge, jury and executioner -- a self-appointed status that, however benign our motives, is bound to corrupt our leadership. As John Quincy Adams warned on July 4, 1821, the fundamental maxims of our policy 'would insensibly change from liberty to force ... [America] might become the dictatress of the world. She would no longer be the ruler of her own spirit.' Already the collateral damage to our civil liberties and constitutional rights, carried out by the religious fanatic who is our attorney general, is considerable -- and more is still to come."

Schlesinger forgets to mention that a huge cover for the invasion is the fact that the US Congress in 1998, with active support from the Clinton administration, passed legislation making "regime change" in Iraq our national policy. He also neglects to point out that the October force resolution passed the Congress by a huge bipartisan margin. My point is not to support the war or President Bush--I am obviously not supportive of either--but to express distress at this after the fact moralizing that we see from so many people calling themselves liberals or just plain Democrats. As John Nichols of the Capital Times has pointed out recently, Senator Robert Byrd's attempt to begin a meaningful war dialogue in the Congress was thwarted not just by the Republicans, but by "Democratic leaders so blinded by their fear of taking a stand on an issue of consequence that they no longer act."

To me, this war represents not an out of control President putting a "new" doctrine of "preemption" (I think an argument can easily be made that the Mexican-American War, the Spanish American War, and maybe even Korea and Vietnam were in the same category as Iraqi Freedom) in place, nor is it about Republicans vs. Democrats. Rather, this war represents the coming to fruition of the worst case scenario envisaged by President Eisenhower when he warned of the "military industrial complex" in his farewell speech of 1961:

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence--economic, political, even spiritual---is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

The Wisconsin Green Party held its annual Spring gathering at UW Oshkosh this past weekend, and as part of the affair they held a rally for peace at Opera House Square Park on Main St. Several of the speakers noted that the Greens are the only real peace party in America right now, something that Democrats would be wise to take heed of. Even Dr. Schlesinger in his rant asks "Why the collapse of the Democratic Party? Why let the opposition movement fall into the hands of infantile leftists?" [hmm . . . infantile leftists? Clearly Dr. Arthur has put too much faith in television coverage of the antiwar movement. What I'm seeing at rallies are principled, compassionate, critical citizens who not only dream of a better world but are willing to struggle for it. The "infantile" are perhaps those who change their views on war and peace based on whether their favored party is managing the conflict].

The Military Industrial Complex at Work: Halliburton's shares went up 54 cents last week, with Reuters quoting an equity analyst saying this about Defibrillator Dick Cheney's former company: "They have the businesses. They have the government relationship already well-established, and, as we all know, Cheney was the CEO, so it makes logical sense," said Denis Walsh, an equity analyst who covers the energy sector for State Street Research and Management.

Doyle as a "Vichy" Democrat: I'm not the only one frustrated by these "New Democrats" like Jim Doyle. Marc Eisen, editor of Madison's liberal Isthmus paper, says this about Doyle: "Jim Doyle has become a Vichy Democrat. Do you remember World War II history? The Germans didn't occupy all of France, because the collaborationist government in Vichy did the Germans' bidding. That’s what we're getting at the Capitol . . . Jim Doyle, so far, is leading a Vichy Democrat regime. Why should Republicans concern themselves with their age-old dream of rolling back state government when they have a compliant Democrat doing their dirty work?"

More Graft Tax: The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign recently released Part II of their Graft Tax study. Here's an example from the study of how pure, unadulterated corruption has Wisconsin among the national leaders in road building:

The governor's budget spends about $386.4 million on major highway construction and maintenance in 2003-04, which is about 21 percent higher than the current national average, and $487.7 million in 2004-05, which is about 63 percent more than the national average.

The difference between the national average and what the budget proposes to spend in each of those years amounts to about $22 per taxpayer in 2003-04 and $47 per taxpayer in 2004-05. As Doyle put it in a March 12 speech: "Let me make one thing clear: There are going to be plenty of roads built in Wisconsin in the next two years."

Even so, Republican legislative leaders oppose the governor's proposed diversion of transportation money, saying they would rather make deeper cuts in local government aid, which helps pay for local police, fire, snowplowing and garbage services and moderate property tax increases, than cut road building dollars.

Why the road obsession? As reported in the study, road builders and associated unions "donated $1.9 million in campaign contributions to mostly Republican candidates for statewide office and the Legislature from 1993 through Oct. 21, 2002."

Oshkosh Inspection Department Flap: Cheryl Hentz's and Melanie Bloechl's Eye on Oshkosh site includes new information about the Inspection Department flap, including a fascinating (I'm trying to be polite here) letter from Mayor Hintz to Councilor Esslinger in which the Mayor advises that "Quiet planned meetings yield better results." Translation: "the powerful special interests that control the city can only continue to do so as long as we do not let the public see and hear what is going on." So much for open government.

LWV Forum: If you are in Oshkosh, you can watch the School Board and Common Council candidates' forum on Oshkosh Cable Access Channel 10 tonight (Tuesday) after the Oshkosh Common Council meeting, on Wednesday after the School Board meeting, on Sunday March 30th at 7:30 p.m., and on Monday, March 31st at noon.

Peace,

-Tony