Commentary Update for April 14, 2003: Reese Erlich, Omaha Headlines, Journalists for Justice, Wal-Mart Watch, Shock and Awe in Wisconsin, The Democratic Party, A Waste of Time

This week's Commentary features former Mayor Melanie Bloechl and current member of the Oshkosh Common Council Paul Esslinger. We spend quite a bit of time talking about the Inspection Department controversy. Esslinger had previously answered some questions for me online, and Bloechl had submitted this letter. You can also go to Bloechl's Eye on Oshkosh site for more information.

In Other news:

*Reese Erlich in Town: Those of you in Winnebago County should seriously consider coming to the UW Oshkosh campus on Thursday, April 17th. At 6:00 p.m. in the Wisconsin Room of Reeve Union, journalist Reese Erlich will speak on the topic of Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn't Tell You. The talk is sponsored by our friends over at the UW Oshkosh Student Environmental Action Coalition. SEAC is sponsoring a variety of Earth Month activities.

Omaha Headlines: I had a great time in Omaha this past weekend. The Central States Communication Association Conference went well, and Omaha looks to be a city that has had some success at downtown redevelopment. They have an area called the "Old Market" that is essentially a former warehouse district consisting of historic buildings converted into restaurants, specialty shops, and a variety of other establishments. My great friend Lance Haynes from the University of Missouri-Rolla has a daughter (Courtney) who lives in Omaha, and she and her partner took Lance and I to a wonderful Mexican place which even had Mariachi singers. Unfortunately, the singers left before I could get them to play "El Paso." I was not able to get the song out of my mind. Thankfully, Lance had the Grateful Dead's version in his car.

When I got there I looked through the visitors guide and was reminded that Malcolm X was born in Omaha. As many of you know, I have been working on a book about Malcolm X for about 10 years now. Lance Haynes and I went to visit the historical marker. In true American fashion, very few people in the "white" part of Omaha could even tell us how to get to Pinckney St., the site of the marker. A few warned us to be careful in "that part of town." The actual memorial site is very bare, almost as if the Omaha City Fathers have no great desire to announce that Malcolm was actually born there. After getting back from Omaha I found this article by David Burn. Having now been to the site, I understand fully what Burn means by "X Barely Marks the Spot."

One other Omaha reflection. I took a look at the Omaha World Herald newspaper on Friday, and the headline was "Kurdish Forces Occupy Kirkuk." I thought to myself, "how many Americans would actually know what that headline means, even if they have been following the war?" To test that hypothesis, I discussed the headline in my classes on Monday. I started off the discussion by asking if "Kurdish forces occupying Kirkuk" is supposed to be a good thing or a bad thing. Sure enough, the question was difficult to answer because there was not much knowledge of who the Kurds were, where Kirkuk is, and why the Kurds "occupy" as opposed to us "liberating." One guy thought Kirkuk was the captain of the space ship Enterprise.

Journalists for Justice: Operation Iraqi Freedom has been one of the bloodiest on record for journalists. The Committee to Protect Journalists sent this letter to Secretary Rumsfeld asking for an investigation into the military strikes against the journalists' quarters at the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad that left at least 3 reporters dead and many injured. I accept the US military's claim that no journalists were deliberately targeted, though I can't help but be reminded of a famous quote by G.B. Shaw: "Assassination is the most extreme form of censorship." By the way, I got a big chuckle the other day when someone told me that a writer somewhere described CNN's Aaron Brown as being "deeply embedded up Donald Rumsfeld's colon."

Some guy on the flight from Omaha to Milwaukee told me he was tense about flying and asked me if I felt the same. I said, "Of course not. Since 9/11 we have invaded two middle east countries, created a massive Homeland Security federal bureaucracy, united and strengthened America by providing appropriate tools required to intercept and obstruct terrorism (USA PATRIOT), while counter-terrorism experts say that 'infinite gaps' still exist in airport security. Why would I be tense?"

*Wal-Mart Watch: Oshkosh Wal-Mart Day of Action will be April 19 2-4PM at Wal-Mart.

"Shock and Awe" needed to reform Wisconsin government?: Melanie Fonder has an excellent piece in wispolitics.com that summarizes the views of former chairs of government reform panels. The chairs don't sound very encouraged about the prospects for change. If you scroll down to the bottom of the article, there are links to the major reform studies done in the last few years. Jay Heck of Common Cause wrote a piece for wispolitics.com about another, recent Wisconsin scandal involving political hitman Todd Rongstad. Jay will be the guest on next week's Commentary.

How To Destroy The Democratic Party in Only Four Short Years: You've got to read the interview with our illustrious governor Jim The New Democrat Doyle in Sunday's Wisconsin State Journal. Here's my favorite part:

WSJ: Business groups that usually side with the Republicans say you're doing surprisingly well. But some people on the left seem to think you're behaving too much like a Republican. Does that sting at all?

DOYLE: "No. I'm behaving by what I think is necessary for the state of Wisconsin right now. I don't think this should be terribly ideological when you have a $3.2 billion deficit. I certainly have really worked hard to maintain the priorities that I think most Democrats and most people in Wisconsin would support - education, health care, basic police and fire services, and no new taxes. I think those are things that most everybody in the state, Democrat and Republican, can rally around. That's the course I've tried to steer here as governor."

In other words, expect no major progressive reforms from this administration. My question is this: how on earth can the Democrats gain seats in the legislature when the governor continues to frame issues along terms largely set by the Republicans? This is essentially what happened to the Democrats at the national level during the Clinton years. When the Democratic President made it clear that he was willing to sign away Aid to Families with Dependent Children, keep defense spending at Cold War levels, sign a draconian crime bill (noted civil libertarian Nat Hentoff has said repeatedly that Clinton was horrible on civil liberties issues), eliminate single-payer health care from the list of possibilities for health care reform, cozy up to Wall St, raise record levels of soft money, and become the champion of "free trade" deals like NAFTA and GATT, he made it impossible for Democrats at the grassroots level to take traditional working class views on these and other issues without their opponents indicating that not even their own president was on their side. Result: Democrats lost both houses of Congress, the majority of governorships, and the majority of state legislatures during the 1990s.

Now New Democrat Doyle is engaged in the same shenanigans at the state level. Though not concerned exclusively with Doyle, Ed Garvey's recent Open Letter to the Democratic Party of Wisconsin expresses concerns similar to those I am raising.

The New Democrats claim to be influenced by corporate models of "efficient" administration. Yet look at what Wisconsin Historical Society member David Olien said about Doyle's McCallumesque method of slashing positions to balance the budget:

"Let's get away from managing by positions. Let's manage by dollars. Let's end this insane position count. There isn't a corporation in America that manages by positions . . . This was imposed in this state and is totally counterproductive. I was stunned to come into Wisconsin and discover that. The focus should not be on the number of employees, but the cost and quality of services. You don't control expenditures by positions. This is a flawed management concept this state has used. It politicizes the number of state employees and puts governors on the spot."

And For A Complete Waste of Time: 6th District Congressman Tom Petri (R-Fond du Lac) will hold constituent
meetings on Wednesday, April 16.

10 AM - 11:15 AM
Menasha City Hall
140 Main St.
Menasha, WI

2 PM - 3 PM
Berlin City Hall
108 Capron St.
Berlin, WI

4 PM - 5:15 PM
Winnebago County Courthouse
415 Jackson St.
Oshkosh, WI

Best,

-Tony