Commentary Update for May 6th, 2003: Forums, Student Plays, Rummy, Air Quality, A Second Opinion, Bennett, Trees for Tomorrow, Eye on Oshkosh on Northwestern, Sadama

This week's Commentary guest is UW Oshkosh Chancellor Richard Wells. We spend much of the hour discussing Jim The New Democrat Doyle's proposal to slash $250 million from the UW System and what that could means for the System as a whole and for UW Oshkosh in particular.

In other news:

*Forums, We Got Forums: On Thursday, May 8th there will be two worthwhile forums at UW Oshkosh. The first is called "Iraq: What Next?" It will be held from 4:30 - 6:30 in the Experimental Theater (West Wing of the Arts and Communication Building). The second is sponsored by the UW Oshkosh Greens and is called "A Forum on the Patriot Act." It will be held in the Reeve Union Theater from 7 - 9 p.m. E-mail me if you would like more details about each event.

*Student Plays: BeautyFish by Noah Totzke and Ambition by Jonathon Philipp will be read publicly by student members of the UW Oshkosh theater program at 8:00 PM on Weds., May 7th, 2003 in the experimental theater in the Arts and Communication building WEST. The plays were chosen as the winners in the fifth annual student playwriting contest administered by resident playwright Richard Kalinoski of the theater program in the Communications Department. A conversation with the student playwrights will follow the performances of the plays--directed by Merlaine Angwall and Richard Kalinoski

*Rummy's North Korea Connection: We know that dapper Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld once wooed Saddam, but now it looks like old Rummy even has a North Korea connection. Fortune Magazine reports that Rummy was on the board of the Zurich based engineering giant ABB, the firm that sold nuclear technology to North Korea in 1994. Rummy won't talk about his role in the deal, but the reporter says that, "Sooner or later, the outspoken Secretary of Defense will have to explain his silence."

*Winnebago County Fails Air Quality: I wish I had a dime for each time I've asked a student not from Oshkosh what they think about the city and gotten this response: "It smells like crap around here." Well, Winnebago County did fail an air quality test recently, even though the grade is based on the proliferation of "odorless" gases.

*New A Second Edition: Here is the latest installment of John Lemberger's A Second Opinion.

*Send Bennett to Las Vegas East!: Now that Jim The New Democrat Doyle has transformed Wisconsin into Las Vegas East, it behooves we Badgers to recruit some high stakes rollers into our State. Surely The New Democrat can't rest easy knowing that it will be largely middle class and poor people solving our deficit via the slot machine. That's why I believe Administration Secretary Mark Marotta should make a concerted effort to get conservative guru and "values czar" Bill Bennett to take up residence in Wisconsin.

Bill Bennett was Education Secretary under Reagan and later served as "Druz Czar." More recently he has become the self-appointed values czar, popping up on the Sunday morning snooze shows and other pundit fests to tell us what is absolutely good (George W. Bush, Phyllis Schlafly) and absolutely evil (Bill Clinton, Patricia Ireland) in the world. If Bill Clinton picks his nose or farts in a crowded room, Bennett is on it like a fly on shit. That's why it was amusing last week to see that Bennett has had a multi-million dollar gambling habit, with Newsweek reporting that "some casino estimates put his total losses over the past decade at more than $8 million." Bennett announced yesterday that he's going Cold Turkey on gambling, which is unfortunate. I'm hoping that Jim The New Democrat Doyle sends a personal message to Bennett explaining to him that here in Wisconsin, we see gambling as a great civic virtue.

*Tourism the Trees For Tomorrow Way: Jim The New Democrat Doyle recently announced the appointment of Jim Holperin of Eagle River to serve as the new Director of Tourism, replacing Kevin Shibilski, who resigned under a cloud of suspicion over his possible involvement in the effort to smear state representative Julie Lassa. Turns out that the "dream job" Shibilski resigned the tourism job for is a $30,000 a year Teamsters Lobbyist.

New Tourism Secretary Holperin is associated with Trees for Tomorrow, an industry backed conservation group whose Board members include:

American Forest Management Mellen, WI
ANR Pipeline Co. Detroit, MI
Appleton Coated Combined Locks, WI
Batzner Pest Management Milwaukee, WI
Dairyland Power Cooperative LaCrosse, WI
Domtar Industries Inc. Port Edwards, WI
Georgia-Pacific Consumer Products Green Bay, WI
Green Bay Packaging Green Bay, WI
Hillestad Pharmaceuticals Woodruff, WI
International Papers Kaukauna, WI
Johnson Timber Corporation Hayward, WI
Kretz Lumber Co. Antigo, WI
Lands' End, Inc. Dodgeville, WI
Louisiana Pacific Corp. Tomahawk, WI
Madison Gas & Electric Co. Madison, WI
Marion Plywood Corp. Marion, WI
Marshfield Door Systems, Inc. Marshfield, WI
Midwest Forest Products Co. Hayward, WI
Millyard Operators Technical Assoc. Wisconsin Rapids, WI
Nagel Lumber Co. Land O' Lakes, WI
Packaging Corporation of America Tomahawk, WI
Procter & Gamble Paper Products Green Bay, WI
Smurfit Stone Container Corp. Ontonagon, MI
T.A. Solberg Company, Inc. Minocqua, WI
Technical Assoc. of the Pulp and Paper Kaukauna, WI
Wausau-Mosinee Paper Corp. Wausau, WI
Wisconsin Electric Power Co. Milwaukee, WI
Wisconsin Public Service Corp. Green Bay, WI

Tree For Tomorrow actually provides lesson plans for K-12 on "Forest Management," such as this: http://www.treesfortomorrow.com/branchingout_hark.php and Paper Making: http://www.treesfortomorrow.com/branchingout_papermaking.php

*Eye on Oshkosh on Northwestern: The Oshkosh Northwestern recently editorialized about the slow pace of the investigation of former Winnebago County DA Joe Paulus. Cheryl Hentz of Eye on Oshkosh has this response.

*Sadama, Made in USA: Here's an interesting cartoon from Egypt.

*Finally, this "It's Your Call" contribution to the Appleton Post-Crescent from reader Dick Sauer gets my "Pleasant Neighbor" Award for May: "It is springtime in Wisconsin, time to open your windows for fresh air, to listen to the birds sing, kids playing, the wind blowing through the trees, which brings me to the clanging, banging, pinging pieces of junk called wind chimes. If you own a wind chime, please hang it inside your home, by a window. Or turn a fan on it so only you have to listen to it. Don’t assume your neighbors want to listen to that clanging junk. If I put my stereo on the front porch and played the same polka 24 hours a day, seven days a week, you would be the first ones to complain."

Best,

-Tony