Commentary Update for May 12, 2003: Patriot Act: Same Old Story?, Festival of Community Mother's Day, Sexual Security, Connecting the Budget Dots, Soft Money and Gaming, Interviews, Iraq Body Count, Journalism Task Force, FCC and Media Ownership, 21st Century Schizoid Men

This week Commentary will continue to run the interview with UW Oshkosh Chancellor Richard Wells. Next week we will start to replay shows from the past year. We're still not sure if we will be taping any new shows before next September.

In other news:

Patriot Act--Same Old Story?: Last week I was honored to participate in a forum sponsored by the UW Oshkosh Student Greens on the topic of the Patriot Act. After the forum I revised and extended my remarks, complete with links and photos. The remarks can be found here.

Festival of Community--From Melissa Barber of the Winnebago Peace and Justice Center: LISTEN UP! Here's an exciting opportunity for the community of the Oshkosh area... A FESTIVAL OF COMMUNITY at Menominee park in Oshkosh on Sunday, May 18th, from noon to four pm. Sponsored by the Winnebago Peace and Justice Center, there will be lots of music( from folk singers to rock bands: Featuring This Bright Apocalypse for the young, and Larry and the Nomads from the 60's for us older folk!) plus lots of fun... Origami, Chair massage, Tie dye, a Junk, Plant, and Art sale, and many more magical activities!

Please bring a picnic lunch and all your friends to the park [ also a drum, poetry, kids, games,(really, anything to make your experience most enjoyable) donations, party favors, and as much love as you can find] on Sunday for a Festival of Life and the community!

Thank you,

Melissa Barber
CO-coordinator, student, and citizen

Contact me (you_see_more_than_i@yahoo.com) with all questions, comments, ideas, etc... OR call Joanne at 685-2288

Mother's Day History and Proclamation: TomPaine.Com last week presented some of the actual history of Mother's Day. Included in the text is Julia Ward Howe's Mother's Day Proclamation for Peace.

The Department of Sexual Security: Animator Mark Fiore has discovered exclusive information on Senator Rick Santorum's plan to create a Department of Sexual Security.

Connecting the Budget Dots: Just how corrupt is Wisconsin's current budget deliberations? Mike McCabe of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign connects the dots.

Funny How Huge Soft Money Contributions Can Change Minds: Wispolitics.com has compiled some interesting statements from Jim The New Democrat Doyle on gaming compact negotiations before he became governor. For example:

I believe strongly that this power over these negotiations has to be back with the Legislature. If we're going to have mega-casinos ... this is an issue that shouldn't get decided by the governor ... It should get decided by the people of the state of Wisconsin. It's very different from whether there's going to be gambling on Indian land. Under federal law, that is really for the Indian tribes in negotiations with the state. But when you're going to open up these dog tracks, that's a decision not for the tribes and the governor to make. That's a decision for the people of Wisconsin to make. Now if the decision is open them up, then I respect democracy.
--Doyle, Aug. 6, 2000, WisPolitics interview

It seemed to me that the question of off reservation gambling in particular is one that the state legislature should decide....it really is a policy decision by the state of Wisconsin on whether it's going to have gambling off reservation. And I thought that that's the area in particular where the Legislature, as the elected representatives of the people, ought to have a say."
-Doyle, Dec. 30, 2002, WisPolitics interview

But then on Feb. 20, 2003 (post-tribe soft money contributions to the Democratic National Committee) the New Democrat has a change of heart: "I do not believe it would be a good change, particularly with the rhetoric that is built up around all of this...It's pretty clear, I think, now that I'm governor maybe I see this a little more clearly. But for me to try to go negotiate on behalf -- and have to have 132 legislators and the governor out negotiating these compacts with all of the complexities, I just think would be absolutely impossible."

Doyle has now negotiated 9 compacts, including one announced today and two more in the works. Our friend Cheryl Hentz wrote about gambling for the cover story for this month's Valley Scene.

I find it absolutely extraordinary that in 2004 Democrats are going to have to run on defending gambling as a means of fixing a budget mess and cutting a quarter of a billion dollars from our state university system. At the recent annual meeting of the Winnebago County Civil Liberties Union, liberal Madison attorney and former candidate for governor Ed Garvey held out the possibility of supporting the Green Party in the future. That's progress. Most Democrats I know will agree with the criticisms of the party but cannot even acknowledge any other possibility.

Interviews: Melanie Fonder of wispolitics.com recently interviewed Wisconsin Republican Party chair Rick Graber and newly elected Supreme Court justice Pat Roggensack. Wispolitics also conducted a straw poll at this past weekend's Republican convention, and they found that the party hacks are leaning toward former state senator and Lt. governor Margaret Farrow to run against Russ Feingold next year and congressman Mark Green to take on Doyle in 2006.

Iraq Body Count: Anybody still remember Operation Iraqi Freedom? See Iraqbodycount.net for an attempt to try to determine just how many people may have died for this liberation.

Journalism Task Force Report: Columbia University President Lee Bollinger did something unusual for college brass these days. He actually said something meaningful about academics. (These guys now are so obsessed with fund raising and butt kissing that academics have taken a distant third place). Bollinger participated in a task force designed to come up with standards for journalism education in the 21st century. The report said in part:

More specifically, a professional school must instill certain basic capacities in its students. (l) Students must receive an introduction to the skills and craft of writing and reporting which are the foundation of the profession. This would include the skills of analyzing and organizing information for news stories of all lengths as well as for investigative reports. (2) Students must acquire an intellectual ability to deal with new situations, as knowledge and working conditions shift over time or as their own knowledge proves inadequate (in other words, students must learn how to "think like a journalist"). (3) Students ought to become familiar with how their profession developed. Who were the great figures and what were their contributions? How did the field evolve into what it is today, and what are the trends at work now and where are they leading the profession? (4) Students must acquire a sense of an identity as a professional, which includes the moral and ethical standards that should guide professional behavior.

The full report can be found here. Apparently Jayson Blair never learned such standards.

FCC and Media Ownership: Journalistic ethics might not amount to a hill of beans if the FCC under Michael Powell has its way. Colin's son is proposing changes in the rules that would allow the dreadful problem of media consolidation to get even worse. In-depth coverage can be found here.

Early Nominees for the 21st Century Schizoid Man Award: John Walker Lindh, Baghdad Bob. There are only 97 years left to make nominations!

All the best,

-Tony