Commentary Update for July 1, 2003: Storm Water, Doyle Does It Again, Bank One Presents the Chicago Bears, the Burning Bush, Bremer Watch, Maureen Nino, Rebels, Heins, No Web Updates From July 1-7

We will continue to run the interview with School Board member Teresa Thiel this week. Our videographer John Iwata is trying to arrange to get the recent interview we did with Dr. Jim Simmons to follow the Thiel interview.

In other news:

*Storm Water Utility Conflict of Interest?: The Oshkosh city administration has for the last 3 years been working on the creation of a storm water utility. According to the administration, the proposed utility will result in [especially large] businesses paying a fairer share than has heretofore been the case. Not surprisingly, the Chamber of Commerce has had a fit, claiming that the proposed utility is an unfair tax on business. At last Tuesday's meeting of the Oshkosh Common Council, a number of Chamber members as well as the Executive Director of the Chamber spoke out against the utility and asked that the Council at least table the motion to vote on the storm water ordinance. Not surprisingly, only Councilor Paul Esslinger voted against the motion to table.

The Oshkosh Northwestern Editorial Brigade chided the Council for procrastinating on the vote. I believe the problem here is not with procrastination as much as it is with conflict of interest. According to the Oshkosh Chamber of Commerce website, Councilor Frank Tower (who seconded the motion to table) sits on the Chamber Board of Directors. Mayor Stephen Hintz (who was not at last Tuesday's meeting but who almost certainly would have voted to table) sits on the Chamber's Oshkosh Commercial Development Corporation Board of Directors. Deputy Mayor Mark Harris, who asked the Council to pass an amendment that was so convoluted it almost seemed designed to confuse the hell out of everyone and thus make a tabling motion more palatable, once was featured in a Chamber of Commerce newspaper ad which had the Council dais as a backdrop. In the April 2001 elections, the Chamber produced ads for or made contributions to Harris, Tower, and Castle. Castle, it must be noted, returned the contribution.

I believe that Tower, Hintz, and Harris should recuse themselves from voting on the storm water utility ordinance. At the very least, Tower and Hintz should resign their positions at the Chamber so as to avoid even the appearance of impropriety.

The Oshkosh Northwestern has twice called for Teresa Thiel to resign from the School Board because of her conflict of interest, and the Executive Editor devoted an entire column today to a letter written to Thiel by the Oshkosh Education Association. Why no call for any Common Councilors to resign even though they are obviously carrying storm water for the Chamber? Have any of the Chamber members written letters or sent emails to the Councilors? Why isn't the paper making an open records request for those? The Chamber has apparently even succeeded in getting Representative Gregg Underheim to sponsor legislation that would throw the storm water utility into the corporate-friendly state public service commission. Why no investigation of who contacted Underheim?

*The New Democrat Does It Again: Jim The New Democrat Doyle last week championed the "single factor sales" formula for big business in the state. When fully implemented, that turkey will cost $45 million per year (in a state that's mired in structural deficits and fiscal mismanagement the likes of which haven't been seen literally since the late 19th century). John Nichols argues that Jim The New Democrat Doyle had to wait until after the Democratic convention to announce his support for the turkey, since to do so before that would have alienated too many Dems. I think Nichols is only partly right. Only 24 of the 38 Dems in the state assembly voted against the single factor legislation. Only 4 other states have so far enacted single factor legislation, and so far there exists not one shred of evidence to suggest the policy does anything other than drain public treasuries of necessary revenues.

Meanwhile, wispolitics.com's Melanie Fonder conducted an interview with Doyle's budget guy Mark Marotta. If anyone had any doubts about Doyle's kinship with the Republicans, check out this statement from Marotta: "The problem with vetoing the whole thing -- again, we haven't ruled that out -- the problem with doing that is we're not sure we'd get it any better." We're not sure we'd get it any better? Well, they could look more closely at the prison system. Charles Westerberg demonstrates how Wisconsin's criminal [in]justice system is "tough on crime, easy on big business."

*Bank One Presents The Chicago Bears: If you haven't heard about this one yet, get near a toilet because you are going to throw up. Corporations are now going beyond just by naming rights to sports stadiums. This year Bank One will "present" the Chicago Bears. That's right, they are now the "Bank One Chicago Bears." According to the story, "Under the multimillion-dollar arrangement, unprecedented in the NFL, 'Bears football presented by Bank One' will be a signature phrase for the team." What's next, the Microsoft Seattle Seahawks? 3M Minnesota Vikings?

*The Burning Bush?: New Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Maazen) was recently interviewed in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. Abbas is well liked by the Bush Administration, and the Israeli government says good things about him too. Check out what Abbas claims he was told by George Bush: "God told me to strike at al Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East. If you help me I will act, and if not, the elections will come and I will have to focus on them." If this statement is accurate, and if the prez really does think he's getting instructions from God, then we could be in for some very rough times ahead. This gives new meaning to the biblical notion of "Burning Bush." Perhaps our young men and women in Iraq who are getting harassed and shot at daily in over 100 degree heat can console themselves with knowing that their commander in chief is divinely inspired. The full Haaretz article (scroll down to the last paragraph) can be found here.

*Bremer Watch: Our man in Baghdad now says that Saddam must be captured or caught in order for the transition to freedom to go more smoothly for the Iraqis. In the same story: "Christian Aid spokesman Dominic Nutt said Bremer's optimistic view of the humanitarian situation was 'unmitigated nonsense.' 'Security is deteriorating day by day,' he told the BBC." If White House press secretary Ari Fleischer were confronted with the Christian Aid spokesman's comments, he'd probably say "Is that guy a Nutt? " He'd be even less flattering toward Alternet's Chris Scheer, who claims we were told "10 appalling lies" about Iraq.

*Maureen Takes On Nino: I'm not a big fan of the New York Times' Maureen Dowd (her humor always seems forced to me; her writing could use a few spontaneous Nutt puns (:-)), but in the Sunday paper she did a lampoon of Justice Antonin Scalia that I found very amusing.

*Rebels Seek New Theater: Oshkosh's Rebel Alliance Theater, an inspiring troupe that has done more to engage young people than any other organization in town, is seeking a new building. Here's the press release.

*Steve Heins a "Blizzard of One": Doug Moe of The Madison Cap Times wrote a very nice piece about our good friend Steve Heins. Steve is featured prominently in Stealing Time: Steve Case, Jerry Levin, and the Collapse of AOL Time Warner, by Washington Post reporter Alec Klein.

*No Web Site Updates Until July 7th: I'm going to be in Rolla, MO and St. Louis from from July 1-7, so there will be no updates to the Commentary website during that time. July 1 is my birthday #42 (Some people judge their aging by wrinkles, changed bowel movements, graying hair, or other such things. I judge it by my reaction to Neil Diamond's music. When I was in my 20s and his music came on the car radio, I'd swear and immediately change it. In my 30s, I'd listen to a few bars of "Cracklin' Rosie" but switch to another station before the song ended. Now in my 40s I find that I can actually listen to an entire Neil Diamond song and even hum along at times. I figure in my 50s I'll probably buy a Neil Diamond Greatest Hits CD.).

It's so nice to be with you,

-Tony

P.S. Have a great 4th of July weekend!