Commentary Update for July 15, 2003: Muzzle for Muscle, Butt Seriously, Wisconsin's Answer to the Iraqi Advisory Council, Sausagegate, Civility--Chicago Style, Buying justice in Outagamie County, Uff da Wal-Mart, Overtime Obey, Victory for disabled, Gray Davis, More on Iraq, Watch your government

This week Commentary will feature an interview with Dr. James Simmons of the UW Oshkosh Political Science Department. Recorded in June, the interview deals mostly with state budget politics, though we get into some local issues too.

In other news:

Muzzle For Muscle: Last week the Oshkosh Common Council approved rates for the new storm water utility. The Oshkosh Chamber of Commerce, which has been angrily denouncing the utility for months, was curiously calmed down at the last council meeting. Near the end of the meeting it became clear why: Mayor Hintz (who sits on the Board of the Chamber affiliated Oshkosh Commercial Development Corporation) announced that at the next meeting he plans to introduce a proposal for a stormwater utility "appeals board." As described, the appeals board would have so much power that the Common Council would have no oversight. Even the Chamber friendly Oshkosh Northwestern recognizes the absurdity of the proposal.

As I have already noted, the Council is plagued with conflicts of interest on this issue. The appeals board, at least as described so far, is so pro big-business that a citizen may reasonably conclude that its creation would be a kind of "quid pro quo." That is, in return for the Chamber muzzling its criticism of the utility, they get an appeals board that they can muscle. Call it the Muzzle For Muscle Plan.

If the Mayor does in fact propose the creation of such an appeals board at the next Council meeting, his six colleagues on the Council should not even dignify the motion with a second.

Butt Seriously: Commentary pundit Dan Rylance writes about the politics of the soon-to-be proposed Oshkosh anti-smoking ordinance.

Wisconsin's Answer to the Iraqi Advisory Council?: Our man in Baghdad L. Paul Bremer (who seems to have aged 30 years in 10 weeks) recently created an Iraqi governing council whose powers are mostly advisory in nature. Turns out that the Wisconsin legislature--bloated, scandal ridden, and arrogant--doesn't have much more power than the Iraqi advisory council if Rep. Dave Travis is accurate. Wisconsin's Governor has such extensive veto power that it might be fair to say the Dairy State has undergone a kind of political Bremerization in which all power ultimately rests with one man. Travis says, "Wisconsin has a dysfunctional Legislature. Over the past decade, the quest for dollars in outrageously expensive legislative campaigns has concentrated power in a handful of legislative leaders who are the only people who can raise huge sums of money from interest groups because of their control over the process -- read the criminal indictments to learn about this."

Sausagegate: I must admit that as an Italian-American I was very offended that the Pittsburgh Pirates Randall Simon chose to whack the Italian Sausage last week at Corporate Welfare Taxpayer Boondoggle Stadium (also known as Miller Park) when he could have easily aimed at the bratwurst. Wisconsinites will remember how Bud Selig and Tommy Thompson whacked the citizenry in order to get the stadium paid for; now Ralph Nader reveals a similar whacking at work in Washington, D.C.

Civility -- Chicago Style!: Once upon a time there was a baseball stadium in Chicago's south side called Comiskey Park, home of the White Sox. In the late 1980s, White Sox Board Chair Jerry Reinsdorf did the corporate weasel dance, threatening to move the team to Florida unless the city coughed up big bucks for a new stadium (the old Mayor Daley probably would have told Reinsdorf to go f**k himself). And cough they did, to the tune of $167 million in public financing. Then earlier this year, the team announced a naming rights deal with US Cellular, under which the Sox will net $68 million over 20 years, reportedly for "stadium improvements." ($167 million in public financing and now they need stadium improvements? What's up with that?)

Tickets at US Cellular (some Chicagoans call it "Sell-Your-Soul" field, by the way) are now $14-$29 (how's that for family friendly pricing?), with a 12 ounce beer weighing in at $4.50. All the corporate exploitation can't help but put people in a rowdy mood, so it was no surprise that when the north side Cubs visited Sell Your Soul late last month some fights would break out. In this photo, check out the woman in the white shirt clocking the guy in the tank top with a right jab to the lower ear. She even has a cell phone in the left pocket with which to call the Department of Homeland Insecurity if things get too far out of control.

Buying justice in Outagamie County: Madison's Wisconsin State Journal spent months doing research into the wheeling and dealing of former Outagamie County District Attorney (and Republican candidate in last year's state attorney general race) Vince Biskupic. From a media criticism perspective, the real story here is why Gannett's northeast Wisconsin division (especially the Oshkosh Northwestern and Appleton Post-Crescent) did not dig deeper into this story when the Democratic Party of Wisconsin first filed a complaint against Biskupic in October of 2002. Most of the Gannett reporting at that time featured summaries of the Democratic Party's complaint along with Biskupic's denials of impropriety. A cynic might argue that Biskupic, considered to be one of the political "rising stars" by the state Republican party and big-business community, was being protected. Thus it falls to a Madison newspaper to do most of the leg work for a northeast Wisconsin story. Back in November of 2002 the Northwestern publisher Kevin Doyle gave Biskupic "high marks" for openness. (scroll down to the 4th paragraph from the bottom).

Uff da Wal-Mart!: Unlike Wisconsin's Fox Valley and most other parts of the state, the Norwegians of Stoughton, WI are actively fighting Wal-Mart expansion. You can read about it here.

Overtime Obey: Wisconsin Congressman Dave Obey has been leading the effort in the HOR to derail the Bush Administration's attempt to overhaul overtime in a way opposed by most worker organizations. From the AFL-CIO: "By a 213-210 margin, the House narrowly defeated an amendment that would have derailed the Bush administration's attack on the 40-hour workweek. President George W. Bush on July 9 threatened to veto the fiscal year 2004 Labor and Health and Human
Services appropriations bill (H.R. 2660) if it included the amendment. The amendment, proposed by Reps. David Obey (D-Wis.) and George Miller (D-Calif.), would have prohibited the Department of Labor from using funds to implement regulations cutting overtime pay. The Bush administration is pushing for changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act that could eliminate overtime pay for as many as 8 million workers, including police officers, nurses and store supervisors, according to an Economic Policy Institute study. Many workers would face unpredictable work schedules and reduced pay because of an increased demand for extra hours for which employers would not have to compensate workers, the institute said. Any worker making more than $22,100 a year could be denied overtime pay under the proposed changes if they are classified as professional, administrative or executive employees exempt from federal overtime rules. A vote on the appropriations bill is coming up soon in the Senate, and the effort in the House continues with a bill introduced by Miller and Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.)." The AFL-CIO has set up a special site for this issue: http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/otpayj1/forward%20.

Victory for Disabled: The disabled won a major victory in the Wisconsin Supreme Court last week. Here's the actual decision for all you legal geeks out there.

Gray Davis--The trials and tribulations of a New Democrat: By now everyone has heard that California governor Gray Davis is facing a recall. Davis is one of the so-called "New Democrats" for whom stabbing the traditional Democratic base in the back is a small price to pay in order to raise big bucks from corporate sleeze. The Los Angeles times last year reported that , "Gov. Gray Davis has pocketed political money from some of the biggest, baddest names in the corporate corruption scandals . . . including WorldCom $109,000. Adelphia $52,500. Enron $120,000. Global Crossing execs $120,050. Arthur Andersen and its parent $54,000." Perhaps to show what a true grassroots guy he really is, Davis has now managed to get prominent members of the state's elite financial establishment to come out and claim the world as we know it will end if Davis is recalled. As noted in the LA Times: "To convey that message Wednesday, Davis allies assembled a blue-chip group of business leaders: [Warren] Christopher, the longtime Los Angeles attorney and chief diplomat during the Clinton administration; Los Angeles home-building and financial services titan Eli Broad; San Francisco developer Walter Shorenstein; and investment banker F. Warren Hellman." Oh yeah, the AFL-CIO leader was there too. Can you say window dressing?

So, even though the recall effort most likely is the product of a rogue element in the Republican party who have discovered a way to get the governor's office on the cheap, you won't find me shedding any tears for Gray Davis. I will say that if what Davis is being recalled for according to the petition ("gross mismanagement of California finances . . . threatening public safety by cutting funds to local governments, failing to account for the exorbitant cost of the energy fiasco, and failing in general to deal with the state's major problems until they get to the crisis stage.") were applied to Wisconsin, then Jim The New Democrat Doyle and the entire Wisconsin legislature would be removed.

More on Iraq:

• A few weeks ago I suggested that Iraqis blowing up oil pipelines might be a rejection of our man Bremer's introduction of capitalism into the country, sparking this response from Pete Pagano of Norfolk, VA: "The Iraqis blew up that section of oil pipeline because they reject our introduction of capitalism? Come on, that's a bit disingenuous. Isn't a more plausible explanation that dissident members of the former regime - Baath party members, secret police, Republican guards, etc, blew up the pipeline because if they make life miserable for the Iraqi people and the U.S. occupation force then their chances of returning to power and their privileged life styles are enhanced? Looking at this objectively, one would see that this is the likely explanation rather than claiming that the popular will of the Iraqi people expressed its rejection of capitalism by blowing up the pipeline. The Iraqis were pretty good capitalists before the U.S. overthrew Saddam (that's why they enjoyed one of the highest standards of living in the Arab world - before the UN sanctions were imposed), and once we are able to provide a secure and stable environment for them, they will be good capitalists again - enjoying the high standard of living that a free market economy typically provides. Former regime loyalists know this, that's why they are blowing up pipelines and sniping at U.S. troops." I don't know if there's any organized anti-capitalist movement in Iraq, but it turns out that recently in Spain there was held an "Islam in Europe" conference in which a call was made to "thwart" capitalism. (For the record, I'm not opposed to capitalism, but I am opposed to concentration of power, whether it occurs in a system calling itself capitalist, socialist, fascist, or whatever).
• Carol Brightman has written a very thought provoking piece for Alternet on Iraq and the neo-con notion of world order.
• The UK Independent has catalogued what it calls "20 lies about the war."
• I like Rummy: My liberal friends don't like to hear this, but I get a big kick out of Don Rumsfeld. Did anyone catch Rummy on the Sunday morning snooze shows? As an academic, I can say that Rummy reminds me of some university administrators I've met over the years: he knows he's full of crap, he knows that you know he's full of crap, but he also knows that convoluted notions of "team" and "loyalty" will ensure that you don't go too far in probing into the inner workings of his office. Thus Rummy had Tim Russert and George Stephanopolous completely perplexed this past Sunday. They were like college professors trying to kiss the university president's ass. As I've noted previously, Rummy's style to me is like a combination of Teddy Roosevelt rough rider and Wayne Newton nightclub singer.

Watch your government: Finally, an MIT student has created a website that will allow us to monitor our government. Here's a story about the student's efforts.

All the best!

-Tony