Commentary Update for August 19th, 2003
1. This Week's Show: Our interview with Winnebago County Board Chair Joe Maehl is on channel 66 this week at 7 p.m. If I get a chance this week I'm going to bring some tapes to Oshkosh Cable Access Television and arrange to get some shows played there.
2. Rebel Alliance Presents "The Taming of the Shrew": The Rebels present their FIRST ANNUAL SHAKESPEARE IN SOUTH PARK (Oshkosh) production - - The Taming of the Shrew - - for three performances, Saturday August 23rd at 11:00AM and 4:00 PM and Sunday August 24 at 2:00PM. See the full press release here. Rebel Alliance does as much or more for area youth than any other local organization. They need and deserve our support.
3. Lights Out, Uh Huh: The big national news last week was the power outage across parts of the northeast, Midwest, and Canada. The Republicans were quick to say they supported power grid upgrades, but according to the Chicago Tribune, "a Democratic proposal in June 2001 to offer $350 million in federal loans and loan guarantees to improve power transmission systems was defeated by Bush's allies in the House." Ever wonder how power grids work? Find out here.
4. Recall Rants: I don't know about anyone else, but I for one am getting sick and a bit disgusted with mainstream Democrats lamenting the "tragedy" and "circus" of the California recall, as if politics in this country were not at all times and in all places a tragic circus. The response by organized (?) labor has been especially discouraging. Instead of using the the recall as an opportunity to get behind a genuinely pro-labor candidate like the Green's Peter Camejo or even Arianna Huffington, they are apparently threatening to work to defeat any Democrat who doesn't fall into line to support Bustamante. Some thoughtful pieces on the recall include Robert Bauer's "The Recall as Reform Politics" in the Washington Post and Marc Cooper's "Five Myths About the Recall" for LA Weekly. Mark Fiore takes us to Recall Island. Probably the most intriguing platform comes from candidate and porn actress Mary Carey, who says that " If I’m elected Governor, I will wire the Governor’s Mansion with live web cams in every room. We will create a pay site, and all money collected will go toward reducing the deficit. Californians will get to see their government in action - literally! (Also, we will have people from around the globe helping to pay off our debt, so it doesn't all fall on the shoulders of Californians.)."
5. Sweet Home Alabama, Where the skys are so blue--and the Republican governor proposes a tax increase: Here in Wisconsin, tax "reform" talk usually means adopting policies similar to southern states, states which always rank near the bottom in measures of educational achievement, infant mortality, and overall quality of life. Finally, a southern Republican governor has emerged who is apparently tired of seeing his state's population sacrificed at the altar of antigovernment and anti-tax mania. Alabama governor Bob Riley, a self-proclaimed "born again" Christian who had 100% support from anti-tax groups when he was in the US Congress, is now "proposing to raise state taxes by a record $1.2 billion, eight times the largest previous increase and almost twice what is needed to close a $675 million budget deficit." The Washington Post coverage makes Riley sound like a Great Society Democrat circa 1965: "I'm tired of Alabama being first in things that are bad and last in things that are good," an impassioned Riley told a Rotary Club in Prattville the other day as he traveled the state, sleeves rolled up, hawking what he calls Alabama's "Foundation for Greatness."
6. An editorial that can make you sick enough to seek medical attention (if you're lucky enough to have coverage). Have you ever read an editorial and said to yourself, "how f _ _ _ _ _ g stupid do they think I am?" (I can hear some of you saying, "sure Tony, I get that feeling regularly when these updates arrive!"). The Oshkosh Northwestern's recent editorial condemning the "socialized medicine" proposal recently put forward by more than 7,000 physicians in the Journal of the American Medical Association provoked such a reaction. The doctors are merely proposing that the Medicare program--which is publicly funded yet privately run--be enlarged to include all Americans. Calling the program "socialized medicine" makes it sound as if the doctors work for the government, or that the government makes medical coverage decisions, which is ridiculous. Medicare is only a financing system, a "single payer" system for seniors, if you will. I do believe a worthwhile debate could take place as to whether expanding the Medicare system to include all citizens regardless of age is the best way to attain national health care, but such a debate is not what the Northwestern and other private insurance industry flacks want. Rather, they use devil terms like "socialism" to prevent any debate from taking place. That's unethical.
Do yourself a favor and read the physicians actual proposal before being blindsided by mindless insurance industry propaganda masquerading as objective commentary.
7. Free Jason Moon: Many of you will recall that Jason Moon, the folk singer/pacifist who was unceremoniously trashed by the Oshkosh Northwestern last February, is currently in Iraq. He's with the 724th Engineering Battalion of the Wisconsin Army National Guard in Tallil, Iraq. He has been in the Guard for 9 years. His enlistment contract ended on July 30, 2003, yet he has been involuntarily extended until March 14, 2004. Efforts are currently underway to try and get Jason home. If you want to help, contact Bob Poeschl at carpepax@riseup.net or (920) 203-6966. Last night on Matt Beringer's "Sound Opinion" radio program on WRST-FM we actually played Jason's "UW Zero Blues," a song that got him in trouble with the Reeve Union food service management a few years ago.
8. Bring Them Home Now: Jason's family is not the only one trying to get their son home. Last week saw the debut of Bring Them Home Now, a group of military families trying to end the war. The groups website, which has been receiving an "overwhelming" amount of traffic, is here.
9. Camera v. RPG launcher: The US military shot and killed Reuters cameraman Mazen Dana the other day. The military claimed that they thought Dana's camera was a rocket propelled grenade launcher. If you look at the manner in which a shoulder camera and grenade launcher are positioned, it is entirely possible (at least in my opinion) for a soldier in the heat of a guerrilla war to confuse the two. For conspiracy theorists out there who believe the military is systematically setting out to kill journalists, I'd say that if they really wanted to kill Mazen Dana they would have had literally thousands of easier ways to do it over the last 6 months without the presence of witnesses.
On the other hand, the killing of Dana is another symptom of how the guerilla
campaign has got coalition forces on edge and too quick to pull the trigger.
President Bush finally
revised his May 1 remarks about major combat operations being over; he now
says, "It's a different kind of combat mission, but, nevertheless, it's
combat, just ask the kids that are over there killing and being shot at."
I'm sure the prez is interested in a CBS poll showing that the number of Americans
who now believe the war was not worth the cost is up to 45%.
Meanwhile a Baghdad barber, the kind of average, everyday people we have to
"win over," tells Reuters
that "We have a saying in Iraq -- 'Black dog or white dog, they're all
the same.' Saddam Hussein, George Bush, they are both bad. They are here
to steal our oil. I don't think they will go in a hundred years, a thousand
years." Neo-Con critics will love this
lampoon of the Rummy/Wolfie/Condi view of the region. Thanks to Neill
Goltz for forwarding that along.
10. A Second Opinion: John Lemberger's most recent A Second Opinion advocates bringing the troops home and also has an article about voting systems.
11. Simile of the Week. From syndicated columnist Molly Ivins: "You may recall that Adm. Poindexter -- whose streak of insanity is cleverly disguised by a personality that makes Gray Davis look exciting -- was convicted of lying to Congress (his five felony counts were overturned on appeal). He is the player who came up with the idea for the now-defunct TIA program. TIA (Terrorism Information Awareness) was the loony scheme under which our government would collect every scrap of information available on each of us -- financial records, health, library visits, etc. -- in a mind-boggling exercise of government control that would have made the old Soviet Union look like a libertarian paradise."
12. Common Cause Finds More Rot In The System: Our friends down at Common Cause have found that Wisconsin is "A Leading Target of Shadowy Democratic Outside Spending Group." Here are the contribution charts, along with a Journal Sentinel editorial. Former Senate majority leader Chuck Chvala told the Wisconsin State Journal that everything was legal and similar to activities carried out by other groups. What's more troubling is that Jim The New Democrat Doyle campaigned on a platform to clean up this mess in his first week in office, and so far has done squat on the political reform front. Commentary's Jim Mather has an excellent letter in today's Northwestern urging our local state representatives to term limit themselves. Not a bad idea for the entire legislature.
All the best,
-Tony