Commentary Update for August 26, 2003
1. This Week's Show: We continue showing our interview with Winnebago County Board Chair Joe Maehl, which has been getting favorable reviews. Next week we'll put in the show with Circuit Court Judge Robert Haase.
2. David Ranney To Introduce "Life and Debt" on September 24th at UW Oshkosh: As part of its International Film Series, the UW Oshkosh Radio/TV/Film program will be showing Life and Debt, a film directed by Stephanie Black and based on "excerpts from the award-winning nonfiction text 'A Small Place' by Jamaica Kincaid." According to the film's website, "Life & Debt is a woven tapestry of sequences focusing on the stories of individual Jamaicans whose strategies for survival and parameters of day-to-day existence are determined by the U.S. and other foreign economic agendas. By combining traditional documentary telling with a stylized narrative framework, the complexity of international lending, structural adjustment policies and free trade will be understood in the context of the day-to-day realities of the people whose lives they impact."
Introducing the film and leading a discussion afterwards will be author/scholar/activist David Ranney. Dr. Ranney has recently written a book for Temple University Press called Global Decisions, Local Collisions. More about the book and about Dave Ranney can be found here. International Film Series faculty advisor Andrew Schroeder and I would like to thank Steve Watrous of the Wisconsin Fair Trade Campaign for alerting us to Dr. Ranney's availability.
Dr. Ranney's introduction of the film will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Reeve Union Theater (Room 307). The screening of Life and Debt is free for students and $1 for all others. For more information contact Andrew Schroeder at Schroeda@uwosh.edu.
3. Fighting Bob Fest II: The theme of the second annual "Fighting Bob Fest" is "Corporate Power vs. Democracy." The Fest will be held on Saturday, September 6th at the Sauk County Fairgrounds in Baraboo, WI. The impressive list of speakers include Vermont Independent Congressman Bernie Sanders and irreverent Texas pundit Jim Hightower.
4. Peaceful Pamorovo: Dan and Billie Jo Rylance recently sent
their second installment of "Letters
From Bulgaria."
5. Not exactly the Bestrich of Estrich: Remember Susan Estrich? She's the USC law professor who's framed as being on the "left" by the media barons who rule the talking head shows (apparently being a partisan Democrat is enough to get someone labeled "left" these days). Estrich came to national prominence when she put together a team to manage Mike Dukakis' 1988 presidential campaign that were the political equivalent of the engineers that produced the exploding Ford Pinto gas tank. (Dukakis was defeated by Bush #41, whose own campaign was run by the ruthless hatchet man Lee Atwater, who died of a brain tumor several years later and whose family tried to link his condition to excessive cellular phone use).
Then in the late 1990s, Estrich was part of the huge chorus of Clinton defenders
who rationalized his affair with Monica as essentially a private matter.
She bought into the line that Monica manipulation by the Clinton haters was
all about the "politics of personal destruction." We've all heard
the screed. What's funny though is that Estrich recently wrote a column
attacking Arianna Huffington (independent candidate for CA governor)
in a manner that calls to mind Lee Atwater dredging up Willie Horton
against Dukakis in 1988. She writes that,"Huffington has no chance
of winning. Never did. The only reason to run was her ego, self-aggrandizement,
attention -- at the expense of her kids." I apologize in advance to the
legion of Clinton fans out there, but I can't help but chuckle when one of HIS
defenders accuses someone else of being motivated by ego, self-aggrandizement,
and need for attention. And to bring Arianna's kids into the story? What happened
to the sermons about respecting privacy? (P.S. Gray The New Democrat Davis
was quoted recently as saying this: "I carry a little card around with
me that says, 'Nothing will happen to me today that the Lord and I can't handle
together.' " Maybe he can go work for Judge Moore in 'bama after he gets
booted out of the guv's office?).
6. Simile of the Week: Since Estrich chose to use an ad hominen style usually associated with the right wing, I guess it's appropriate that this week's simile is from genuine right winger Ann Coulter. Here she is talking about those vying to become California's next chief exec: "It is puzzling why anyone would want to assume control of this fiasco. It's like vying to become Roseanne Barr's next husband. Sure you'd get your name in the paper, but look at the mess you'd be getting yourself into"
7. "12 Attacks Daily" on U.S. Convoys: You gotta love U.S. mainstream media. In between the flood of stories about Laci, Arnold, and Kobe, they still find time to give us some information on the Iraq War. What great patriots. If you weren't careful, you could have easily missed the report last week that U.S. convoys are facing, on average 12 attacks a day.
8. Is it paranoia or just a Military Industrial Complex?: Last May Dubya tried to get a New Mexico oil man, Colin McMillan, installed as new Navy secretary (there apparently are not enough oil men in the administration already, you see). McMillan died in July before his Senate confirmation, allegedly via suicide (hmm . . . how come no calls from the Republicans to investigate, a la Vince Foster?). After McMillan's untimely passing, Dubya went back to the well (pun intended) and nominated former Navy secretary Gordan England, who had been moved over to Homeland Security with Tom Ridge, to come back to the Navy post. England was an executive vice president at General Dynamics, the weapons contractor most known for the M-1 tank. They also make ballistic missile submarines at their facility in Groton, Connecticut.
Meanwhile, Rummy wants Air Force secretary James Roche, former executive with Northrop Grumman Corp.(they make the B-2 stealth bombers, F-14 fighters, and AWACS planes among much else), to replace Tom White as Army sec. Mr. White, you may recall, was an Enron Executive. New York's Newsday revealed the corporate connections of Rummy's pals back in May of 2001.
9. Fiore on Action Figures. The always irreverent Mark Fiore takes a look at some Action Figures.
All the best,
-Tony