Commentary Update for September 16, 2002: Chancellor Wells Praises Commentary, Earth Charter, Prediction Results, Lorge, WDC on Advertising, Paul Simon Stumps for Genisio, Underheim/Genisio Debate Challenge, Rieckman and Coulter, Letters from Pagano and Harris, Sept. 11 Retrospective

Dear Friends of Commentary,

Last week UW Oshkosh Chancellor Rick Wells, at a meeting of the UW Oshkosh Faculty Senate, said that Commentary's interview with Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance President Todd Berry was "outstanding . . . as are all the Commentary shows." Many of you will recall that the last Chancellor was not a big fan of the show, and in fact these Commentary Updates began largely as an attempt to keep the program's supporters "in the loop" as we faced censorship. Commentary's days are always numbered due to a variety of factors, but it's nice to know that at least we won't have to worry about harassment coming from the top administration.

This week we moved back into the Titan-TV studios, with new student director Nathan Wardinski at the helm. The first show of the season is always a bit rough, but that's educational TV for you. Our guests are UW Oshkosh College of Letters and Science Associate Dean Andy Robson and Angela LeNoble, an officer in the UW Oshkosh Student Environmental Actions Coalition. Andy and Angela talk about the Earth Charter Summit coming to the campus September 21-28. You can see a copy of the actual Earth Charter here.

I did okay on my primary predictions:
Palmeri Prediction: Paulus 35%, Lennon 33%, Jelinski 32%/ Actual Result: Paulus 34%, Lennon 50%, Jelinski 16%
Palmeri Prediction: Doyle 34%, Barrett 33%, Falk 33%/Actual Result: Doyle 38%, Barrett 35%, Falk 27%
Palmeri Prediction: McCallum 70%, Lorge 29%, Pobuda 1%/Actual Result: McCallum 86%, Lorge 8%, Pobuda 6%
Palmeri Prediction: Owens 40%, Dinkel 35%, Navis 25%/Actual Result: Owens 51%, Dinkel 31%, Navis 18%

Clearly the one I completely misjudged was the Paulus/Lennon/Jelinski battle for County DA. Republican candidate for governor Bill "Elvis" Lorge, email me on September 9th and said: "I hope you are wrong on your predictions. I mean, if Paulus wins, I'll have to remove him when I am Governor! See you Oct 21st for that debate!" He's referring to a governor candidate forum that will be held at UW Oshkosh. Jim Young, Ed Thompson, and Alan Eisenberg (Reform Party) have been invited to participate with what Jim Young calls the two Republican candidates.

The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign put out this release showing the exorbitant amount of money being spent on political television advertising. WDC also forwarded this clever site lampooning the money/TV nexus.

Democratic candidate for State Assembly District 54 James Genisio has gotten some good press lately. First the Oshkosh Northwestern reported on former Illinois Senator Paul Simon's appearance at a Genisio fundraiser. They quoted Simon as saying that Genisio is "courageous, compassionate, and independent." A far cry from the mostly spineless sycophants in there now.

• Then Genisio challenged incumbent Gregg Underheim to debate, and the Oshkosh Northwestern Editorial Brigade actually praised him for setting a good "tone." Here's a copy of the letter Genisio sent to Underheim. I don't know if the Brigade will actually endorse Genisio when all is said and done, but at least it looks like they are not going to be Gregg's personal newsletter, something they came close to doing 6 years ago when another Italian challenged Underheim.
• Meanwhile, Underheim has accepted the debate invitation, with the Brigade saying that Gregg "prides himself on debates several years ago against contender Tony Palmeri." One memory I have from those debates is former Brigade Executive Editor Larry Peterson showing up and taking notes on Underheim's letterhead as he listened to us. Nothing like independent journalism!

Today the Executive Editor is Stew Rieckman. Perhaps to prove that he's not a tool of the right wing, yesterday Stew announced that the paper will not run Ann Coulter's syndicated column.

A few letters to Commentary: Pete Pagano says rebuild the twin towers. Mark Harris has something to say about the Social Security Trust Fund.

Finally, as a September 11 rememberance, here's my brother James' narration of his experience on that awful day. I went back and looked at what I wrote on September 11, 2001 and it gave me the chills.

Peace, everyone.

-TP