Paul Soglin: Waxing America

The Mic 92.1 FM Progressive Talk Lives!

Madison's The Mic, 92.1 FM, lives, thanks to some common sense and a little old fashioned political muscle and business pressure.  It is clear that station manager, Jeff Tyler, was successful in convincing the corporate suits in Texas that Madison's progressive talk was not to be taken likely.

The sorry part of it is that companies like Clear Channel can have such a stranglehold on the public airways through the monopolization of so many licenses in a single market. Thank you, Ronald Reagan.

The cast of characters in this drama:

• Valerie Walasek, who made it clear that the responsibility for organization and commitment rests in each one of us. Some smart political organizer should hire her.
• The thousands of Dane County residents who proved that signing a petition and attending a rally do matter. Intensity counts a lot too.
• Jeff Tyler, Clear Channel's market manager, with over 25 years experience in Madison, proved to the suits he knew best.
• The millions of Americans without progressive radio can now redouble their efforts for free and open discourse on the airwaves.
• The right wing pundits who argued that weak market demographics accounted for the canceling of the Mic as a way of bashing the Left. Now they will whine all the way home about naked political pressure that  made Clear Channel cave.
• The old Mic Advertisers.  It was great to see so many businesses that were not afraid to advertise on the Mic the last two years, and were not afraid to stand up for progressive talk in Madison.
• The new Mic Advertisers. Welcome aboard.
• The sales staff at Clear Channel: You guys can do better.  Come on and show us.
• Lee Rayburn and Jodie Shawback. We have to bring them back. The morning local programing was indispensable for our community.
• Brian Turany. The Mic's biggest cheerleader, station manager, who rode out one of the wildest rides in Madison media history, never losing his cool and his professionalism.
• Terry and Mary Kelly, Madison's original investors in Air America who are in the process of making heroic efforts to save Air America, who made public and private efforts to keep progressive talk going everywhere.

Update The Mic press release:

MADISON, Wisc. – December 22, 2006 – Clear Channel Radio-Madison today announced that the progressive talk format on WXXM FM, The MIC 92.1 will continue into 2007. The decision reverses an earlier announcement that the station would switch to local sports programming on that date..

"We are overwhelmed by the recent outpouring of support for our Progressive Talk format from the public, some of our community leaders and some dedicated local advertisers,” said Jeff Tyler, Vice President/Market Manager of Clear Channel Radio-Madison. “As a result, we have decided not to change the format of WXXMFM, The MIC 92.1 on January 1, 2007. We thank everyone who spoke, called, e-mailed and wrote to us intelligently and actively about keeping progressive talk on Clear Channel Radio in Madison. We deeply appreciate the local business leaders who are pledging their advertising support -- they are playing an enormous role in helping to keep progressive talk on the air in our community."

Cable vs. NFL Network; Cable vs. Telcos: Consumers Lose Twice

Today one big money fight comes to a climax:  The Packers play the Vikings, and many Wisconsin fans (short for fanatics) will not be able to watch the game on cable.  Why? Because the NFL Network insists that Charter and Time Warner carry its programs on a standard tier that everybody gets, and pays for, rather than on a special sports package that non-fans can avoid.  Thankfully, Charter and Time Warner have held firm and not agreed to pony up the $.70 per month that will go on all our bills whether or not we worship at the shrine of Lambeau.  Also, the game is on local TV in the Milwaukee and Green Bay areas, so most of the eastern part of the state is OK.  As for the rest of the state, it's satellite TV, or radio, or off to the bars, which will enjoy a windfall evening.

Paul, to his surprise, came down on Charter's side back in August, hoping they wouldn't cave in.  I found myself there as well, calling the NFL Network "unconscionably greedy" on WISC-TV, and telling the Milwaukee JournalSentinel:

This is about money and who gets what cut from it," said Barry Orton, a telecommunications professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "The NFL has really reached here. They figure they had the consumers by the . . .

I don't think the cable industry is going to blink on this one," Orton predicted. "I'm betting on the cable industry and six points.

Meanwhile, on the AT&T and Verizon vs. the cable industry front, the City of Milwaukee filed suit yesterday in federal court to make AT&T get a local franchise before it offered video over its phone lines. The telephone companies almost succeeded this year to get Congress to allow them to bypass local controls, but the Net Neutrality issue killed the effort in the Senate.  Assisted by expensive lobbying efforts, several states (Texas, California, Kansas, NJ, Indiana, and others) have bought the telcos' bogus arguments that allowing regulation-free video competition would lower cable prices, increase broadband construction, and create jobs.

Also, yesterday the FCC bought the telco hooey and voted 3-2, on party lines, to create rules to force local governments to accept telco video franchises on the telco's terms. The key issue here is the requirement to build systems that serve all residents of a community; such requirements are in almost all local cable franchises.  The telcos want to only wire those parts of town that are economically favorable to serve; the wrong side of the tracks can buy satellite dishes.  I've seen the map of where AT&T plans to build its "U-verse" system in Milwaukee: the service area is an oval-shaped doughnut running north-south, with a huge hole in the middle. The FCC's ruling would make any attempt by the City of Milwaukee to require service to its inner core "an unreasonable build-out requirement." There's a lot more in this FCC Christmas present to the telcos that is clearly, as Commissioner Adelstein, wrote in his dissent, "...a highly dubious legal and policy scheme...' with "...the likely outcome of being reversed in Federal Court..."

When you are AT&T and Verizon, you can  afford to game the states, the Congress, and the FCC simultaneously, and when you lose in one venue, a win elsewhere can still carry the day.  It's like betting every horse in a race to win, place, and show.  It might cost a bundle, but you are certain to collect at the payoff window.  Considering the distortions of fact the telcos fed the FCC in this process, I'd argue that they also fixed the race.

UPDATE: As usual, Jeff Richgels of the Cap Times gets my quotes right and puts the story in context:

... AT&T has been struggling to provide high-definition service with its IPTV, which runs over the copper phone wires leading from equipment sites to homes. It only recently got HD working in its test market of San Antonio and is far behind in its planned rollout, Orton said. (Verizon is running an all-fiber line service.)

"AT&T's service is a technological step backward," he said. "It's like trying to stuff five pounds of peanuts in a one-pound bag."

The FCC ruling also would allow phone companies to "redline" - serve only the area they want to serve, Orton said.

- Barry Orton

 

Bush: Paris, Britney, Lohan are Patriotic, Coulter Not

At his press conference Wednesday, President Bush, attempting to win the War Against the War Against Christmas, told the assembled journalists:

I encourage you all to go shopping more.

A Google search under News for Paris Hilton shopping produced 314 results.

A Google search under News for Britney Spears shopping produced 371 results.

A Google search under News for Lindsay Lohan shopping produced 120 results.

A Google search under News for Ann Coulter shopping produced 6 results.

Once again Coulter lags behind in the never ending battle to win the affection of the American people and the admiration of our President.

In the four way race, for those of you scoring at home:

Paris Hilton 5, Britney, 4, Lohan, 2, and Ann Coulter 0.

Paris leads Britney, despite the latter's greater number of hits, in the overall scoring receiving more points for style.

Trolley Follies: Let The Voters Decide

Update, December 22, 2006.  Bowing to public pressure and some ridicule, Waxing America today decided to use the conventional spelling of trolley.

The next person who asks for my support in next Spring's city council races better be ready to answer "Yes" to the following question. After all, Monona Terrace cost  'only'  $64 million and required a referendum. 

The Question: "Will you vote to put a referendum on the ballot for the bond issue needed to fund the eight miles of Madison light rail?" In other words, let the public decide on the largest financial commitment in the history of the city.

Some observations and questions:

• It was rail, not cars, that first created suburban sprawl (Long Island RR, Main Line, South Shore, CM&NW). Any transportation system, rail (heavy or light), bus, or car will contribute to sprawl if it is not preceded by tight land use controls.
• Smart Growth is a plan; it does not control land use.
• It is estimated that dual track rail costs $25 million per mile.  An eight mile system will cost $200 million.
• It would be interesting to know what $50,000,000 with the accompanying operating costs would do to improve the existing bus system.
• If the rail system will only operate in the center city, how is it going to reduce commuter traffic without park and ride lots? 
  • How many residents within the center city, presently using cars, will switch to rail?
  • How many residents within the center city, presently using the bus system, will switch to rail?
  • How many residents within the center city, presently using cars, will switch to buses if modest improvements were made?
• If the city were given a gift of $200,000,000, is rail the first thing we would buy?  Or, would we:
  • build health centers, neighborhood centers,
  • fix the water system,
  • reduce run off into Lakes Mendota, Monona, and Wingra,
  • repair Patterson Street,
  • keep the beaches open in the summer (and raked clean), mow the parks,
  • look into minibuses at night with door to door service after 8:00 pm,
  • buy a helicopter for the Department of Planning and Development,
  • count the potholes in March, 
  • build needed fire stations,
  • replace the worn out squad cars,
  • or fix our dilapidated schools.

Streetcars: History and Arguments

Now that the city is gearing up to plan for Madison's future streetcar routes, Jay Rath provides us with an interesting look backwards, when, for 51 years, trolleys were an integral part of of the public's transportation options.

This being Madison, we've got lots of discussion and many opinions already, with consultants from Portland, Oregon pushing their transportation "solutions"  (light rail, streetcars, even aerial trams), and locals arguing for streetcars and against them. 

Last week, a developer from Little Rock, Arkansas and a conference center director from Tacoma, Washington (both with streetcar systems) weighed in with words of encouragement:

Who will ride it? A lot of people, more than we had projected. People have "voted with their feet" and gotten on board the streetcar for all the myriad trips people make in a lively downtown.

Will it be a good investment for the city to fund a streetcar project? Nothing else we've done in our communities has come close to the positive economic impact of our streetcar projects.

Will streetcars tie up traffic in our downtown? Quite the contrary has been true. The streetcars have kept a lot of cars off the road.

Our message is one of encouragement. We've "been there, done that," and are proud of how nice our cities have become, thanks to the positive influence of our streetcars.

(Insert caustic joke about how nice Little Rock and Tacoma actually are here.)

Today's State Journal has an opposing viewpoint from Portland.  Randal O'Toole, an anti-smart growth and pro-automobile advocate (he calls the automobile "America's greatest invention"), claims that Portland's system depends on huge subsidies for the streetcars and for developments along its routes.

The clear lesson is that if you spend huge amounts of money building what amounts to a 7 mph Disneyland ride, you end up hurting the average transit rider. Also, Portland schools, fire, police, public health, and other essential services have all seen budget squeezes even as the city continues to give huge subsidies to developers along the streetcar line.

Rail contractors, subsidized real estate developers, and the politicians they support - collectively known to Portland media as the "light-rail mafia" - are the only real beneficiaries of the streetcar line. If Madison wants genuine transportation improvements, residents should look somewhere other than Portland for their models.

O'Toole's American Dream Coalition, which advocates for fewer land use controls and more highways, says O'Toole is available for speaking gigs at the bargain rate of $1000 plus expenses east of Denver, or $500 plus expenses for Denver and west.  Wanna bet he's speaking in Madison before the lakes thaw?

- Barry Orton

 

Book Report: IBM and the Holocaust

Edwin Black's IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation is possibly the most powerful book I've read about the World War II era in recent years. Black details how IBM's Hollerith punchcard technology was essential to the Nazi's 1933 census that allowed an accurate pinpointing of every Jew in Germany, and how the IBM subsidiaries later tracked every Jew and other "undesirable" in most of the occupied countries. Card-sorters owned by IBM's German subsidiary, Dehomag ("Deutsche Hollerith Maschinen Gesellschaft") were used to round up Jews and assign their possessions, route the trains carrying them to the camps, sort the slave-workers from those assigned to the gas chambers, bill German industry for the slave labor, and efficiently conduct much of the business of production for the war. As the "Solutions Company," IBM played a key role in the Nazi's "final solution."

As a detailed summary at the Hacknot website explained:

Nearly all concentration camps had their own Hollerith Department. Camps such as Dachau and Storkow had as many as two dozen sorters, tabulators and printers installed. The Hollerith Department tracked inmates by assigning each one a Personal Inmate Card. The department also issued daily work assignments, as well as tracking the health status of each inmate. Daily totals of still living, deaths and transfers were wired to Berlin.

When a new inmate arrived at a concentration camp, each inmate was assigned a Hollerith number. In later years, that number was tattooed onto the inmate's forearm. Another card, called simply the Inmate Card, was held at a central statistical office in Berlin. The Inmate Card contained details such as the prisoner's profession. This information was used to match skills to work assignments.

Without IBM's machinery, the logistics of the camp system would have been unmanageable. The total number on inmates in the camps varied between 500,000 and 700,000. The inmates were tracked and manipulated with Hollerith technology from the moment of deportation from their home territory until the moment of their death in a camp.

All the while, IBM's founder, Thomas J Watson, Sr., had conducted an elaborate campaign of double-dealing: an FDR backer and intimate, Watson was given an Eagle with Star medal in 1937 by Hitler in Berlin for help legitimizing the Nazis with the International Chamber of Commerce. When the US placed legal impediments on IBM's direct control of its German subsidiary, IBM's Swiss office managed to serve as a go-between, so that the flow of punchcards, machine parts, and services to Germany never ceased, and opportunities for profits never lost.  Even with the entry of the US into the war, and Watson's subsequent reluctant return of the medal, and the placement of Dehomag into Nazi trusteeship, IBM continued to protect its assets in occupied Europe while doing enormous business with the US war effort.

Because of Watson's political influence and the US military's growing dependence on IBM's technology,  the war crimes trials never came near the company or its executives.  While most IBM records have since been carefully sanitized, we owe Edwin Black a huge debt for his dogged pursuit of the truth, and for his meticulous explanations as to how IBM used its political influence to avoid US oversight in the pre and post-war periods.

- Barry Orton

Janesville Blogger Reports From Iraq, Vietnam, and Milton

George Hesselberg has a great piece in today's Wisconsin State Journal on Bob Keith, a Janesville "old school" blue collar worker and blogger, and his recent solo trip to Iraq to see it for himself.

Keith nails it:

"I have never been satisfied with someone else telling me how I should feel, and that's what I was getting about Iraq. Tie in the fact that this is what I heard during the Vietnam years, only this time around it was not good enough. I wanted to find out for myself," he said.

"I know it is dangerous to compare the two wars. But there are dead solders in a war that doesn't appear it is going to end. And I found out there is no Iraq to put back together."

"...I believe that we are arguing in America about an Iraq that doesn't really exist," he said.

He said by going to Iraq, he was simply applying the wisdom of a good Wisconsin farmer: "You learn as a farmer to know what you are talking about, otherwise you get your head handed to you. We have (more than) 60 soldiers from Wisconsin who have died there. I think it was important for me to breathe that air that so many of our people have lost their lives over."

Based on what he saw, he says reluctantly, "If victory is a solid Iraq, then I don't see them ever putting it together again."

Keith's blog is just what blogs should be: individualistic, quirky, and personal journalism. Anyone who can review southern Wisconsin Friday fish fry joints, dead sociologists, Vietnam, and parse terms like "Man-Palace" and "McNamaran-esk" (wars) deserves a prominent bookmark.  Cooldadiomedia.com is my new favorite Wisconsin blog.

-Barry Orton

Taxes and Fees: Why WMC's Arguments Are Distorted

On Sunday, in an article that puts Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC) to shame, the Wisconsin State Journal provide readers with an explanation as to why tax rates differ from one jurisdiction to another:

Each community handles taxes differently

There's more to comparing what local governments charge homeowners than a tax rate or the much-publicized tax on the mythical "average home."

Police, fire, schools, parks, streets and other pricey services are responsible for most of the bill, but increasingly, the county's 61 cities, villages and towns are collecting money in other ways - special charges and fees - making tax-bill comparisons more like aligning apples and oranges with pears, grapefruit and pumpkins.

"It's fairly difficult to compare tax bills, generally because rates can be deceiving," said Ryan Parsons, a researcher for the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance.

Garbage collection, storm water runoff, and landfill costs vary from town to town. it just reinforces the point that WMC fails to grasp: comparing taxes collected, tax rates, or tax levies without examining fees provides a distorted picture when attempting to compare the costs of government.

Quotations from Barak Rosenshine-2006

With the help of some colleagues, Barak Rosenshine, a teacher and old friend, collects memorable quotes of the year.  Some of these were uttered during the year, some are older but came to mind during the year. Some are words to be loved and cherished, others are despicable.

January, 2006

Our goal is a Christian nation. We have a biblical duty; we are

called by God to conquer this country. We don't want equal time. We don't want pluralism.
           Randall Terry, Indiana News Sentinel

The Christian goal for the world is the universal development of Biblical theocratic republics, in which every area of life is redeemed and placed under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the rule of God's Law.

           Reconstructionist theologian David Chilton

If you are not electing Christians, tried and true, under public scrutiny and pressure, if you're not electing Christians, then in essence you are going to legislate sin.
         Rep. Katherine Harris (R-FL), quoted by the Orlando Sentinel.

God loves everybody, but He hates liberals.
          Anon

If statements are made again and again in a confident manner, then their hearers will tend to believe them quite independently of their soundness and of the presence or absence of evidence for their truth.

               Thouless, R.H. (1953). Straight and crooked thinking.

London

: Pan Books.

“...if you think you know the truth without having to collect any data, that saves a lot of time”

               Stanovich, 2000

Wouldn't it be ironic if at the same time, through our initiative, we were able to establish a democracy in

Iraq

, but we were losing our basic liberties and freedoms here at home?

           Sen. Lindsey Graham, NC (R).

Circumventing Congress and established legal procedures based on the Bush administration's own interpretation of the act is hardly a hallmark of a conservative legal philosophy.
            Letter to the Editor


"You say you're supposed to be nice to the Episcopalians and the Presbyterians and the Methodists and this, that, and the other thing. Nonsense. I don't have to be nice to the spirit of the Antichrist."
         Pat Robertson, The 700 Club

"(T)he feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians."
            Pat Robertson, The

Washington

Post

"…­ a wiretap requires a court order …  When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so….constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what is necessary to protect our homeland,  because we value the Constitution.

             President George Bush, Speech in

Buffalo

,

N.Y.

, April 2004.

Every time history repeats itself, the price goes up.
        Thomas Bailey,

U.S.

historian.

If you're going to go in and try to topple Saddam Hussein, you have to go to

Baghdad

. Once you've got

Baghdad

, it's not clear what you do with it. It's not clear what kind of government you would put in place of the one that's currently there now. Is it going to be a Shia regime, a Sunni regime or a Kurdish regime?  How much credibility is that government going to have if it's set up by the

United States

military?  How long does the

United States

military have to stay to protect the people that sign on for that government, and what happens to it once we leave?
           Dick Cheney, from a speech in 1991, as reported in an article by Patrick E. Tyler, New York Times, April 13, 1991.

48 percent of Americans believe in evolution.
64 percent believe religion is under attack.
          Newsweek

February 2006

It is dangerous for a candidate to say things people might remember.
              Eugene McCarthy

Jews earn like Episcopalians and vote like Puerto Ricans.
             Milton Himmelfarb

To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.

          Theodore Roosevelt

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.                                                   

         Dwight D. Eisenhower

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.

         Bertrand Russell

Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of truth.

    Albert Einstein

Populus vult decipi; Ergo decipiatur.

People want to be deceived; therefore, let them be deceived.

            Roman saying

May, 2006.

The Bush theory of executive power gives the president the power to bypass virtually any law that infringes on any tactic he wants to pursue in the war on terror.
              Gene Healy, Cato Institute.

Happiness is an illusion; only suffering is real.

         Voltaire

June, 2006.

I am beginning to be convinced by the logic of my own argument.
            Huey Long,

Louisiana

governor and senator.

Someday

Louisiana

is going to get good government, and when they do, they ain't going to like it.
        Earl Long, Governor of

Louisiana

.

"I'm as happy as I can be - but I have been happier."

     Mile Sterjovski, soccer player

"I'd rather play in front of a full house than an empty crowd."

           Mark Viduka, soccer player

October, 2006

Nelson  Mandela was asked, "How did you forgive your jailers?"  He answered, "When I walked out of the gate of the

Robben

Island

prison I knew that if I continued to hate these people I was still in prison

Sign on a donated park bench in

Ricketts

Glen

State Park

in PA:

"Be the kind of person your dog thinks you are."

November 2006

White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen once said of catcher A.J. Pierzynski: "If you play against him, you hate him. If you play with him, you hate him a little less."

The violent chaos that followed Saddam's defeat was not a matter of not having a plan but of adhering too rigidly to the wrong one.

       Michael Gordon and Bernard Trainor, "Cobra II."

December, 2006

If you don't believe you can win, there is no point in getting out of bed at the end of the day.

         John Aloisi, soccer player.

"We must win in

Iraq

," John McCain said in

Utah

last spring. "We cannot fail. If we lose in

Iraq

, they are coming after us. We will fight them somewhere else -- like here."

Blessed are those who can give without remembering
and take without forgetting.

I was always taught to respect my elders, but it keeps getting harder to find one.

Let your neighbor's dignity be precious to you as your own.

         Rabbi Eliezer, Perkei Avot 2:10.

Thanks to Kerry Hempenstall, Dan LaBerge, Jack Thomas, Bob Stevens,  Merle Schwartz, and Tom Vickery.

Goldberg Leaves Overture: Bah Humbug

The steady and perceptive leadership of Michael Goldberg, interim director of the Overture Center for the Arts, is gone. Goldberg, with an impressive resume and management style to match, will be missed.

Overture's Interim Chief Rejects Pay Cut Resigns

Michael Goldberg has resigned from the Overture Center for the Arts, a new $205-million complex in downtown Madison that is the state's largest arts presenter...

The hiring of Carto generated a lot of outrage in the Madison arts community, with many thinking Goldberg had the proven experience and personal connections to handle the complex politics, finances and booking decisions at Overture.

This fall, even Cieslewicz -- who said he was impressed by Carto's ability to raise money -- admitted in a meeting with the editorial board of The Capital Times that he was surprised by the strength and number of the reactions against his choice. (emphasis added)

This problem emanated from the same play book as the disastrous handling of the manganese in Madison's water supply. To quote the Mayor, "out of sight, out of mind."

Any leader, mayor or CEO must know when to attend meetings and when to send aides. He must get a feel for the situation from reports, or better yet from personal observation.  This mayor's schedule reveals virtually no contact with arts community - which previously led to the the disastrous handling of the Overture refinancing a year ago.