Paul Soglin: Waxing America

Bob Dylan Definitely Did Not Arrive On Mifflin Street

We owe Nadine Goff an incredible heartfelt thanks since she has enough time to research such weighty matters. Recall I posted The Day Bob Dylan Came to Mifflin Street

It was mid summer, I think 1969. A sign went up in front of the Mifflin Street Co-op announcing that Bob Dylan was coming on Saturday. He would play in the empty lot, gloriously renamed People's Park...The crowd faded under the hot Madison afternoon sun.

Nadine Goff, the Central High graduate who researches all things important and not, could not remain idle and so a few days ago she posted: The day Bob Dylan didn't arrive on Mifflin Street (July 4, 1969)

    ...I spend a lot of time in libraries doing research and sometimes I wander off task, diverted by some tidbit that grabs my attention...That's when I remembered Bob Dylan and Mifflin Street. Short and sweet, and lots of names that may draw visitors to my blog. Perfect. So without further blather, here's The Capital Times story about Bob Dylan's non-appearance, written by reporter Jim Hougan:

  
 

Click on picture to enlarge.

Now all we need is the elusive photograph of the sign announcing Dylan's arrival.

Why Waxing America Is An Indispensable Part of Your Day

I sat down this morning to write a fresh post for Waxing America. The dental appointment and the subsequent meeting with the accountant on taxes distracted me.

Now I see that our esteemed editor Barry Orton has published, "Blessed Christian Salt" Marketed As Alternative to Kosher Version; Insert Punchline Here.

Well done, Barry.

 

Twitter This

I am holding out and not signing up for Twitter. Enough is enough.

I started onto this entire Internet adventure in the early 1990's when I bought my first PC and signed up for CompuServe.  CompuServe was invaluable when traveling in the early 1990's, since it had the best dial-up network throughout the country. Far superior to AOL, which I never joined.

I moved on to various applications such as Yahoo, which I still launch on startup, Netscape, and Google- my favorite search engine.

I migrated from Microsoft Explorer to Firefox.

I have five yahoo emails, one hotmail, but no gmail. I have this blog, and my own domain and email for Soglin Consulting.

When social networking caught on I first used CompuServe's system and then looked at Yahoo's Profile and IM.

Enough was enough when it came to social networking.

While I ignored MySpace, I did explore youtube when my daughters' acting was recorded and posted. I was late to join Facebook and having just gotten the hang of it, joined Linkedin last week, after pestering from numerous friends.

In reviewing my evolution, I love Facebook for bringing me in touch with friends I had not spoken with in over forty years, and for knowing what they are doing now. I do appreciate the posts about the vacations, the pictures of the children and grandchildren, and the social, cultural, and political commentary.

The blog, the business website, and the one week of Linkdin did not bring a single business opportunity.

Now I see everyone is Twittering.

Well, Twitter Tweet this. No.

Madison Newspapers, All Newspapers Revisited

When I posted on the possibility of The Capital Times purchasing the Wisconsin State Journal from Lee Enterprises, Wisconsin State Journal and Lee Enterprises - Bleaker Than I Thought, it elicited more than the average number of comments.

There were important points made:

• Jon wrote:  "Most people think Internet news sources have been the cause, but that's not true. ... subscriptions was not a major profit center for newspapers...The real cause of the newspaper industry's demise is craiglist. Yes, craigslist. Turns out the most significant source of profit for newspapers was the classifieds." I firmly agree. 
• Chuck posted: "Trying to shore up newspapers in the wake of the Internet seems a bit like trying to rescue Budweiser in the wake of the microbrew revolution. Why? There are better things out there in every category, and you don't even have to look very hard to find them." I firmly disagree.
• anonymous: "The Wisconsin State Journal has a right-wing editorial page. Disagree.

• Bob Keith: "The old newspaper culture just seemed deaf to the idea their world was under rapid assault. " Yes and no. The newspapers are no worse than other industries but they have more skin in the game. And some responded better than others.

Then George Hesselberg, long-time friend and admired columnist, said:

Parts of this are inaccurate, mean, vengeful and just cranky. Happy Holidays. Your only beef is with the edit page - gee, now there's news - so you advocate closing the whole thing because of it...The more media, the better off the community.

I did have a beef with the editorial page, particularly for the hypocrisy I saw in their financial models, which did not speak kindly of the public sector or of the leveraged buyout which contributed to the financial mess in which Lee Enterprises is now immersed.

I agree, the more media the better. In fact at this juncture I want to bring in Bill Lueders' excellent article in this week's Isthmus, Will the Capital Times buy out Lee Enterprises? I strongly recommend reading it to get the best understanding of the issues. For example:

How valid are such musings? Watchdog tried to find out. But Capital Times publisher Clayton Frink refuses to discuss his paper with Isthmus, and the company's patriarch, the winsome philanthropist Jack Lussier, hung up on a polite inquiry after offering this unenlightening explanation for his reticence: "I've got my reasons."

The Lueders article is important for another reason.  It is more than a blog post; it is news . Those of us who blog are not reporters or journalists in the true sense of the word. Occasionally I do research and even interview people for what I post. Normally I share views and opinions.

That is why we need journalists and newspapers. Also see the fina article bu former Wisconsin State Journal editor, Tom Still, "Newspapers in crisis: Why their future matters for our democracy”

For reasons that range from recession to the rise of the Internet to the changing reading habits of Americans, general-circulation newspapers are caught in a survival crisis like none since the Depression...

...Most newspapers have reacted by cutting news space, newsroom staffs or both. That may be the only short-term option, particularly for publically traded newspapers worried about debt loads and the next quarterly report, but the long-term strategy should be the opposite: Deliver high-quality news and information, regardless of the medium.

That is why I am so down on Lee Enterprises. In an effort to be profitable for shareholders, they, like Zell with the Chicago Tribune, further jeopardized their core mission, bringing people news.

We do not have enough of that. The Internet delivers news provided by the real journalists. Those journalists are supported by newspapers, not the Internet. Newspapers conduct the investigations; they do the reporting.

They tell us about arms deals, contaminated wells, Senate seats for sale, and burglaries.

Wisconsin Bloggers: Individually and Collectively Inept, Inattentive, Incompetent

With one of the greatest blogging stories sitting right under their collective noses, Wisconsin bloggers sat on their collective behinds and allowed the mainstream media, the CBS Evening news with Katie Couric, to scoop them on the biggest stories of the departing year, the Shawano -SIST story of international intrigue:

Alleged Murder-For-Hire Rattles Small Town:Placid Midwest Town Turned Upside Down By Alleged Hit List And Secretive Group

All a reaction to news of an alleged hit list and claims by a so-called hit man, now telling his story for the first time.

"And I said, 'you want me to kill 60 people? You want me to kill the whole town of Shawano?" said Canadian businessman Bob Cameron.

Keteyian asked: "They were hiring you as a hit man?"

"Yes, they were," Cameron said.

"You're talking about the mayor, the city administrator, the city treasurer, the city attorney, the police chief, judges, investigators, fire commissioners," Keteyian asked.

"Uh huh," Cameron assented

Cameron says in late October he received $175,000 in wire transfers from people known to be part of a secretive group long run out of a house near Shawano called SIST.

Its is a story that could never be fabricated. The cast of characters are from the next great movie, a combined effort of the Coen Brothers and Quentin Tarantino.

The mayor (Kathy Bates) tops the list of sixty potential local victims. The Canadian hitman (Martin Short) was trying to do no more than collect some unpaid bills from the local cult when asked to wipe out half the town. The cult leader (Samuel L. Jackson in a reprise of his role of Jules in Pulp Fiction) is responsible for the investment of over $15 million in local real estate.

The real estate holdings fail and the county treasurer (Johnny Depp) is now foreclosing. The sheriff (Ben Stiller) and his deputy (Owen Wilson) manage to keep the town on edge as they tail two SIST members (Mike -Wayne-Meyers and Dana -Garth- Carvey), who prowl the city streets with a camcorder filming anyone they suspect is in cahoots with the town leaders.

SIST spokesman and attorney (Johnny Depp or should that be Robert Downey Jr.?) manages to bring some semblance of reality to the entire story claiming this was all a misunderstanding.

Sanity is maintained. The FBI agent (Brad Pitt) brings calm and peace to Shawano.(Pronounced Shawn-o as in Shauno of the Dead).

All this going on in plain view. Badger bloggers are writing about Republican committee assignments in the legislature, the performing arts, and Lake Michigan.

Phooey.

                

WMC: Wisbusiness.com Covers Changes - consensus on state business climate

Mike Schramm was kind enough to remind me that the new WMC strategy is reported in wisbusiness.com by Brian E. Clark

WMC effort looks for consensus on state business climate

With Democrats soon to control the state Assembly, as well as the Senate and governor’s office, the state’s largest business lobby is shifting gears to deal with what it calls the “new political landscape."

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, which has often been at odds with Gov. Jim Doyle, is reaching out to diverse groups -- including labor -- to develop plans to stimulate the state’s slumping economy....

Milwaukee Talk Radio

Bruce Murphy nailed it in his summary of the Milwaukee talk radio tempest, Why We Went after Talk Radio:

Conservative talk radio is a different animal entirely. Both Sykes and WISN afternoon host Mark Belling, the two top rated such hosts in town, have expressly declared they are entertainers and not journalists, and have no obligation to present both sides of an issue. Their appeal arises precisely from a lack of good will toward certain segments of the community...

Following the national format used by Limbaugh and the others dating back to the 1980's, these formerly effective mouthpieces built an audience on two bases, the extreme right wing, and undecideds who were looking for intelligent political commentary to guide their decisions.

The last four years through a variety of techniques from providing an alternative progressive radio voice to public exposure of these charlatans the base diminished.

Murphy notes, relying on Dan Shelley's original article, "Secrets of Talk Radio", that the hosts of right-wing talk radio have no intention of engaging in rational dialog.

The nice thing is that the audience for Sykes and Belling is diminishing to the point where no one listens to them, except the true believers and those of us looking for an occasional chuckle or fodder for our blogs. 

November Elections 2008: The Morning After

I woke up this morning glad to have done the radio show on WTDY last night with Sly and Bill McCoshen, a Wisconsin Republican who will, hopefully, have a lot to say about the future of his party, but disappointed that I did not attend the parties where so many of my friends celebrated last night.

I was surprised at my own emotional response to the election of Barack Obama. I was more filled with wonderment about what the next four years will bring rather than joy over his election.  Perhaps it was the projections that he was going to win that took the edge off the victory.

In any case, for the first time in my lifetime, and that includes the election of JFK in 1960, or my years as mayor when Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton were elected, I am truly excited about the future and the unknown possibilities for our nation and the world. The economy and the wars will prevent any immediate social change, but it is coming.

The engagement of so many young people of so many different colors in this election holds more hope for the future. Voting is the first level of civic engagement. With persistence and hard work, hopefully they will stay engaged by running for office themselves, getting involved in their children's' education, and voting in subsequent local and state elections.

• I missed the gathering of the supporters of the Madison school referendum which won by a large margin, putting to rest the myth that there is some kind of secret plot by the supporters of public education to place these measures on the ballot when turnout is low.
• The Democrats took control of the Wisconsin Assembly. Marc Pocan gets a big thank you for adopting a "50 state" strategy and finding great Democratic candidates in as many Assembly districts as possible.
• Perhaps the biggest local disappointment was the apparent defeat of outstanding Trish O'Neil in the 47th District. She was the victim of one of the nastiest television advertisements this election season.
• While Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) was defanged, it is evident that extreme right-wing money and energy was shifted to outside groups like  Coalition for America's Families, the Club for Growth and All Children Matter which continues to produce WMC-style attack ads.
• In Oshkosh, Gordon Hintz was returned for a second term to the Assembly's 54th district with 66% of the vote.  Keep an eye on him. Here is a legislator who is effective, principled, and a nice guy.
• The biggest Midwest disappointment was Al Franken's apparent loss to incumbent Republican Norm Coleman in the Minnesota US Senate race. Franken would have made a great senator and Coleman is an opportunistic jerk. Coleman has some serious ethical problems in casting future votes regarding the financial bailout which he supported, since AIG put $25 million into the US Chamber of Commerce over a five year period and then the right wing business group spent a hefty sum in his support.
• Best news from the left coast: As of this posting, it appears that same sex marriage survives in Californian. Barely.  Update 2:42 UGH
• Those who checked in here last night can see from my solitary post that it is too difficult to do live radio and  blog simultaneously.
• Congratulations to the high school students who got involved in the school referendum and and all of the electoral races even though they will not vote for a few more years.
• I suppose my nice introduction of Bill McCoshen, above, will get back to the social conservatives and doom him as an influential leader in fixing the Republican Party. With moderate business leaders estranged from their party, and Democrats in control of both houses of the legislature and the Governor's office, they have no place to go. Now is the time for the Democrats to reach out and form a coalition of labor, business, and education leaders to fix and fund education from kindergarten through college in Wisconsin.

Guilty pleasure I will pass on today - No right wing Milwaukee talk radio; I have too much work to do and it will be more fun spending the spare time chatting with friends.

Campaign Posters: Stealing Good Stuff - Truckin' on Down to the Polls

Dave Medaris, Isthmus,was sorting through his stuff and came up on an old Soglin for mayor campaign poster, Souvenir keeps on truckin'  - Rediscovering a vintage Soglin campaign poster

Laying eyes on it took me back to 1971, when I was 11 years old and going door to door, delivering Soglin campaign brochures on the near west side.,,The poster, with the counterculture icon Mr. Natural urging voters to RUSH RIGHT ON TO THE POLL — was aimed at UW students. It was authorized and paid for by the Students for Soglin Committee, 458 W. Gilman, Molly Berigan, treasurer. 

Actually the poster was from 1973 since that was the year we had the campaign office on West Gilman Street.

Yes, though the name is spelled differently, Molly is related to the Berrigan Brothers, Daniel and Philip, war resisters who did so much in the 1960's and 70's.

Dave Medaris contacted Molly Berigan as well as Genie Ogden who were two of six core members of both the 1971 and the successful 1973 campaigns. The others were Peggy Phillips who recently passed away, Dave Clarenbach, Dick Wagner, and Hank Lufler.

There were a few adults in 1971, mostly centered in Crestwood and led by Sophie Zermuehlen who was married to Don at the time and their neighbors. John Patrick Hunter was always lurking about, but kept his distance since he was a reporter for The Capital Times. Helen Vukelich was also deeply involved in 1971 as she was in 1973.

I digress.

The 1973 poster that Genie and the crew worked on with  Mr. Natural was a rip off from underground comic book author Robert Crumb.

But it was actually based on an earlier poster created by David Chandler in 1970 who worked with the crew at the Williamson Street print shop, Revolutions Per Minute (RPM).

Chandler used a bit more than Mr. Natural in his callous disregard of existing copyright laws.

 

The American eagle was lifted from the back of an infamous album* released a few years earlier.  That is not your father's olive branch clutched along side the American Flag.

While the 1970 poster designers for the aldermanic candidate were creative enough, the 1973 rip-off artists showed the greater moderation required of a more serious and mellow mayoral candidate.

I have fond memories of those campaigns. I am glad the others do too.

*Sorry, you have to figure it out for yourself - I am not providing any clues. Someone should be able to identify the album.

Poverty In Madison Public Schools and Adults Who Cannot Read

My post from Tuesday asserted that 48% of the children in the Madison Metropolitan Public Schools (MMSD) came from households in poverty. In fact, when data is gathered after the count is completed for this fall's enrollment, the figure may be over 50%.

Last year it was over 50% for the kindergarten class.

There are some very logical reasons why the poverty levels are so much higher than for the city as a whole:

• Wealthier households in the district are far more likely to send their children to private or parochial schools than are their poorer neighbors.
• Since the mid 1980's, new areas of the city were annexed into Madison but not the MMSD. Consequently the only areas of the city that has grown in population with middle income or higher wealth sends their kids to neighboring school districts. Example: Blackhawk.
• The largest population growth within the city has been among low income households.
• Households without children have higher incomes than households without children.
• There are significant areas surrounding Madison that send their children to the MMSD. While that includes the suburbs of Shorewood and Maple Bluff, their declining enrollments are more than offset with the significant low income households from the Town of Madison and portions of southern Fitchburg.

On another somewhat related subject, a blogger, who I will spare the embarrassment of identifying, took me to task.  The critic alleges that I think like Esenberg in that that children cannot be educated unless 'the parents were fixed.'

I admit I am guilty of believing that public programs can help improve parental involvement, which, in turn, improves student performance.

Parenthetically, Esenberg believes the parents are the problem but does not believe that public programming can improve parenting skills.

The critic says:

Ironically, Paul Soglin of Waxing America, in a way actually agrees with Rick Esenberg. The social programs he mentions are parent fixer not parent extender programs...

..While the family is an important determiner of a child’s success, schools, after school programs, and community centers also play central roles. 

While I do not expect the critic to read everything written on the subject here at Waxing America, let me provide the last sentence from the berated post:

It means spending money on education, health, and even some of the most effective social programs available - simple and logical - after school and summer recreation.*

Snark of the week: This business of commenting on the posts of others without reading the subject matter gives considerable weight to those who claim that our schools are failing, at least in the reading department.

*In numerous previous posts, I have argued that one of the ways that government can most effectively spend pubic money is on after-school and summer recreation programs and the arts, and I provided documentation of studies demonstrating the effectiveness of the programs. It is too late at night to look up the references.