Paul Soglin: Waxing America

Why It is Hard to Relocate Snow - Think of the Residue

As another snow storm blanketed Wisconsin this morning, a question came up about snow removal.  Throughout the state there are sections of street that are overwhelmed by the volume of accumulated snow.

A simple solution is to bring in the plows and trucks and haul it out to some isolated site where it can melt by June or July.

Unfortunately is is not that simple. A lot of that snow contains petroleum byproducts, heavy metals, and even shards of sharp metal and glass. Just imagine what accumulates along the curbs.  Take that out to an isolated field or a local public park and imagine what remains after the melt.

Public Parks - the dump areas would be contaminated.

Wild environs - the areas would be contaminated.

Landfills - not really.  You would never dump raw petroleum in a landfill.

Ice covered lakes - ugh

No one said life would be easy.

Do It In the Convenience of Your Own Home: Get a Pulitzer Prize Nomination!!

I was checking Wisconsin blog sites for new, smart ways of presenting Waxing America when I peered into Charlie Sykes' world. Sykes, who promotes himself as "Wisconsin blogosphere champion with his 'Sykes Writes' blog," also notes his many accomplishments.

Those include his nomination for a Pulitzer Prize.

I decided to check to see just how Charlie received his nomination since I recalled that the matter got less than significant amounts of respect when the topic was bantered about the Internet last summer, Eat Your Heart out Charlie Sykes.

Well, I failed to learn much about Charlie's nomination but I did learn a lot about the nominating process.

Anyone can do it. You can do it from home. The kids can do it from school. Organize your congregation and do a group nomination after Sunday morning services. Need a project for the scouts? A mid-afternoon activity at the nursing home? Nominate your son-in-law. Its better than naming a star after someone and it's a lot cheaper.

Bored at work reading stupid blogs? Want to suck up to the boss?

Here is the entry form for the 2008 Pulitzer Prize. Fill it in - name Charlie Sykes, your Aunt Martha, granpa Charlie, the mishpoke, or even me.

If you want to do a decent job and not embarrass yourself or your nominee, you might want to look at the Overview of Awards. and look at the criteria. But than again you are after the nomination, not the award, yourself.

In advance, here is congratulations from Waxing America.

Doug Moe Moving to State Journal

Waxing America's favorite local columnist, Doug Moe, is moving to the Wisconsin State Journal in mid-March, so he'll still be available in good old newsprint. Doug is Madison in so many ways, and always gets the Madison angle to whatever happens anywhere.  It's the single smartest move the Wisconsin State Journal could make, and it's great for Doug as well.

Mazel Tov, Doug.

- Barry Orton

Percy Julian Jr. Looked Into Your Future, Not Your Past

With the untimely death of Percy Julian Jr., the state of Wisconsin lost one of its finest citizens. I met Percy in 1966, or was it '65? The first of the anti-war protests had passed and Percy was looking out for University of Wisconsin students arrested for disorderly conduct or some similar charge.

Percy started with the assumption, no matter what the facts, that the government was trampling on at least four or five Amendments to the Constitution, starting with the First. That is not to say that Percy was impulsive or less than scholarly. By the end of 1968, the brilliant son of an equally brilliant scientist, Percy Julian Sr., was to bring the State of Wisconsin and the University of Wisconsin to thier knees with a federal case that was to set the standard for student's free speech.

As the October,1967 Dow Demonstration approached, eight of us went to see Percy, newspapers in hand. The UW administration stated under what circumstances students might be disciplined. They included assertions that advocacy of demonstrating in all of its forms could result in expulsion or at least suspension.

Percy explained to us the concept of 'prior restraint.' We were being intimidated and coerced. We were threatened with sanctions, even if we remained within the law. He would handle the case for the expenses which would run about $200 for filing fees and reproduction costs. Eventually the case would cost Percy, the State and the UW hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The next day, I returned to his office east of the square with $25. Percy said, "That does it, the case will be Soglin v. Kauffman."* When I asked, "Why?" he replied, "You are the first one to show up with any  money."

The case was originally heard by federal Judge James Doyle, and ultimately, after the state of Wisconsin appealed, a three judge panel affirmed Doyle's ruling on October 24, 1969:

Administrative sanctions as harsh as those available to the University in this case, as well as criminal statutes, serve to chill the exercise of free speech...

...We only hold that expulsion and prolonged suspension may not be imposed on students by a university simply on the basis of allegations of'misconduct' without reference to any preexisting rule which supplies an adequate guide. The possibility of the sweeping application of standard of 'misconduct' to protected activities does not comport with the guarantees of the first and the Fourteenth Amendment.

I was to see Percy on the afternoon of October 18, 1967, two hours after I had been beaten in the Commerce Building, and about the time the last of the tear gas drifted from Bascom Hill. I was yelling at the hastily retreating Joseph Kaufman. The sight of the dean who had mismanaged the entire affair, and of our lawyer, who had only begun to work on our case was too much.

I began to cry. It was Percy who would recount this in his own description the day's events.

In the days that followed Percy was the target of every powerful politician in the state. My girlfriend was a waitress at, of all places, the Madison Club. At the time the Madison Club only reluctantly admitted Jews and no blacks need apply (The world has changed - I had a meeting there yesterday and again this morning.).

Several times that following week she had stories about how all of the Republicans and many of the Democrats in the legislature were out to get Percy. They wanted to see when he was making phone calls from State Capitol hearing rooms - was he making long distance calls and not paying for them?

They wanted get him disbarred from the legal profession.  There was no end to their small but active imaginations.

Over the years Percy and I would discuss politics, humanity, Madison. I once observed that so many people, many with few or little resources sought him out. He replied, "I look at their future, not their past."

For more on the Dow Demonstration see David Maraniss's They Marched Into Sunlight.

*Our attorneys: Percy L. Julian Jr, Michael Reiter, both of Madison,  William M. Kunstler and Arthur Kinoy of New York, Marc Stickgold, Detroit, and Dennis Roberts and Harriet Van Tassel, Newark N.J.  Mike Reiter was a law student when this all began. Before it was over he was a member of the Wisconsin Bar.

WMC Fouls the Air, Attempts to Drown Great Lakes Compact

While it attempts to buy the Supreme Court, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC) is busy drowning the proposed Great Lakes Compact, ratified by every Great Lakes state except Wisconsin three other Great Lakes states and the houses of several others.* In the Badger state, it was adopted by the Senate and is dying in the Republican-controlled Assembly, which often acts like a wholly-owned subsidiary of WMC.

Meantime, as the DNR gives us air quality alerts, WMC wants to roll back air quality standards.

Jim Rowen at The Political Environment has been on this for years. His latest post once again brings it together.  Bookmark for sure.

Statewide Air Quality Alert Extended All Day: Does The Pro-Pollution WMC Have A Solution

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has extended its weekend statewide air quality alert through this evening, which means when it rains and snows later today, that's toxic precipitation landing on your yard and poisonous particulate matter in the air that is burying itself into your lungs...

...You will recall that the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the state's leading business lobby, last year advocated rolling back air quality standards for southeastern Wisconsin, home to most of the state's polluting industry and vehicle traffic...

...You could also ask them why the organization is suggesting that the GOP-led state Assembly derail the Great Lakes Compact, too - - exposing the Great Lakes to whimsical and damaging exploitation through diversions without standards or controls

*Thank you Andy.

Margaret Farrow Tramples Constitution on Behalf of Gableman. Candidate Silent.

Margaret Farrow who introduces herself, "as a former Republican Lt. Governor and member of the Wisconsin State Legislature," wrote a fund raising letter on February 1, 2008 on behalf of Mike Gableman who is challenging distinguished jurist, Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler.

Farrow, who wants to "bring law and order back to the Supreme Court," asserts:

When it comes to Louis Butler's record on crime, he has voted to give criminals more rights.

• Louis Butler voted against allowing bloody clothing to be used as key evidence in a murder case. (State v. Knapp)

That statement is legally incorrect, it is misleading, and it is an affront to our heritage.

What Gableman and Farrow ignore is that our criminal justice system starts with a very simple premise. It is what separates us from the Chinese, the Iranians, and the North Koreans.

Every defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

The rights in question are those of all citizens, not criminals.  These are the rights of defendants in criminal cases.

Tragically as we have learned over the years, many people are wrongfully charged, and there are others who were convicted who were innocent. Some of them are your friends, neighbors, and family.

This is the kind if incendiary rhetoric we can expect from the opponents of Louis Butler in the coming month. This what you can expect in television ads from special interest groups who do not disclose the source of their money. This is what you can expect from organizations that take significant sums of money from out-of-state interests who refuse to reveal their identities.

In the meantime, the Gableman cabal assumes you are a criminal if you stand beside the United States Constitution.

This is the same Gableman who signed the following clean campaign pledge, which he authored:

Publicly repudiate dishonest negative ads made by independent groups against our opponent.

I guess the pledge does not apply to any dishonesty authored by the candidate's own organization.

And none of this addresses the Farrow-Gableman assertion that a Butler decision, "...provided the deciding vote to overturn a sexual predator decision by a circuit court, resulting in the release of the predator into Milwaukee County.”

The predator was never released.

Go figure what will come next from candidate Gableman who claims to be committed to honesty and fairness.

Whining About Bloated Government: Wisconsin Style

This weekend I came across the opinions of State Senator Ted Kanavas (R-Brookfield) in the Waukesha Freeman.

Kanavas concludes, Short budget means governor must cut spending, resist urge to raise taxes with this gem:

...Wisconsin cannot support the bloated state bureaucracy he envisions for our state. Cutting spending and promoting our economy can increase revenues and solve budget problems without increasing our already out of control tax

It is time that Kanavas showed the bloat.

Right-wing ideologues have fed this drivel to the media and the public for years without any documentation or substance. Like any organization, public or private, there are going to be some mistakes, there will be errors, but these vast generalizations go undocumented.

Let's start with aids to municipalities and watch the elimination of 'bloat' impact law enforcement, fire protection, and street maintenance.  Perhaps Kanavas should start with Veterans Affairs or the State Department of Transportation. Education is expensive - tell us which schools to close.

The problem with these ideologues is that they are wrong on two accounts; two faulty assumptions  that are more important than the 'bloat.'

First, they offer no solutions to improve the quality of government.  I am not talking about the meat cleaver approach, but the thoughtful quality transformation that is proven successful in the private sector.

Secondly they rant about taxes. The collection of revenues for state and local government in Wisconsin is reasonable. Very reasonable. We are in the middle of the fifty states and the quality of service is certainly above average.

The problem is how we collect the taxes. We place too much of the burden on the property tax payer - the middle income household. Kanavas will never fix that. It means taxing his buddies.

Dave Zweifel Peers Into Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce

As the Supreme Court election in April nears, more and more questions are raised about the role of Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC) in that race.

We all know that WMC is set upon pouring between $2 and $4 million into the effort of challenger Michael Gableman to defeat distinguished jurist Louis Butler.

WMC is just one of many organizations that is going to purchase issue ads on television. But there is a difference among those groups.

Dave Zweifel writes in The Capital Times today, Shining the Spotlight on WMC

Everyone knows that when WEAC, the teachers union, buys attack ads, the money comes from individual state teachers who contribute to its campaign chest...

But who is behind the massive WMC war chest? No one knows for sure and it isn't telling. The result is that some of the state's biggest business and corporate names can conveniently hide their names... Or does all this money come from some other mysterious sources?

There are rumors that some of the money comes from large corporations like Wal-mart, or the United States Chamber of Commerce, or organizations like The Institute for Legal Reform, a front for the US Chamber. There is no way of knowing for sure since WMC will not disclose even the smallest details such as how much of the money they spend comes from out-of-state sources.

The Capital Times is not alone:

• The Wausau Daily Herald: Our Legal System Shouldn't be for Sale:...the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign's calculations, almost $6 million was spent -- most of it by special interest groups, and $2.2 million of it by one group alone. Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, which represents businesses and chambers of commerce, buried television stations with that much cash...

Isthmus: CUNA Mutual Land Deal Debated. UW Screwed?

In the early 1980's, faced with the threat that an expanding CUNA Mutual could leave the city of Madison, civic, political, university, and business leaders gathered. It was decided that the University of Wisconsin Research Park would sell 60 acres to CUNA Mutual for the company's expansion.

With new technology, downsizing, and outsourcing, CUNA Mutual no longer needs the land for expansion.  The UW Research Park is bursting and the UW would like the land back and is willing to pay. Now CUNA Mutual plans to develop the land as housing and a shopping mall.

From Isthmus, Madison's weekly newspaper,

CUNA Mutual plans draw flak: Company to develop land provided for expansion

CUNA Mutual Group is planning a major mixed-use project on and around its west-side Madison campus, reopening old wounds over how some of this land was acquired...

..."Back in the early 1980s," he says, "the entire community — the city of Madison and the university — did the right thing to help CUNA Mutual, thinking of the greater good. Now that the university would like the land back, CUNA Mutual is only looking at one thing: how it can maximize the value of that land to CUNA Mutual. There is no consideration for the larger community."...

Two relevant points:

• While CUNA Mutual and the University of Wisconsin do plan a swap of land, that is not the first choice of the UW, or the choice that is in the best interest of the greater community.
• CUNA Mutual's Rick Uhlmann makes the point that

...the company's land buys in the early 1980s provided critical "seed money" to the research park. It (CUNA Mutual) acquired the land "not just for expansion" but also as an investment...

Ullmann must think that you and I are the dimmest rubes since the Russians sold Alaska. The UW only sold the property because of the threat of CUNA Mutual leaving. The so called 'seed money' may have helped in the early years, but it was not necessary or desired. Otherwise the UW would have sold acreage at public auction and raised some real money.

Of course the UW never intended to sell the property in question to CUNA Mutual or anyone else for 'investment' purposes.

CUNA Mutual owns the land. They paid fair dollar for it, though they never had to compete in the open market to pay for the purchase of public  property - they got a deal.

CUNA Mutual has every right, within the law and the zoning codes, to do with that property as they see fit. But their handling of this matter makes it clear that they do not approach this issue with the same civic concern that led them to its ownership.

Disclosure: I am a paid consultant working with OPEIU Local 39 which represents the organized employees at CUNA Mutual.

Wisconsin Highway Report on I 90 Stranded: Whaddawedonow?

The real test of an organization is how it responds to failure and corrects it. The recent problems associated with the 14 hour back up on Interstate 90-39 presents an opportunity to the State of Wisconsin, Governor Doyle, and all of the agencies involved. The Department of Transportation and the Wisconsin National Guard can now engage in real improvement.

First things first. The report must be welcomed with sincerity and without recrimination. When improvement is need, the full cooperation of all the participants is needed.  They must feel free to speak frankly and truthfully without worrying about negative consequences or retaliation. We must support their effort to make things better.

As anyone familiar with a quality transformation of an organization knows, the first task is to drive out fear.

The Capital Times lead was simple and straightforward, Doyle apologizes to motorists stranded on highway:

Gov. Jim Doyle says he is now ready to apologize to the motorists who got stranded in a 2,000-vehicle interstate traffic jam during a Feb. 6 blizzard.

"Many people through just some bad decisions ended up on that road who didn't have to," Doyle said an a news conference today. "It's very clear this could have been handled much better."

That is what is needed and expected. There is no need for a totalitarian 'off with their heads' approach unless there was gross misfeasance.

Now the various state agencies must move forward with a spirit of cooperation, without concern for rank, status or power and fix a broken system. It is likely that some young trooper who was on the scene can contribute as much if not more than a twenty year veteran who viewed the problem from afar. It is likely that some young geek with the knowledge of the best communication systems can contribute as much as a division head.

With all of the clamor about the phony 'tax hell' and downsizing government, this is the real challenge. We must improve the quality of government services in a positive, systematic manner.

We have the report but not the fix. They should now go for it.