Paul Soglin: Waxing America

Bizarre Positions Taken By Wisconsin Political Candidates (First In a Series)

This campaign season in Wisconsin should be interesting, with the open-seated Governor's race, two wealthy and never-been-elected-to-anything Republican challengers to Senator Russ Feingold, fights for control of both houses of the legislature, and "tea-party" inspired hopefuls for Congressional seats held by Democrats.

One such challenger (probably one with no chance whatsoever) is Jennifer London, running for Representative Gwen Moore's 4th District seat. As is often the case with "tea-party" folks, the candidate's website barely mentions the Republican Party, except for a link to "a great group of ladies I'm involved with," who turn out to be the Suburban Republican Women's Club. The problem for Ms. London is that the Suburban Republican Women's Club candidate page only lists Dan Sebring for the 4th. D'oh!

Bigger problems for Ms. London are her weird positions on issues. Her solution to Social Security/retirement problems: retirement savings accounts run only by private institutions "that must back all savings by gold. Yes, gold....the only sound alternative to Social Security is to protect our futures with something tangible."

OK, that's strange, but London's environmental posture is even odder: she wants to close the St. Lawrence Seaway to keep the Asian carp out of the Great Lakes.

The one area of environmental stewardship that I am passionate about is the Great Lakes. The protection of the Great Lakes is something nearly everyone can agree upon, from the avid sport fisherman to the hippie activist. I will work to strengthen protections of the Great Lakes, including introducing a bill that closes access to the Great Lakes through artificial canals, namely the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Chicago Sanitary Canal. I do not believe the legislation we currently have goes far enough to protect or ecosystem or the industries that rely on the vitality of the lakes.

...The tens of millions taxpayers must pay every year in the clean-up of our waterways and restocking fish populations that are hurt by the invasive species are not balanced by the industries that are serviced by transoceanic ships.

It is important to maintain an active shipping industry in our lakes. To remedy the obvious harm that will be done to Great Lakes ports due to the closure of the St. Lawrence Seaway, I would further propose a transit port at the point of cut-off where ocean-bound ships would transfer their loads to ships that only sail the Great Lakes. I do not believe the livelihoods of port employees need be disregarded in order to achieve a better stewardship of the Great Lakes. We can achieve a balance in the two through my plan, and the investment in a transfer facility would, in the long run, save taxpayers untold billions that we are throwing at what seems in the present to be a losing battle.

So the "transit port at the point of cut-off where ocean-bound ships would transfer their loads to ships that only sail the Great Lakes" would be where?  Canada near Montreal? Or upstate new York somewhere? Let's ask the folks who work in the Port of Milwaukee how that would work out for them.

Chances of such a plan being ever seriously considered? Zero to none. Chances of Jennifer London replacing the terrific Rep. Gwen Moore? Less than zero.

- Barry Orton (former avid sport fisherman and former hippie activist)

Cymbalta: Brilliant and Manipulative TV Commercial Hurts

There are a lot of offensive television commercials that make one push the 'off' button on the remote control, but Cymbalta may be the best.

These people are brilliant. Spend a few minutes a day watching their commercial and you cannot help but become depressed. The woman's droning voice accompanied by the images infects the happiest person with misery.

If people do not need your product, manipulate them and make sure they do.

The Cruel Irony of Earth Day: Lesson Learned, Or Not

Clearly the environment is far better off as a result of Wisconsin's Gaylord Nelson's efforts to create Earth day. Unfortunately the challenges grow with time.

Oil rig blast prompts environmental concerns

As the Coast Guard searched for 11 crew members missing after a drilling rig exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico, authorities turned their focus to controlling an oil spill that could threaten the fragile ecosystem of the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts.

The Deepwater Horizon had burned violently for nearly two days until it sank Thursday morning.

And here in Wisconsin  from the Associated Press:

Wis. renewable energy bill dies on Earth Day

As outdoor lovers celebrated Earth Day's 40th anniversary, state lawmakers pulled the plug on a bill that would have set aggressive new renewable energy standards.

The state Senate finished its two-year session Thursday without voting on the bill after Democratic leaders balked at reports that the measure would drive up utility rates. Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker, D-Weston, has signaled for days the measure had little support.

Time to Fire Ozzie Guillen, Again; Help Needed for White Sox

As my Chicago White Sox spin further into the American League Central cellar, Ozzie GUillen continues to demonstrate he is unfit to manage,

 After vigorously defending hitting coach Greg Walker, White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen took another shot at his batters Saturday as a lack of offense led to another frustrating loss

As I noted in Hating the Damn Yankees and Other Thoughtful Observations:

Nothing need be said about my Chicago White Sox other than Ozzie Guillen is the most over-rated manager in baseball and should have been fired long ago. The White Sox won the World Series despite Guillen, not because of him.

 

Wisconsin Senate Adjourns; PSC Landline Telephone Oversight Powers Remain (For Now)

This afternoon the Wisconsin Senate adjourned for the session without bringing the landline telephone deregulation bill to the floor. The opposition in the last couple of weeks by the coalition of small businesses, unions, telephony competitors, aging and consumers groups really slowed the AT&T-led effort, which was full-bore even through this morning. AT&T and the WSTA crew "flooded the zone" with lobbyists in the last days of the session.

Now the Public Service Commission can complete its own process of determining which of its telephone oversight powers should remain and what can be eliminated. And now that the mapping of existing broadband in Wisconsin is underway with the help of federal stimulus funds, would it be asking too much of the PSC to take a leadership role in creating a plan to bring the benefits of broadband to the state's rural citizens and businesses?  There's federal money on its way to help extend high-capacity fiber to schools, libraries and other public institutions via the Badgernet, but the state should be holding industry's feet to the fire to wire the farms and small towns.

The effort to strip the PSC of its landline telephone oversight powers isn't over by a long shot, either.  Lots more cash will go to campaign funds and lots more billable hours will be racked up for lobbying, even yet this year.

- Barry Orton

UW Rewards the Wisconsin Idea: Professor Emily Auerbach Wins Van Hise Outreach Teaching Award

Today my Continuing Studies colleague Professor Emily Auerbach receives the 2010 Van Hise Outreach Teaching Award from the UW-Madison.  I am honored to have been asked to introduce her at the awards ceremony. Having helped draft her nomination makes it easy to write the introduction, but Doug Moe helped me out this morning with his Wisconsin State Journal column:

Auerbach has taught in classrooms, nursing homes, libraries, prisons, on radio and through the mail. She's had a 106-year-old student. "I learned to make the hand-outs large print," she said.

Auerbach taught Edith Wharton to a woman whose mother had actually seen Wharton in the flesh. Her best discussion of Emily Dickinson's poetry, Auerbach said, came at the Oak Hill Correctional Institution.

"The prisoners saw things in the poems I hadn't seen before."

Auerbach views that Dickinson experience as epitomizing the Wisconsin Idea. It's not just about professors imparting their wisdom around the state - it's a give and take in which the professor might learn something too.

Professor Auerbach's work has been key to the success of the UW's Odyssey Project, described broadly as a "free humanities course for adults at the poverty level." The Odyssey Project is without doubt the most successful program of its type in the country.  Based on the University of Chicago’s Clemente Program, which was originally organized to introduce the “great books” of Western culture to minority adults living in poverty, the Odyssey Project goes further.  Emily Auerbach uses written materials from a far broader base, and creates a living bridge to higher education by instilling in Odyssey participants the all-important tools of critical reading and writing. So far, it's working.

Congratulations, Emily.

- Barry Orton

Telephone Deregulation Bill Cited as "Lobbyist-Written"

Today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel cites the pending Wisconsin telephone deregulation bill as the latest example of "a growing number of Wisconsin bills written by lobbyists in recent years."

From education to health care to transportation, state lawmakers are introducing bills crafted by outside interests, often without disclosing lobbyists' involvement.

...The Journal Sentinel and other news media have reported that phone industry lobbyists and lawyers were heavily involved in drafting a bill sponsored by state Sen. Jeff Plale (D-South Milwaukee) and Rep. Josh Zepnick (D-Milwaukee) that would reduce regulation of landlines.

An industry group submitted a list of laws that it wanted phone companies to be exempt from, and an AT&T attorney proposed language for a first draft of the bill, the Legislative Reference Bureau's drafting notes show.

A commenter at the Journal Sentinel story nails the reason small businesses are opposing the bill:

...for Wisconsin small businesses no telephone regulation could mean no recourse for long outages, or chronic trouble, etc...There could also be increased cost issues for once deregulated products once the company is free to charge what they would like. Especially for rural businesses where cable competition may not be a viable alternative.

We've already ranted about this probably too many times. There could be a floor (probably by unrecorded voice) vote tomorrow in the Assembly.

- Barry Orton

Earth Day Looking Into the Future : Earth Day at 40

Forty years ago Tom Smith was a University of Wisconsin student. He was also the student organizer for the first Earth Day event which kicked off on April 17, 1970 and ran for an entire week.

Today Professor Thomas W. Smith is organizing the anniversary Earth Day at Forty. It is a good thing that some things do not change.

Then, as now, Tom was kind enough to invite me to speak Tuesday at Monona Terrace. It was a heady experience sharing the dais, on the eve of Earth Day, Tuesday night April 21, 1970, with Senator Gaylord Nelson (D-WI), Senator Mike Gravel (D- Alaska), Boyd Gibbons, Secretary to U.S. Council on Environmental Quality and of course the rock band, Oz.

I made my own small effort by introducing a resolution in the city council that proposed banning the internal combustion engine. That went nowhere.

I suggested using methane as an alternative fuel. That is finally making some progress.

Our fledgling movement to create a pedestrian, bicycle, and transit mall of State street took a small step forward as the blocks between Park Street and Lake Street were shut down for fair exhibitors.

Unfortunately the issues, as learned over the past four decades, are even more challenging. The oceans rise from global warming and those oceans are filled with thousands of square miles of floating debris, mostly plastics which are gradually degrading from the effects of sun and water into the seas that feed much of the world's population.

At the time, Senator Nelson was asked who could we afford to clean up the environment. He responded by asking "How could we not afford to clean the environment?'

Today our society is divided. One side looks at the externalities. They examine the  price of contamination that entire nations pay for an unregulated environment.

The air and the water are not free. Not when the cost of obtaining clean air and water is mounting daily for most people.

For centuries, in every nation it was recognized that while a stream might run through private property the landowner had no right to poison the water that an entire community needed for survival.

It is time for modern society to conserve that principle. That is what I will say this coming Tuesday. Some things do not change.

 

F.I.B's: The Chicago Hot Dog or the Italian Beef?

Doug Moe, Wisconsin State Journal columnist and sometime low-brow epicurean, and I had the basic twenty minute lunch last week at F.I.B.'s located around the corner from the M&I Bank on the Capitol Square.

F.I.B.'s might stand for Fine Italian Beef, then again it might not.

In any case it is owned and operated by the congenial John Handley who has his own story to tell. Or maybe Doug will tell it - actually Doug tells the story today Ex-mayor has no beef with FIB’S .

I ordered the hot dog, Doug savored the Italian Beef.

Good stuff. On my persnickety grading scale the Chicago Hot Dog got a B which is an especially high mark north of Highland Park. Highlights were the luxurious hot dog, accompanied by the outstanding pickle - or 'cuke' - aged just right and with the appropriate snap as your teeth cut through it.

The bun was properly decorated with the required poppyseeds though I would prefer it steamed a bit more. The only other improvement I would recommend is French's mustard, not the harsher more common Wisconsin style. FIBS may have had a choice and I did not bother to ask. Those two improvements would take the Chicago Hot Dog into the lofty B+ category.

Moe obviously enjoyed the Italian Beef. He managed to devour it in quick order, not dripping onto his slacks, though on more than one occasion I suggested he wipe his chin.

In the meantime  Barry Orton came upon this stunner. Obviously our Waxing America editor has too much time on his hands reviewing websites that specialize in ugly tattoos. We will not pass judgment but simply provide this for your edification. Then again, it does look delicious. The hot dog.

Refighting the Civil War - It Was Treasonous, Not Romantic

When Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell declared April 'Confederate History Month' and overlooked slavery in his proclamation, a well deserved firestorm ensued. As an elementary school student I was taught that the Civil War was fought over slavery. By time I reached college, I learned about more complicated issues involving regional economics, foreign trade policy, and industrialization.

When it was all said and done, the Civil War was over slavery. No slavery, no war.

In his proclamation, McDonnell wrote that Virginians should "understand the sacrifices of the Confederate leaders, soldiers and citizens during the period of the Civil War."

Writing in the Nation, Melissa Harris-Lacewell eloquently expressed the feelings of the millions of descendants of slaves:

As I child I lived in the shadow of Monticello. As a teen I lived on Jefferson Davis Highway, and there I discovered the other Virginia history. This is the Virginia history that is etched in the stony faces of confederate traitors who line Monument Avenue in Richmond. This narrative of Virginia laments the end of slavery, romanticizes traitorous action against the state and memorializes sedition. This history is built on a false and romantic notion of an imagined Confederate past that refuses to acknowledged the ways that slavery degraded not only black labor, but white labor; how it destroyed the land; and how it starved the region of innovation.

Going back to my own youth, I found that the romantic portrayal of the ante-bellum south to be a gross distortion of the truth. As Harris-Lacewell notes, little has changed for many Americans in the past fifty years.