Paul Soglin: Waxing America

Rachael To Appear Monday in "The United States of Tara"

Rachael will make a guest appearance as a waitress in "The United States of Tara" starring Toni Collette Monday night at 9:30 PM, central time, on Showtime. Doug Moe writes in today's Wisconsin State Journal

Soglin Hits Her Stride in LA

The bug bit her early, in any case. In 1996, the State Journal reported on Soglin “stealing the end-of-the-year talent show at Randall Elementary School” with a rendition of “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.”

Soon she was acting, too — embracing it all from the start. “I loved everything about it,” she said. “The singing, the dancing, the costumes.”

Nancy Thurow at CTM helped her with technique, and in February 2001, Soglin was cast as one of two leads in CTM’s production of “The Good Times Are Killing Me,” Lynda Barry’s intense tale of race relations in the 1960s. The reviews were ecstatic. “That was a really big show for me,” Soglin said.

Not every child who gets the opportunity to perform in school plays and community theater will go on to a professional career. but as West High teacher Rebecca Jallings said when she wrote Rachael's college recommendations, school drama programs provide every child with an appreciation of the arts. They may not always become professionals, but they will purchase tickets and support the arts.

The arts, all of them, help us mature and appreciate ourselves and our community. We learn to express ourselves and we find the arts stimulating, exciting, and awakening.

Governor Walker, tear down that wall and let our children reach their dreams.

Rose Bowl No Longer On "Free" TV

If you don't have cable, and you don't have a dish, and you don't have decent internet service, and you want to watch Badgers and Horned Frogs tussle in the Rose Bowl for the possibility of being named the third-best football-playing institution conferring batchelor's degrees in the USA, you need to make plans to visit a friend with the right connections or a neighborhood bar with cable. The game isn't on ABC any more.

Deb Ziff of the Wisconsin State Journal found someone who thinks this is just not fair:

"I just thought it was very, very cruel," said Carol Gefke, of Oregon, who works with elderly people, some of whom do not have cable. "It's taking a privilege away from them."

This was news back in 2009:

The Rose Bowl game will move from network television to ESPN for the 2011 game, joining the rest of the BCS on the network.

The 2010 Rose Bowl and BCS National Championship Game -- both in Pasadena, Calif., at the end of the upcoming season -- will be on ABC.

"Having all BCS matchups on one home, especially within ESPN's year-round college football environment, is the very best scenario," ESPN executive vice president of programming and acquisitions John Wildhack said. "Fans will welcome ESPN's all-encompassing approach, and the additional opportunities and value resulting from our multi-platform presentation will benefit the college football community and our business partners."

(Bolding mine.)

Translation of the above: ESPN and the BCS athletic departments, which includes UW-Madison, make more money than if the game was on ABC.

My cynical take: Any fan who bleeds Badger Red should be delighted to pay extra for cable or dish service knowing that it helps Bucky and Barry's teams prosper. It's much the same concept as access to certain football and basketball tickets requiring an additional donation.  And we all know that tickets are never free.

Go Badgers.

(Rev. Lovejoy of The Simpsons claims a degree from TCU.)

- Barry Orton

Westlake: Ron Johnson Evades Questions - "That's Just Plain Dangerous For Wisconsin"

Last week's shot at Fortunate Son-In-Law Ron Johnson by Republican ex-candidate T. Wall was pretty harsh:

...I realize that Johnson says he'd spend every penny of his fortune to win, but what that really means is the voters have a candidate who wants it too bad. That's someone who wants desperately to be Senator rather than doing it for the right reasons. Is this the kind of Senator we want?

Now Dave Westlake, still in the GOP primary, has gotten frustrated with Johnson's evasion of any debate or questioning and kicks it up a notch:

In any hiring situation, an applicant who submits a resume but refuses outright to show up to a job interview is immediately disqualified. Yet that’s the kind of disdain for voters we’re seeing here. My opponent has an established pattern of avoiding venues in which he might have to deviate from set talking point. He’s repeatedly refused to debate, and he’s canceled numerous sessions with groups who want to ask him hard, substantive questions.

...You can’t have it both ways. You can’t credibly tell voters that you’re submitting to an interview process while repeatedly refusing to show up to the interview. From day one of this campaign, I’ve actively engaged in the interview process with Wisconsinites. I’ve listened to concerns and answered tough questions from one end of this state to the other. I’ve been thoroughly vetted in numerous settings, and I’ve offered to debate. My opponent simply cannot make the same claim. He’s demonstrating a regrettable willingness to shortchange voters—and that’s just plain dangerous for Wisconsin.

The latest: after the story about Johnson's company benefiting from a federal grant to build a rail spur to the plant broke last week, the company's website just revised its corporate history to better mesh with the claims and denials from the campaign, but some parts of the history still aren't consistent.

Considering sunspots, Great Lakes oil drilling, "self-made," "entrepreneur who built a company," and "never lobbied for a government payment," consistency with the facts just isn't Johnson's strong suit. Maybe a few thousand more repetitions of his slick TV and radio ads will do the trick.

- Barry Orton

Save Madison's City Channel!

Rookie Wisconsin State Journal columnist Chris Rickert hit a home run Wednesday with this column on the Madison City Channel. Facing a severe shortfall due to the phasing out of dedicated funding from cable television providers by the state's wrong-headed 2007 "cable competition bill,"  the City Channel could find its staff and resources severely diminished in next year's Madison budget. (Disclosure: for the last six months, I served on the Madison City Channel Ad Hoc Advisory Committee, which explored ways to address the shortfall, and recommended ways to mitigate its impacts.)

Rickert:

...paying attention to local government is kind of like voting. There's no valid argument for not doing it, but that doesn't mean people always do.

I have some confidence that Madisonians are a more civic-minded lot. Prove me right and show the City Channel some love: Tell your alderperson to fund it.

Coincidentally, Brenda Konkel posted a teaser yesterday on what she would do if she were mayor. She's not running (yet), but allowed how it was "likely only to happen if I just get mad enough to do it."  Of the 101 things she listed, number 67 was:

City Channel and WYOU would be supported at reasonable levels and explore a media center concept or other collaborations between Community, School and Government television stations.

This collaboration was a possibility that was outlined in the Ad Hoc Advisory Committee's report and makes good sense to pursue. The City Channel, WYOU and the MMSD's channel (MMSD-TV) perform valuable public services, and every possibility to help all three survive should be explored.

- Barry Orton

Don Borchert: Pioneer Broadcast Engineer, Educator, and Antenna Visionary

When reporter Barry Adams of the Wisconsin State Journal and and photographer Mike DeVries of the Cap Times did a great piece on the Madison Community Tower last month, one thing was missing: mention of Don Borchert, longtime Wisconsin Public Broadcasting chief engineer, and the man who conceived and oversaw development of the 1,423-foot antenna cluster on the far west side. The Community Tower, which is owned and operated by the UW, is known in the industry as a "candelabra" and allows multiple users (4 TV stations, several radio stations and others) to share space on a single tower instead of each operating a separate large antenna tower.  The resulting visual pollution and land use impact reductions can never be measured, and the Madison community owes Don Borchert many thanks.

Don's other major contributions can be more easily enumerated: the thousands of fellow TV and radio engineers he helped educate with over twenty years of Broadcasters' Clinic, an annual conference/trade show he ran (I served as his UW faculty factotum) for Midwest members of the Society of Broadcast Engineers, and the growth of Wisconsin Public Broadcasting to the robust statewide system we enjoy today.

When I first worked with Don on Broadcasters' Clinic in 1980, he asked me if I had ever heard of an antenna candelabra.  Luckily, the previous year I had proposed building two of them to make TV news coverage of New Jersey easier for New York and Philadelphia stations, so I was able to pass Don's muster. Subsequently, he taught me a lot about how to run a conference, build a loyal cadre of professional colleagues, treat exhibitors, and manage people.

Don Borchert died on August 3rd, at 83. His obituary is here.  A celebration of his life will be held this afternoon at the Esquire Club at 4 pm.  May his memory be for a blessing to his family and friends.

- Barry Orton

Super Bowl Ads for Ten Year Olds

Charles Barkley needs a brand new bag and Danica Patrick should not quit her day job.

I saw about three quarters of the Super Bowl which means I probably saw about three quarters of the ads. I believe it was the third Super Bowl I watched in the past fifteen years.

Come on, what gives? These ads were written by thirteen year olds for ten year olds. The humor was non-existent, the originality sucked and the weak and boring special effects were overshadowed by the horrible scripts.

If she wanted to, Betty White could single-handed put Doritos, Coke, Kia, Go Daddy and the rest of them out of business in less than one football season.

I hope the estate of Dr. Suess sues both Taco Bell and Barkley.

Chicago Cubs Desecrate Memory of Loyal Fans, World War II Veterans

The letter was sent to my brother Ari: It said that the brick purchased in memory of our late father Albert and his brother Seymour was moved:

Dear Mr. Soglin:

...from the Gabby Hartnett section to the Jack Brickhouse section ...due to the addition of the Captain Morgan Club...

Dad and his younger brother were veterans. Dad was in the Signal Corps during World War II and his kid brother was sent to Europe after the invasion of Normandy. Uncle Seymour participated in the occupation of Germany and as soon as Europe was secure, was shipped to the Pacific Theater to participate in the occupation of Japan in the late summer of 1945.

They were both diehard Cub fans. They saw all of the great Cubs of the 1930's, and all of the mediocre Cubs who played alongside of Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Ron Santo and Lou Brock from the 1950's until their deaths in the 1970's.

Dad's only regret was that I became a White Sox fan. When my cousin Maddie married, the wedding was preceded with about 30 of us going to a Cub game at Wrigley Field. A few years earlier when my brother Jono married in Boulder, the wedding was scheduled to coincide with a Rockies game.

When the Cubs offered fans the opportunity to obtain memorial bricks, my four siblings and our four cousins thought it fitting to purchase one for the two brothers to spend eternity in Wrigley Field.

It was meant to be an honor, not a punishment.

The Gabby Harnett section was most appropriate. He was a Hall of Fame catcher who played for the Cubs from 1922 through 1940. He appeared in six All-Star Games and was the MVP in 1935, the year Dad turned 16.

Dad would turn on WGN-TV and watch the Cub games with the volume turned down. Next to him would be the radio tuned to WGN radio, 720 on the dial, and he would listen to the play-by-play with Lou Boudreau, who started  doing the color commentary in 1958. Dad considered Boudreau one of the most knowledgeable men in the world of baseball. After all, as a player-manager, Lou led the Cleveland Indians to a World Series triumph in 1942 at the age of 24.

Boudreau worked with a number of baseball announcers, also skilled, primarily Vince Llyod and Jack Quinlan, who could call a game with the best of them.

Dad had no respect for Jack Brickhouse. Brickhouse was overrated. In Dad's terms, "a fool and an idiot," all in the same breath.

Relocate the brick, if not back to the Gabby Harnett section, at least to the "Miskus to Smalley to Addison Street section" or the "College of Coaches section.

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.

                

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.