Thank You Howard Zinn

When I think of all the people who have influenced my politics, civic life, and approach to teaching, the late Howard Zinn is near the top of the list.

Lots of obits and tributes can be found on Zinn's site.

I attended some great schools over the years (Archbishop Molloy High School, St. John's University, Central Michigan University, Wayne State University), and was lucky to learn from some fabulous teachers, yet I never remember Zinn's name coming up even once; not even in history classes.

My serious introduction to Zinn came around 1990. On a road trip back to Oshkosh from Brooklyn, I decided to stop in Erie, PA to visit good friends Tim and Dee Thompson. Leaving their place, I put public radio on. The station was playing a talk called "Second Thoughts on the First Amendment" by someone named Howard Zinn. I was so impressed by the talk that as the station signal began to fade I pulled into some fast food parking lot just to be able to continue listening.

When I returned to Oshkosh I went to UWO's Polk Library and scooped up everything by Zinn that I could find. Eventually I would make Zinn's A Peoples' History of the United States required reading in my History of American Public Address course.

One experience I will never forget was Zinn's visit to Oshkosh a few years ago. I had the chance to interview him for the "Commentary" television show, introduce him to the audience for his Reeve Union talk, and talk to him privately for a bit. He was a "gentleman" in the best sense: interested in others, radiant smile, brilliant without making others feel lesser than; I remember thinking "I wish I could have taken a class from this guy."

Because Zinn took pacifist views on issues of war and peace, it was easy to forget that he was a World War II fighter pilot. One of my favorite Zinn writings is his "Dissent at the War Memorial." Excerpt:

"I'm here to honor the two guys who were my closest buddies in the Air Corps--Joe Perry and Ed Plotkin, both of whom were killed in the last weeks of the war. And to honor all the others who died in that war. But I'm not here to honor war itself. I'm not here to honor the men in Washington who send the young to war. I'm certainly not here to honor those in authority who are now waging an immoral war in Iraq."

I went on: "World War II is not simply and purely a 'good war.' It was accompanied by too many atrocities on our side--too many bombings of civilian populations. There were too many betrayals of the principles for which the war was supposed to have been fought.

"Yes, World War II had a strong moral aspect to it--the defeat of fascism. But I deeply resent the way the so-called good war has been used to cast its glow over all the immoral wars we have fought in the past fifty years: in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Grenada, Panama, Iraq, Afghanistan. I certainly don't want our government to use the triumphal excitement surrounding World War II to cover up the horrors now taking place in Iraq.

"I don't want to honor military heroism--that conceals too much death and suffering. I want to honor those who all these years have opposed the horror of war."

Former City Manager Was Not Fired

One of Gannett's questions to this year's common council candidates starts off with "When the Council fired the former city manager . . ."

For the record, the Council did not fire the former city manager. He retired. Yes, his retirement followed much public, press, and council scrutiny of his performance, but it's simply not accurate to say that he was fired.

Review of Going Rogue

Over 40 people showed up at the Appleton Public Library last night to discuss Sarah Palin's Going Rogue: An American Life. After Brian Farmer and I spoke for about 15 minutes each, there was some very thoughtful commentary and discussion.

I spoke extemporaneously about Palin's book. Here's a summary of what I said:

1. The book's 6 chapters are not a VP campaign memoir.

• Chapter 1, "The Last Frontier," is mostly early biography and Alaska history.

• Chapter 2, "Kitchen-Table Politics," is about Palin's years as a city councilor and then mayor of Wasilla, Alaska.

• Chapter 3, "Drill, Baby, Drill" is about Palin's gubernatorial campaign and what she sees as her accomplishments in that office.

• Chapter 4, "Going Rogue," deals with the trials and tribulations of the VP campaign.

• Chapter 5, "The Thumpin'," is about what Palin perceives as unfair press and leftist attacks on her that led to her decision to resign as Alaska governor.

• Chapter 6, "The Way Forward," presents Palin's general political beliefs; what she calls "Commonsense Conservatism.

2. Even though I am mostly critical of Palin and her book, there's much in it that I find appealing.

• As an elected member of the Oshkosh City Council, I find Palin's description of local government political dynamics to be insightful and accurate.

• The section of the book dealing with her discovery that her son would be born with Down's Syndrome is enough to move even the most strident Palin haters to tears.

• I like the fact that Palin writes admiringly about Matthew Scully, a former speechwriter for Bush #43 who has written an excellent book establishing respect for animals as a conservative principle. (Palin says of him: "A political conservative, he is a bunny-hugging vegan and gentle, green soul who I think would throw himself in the path of a semitruck to save a squirrel."). [Note: I interviewed Matthew Scully for Radio Commentary several years ago. That interview can be found here.]

• I like the notion of the "rogue" politician; someone who isn't predictable and doesn't always follow the party line.

3. I believe the purpose of this book was/is to restore Palin's credibility; a credibility badly damaged as a result of the VP campaign.

• She wants the book to help make people comfortable not only in voting for her, but in listening to her as serious voice on national policy issues.

• The Greek philosopher Aristotle (see paragraph 3) said that restoring or establishing credibility is essentially a matter of an audience perceiving a rhetor as intelligent, of good moral character, and of goodwill.
  

4. For four major reasons, I don't believe the book succeeds in raising Palin's credibility.

• First, in the book one finds a pattern of resignation and withdrawal when the heat gets too hot. Resigning as governor is the obvious example, but she also writes about resigning from her position with the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission when she could not get governor Frank Murkowski to act in a way she saw fit. Palin's resignations may or may not have been the proper course of action, but she seems to have difficulty imaging other ways of resolving intense political conflicts. She concludes that to be governor in the face of a mountain of investigations, much of it frivolous, you "either have to be rich or corrupt." Are those really the only choices?

• Second, the book features much petty defensiveness. She complains incessantly about a left bias in the media, and goes to length to take shots at Katie Couric. But her defensive complaints are not only about media; she complains about the way her family was treated by higher ups in the McCain campaign, about being "forced" to wear expensive clothing, and about not being able to deliver a speech on the night of the general election. She even includes a bizarre story about McCain campaign manager Steve Schmidt interrupting her during her prep for the debate with Joe Biden to say that the campaign would be flying in a nutritionist (who never arrived) because of a concern that a high protein/not enough carbs diet was leading to some mental lapses. You read these complaints and cannot help but say, "isn't it time to move on from this nonsense?"

• Third, when it comes to political discourse Palin is still mostly stuck on the low road. She does not regret the "palling around with terrorists" remark about Obama, and without a shred of evidence suggests that his performance as president proves that the comment was appropriate. (Low road politics have been her MO outside of the book; politifact.com--a nonpartisan, Pulitzer Prize winning outfit--called her "death panel" assertions the "lie of the year.")

• Fourth, there does seem to be quite a bit of "culture war," red-state posturing in the book. She tells us, for example, that after she resigned from the Alaska Gas Commission and wondered what to do next she thought of a passage from Jeremiah 29: 11-13. Much of that kind of thing can be found in the book; kind of like an attempt to out-Huckabee Mike Huckabee for the red state vote. In fairness to Palin, she's hardly the first politician to pander in a memoir.

5. Has the book made Palin a credible figure outside of a segment of the Republican Party? No.

• In November, during the special election to fill New York's 23rd congressional district seat, Palin overtly endorsed the conservative independent Doug Hoffman over the Republican nominee who she thought too liberal. Bill Owens ended up being the first Democrat elected to represent that part of New York since the mid-19th century.

• Scott Brown's historic upset in the special election to fill Ted Kennedy's former seat in Massachusetts was accomplished without help from Palin. Indeed, the Brown campaign studiously distanced itself from Palin.

6. Can Sarah Palin be elected president in 2012?

• I can envision a scenario where she enters the Republican primaries and battles with Mike Huckabee for the red state conservative vote.

• I think John McCain's former campaign manager Steve Schmidt has the right angle on Palin:

"She is someone who has a passionate base that constitutes millions of Americans. But in the year since the election has ended, she has done nothing to expand her appeal beyond that base into the middle of the electorate, where elections are decided. In fact, were she to be the nominee we could have a catastrophic election."

Discussion of Palin Book at APL Wednesday Night

Political activist Brian Farmer and I will be leading a discussion of Sarah Palin's Going Rogue tomorrow (Wednesday) evening from 6:30 - 7:30 p.m. at the Appleton Public Library (225 N. Oneida St.). The event is free.

Deer Cull: Firearms Were Discharged Illegally

Because neither the public at-large, the press, nor the city council were warned of the imminence of a deer cull, no one was in a position to make sure the procedure was done to the letter of the law. We are all in the unfortunate position of having to ask questions after the fact. As an example of the kind of mishaps that result when government intentionally chooses to implement its actions secretively, today the city attorney confirmed for me that the sharpshooting did in fact occur in violation of the city code that prohibits the discharge of firearms within the city of Oshkosh. Some background:

On January 13, 2009, the city council passed ordinance 09-12, "Approval of variance to deer feeding ban and firearm discharge ordinances/culling of urban deer/Osborn Ave. area." The ordinance specified that the granting of a variance to allow for the discharge or firearms would be for the time period from January 14, 2009 through April 1, 2009. Thus, when Urban Wildlife Specialists discharged firearms in late December, they did so illegally.

That the council had passed ordinance 09-12 occurred to me last night when I went over my notes relating to the deer cull issue. I immediately emailed city attorney Lorenson to ask if the council had renewed the ordinance, since I had no recollection of us having done so. Here is her response:

"I checked and I do not believe that the variance was ever renewed. As a practical matter we would not pursue citations in this instance for violations of this ordinance though; as the individuals that would be cited under the ordinance are the persons who discharged the weapons, and in this case they did so at the City's direction."

The most charitable explanation of the situation is that it was a bureaucratic mishap; the city manager, attorney, and chief of police somehow forgot that the variance had expired. If that is in fact what happened, it reinforces why it's so important to have a council and press ready to serve a watchdog role. (Unfortunately the secrecy did not allow the council or the press to serve that role.).

Someone less charitably inclined might suspect that the failure to renew the variance was done willfully. To renew the variance would have meant, for one thing, that the city council would have had the opportunity to deliberate about it. Unlike last year, when only I spoke in opposition, this time the deliberation would have included the voice of Bob Poeschl. Mr. Poeschl openly opposed the deer cull during his campaign, and I believe he received one of his highest vote totals in the ward affected by the culling. No doubt citizens pro and con would have came to the council to speak on the issue.

More important, if we had had the opportunity to deliberate about the variance and if the public had had the opportunity to comment, we would no doubt have insisted that firearms not be discharged without public notification.

Regardless of how one feels about deer culling (or fire trucks and pump stations), I hope we can all agree that a city manager ought not have the power to direct an organization or individual to discharge firearms in violation of city codes. Giving a local executive that kind of power is more in line with the old Soviet Union than the US Constitution.

Lamb Not Sheepish About Transparency

The C-Span icon wants the congressional Democrats and president Obama to hold true to their pledge of maximum transparency in health care deliberations. See Lamb's letter here. Money quote:

"President Obama, Senate and House leaders, many of your rank and file members, and the nation's editorial pages have all talked about the value of transparent discussions on reforming the nation's health care system. Now that the process moves to the critical stage of reconciliation through the Chambers, we respectfully request that you allow the public full access, through television, to legislation that will affect the lives of every single American."

So Much For Transparency

All members of the City Council received this notice today from city manager Rohloff: "Chief Greuel reported to me that Urban Wildlife Specialists harvested nine deer in the Armory area last week. This was done prior to the expiration of their contract on December 31, 2009."

There was no public announcement that the culling was to take place, and to my knowledge no member of the council was apprised in advance.

So much for government transparency.

I've asked to have this situation placed on the agenda for the January 12 meeting.

Censored In 2009, Part I

The following Media Rants column will appear in the January, 2010 edition of The SCENE.--TP

Censored in 2009, Part I

Media Rants

By

Tony Palmeri

Annually since 1976, Project Censored has identified news stories "underreported, ignored, misrepresented, or censored in the United States." Censored 2010 (Seven Stories Press) cites the Congress’ sell out to Wall St. as the top censored story. Mainstream media minimized or ignored the fact that “Nearly every member of the House Financial Services Committee, who in February 2009 oversaw hearings on how the $700 billion of TARP bailout was being spent, received contributions associated with these financial institutions during the 2008 election cycle.”

Inspired by the Project, every year I dedicate two columns to the top ten stories censored by the local and state corporate media.

And now the censored stories:

No. 10: Obama’s Big Sellout: In punting away campaign promises, Barack Obama is no different from all 43 politicians preceding him over at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Still, it’s rare to see such a complete 180 degree reversal on something as fundamental as economic policy. The Obama sellout is narrated in excruciating detail by Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi:

“What's taken place in the year since Obama won the presidency has turned out to be one of the most dramatic political about-faces in our history. Elected in the midst of a crushing economic crisis brought on by a decade of orgiastic deregulation and unchecked greed, Obama had a clear mandate to rein in Wall Street and remake the entire structure of the American economy. What he did instead was ship even his most marginally progressive campaign advisers off to various bureaucratic Siberias, while packing the key economic positions in his White House with the very people who caused the crisis in the first place. This new team of bubble-fattened ex-bankers and laissez-faire intellectuals then proceeded to sell us all out, instituting a massive, trickle-up bailout and systematically gutting regulatory reform from the inside.”

Probably because corporate media barons perceive they’ll benefit from a Wall St. friendly White House, the mainstream press rarely comment on the real ideological makeup of the president’s policy makers. The Obama administration on economics is still presented to us as governing from the “left”. Thus the tea baggers, birthers, and other Obama foes, of which there are many in the Fox Valley, really do believe that the administration is teeming with “socialists.”
[Note: An excellent recent interview of Taibbi by Thom Hartmann can be seen/heard below; the interview starts at about the 3:50 mark.].


No. 9: Democracy Now! Alone In The Bella of the Beast: The most important international conference in world history was held December 7-18 in Copenhagen’s Bella Center. On opening day, 56 newspapers from 45 countries ran a common editorial arguing, “Unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, and with it our prosperity and security.” Only two US newspapers (one a Spanish language paper) ran the editorial.

Mainstream media failed to cover Copenhagen with the urgency required. Thank goodness for Amy Goodman; her Democracy Now! program staked out “In the Bella of the Beast” and provided the finest grassroots reporting of the event available.


No. 8: GAB Website FUBAR: I asked the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign’s politics watchdog Mike McCabe for an opinion on underreported stories. He said in part: “At or near the top of my list is the failure or at least serious shortcomings of outsourcing of government services. ABC News made a big deal out of screwed-up information on the federal government's website showing how stimulus funds have been used. The next day the problem was fixed. But we tried calling attention to data on the GAB's campaign finance website that was totally FUBAR for the better part of a year, and there was next to no media coverage. The state contracted out this project; the initial cost estimate was $1 million but now the tab has been run up to over $2 million and the meter is still running.” [Note: GAB is Government Accountability Board and FUBAR means F*cked Up Beyond All Recognition.]

No. 7: The Twisted Saga Of Mercury Marine. The October Media Rants column discussed Mercury Marine’s low road strategy of extracting huge concessions from workers at the Fond du Lac plant. Also in October, the nonpartisan Institute for Wisconsin’s Future told the true story, a “twisted saga” that Merc’s corporate media lapdogs won’t tell:

“The story of Mercury Marine is a sad documentary on how large corporations can reward executives for failure while dismantling the manufacturing structures that generate real value. Wisconsin’s income tax didn’t scare the company. Workers didn’t drain the firm’s cash. Rather, the company’s senior executives and directors presided over an internal fiscal meltdown while collecting massive incomes. Employees, stockholders and taxpayers are paying the price for their mismanagement and their luxuries.”

No. 6: The Councilor Appointment Process. The election of Paul Esslinger as Mayor of Oshkosh created a vacant city council seat. In a ridiculous display of press arrogance, the Oshkosh Northwestern refused to report or editorialize accurately or fairly about procedures used across the state to fill such vacancies. Anxious to pressure the Council into appointing the Northwestern’s endorsed candidate, the editorialists became his mouthpiece. I’m proud to say the Council stood up to the bullying, applied procedures commonly used across the state, and appointed an individual (Harold Bucholtz) who’s everything the corporate press isn’t: fair, independent, and trustworthy.

Next month: The top 5 censored stories of 2009.

Not Quite Blowin' In The Wind . . .

. . . but Bob Dylan is now using music to help feed the hungry. Proceeds from his "Christmas in the Heart" recording will support anti-hunger efforts. From Investment News:

“The problem of hunger is ultimately solvable,” Mr. Dylan said in a statement. That “means we must each do what we can to help feed those who are suffering and support efforts to find long-term solutions,” he said.

The recording features Dylan's cover of Brave Combo's cover of "Must Be Santa."

Buyer Beware Care Passes Senate

I had an opportunity to watch some of last night's US Senate "debate" over health insurance reform. Earlier in the day, the extent of the sell-out to lobbyists was depressingly documented, so the end result was no surprise.

The saddest speech had to be Senator Dick Durbin's (D-Illinois). Durbin, usually one of the more sane members of the Senate, with a straight face tried to compare passage of what is, at best, a national version of Romney Care (i.e. mandating the purchase of private insurance) to the battles over Social Security and Medicare. He wants to call the new law "Kennedy Care."

Durbin is smart enough to know that Social Security and Medicare analogies went on life support the moment genuine single-payer was taken off the table; and smart enough to know that the analogies died when even a diluted public option could not make the cut through the insurance industry's Senate. I realize he and other Dems desperately want to score a legislative victory for Barack Obama, but c'mon.

If the legislation gets through conference and becomes law, I think it should be called "Buyer Beware Care." The main feature of the reform, after all, is the provision to buy private health insurance. Think of how distinguished this Senate will sound when the history of the era is written 50 years from now: "In the 1930s FDR and the Democrats in Congress created Social Security to ensure some measure of retirement security for seniors. With Medicare, LBJ and the Dems expanded the New Deal vision. Then at the end of the first decade of the 21st century, Barack Obama and a Congress bought by the private insurance industry gave us Buyer Beware Care. Some called it de-evolution."

And Russ Feingold? The "maverick" ultimately took one for the team. Apparently he has decided he's going to pacify Wisconsin libs by blaming Barack Obama for the lack of a public option in the final bill. I didn't think the Republicans had any chance of unseating Feingold in 2010, but as more details of this monstrous bill become known, anything can happen.

Barack Obama is sending Democrats into the 2010 elections having to defend:

*The TARP (Wall St.) bailout
*Escalation of the war in Afghanistan
*A mandate to buy private insurance

Good luck with that.

Actually, some statistics in this month's Harper's Index now makes sense. It said since assuming the presidency, Obama has attended 26 party fundraisers. At the same point in his presidency, GW Bush had attended 6.

Even Jay Leno gets it: "I'm trying to...sum up President Obama's first 11 months in office. He gave billions to Wall Street, cracked down on illegal immigrants getting healthcare, sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. You know something? He may go down in history as our greatest Republican president ever."

Tell Feingold to vote NO on Lieberman Bill

Back in June Senator Feingold said he was "not interested passing health care reform in name only." He called a strong public option "fundamental" to reform.

The Lieberman Bill (i.e. the current "reform" bill under consideration in the Senate) is a travesty, shown by Howard Dean and many others to be much worse than anything Senator Feingold could have imagined in June. Go here to tell the Senator to vote against the bill.

Below is Feingold's statement from June followed by Keith Olbermann's "special comment" from last night.

Dean: Vote NO on Health Bill

Howard Dean urges the Senate to kill a "reform" bill that no longer includes even a diluted public option. Russ Feingold, who ought to be tough enough to stand up to the insurance and big pharma lobbies that wrote the bill, should be speaking out against this mess as forcefully as Dr. Dean.

House Honors "Kind of Blue"

Rep. John Conyers (D-Michigan), who recently received a request from the POTUS to stop "demeaning" him, hasn't been able to get the House to vote on or even talk about a genuine single-payer health care plan.

But Conyers was able to get 409 votes for a resolution honoring the late Miles Davis' jazz classic "Kind of Blue."

Given that Conyers is from Detroit, perhaps he might see fit to get the House to recognize the 40th anniversary of the Detroit-based MC5 classic "Kick Out The Jams." The album is #294 on Rolling Stone's top 500 and includes the rebel anthem "Motor City Is Burning." Somehow I don't think Conyers would get 409 votes for that one, and he might even end up getting another tense call from the POTUS.

HRES 894 IH

111th CONGRESS1st SessionH. RES. 894Honoring the 50th anniversary of the recording of the album ‘Kind of Blue’ and reaffirming jazz as a national treasureEHCommentsClose CommentsPermalink

H.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVESNovember 5, 2009Mr. CONYERS (for himself, Mr. SCOTT of Virginia, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. MCGOVERN, and Mr. ABERCROMBIE) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

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RESOLUTIONHonoring the 50th anniversary of the recording of the album ‘Kind of Blue’ and reaffirming jazz as a national treasureRes. 894CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

In the House of Representatives, U. S.,CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

December 15, 2009.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas, on August 17, 1959, Miles Davis, Jimmy Cobb, Bill Evans, Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers, John Coltrane, and Julian ‘Cannonball’ Adderley collaborated to record the album ‘Kind of Blue’;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas ‘Kind of Blue’ ranks 12th on the list of the ‘500 Greatest Albums of All Time’ published by Rolling Stone magazine;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas ‘Kind of Blue’ was recorded in 1959, the year Columbia Records declared ‘jazz’s greatest year’;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas ‘Kind of Blue’ marked the beginning of the mass popularity of jazz in the United States;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas in 2008, the Recording Industry Association of America awarded ‘Kind of Blue’ quadruple-platinum status, meaning 4,000,000 copies of the album had been sold;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas in 2002, the Library of Congress added ‘Kind of Blue’ to the National Recording Registry;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas ‘Kind of Blue’ was recognized as the bestselling record in the history of jazz;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas 50 years after the release of ‘Kind of Blue’, MOJO magazine honored the Legacy Edition of the album by giving it the ‘Best Catalogue Release of the Year’ award;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas ‘Kind of Blue’ both redefined the concept of jazz for musicians and changed the perceptions of jazz held by many fans;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas today, the sole surviving member of the Miles Davis Sextet, Jimmy Cobb, is performing and touring with his So What Band in tribute to the 50th anniversary of ‘Kind of Blue’; andCommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas ‘Kind of Blue’ continues to be the standard masterpiece of jazz for American musicians and audiences: Now, therefore, be itCommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Resolved, That the House of Representatives--CommentsClose CommentsPermalink




(1) honors the 50th anniversary of ‘Kind of Blue’ and recognizes the unique contribution the album has made to American jazz;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink




(2) directs the Clerk of the House of Representatives to transmit enrolled copies of this resolution to Columbia Records;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink




(3) encourages the United States Government to take all appropriate steps to preserve and advance the art form of jazz music;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink




(4) recommits itself to ensuring that musical artists such as Miles Davis and his Sextet receive fair protection under the copyright laws of the United States for their contributions to culture in the United States; andCommentsClose CommentsPermalink




(5) reaffirms the status of jazz as a national treasure.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Attest:CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Clerk.

Brooklyn Guerrilla Bike Lane Painters

Thanks to Lo for passing this on. I'm actually from the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn where this biketroversy is taking place.

Palmeri, Egelhoff on Friday "Week in Review"

Jo Egelhoff of FoxPolitics.net and I will join Joy Cardin for WPR's Week in Review on Friday, Dec. 11 from 8-9 a.m. You can call in during the program at 1-800-642-1234 or email talk@wpr.org.

One topic that will certainly come up is President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance speech. You can watch it below.

The 2009 TONY Awards

Yes, what everyone's been waiting for . . . the 2009 TONY Awards Media Rants for excellence in local media. The hard copy can be seen in the December SCENE. Here's the column:

In its annual report, the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism late last year identified an important emerging trend: “Power is shifting to the individual journalist and away, by degrees, from journalistic institutions. The trend is still forming and its potential is uncertain but the signs are clear. Through search, e-mail, blogs, social media and more, consumers are gravitating to the work of individual writers and voices, and away somewhat from institutional brand.” Given the low journalistic quality of, and citizen disgust with, local corporate media, that trend can’t come fast enough to the Fox Valley.

Every December since 2002 I've given TONY Awards to local independent media practitioners who think outside the corporate box and show excellence in educating, agitating, enlightening, or entertaining Valley audiences.

And now the 2009 TONY Award recipients. Drum roll please.

Most Missed Editorial Writer: Alex Hummel. For years Oshkosh Northwestern editorials often featured cheap shots, ornery gripes, and a general dumbing down of the issues under discussion. All that changed when Alex Hummel became the editorial writer. Though I frequently disagreed with Alex, his editorials were always well argued, civil, and demonstrated a desire to move the community forward as opposed to the traditional Northwestern model of settling scores or serving as mouthpieces for favored special interests and ad clients. Disagreeing with Alex’s editorials required reflection and contemplation of counter-argument.

Not anymore. Early in 2009 Hummel announced he was leaving the Northwestern for a position as Community Outreach and Education Coordinator for Christine Ann Domestic Abuse Services in Oshkosh. No one is indispensable, but it’s difficult to exaggerate the depths to which the editorial page has sunk since his departure. The ornery dumbing down returned with a vengeance, making it too easy to ignore the page. Alex, you’re missed.

Best Investigative Journalism: “Rumors of Murder” by Daphne Young in The Scene. The State Department of Justice recently announced that felony vehicular homicide charges in the 2004 death of Kevin McCoy would be filed against Rory Kuenzi, one of the rocket scientists also facing charges for the snowmobiling massacre of deer in Waupaca County. No doubt the DOJ was aided by Daphne’s Scene piece, which exposed in depth the incompetence that resulted in Kuenzi avoiding charges for 5 years. Daphne’s follow up piece, “Remembering Kevin McCoy,” provided readers with a moving portrait of McCoy as told by his family.

Best Independent Local Film: Dr. Kickbutt’s “Kick Savin’ a Beauty.” A project of Leif Larson and Aaron Baer, the film’s slapstick comedic antics evoke marriage of Monty Python, the Three Stooges, and Laurel & Hardy. Shown at the Time Community Theater in Oshkosh in September, the production represented grassroots filmmaking at its bedraggled best.

Community Arts Award: The Time Community Theater. Not only did the Time provide space for Dr. Kickbutt, but also fine musical acts. Great young bands were featured at the “Oshstock” concert, while the alt-country sound of the Blueheels, smooth jazz of Amina Figarova and soulful singing of Eli Mattson graced the Time’s stage in 2009. If you believe in supporting venues that provide a space for local artistic talent, then you need to go to the Time website (http://www.timecommunitytheater.com/Home.html) and make a contribution. Do it today.

The Snyder-Jarman Award For Excellence in Radio. Randall Davidson. A former newscaster for Wisconsin Public Radio, Randall Davidson in 2008 replaced Ben Jarman as Director of Radio Services for UW Oshkosh radio station WRST. Randall has already expanded the station’s outreach efforts, brought new alternative programming, and established himself as a mentor for students seeking to become radio professionals. Under Randall’s guidance, students produce excellent public affairs programs and special features like election night programming. Quite the refreshing alternative to commercial radio.

Best Blogging About A Local Issue: Roger Bybee. During the Mercury Marine Corporation’s summer of heavy handed tactics in extracting concessions from union workers while at the same time demanding boat loads (pardon the pun) of taxpayer money to keep jobs in Fond du Lac, it was impossible to find any quality local news coverage of the travesty. Roger Bybee, a Milwaukee-based freelance writer, wrote about the issue in the “Working In These Times” blog with the kind of guts and integrity rarely found in the mainstream press. Sample Bybee:

“The onslaught of plant closings and relocations—both threatened and real—will continue until the Obama administration comes up with an industrial policy that prevents corporations from playing off workers and states against each other in order to further drive down wages.”

General Excellence: Jo Egelhoff, Foxpolitics.net. This is Jo’s second TONY. Though the former Appleton alderperson leans much more to the right than Media Rants, her site is a treasure trove of useful information. Every morning, usually before 8 a.m., Jo sends subscribers to her email list a huge archive of northeast Wisconsin news, news from around the state and nation, provocative pieces on politics and elections, and opinion pieces. Jo wrote something in a blog post not too long ago that we agree on completely: “It continues to be time to participate in our local media – and indeed – to hold our local media accountable to ask the tough questions and persist as long as it takes to get meaningful answers.”

Prior TONY Awards columns can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Referendum on Domesticated Animals in City Parks

Back in August, the City Council passed Resolution 09-315, the purpose of which was to "amend ordinance to allow dogs at Rusch/Sawyer Creek Park." During the deliberation about the resolution, it was revealed that dogs had been in Rusch/Sawyer Creek Park for a long time because most people considered the area to be a trail. But because Rusch/Sawyer Creek is legally defined as a park, in order to continue with the accepted behavior (i.e. allowing dogs to walk on the trail), we had to change the municipal code. The language of Res 09-315 said the following:

"Persons will be allowed to have domesticated animals at Rusch/Sawyer Creek Park provided that such domesticated animals shall be on a leash no longer than six feet (6') and shall be under full control of their owners."

Also during that evening's deliberations, it became clear that there is a segment of the citizenry that would like to see dogs allowed in all city parks. I suggested that evening that we should have an advisory referendum to find out how large that sentiment is. In late September I met with City Attorney Lynn Lorenson and Acting Parks Director Bill Sturm to work on referendum language. My view was that the language of a referendum should be similar to what we passed in Res 09-315. Thus, here is what the Council will be voting on tomorrow:

WHEREAS the issue of whether domesticated animals should be allowed in Oshkosh city parks is one of great interest to citizens at-large; and

WHEREAS the Common Council desires to receive advice from City voters about whether or not to adopt an ordinance that would allow domesticated animals in City parks.

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED by the Common Council of the City of Oshkosh that the following advisory referendum question be placed on the April 6, 2010 ballot:

Should persons be allowed to have domesticated animals at city parks--except in areas such as zoos, playgrounds, golf courses, the water park, cemeteries, and athletic fields--provided that such domesticated animals shall be on a leash no longer than six feet (6') and shall be under full control of their owners?

Yes_______________ No______________________

My gut feeling is that a majority of people in Oshkosh would like to allow dogs in parks. That is based on the commentary about it I've seen over the years. However, I do not know if those comments represent a vocal minority or the majority of citizens. I personally lean toward allowing dogs in city parks, but if a clear majority of citizens in a referendum said that they did not want them there, then I would not support it. This strikes me as a classic case of an issue where an advisory referendum is appropriate and useful. Perhaps it might even increase voter turnout in April.

If you'd like to contact the City Council and provide input on whether we should place the referendum question on the ballot, click here.

Media Rants: A Socratic Dialogue

The November Media Rant for the The Scene reveals that the great philosopher Socrates anticipated the schlock that today we call corporate media. --TP

MAD Media: A Socratic Dialogue

Media Rants

By Tony Palmeri

Classical Greek scholars were shocked recently when an Athenian farmer tilling soil in his olive grove accidently stumbled across a manuscript dating back to the 4^th century BCE. Believed to be a lost dialogue of Plato, the manuscript features the great philosopher Socrates in conversation with a dimwitted character called Hannityus. The best scholarly guess is that Hannityus was a disciple of Euthydemus, a popular public speaker in 380 BCE known to practice what Socrates called the “eristic” mode of communication. For Socrates, eristic wasn’t a form of argument designed to educate, but rather a method of humiliating opponents by showering them with verbal abuse. In the newly discovered manuscript, Socrates warns of a future world featuring eristic as the dominant mode of public discourse, with partisan verbal bullies presented to the masses as patriots. In what might be the earliest critique of media corporations, Socrates says that that “in a distant future, those organizations making profit by polluting the public discourse will be guided by the values of Mediocrity, Anti-intellectualism, and Disrespect. They will be truly MAD.” Media Rants is pleased to present an excerpt of the lost dialogue.

Hannityus: Good day Socrates. I noticed you in attendance at my debate with Democritus. You were impressed by my performance, yes?

Socrates: Good day Hannityus. Well, I heard Democritus arguing that the State ought to guarantee equality for all. To great applause, you mocked him, questioned his integrity and loyalty to Athens, and continually interrupted his attempts to substantiate his claim. Your performance . . .

Hannityus (interrupts): Certainly one as wise you does not sympathize with Democritus’ nonsense?

Socrates: As I was saying, your performance entertained the crowd with much ridicule and vivid condemnation of your opponent.

Hannityus: Much deserved ridicule and condemnation, good sir.

Socrates: And I must say that I was quite impressed by how you turned the tables and made into an enemy of the people a man who from his perspective was arguing in support of expanded rights and benefits for the people. You are quite clever Hannityus.

Hannityus: Euthydemus says that turning the tables is the height of communicative excellence.

Socrates: No, it is one of the many forms of communicative mediocrity. Like your calling Democritus an “idiot.”

Hannityus: A tactic I learned from Glennbeckus.

Socrates: Whatever. The point is that communicative excellence requires an honest attempt to discover the truth. I heard none of that in your so-called debate with Democritus.

Hannityus: Surely you are not saying that there could be any truth in Democritus’ claim that the State should guarantee equality for all?

Socrates: I do not know, as he was never allowed to elaborate. Does he mean the State should guarantee equal opportunity for all? Or does he mean the State should guarantee equality under the law? Does he mean the State should guarantee equal compensation for all regardless of effort? Or does he mean equal pay for equal work? These questions are all worth asking and thinking about, yet with all due respect your eristic approach to debate urges participants not to think. Or at least not to think very critically.

Hannityus: Euthydemus warned me that you are nothing but an elitist intellectual snob, Socrates. I must say that your comments validate his judgment of your character.

Socrates: As you wish. I am sorry to have sparked your antagonism, but the problem is not that you, Euthydemus, and Glennbeckus are anti-Socrates or anti-Democritus or anti-anyone else.

Hannityus: Pray tell oh wise one, what is the problem?

Socrates: The problem is anti-intellectualism. The refusal to take anything other than a black and white, good and evil, us and them approach to serious issues. Positions are taken not on the basis of principle or rigorous analysis, but on the basis of whether or not such positions support whatever particular team you happen to be on. It’s quite pathetic.

Hannityus: Are the so-called intellectuals any better? I’ve seen them in debates. Your student Plato, for example, and others in his Academy succeed only in putting people to sleep or leaving them in utter confusion.

Socrates: I would hardly hold up the academic intellectuals as role-models of how to debate in public. They too can be boorish, disrespectful, and willing to serve the team instead of search for the truth. In fact I can imagine a future in which intellectuals become a professional class that uses its brain power to aid and abet extremely abusive governments, businesses, and other institutions. They’ll create lies instead of expose them. Such “intellectuals” will be worthy of contempt.

Hannityus: You enjoy forecasting the future. Tell me, what will be the future of my brand of public debate? Surely it will someday rule the world?

Socrates: Those who can profit by polluting the water and air will do so. They can be stopped only when people acting collectively decide they no longer will tolerate drinking dirty water and breathing toxic air.

In a distant future, those organizations making profit by polluting the public discourse will be guided by the values of Mediocrity, Anti-intellectualism, and Disrespect. They will be truly MAD. They will be stopped only when people acting collectively decide they no longer will tolerate madness.

Mercury Marine and Media: The Low Road

Media Rants

By Tony Palmeri

The nonpartisan think tank Center on Wisconsin Strategy (COWS) distinguishes between “low road” and “high road” business strategies. The low road “is associated with downward pressure on wages, increasing job insecurity, more outsourcing of work to low-wage regions, greater environmental damage, underinvestment in productive public goods, and resistance to public standards on private firm behavior.” The [unfortunately] less common high road “is associated with higher and more equal wages, better labor relations, more environmentally sustainable practice, greater investment in productive public goods, and affirmative support for public standards on the private economy.”

Sadly, low road management conduct has become a badger state occurrence every bit as common as beer and brats at a Packer tailgate bash. In just the recent past, corporate cunning ended GM’s 100 year history in Janesville, Chrysler moved its engine work from Kenosha to Saltillo, Mexico, and we all know about private equity firm Cerberus’ contemptible closing of Kimberly Papers’ profitable mill.

In terms of sheer guile and gross bullying, it would be hard to find an example of low road posturing more outrageous than Mercury Marine’s recent extraction of huge concessions from International Association of Machinists (IAM) workers at the company’s Fond du Lac plant.

Let’s review the facts: in July, management of the boat engine maker Mercury Marine announced that unless union workers agreed to reopen a recently negotiated contract and accept concessions, the company would close operations and move manufacturing jobs and the corporate offices to Stillwater, Oklahoma. The proposed concessions, which union officials claim were non-negotiable, included 170 changes to the contract, most notably a seven year wage freeze, 30% pay cuts for new hires, and equal cuts for laid off workers brought back. The IAM, for its part, offered to accept pay cuts until the easing of the recession, on the condition that the company provide a written commitment to keep the jobs in Fond du Lac. Mercury rejected the offer without giving it any serious consideration.

On August 23, IAM workers voted to reject Mercury’s demands. Mercury immediately announced an intention to move to Stillwater, but left open the door for the union to vote again for the same package of concessions. On August 29, after intense pressure from the general public and media, the union voted again but failed to get the results in by Mercury’s deadline. A third vote finally yielded acceptance of the concessions. Mercury subsequently received $53 million in incentives from the city and county of Fond du Lac to keep jobs in the area. The county’s incentive package will be financed by a half-cent increase in the sales tax. The company also received an “aggressive” aid package from the state, part of which is designed to assist Mercury in moving jobs from Stillwater to Fond du Lac.

The most charitable thing that could be said of corporate media coverage of the Mercury affair is that it was worthless. Print and broadcast media enabled Mercury’s low road strategy by minimizing or flat out ignoring the very blatant labor violations taking place.

Indeed, sane commentary and reporting on the Mercury situation could only be found in the blogosphere. Writing in his Fighting Bob blog, Ed Garvey wrote that, “It used to be illegal for a company to threaten to close or move jobs as a bargaining tactic . . . They (Mercury) were not negotiating. They were the third grade bullies threatening to take their ball and bat and go home. ‘My way or the highway.’”

By far the best reporting on Mercury was done by freelance Wisconsin writer Roger Bybee in the “Workers’ Rights” blog on the progressive magazine In These Times website. In the Mercury situation Bybee finds a typical and disturbing pattern:

Mercury officials are congratulating themselves for carrying out what has become a standard corporate game plan when shutting down a major plant. The two key elements of this plan typically include: (1) Inciting the public against the union by continually asserting that it is the workers, not the corporation, that are making the decision to close the plant. The workers' refusal of utterly unacceptable concessions is equated with stubbornness and a selfish unwillingness to consider the overall impact on the community--as if the workers themselves will have a bright future after the shutdown . . . (2) Portraying the workers' wages as astronomically high by comparing them with the regional average, conveniently limiting the frame to exclude the standards of skill and pay in the particular industry.

The Fox Valley Gannett papers were, as to be expected, uniformly awful in reporting and editorializing about Mercury. Gannett’s Fond du Lac Reporter, to its credit, did allow UW Oshkosh Human Resource Management Professor Barbara Rau to state the obvious: "Unions are being blamed for the economy, but how is that possible, when only 7.6 percent of the workers are unionized?"

Corporate media enabled Mercury’s low road strategy via shoddy and incomplete reporting and cowardly editorializing. Are more Merc-like messes on the way? Roger Bybee says it well: “Until we put an end to this race to the bottom, we will see many more bottom-feeders like Mercury Marine manipulating states and even nations against each other.”