TonyPalmeri.Com Update For July 4, 2005
Almost a month has passed since the last of these updates. In that time I taught a summer intro to public speaking class at UW Oshkosh and, much to my pleasant surprise, it was one of the best teaching experiences I've ever had. Very enthusiastic students who were (and this is extremely important for intro public speaking) supportive of each other. Anyone who teaches speech will tell you that intro public speaking is one of the most difficult classes to teach, often more difficult than senior level seminars. For one thing, the intro class is a general education requirement which no one really wants to take. For another, almost everyone enrolled is nervous and in a panic about speaking, especially in the first few weeks. And depending on the size of the class, a teacher usually grades anywhere from 50-100 speeches and the same number of outlines. I realize that for people who work as hard as the Oshkosh Northwestern editorial board, this all sounds like nothing. But for us mere mortals, the time commitment is substantial. An enthusiastic and supportive class minimizes each one of the difficulty factors.
With that said, on to the update:
1. No Web Updates From July 6-10: For those of you who frequent TonyPalmeri.Com, there will be no updates to the site from July 6-10.
2. Radio Commentary Returns: Radio Commentary will return to WRST 90.3 FM on Friday, July 15 with guests TBA. Radio Commentary is a part of Bob Roberts' WIld Eyed Radio program: http://www.uwosh.edu/wrst/Homepages/WildEyed%20Radio/index.php
Wild Eyed Radio can be heard this Friday, July 8th from 5 - 7 p.m. Web streaming is available (click link in box on right): http://www.uwosh.edu/wrst/
3. Fourth of July Goodies:
4. An Interview With Curt Andersen: My July Media Rants column for the Valley Scene is an interview with former Green Bay News Chronicle columnist Curt Andersen. Curt is a major inspiration for activists all over the Fox Valley, in part because he tells it like it is (as is clear in the interview): http://www.tonypalmeri.com/mediarants39.htm
5. An Interview with Matthew Scully: Last month I had the good fortune to interview former G.W. Bush speechwriter Matthew Scully on Radio Commentary: http://www.tonypalmeri.com/examples/audio/scully.mp3
Much of the interview was dedicated to Scully's essay on factory farming: http://www.matthewscully.com/fear_factories.htm
You must escape The Meatrix: http://www.themeatrix.com/
6. Meeting to discuss referendum on troop withdrawal: The Wisconsin Green Party is launching an effort to allow citizens to vote for a referendum question on troop withdrawal from Iraq: http://wisconsingreenparty.org/blogs/WIGPnews/archives/000402.shtml
Anyone interested in pursuing this effort in Winnebago County or the city of Oshkosh should meet at the Winnebago Peace and Justice Center (Market St., across from the sundial) on Wednesday, July 20th at 6:30 p.m.
7. Hall and Oats: http://eyeonoshkosh.com/article.php?story=20050621200057147 Winnebago County Democratic Party chair Jef Hall has responded to questions raised by this event here: http://jef4wi.blogspot.com/2005/06/answers-to-questions.html
8. Doyle Dishonors Gaylord Nelson: Wisconsin's great former governor and US Senator Gaylord Nelson, founder of Earth Day, passed away recently. Nelson lived long enough to see Jim The New Democrat Doyle undermine his legacy: http://www.fightingbob.com/weblog.cfm?postID=405
Doyle sent out a genuinely disgusting and hypocritical release after Nelson's death, saying in part: “When I became Governor, Gaylord Nelson gave me some very important advice: to stay focused on the things that really matter to people. He lived those words, and his picture, sitting over my desk as Governor, is a daily reminder to focus on things that will be of great significance over time." The truth is that Doyle has remained focused on things that really matter to the Board of Directors of Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the scores of highly paid lobbyists that run Madison, and others not even remotely connected to the population at large.
The Greens have approached me about running for Governor. I do not want to do it for a variety of reasons, most of them time and money related, but watching Doyle dishonor the memory of Gaylord Nelson certainly makes me think about it more seriously. I mean, forget about the Greens for a minute; how much of this crap are Democrats going to continue to take?
Representative Spencer Black, the popular liberal from Madison, has been sending some signals that he might challenge Doyle in a Democratic primary or as an Independent. John Nichols says: "If Black were serious about leaving the Democratic fold and mounting a campaign for the November 2006 election against Doyle and the Republican nominee . . . he would be talking to the Green Party. The Greens already have a solid statewide network of activists, a track record of running credible fall campaigns and a disdain for Doyle's compromises that guarantees they'll place a gubernatorial candidate on the 2006 ballot." http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/index.php?ntid=45042&ntpid=1
I don't expect Spencer to run. He has a great gig down there in Madison, and stands to get elected to Fred Risser's Senate seat when the latter retires soon. Sad to say, but for the establishment party candidates in this state it's ultimately about "gig" first and everything else a distant, far distant second. Were that not true, Black would have announced a gubernatorial candidacy a long time ago.
Even at the national level, the liberal William Greider (big Kerry supporter last year) is now talking about the Dems' "Profiles in Cowardice": http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0702-26.htm
9. What it feels like to be tasered: Brace yourself for this one: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/news/video/taser_video3a.html
10. Downing St. Memo Coverup: Media Matters for America explores the coverup http://mediamatters.org/items/200506160002
11. Public Attitudes Toward The Press: A Pew Research Center study found that "By more than three-to-one (73%-21%), the public feels that news organizations are 'often influenced by powerful people and organizations,' rather than 'pretty independent.'" In addition, "69% believe news organizations care most about 'entertaining people in order to attract the biggest audience' when deciding what news to report, as opposed to only 22% who believe news decisions are based on 'informing people in order to serve the public interest.'" The full study is here: http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=248
12. Supreme Court Senility: Here's an interesting interview with conservative historian David Garrow about age and the Supreme Court: http://www.reason.com/0507/fe.jw.supreme.shtml
I was never a big fan of Sandra Day O'Connor, who recently announced her resignation from the court, but her dissent in the recent property rights case (where the Court's "liberals" all agreed that government can confiscate a person's house in the interest of building a hotel or some other economic "development") was right on. She said: "The government now has license to transfer property from those with fewer resources to those with more, The Founders cannot have intended this perverse result."