TonyPalmeri.Com Holiday Update, December 2005
Season's Greetings to all from TonyPalmeri.Com. The website will not be updated until December 30 or so, as I am taking an Amtrak train to New York for a few days. I've never taken Amtrak before, but figured I should do it before the Bushies completely derail it.
Here are some tidbits to ponder over the holidays:
1. New Blog: Talk To Tony. Blogs are very much like contemporary academic research in the social sciences and humanities: tiny bits of insight surrounded by boatloads of self-serving, incoherent crapola (as opposed to most mainstream media, which falls under the category of venal crapola). I've scrupulously avoided adding my own blogola to the crapola index, choosing instead to produce an online anti-venal daily newspaper of sorts with tonypalmeri.com. But over the years enough emails have come in urging me to join the blogosphere that I finally figured it was time. So welcome to Talk To Tony: http://talktotony.blogspot.com/
Keeping with the self-serving spirit identified above, one blog entry asks whether I should give some serious thought to entering the race for governor. Comments pro or con would be appreciated: http://talktotony.blogspot.com/2005/12/time-for-tony-for-governor.html
2. Vote!: Our friends over at Babblemur and the ABV Army Times are sponsoring an online poll to demonstrate how Instant Runoff Voting would work in the race for Wisconsin governor. Try it: http://www.demochoice.org/dcballot.php?poll=wigov20061
3. Radio Commentary Interviews Kunstler, McBride, Andersen: We've had some excellent guests on Radio Commentary recently, including noted author and social critic James Howard Kunstler: http://www.tonypalmeri.com/examples/audio/jhk.mp3
Conservative Milwaukee based blogger Jessica McBride: http://www.tonypalmeri.com/examples/audio/jm.mp3
And the great Curt Andersen, long-time columnist for the Gannett sabotaged Green Bay News Chronicle: http://www.tonypalmeri.com/examples/audio/curtandersen.mp3
4. Amy Goodman Interview With Tookie Williams: Democracy Now host Amy Goodman conducted an extraordinary interview with Tookie Williams shortly before he was executed. A must listen: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/30/153247&mode=thread&tid=25
5. Oshkosh Troop Withdrawal Referendum Status: Thanks to Councilman Paul Esslinger, on January 10th the Oshkosh Common Council will vote on whether to place an Iraq Troop Withdrawal Referendum question on the April ballot. Babblemur summarizes the online discussion of the issue: http://babblemur.blogspot.com/2005/12/online-debates-on-oshkosh-war.html
So far the most common argument heard against placing the war on the ballot is that "the war is not a local issue." To which I say: ask the people of New Orleans if the war is a local issue. When Katrina hit, 4,000 of Louisiana's National National Guard were stuck in Iraq. I think the satirical Onion of September 7th put it best:
BAGHDAD—The 4,000 Louisiana National Guardsmen stationed in Iraq, representing over a third of the state's troops, called home this week to find out what, if any, help they could offer Katrina survivors from overseas. "The soldiers wanted to know if they could call 911 for anyone, or perhaps send some water via FedEx," said Louisiana National Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Pete Schneider. The Guardsmen also "would love to send generators, rations, and Black Hawk helicopters for rescue missions," but, said Schneider, "we desperately need these in Iraq to stay alive." Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld praised the phone support, but noted that it would take months to transfer any equipment from Iraq to New Orleans, saying, "You fight a national disaster with the equipment you have."
When one thinks of the local tax dollars drained on war, the lives of families disrupted by war, and a variety of additional impacts that should be obvious, it is almost extraordinary that the local relevance even has to be argued.
I spoke at the last Common Council meeting and urged them to keep in mind the fact that half the council along with the City Manager show up to the annual Martin Luther King celebration, and each year we hear platitudes about how the city is trying to operate in the spirit of Dr. King. We all know know that Martin Luther King if he were alive would urge the Council to vote to place the question on the ballot and give the people an opportunity to vote their conscience. The Council vote is on the 10th and the King celebration is on the following Monday; what a great celebration it will be if just 4 members of the Council can find it within themselves to do the right thing.
6. This Week in Oshkosh on Homelessness: Northeast Wisconsin mainstream media refuse to take poverty and homelessness in the region seriously, so it is left to bloggers and other other independent media to do the work. Gary Jepson of This Week in Oshkosh has single handedly put the homeless issue on the map in a series of posts:
http://garyfromoshkosh.blogspot.com/2005/11/homeless-in-oshkosh.html
http://garyfromoshkosh.blogspot.com/2005/12/no-room-at-inn.html
http://garyfromoshkosh.blogspot.com/2005/12/wisconsins-largest-homeless-shelter.html
7. Oshkosh Northwestern Finally Covers Poverty, Sort Of: Reporter Alex Hummel has written a series of articles on poverty in Winnebago County: http://www.thenorthwestern.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/99999999/OSH0101/51214040&theme=OSHPOVERTY&template=theme
What's conspicuously absent in the articles, especially as regards poverty in Oshkosh, is any discussion of how the local government's priorties contribute to the problem. Largely unregulated urban sprawl development contributes to inner city poverty here as much as anywhere else, as does the favoring of well connected developers in economic planning, the allocation of millions of public dollars to an amphitheater before even investigating the possibility of private financing, the fact that the issue of affordable housing does not even appear to be on the radar screen for city officials, the increased reliance on regressive fees to pay for city services, the infatuation with Tax Incremental Financing which diverts tax money away from schools (the institutions that really are the key to ending poverty), and a variety of others.
Poverty is of course related to economic conditions and federal policies, as the articles suggest. But there is much that local government does to contribute to the problem, and much that they can do to solve it. Would the Northwestern, for example, support a living wage ordinance for the city of Oshkosh? Most cities that have enacted such ordinances have seen reductions in poverty without harming small businesses (they've actually helped small businesses because people making living wages have more money to spend).
8. Where do your tax dollars go? The Wisconsin Breakdown from the National Priorities Project http://natprior.org/auxiliary/somePdfs/taxday2005/wi.pdf You can find results for your state here: http://natprior.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=33&Itemid=61
9. Labor Activist Challenges Hillary In NY Primary: Hillary Clinton will face some challengers in the Democratic Primary for US Senator next year. The most credible is Jonathan Tasini, a labor activist running on an anti-war platform: http://www.tasinifornewyork.org/
10. 21st Century Protest Song. "21st Century Protest Song" is a fairly new song by a band called "Me." You may not like techno/pop, but the lyrics are worth listening to: http://media2.audiostreet.net/playsong.m3u?mode=StreamHi&song=E672439475BF4C6F87EC3DFEAF246DA0
11. Collective Bargaining For UW Faculty And Academic Staff. Thanks mostly to the hard work of some very dedicated people, especially Kevin Kniffin of AFT-Wisconsin, the state legislature is now seriously considering a bill that will allow faculty and staff at each campus to decide if they wish to be represented as collective bargaining units. UW Oshkosh Chancellor Rick Wells was quoted in the Northwestern as supporting the legislation (SB 452) but then wrote them a letter to clarify his position. Here is his letter, along with a mini-archive of related materials: http://www.tonypalmeri.com/wells.htm The Chancellor and I were also quoted in a brief Wisconsin Public Radio report on the bill: http://clipcast.wpr.org:8080/ramgen/wpr/news/news051206pm.rm
12. Vogeler The Real Deal Against Kohl. I've been following Green Party candidates for a few years now, and I must say that I have never seen one as strong as Rae Vogeler, candidate for US Senate against Democrat millionaire Herb Kohl. Rae is incredibly well versed on national issues, passionate, and articulate. The Progressive Democrats of Wisconsin have said: "PDW will endorse alternative progressive and anti-war candidate Rae Vogeler (G) in opposing Sen. Herb Kohl in his 2006 Congressional race until he reverses his support for an illegal and immoral war on Iraq and supports progressive values." I'm going to urge Rae to reject that endorsement; any group that will support you "until the other guy changes his positions" is simply using you as leverage against that guy. Fuck that. Rae is worthy of the support of all Democrats based on Herb Kohl's 12 year record in the Senate which has wavered between mediocrity and sleepwalking most of the time. Check out Rae for yourself: http://www.voterae.org/
Peace And Love In 2006! --Tony