One Wisconsin Now

Ah, the point when someone goes from being just a jerk to be an all-out comic book villain. Today's entrant: John McCain health care adviser John Goodman.                               

"The next president of the United States should sign an executive order requiring the Census Bureau to cease and desist from describing any American -- even illegal aliens -- as uninsured... So, there you have it. Voila! Problem solved."

-- John Goodman, a health care adviser to Sen. John McCain, quoted by the Dallas Morning News.

U.S. Senator John McCain is having a campaign rally in New Orleans tonight just before the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Who can forget the picture of a smiling McCain and George W. Bush holding a birthday cake the morning that the disaster hit? Even worse, who could forget that John McCain twice voted against the appointment of a commission to investigate the abysmal administration response to Katrina?

In a statement following Hurricane Katrina John McCain said that Americans should “come to the aid” of Katrina victims and then he voted to oppose extending unemployment benefits to the victims of the disaster. He also voted against granting them access to Medicaid at their most desperate time of need. Apparently his call to come to their aid did not extend to himself nor beyond his extreme ideology. Repeatedly John McCain’s actions have been the exact opposite of his words on Katrina. Will he take the time tonight to explain his record or will he pretend that it doesn’t exist and misuse the solemn occasion purely for politics? That, like his record on Katrina, would be a real tragedy.

The Government Accountability Board is weighing in on a proposed rule change which, according to the non-partisan League of Women Voters, would disenfranchise voters and cause ending chaos at polling places across Wisconsin.

Wisconsin League Executive Director outlined the serious problems with the proposed rule being considered by GAB today. The rule places additional unnecessary burden on people who simply wish to cast their legal ballot and exercise their constitutional right to vote in Wisconsin. Among her critical points:

Today is the 88th anniversary of women winning the right to vote. Eighty-eight years after women getting the equality to vote, John McCain still does not think that women deserve equal pay. McCain, like George W. Bush, has the wrong policies for America’s women and for struggling families. Even just a brief look at his record reveals that on the issues that matter most to women, John McCain is totally out of touch.

John McCain actually fought equal pay legislation by opposing the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which would have made it easier for women and other workers to pursue pay discrimination claims. At a town hall meeting, a brave 14-year old girl confronted McCain about his opposition to equal pay and he responded by actually saying that the equal pay legislation wouldn’t do anything to help the rights of women.

Other issues that are very important to women are practical everyday issues that affect their families. Things like struggling to pay the rising costs of food, gas and healthcare. John McCain’s economic plan ignores the real needs of the average women and her family and instead focuses on massive tax cuts to corporations like Big Oil and Big Insurance companies.

At the beginning of this month, Sen. John McCain made a stop (read “gimmick”) in Sturgis, South Dakota in an attempt to energize motorcycle enthusiasts, joking about tire gauges and getting some cheers after making hollow statements like “This is my first time here but I recognize that sound. It’s the sound of freedom and thank you for it.”

But the town of Viola, Wisconsin is in no mood to joke or cheer because just last week, S&S Cycle announced that it would be cutting 60 jobs, including 58 from its facility in Viola. The company’s president, Brett Smith, “blamed the economic slump for a downturn in sales” at a time when Sen. McCain believes “the fundamentals of our economy are strong.”

Just over a week ago, the Institute for One Wisconsin launched an email campaign asking concerned citizens to send a message to the board members of Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC). To date over 10,000 communications have been generated in that very short time. This is just another example of how people all across the state are sick of their increasingly partisan behavior. Outgoing UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley accurately stated that WMC has been taken over by “political extremists” and that they have created a “toxic” political environment in Wisconsin. Obviously he is not alone in making that assessment as evidenced by large numbers of emails sent out by concerned Wisconsinites.

The “political extremists” that Wiley describes are apparently so concerned about the email campaign that one of them decided to send his own communication to the WMC board members. In it he pleads that they should not let the emails disrupt their fundraising drive for the ads that they plan to run in the coming months. In an email to WMC board members, WMC Vice President for Government Relations James Buchen said the following:

It appears that the email campaign is an effort to disrupt WMC's fundraising drive for the WMC Issues Mobilization Council, Inc. We hope that this will not be the case. We hope that Directors will continue to show the resolve and fortitude demonstrated at the June Board Retreat when the Board voted unanimously to launch our fall issue campaign.

Yesterday we told you about the early success of our email campaign to the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) board. Since then many more people have responded and thousands more emails have been sent flooding the inboxes of those that sit on the WMC Board. If you have not yet had the opportunity to speak your mind to the WMC Board of Directors, now is the time to take your stand. WMC has been rightfully on the receiving end of much criticism lately by some of the most respected people in our state.

Most recently the outgoing UW-Madison Chancellor John D. Wiley called out WMC for allowing itself to be “hijacked by highly partisan, ideologically driven staff.” The senior staff at WMC have ignored very similar statements in the recent past by other prominent Wisconsinites and all indications seem to show that they will also ignore Chancellor Wiley’s as well. WMC Vice President Jim Buchen responded to the comments claiming that he and the other staff “is not ideologically fixated.” A laughable comment considering just some of the following facts available at WMCWatch.org:

Many of the staff have worked in or come directly out of Republican Party politics.

Only Republicans receive a high rank on their phony “scorecard”.

They have spent millions of dollars to support Republican candidates.

Last week Rep. Frank Lasee announced his latest harebrained scheme, to drill for oil in the Great Lakes. There is nothing like handing over your most precious resource to an industry that can’t be trusted. And for what? For the remote chance that they will find (or spill) oil in 15 years and possibly save a few cents off gas prices? As if that is not enough for one month, now Lasee is cheering his Republican friends on the Natural Resources Committee who voted to block a reasonable rule to protect us from mercury contamination.

Almost every Wisconsin lake is under warning for mercury pollution but Lasee and his friends on the committee would rather obey the corporate interests that pull their strings. The rule was proposed by the Department of Natural Resources as crafted by an independent group of experts. It would have required large coal-fired plants to reduce mercury by 90 percent by the beginning of 2015. Over 437,000 Wisconsinites are exposed to higher-than-safe levels of mercury and six percent of Wisconsin women of childbearing age have elevated levels of mercury.

Health problems caused by mercury include neurological damage for babies and children, as well as hearing and vision loss and impaired coordination and speech for adults. Seniors are at risk from mercury for heart attacks and cardiovascular disease. Mercury is most commonly ingested by humans through fish consumption. The state has issued advisories about fish consumption due to mercury contamination for nearly every Wisconsin water body. Still Lasee cheers the status quo and its defenders in the Assembly. Apparently in the wacky world of Frank Lasee, poisoning your neighbors is not only praiseworthy but is the highest act of civic engagement.

The staff and leadership of Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) have proven that they are drunk with partisanship. The only hope is for both the rank and file and higher profile members to have a long overdue intervention. The long list of events over the last several months should finally inspire the legitimate business interests to take back their organization from the partisans that now control it. In a relatively short period of time WMC has lost board members and was on the receiving end of a well deserved rebuke from one of the leading businesses in the state, Epic Systems. Their successful effort to fill another seat on the state Supreme Court with an ethically challenged intellectual lightweight brought the scorn of a wide cross-section of independant observers. Now yet another Wisconsin leader is sounding the alarm over the direction and toxic influence of WMC.

Outgoing UW-Madison chancellor, John D. Wiley penned a forceful piece in Madison Magazine this week. In it he observes that “We’ve lost touch with our traditions and values. Our politics has become a poisonous swill, and the most influential voice for the business community has been taken hostage by partisan ideologues.” He then goes on to thoroughly debunk many of WMC’s favorite talking points around the issue of taxes and regulation. He also confirms what many observers and activists have been saying for some time.

Tuesday was a Happy Day in Milwaukee as most of the original cast of the popular show came to town for the unveiling of the Bronze Fonz. There was a full schedule with a dedication/unveiling, a parade through downtown and a ceremony at Miller Park just before a Brewer game. During the television coverage of the Brewer game the man of the hour, Henry Winkler, was interviewed in the stands. While most of the interview focused on the show and the days activities, the interviewer briefly opened the door to Winkler’s passion, education. Noting that Winkler’s daughter is a teacher that earned her degree in Wisconsin, the interviewer asked him why education is so important to him. For a brief moment he got very passionate and said the following:

We have No Child Left Behind which is leaving every child behind. Children are raining through cracks in this country. If we don’t do something now - and not just lip service – if we don’t take care of children now, this country is in trouble.

We have seen the Bush energy policy at work now for nearly eight years, it seems to be a plan based on not leaving any big oil and gas company behind. The policy appears to be the following simple formula: give a free pass to these massive special interests in any way possible, give them record amounts of handouts from the public and then allow them to “thank” the public by gouging them at every possible turn. This energy free-for-all has most definitely had an impact, unfortunately it has been a hugely negative one for individual citizens and the entire economy.

Consumers are paying record amounts at the pump, while Big Oil pulls in record profits. This has a major impact on the price of things like food and other essentials. In many ways it is responsible for a 17 year record high in inflation. As if working people weren’t hurting enough in this Bush economy, now we are getting early warnings about just how much more it will take to heat our homes this winter. Estimates from the Department of Energy project that heating costs will climb 21 percent in the Midwest this year. There is an expected 26 percent increase for homes that stay warm with heating oil.

Even with all of the bad news, John McCain has decided to follow the Bush economic and energy “plans”. As it has been previously documented, McCain has already learned how to roll over for Big Oil interests by reversing his own positions. Actually, McCain plans to go even further than Bush in many ways when it comes to appeasing Big Oil. He has not only decided to back Bush’s irresponsible tax cuts for the wealthy but he also gives away the treasury on even more tax cuts for big corporations. Big Oil would receive some $4 billion in additional handouts. It would be difficult to imagine, but such a McCain economy could make a terribly bad situation much worse.

Minnesota Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty is making his second trip of the summer to Wisconsin. He will be going to John McCain fundraisers in both Madison and Milwaukee that will cost $1,000 per couple. Rather than run around Wisconsin trying to raise money for campaigns, it might be advisable for Pawlenty to go back home and fix the mess that he has made in Minnesota.

Under Governor Tim Pawlenty Minnesota’s property taxes are up even though he made a campaign promise not to raise taxes. The Gopher State has actually endured a 70 percent rise in property taxes since 2002. [Sticker Shock, Minnesota 2020, 2/10/2008; Star Tribune, 3/30/03] Not only has Pawlenty’s tenure resulted in higher taxes but also in overcrowded schools and bad roads that are the worst that they have been in decades. In addition, Pawlenty’s signature job creation plan was totally panned by an independent auditor as useless and a waste of money. Even though Minnesota’s housing foreclosures are up to some of the worst levels in the nation, Pawlenty vetoed a bill that would have helped hundreds of families facing the loss of their homes. [Star Tribune, 5/29/08]

Given Pawlenty’s terrible record in Minnesota on issues from A to Z, it is a bit surprising that he has been chosen to be a lead cheerleader for John McCain. On the other hand, McCain is the same U.S. Senator that has eventually adopted almost all of the failed policies of the Bush Administration. Those are policies which have led us to economic, health care, energy and foreign policy disasters. It makes you wonder if John McCain has made failure a prerequisite to being one of his key advisors.

Eleven events are scheduled in Wisconsin on Friday, August 15, as part of the Iraq Moratorium, a growing national, grassroots effort to end the war and occupation of Iraq. This is the 12th month of such actions.

Wisconsin has had more local events than any other state except California, with six times the population. Two communities, Rice Lake and Waupaca, are holding their first Moratorium events on Friday.  Wisconsin events are listed on a new blog, Iraq Moratorium-Wisconsin.

The national Iraq Moratorium asks people to take some personal or group action on the Third Friday of every month to express their support for ending the war and bringing the troops home. Those actions can range from wearing a button or black armband to work or school to participating in an organized action.

Since it began in September, more than 1,200 events in 41 states and 240 communities have been listed on the Iraq Moratorium website, www.IraqMoratorium.com , which also collects reports, photos and videos of events and offers ideas and tools for organizers to use.

The Madison-based Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice, a coalition of more than 150 groups, has helped promote the Moratorium in the state.

Do something, whatever you are comfortable with -- whether it's wearing a button or protesting in the streets --  to call for an end to the war and occupation.  It's got to stop, and we've got to stop it.

CLICK HERE to WATCH Steelworker Greg Hinds talk about John McCain's OPPOSITION to buying American-made motorcycles

Today marks the 73rd birthday of the single most successful government program in the history of our country, Social Security. As such, it is rightfully being honored by the Alliance for Retired Americans (AAR) at events all across Wisconsin. They will be holding noon events in Milwaukee, Green Bay and Madison. AAR is the same organization that was very quick to respond to U.S. Senator John McCain when he called Social Security “a disgrace.” They followed up their initial reaction by calling on McCain to return his own check if it is such “a disgrace” and then ran both a web and TV ad highlighting the issue. Here is the actual McCain quote:

“Americans have got to understand that we are paying present-day retirees with the taxes paid by young workers in America today. And that’s a disgrace. It’s an absolute disgrace and it’s got to be fixed.” -John McCain, July 8, 2008 town hall

When John McCain made those unfortunate comments, he once again revealed just how out of touch he really is on many issues. Most people that earn a paycheck for a living already know that they are paying into the program and that present retirees collect the benefit. So is McCain really suggesting that most people don’t already know that? Maybe it was news to him but most working people are already aware of how the system works and how it will continue to work for them when they retire. Even more troubling, doesn’t this mean that McCain feels that Social Security is a disgrace because it is working exactly the way it’s supposed to?

You wouldn’t know it from the big headline in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel or if you listened to any of the right wing paranoia, but the voter registration system in Milwaukee is working exactly as it should. Organizations have been very successful in registering voters in very large numbers, something that is critical in a properly functioning participatory form of government. Even with the large numbers of people being registered, these groups have established many quality control measures. They are catching the small amount of mistakes and the even smaller instances of mischief, and taking appropriate action in each case. All reports show that they are working seamlessly with the Milwaukee Election Commission and the result thus far has been a great success.

The right wing has shown repeatedly over the years that they are willing to throw the “voter fraud” accusation at anything and everything and just hope that something will eventually stick. In recent years they have even gone to the lengths of holding press conferences outside innocent people’s homes suggesting that they have engaged in voter fraud. Even when their specific accusations are repeatedly debunked they continue to parrot the false claims as if their repetition would somehow make them true. At this point it seems clear that they are going to run the same drill no matter how perfect the system works.