Republicans even losing pro-lifers

National Public Radio recently came to Stevens Point to talk about Wisconsin's battleground status for upcoming elections. Linda Wertheimer interviewed numerous people in the area about politics and issues that they care about.

One woman, a pro-life voter, had this to say: "I think Iraq was a major disaster and I don't think it was right. I'm trying to promote pro-life when I talk to my candidates and hope they take this into consideration so we will be able to vote for them. I will not vote for anyone who wants war. I just will not."

You can find the story here.

Are you listening Rep. Mark Green?

Prescription for disaster

A recent press release on the Pro-Life Wisconsin website trumpets a call to action that our state would be better off ignoring.

The release states, "The four pharmacists in Illinois who recently lost their jobs at Walgreens when they conscientiously objected to providing the abortifacient morning-after pill illustrate Wisconsin’s urgent need for meaningful protections of pharmacists in our own state. "

It also includes a ridiculous quote from Ms. Hamill - “No one knows better how these drugs work to cause abortions than the pharmacists who are trained to safely dispense pharmaceuticals.”

Really, because I think if they believe that these pills cause abortions, it means they failed biology class.

Pro-Life Wisconsin wants SB 155 made the law of the land. Under this bill, a licensed pharmacist would be allowed to not do their job. They would be allowed to refuse to dispense a prescribed drug or device if the pharmacist believes the drug or device will be used for causing an abortion or causing the death of any person, such as through assisted suicide or euthanasia. Not if it is a fact, if they believe that that is what the drug does.

Now while the pro-lifers think this will only affect people that they don't know, they should really stop to look at the religious right movement in the last few years and realize that letting individual pharmacists decide whether or not they will fill your prescription is a very dangerous idea.

The religious right has been issuing boycotts of companies a lot lately. They do it if they don't like the charitable giving the company is doing, if they don't use the word Christmas enough in ads and if Fox News needs something to fill air space. It won't be long before religious pharmacists decide that every time they don't agree with a company, they won't fill a prescription. Because that's what will happen when you give pharmacists this kind of control.

So what happens when the religious right decides they don't like the company that makes your high blood pressure medication? Or your child's diabetes medication? Or they decide that the pain medication for your spouse after a car accident is too much and might be being used for assisted suicide?

Remember, they believe it so it must be true.

Getting frank with Rep. Lasee

It really is time that folks like Rep. Frank Lasee be honest with their constituents and admit that they are in charge of state government spending. Yet recently, Rep. Lasee had this to say on his blog, "Despite all the talk in government about keeping taxes down, government is still growing faster than our ability to pay."

Mr. Lasee, YOU ARE THE GOVERNMENT!! You have been there for 10 years. Have you voted against all of the increased spending? Did the budgets the Assembly passed contain structural deficits? You were elected in the 1994 'revolution' which I guess was more of a revolution of who is in the legislature than a revolution on policies and ideas.

And please spare me the argument that Chuck Chvala made the Republicans vote for more and more state spending. Rep. Lasee and his party have had plenty of time where they were in control of two out of the three parts of state government that write the budget since he was elected. Those seems like good odds for getting your priorities passed. Yet they still talk about increased government spending like it is some mythical being that they would slay if only they could get control of it.

The truth is, Republicans have gleefully spent the taxpayer's money hand over fist pretty much as soon as they got into power. Heck, the Republicans at the federal level have spent more money than the Democrats could ever dream of spending. The only reason state spending is being cut now is that Governor Doyle, a Democrat, took the lead and made them do it to get rid of the deficits the Republican Thompson Administration left behind.

Perhaps Rep. Lasee can't slay state government spending because he spends his time worrying about things like what the tree in the rotunda is called. His blog a week later is all about the attack on Christmas and what to call the tree in the rotunda. And yes, it is a Christmas tree. But really, who cares? Christmas came to my house despite the 'attack' on Christmas.

The 800 lb gorilla - Rep. Wiekert's ego

I wish I was making this up, for Rep. Wiekert's sake, but I'm not. This is the actual title to a news release from his office this week:

Rep. Wieckert: Move Over King Kong; Jeremy’s Law which promotes the collection of cord blood stem cells takes Wieckert to top of New York City’s media landscape

Don't get me wrong, Jeremy's Law is a great law that will hopefully save many lives down the road. But I'm not sure which is worse - that the title of his release is so corny or that it is really about Rep. Wiekert being on the news in NYC instead of Jeremy's Law.

Walmart - Always Just Low

On Tuesday January 3rd, Wisconsin Public Television will run an episode of Frontline titled "Is Walmart Good for America?"

In Madison it airs at 8pm but you should check your local Wisconsin Public Television listings to see when it is running in your area. You can check that here.

You'll get to see Walmart shove American jobs overseas as fast as they can by forcing companies to offer their products at such ridiculously low prices to Walmart to sell that they have to move overseas to do it. Think that it hasn't happened to jobs here in Wisconsin? Think again. Mirro cookware ring a bell? They are just one of many manufacturing plants that have shifted production overseas to be able to accommodate Walmart's price demands.

Sure, you can buy cheaper pots and pans now, but how long do you think our country can continue to replace good-paying jobs that can support a family with jobs that pay barely above minimum wage and have no benefits?

Those cheap pots and pans are costing our country a lot and the bill is coming due soon.

Only twice??

Governor Doyle will sign a bill soon that was probably long overdue. The bill will allow county boards to downsize twice within a decade. It also allows citizens to force a downsize via referendum.

For some crazy reason, we use to only allow them to downsize once every decade after a census. So why were unwilling to let them downsize? Anyone that has followed the Dane County Board even casually would probably give up their first born if it meant reducing the number of people we are forced to listen to debate a topic to death if we want to follow what they are doing.

Luckily, someone is going to try this in Dane County soon. Dane County Supervisor Dave de Felice is hoping to cut the Dane County Board in half to 19. Probably a wise move since they currently have more supervisors than there are state senators. Yeah, that's right. We have more people representing us at the county level than the entire state has representing them in the state senate.

You can find a short story about it on WISC-TV's website.

Good Work If You Can Get It

A story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reveals that voting in public is just too much work for the leadership of the Wisconsin State Senate.

The best reason listed for not voting in public has to go to Senator Dave Zien.

Zien said he uses such ballots to manage the committee's workload. "I'm a little afraid of overextending our committee - taking our committee members and taxing them beyond their endurance," he said.

Senator Zien thinks doing their job is just too hard on them. If that's the case, I'm sure the voters would be happy to send Senator Zien on long vacation next November.

Maybe if the state legislature stopped passing bills over and over again that their constituents don't even want, like concealed carry, they wouldn't be so taxed trying to get committee work done.