A Green pickle

The AARP delivered some bad news to Congressman Green yesterday. The folks in his district didn't like his vote to cut Medicaid and they are hoping he won't do it again. Seems they don't like the fact that the bill coming to a vote in Congress makes it harder for people to qualify for financial assistance to pay for nursing homes.

And these aren't just any folks. The AARP surveyed folks over the age of 50, aka solid voters that show up on election day. The poll found:

● A total of 8 in 10 respondents (81%) oppose cutting Medicaid funding as a way to reduce the federal debt (67% strongly oppose).
● A substantial majority of respondents across political parties oppose cutting Medicaid funding to reduce the federal debt. Nearly three-quarters of Republican respondents (72%), 85% of Democrats, and 83% of Independent respondents
oppose this proposed change.

Congressman Green might want to take a look at the number of Republicans that are opposed to this plan. It's a good assumption that the rest of the Republicans in Wisconsin, those primary voters he needs, don't think the budget should be 'balanced' on the backs of people facing life in a nursing home. Not to mention the Independents, those general election voters he needs,
wouldn't be too happy with this vote even if Congressman Green did survive the primary after taking a second bad vote that his leadership makes him take on this issue.

Seeing double

I have long suspected the many Republicans don't think much for themselves and just say what the party leaders have told them to say. And here is proof. Check out the following two quotes from two different press releases.

This is quote if from Brett Davis in this press release:

Representative Brett Davis (R-Oregon) said health care costs continue to rise for Wisconsin’s working families, and that the Assembly will take up bills aimed at making the health care system more affordable while making it easier for consumers to make informed decisions. “We’ll pass reforms that will allow patients greater access to information about the cost and quality of health care and easier access to information about their doctors,” Davis said. “Health care decisions are often difficult and stressful. They are also some of the most important decisions people will ever make, so we need to ensure patients have the information they need.”

And this quote is from Rep. Mary Williams in this press release:

Representative Mary Williams (R – Medford) said health care costs continue to rise for Wisconsin’s working families, and that the Assembly will take up bills aimed at making the health care system more affordable while making it easier for consumers to make informed decisions. “We’ll pass reforms allowing patients easier access to information about their doctors and more access to information about costs and quality of health care,” Williams said. “Health care decisions are often difficult, stressful and some of the most important decisions people will ever make, so we will ensure patients have the information they need.”

Oooooh, Rep. Williams sounds so much more forceful than Rep. Davis by saying 'we will' instead of 'we need'. It's almost a whole different quote!

Just how long should they wait?

The American Progress Action Fund has an article with Secretary of Health and Human Services offering this advice for folks having problems getting their prescription drugs under the new federal plan:

Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt suggested, "If you are one of those seniors experiencing problems, our message is don't leave the pharmacy without your drugs."

Unfortunately, they could be in for a long day. The article also notes that:

According to recent news reports, "Pharmacists spent hours on the telephone trying to reach insurance companies that administer the drug benefit under contract to Medicare."

Someone alert Jerry Falwell

Someone should alert Jerry Falwell that the Teletubbies are really doing their level best today to corrupt children. Tinky Winky, the Teletubby Falwell claims is gay because he carries a bag and is purple, had a pink ballerina skirt on today. Oh wait, all of the Teletubbies have taken turns putting the skirt on! Will he claim they are all gay now? How you get male or female from the things in that picture is beyond me. Of course if we decided to label every child that carried a purse or dressed in clothes not 'typical' of their gender as gay, we wouldn't be having a debate on an amendment to ban gay marriage and civil unions since almost everyone would be gay under that definition.
-Photo from BBC

Choice Action

The Fund for Choices in Education has donated a lot of money to supporters of the Milwaukee School Choice program. Indeed a lot of the checks they write to individual candidates have commas in them and all told they gave tens of thousands of dollars to candidates in the 2004 election cycle. It would seem it netted them some pretty quick action in the legislature too.

You would be hard pressed to find a bill that moved through the legislature faster than AB3, a bill to eliminate the caps on the Milwaukee School Choice Program. The legislature was barely in the door from the January 3rd inauguration when AB3 was introduced on January 11, 2005. It was passed by the Joint Finance Committee only a week later with a fiscal note that ranged from $3.2 million to $6.5 million for state GPR money depending on how many students enrolled in the program after the cap was lifted.

It was then sent to the Education Reform Committee where it sailed through only two days after it was passed by the Joint Finance Committee. A week later, it passed on the floor of the Assembly and was sent to the Senate.

The Senate wasted no time in taking up the bill and sent it to the floor on February 8th. The Senate even refused to send the bill to the Senate Education Committee and instead went ahead and passed the bill on February 8th.

The bill moved through both chambers in less than a month total, which is really fast for the state legislature. But then, the Fund for Choices in Education made some very educated choices on where to send their campaign dollars.

Both Speaker John Gard and then Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, the two men in charge of getting their Republican colleagues elected and in control of which legislation would come to the floor in the next session, received large donations from the Fund for Choices in Education conduit in the height of election season. Speaker Gard received $1,175 on September 15th, 2004 to bring his year total from the conduit to $2,825. Senator Fitzgerald received $3,000 just days after he was elected Majority Leader and $2,000 more a week later to bring his year total to $6,000 from the group.

The Fund for Choices in Education also made sure that all of Speaker Gard's and Senator Fitzgerald's top election targets received large donations as well. The largest recipient was Senator Kapanke (R-LaCrosse) with $9,000 for 2004. Senator Kapanke received donations from the group as large as $2,000 and $3,000 at a time. He not only voted for passage for AB 3, he voted against even sending the bill to the Senate Education Committee. Perhaps as a new senator he thought all bills moved this fast, didn't usually go to committee, and had a price tag no one could be sure of even though the state had a deficit.

The Fund for Choices in Education is funded by some of the same folks we see currently working to make sure the Milwaukee School Choice Program is expanded with no additional accountability. The Walton family is major part of the conduit and is also trying to fund a 'study' of the Milwaukee program done by folks that support the voucher system which will take ten years to complete. They do not seem to mind that in ten years thousands of children could go through schools that will not do a good job preparing them for the future. It will be too late to help those children but the program will be firmly cemented in without accountability by then, and that's really the goal here.

They have gotten what they wanted in record time in the past. Hopefully they will not succeed this time.

You can find the bill history here. The Wisconsin State Elections Board ID number for the conduit is #900152.

Madison School Board forums

Earlier this week the Dane County Public Affairs Council held a forum for the Madison School Board Candidates. If you are interested in how the candidates answered the seven questions asked of them, you can go here and watch the video. Madison United for Academic Excellence also hosted a forum and you can watch that video here.

I have not watched the videos yet but wanted to provide the link in case folks are interested in hearing the candidates at a forum. The video is broken up into sections for each question so you only have to watch the answers to the questions you are interested in. Perhaps you'd rather watch paint dry, but I thought I'd provide the links.

Rumsfeld's diagnosis

Earlier this week a Pentagon released report done by a former Army Officer said the Army does not have enough people to meet the workload currently being thrown at it. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld rejected the conclusions without reading the study as reported here by CNN. This cartoon from Tom Toles at the Washington Post effectively sums up Sec. Rumsfeld's view of the current situation the Army is in. Which one to believe? The Secretary of Defense or someone who has actually been in the Army?

We are asking our military forces and families to do too much. Some forces are on their third rotation in Iraq already and that conflict is far from over.

I think it's time we started a new policy for Congress. If they want to vote our troops into war, everyone that votes yes has to put their name in a hat and ten of them have to go to war with the troops. And I don't mean going to visit. I mean you are going to be in a helicopter going over enemy fire or traveling down roads that have IEDs. You get the same treatment a soldier gets, nothing special. If the cause you are voting to send others to defend is important, you shouldn't be afraid to put yourself with them. WWII would have passed this test, Iraq would not.

Think we'd have as many troops deployed for political purposes with this rule? It's pretty easy to say you are pro-troops from behind a desk.

Stay in school and stay away from my house

It was interesting listening to Sen. Cathy Stepp passionately defend a charter school in her district this week on the Senate floor because of what it does for minorities. Maybe she figures if they are at the school, the little 'terrorists' won't be at her house.

A standard for his colleagues

I had decided to do that a long time ago. We're just too close to it.
--GOP Sen. Luther Olsen, telling WisPolitics he will recuse himself from voting on the pending ethanol bill due to business ties.

Perhaps Sen. Olsen should talk to Rep. Gunderson sometime about ethics and explain conflicts of interest. Rep. Gunderson is not only voting on bills to increase gun sales, he has introduced and is actively pushing bills on the matter. How is that is not a conflict?

When are Republicans for hate crime legislation? When people hate Republicans.

Yesterday, Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Rick Graber called for stricter penalties against people that commit hate crimes, but only if it is about elections and targeted at Republicans. In his press release, Mr. Graber said this:

“As we have seen in the last two presidential elections, political hi-jinks against the GOP ran rampant in Wisconsin,” said Rick Graber, chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin.

You mean, gasp, there are people who commit crimes simply because of what someone is? Say it isn't so Mr. Graber. Your party preaches non-stop that we don't need to protect people from things that are already illegal. Let's see, what are you saying we need to make doubly illegal? Theft, damage to personal property, bribery and fraud. Aren't those illegal now? But I guess if Republicans are being attacked we should do what we can to protect them. A man that gets beat to death for being gay, no, but for Republicans that have yard signs stolen we need new laws!

Perhaps Mr. Graber should have worked to make sure headlines like this didn't happen in the past - Republicans Derail Vote on Hate Crime Bill. You can find the story here.

Happy Birthday Mr. Toki

Toki Middle School students attended a birthday party I hope they won't soon forget. The Wisconsin State Journal reports that the students and faculty held a 90th birthday party for the school's namesake, Akira Toki.

Toki is a WWII veteran who was born in Madison in 1916. Being part of the only Japanese family to live in Madison could not have been easy once WWII came around, but he joined the Army because he loved his country even if everyone in the country didn't love him at the time. He earned a Purple Heart and was wounded twice during the war, including a head injury from shrapnel that went through him helmet. He also took part in a rescue effort where only 21 of the 200 men in Toki's unit survived. His service didn't stop after the war either. He has donated books and his time to the Toki students.

I can't think of anyone that deserves a long life more than Toki. I hope he gets many more years here to teach the kids at Toki Middle School all that he has to offer.

A biased report

Earlier this week I posted about the problems of studies funded by supporters of one side of an argument and the likelihood of getting unbiased results. The Walton Foundation wants to fund a 'study' on voucher schools in Milwaukee, but they have been a huge financial force in getting voucher programs started around the country.

Today, the Wisconsin State Journal has a story that illustrates why funding for a study that comes from with someone with an established stake in an argument just doesn't work. Five non-profit groups received over $150,000 from American Transmission Co, which wants to build a new high-voltage power line across Dane County that many residents have been fighting. Needless to say, the report saying we need the power line where the company wants it is being met with skepticism.

This is not to say that we don't need it. But the environmental groups that took the money are now having their integrity questioned and few people are going to take this report very seriously. Does anyone believe that the American Transmission Company would have released a report that didn't back up their claims?

Legislature gets wrong message on 8-year-old hunting bill

Last April, a meeting of the Conservation Congress voted down an advisory question to lower the hunting age from 12 to 10-year-olds. It went down 6,103 votes to 3,775 votes. That's almost a 2-1 defeat.

Somehow I don't think they meant to convey the message that they wanted even younger kids in the woods with loaded guns.

And before you think a bunch of libs showed up to sway the vote, they also voted to allow folks to shoot feral domestic cats that day too.

Fiscal conservatives hard at work today

The Senate just voted 23-10 to override the Governor's veto of the Concealed Carry Bill.

Yet another example of fiscal conservatives hard at work. The fiscal note for this bill that the majority of the people of Wisconsin don't even want says this:

Staff costs--$281,826
Costs to issue permits--$56,000
Start equipment costs--$793,826

Throw it on the state credit card folks. The Republicans just said we can't afford the initiatives in Governor Doyle's State of the State Address to help folks pay for heating costs, go to college, and create new jobs. More guns we can afford, but not helping with kids go to college.

Nice family values.

This picture says it all about the attack on health care for women

What do these four have in common? None of them have ever had an appointment with an OB/GYN but they want to tell every woman in Wisconsin what to do at her next doctor's appointment. Jef Hall's blog has a good post on this.

The truth is, if men had babies, birth control pills would be available in vending machines and abortion clinics would look something like the ESPN Zone bars - big leather chairs with speakers built into the head rests, about 20 large TVs, and someone to bring snacks and beer. Men fighting to get involved in the decisions women make about their health care is about power and control, not children. Women that can't control their reproductive future will never be on equal ground in the workforce and therefore, less likely to be a CEO or President of the United States.

If these are the folks Rep. Green consults about women's health care, women should consult someone else to be governor.

Scott Walker: Working hard for Milwaukee taxpayers

Do you think Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker mentions this little fact (reported in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) when he is in Milwaukee praising the voucher program?

the non-partisan state Legislative Fiscal Bureau in Madison that showed that Milwaukeeans, in effect, pay about $1,000 more in property taxes per student in the voucher program than they pay in property taxes per student in MPS. The figures provided by Robert Lang, director of the bureau, showed that the property tax levy on city taxpayers works out to $2,858 for each voucher student and $1,816 for each MPS student.

Do you think Congressman Mark Green and Rep. Leah Vukmir mentioned it at their 'non-political' campaign event in Milwaukee?

What's the real intent here?

Rep. Scott Gunderson (R-Waterford) says that the reason we have to get third-graders loaded weapons is because we need to get them involved in hunting early. He says:

"It's important to get kids involved in hunting at a younger age. If they are not engaged in hunting by 12 or 13, they probably won't be, said Gunderson, R-Waterford.

Is there a law out there now that prevents hunters from taking their kids with them when they go hunting? Can't they participate in hunting by watching and learning and spending time with older, experienced hunters? Let's here from you folks. I'll admit I'm wrong on this if you tell me I am. Does Wisconsin law currently prevent eight-year-olds to go along on the hunt with a parent without a gun?

Why is the actual killing of the deer necessary? If a child doesn't even like tagging along on the hunt, chances are they aren't going to like hunting period. And if seeing and smelling the blood of a deer they killed themselves is the only way to get an eight-year-old interested, perhaps we don't want those particular kids having guns at all.

There is also a lot of talk that we should let the parents decide if their child is old enough to handle hunting, but this is no ordinary parental decision. It affects the safety of all the other hunters out there in the woods on the same day that choose not to hunt with third-graders.

WI biotech hotspot...for now

The Wisconsin State Journal has an article today saying FierceBiotech is going to list Wisconsin as one of five emerging biotech hot spots. The only way we can stay on this list is if the Republicans controlling the state legislature stay out of the way.

Last year Governor Doyle had to veto a bill that could have impacted stem-cell research. The bill was another example of Republicans trying to get in the way of science and job creation all so they can pander to the extreme branch of their party that wants to protect every human cell every created. Supporters of the bill claimed they were not trying to stop stem-cell research, only cloning. However, some Republicans tried to amend the bill so it would only ban reproductive cloning. They failed. Why would they have to amend the bill to protect stem-cell research if they bill didn't threaten stem-cell research?

A statement by the sponsor of the bill, Senator Joe Leibham, also gives away the true intent of the bill - stopping parts of stem-cell research they don't like. He said:

"The bill tried to set the guidelines for Wisconsin and allow the real positive areas of research that are really providing the most results," Leibham said, referring to adult stem cell and umbilical cord blood research.

Should UW Scientists figure out what areas of stem-cell research are the most promising or Senator Joe 'Spaceman' Leibham?

This is not the first time the extremists in the Republican party have tried to put the brakes on stem-cell research. It probably won't be the last. If they are allowed to succeed, Wisconsin could rapidly fall off the list of biotech hot spots. Many other states have seen the huge job potential in this field and are moving fast to support a biotech industry in their state with taxpayer funds. Supposed 'pro-job' Republicans should help make sure that Wisconsin doesn't lose its place.

Go on take the money and run

This must have been the song playing at the secret Cheney energy meetings since the Bush Administration seems uninterested in getting the funds that are really owed to taxpayers by the oil and gas companies. The federal deficit is over $400 billion and the Bush Administration's response is to get rid of the folks trying to make sure taxpayers are fully compensated for use of public lands? From the American Progress report:

"At a time when energy prices and industry profits are soaring, the federal government collected little more money last year than it did five years ago from the companies that extracted more than $60 billion in oil and gas from publicly owned lands and coastal waters," the New York Times reports. "If royalty payments in fiscal 2005 for natural gas had risen in step with market prices, the government would have received about $700 million more than it actually did." American taxpayers have missed out on the booming natural gas industry at a time when "the Interior Department has scaled back on full audits, pushed out a couple of its more aggressive auditors and been criticized by its own inspector general for the audits that it did pursue." "These companies had knowingly been cheating on oil for years, if not decades," said Danielle Brian of the Project on Government Oversight. "To ignore the likelihood that the same thing is happening on the gas side is absurd."

But this isn't political - It's all about the kids

I think this press release speaks for itself. For starters, it's from a campaign...

--From Rob Rogers at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

8, 10, whatever, just let me sell more guns

The Dailytakes blog seems to think folks shouldn't be questioning the fact that one of the biggest proponents of the concealed carry bill and the effort to get younger and younger kids carrying loaded weapons, Rep. Scott Gunderson, owns a gun store. It's a legitimate question. Why? It's called a conflict of interest since Rep. Gunderson stands to gain something from the bill. This is something normally frowned upon when it comes to folks introducing legislation.

In fact, if you look at Gunderson's legislation list, you see he is trying to get the age lowered to any point he can. He has introduced this bill to let 10 and 11-year-olds hunt. And he also sponsors the bill to let eight and nine-year-olds hunt. He'll take more guns sales any way he can get them.

Ask yourself if it would matter if Rep. Gunderson sold shoes instead and introduced a bill to eliminate sales tax on the sale of shoes. Would you think he stood something to gain by this bill to increase shoe sales? Would people be crying foul?

I'm not against hunting. I've got a freezer full of venison and I'm quite certain my son will go hunting someday. I just don't think he should have that loaded gun in his hand when he is in third grade. Third grade. Go watch a playground of third-graders this week and try to picture them with loaded guns in their hands in a thick woods where it can be really hard to see and other people are also walking in the woods. How do you even handle therapy for an eight-year old that accidentally shoots his or her father while hunting? It happens with 12-year-olds so don't think it isn't going to happen with younger kids.

And really, do you want to be the one within arms length of an eight-year-old carrying a loaded gun? I don't.

You want more kids to take up hunting Mr Gunderson? Work harder to set aside more public lands for people to use instead of fighting with Governor Doyle over Stewardship money. I hear more people complain that public hunting grounds are too crowded to be safe than I do those calling for more kids with guns. Test more deer for CWD to make sure it isn't spreading and give more people confidence that the state is really getting a handle on this problem. The blow CWD dealt to hunting over the last couple of years will not be undone by letting eight-year-olds hunt. Better monitoring of the problem will.

This bill will not increase the number of kids that will take up hunting for a lifetime. Kids will either like hunting or they won't no matter what age they start. It may however, cut some of those lives short.

Voucher study comes under question

An article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel recently went through the plans for Georgetown University to study Milwaukee's School Choice Program. In the article concerns are raised about whether or not the research will be biased. Turns out they have good cause to be concerned.

One of the donors is going to be the Walton Family Foundation. This foundation has been trying to get voucher programs going around the country and has put millions of dollars into that goal. Here is what the People For the American Way found about the Walton Family Foundation efforts:

Through the Walton Family Foundation, Wal-Mart heir John Walton is one of the voucher movement's most prolific donors, providing a steady stream of money for almost every element of the movement, from think tanks to political campaigns. On the policy and research front, the Walton Foundation funds pro-voucher think tanks like the Goldwater Institute and the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. On the legislative front, John Walton personally contributed $2 million to the failed 2000 Michigan voucher initiative as well as $250,000 to California's Prop 174 in 1993, another unsuccessful voucher initiative. Walton also bankrolled the California effort through his American Education Reform Foundation30, as well as an unsuccessful 1997 voucher campaign in Minnesota.

Hmmm, do you think they are going to let a study come out saying that vouchers aren't the best thing since sliced bread? I doubt it.

There is another concern as well. This study has been rejected in the past because participationon by the voucher schools is not mandatory. Let's see, which schools are going to volunteer to be in the study? The good ones. And which ones will refuse to participate? The bad ones with something to hide. This will hardly give an accurate look at the voucher schools. It's the same problem we have now with this program. Bad schools aren't forced to give out information on how they are doing and are allowed to hide for too long. Why spend millions more putting that down in a long report?

Inclusionary Zoning process not so inclusionary

Madison City Alderperson Larry Palm says in his blog that he learned that the City of Madison released the Inclusionary Zoning Report from the newspaper! Hello?

Is anyone other than Alderperson Brenda Konkel allowed in on this issue? You would think the Alderfolks would be given a copy of this report, wouldn't you? It's not like this is some little side issue. This is an issue that impacts development and therefore, impacts just about every other issue facing the city - costs of city services, school populations, traffic, you name it.

The city council is about to consider some changes to Inclusionary Zoning. Let's hope the information process improves before they make the changes.

Where women's health care is heading is Alito bit scary

John Gard tagged as Tom DeLay's man

The Captial Times has an editorial tagging Rep. John Gard as Congressman Tom DeLay's man in Wisconsin's 8th District Congressional Race. Seems like the Republicans in the 8th District should take a good look at Rep. Terri McCormick if DeLay's team has refused to meet with her. Here it is:

Editorial: John Gard is DeLay's man
An editorial

U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay may have stepped down as House majority leader and as the kingpin of congressional Republicans.

But before scandal forced DeLay out of the leadership of his party's legislative forces, he established a ruthless political operation that had as its goal the nomination and election not merely of conservative Republicans but of conservative Republicans who would do the bidding of DeLay and his corporate paymasters.

That operation did not disappear when DeLay stepped down.

DeLay's operation is still playing politics, and it is still identifying the Republicans who will serve the special interests that have grown so powerful in recent years, as opposed to the public interest that has been so undermined by the Texan's reign of error.

In Wisconsin, where Republican voters will choose a nominee next September to replace U.S. Rep. Mark Green, the Green Bay area conservative who is seeking his party's nomination for governor, the DeLay operation has made its choice.

It is supporting outgoing Assembly Speaker John Gard of Peshtigo for the Republican nomination in Green's northeast Wisconsin 8th District. The National Republican Campaign Committee is already providing financial support to Gard, despite the fact that another conservative Republican legislator, state Rep. Terri McCormick of Appleton, is also seeking the seat.

DeLay's operation has refused to meet with McCormick because, while she may be right on their issues, she tends to think for herself. She says things like: "The voters should speak first instead of political insiders."

For Wisconsin Republicans the choice is clear: Both Gard and McCormick are credible candidates. Both are conservatives. What distinguishes them is that Gard is now the official candidate of the DeLay operation, while McCormick will have to settle for the support of those who believe that Republicans should break the chains of corruption that the disgraced Texan has left on their party.
Published: January 21, 2006

-from Tom Toles and the Washington Post

Insult to injury

This quote from Patti Lorbecki, a co-owner of Piggly Wiggly in Jefferson, says it all. It is from a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story about the bill to require large profitable companies like Walmart to pay for part of the costs of having their employees in state health care programs.

"I certainly want to pay for our employees' health care benefits, but I'll be darned if I have to pay for Wal-Mart's, too," said Lorbecki. "Why should small-business people have to foot the bill for someone who is making millions and millions in profit?" she asked.

Why indeed. These small business are already struggling to compete with Walmart and now they must help Walmart put them out of business by paying taxes that subsidize Walmarts low prices.

The article also contained some sobering statistics on health care overall in our country.

• The estimated number of people without health insurance has increased by 6 million since 2000, rising to 45.8 million, or more than one in seven people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
• The percentage of companies that offer health benefits - the primary source of insurance for people under 65 - fell to 60% last year from 69% in 2000, according to an annual survey by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, which does health policy research.
• The number of people who get health insurance through their employer dropped by 3.7 million from 2000 to 2004 while the population increased by 11.6 million.
• The number of people insured through Medicaid and affiliated programs rose to 37.5 million, or 12.9% of the population.

Maybe the Clinton's were on to something with universal health care. Yes, they botched the delivery of the proposal big time but the idea is still sorely needed in this country and it is time to look at again.

Honey, I won't shrink the County Board

Surprise surprise. Dane County Board Supervisor Eileen Bruskewitz has introduced a measure to freeze the Dane County Board at its current size until at least 2010. She thinks we need to do what every government official proposes to do with an issue they don't want to deal with - study it to death. The measure is in response to Supervisor Dave de Felice's proposal to cut the Dane County Board in half. The Dane County Board currently has 39 members, which is six more members than the Wisconsin State Senate has to represent the entire state.

Bruskewitz's "I need a few more years to figure out what office to run for next" proposal is supported by over half of the County Board so action to reduce the size of the board is unlikely any time soon.

NOTE- Ooops. I just realized that I have been using the wrong number of county board members. I forgot that they county board reduced its members by two in 2001. So, ok, they have only have four more members than the entire Wisconsin State Senate.

Where there's smoke

This week the city of Madison fined three bars for violating the smoking ban. I've been wondering how long it would be before we saw this story and the answer was six months.

According to the Wisconsin State Journal, the city has received 40 complaints about 17 different places. The Locker Room will have to pay $1,041; Tail Gators will pay $247.25; and Hammer Time will pay $950.

I have to admit I am torn on this ban. On the one hand, I love being able to go to smoke free bars. I hate coming home with a jacket that smells like I rolled in an ashtray. I also hated breathing in all that smoke. On the other hand, I go to the bars about once a month these days and that is not enough to keep some of the unique bars on the East Side of Madison that I love open. I really fear that we will lose some great establishments to the ban.

Supporters say give it year, but I waitressed in college and I didn't have a year to pay my rent. Folks point to the NYC ban and say it all worked out a year into the ban. I'm not sure that is a good comparison since people that live in Madison can easily go to Monona or Fitchburg without too much of a drive. And then there's that - the driving. I hope we don't see an increase in drinking and driving from this either.

Here is the thing I am not torn about though - the fines for further violations at the bars that have been cited already seem outrageously high. The Locker Room fine would go up to $5,416!

I hope I'm wrong and all the great small bars of Madison make it through. They are one of the things that gives the East Side of Madison so much character.

For everyone with complaints about property taxes within the Madison School District

The Madison School District has come up with an exercise in order to learn more about what the communities believes the priorities of the school district should be when it comes to spending. They have created a model $100 budget and folks are being asked to cut $3.85 from it. The $3.85 represents the $10 million the school district is anticipating it will have to cut in the next budget to comply with state revenue caps.

The Wisconsin State Journal put together two panels of five people and neither panel could agree upon $3.85 to cut. Panel one found a total of $1.90 in reductions and panel two agreed on $2.41 in cuts. You can find the story here.

This is an exercise that everyone who plans to vote in the upcoming school board election should go through as a means to figure out what questions to ask candidates before they choose two for election day. I hope before anyone issues vague complaints about rising property taxes with the upcoming school board election, they do this exercise and figure out where they would make cuts. It's tough. You can find the exercise here to do on your own or you can go to one of the many community meetings that are listed at that link to do the exercise with a group.

The Madison School District, like every other school district in Wisconsin, is being asked to do more with less every year. Add in population shifts, skyrocketing health care costs every year, a state funding formula that desperately needs adjustment, a well-educated population that demands education excellence for their children but is concerned with rising property taxes and you find yourself with a very hard task if you are a Madison School Board member.

Yet there are four brave souls running for the two seats on the Madison School Board that are up this spring. As a parent I intend to follow the races closely so you can be assured that there will be many posts here about that election down the road.

Supreme Court makes Republicans stick to what they believe

Earlier this week the Washington Post reported that the U.S. Supreme Court made the Republicans actually stick to their beliefs when they upheld Oregon's assisted suicide law. Republicans had been trying to invalidate the law by taking away the medical licenses of doctors that help patients with their medical choice to end their lives when they have terminal illnesses. The Republicans are the party of state rights remember.

The ruling reminded me of something that happened when I was a legislative aid in DC to Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) during the time Congress started this efforts to get rid of Oregon's right to set their own laws. The Chairman of the Judiciary Committee at the time was Rep. Henry 'Youthful Indiscretion' Hyde (R-IL). One day my boss got onto the elevator with him and asked him why someone who champions state rights would be holding a hearing for a bill to basically do away with a law the people of Oregon had voted for not once, but twice in a statewide referendum.

My boss said, "I thought you were for state rights Henry." And Rep. Hyde yelled at my boss, "Only when they're right" and got off the elevator.

Great quote

"Masochists agree that if you're seeking free entertainment, displays of public foolishness and the aftertaste of tortured frustration, it's hard to beat a legislative hearing."

-Pat Durkin, freelance writer in the Wisconsin State Journal

What Rep. Mark Green says we can afford

After new ideas were offered in Governor Doyle's State of the State address this week, Rep. Mark Green sounded the standard line about any Democratic initiatives: we can't afford them.

Here is what he said:

Green: Nothing Affordable About Jim Doyle's Agenda

Funny, the federal deficit didn't stop him from putting a few earmarks in the federal budget this year. He trumpets his work to get money for dredging here. He pats himself on the back for getting money for a bridge here. And lets everyone know he got money for the Wisconsin Forest Legacy Project here. All while the federal deficit is climbing up to over $400 billion dollars this year.

Am I saying that these projects don't deserve funding? No. But Rep. Mark Green says there is nothing affordable about Governor Doyle's agenda and says if he is elected governor, he will put the breaks on runaway spending. Based on his record spending money in Congress, why should folks believe him that he will cut spending? Republicans at the federal level should not get away with telling folks they are going to cut spending and be fiscally responsible anymore since they have piled up more debt than we could have imagined.

And please spare me the 'we are at war' bit. What is going on in Iraq has nothing to do with dredging harbors in Wisconsin.

That 'unaffordable' agenda Doyle is proposing would cost about $14.7 million in the current budget cycle and would increase to about $63.3 million in the next two-year budget cycle according to the Wisconsin State Journal. So a little over $30 million a year to help send more kids to college, help people pay for health insurance, make sure heating bills don't force people to cut back on food, and retain and increase manufacturing and high-tech jobs. Sounds like a bargain to me and in line with the values of our state.

If Rep. Mark Green can't figure out how to accommodate only $30 million for these worthy goals in a budget that spends billions, he shouldn't even run for governor. It's pretty much the whole job.

CEOs robbing workers

MSN Money has a story online right now that illustrates just how greedy corporate American has become. The headline for the story is "CEOs cut pensions, pad their own." The subtitle of the story says it all:

Some executives who slash workers' pensions are keeping or even padding their own fat retirement packages. And some even reap bigger bonuses as pension cuts boost profits.

That's not a profit, that's theft. These CEOs are yanking the rug out from under their employees after promising them pensions. Take the IBM example:

When International Business Machines froze its pension plan in early January, thousands of its employees suddenly felt a lot less certain about their retirement security. Samuel Palmisano, IBM chief executive, has no such worries. Palmisano, according to IBM's regulatory filings, will receive an annual pension of $4 million when he retires at age 65. That works out to $75,000 a week -- or more than $10,000 a day, including weekends.

That's on top of the $6.8 million in salary and bonuses Palmisano received in 2004. The deals these guy cut make sports agents look like amateurs.

Where's the beef part two? - Not in Japan

Japan has halted U.S. imports of beef only six weeks after they had lifted the last ban according to a story in the San Diego Union-Tribune. Japan's cause for concern? A shipment of veal contained spinal column bone tissue. Yikes! Asian countries believe this is a mad cow risk but the U.S. National Cattlemen's Beef Association says it is not. Hmmm, which one to trust here? An organization looking to sell as much beef as possible or a country that tests every cow for possible problems before it is eaten? I say, who cares, let's not have it in the meat period.

Here's the nutty thing though:

The bone tissue Japan found is allowed in the U.S. food supply because it comes from animals younger than 30 months of age.

Super. And the other part of this story that should make folks sit up and take notice? The U.S. Agriculture Secretary called for unannounced inspections of U.S. plants. Which begs the question, aren't we doing this anyway?

Leviticus Lawbreaker #4

Leviticus Lawbreaker #4 is Vice President Dick Cheney. (Come on, what were the chances he wasn't going to be on this list?) The particular offense I am using happened in June of 2004 on the floor of the U.S. Senate when he told Senator Patrick Leahy what he could do with himself after he dared to bring up some questions about Haliburton. Chapter 19 of Leviticus says we are not allowed to curse so the VP joins the list of Leviticus Lawbreakers.

So to recap:Leviticus Lawbreaker #1 - Me, for eating scallops

Leviticus Lawbreaker #2 - Mikhail Gorbachev for having a blemish on his head and setting foot in a church with said blemish.

Leviticus Lawbreaker(s) #3 - The Pittsburgh Steelers, the Indianapolis Colts, the Chicago Bears, and the Carolina Panthers, for playing football.

Leviticus Lawbreaker #4 - Vice President Dick Cheney for cursing.

Note- Not sure what this is? Go to the January archives and check out the post for January 10th called Leviticus Laws.

John Gard's Bill Clinton moment

Do you think John Gard fancies himself on the road to the White House? In a bizarre press release, John Gard tells us all of the moment he shook President Ronald Reagan's hand at the White House with an almost romance novel like style complete with breathless moments. How desperate is a campaign for news when they put out a release about the candidate's daydreams? After reading this, you can almost see Gard sitting at his desk today drawing little hearts around President Reagan's name and fantasizing about some kid in the future writing a release about him just like this.

And he brings up the government is the problem thing. Mr. Gard, YOU ARE THE GOVERNMENT!! Not only have you been there for almost two decades, you are in charge of an entire house of the legislature. Not to mention, your run for Congress pretty much solidifies you as being the definition of a career politician.

Last defense out the window

One of the many defenses offered by Mark Graul, Rep. Mark Green's campaign manager, about why he did or didn't (depending on what day it was) take tickets from Jack Abramoff's office was that everyone in DC does it.

Perhaps he should pick up a copy of the Isthmus and read the Watchdog Section this week. There is a little story about Senator Russ Feingold not even accepting a single bag of organic fair trade tea sent to him by the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice. The bag is on display in his Madison office as property of the people of Wisconsin.

Feingold has adopted the Wisconsin state code of ethics for his Madison and DC offices. Rep. Green, as a former member of the Wisconsin State Legislature, should be pretty familiar with the state ethics code and he could have adopted them as well. That's what leaders do.

Calling all UW-Madison Alums

The UW-Madison Alumni Association is trying to get the attention of the more than 130,000 UW alums living in Wisconsin with a new website. You can find it here. The website is an attempt to get alumni to help oppose further cuts to the university. It has an online petition to be sent to Governor Doyle, Assembly Speaker John Gard, and Senate President Alan Lasee. (However, according to an online poll on Rep. Pocan's blog, the letter should be addressed to the guy really running the show in the Assembly, Rep. Scott Jensen)

A more active role for the alumni is a critical need for the UW. The legislature has no problem slicing more and more state support for the UW out of the state budget every year even though they claim to be "pro-jobs". If they really wanted to generate more jobs, they would invest more and more into a system that impacts the Wisconsin economy by $4.7 billion, and that is just the Madison campus! Unfortunately, only 14 percent of the 2004–2005 UW-Madison budget comes from state tax dollars. Only a decade ago, this number was about 25 percent. That's a major drop in only ten years.

And yes, the governor did take a major chunk out one year but the deficit handed to him by the Republicans left him little choice. Whacking money out of the UW budget started long before Governor Doyle got there and he is trying to add it back now that he has gotten the state budget on its way to recovery.

So sign the petition if you are one of the thousands of alumni that owe your career to the excellent university we are so lucky to have here. Either that, or expect a lot more phone calls from the UW to raise money directly from alumni. Alumni should give back, but the entire state benefits from the UW system and the state should support it better than it does now.

Where's the beef? Feds don't care

As you bite into your hamburger at lunch today, consider this story from Forbes. It says the USDA has been pretending to investigate anti-competitive behavior in stockyards and meat companies. Some lowlights:

The Agriculture Department has pretended to investigate anticompetitive behavior among stockyards and meat companies since 1999, but in hundreds of cases hasn't actually filed complaints, says an audit released Wednesday. Senior officials blocked investigations from being referred to department lawyers...

And my favorite part:

In the meantime, employees were told to create the appearance of a high rate of enforcement by logging routine letters and reviews of public data as investigations, the inspector general said.

Yeah, that's what you like to hear. The agency charged with making sure our food is safe is pretending to do work. Every day in the U.S. about 200,000 get sick from food. 900 of them are so sick they need to go the hospital and 14 of them will die. This is not an agency we want pretending to do anything.

The meat industry has been consolidating down to a handful of companies over the last few years. This translates into higher prices for consumers as the competition falls in an industry worth about $120 billion. It also means a much more dangerous food supply for the whole country. If there are only a handful of stockyards and processors left, that means they are producing huge volumes of meat. If E. coli. or some other pathogen gets worked into the system at these huge plants, it can sicken people all across the country pretty fast.

So enjoy your lunch but maybe call your Congressperson when you get back and tell them to make sure the USDA is doing their job.

Rep. Green feeling the heat

I have not seem them, but the ads being run by AFSCME/SEIU about how the Federal Budget Slashing Act will hurt seniors must be good because they have Rep. Mark Green's office spitting out a rebuttal faster than you can say "I need this solid group of voters to get through the primary."

His office published a list of myths and facts below and I have added my edits in bold and a second set of actual facts listed in bold.

MYTH: Mark Green “voted to make seniors pay more for their health care.”

FACT: Under the “Deficit Reduction Act,” to which the ad presumably refers, Medicaid spending increases from $184 billion in Fiscal Year 2005 to $193 billion in Fiscal Year 2006 – funding that will continue to increase by nearly 7.6 percent every year for the next ten years, which is a lot of big numbers used to hide the cuts to the program. Increased overall spending doesn't mean they aren't cutting back on health care. Ever heard of a thing called inflation?

The real facts: The Washington Post says the bill reduces some payments under Medicare for private health plans, freezes home health care payments and curtails payment rates for imaging such as MRIs.

MYTH: Mark Green’s vote “will deny nursing home care to thousands.”

FACT: Under the hardship waiver of the “Deficit Reduction Act,” no state can deny nursing home care, food, clothing, shelter or other necessities of life to any senior who lacks the financial means to pay for their individual care. Like our little trick here of passing the buck to the state? We are limiting eligibility for nursing homes but making the states tell people they can't use this program or at the very least, making the states jump through a lot of hoops just to help people in need.

The real facts: The Washington Post says the bill increases out-of-pocket costs for poor people who rely on the state-federal health program, through higher co-pays and premiums in the Medicaid program. It also lets states scale back some benefits and tightens eligibility for nursing homes.

MYTH: Mark Green voted to “cut health care for Wisconsin seniors to give tax breaks to millionaires.”

FACT: The “Tax Relief Extension Reconciliation Act,” to which the ad presumably refers, simply extends current tax relief to millionaires. For example, the bill included provisions to provide tax credits to businesses that hire people receiving public assistance and teachers who purchase school supplies for their students out-of-pocket so we could hide the tax breaks for millionaires behind it.

The real facts: According to Citizens for Tax Justice, the version of the bill passed by the House of Representatives, would extend through 2010 the special 15 percent tax rate on dividends and capital gains, which is currently scheduled to expire after 2008, at a cost of $50.8 billion. Over half of the benefits from this tax break go to the wealthiest 1% of our country. Those in that group make an average of $1.2 million and will get a tax cut of over $26,000.

But seniors aren't the only ones Rep. Mark Green voted to punish for the Republican mismanagement of the federal budget. Look who else gets punished (from the Washington Post):

WELFARE AND CHILD SUPPORT: Cuts $1.6 billion in welfare, child-support enforcement and other human services. Cuts programs that attempt to collect child support from noncustodial or “deadbeat” parents.

EDUCATION: Cuts $12.7 billion for student loans at 6.8 percent. The change comes amid rising tuition costs at colleges and universities.

AGRICULTURE: Cuts agricultural programs, mostly crop subsidies and soil conservation, by $2.7 billion overall.

Do we file this under compassionate conservative?

Abramoff did give two parties

Tom Toles of the Washington Post unveils what Abramoff means when he says he gave to both parties.

The man behind the curtain

Rep. Mark Green is desperately trying to pull of Wizard of Oz move on the seniors of Wisconsin with his letter to Governor Doyle about prescription drugs last week. He thinks Wisconsin should clean up the mess that Congress made on prescription drugs. If you lean close enough to the screen of your computer while the letter is up, you can almost hear him yelling "Look over there, or over there, or anywhere besides the man behind the curtain that voted for the crazy prescription drug plan that no one can understand."

Here is the title to his press release:

In letter to Doyle, Green urges state to better inform seniors on drug savings

Here are the titles to a few of the many news stories that illustrate the real problem is the plan passed by the Federal Government (from NPR, the San Diego Union-Tribune, and the Scripps Howard News Service in that order).

States Act to Help with Medicare Drug Plan Problems
Medicare drug plan confusing seniors
New drug plan confusing for nursing home residents

Just goes to prove that when you write a prescription drug plan to help drug companies make more money instead of simply making it work for seniors, you have a hard time defending it.

Proving art is in the eye of the beholder

What is this picture? It is a painting by former Rep. James Traficant that just sold on Ebay for just under $2,000! You may remember that Traficant is now doing an eight-year sentence for racketeering and bribery. His almost daily trips to the floor of Congress for speeches that contained the phrase "Beam me up" were sometimes funny but always a reminder of why a professional should cut your hair.

According to the Washington Post though, the art world will have to wait for more pictures from the budding artist as his prison cardboard has been taken away.

Alas, the artist can paint no more. "As of January 14, 2006, Mr. Traficant is no longer permitted to partake in workshop activities, therefore he is not allowed to produce any more artwork," the Web site that sold his work reports. "The vast amount of publicity attributed to our website and ebay offerings has triggered the Authorities to further restrict his freedom and his ability to express his creativity.

The artwork can be found on www.beammeupart.com of course. I'm sure the Democrats in Congress were happy to have him beamed anywhere but Congress.

A new friend for Democrats?

Yesterday Wispolitics posted an editorial from Marc Eisen in the Isthmus. In it he says Senator Mike Ellis could have appealed to a lot of Democrats if he ran for governor basically because he now has taken a stance on campaign finance reform. Marc Eisen must not know any Democrats since Senator Ellis is about as attractive to Democrats as root canal. His votes are very conservative. Democrats might find him entertaining at times, but I don't expect to find a 'Democrats for Ellis' club in the future.

Even if Democrats like his stance on campaign finance reform, voters simply don't vote on that issue. It's unfortunate but it's reality.

And I suspect Senator Ellis took a good look at how much the press covers campaign finance now and started to worry about statements he has made in the past like this one from a December 28, 1995 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story:

For his part, Ellis has vowed to remember any and all lobbying groups and lobbyists whom he holds responsible, if he and his party are dumped out of power by Petak's recall. Anyone who has "decided they would like to make me the minority leader . . . is going to have to be prepared to accept the consequences, just like you do in politics," Ellis said.

Sleep Walkering

There will be more on the State of the State speech and response later of course but first I have to mention a hilarious moment that occurred after the speech. As one of the TV crews is interviewing a very tired looking Scott Walker, a smiling Governor Jim Doyle comes into view. Scott Walker looked like he wanted to be anywhere but the State Capitol building while Gov. Doyle looked like he was thriving in the atmosphere. The contrast couldn't have been more stark and the TV crew just happened to catch it.

And yes, I realize how much of a geek of politics I am that I find this little thing hilarious.

Serving up the bull, er, ball

Conservative blogger Jessica McBride joins the chorus of Republicans desperately trying to spin the Jack Abramoff scandal into a Democratic problem and claim it's the Democrats having a bad week. Numerous posts and stories have shot these efforts down in the past. Since she is short on facts, she starts using a tennis theme to help hide the real stories. She has to work so hard to sell this stuff that you can hear the Monica Seles like grunts as McBride tries to get her 'facts' over the net.

McBride writes:

For more than a month, Democratic spinners had been in overdrive attempting to shamelessly tie Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Green to Abramoff, the disgraced Washington, D.C., lobbyist. I wrote about that last week. All the Democrats had against Green was a liberal blogger’s claims that Green’s strategist, Mark Graul, had once requested sporting tickets from an Abramoff associate, which Graul denied. Nobody - other than Democratic partisans - had alleged any legal wrongdoing by Graul. And the media did not have any source documents.

Actually there were some documents. There are numerous emails detailing Mark Graul requesting tickets from Jack Abramoff's office. You can find them here. Minor detail I guess.

Then there is this:

When the political dust settled at the end of the week, Gov. Jim Doyle stood alone as the only candidate in the Wisconsin governor’s race known to have taken money from an Abramoff associate.

Really? And Rep. Tom Delay would be what to Jack Abramoff? No, she's right. Associate is not the right word for Rep. Delay. Very good friend that gives out cash fits much better. Rep. Mark Green must agree since he is not using the $30,000 from Rep. Tom Delay in his campaign for governor. The money Governor Doyle returned was from a lobbyist not even indicted, unlike Rep. Tom Delay.

And my personal favorite from McBride:

Finally, national Democrats embarrassed themselves by being so incredibly mean-spirited and unfair in their questioning of Supreme Court Nominee Sam Alito that they actually made his wife cry on national television.

When did Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina become a Democrat? I must have missed the press release. Senator Graham's questioning made Alito's wife cry. Or maybe McBride missed the Associated Press story about this. Here is how they described it:

After sitting behind Samuel Alito for two days of intense questioning at his Supreme Court confirmation hearing, she left the room during questioning of her husband by Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

Yes, Samuel Alito got intense questions during his nomination. That is what a confirmation hearing is for and both sides do it. It is an extremely powerful job and both sides should ask tough questions when a president of either party makes a nomination.

Game, set, match McBride says often in her post. Too bad the Abramoff game is just beginning.

RPW's attack on River Falls college students

A while back Xoff Files figured the Republican Party must not have enough to do because it filed a complaint with the Pierce County DA about the UW-River Falls College Democrats using the UW server for email. However, a reader of this blog pointed out that the complaint is likely to fall on deaf ears.

In 2002 the State of Wisconsin Elections Board made available via the internet a listing of 2002 fall candidate contact information for the public. The document lists a number of state email addresses. And guess which candidates often listed state emails as a contact? DA's running for re-election.

If it was illegal for state email to be used by candidates and organizations affiliated with campaigns - then the Elections Board would have not listed these email addresses in their publication. Indeed, the Elections Board not only allowed candidates to use state email for campaign purposes, but the Elections Board actually facilitated that usage.

Board games

There is a full-page ad in the Wisconsin State Journal today from Milwaukee area businesses urging Governor Doyle to blow the caps on the School Choice program. I believe that the businesses want to see the Milwaukee School System do better for the kids of Milwaukee. As they mention in the ad, they need a well educated work force for their companies. Blanket support for the School Choice program is not the way to get to that point though.

The ad says unless the cap is removed, dozens of schools achieving good results will likely close. But how do they know which schools are achieving good results? We could find out if the Republicans would support Doyle's efforts to bring some accountability to the program right now while expanding the cap. As Xoff files points out, going with Senator Darling's 'accountability' idea of a long-term study and waiting ten years to find out whether or not kids are getting a good education isn't a good option.

Why are supporters of this program so willing to through more money at this program but not willing to see if the schools in the program are giving kids a good education?

Imagine that the School Choice program was a new product line for any of the two dozen companies that placed the ad in the Wisconsin State Journal. Would they give a new product line this kind of backing with no proof it is doing well? You'd have to believe that conversations like this happen in the boardroom:

Employee: We'd like to spend more money on Project X.
Boss: How much more?
Employee: We don't know for sure. We'd just like to have an open line of credit and take as much out every year as we see fit.
Boss: I see. Is Product X selling well now?
Employee: We have no idea.
Boss: Ok, why not? What could go wrong with this?

The CEOs that signed this ad would expect more out of their own companies so why are they willing to look the other way when it comes to this program? I applaud the efforts of these companies that are investing their time and money in the community on the education issue. I just wish they would stop helping the Republicans use school kids to score political points against Governor Doyle and help make sure all the children that will become part of their work force are getting the education they need to compete in the future.

Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Take time to read Miami Herald Columnist Leonard Pitt's column for Martin Luther King Day. He is a great writer and today's column is a good look at the assignment still facing our country decades after the death of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Free pass

An article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has Republican supporters of the voucher program asking everyone to ignore the school funding problems plaguing many school districts right now so they can score points with their political base.

Republicans and key voucher program advocates say Doyle should not tie the voucher cap issue to other education issues. They also say the changes in school funding that Doyle has proposed cannot be afforded now and should be taken up in the next state budget process. "The governor has an all or nothing approach, and that's telling us he's more interested in what the (teachers) unions want," Vukmir said.

In other words, Republicans want another free pass this election year on the tough education issues facing our state. They have been dodging this issue for years and the time has come to deal with it. Every year they put off dealing with the whole education system and funding formula in this state is another year wasted in the education of thousands of school children. Every year a new batch of students starts in a system that will give them a poor foundation to build their academic career on in the future.

If it were their kids in the struggling schools of Milwaukee or the many other districts around the state dealing with a failed funding system, they would be screaming for action.

On this issue, you should also check out the comment on Free Will's blog about School Choice. It's from a supporter of the program.

New priorities

The Wisconsin State Journal is reporting that Governor Doyle is going to propose a new tax credit for working parents to make sure they are making at least the federal poverty level for an income if they are working at least 35 hours a week.

Unfortunately, some Republican lawmakers are already lukewarm to the idea. Rep. Dean Kaufert (R-Neenah) says he supports the concept but will have to decide what priority to give it since there are a lot of tax exemption bills out there.

Seems like a bill to reward people for working and keep families off of welfare by getting them on the path to standing on their own should go to the front of the line. And here's an idea on how to pay for it. Let's get Walmart, one of the most profitable companies out there, off of Wisconsin Welfare by passing the bill that is up in committee this week to make profitable companies pay for the health insurance of their employees instead of having them on the state's BadgerCare tab. (see post from yesterday for more on this)

Governor Doyle's office is estimating that his tax credit proposal will cost the state about $22 million. Getting Walmart alone off Wisconsin Welfare will save the taxpayers $19 million. Add in the other profitable companies that are ripping off the taxpayers on healthcare should pay for the rest.

Leviticus Lawbreaker #3

The group of lawbreakers expands a lot today with the addition of the members of the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Indianapolis Colts, the Chicago Bears and the Carolina Panthers. They all joined our group by playing football today (you may not touch the skin of a dead pig).

Ok, maybe I'm just bitter that the Chicago Bears were playing and the Green Bay Packers were not, but it is in the list of rules in Leviticus.

So to recap:

Leviticus Lawbreaker #1 - Me, for eating scallops

Leviticus Lawbreaker #2 - Mikhail Gorbachev for having a blemish on his head and setting foot in a church with said blemish.

Leviticus Lawbreaker(s) #3 - The Pittsburgh Steelers, the Indianapolis Colts, the Chicago Bears, and the Carolina Panthers, for playing football.

Bill to stop Walmart from ripping off Wisconsin taxpayers in committee this week

The Assembly Labor Committee will hold a hearing on an important bill to try to stop Walmart and other large profitable companies from ripping off Wisconsin taxpayers this week. The hearing is on Assembly Bill 860, the Fair Share Health Care Bill, and will be held Wednesday, January 18, at 10:05 am in Room 225 NW of the Capitol.

The bill would require large employers of 10,000 or more employees to pay at least 80% of the cost of family health insurance for employees. A company as profitable as Walmart should be paying the health care costs for its workers. However, Walmart workers using the state's BadgerCare program and Medicaid cost Wisconsin $19 million this year alone.

The fiscal conservatives in the Wisconsin State Legislature should all be testifying in favor of this bill. They have repeatedly said we need to cut the cost of these programs and here is their opportunity. Can't wait to hear what they have to say.

One down, ten to go!

Oh my! Who would have thought that simply asking for a leggie to follow through on their own beliefs would work?

Early today I put together a list of legislators that have at one time or another sponsored a resolution on term limits and suggested that it was time for them to follow through. And then, bam, one of them on the list -Rep. Gregg Underheim- announces he is not seeking re-election! While he went a bit over the 12 years, I applaud Rep. Underheim's initiative to get the ball rolling again on term limits. This could be the spark Team Term Limits has been waiting for this session!

Only 10 more to go!

The end of two good Madison blogs?

Rep. Mark Pocan is wondering about the possible end of two good blogs in Madison. Check it out here.

Singing a different tune

A reader recently mentioned that during the run up to the 1994 'revolution' many Republicans were claiming that the cure for what ailed governments was term limits. So I started to wonder what has become of the drive to get term limits put into the Wisconsin Constitution and funny little story unfolds.

In 1995 there were 23 sponsors of a resolution to put 12-year term limits on those in the state legislature. A resolution was again introduced in 1997 but only had 13 sponsors. 1999's resolution had ten sponsors, 2001's resolution had six sponsors, and 2003 had only two lonely sponsors.

And this session? Why, there is no resolution.

A lot of the folks that have sponsored the resolution are either past the 12-year point or are coming up to the election this year where they should bow out gracefully with a self-imposed term limit. Congressman Scott Klug held to his word even though he was popular enough to probably still be in office today if he chose to run again.

Definitely the funniest sponsor of the bunch is Bob Ziegelbauer (D-Manitowoc) since while most people were sponsors at one point and then realized they wanted to stay and quietly stopped being a sponsor, he kept on introducing the resolution over and over again. Seems kind of odd to have a bill about term limits being introduced by the same guy for a decade. He even introduced the bill in 2003 and then ran again in defiance of himself!

But Rep. Ziegelbauer has plenty of company in the hypocrite club on this one. Other former sponsors of one or more of the term limit resolutions that are currently serving despite their own beliefs: Rep. Dean Kaufert (elected 1990), Senator Dale Shultz (elected to Senate 1991), Rep. Robin Kreibich (elected 1992), Rep. Gene Hahn (elected 1990), Rep. Gregg Underheim (elected 1987), Rep. Sheryl Albers (elected 1991), Rep. Steve Nass (elected 1990), and Senator Alberta Darling (elected 1992).

There are a couple of folks that I am sure we can expect an announcement from any day now saying that they are not running again in order to keep the 12-year term limit dream alive. They are: Senator Dave Zien (elected 1993) and Rep. Frank Lasee (elected 1994).

And for those keeping score, all of those listed in these two paragraphs are Republicans.

I may have also stumbled on the real reason Senator Glenn Grothman ran against former Senator, and now hopefully full-time French language student, Mary Panzer. Senator Grothman was just about to run out of time on his 12 years in one office. He sponsored the resolution in 1997 and true to his word, got out of the Assembly just in time.

Chamber of Commerce report really is wrong

Yesterday, the Xoff Files predicted that a Chamber of Commerce study released yesterday making wild claims about the affects of a proposal to require city employers to give their employees sick leave is bogus. Turns out he was right according to today's Wisconsin State Journal.

A wrong decimal point placement, a few unsound assumptions, and using some wrong numbers produced some pretty exaggerated results for the Chamber of Commerce. For example, the report originally said the proposal was going to cost the city of Madison $21 million in property tax losses. That is exaggerated by ten times because the decimal point is in the wrong place. It also assumes that if a business did leave Madison because of this proposal that the property itself stops having value.

The Madison City Council is divided on this issues and I'm not so sure this is the best way to tackle this issue. Employees should get sick leave but this proposal may need some work. However, lying about what is wrong with it is the best way to help get it passed.

Corporate America selling your privacy

Americablog.com has a really scary story that you should check out. In it you will see yet another example of corporate America selling your privacy. The blog was able to buy General Wesley Clark's cell phone records no questions asked. When is Congress going to get serious about protect privacy and identity? Write 'em. They need to hear from folks before they will stop listening to the corporations.

Playing politics with school kids

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Columnist Eugene Kane has a column today based on an interview with Howard Fuller, a Milwaukee School Choice advocate. In it Mr Fuller laments:

Fuller said he has laid it on the line in private conversations with
Republican groups that support school choice. "I told them, 'You can't just vote for school choice and then vote against everything else that black people need to better themselves.' " He mentioned affirmative action and anti-poverty programs as examples of policies that many Republicans oppose while still wanting credit for their support of school choice.

But that is just what many Republicans do.

Fuller also says that he is angry that Governor Doyle is only trying to appease the teachers union since he won't support blowing the cap on this program. Doyle is trying to bring some accountability to how our tax dollars are being spent in this program and is asking those wishing to expand the program to work with him on that issue. Hmmm, accountability for how tax dollars are spent. Now when do we hear that rally cry? Oh, from Republicans every time anti-poverty programs come up in the state budget.

And what group would be fighting for equal educational opportunities more than the folks that are in the classrooms? The teachers of this state can see that the school choice program is giving a few students the chance to succeed while too many others are left behind in schools without the resources to provide a good education.

UPDATE--

Check out the Folkbum blog to see three different ways one of the statements in Kane's column is wrong.

Leviticus Lawbreaker #2

Leviticus Lawbreaker #2 is Mikhail Gorbachev seen here in this picture in the act!

The former Soviet President is seen here in the National Cathedral attending the funeral of former President Ronald Reagan. (photo from www.whitehouse.gov)

Personally, I think he should have attended the funeral but Leviticus Chapter 21 says he can't. (No man with a blemish shall come near the alter.) Tough rules my friends.

So to recap:

Leviticus Lawbreaker #1 - Me, for eating scallops

Leviticus Lawbreaker #2 - Mikhail Gorbachev for having a blemish on his head and setting foot in a church with said blemish.

It's not easy being Green

Republican Congressman Mark Green revealed the real culprit behind his campaign sitting on a mountain of tainted campaign cash. The State of Wisconsin!

His press release today about his fake return of the almost $30,000 of campaign money from indicted Congressman Tom DeLay tells a sad tale of how the State of Wisconsin made him keep the money.

Because state law allows Green to return only $2,000 to DeLay’s committee, Green called for a change in the law that would allow candidates to donate funds to charities, a move currently prohibited in Wisconsin.

In other words, I would get rid of this money if only I could. It's not easy trying to keep coming up with excuses on why you should keep dirty campaign money. Although perhaps he should have a chat with Congressman Paul Ryan. He has come up with some pretty creative ideas. Although blogger Eye on Wisconsin asks an interesting question that pretty much gets rid of one of Congressman Ryan's excuses.

Walmart keeps getting lower

The January issue of Union Labor News has a story that shows Walmart doesn't wait until a new store is open to start undermining good-paying local jobs. The story shows:

When Beaver Dam ponied up millions in incentives for a mammoth Wal-Mart distribution center, town leaders were hoping to create good jobs in the community. Instead, the world’s largest retailer turned good paying construction jobs into unskilled, low-wage, no-benefit jobs – and exploited prison labor and undocumented workers to do the work.

When workers heard rumors of an INS raid on a distribution center in eastern Pennsylvania, 38 workers failed to show up for work on the Beaver Dam distribution center site. By the following Monday, the job was shut down completely.

And with Walmart getting pretty small fines from a federal government willing to either look the other way or give notice that they are coming for an inspection, why should they stop.

“Wal-Mart is not viewed as a good thing in these communities,” said Jayson Nelson, an organizer with Ironworkers Local 8 out of Appleton. “You would think they’d get this square because Wal-Mart was just fined $11 million for the same issue, hiring undocumented immigrants.”

In 2003, an INS raid of 60 Wal-Mart stores in 21 states led to the arrests of 245 undocumented workers. An affidavit claimed that senior Wal-Mart executives knew about the staffing practices of its cleaning contractors. The retailer agreed to pay $11 million last March to settle the case but denied senior executives knew of the hirings.

The workers here are getting a stronger penalty than Walmart. For Walmart, $11 million is just a small cost of doing business.

Early education in Milwaukee

Last month the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families released a report on early education in Milwaukee. It was released right before Christmas so it may have been missed by a lot of people. One statistic mentioned should give a lot of people pause:

Less than 3 percent of Milwaukee’s preschool, child care, and Head Start programs are accredited. Accreditation imposes more rigorous standards than state licensure or certification for teacher education, classroom sizes and parental involvement.

You can find the report here. It is a pretty good size file so if you want a summary first, you find the press release here.

Leviticus Laws

There is a story in The Isthmus this week about the Salvation Army in Dane County not allowing gay couples to be together if they come to the Salvation Army for shelter. They say that the laws of Dane County force them to do it (they don't) and that the Bible forbids homosexuality.

Indeed many supporters of the move in Wisconsin to pass a constitutional ban on civil unions and marriage say we have to do this because it's in the bible. So I looked, and there it is in Leviticus, Chapter 18. And then I read the rest of Leviticus and I see that this movement to pass a constitutional ban on civil unions and marriage must be the first of many new items those supporting this amendment are going to put in the Wisconsin Constitution. They must be working silently to get the rest of the amendments ready to go because to only pick out one rule in Leviticus that specifically goes after one group of people would be, well, un-Christian.

Leviticus has a lot of rules in it. After reading it, I think Moses may have broken the first set of tablets in protest of the fact that he was going to have to carry about 1000 more down the mountain and then he and God negotiated down to two. Leviticus has a lot of animal sacrifice requirements in it as well. So many that you start to suspect that it was written by a man that sold livestock for a living.

However, Jesus pretty much rejected the rules set out in Leviticus. And don't take my word for it, take it from Americancatholic.org. They had this to say:

Human care and compassion, not cultural values of honor and shame, direct Jesus' action. He calls into question the purity code, which alienates and oppresses people already in need.

Leviticus is the type of purity code they are talking about. But, according to many of the constitutional ban on civil unions and marriage supporters, they must be wrong so I'm starting a new series called Leviticus Lawbreakers to help folks learn about the new laws that we are going to have to pass and live by down the road. I'll also give the punishments required when possible.

The first Leviticus Lawbreaker is, alas, me. A couple of nights ago I had a really good spicy scallop role from Wasabi and that is against the rules. (Leviticus Chapter 11-You can't eat anything out of the seas or rivers that do not have fins) I'm pretty sure I won't be forgiven either because I'd do it again.

So Leviticus Lawbreaker #1 - Me

Rewriting history

President Bush and his allies have been accusing Democrats that are critical of the Iraq war of rewriting history. However, the American Progress Action Fund has found President Bush is now doing some serious rewriting and trying to act like he barely knows Rep. Tom DeLay.

Through unattributed sources and blind quotes, allies of President Bush did their best this weekend to distance the White House from DeLay. In a single story for Time magazine, sources close to Bush described a "longtime chill between the two pols," described DeLay as "a useful servant," said DeLay and adviser Karl Rove had "never been close," and claimed "DeLay is not the kind of guy -- in background and temperament -- the President feels comfortable with." History suggests otherwise. Bush has repeatedly defended DeLay in public over the last year, taking "the unusual step of saying he believed in Mr. DeLay's innocence" just weeks ago. Meanwhile, for all its supposed distance from corruption scandals, the White House is apparently feeling the heat. "Bracing for the worst, Administration officials obtained from the Secret Service a list of all the times Abramoff entered the White House complex, and they scrambled to determine the reason for each visit," Time reports. "Bush aides are also trying to identify all the photos that may exist of the two men together."

A quick search finds statements like this from the Washington Post:

In an interview with Fox News, Bush said he hopes DeLay will be cleared of charges that he illegally steered corporate money into campaigns for the Texas legislature and will reclaim his powerful leadership position in Congress. "I hope that he will, 'cause I like him, and plus, when he's over there, we get our votes through the House," Bush told Fox News's Brit Hume.

That statement came just a few weeks ago so there hasn't been much chill in the air between the two in the last month.

So I thought maybe I need to go farther back and then I found this on the White House website:

I have confidence in Tom DeLay's leadership, and I have confidence in Tom DeLay. And I am -- we've worked closely with Tom DeLay and the leaders in the House to get a lot done during the last four years, and I'm looking forward to working with him to get a lot done during the next four years.

This statement came soon after the House Ethics committee slapped Rep. DeLay on the wrist and the scandal was starting to unfold.

I'll keep looking. The evidence of the chill must be out there somewhere.

A migration of facts

Republican Senator Ted Kanavas is taking some pretty big liberties in his press release on the Estate Tax. He tries to claim that the reason people are leaving the state to retire is because of the Estate Tax.

In it you'll find:

State Senator Ted Kanavas (R-Brookfield) renewed his call to end the state's death tax after reading excerpts from a Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance report. The report shows that hundreds of thousands of people moved out of the state of Wisconsin in the five years prior to the 2000 Census. "For years I have been working to change our tax climate..."

Maybe he should have read the whole thing. According to the report, he has to change Wisconsin's actual climate to get them to stay. We could be tax free and not compete with Florida and Arizona. It's just never going to be sunny and 70 degrees here in the winter and that is the main reason retirees are leaving.

The estate tax only affects the wealthiest people in America these days. With the Bush Administration hard at work cutting taxes for these folks, our state really doesn't need to make it a priority too.

Senator Kanavas also fails to mentioned the other big group of people mentioned in the report that the state is losing. Wisconsin is losing 20-29 year-olds as they flee to states that do not have state legislatorsrs trying to squash the high-paying biotech fields with regulations.

This will hurt me more than it will hurt you

In a Wisconsin Radio Network story this week, Senator Zien says that the Senate Select Committee on DNR Regulatory Reform, a 'committee' he helped create to take jabs at the DNR, will only help the DNR. Yes, senators describing a state agency and its work by using words like atrocities, Gestapo, and double standards could only help. Zien accusing wardens of manhandling people will certainly go a long way too.

Zien also has this to say in the story:

We wanna look and see if there's something that can be done legislatively to correct some of these actions. And to make for a better economy, a better quality of life, better usage of the environment, preservation of our natural resources, better utilization of our resources, more investment in our resources and that's what we're eager to do and that's what we will do."

Here's an idea on how to have more investment in our natural resources. Senator Zien and his colleagues could stop trying to yank resources and authority to buy land from the Stewardship fund. Unfortunately, Governor Doyle had to veto SB 252 to stop they from doing this last session. The bill was introduced by Senator Zien and some others. The Stewardship fund is a successful land conservation program that the Republicans keep trying to strangle.

Just an idea.

What's another $2.6 billion?

January not only rings in a new year, it brings new tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. The two tax cuts this year will cost $2.6 billion to implement. But hey, when you've already stacked up $317 billion for a deficit, what's another $2.6 billion right?

Citizens for Tax Justice, a tax fairness watchdog group in Washington D.C., breaks out some stats on just who gets these two new tax cuts:

- In 2006, 97 percent of the tax cuts would go to the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans. The share going to the top 1 percent would rise slightly thereafter.
- More than 99 percent of Americans would receive nothing at all from these new tax cuts in 2006.

And just how wealthy are we talking about? The average salary of the those in the top 1% income group make an average of $1.2 million.

Alito's hearing begins

The hearing for the confirmation of Alito should be very interesting to watch. Here is what Tom Toles (my favorite political cartoonist) has to say about it. (courtesy of the Washington Post)

Looking for problems in all the wrong places

Congress has a lot of big problems to solve. Unfortunately, rather than solving those problems, they are trying to fix things that aren't broken. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has issued a report on the number of people by state that could be hurt by the new requirement to produce a birth certificate or a passport to prove they are U.S. citizens in order to continue in the Medicaid program. There are no exceptions.

The number of people in Wisconsin that are affected by this is 885,000. And before you start blurting out the same ineffective arguments used for the voter ID bill here, consider a couple of things the report mentions:

-A recent study by the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services shows to be unnecessary.

-It would increase Medicaid administrative costs.

-A particular problem exists for a large number of elderly African Americans because they were born in a time when racial discrimination in hospital admissions, especially in the South, as well as poverty, kept their mothers from giving birth at a hospital. One study estimated that about one in five African Americans born in the 1939-40 period lack a birth certificate because of these problems.

And of course consider the people that lost everything in the hurricanes that hit the Southern U.S. this year. Their birth certificates and passports are anywhere from two states over from where they live to the bottom of a lake. The papers and mail from folks in the McFarland tornado last year where found in four different counties.

What a great time to force these folks into a bureaucratic mess. Ah the Republicans, the party of smaller government.