Budgeting on 40 words or less

This is a plan? This is what the Green Team came up with for the state budget after months of debate amongst themselves? Just how low is the bar these days on policy in Washington, D.C. since President Bush took over?

Rep. Mark Green released his so-called plan for how he would budget if he was elected governor of this state. Never mind that as a U.S. Congressman voting on the federal budget he hasn't lived by even the ridiculously vague set of words he put out there for the state budget. The real problem is that this isn't a plan.

How do you have a plan for the state budget that doesn't even mention, much less deal with, one of the largest components of the state budget - state funding of local schools. Will he support the current two-thirds funding level? Will he reduce it and force local property taxes to make up the difference? Will he reduce it and forbid local governments from making up the difference with his support of a TABOR-like freeze on local governments which will force more cuts to schools?

Who knows? Rep. Green either doesn't know himself or he thinks voters are so clueless that they won't care enough to want to know the answer to that question. Either scenario is bad for Wisconsin voters.

In his release on his budget "plan" Rep. Green says this:

"Every month, families across Wisconsin sit down at their kitchen tables to figure out how to make ends meet. They know that it is wrong to take out a second mortgage on their home or spend the kid's college money to go on a lavish vacation,"said Green.

If this 40-word statement on how he would spend billions of dollars every year is how he thinks Wisconsin families do the budgeting, Green really has spent too much time in Washington, D.C. and not enough in Wisconsin.

His bumper sticker solution for what should be serious policy would be like a family sitting down to write out a budget that doesn't even consider how to pay for the mortgage as part of the plan and the rest looking like this:

-I want to have less bills
-I really shouldn't use the money for the electric bill on new shoes this month
-I will try to stop the kids from spending more money today even if it means spending less in the future
-I'm really hoping I don't have to borrow more money this year
-I'm going to tell the kids to stop spending so much money

These are all worthy goals but they are not even close to being a plan on how to pay the bills every month. And yes the legislature would be the children in this scenario.

If this is all Green is going to give voters on how he would spend billions of dollars of their tax money, voters should respond with even fewer words. They should simply use a check-mark in a box next to Governor Doyle's name in November.

Punting in politics doesn't work

President Clinton's worst "just punt the ball" policy decision - Don't Ask, Don't Tell for the U.S. Military - is reaping some horrible results. It has become a tool of vengeance in the military.

A recent case reported in the New York Times shows how unworkable this hateful policy has become:

Investigators were never able to determine who the accuser was, Colonel Zellmer said, but "the nature and the volume of the evidence and Sergeant Copas's own sworn statement led me to discharge him."

Can you imagine being fired from your job only because your boss received a bunch of anonymous emails from someone accusing you of something?

You can find the rest of the story here.

Headin' North

I'm leaving town to head to one of the areas that makes our state great. I'm hanging out on a lake in Manitowish Waters and leaving the computer behind.

I'll be back blogging on Sunday or Monday.

Have a great weekend.

P.S. For those of you that follow Dane County politics, check out the Isthmus this week for the cover alone. I didn't agree with much Dave Blaska did as a County Supervisor, but I appreciate his sense of humor for the cover this week.

Adding to the list

As it turns out, the groups pushing for a constitutional ban on gay marriage and civil unions weren't the only ones revealed this week as afraid to debate. Add Secretary of State Doug LaFollette.

Scot Ross, LaFollette's Democratic primary challenger, asked LaFollette to participate in a series of debates before the primary election. LaFollette's response:

“Indeed, such debates might only serve to give the Republican candidate for this office ammunition for his campaign.”

This statement troubles me for three reasons. One, I'm pretty sure from this photo that the Republican candidate for the office is a woman so LaFollette might not know this. Two, LaFollette saying "his" is probably more indicative of his thoughts that men hold these offices rather than not even knowing who his potential opponent could be in the general election. And three, LaFollette being afraid to engage his opponent is exactly the reason Scot Ross is running for this office.

If LaFollette won't even get out there and talk about any issues, we might as well make that office a purely administrative office and do away with the election for it.

Green may get second chance to support working families

But it would be too little, too late in my opinion. Congress may hold a CYA vote on the minimum wage before the fall elections. The Republicans must have some polling showing this issue is more important to the public than it is to Congressional Republicans and their corporate backers.

Gee, you think people are upset that Congress took a raise for themselves and voted down a raise for other people. Hope they didn't pay too much for the poll to smack them upside the head with that issue. I could have told them that for free.

I'm not a betting gal, but I'd love to see the odds on Rep. Green voting "yes" this time.

Green's stem-cell box gets smaller

If trying to claim you are for something you are actually against was an Olympic sport, Rep. Mark Green and the Green Team would get a gold medal for their hilarious attempts to claim Green is the best option for voters that support stem-cell research.

But what else can you do when you find yourself on the wrong side of a large majority of Wisconsin residents?

The problem for the Green Team is that it forces them to say things to just don't add up.

The latest Green Sheet from Green's Team provides a good example. It has his campaign manager, Mark Graul, saying this about the mother of a little girl with juvenile diabetes appearing in Governor Jim Doyle's television ad:

I am frankly shocked that Jim Doyle would use the suffering of a little girl as fodder for a political attack ad.

You mean like using the supposed "pain" the Green team thinks the little blobs of cells in freezers across the country will feel if they are used in stem-cell research instead of being thrown in the garbage?

Unless Graul means that the pain a live little girl will feel is more real and important that the pain the Green Team has projected onto the blob of cells.

Which means we should work to end pain of the live little girl as soon as we can.

Which means we should allow embryonic stem-cell research to really get going by having the backing of federal funding.

Oh. I see what he means.

Wisconsin's Lieberman battle

Spivak and Bice recently wrote about a poll showing State Senator Jeff Plale (D-South Milwaukee)is posting a President Bush-like approval rating of only 29 percent. Plale's primary battle is quickly shaping up to be Wisconsin's Lieberman-Lamont fight based on a Democrat voting more like a Republican.

Bad timing on Plale's part to be acting more like the party that everyone loves to hate right now than his own party.

Plale says the poll is skewed left and not many people are paying attention to the election right now.

He may be right that no one is paying much attention right now but Plale's biggest problem is that people are upset with him because of his votes. Something he can't change between now and election day when people are paying attention.

The Republicans are trying to sell the spin that if Plale goes down in the primary, they have a chance to take that seat. But the seat is over 55% Democratic so there would have to be a lot of cross-over votes for a Republican to win. The Republicans offer no explanation as to how they will convince a bunch of Dems that voted out an incumbent that was too conservative to cross-over and vote for a Republican if Plale loses the primary.

But will the Republicans get that chance to try to win the seat wtihout the incumbent?

I think it is almost impossible for Plale to pull through this primary in the current anti-Repbulican mood with votes for things like concealed carry and against things like a woman's right to control her reproductive freedom. But it's tough to beat an incumbent so he could prove me wrong.

Congress may finally get in the game

Perhaps the GOP Congress has finally had it with the Bush White House keeping them in dark about nearly everything. Like the fact that Pakistan is setting up a plutonium-production reactor. So theBush team made up stuff about some countries to make them look more dangerous than the are to start a war, but kept the developments that actually are dangerous from Congress.

President Bush has also disregarded many of the laws passed by Congress by using signing statements to say "Sure, you can pass this law and I'll sign it but I'm not going to live by it." For example, when Congress passed a bill to say we should not torture prisoners of war, Bush wrote a statement to file with that bill saying his White House would not follow it.

So Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) is prepping a bill to sue the White House . TPMmuckraker has the story here. You can find more information about Bush's use of signing statements here.

Afraid of debate

The senior news producer at Wisconsin Public Television(WPT), Andy Moore, has a guest column today in the Wisconsin State Journal that made me laugh so hard at breakfast my two-year-old came running into the room clapping to see what was making me laugh so hard.

A few years ago when the state was considering the state constitutional amendment on gambling, WPT put the amendment on trial with both sides of the argument presenting their side to the public like a lawyer would in a jury trial with witnesses and everything.

WPT wants to do it again for the proposed state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage and civil unions.

But they can't find anyone willling to argue the side for the amendment to pass!

The so-called "traditional marriage" groups have declined to even help find a lawyer because they believe that everyone that watches WPT will vote against the amendment and all of the folks on their side are found in churches rather than watching television.

I think it's safe to say that not everyone that watches WPT is going to vote against the amendment, but even if they are, shouldn't they be willing to defend their side of the argument?

Unless it's not defendable.

I guess it would be hard to come up with a witness that can truthfully say they have had their marriage affected for the worse by a gay relationship. Or someone actually willing say they fear they might "turn" gay if they see lots of happily married gay couples in Wisconsin. Or someone willing to say they really believe that gay couples should not have the same kind access to health care or even the ability to oversee health care decisions for their partners that heterosexual couples take for granted every day.

Tough case to make on television.

Conservative group's sneaky money methods

Former U.S. Rep. Dick Armey(R-TX) is still up to no good. A Washington Post article today details how the group he now leads, Citizens for a Sound Economy, tricked people buying health savings accounts into becoming members of the group. They are now being sued because of it.

In 2001, Jennifer B. Chace heard an insurance broker's pitch for a new insurance company marketing tax-free medical savings accounts. She jumped at the offer, but first, the broker told her, she would have to sign an application -- already filled out -- that would entitle her to a low group rate.

With that signature, Chace, a Florida dentist in the market for health insurance, unwittingly joined one of Washington's most prominent conservative organizations, Citizens for a Sound Economy, she would later testify.

"Before I showed you this form today, did you even realize that you signed a form that was an application for membership in Citizens for a Sound Economy?" her lawyer would ask during a 2004 deposition.

"I don't know what Citizens for a Sound Economy is," she replied.

You can find the rest here.

Give how much?

An article in the Wisconsin State Journal by Tom Sheehan notes that there is an upcoming golf fundraiser with Rep. Mark Green that has a "host committee" giving level of $25,000.

Is this a typo? I thought the limit for an individual giving money to a candidate for governor was $10,000.

Or is Green raising money for someone else to attack Governor Jim Doyle?

Or is he looking for large PAC donations to add to his illegal total?

Some reformer.

Some people have no shame, and they work for President Bush

The guy in charge of overseeing the department that takes care of people is abusing part of the tax code meant to encourage people to donate money to help take care of people. From the Washington Post:

The issue received new attention this week when it was revealed that Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt and his family have claimed millions of dollars in tax deductions for contributions to a family foundation that until recently has given little to charity. Instead, through loans and investments, the Dixie and Anne Leavitt Foundation has used its $9 million fortune to further the family's real estate holdings, insurance interests, and even the Leavitt family genealogical society.

At least there bipartisan support for closing the loophole:

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and the committee's ranking Democrat, Max Baucus (Mont.), urged President Bush yesterday to help shut down a tax loophole that allowed his secretary of health and human services to claim more than $1 million in tax deductions for "gifts" that have been used to further his family's interests.

Have we heard anything from Rep. Mark Green on this? You can find the whole story here.

The stem-cell race

It really is no exaggeration to say picking the wrong governor in the next election could mean that Wisconsin gets left behind in the dust in the race to be THE state doing the research of the future. Other states are investing money in stem-cell research just hoping our state will take that one step in the wrong direction.

Illinois is getting in on the act.
And California continues to invest money.

Media hypocrisy

It's no secret that the media loves to beat up political candidates about their non-stop quest for money.

But the media also can't stop themselves from running stories claiming some candidates are viable because they have raised a lot of money, and some candidates are doomed to failure because they aren't raising enough.

In today's news cycle alone you have this story, this one, this one, this one, well, you get the idea.

Whether the press wants to admit it or not, those headlines saying someone is "in the lead" have an effect on how people view the candidate's chance for success down the road. The press might want to take that into consideration next time they beat up a politician for focusing too much on fundraising.

Blocking the vote

Yesterday Rep. Mark Green and Rep. James Sensenbrenner issued a statement on the Elections Board decision to stop allowing people to vote with the last four digits of their social security number and instead have them fill out a provisional ballot if they don't have a driver's license. I have been wondering why these two have been fighting so hard to limit the amount of voters and now I know why.

Green is taking a page out of the national Republican Party playbook on how to push an election your way if you don't have the votes.

I recently read Robert Kennedy Jr.'s article in Rolling Stone magazine about the 2004 election and it makes the motivation behind Green's and Sensenbrenner's efforts crystal clear, especially for Green.

Kennedy's article should scare the pants off of every voter in this country. It is a shocking tale of voter intimidation, fraud and old-fashion ballot box stuffing by the Republican Party. To give you a small taste of just how bad the election process was in our country in 2004:

But despite the media blackout, indications continued to emerge that something deeply troubling had taken place in 2004. Nearly half of the 6 million American voters living abroad(3) never received their ballots -- or received them too late to vote(4) -- after the Pentagon unaccountably shut down a state-of-the-art Web site used to file overseas registrations.(5) A consulting firm called Sproul & Associates, which was hired by the Republican National Committee to register voters in six battleground states,(6) was discovered shredding Democratic registrations.(7) In New Mexico, which was decided by 5,988 votes,(8) malfunctioning machines mysteriously failed to properly register a presidential vote on more than 20,000 ballots.(9) Nationwide, according to the federal commission charged with implementing election reforms, as many as 1 million ballots were spoiled by faulty voting equipment -- roughly one for every 100 cast.(10)

Ohio, because it was the battleground for the election, had all the makings of an election in a third world country:

The reports were especially disturbing in Ohio, the critical battleground state that clinched Bush's victory in the electoral college. Officials there purged tens of thousands of eligible voters from the rolls, neglected to process registration cards generated by Democratic voter drives, shortchanged Democratic precincts when they allocated voting machines and illegally derailed a recount that could have given Kerry the presidency. A precinct in an evangelical church in Miami County recorded an impossibly high turnout of ninety-eight percent, while a polling place in inner-city Cleveland recorded an equally impossible turnout of only seven percent. In Warren County, GOP election officials even invented a nonexistent terrorist threat to bar the media from monitoring the official vote count.(11)

So Green and his pals in DC are laying the groundwork for the voter suppression they need to happen to ensure a victory in the race for governor. The first step is to keep people that may not have drivers licenses from voting. People like seniors that won't like these votes from Green and students that won't like these votes from Green. The other steps outlined in the Rolling Stone article are sure to follow later this year.

The Elections Board was trying to do the right thing by making it easier for people to vote, but Green doesn't think the Elections Board decision goes far enough to keep people that don't support him from voting. He can try to hide behind HAVA all he wants but the bottom line is this: Why is any candidate for governor trying to keep legitimate voters from being able to vote easily this November?

-By Rob Rogers of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Madison's Halloween plan

The city of Madison recently released a plan to deal with the "problem" of the Halloween party on State Street. Some of the plan is good. Some of it is asking for problems. And some of it is so wacky it will make you laugh out loud.

Seems the folks running the city took the Marc Eisen's advice to embrace the party, but ran in the wrong direction with it. They want to try to bill this as some sort of community festival. Reality check - After having the mayor screaming for years that he wants to shut the whole thing down because it is too destructive, the biggest ad campaign in the world isn't going to convince anyone to dress up their kids and head downtown.

Eisen is right though. The city should embrace the party and the mayor should stop threatening to shut it down. Every time he does this he might as well throw gas on the bonfire on State Street because it is throwing a challenge in the face of drunk college students across the Midwest.

I don't think the idea to charge admission is a bad one or a threat to civil rights as Paul Soglin does, but he does have some other ideas there worth looking at before this fall. What is a bad idea though is trying to limit the ticket sales to 50,000 people when you know that 70-80,000 people attended last time is asking for a fight. 20,000 drunk college students that can't get into State Street is the gasoline a riot will need to really get going. And the riot will be outside of State Street where most of the officers will be located.

Or they will push their through the plastic snow fencing barriers and enter the State Street area pissed off. I kid you not. That is what the plan is to keep people out of State Street without a ticket. The plastic fencing to the drunk student is going to be the equivalent of waving a red flag in front of a bull.

My two-year-old got through that fencing up by the Capitol because he wanted to see the work vehicles up close so I don't think this will keep out any college kids fueled by liquor. And the city won't get the ticket reveune from those that storm the plastic fences.

Instead of trying to keep some people out, why not give them a reason to buy the tickets? How about we work out drink and food specials with the State Street bars and restaurants that people only have access to if they buy a ticket?

And why won't the city consider having the bars open all night on Halloween to avoid the mass dump out? The bars that want to stay open all night could buy a special permit for the night to help generate revenue to pay for the cost of the policing.

The police have done a remarkable job with this event in the last couple of years so I'm not sure a giant plan is even needed for this event. But it's probably good the city is trying to hash it our early so they can make changes.

Hopefully this also means that the city has started down the path of acceptance instead of threatening to end party.

Update/Correction: Turns out state law prevents Madison from keeping the bars open all night. It is only allowed on New Years Eve. Seems like if we allow it one night, we should allow cities to apply to do it once in a while on other nights.

Green's stem-cell box

Rep. Mark Green has put himself into a strange box on stem-cell research. He has no doubt seen the polling that shows how many Wisconsin residents support embryonic stem-cell research but his votes don't match up with their overwhelming support. That has forced him into saying a bunch of things that just don't mesh.

When President Bush vetoed the bill to increase funding for stem-cell research, Green said:

"The question is: Are we going to force taxpayers to fund the destruction of living human embryos?"

So presumably he agrees with President Bush that embryonic stem-cell research is murder since he supported the veto by President Bush. But Green was also quoted saying this about stem-cell research in the Washington Post earlier this month:

"I was in the Congress that doubled funding for the National Institutes of Health, the funding that actually helped create the national stem cell bank in Madison..."

Which is it? Murder or something you support? The stem cell bank in Madison is most likely full of little "murdered" stem-cells from embryos.

Is it ok for private money to fund this "murder"? Would Green have the state of Wisconsin prosecute the scientists and funders of the research for murder?

I'm sure Green will let us know once he can climb out of the box he has put himself into on this issue.

Debt for students, cold hard cash for oil companies

Rep. Mark Green's campaign manager has been complaining about a new TV ad that outlines some of Green votes regarding gas prices and big oil companies. Some of his statements have been a little confusing. At one point last year he said that Green voted for automatic gas tax hikes but now doesn't think it was a good idea.

I guess he was for it before he was against it.

However, in the latest Green Sheet newsletter from the campaign, Green's campaign manager says this:

Mark never voted for automatic indexing of our gas tax. Period.

So is he lying now or was he lying last year when he said Green voted for the automatic increases?

Either way, all the arguing over when he voted for what on gas tax increases misses the worst vote he took when it comes to gas and energy prices. And that vote is not being debated by Green's campaign manager in his "facts" about the TV ad being run against his boss because there is no way he can deny it.

The vote? Giving oil companies buckets of taxpayer money and getting nothing in return for it but higher prices for home heating and at the pump.

Green went along with the Bush Administration's plan to give profitable oil companies billions in tax breaks and then had the audacity to support increasing student loan interest rates, freezing the maximum Pell Grantfor the last four years, and cutting student aid by $12 billion. (see previous post for more on that topic)

Perhpas that's how your priorities get set when you take tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from oil company interests.

The new "must have" for college this fall: debt

The back-to-school flyers are starting to arrive in the newspapers and the American Progress Action Report has a summary of the 'gifts' Rep. Mark Green and his Republican colleagues are sending with college students across America as they start packing up their stuff to take with them to the dorm. They will be packing up a huge debt with that loft bed.

INCREASED COLLEGE COSTS LEAD TO MORE DEBT, FEWER CHOICES: The federal budget includes $137 billion for federal research and development programs, but that won't "mean a thing if students can't afford a college education or have to forgo research or teaching positions when they graduate due to school debts." Congress cut student aid by $12 billion in the most recent federal budget while interest rates on student loans climbed two percentage points July 1, the largest increase in history. The maximum Pell Grant has been frozen for four years at $4,050, which "barely covers a third of an annual public-college bill." Not surprisingly, two-thirds of all graduates of four-year colleges now finish with sizable loans. Public college graduates have an average $16,000 of debt, while private school graduates have an average $20,000. While approximately 200,000 Americans are priced out of higher education annually, prohibitive costs also affect choices students make when in school. "By reducing their financial barriers," said Jim Shelton of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, "you're allowing students to take on leadership roles on college campuses and spend more time focused on academics. Otherwise they would have been burdened with work or making lesser college choices." Even after college, high student debt is delaying pursuit of the American dream. "Since 1991, the number of students who delay buying their first house, having kids and getting married because of educational debt has gone up by 52 percent, 75 percent and 100 percent, respectively."

If you look real hard, you can see Green cheering in this cartoon

-By Tony Auth of the Philadelphia Inquirer via Slate.com

An article in today's Wisconsin State Journal about the stem-cell bill that President Bush has said he will veto notes that recent polls show about 70 percent of the public supports embryonic stem-cell research. Andy Cohn, spokesperson for the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, is quoted in the article making an important point that Wisconsin voters should keep in mind this fall. Cohn says that passage of the bill to fund stem-cell research by both the House and the Senate means that even if President Bush vetoes this bill, stem-cell research is sure to be fully funded at some point in the near future thanks to the growing public support.

The only question then is where the research will be done. If Rep. Mark Green is elected governor this fall, the research and all the jobs and patents that it will create will be done in another state since he won't allow it to be done in Wisconsin.

John Gard: Misleading Seniors

Rep. John Gard, candidate for the 8th Congressional District, is touting a new ad about seniors in this press release. He calls the ad "Standing Up for Seniors" and says the ad is about his role in creating SeniorCare, the Wisconsin program to help seniors with the cost of prescription drugs.

If it were up to John Gard and his Republican colleagues, SeniorCare would not have become a very good program and Gard's votes on seniors are nothing to brag about in an ad.

The SeniorCare that Gard and his colleagues envisioned would have left a widow making as little as $16,000 without any coverage at all. From the Capital Times June 22nd, 2001:

The plan, adopted in a GOP caucus, would cover an estimated 171,000 senior citizens. A Democratic plan, adopted by the Senate Tuesday, would cover an estimated 335,000 seniors. Income eligibility ceilings for the GOP plan are $15,448 for single people and $20,800 for couples.

The Senate Democrats forced the Assembly Republicans to increase those income limits in order to cover more people in the program and that is the program Gard is taking credit for in his ad. In the end he did vote for it, but he had to be dragged there kicking and screaming the whole way.

Gard also has votes regarding the SeniorCare program that didn't seem to make it into his ad. For example, he voted against eliminating the enrollment fee increase from $20 to $30 and increases to the deductible and copayment levels, which cost seniors in our state over $21 million (AA1 to SB 44, 6/19/03).

SeniorCare is not the only place where Gard voted against the interests of seniors either. He has voted against providing an additional $5.5 million to expand the Community Options Program to keep seniors in their homes rather being forced into nursing homes (AA88 to ASA1 to SB 55, 6/29/01) and voted against providing an additional $2 million to give meals to needy seniors (AA1 to ASA1 to AB 802, 3/15/00).

Since this ad falls to fully inform the voters, let's hope Gard at least informed the folks in this commercial what the filming was about.

If you build it, they will come

An article in the Isthmus last week details just how long it has taken the city of Madison to build additional parking mid-State Street. The discussion to add parking there started in the 1970s!

And it is still not very close to being built.

It doesn't help that Bill Knobeloch, the head of the Parking Utility, doesn't think there is a parking shortage. He does however, support a plan to better advertise where the parking is downtown that people aren't using. For example, he says there is a lot of parking available at the Overture Center ramp that is rarely used. Point taken. I didn't know that people could park there for non-Overture events so get those signs advertising the parking rolling.

Parking downtown Madison is often a hassle, and not just at mid-State Street. I usually try to leave an additional fifteen minutes for any downtown trip in order to find parking. And if it's raining or there is an event downtown, I usually need more.

I can't tell you the number of times I have driven from ramp to ramp and seen nothing but that irritating red "full" lit up with a line a cars waiting to get in the ramp. Or had to use a street spot and ended up with a ticket because I need more than the hour that spot allowed and in some meetings, it's just not professional to run out to the street and feed the meter.

However, what I usually do if it's raining or there is an event downtown is avoid it and ask people to meet me for a business lunch away from downtown. I'd rather eat downtown because it is now full of great restaurants I like to visit, but sometimes I just don't have time or want to deal with the parking situation in order to eat downtown. The same goes for shopping. I really would go more often if I thought parking would be easier.

The nearest bus stop to my house that is not just a commuter line is a little over a mile away. (Taking the commuter route would require me to be downtown all day) The bus route to get me downtown takes quite a while too so with the walk and time spent on the bus, I don't always have time to take that option considering I am paying for a sitter to watch my child while I try to fit in all of my work meetings.

The city is talking about adding a few additional layers on top of the Buckeye Lot or letting a developer do underground parking with condos and retail above the parking. The later is running into costs issues though and at this point, can't we just go the easy route and do a parking ramp at Buckeye?

In the end, I don't care how more parking gets added. I'd just like to see more of it. So build it with condos on top. Put a three-ring circus on it if you want. But please just build it!!

Local Dems stop illegal fundraisers for Republicans

A La Crosse Tribune article says Rep. Scott Suder (R-Abbotsford) and Rep. Terry Musser (R-Black River Falls)cancelled fundraisers after local Democrats discovered that someone who works for an electrical co-op was listed as the contact.

Clark County Democrats obtained a fundraising letter from Clark Electric Cooperative General Manager Tim Stewart written on CEC stationery inviting people to attend the Taxpayers for Suder ice cream social July 24 in Greenwood. The letter called Suder “a very strong advocate for cooperatives in the legislature” and listed a CEC phone number as the RSVP contact.

That's a big no-no because of the link to the co-op. Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think non-profit co-ops are allowed to engage in partisan political activities.

Suder and Musser say they had nothing to do with it. There could be an investigation so time will tell if they are being completely honest about it.

The fundraiser information at one point was listed as:

Taxpayers for Suder Mon. July 24
1-3 p.m. Clark County Park Greenwood
Ice cream social honoring a friend of cooperatives, State Rep. Scott Suder, hosted by Tim Stewart. Refreshments will be provided. Please RSVP your attendance by July 13 by calling Tracy Nelson at (715) 267-5377 or toll free at (800) 272-6188 or by e-mailing tnelson@cecoop.com

Tim Stewart is the general manager and CEO of Clark Electric Cooperative. Though it doesn't mention Clark Electric Cooperative, he calls Scott Suder a "friend of cooperatives" and asks for attendees to RSVP to a co-op employee using co-op phones and e-mail including a toll free number.

The Wisconsin Electric Cooperative Assocation also listed this fundraiser at one point:

Friends of Dave Zien Tues. July 18
4:30-6:30 p.m. Eau Claire Area
Location TBD Co-op sponsored gathering for Senator Dave Zien. Details to be announced at a later date.

but now doesn't seem to be listed on the website. Perhaps it too was cancelled after local Dems started asking questions.

Rumor also has it that some Clark Electric employees were being forced to work for the fundraiser even though it occurs during the work day. This and the use of the phones and letterhead could be considered an "in-kind" donation from the co-op and would be illegal donations since co-ops are not allowed to make donations like this to political campaigns.

Here is the letter sent out on the co-op letterhead. (Click on it to enlarge it)


And here is the invitation. (Click on it to enlarge it)

Bush says Green will budget like he has

-By Stuart Carlson of the Milwaukee Journal via Slate.com

This week Republicans all over the country were doing back flips about the deficit because it wasn't as bad as they tried to make it.

But it's still really, really bad.

Nonetheless, President Bush was in our state this week trying to get that 29 percent of folks that still love him to write checks to Rep. Mark Green so he can implement the same disastrous budgeting plan in our state. At the event, President Bush said:

Cutting the taxes works. It's making the economy strong. You need a governor who will cut the taxes in Wisconsin. Mark Green is that governor.

Someone presiding over the worst budget deficit in the history of our country should not be telling anyone that anything he has done works, but there he was telling Wisconsin residents that we need to follow his lead and Rep. Green is the person to do it.

Indeed Rep. Green has done everything President Bush has asked for when it comes to the federal budget. Rep. Green proudly boasts of all the tax cuts he has voted for at the federal level. However, he doesn't mention that all of the tax cuts have been financed with borrowed money.

That means they are not so much tax cuts as they are an unauthorized loan from your children or grandchildren since they are going to be the ones to pay for all of this.

In fact Citizens for Tax Justice recently released a report that shows the tax cuts are going to cost $2.4 trillion if you add in the interest that will have to paid at some point.

So you gotta ask yourself, do you want to vote for the guy that blindly followed the guy that spent us so far into debt that your grandchildren will pay for it? Or maybe chose someone that has been more responsible? Your grandchildren may ask questions when they are paying the bills of today with the money they earn tomorrow.

Activist judges all over the place!

Those darn activist judges have done it again! In Nebraska they have reinstated the voter-ban on gay marriage and had the nerve to rule against an attempt to keep a proposed ban in Tennessee off the ballot!

How will we protect ourselves from these judges that want to shove their opinions down our throats and keep gay marriage illegal?

Or can this side of the argument only be used by those trying to limit the rights and freedoms of others?

Fitchburg decides to keep Madison's customers

Earlier this week the Fitchburg City Council decided to turn down a proposal to ban smoking inside public places and keep the additional customers they are getting from Madison. There is no doubt in my mind that Fitchburg bars (and those in Monona, Burke and other municipalities surrounding Madison) have increased their customer base now that smokers have to go there if they want to smoke at the bar.

A few months back I met some friends at Pitchers Pub, which is right across the Beltine from Madison in Fitchburg. The smoke was so heavy in the air that every smoker from Madison must have been stuffed inside. It was awful.

Alderman Jason Williams told the Wisconsin State Journal that the ban proposal was not about health, it's about wants. Williams would be wise to understand that the wants of his constituents is the reason he is there. Otherwise he may learn it the hard way during the next election.

Ross giving LaFollette a run

Do you think Secretary of State Doug La is getting nervous yet? Scot Ross has received more press on his runs than SOS Doug La has received in total over the last few years before Ross entered the race.

The JS Online Political blog has the most recent one with a post about Ross running in the Janesville Triathlon.

Combine that with the impressive fundraising totals Ross reported and I would think SOS Doug La is on the run.

If I could interrupt your fake speech

Two Republican U.S. Senators got busted trying to mislead the U.S. Supreme Court. From the American Progress Action Fund:

ETHICS -- CONSERVATIVE SENATORS SUBMIT A FABRICATED DEBATE IN ATTEMPT TO DECEIVE SUPREME COURT: Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ) drafted a fictional account of a supposed debate they had on the Senate floor and submitted it to the Supreme Court in an effort to convince the Court that it did not have jurisdiction over the recent Hamdan case. Hamdan's lawyers, however, spotted the hoax. They told the Court that the legislative history was entirely invented after-the-fact, and that it consisted of "a single scripted colloquy that never actually took place, but was instead inserted into the record after the legislation had passed." The brief noted that this Graham-Kyl colloquy was "simply an effort to achieve after passage of the Act precisely what [they] failed to achieve in the legislative process." The insertion of the added comments was noted and rejected by the court. Graham and Kyl "attempted to make the dialogue -- added to the Dec. 21, 2005, record -- appear real. Kyl, is quoted at one point as saying, 'Mr. President, I see that we are nearing the end of our allotted time.' In another instance, Graham and Kyl inserted Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas in the fabricated Senate floor discussion, saying 'If I might interrupt,' according to published accounts of the comments." Graham was unapologetic over his efforts to deceive the Court. "I know what I've done. I've done it before and I'll do it again," he said.

Senate races to watch

The Senate Democrats are going to pick up seats in this election. The only question is how many will they pick up? I think they will get the majority. I just need to see more before I decide how many total seats they will have next session.

This is the year that the Republicans have to play defense. They can try to spin people all day that they are going to go after Senators Bob Jauch and Russ Decker, but no one should buy it. Rather, most of their resources will go to protecting five seats that are definitely in play and a couple more that could be if things go insanely well.

The top three races to watch are SD 21, SD 23 and SD 9. Two of these seats (SD 21 and SD 9) flipped from the Democrat column to the Republican column in 2002. The other two seats that are definitely in play this year are SD 5 and SD 31. One of these seats (SD 31) flipped from the D column to the R column last time around. There are also two seats that I think will fun to watch and just might develop into something if all the stars line up correctly and they are SD 17 and SD 1.

The top three races

SD 21 - Rep. John Lehman versus Racine County Executive Bill McReynolds. This will the be the biggest battle this year in the senate. Any time there is an open seat the race is more heated and this seat combines that with two well-known faces and a swing district.

McReynolds is posting some big fundraising dollars but Lehman is doing well fundraising as well. And while raising a lot of money helps win an election, ask Senator Dave Hansen's first opponent if having more money assures victory. Lehman is well liked and keep in mind how many sitting state representatives have gotten beat when running for state senate. It almost always takes another state representative to beat them.

SD 23 - Pat Kreitlow versus Senator Dave Zien. Zien is a stronger campaigner but I think he has finally met his match in Kreitlow. Kreitlow has huge name recognition going into the race and the 'rebel' image from Zien has worn pretty thin since Zien was elected to the Assembly back when I was in high school. Zien's votes are way out of line for a district that is trending Democratic as well. It split about 50/50 on the 2004 election for president and went for Senator Feingold with 56 percent.

SD 9 - Jamie Aulik versus Senator Joe Leibham. One would think that if a senator represented a swing area and won by only a handful of votes, s/he would have a moderate voting record. But then you don't know Leibham. He doesn't seem to care what his district thinks. His voting record is way out of whack for a district that pretty much split down the middle for both the Kerry/Bush and Feingold/Michels elections. The Democrats have also found an impressive candidate in Aulik that Leibham must be scared of since he recently tried to get a local printer to stop printing lit for Aulik.

Two other races that Dems could definitely take

SD 5 - Senator Tom Reynolds versus Jim Sullivan. The numbers in this seat don't immediately suggest that this seat is play but all you have to do is get to know the incumbent a little better before (click on all three words to catch all the fun) you realize why this seat can definitely be snatched up for the Democrat column. Sullivan is a current Wauwatosa City Alderman so he has a base to build from and will be a strong campaigner. The district also went for Senator Feingold with 52.2 percent in 2004 which means they will choose a Democrat over a Republican that is too conservative. I'm guessing there are a lot of Republicans in this district that are suffering from buyers remorse with Reynolds that will happily vote for an alternative.

SD 31 - Kathleen Vinehout/Chris Danou versus Senator Ron Brown. The Democrats have two good candidates in this primary but I think Vinehout will win. She is a farmer that has been very active in her community so she is a pretty well-known activist in the area. Brown will be tougher to beat than some of the other incumbents, but his voting record doesn't match up with his district. He has been voting like a conservative Republican and his district went for Kerry with 53 percent and for Feingold with a whopping 58.1 percent. One of these things is not like the other and it has to go.

Two seats that could be interesting

SD 17 - John Simonson versus Senator Dale Shultz. There is one thing Shultz should be very worried about when it comes to his district. It is trending Democratic. It went for Kerry over Bush 51.5 percent to 48.5 percent and for Feingold with 54.4 percent in 2004. Shultz also had a few stumbles this year that showed he has a hard time balancing being a senator for his own district and trying to run his caucus. A race at home could really knock him off of his game. Simonson is retired so he has time to devote to the election as well as the knowledge and experiences to hit the ground running.

SD 1 - Charlie Most versus Senator Alan Lasee. Yes, this district is pretty solid for the Republicans so it would be tough to take this seat. However, Most has a lot of community experience and I wonder how impressed the residents of this district are with the service they are getting. Lasee is a politician bent on getting one thing accomplished - the death penalty. He was elected to state government when I was three years old (1974) and all he has to show for the issue that occupies him the most is a resolution arranging a non-binding vote that just passed this year. Thirty-two years and one non-binding vote. Stellar work. Perhaps his district wants more.

Races Republicans say they are playing offense on

SD 25 - Despite the pink signs and rhetoric from the Republicans, Shirley Riedmann is unlikely to beat Senator Bob Jauch (D-Poplar). The district went for U.S. Senator John Kerry by about 12,000 votes in 2004.

SD 29 - The fact that the Republicans could not find anyone but Jimmy Boy Edming to run against Senator Russ Decker (D-Schofield) speaks volumes about the incumbent's popularity. Edming ran against Decker last time and got beat 38,779 to 18,201. Look for similar numbers this time.

That's how I see it at this point. I'll update this list as time goes on and we see a little more of the campaigns in action. I'll also pick apart each race in more detail soon.

Nass' new rule should apply to himself

In today's Wisconsin State Journal, Rep. Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) says nothing should be discussed in the classroom that cannot be substantiated.

You mean like creationism?

If Nass is going to impose a rule like this on the UW-System, shouldn't he be required to follow it himself? That would prevent him from running around and making unsubstantiated claims against other people right? Some may recall this from the Capital Times:

The chancellor, Donald Hanna, had decided halfway through the hiring process to upgrade the position to a supervisory role. So when he decided to offer the job to governmental veteran Gassman, he made the salary $67,700 instead of the advertised $54,500.

Although Hanna later confessed he erred in changing the job description without restarting the hiring process and, as a result, took the drastic step of stepping down as chancellor, he made it clear that Gassman was completely oblivious to the job description changes. After an investigation, his explanation was backed up by UW System President Katharine Lyall, who went so far as to write a letter to The Capital Times to publicly say so.

Nevertheless, Nass carried on a campaign of innuendo, one of his specialties, insinuating that Hanna and Gassman were somehow "friends" and that they cooked up the deal to get her more money. Gassman, who said she had never met Hanna before applying for the job, eventually decided to chuck it all, was given a $16,000 severance for going three months without a job after resigning her position with County Executive Rick Phelps to accept Hanna's offer, and eventually went to work on other projects.

Nass had no proof to back up his claims but he ran around to the press bad mouthing Gassman with taxpayer dollars.

As soon as Rep. Nass gives up his taxpayer funded slander machine, he can start dictating how others speak.

Grothman

I for one am glad that Senator Glenn Grothman is not running for U.S. Senate. Not because I was worried that he was going to beat Senator Herb Kohl, but because I really was nauseated at the attempts out there before the race even started to make Grothman into something he is not.

In this intro piece for the then candidate Glenn Grothman, Brian Fraley of DailyTakes calls Grothman a populist conservative.

Populist? Not even on a good day could you consider Grothman a populist.

Here is how Marriam-Webster.com defines populist:

1 : a member of a political party claiming to represent the common people; especially often capitalized : a member of a United States political party formed in 1891 primarily to represent agrarian interests and to advocate the free coinage of silver and government control of monopolies
2 : a believer in the rights, wisdom, or virtues of the common people

Grothman isn't a fighter for the common people and he certainly doesn't believe they have any wisdom. If fact, he acts like he would only be satisfied if he had the final say on everything and didn't have to interact with the common people much less listen to their wisdom.

This is a guy who thinks he and a few of his buddies at the state level should have the final say on how much local governments can spend. And if you want to debate that policy with him, better make sure you have an invitation because he thinks most of the people out there don't have anything valuable to say.

And of course Grothman gets to decide who worked hard enough to go to college.

So I'm glad we don't have to listen to folks trying to make Grothman into some kind of moderate or populist for the next few months. And hey, now Grothman has plenty of time to work on more versions of the TABOR/TPA for the next session.

Priorities revealed

Are you kidding me? Rep. Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) thinks the legislature should spend time on a resolution calling on the UW-Madison to dismiss a lecturer, but doesn't think they should take the time to debate and vote on SB 1, a bill to reform ethics in state politics?

Unbelievable.

So let's stop trying to blame Governor Doyle for the fact that the legislature didn't pass a bill on ethics reform Rep. Mark Green. If your party, which controls both chambers of the legislature, is talking about spending some time to talk about one person employed by the UW-Madison, it surely could spend the time to debate and pass ethics reform if the desire was there.

Green and Bush two peas in a pod on stem cell funding

Presidential Advisor Karl Rove says President Bush will likely use his first EVER veto to reject a bipartisan bill to expand federal funding on stem cell research according to the Denver Post.

"The president is emphatic about this," said Rove - Bush's top political adviser and architect of his 2000 and 2004 campaigns - in a meeting with The Denver Post editorial board.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted 238-194 last year to pass the legislation, co-sponsored by Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., and Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del. If the Senate approves the bill, it will go to the president's desk.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., who backs the bill, has said he will try to bring it up for a Senate vote soon.

"It is something we would, frankly, like to avoid," Rove said when asked if the White House would welcome, or dread, vetoing legislation passed by a Republican Congress, especially on such an emotional issue as embryonic stem-cell research.

But Rove said he believes the legislation will pass the Senate with more than 60 votes this month, "and as a result the president would, as he has previously said emphatically, veto the Castle bill."

How did Rep. Mark Green vote on this bill that has bipartisan support in both chambers? The man who wants to be governor of the state well positioned to be the leader in this life saving technology voted no.

And now, let the wild rumpus start

There is less than an hour to go before all of the nomination papers for anyone running for state office must be turned into the Wisconsin State Elections Board. Want to find out who is going to be on the ballot? Go here to see the list that the board had as of 2:46 P.M. today. I'll check back after the deadline and see if there are any surprises and any candidates that might not make the ballot if some of their signatures get challenged and turn out to not be legit.

Fair Wisconsin takes the fight to the air waves

Fair Wisconsin is going to begin airing the first TV ad on the proposed ban on gay marriages and civil unions soon. The ad is good. You can view it here.

Control

There is an article today in the Wisconsin State Journal about the "bevy of laws" being proposed or passed supposedly to protect a fetus from the actions of the women carrying the fetus. As you read through the article though, you begin to see what these laws are really about - controlling the lives of women.

The laws include everything from being able to arrest a woman for smoking during a pregnancy to being able to charge someone with two murders for killing a pregnant women instead of just one for killing the woman.

If these laws are not about controlling the lives of women, why aren't the supposed supporters of children talking about making it a crime for parents to smoke period? Why is a crime for a woman to smoke for the first nine months, but not a crime for the father and the mother to smoke in the house where that child is raised for the next eighteen years? What if just the father smokes in the home during the pregnancy? Why don't we arrest him since according to the surgeon general the debate on the dangers of secondhand smoke is over?

How about we arrest the couple that I saw at Rick and Ole's when smoking was allowed in bars here that had the infant carrier sitting on top of the bar in one of the smokiest establishments in town? Why is it more damaging to the child to take in the smoke in utero than breathing it directly?

The answer is that it's not but the person proposing the law to make it a crime for a pregnant woman to smoke in Arkansas is a man.

Hope for this fall

After I read this:

But the most intense reading appeared to come from self-identified liberals in opposition, meaning the fight against the amendment could help bring out Democratic-leaning voters this November.

last night from the analysis of a Wispolitics.com statewide poll, I laughed for a long time. Is it possible that the Republicans have overplayed their hand for the elections this fall? Is it possible that in their zeal to drive out their own base by putting every hot button issue they could on the ballot this fall that the end result will be a higher turnout for the other side?

I sure hope so. Because I'd really like to see this campaign strategy fail:

-By Wiley Miller at gocomics.com (Click here to see comic if you can't read it on this page)

-By Tom Toles of the Wahshington Post

Patience is a virtue

An article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel today has a few people all worked up that the Democrats don't have an agenda for the fall elections. It also contains some wise warnings that placing bets this early on the elections is a risky business.

But one GOP pollster has this line about the Dems:

She took a shot at Democrats, saying their latest bywords, "A New Direction," suggest a "warm-up act for Barry Manilow."

I'll give her that the line is pretty funny but I hope the leaders in the Democratic Party don't fall for the "I double dog dare you" baiting by the Republicans to trot out a bunch of plans during the summer.

There is really no great advantage to getting out a bunch of complicated plans right now. No one cares during the summer. And let's keep in mind that the Republican take over of Congress in 1994 didn't start with a plan in June or July either. From Wikipedia:

The Contract with America was introduced six weeks before the 1994 Congressional election, the first midterm election of President Bill Clinton's Administration, and was signed by all but two of the Republican members of the House, and all of the Party's non-incumbent Republican Congressional candidates.

That means the Republicans released their agenda near the end of September. Why? Because most sane people don't pay much attention to politics in June, July and August. They have other important decisions to make like has that potato salad been sitting out in the sun too long or should I have another helping?

So by all means check in on politics once in a while this summer. Insane addicts like myself will still be tracking it just about every single day and writing about it. Once the filing deadline comes next week, I will really start to delve into the individual races. But by all means, enjoy the summer and don't worry about a plan from the Democrats. It and the Republican version will take over your TV soon enough.

Rep. Tom DeLay still on the ballot

A Republican judge wouldn't even buy the scheme cooked up by the state party in Texas to get former Rep. Tom DeLay off the ballot. TPMmuckraker.com has the story here.

Six degrees of Bucher

The Bucher underground network is larger than I originally thought. It is getting so large that it almost lends itself to a six degrees of separation type of game.

The ads being run by the Coalition for American families, were touted by a press release from that group with Steve King, Paul Bucher's campaign chairman listed as the contact. If you call TV stations, they will tell you that Treasurer/contact for the group is Valerie Johnson. She is married to RJ Johnson. He works for Paul Bucher.

Is Bucher even really running to be Attorney General of is he just bank rolling campaign types that are working to beat Governor Doyle? I guess there are just a small number of people that are willing to use both Willie Horton style ads and ads that are so completely false that you have to use cartoon characters and they all happen to be connected to Paul Bucher.

Everybody join in with the song now.

It's a small world after all
It's a small world after all
It's a small world after all
It's a small, small world

I apologize in advance if you get that song stuck in your head.

P.S. The ads are so filled with lies that one Milwaukee TV station has taken them off the air.

Honesty is the best policy

Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) put up some billboards at the end of last month up in Senator Bob Jauch's district. The ridiculous looking billboards have a line that says they are paid for by the WMC Issues Mobilization Council so no doubt they are claiming that these billboards are issue ads.

However, in a recent interview with Greg Bump of Wispolitics.com, Jim Pugh, WMC spokesperson said this:

"This is probably the most interesting use of billboards in a political context in quite some time."

Political context? You mean political as in a political ad that should be reported as such and not as some bogus issue ad?

The Bucher underground

Paul Bucher's refusal to answer the questions from Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council regarding his stance on open government is starting to make sense. Bucher and his campaign believe in the right to secrecy at all levels and even hope to win elections with it. Numerous elections.

How else would you explain Bucher's campaign chairman being the contact for one of the most dishonest ads I've seen in politics in a while from a shadowy 'interest group'?

If Bucher doesn't call for this ad to be taken off the air, one can only imagine the horrible ads that the public will have to endure down the road from Bucher.

The ad is being run by the Coalition for America's Families. Sound familar? Seth at In Effect has a nice review of the other ads they have done here.

Can a pro-choice candidate win the 8th CD?

Last week I was sent an email exchange between Steve Kagen supporters and Nancy Nusbaum supporters that got me thinking. The Kagen supporter was saying that Nusbaum is trying to hide her pro-choice beliefs since she doesn't mention them on her campaign website. That got me wondering...can a pro-choice candidate win the 8th CD?

I think the answer is yes.

For the record, all three candidates in the race are pro-choice from what I've read, but none of them are talking much about it. The 8th CD is a somewhat conservative district that has many voting Catholics that are not pro-choice. But there are two things to consider when it comes to voting day - all of those Catholics will most likely not vote solely on the abortion issue and the likely Republican candidate, Rep. John Gard, has votes on women's health overall that are out-of-step even for a district that leans pro-life.

Gard has voted against requiring health insurance companies to cover contraceptives. He also voted to allow pharmacists to refuse to fill birth control prescriptions in 2001 and 2005. Gard also thinks its ok to force rape and incest victims to go from hospital to hospital if they want access to emergency contraception since he voted against requiring hospitals to carry it.

Interestingly, Gard doesn't have a section on abortion in the issues section of his campaign website either. That suggests he has polling that shows his views on women's health and abortion are out-of-line with his district. Otherwise, he would be trumpeting his anti-choice votes from the tallest building and have an entire section devoted to this topic on his website.

Women's reproductive freedom is about much more than abortion, but pro-choice candidates shouldn't try to hide their beliefs on abortion for numerous reasons. The biggest reason is that everyone will find out at some point and if you try to get everyone's vote on this issue by talking out of both sides of your mouth, you end up with no one's vote. The loss column is littered with numerous former pro-choice candidates of this stripe.

It also means someone else will define you on this issue with a negative ad that will make you want to throw your television out the window.

The other, larger reason is that pro-choice candidates being afraid to talk about abortion has led to the anti-choice movement chipping away at more than the right to an abortion. When they saw every time they said the word 'abortion' pro-choice candidates in swing areas ran for cover as fast as they could, it emboldened them to start adding more and more restrictions on how women can control their reproductive choices.

It has let the anti-choice movement force doctors to hide important information and present some information that is downright false as fact. It has led to pharmacists thinking they can hang up on a women calling to fill her legal prescription for birth control. And it has led governors to sign bills that will cause young women to die from botched abortions because their state has banned them completely.

In the past almost every candidate was advised not to talk about this issue if at all possible. But Nusbaum and the other Democratic candidates should not be afraid to talk about this issue. I'm not saying bring it up all the time, but don't try to avoid the issue either.

Polling consistently shows that voters support access to abortions. The 8th CD most likely supports restrictions on abortions but it is unlikely that it supports a ban on them either.

And the voters in the 8th CD and elsewhere have started to realize the anti-choice movement and the candidates they support want to do more than ban abortions. They don't intend to stop trying to pass more laws restricting a women's reproductive freedom until they get to sit in on every appointment.

Unease with the new restrictions that the anti-choice movement is trying to drag our country toward can translate into a win for a pro-choice candidate in the 8th CD.

Green's $2,000 bill to college students

The interest rate hike for student loans that Rep. Mark Green voted for earlier this year went into effect at the beginning of the month. From American Progress Action Fund:

On July 1, interest rates on student loans experienced the greatest jump in history, with the variable rate on common Stafford loans shooting up almost two percent for students and graduates. The rate hike comes as a result of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, which was signed into law by President Bush on Feb. 8, 2006 as part of an effort to save the federal government more than $22 billion over the next five years. (By comparison, the Department of Defense spends approximately $8.1 billion a month in Iraq). In today’s global technology and information-driven society, obtaining a college diploma is more important than ever. The average college-educated worker earns about 73 percent more over a working lifetime than a high school graduate, and faces a 40 percent lower risk of unemployment. A college education opens up windows of opportunity, while leaving school prior to earning a post-secondary credential closes doors. But rising costs and shrinking financial aid are making higher education increasingly inaccessible for many Americans. Lack of academic preparation, inability to pay for a full college experience, and economic pressures to seek full-time employment already prevent many students from completing a post-secondary program. The student loan interest rate hikes will only exacerbate the problem.

The rate hikes are expected to cost the average student borrowing money to go to college an extra $2,000. Go here to find the article and all the rest of the links to more information about the hike and the rising costs of a college education, which didn't seem to influence Green's vote at all.

McReynolds' march - the country club version

Racine County Executive Bill McReynolds' is boasting of walking 100 miles in this press release as part of his bid for the 21st Senate District. The release mentions he is going door-to-door and waving to folks in parades, but it fails to mention the numerous stops he is making at private country clubs in southeastern Wisconsin.

On June 22nd he had a fundraiser at the Racine Country Club. It's a private club that doesn't seem to want any outsiders coming in so they have a closed guest policy. His most recent country club stop was at Westmoor County Club in Brookfield on June 28th. A nice little place where it costs about $36,000 just to get in the door as a member. It is also private and has a closed guest policy.

I'm sure McReynolds got a nice, well-rounded picture of the needs of the district he wants to represent at his Westmoor fundraiser in Brookfield.

Brookfield, as you may recall from this article, has an alderman that doesn't think affordable housing is necessary.

Saying that Brookfield doesn't need to provide affordable housing, an alderman wants to scale back the density of future construction of apartments and condominiums in the city.

Ald. Jim Heinrich's call to put the brakes on multifamily housing drew opposition from the Metropolitan Builders Association, which urged the city to retain its support for such housing.

"I personally see no need to provide affordable housing," Heinrich writes in a July 11 letter to aldermen and plan commissioners seeking a formal review of the need for more multifamily housing.

Heinrich claims to have the backing of his constituents on this too. He also notes:

"You're not going to have problems with apartments if you don't have apartments," he said.

And you certainly won't have to see them on the drive to your country club.

UPDATE: A reader pointed out that McReynolds also had a fundraiser at the Meadowbrook Country Club in Racine. It is also a private club closed to guests. Three strikes and your out of touch.

As true now as the day he said it

"To say now that America was right, and England wrong, is exceedingly easy," Douglass declared. "Everybody can say it. . . . But there was a time when, to pronounce against England, and in favor of the cause of the colonies, tried men's souls. They who did so were accounted in their day, plotters of mischief, agitators and rebels, dangerous men. To side with the right, against the wrong, with the weak against the strong, with the oppressed against the oppressor! here lies the merit, and the one which, of all others, seems unfashionable in our day."

-Frederick Douglass

You can find the rest of the very well written editorial from E.J. Dionne Jr. of the Washington Post that I copied this quote from here.

The second best paragraph is this one:

Most reformers guard their patriotic credentials by moving quickly to the next logical step: that the true genius of America has always been its capacity for self-correction. I'd assert that this is a better argument for patriotism than any effort to pretend that the Almighty has marked us as the world's first flawless nation.

Listening in a little early

Court filings in the breach of privacy case regarding President Bush's illegal domestic wire tapping program claim it was started before 9/11.

The U.S. National Security Agency asked AT&T Inc. to help it set up a domestic call monitoring site seven months before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, lawyers claimed June 23 in court papers filed in New York federal court.

Will this make the right stop defending President Bush's domestic spy program? If this was a program under President Clinton, Fox news would have created a whole new batch of flashy graphics just to talk about it. It would probably have a banner along the bottom that said "Constitution Under Attack!" or something similar.

It will be interesting to see how Fox News tries to spin this since it will be tough to argue that the Bush Administration was doing it to try to prevent an attack without making it look like they had enough intelligence warning them of an attack, but didn't do the right things to stop it. That would only feed into the conspiracy theories out there.

Fox News and the Republicans may even try to blame this on Clinton since the initial project was started in 2000 according to the NSA. However, the plaintiffs in the case say the call monitoring was a "different component" of that project. In other words, once President Bush's team got in there, the project changed direction.

Bloomberg News has the story here.

Organics and the big stores

A while back, I was wondering whether Wal-Mart's announcement that it was going to start selling more organic products was a good thing or a bad thing for organic farming. A story from an early June Isthmus now has me thinking it will end up being a bad thing.

On the plus side, big stores selling more organic products could help increase sales and demand, which will help attract more farmers into organic farming and drive down the price of organic products. On the minus side, Wal-Mart and others could use its muscle to change the definition of organic by weakening the standards in place in order for products to be considered organic.

Of they could pull what Roundy's did recently to a Wisconsin farmer and try to push the very same family farmers that helped build the organic movement into what it is today right out business.

The Isthmus article tells the story of Dean Dickel, owner of New Century Farm in Shullsburg. He supplies some of Roundy's Copps stores in Madison with organic eggs. One day Roundy's up and decided that they were going to standardize all of their products with two brands and Dickel's New Century products was not on the list. Then without telling him, they raised the price of his eggs a dollar. No doubt this was so they could tell him his products were not selling and they could justify getting rid of them.

Eventually Copps put the eggs back on the shelf at a more reasonable price after the Isthmus started asking around about what happened to Dickel. However, Dickel's experience highlights just how vulnerable small farms will be to the big stores now that they are getting into the organic business. Small farms can't absorb having a large store like Copps just up and decide not to sell its products with little or no notice and many farmers could get crushed in the path of the big stores.

Roundy's behavior in this is yet another reason why I no longer shop at Copps. I still buy New Century's great organic eggs, but I buy them at Pierce's and the Willy Street Co-Op.