Fear-monger extraordinaire Todd Berrys conservative talking points are once again proven wrong by, you know, reality. Berry claimed in September of this year the repeal of the Qualified Economic Offer (QEO) in the state budget could lead to disaster — teachers salaries could explode out of control[!!!] bankrupting school districts and leading to MASSIVE CUTS […]
Wall Land Investment, LLC, one of multi-millionaire Madison developer Terrence Wall’s companies, has reclassified $2 million in prime Dane County commercial real estate into ‘agriculture’ property, which allows the company to eliminate $34,000 in local property taxes. Wall is already under criticism for using a Delaware post ‘office’ box to possibly avoid paying Wisconsin business […]
In the past, the conservative Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance took some effort to mask its shilling for the arm-in-arm conservative tax ideology of corporate America and the Republican party. Now, Todd Berry and the conservative WISTAX aren’t even trying to hide it. In a lengthy write up of the current state of the stimulus in Sunday’s […]
Liz Cheney is a smug, pampered ghoul feasting on the shattered and breathless bones and flesh of America’s fallen soldiers. In any just society, she and Bill Kristol would be sterilized to end the multi-generational criminality both represent. But such is not the case. Because America is both the greatest and most flawed nation on […]
Wisconsin in 2009 created or retained around 22,100 Wisconsin jobs, including 8,284 full-time public-sector jobs, and is on course to create 50,000 more. This thanks to the policies enacted though the Americans Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). And what do you know, the right wing evidently couldn’t be more disappointed.Joint Finance co-chairs Sen. Miller and […]
A study by the Institute for Wisconsins Future about the Mercury Marine debacle that unfolded earlier this summer reveals the true nature of the corporate greed thats taken over our economy, turned the free market on its head and is destroying working families, all for the sake of padding the pockets of the those at […]
The latest study by the supposedly non-partisan Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance is another example of the groups conservative bent and its willingness to manipulate data and flat out make stuff up to support its agenda of lower corporate taxes, regressive taxation on working families and less public investment. In order to raise the alarm about high […]
In his just-released resolution to expel Rep. Jeff Wood from the state assembly, brave Rep. Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) cites an incident from before Wood was elected as contributing to Nass’s belief that he should yanked from public service. If the legislature is going to open hearings about ‘contempt and disorderly behavior’ as requested by Nass, […]
A must-read release from CBTU: The Coalition of Black Trade Unions (CBTU) are outraged by County Executive Scott Walker’s budget he has submitted to the County Board . He is proposing the elimination of hundreds of family-supporting county jobs. The vast majority of those jobs are in the lowest wage classifications — Housekeeping and Custodial […]
The ‘Young Gun’ filed his latest campaign finance statement and it’s chock full-o-corporatey goodness. Ryan amassed $104,000 in PAC gifts, including 94% from out-of-state PACs. It’s not surprising, Ryan’s corporate sycophancy extends beyond the Badger State borders, so why wouldn’t his grab-bagging. But more than our words could do, page 105 of his 170 page […]
Since first elected County Executive in 2002, Walker has repeatedly closed or threatened to close pools all across the county, citing their high cost to maintain and ignoring their benefit to their communities. (MJS 9/19/03, MJS 6/18/06, MJS 9/29/06, MJS 10/5/09) So it struck me as funny that in 2007 Walker and his family moved […]
While average Americans’ retirement savings and investments were getting wiped out, losing their jobs and even their homes, the 400 richest Americans pocketed a cool $30 billion. This is so outrageous I don’t even know what to say. I guess I’ll just let the injustice of that stand on its own.
The Institute for Wisconsin’s Future (IWF) took a hammer to the outrageous Tax Foundation report that among other things proposed taxing groceries and gasoline, creating a flat tax, and cutting transportation, health care, and education investment by 15% each. IWF, a statewide research organization, issued their report, ‘The Tax Foundation’s Proposals Are Lose/Lose for Wisconsin’ […]
The Wisconsin Government Accountability Board has shown a total lack of teeth in its pathetic determination to fine All Children Matter a measly $500.
TEABAGGER ALERT! So this past weekend, Scott Walker and the JV teabaggers at Citizens for Responsible Government held a rally at Serb Hall in Milwaukee to catapult the propaganda about Walkers credit-card budget for Milwaukee County. And of course, like most of the townhalls this summer, people there to express an opinion in a thoughtful […]
MADISON, Wis. — The Wisconsin Government Accountability Board could be opening Wisconsin’s doors to an avalanche of future illegal campaign activity after settling for a miniscule fine of $500 from All Children Matter, ignoring evidence the group possibly funneled Wisconsin corporate contributions through a Virginia political action committee in violation of Wisconsin campaign finance law. […]
“Where was Sensenbrenner’s outrage when George Bush made John Ashcroft the Attorney General immediately after Ashcroft lost a statewide election to someone who had died? How about after Bush made Spencer Abraham the Energy Secretary immediately after he lost reelection to his Senate seat? This is another example of the Republicans’ willingness to stop at […]
Press release from Wisconsin anti-war activists: Disappointed with President Obama’s unwillingness to significantly change course from the Bush Administration, and his talk of troop increases in Afghanistan, a coalition of national anti-war groups will be joining together on October 5th in a day of nonviolent direct action at the White House. Members of the coalition […]
Blogging Blue has an interesting find today — real estate mogul Terrence Wall has not just one, but in fact 16, businesses registered in Delaware! Three of T. Wall’s Delware LLCs share the same name with LLCs that he just recently dissolved here in Wisconsin, on August 21, 2009 in fact. Makes one wonder if […]
From the Spooner Advocate comes Dave Obey’s (D-WI) fiery words of wisdom that earned him the OWN Team’s Hero of the Week award: ‘I swear to god, when I see what some people are saying today, I think they have the memory length of a cocker spaniel,’ said Obey ‘I want you to go back […]
I happened across a recent In Business column from Madison real estate mogul Terrence Wall. Using a personal anecdote about his and his father’s experience with the health care system in France, Wall lambasts any notion of a governmental role in health care in the U.S.. He flatly ignores the failures of the private health […]
National polling devotees have been following an exploding scandal with the Atlanta (well, Georgia)-based Strategic Vision, a firm who’s “research” consistently pops up at opportune times for Republicans, offering encouraging polling numbers for Republicans clawing against the falling sand of a collapsing Republican oligarchy. First, they were smacked down by the American Association of Public […]
Guess what? A group that props up Republicans is running an ad that sugar coats Scott Walker’s fee-raising, credit-card financed Milwaukee County budget. Hardly news. Unless you’re the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who felt the need to provide Citizens for Responsible Government 571 words to expound about the ‘virtues’ of Walker’s budget that attacks county workers, […]
Using typical back-of-the-envelope, context-free math, the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute’s is claiming that since the cost of the extraordinarily successful bipartisan BadgerCare program has increased since it was created, that we shouldn’t have federal health insurance reform that includes a public option to end the stranglehold insurance companies have on our entire nation. The ‘evidence’? […]
Two new polls out this morning that paint a very different picture of Wisconsinites’ attitudes toward state policy to curb climate change and help bring about a new green economy in Wisconsin. First, one from the Forest County Potawatomi Community which shows an ‘overwhelming majority’ of voters ‘ 70% — in Wisconsin support the state […]
As the one of the state’s foremost moral crusaders, Rep. Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) is thundering about the need to expel Rep. Jeff Wood (Not an R-Chippewa Falls) from the legislature because of the former-Republican’s run-ins with the law related to operating a vehicle while intoxicated. On the most recent charge, Wood has so far only […]
The decline in (or complete lack of) standards for news media coverage of political polling in recent years has been hard to watch. There was a time when newspapers like the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel would not report on a poll unless it had the entire poll, rather than partial or selective results that are strategically […]
Much like the conservative Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, the DC-based Tax Foundation pushes out pro-conservative tax propaganda, but its rarely also identified by its conservative ideology. This fantasy of non-ideology is foisted on media consumers despite overwhelming evidence both groups are pushing an ideologically-conservative agenda ‘ that everyone is always paying too much in taxes. Rarely, […]
Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce must distance itself from health insurance giant Humana and remove its representative from its board of directors after Humana used its Medicare patient list to lobby seniors against health insurance reform. Larry Rambo, Great Lakes Region CEO of Humana is a current board member of WMC. According to figures compiled by […]
I fully intended on showing up last night at an Oconomowoc country club to hear Leah Vukmir talk about ‘current and proposed legislation affecting Wisconsin health care and insurance’. If not for my squawking eight-month old baby boy, I’d have had a listen. Vukmir, herself a state rep eligible for taxpayer funded health insurance, has […]
In its haste to criticize Rep. Ron Kind, the Republican Party of Wisconsin showed it’s always got time to dump on the people of Wisconsin. As part of a quickly distributed press release, GOP head and Michael Steele lackey Reince Priebus refers to Wisconsin as among the “worst states to do business.” How one facilitates […]
According to this Office of Justice Assistance report, 415,543 arrests were made in 2008, equivalent to roughly 7% of Wisconsin’s 5.6 million population. About 100,000 of those arrests were of juveniles. Based on legislation proposed by Reps. Sheila Harsdorf and Ann Hraychuck, law enforcement officials would be required to collect DNA at every one of […]
Last week, Fox News zombi… er, viewers were treated to an apparent expose of workers at ACORN giving advice and assistance to conservative activists claiming to be a pimp and prostitute. Of course, Fox took liberties with the facts, claiming the pair was never kicked out of the ACORN offices they visited (they were, police […]
In one breath Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clark is calling for tax cuts and a smaller government and in the next he’s calling for the collection of DNA before a person is even charged with a crime. More from the Illusory Tenant here. So all those drunk frat boys, high school pickpockets, trespassers and happy […]
Last week, executives at private health insurance giant WellPoint [aka Blue Cross Blue Shield] announced to investors at the Morgan Stanley Global Helathcare Conference that ‘cash flow is very positive right now’¦and reserves are coming in better that expected at this point. So things look pretty good.’ Well of course they are! WellPoint in the […]
At this weekend’s GOP gaggle organized by Americans (read: Republicans) for Prospertity otherwise known as the “Republican Rally for Failure” in Milwaukee, our fine state will be treated by another visit from so-called Joe the Plumber, nee Samuel Wurzelbacher. We all remember him from his “impromptu” ambush of then-candidate Barack Obama to his work as […]
MADISON, Wis. — The latest “Republican Rally for Failure” hosted by the self-identified “teabaggers” is scheduled for Saturday in Milwaukee. The “Failure Rally” will feature numerous incendiary speakers, including fact-challenged Michelle Malkin, who will join other partisans to try and defeat the agenda of President Barack Obama. “The latest ‘Republican Rally for Failure’ is just […]
WauwatosaNOW has reported that Wauwatosa School District Superintendent Phil Ertl has admitted he was wrong to prevent students from viewing last week’s live broadcast of President Obama’s education speech. “(In) hindsight, I think I would have made a different decision on it,” Ertl said. “As I look at it, it is our president of our […]
Sen. Max Baucus had a clear choice — the American people or the health insurance industry. As head of the Senate Finance Committee working on one of the most important issues of our lifetime, his choice was real health insurance reform that ends the stranglehold insurance companies have on us, or selling out to […]
At today’s hearing before the three-judge ethics panel convened to determine whether Supreme Court Justice Mike Gableman should be disciplined over a false (and racist) campaign ad he launched against then-Justice Louis Butler, the head of the Wisconsin Judicial Commission summed up Gableman’s notorious ad: ”Let’s say what it is – it’s a lie,” James […]
The story on the 9/12 tea festival in DC is a few days old now, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t post something, anything, on the fear-based, hate-fueled ignorance that came out of our nation’s capital over the weekend.I actually won’t circulate the sometimes racist, sometimes hate-fueled, always conservative signage being held at the […]
Will enough ever be enough for corporate piranhas and their lackeys in the conservative caucuses at the State Capitol? Apparently not for Randy Hopper, whose column in the Oshkosh Northwestern this weekend calls for even more taxpayer financed gifts to corporate interests. Seriously. According to Randy Hopper what Wisconsin really needs to do is levy […]
Two Madison college professors with religious backgrounds, who have worked tirelessly to change the world, will be honored for their lifetimes of activism on Oct. 3 by the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice (WNPJ), a statewide network of 170 organizations working for social change. Joe Elder, a Quaker peace activist who is a University […]
The Wisconsin Hospital Association is misleading Wisconsin residents concerned about real health insurance reform with some recent ads. It wants you to think happy thoughts about the state of health insurance in Wisconsin and casts a dark shadow over health insurance reform efforts.’Every child in Wisconsin has access to health care coverage, as do 98% […]
The conservative Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance issued a release yesterday regarding their recent report titled, ‘State budget woes mean school, taxpayer problems’ that’ll probably scare the bejesus out of, well, schools and taxpayers.The guv and legislature had a difficult task of making over $3 billion of cuts in the budget in the midst of a nationwide […]
So that happened. Union workers at Mercury Marine voted to accept the stunning contract offer from management at Brunswick. Workers at the plant in Fond du Lac were given two basic choices ” as one union guy put it ” cut off your leg, and accept a seven-year pay freeze, or cut off your head, […]
Apparently the editorial board of the Wisconsin State Journal hasn’t made an open records request of Atty General J.B. Van Hollen recently. If they had, they might not be giving Van Hollen such a high grade. Having made several records requests of Van Hollen’s office, we have found him to less than forthcoming with information, […]
GOPer Charles Boustany had the awesome job of following President Barack Obama’s historic clarion call to end the stranglehold health insurance companies have on the nation. Boustany, like Gov. Bobby Jindal last year, was dispatched to offer the marginalized Party of No’s latest no.Boustany, bought and paid for with $1.25 million in health and insurance […]
Neo-birther Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Bucket-of-Dumb) was unable to have President Barack Hussein Osama arrested tonight either for being a non-America Kenyaner, or for being a known “black.” Emboldened, the President briefly praised Allah, and called for the Democratic-controlled Congress to pass health insurance reform, goddamn it.
As you are a respected member of Wisconsin’s media, we at One Wisconsin Now wanted to make sure you had heard about a disturbing media misrepresentation by the MacIver Institute, a conservative Milwaukee organization linked to former Republican Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen. According to a weekend story broken by Wisconsin State Journal, a newly-hired staff […]