The colliding worlds of Scott Walker’s endless political hackery have been on full and unaduterated display in the past 24 hours. Walker’s administration suddenly announces and end-of-the-year budget crisis and offers, as maddenly-always, one solution: layoffs of workers. Milwaukee’s County Supervisors were hastily given this news by Walker’s lackeys — yep, Walker himself couldn’t find […]
Today marks the 80th anniversary of ‘Black Tuesday’’the final, most catastrophic day of the 1929 Stock Market Crash. Except for Terrence Wall, everyone in America remembers this event as the primary trigger of the Great Depression.Earlier this week, One Wisconsin Now was so dumbfounded by Wall’s assertion that FDR caused the Great Depression (three years […]
Fellow citizens ” did you hear the good news? The Wisconsin Supreme Court is up for sale! So come now, fellow peasants! Let us pool our unemployment checks and the couple extra dollars those of us lucky enough to have a job can afford and try to outbid Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce and buy ourselves […]
Wisconsin urgently needs to reduce its carbon footprint while providing safe, secure, dependable and affordable energy. One proposed solution is to build new nuclear reactors to boil water to produce electricity. But can Wisconsin afford new nuclear reactors? Energy expert Peter Bradford says no, and will explain why in talks in LaCrosse on Nov. 3 […]
There it is on the front page of the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute’s website. Almost 800 words from George Lightbourn about ‘polling’ that concludes Gov. Jim Doyle’s Democratic backers in the state legislature are in peril. It’s an amazing coincidence. Somehow, the sciency-stuff keeps working out for conservatives in the WPRI-UW Right Wing Propaganda Polling […]
Read Milwaukee County’s life-long-health-benefits-on-the-public-dime Executive Scott Walker’s statement on the Milwaukee County Board’s Personnel Committee decision to support domestic partner benefits for employees. ‘I will veto the Domestic Partner Benefits plan approved by the County Board’s Personnel Committee today. Now is not the time to be adding any new benefits for public employees, let alone […]
We Energies has been making news lately with their proposal to increase electricity costs rates by 7 percent.The Appleton Post-Crescent makes a great point: We Energies is saying it needs to raise rates because of the costs of new power plants and transmission lines, increased pension costs and, get this, decreased sales of electricity. The […]
The states largest business lobby, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, isn't really interested in attracting businesses to our state or creating a positive business climate here.
Moralizing hypocrite Rep. Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) and his lackey staffer have been all over today’s news cycle, thundering about the unsettling arrest of Rep. Jeff Wood on suspicion of a 5th OWI. To be sure, Wood has real troubles and should not be operating a vehicle in any way at this point. But that’s no […]
Yesterday Walker announced that he would “borrow a page from his county budget strategy book” in reshaping the state budget if he’s elected Governor next year. Let’s get specific about exactly what those strategies look like: 1.) Unrealistic revenue projections that have led to repeated mid-year budget corrections (remember 2003?), resulting in pool closings, layoffs […]
National embarrassment Sarah Palin is coming to nationally embarrass Wisconsin, courtesy of Wisconsin Right to Life. The ant-choicer movement is bringin’ the Queen of Quit to its November 6 event at State Fair Park in Milwaukee. WRtL is saying “no recording of this event will be made.” That’s where you come in, our unwashed army […]
A story from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel will surely invoke a range of emotions and underscores the need for health insurance reform. Mark Johnson reports on a 39-yeal-old recently-layed-off Watertown man compelled to enlist in the Army in order to receive the health care benefits that could take care of his wife’s cancer treatment.Bill Caudle […]
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.
We see more ‘credible‘ research from the suspect polling project between the state’s leading right wing think tank and the University of Wisconsin’s poli sci department.
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 […]
Where’s the question on the public option? This has been the single biggest and most-discussed issue when it comes to health insurance reform.
“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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]