As is the tradition, a tour through the best and worst of the year.

The Best

The year started off on the high note that was watching the Worst President Ever leaving the White House for the last time, which brought with it another yearly best: the endless video compiliations of the worst Bush moments. YouTube never had it so good. 

Here in Wisconsin, decisive and effective action from Madison earlier this year is leading Wisconsin out of the worst of the Bush recession. Unemployment here has been dropping since June and is lower than the national rate, and despite the worst rhetoric from Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce bashing Wisconsin’s economy, business are opening and relocating here and bringing jobs to the state. 

For sheer entertainment value, President of Teabag-istan Sarah Palin’s descent into madness during 2009 is second to none. Remember when she quit being governor on July 4th weekend? What a patriot! Remember how she doesn’t even ride in that stupid bus on her stupid book tour? Or how she still demands to be called governor and requests English-only reporters? 

Combining two of her most juvenile and irritating hobbies, namely lying and facebooking, she launched the Lie of the Year: Death Panels. And at her no cameras, no cell phones, no media, no nothing event in Milwaukee for Wisconsin Right to Life on November 6, she floated another whopper, suggesting that President Obama and “teh libruls” conspired to move “In God We Trust” from the new dollar coin when in reality it was the previously mentioned Worst President Ever. 

Over the weekend, corporate leadership at Brunswick, the owner of Mercury Marine, proved beyond any doubt that not only were they negotiating in bad faith, they were never planning on keeping the plant in Fond du Lac. And once again, working families in Wisconsin get left in the dust in the race to bottom that is corporate America.

The concessions corporate management demanded of union workers were breathtaking --  a wage freeze for seven years and a 30% pay cut for new hires and re-hires of employees previously laid off. Brunswick CEO Dustin McCoy makes $3.28 million per year. He didn’t offer to take a seven-year pay freeze or a pay cut of any kind. The union voted against the ridiculous concessions, but the mere fact management even offered this package is proof Merc had a foot out the door even before the vote. I can practically hear the Board of Directors now – “Well, if the union is dumb enough to accept this package, I guess we’ll stay…”

This past weekend was a busy one for consumer protection news in Wisconsin. As a part of a new regular installment, I’ll bring you a roundup of the most important news in consumer rights, better business accountability and highlights & lowlights from the view of the consumer.

AG Van Hollen drags feet while CA-based ‘mortgage modification’ company bilks desperate WI homeowners.

A company called 21st Century Legal Services has been working over Wisconsinites trying to stay in their homes by offering a “mortgage modification” service for a flat, up-front fee and then disappearing with the money. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel did an interview with Helen Gibas of South Milwaukee who gave 21st Century $3,500 for a mortgage modification that would lower her interest rate to 4%. Eight months later, Gibas has yet to hear back from 21st Century.

Attorneys General in three states have brought suits against 21st Century for their dishonest business practices, but here in Wisconsin, AG Van Hollen has yet to act. Van Hollen needs to step up to protect vulnerable Wisconsin consumers from predatory companies like 21st Century – but since Van Hollen won’t, we will. Here’s the first official OWN Consumer Alert: DON’T DEAL WITH 21st CENTURY. If you do come into contact with a representative from 21st Century, take their name and call the Wisconsin Consumer Protection Hotline at 1-800-422-7128 or file a consumer complaint online here.

If there was any debate about the rising influence of corporate interests like Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce before the State’s highest court, the last two weeks have ended the discussion. It now appears the Wisconsin Supreme Court is a wholly owned subsidiary of Wisconsin’s corporate crooks.

Those of you following One WI Now’s reporting on the judicial ethics already know that “Justices” Michael Gableman and Annette Ziegler came to the court under a cloud of suspicion. Ziegler got an unprecedented reprimand from the High Court after she ruled in dozens of cases in which she and/or her husband had a financial stake; Gableman remains under investigation. And of course we all remember ads run by WMC supporting these two serial-ethics violators. Just a bit of background...

Last week I reported corporate lapdogs Gableman and Ziegler ruled that owners of a Wisconsin manufacturing company had the right to take millions of dollars in compensation as they drove the company into the ground and failed to pay up on its union contracts. WMC made it clear it early on that it supported the rights of the owners to screw the workers out of the pay they earned with their hard work. And when it mattered most for the CEOs/crooks WMC represents, the justices WMC spent millions electing came through in the clutch. Score: Corporate Special Interest – 1; Wisconsin Working Families – 0.

I guess when rains it pours.

Once again, the dependable corporate lapdogs on the Wisconsin Supreme Court bought and paid for by Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce come through in the clutch for corporate interests. Justices Mike Gableman and Annette Ziegler, beneficiaries of millions of dollars in spending from WMC during their run for the Supreme Court, ruled yesterday that owners of a Wisconsin manufacturing company had the right to take millions of dollars in compensation as they drove their company into the ground.

WMC filed a brief in appeals court last year defending these corporate criminals, pushing the same tired talking point that a ruling against the owners forcing them to pay damages to the workers they bilked out of fair compensation would have a “chilling effect on business.” When Polsky v. Virnich was sent to the Supreme Court, the Associated Press noted WMC withdrew from the case and cited the gobs of money it spent helping to elect the corporate bloc of the court in Gableman and Ziegler created a huge conflict of interest.

In another sign that we desperately need to break the pharmaceutical industry's grip on our broken health care system, the Journal Sentinel reports again on UW doctors receiving big payouts, as much as 6 figures, from drug and medical device companies, presumably to promote their products.

There are few things as ubiquitous as the golden arches of McDonald’s. Rarely is one more than a quick car ride away from the glorious greasy gut bomb of a quarter pounder with cheese or an order of mystery meat McNuggets. 

But here in Wisconsin, there is one industry that has penetrated our communities, large, small and in-between, more than the ever-present home of the Hamburglar – payday lenders. More than 500 payday lenders currently operate in Wisconsin; there are more payday lenders in Wisconsin than McDonald’s.  Within walking distance from my apartment in Madison there are at least three payday loan predators (and only one McD's).

In the most recent edition of The Milwaukee Magazine, former news director of WTMJ radio in Milwaukee Dan Shelley exposes hyper-right-wing radio host Charlie Sykes (and others like him) for what they are—angry right-wing puppets that “exploit the fears and perceived victimization of…conservative-leaning listeners.”

Shelley explains how these right-wing blowhards use scare tactics, carefully screened phone calls, meticulously framed arguments and talking points from the Bush White House to scapegoat progressives of all stripes. When Ronald Reagan used line item veto, it was a great way to reign in “liberal” spending; when Bill Clinton used it, it was an egregious violation of the separation of powers. Dick Cheney’s top aide Scooter Libby, when convicted of perjury, was a victim of an over-zealous prosecutor. Bill Clinton’s heinous crime that led to his impeachment? Perjury.

While America’s attention was riveted on hunting trophies and beautified pigs, Wall Street decided it was time to distract us with some melodrama of its own.  The recent financial meltdown was not the work of foreign enemies, though it may give them great comfort to learn how adept we have become at producing self-inflicted wounds.  All of a sudden, John McCain is a regulator who will protect us against the unrestricted free market he denies he ever advocated.  But who will protect us against John McCain and his running mate, who have replaced the now discredited financial derivative with an even better instrument of economic mass destruction, the budget neutral tax credit.

John McCain and Sarah Palin have spent much of the past few weeks attacking the greedy, corrupt villains behind the collapse of our financial markets. And there truly were some pretty shady characters involved in some very questionable financial dealings. But a crisis of this magnitude never is the fault of just a few rotten apples. What McCain and Palin can't seem to grasp is that environmental factors can turn honorable people into criminals and people of questionable morality into models of probity.

Shade the truth just a bit, do this over and over again, and the possibility of weapons of mass destruction becomes a certainty. Create financial instruments that no one really understands, add a little more risk with each derivative, and all of a sudden you've inoculated the entire financial system with a virulent strain of almost worthless paper. But John McCain and Sarah Palin are as wedded to their mistaken notion of free market economics as George Bush is to his war in Iraq. Out of political necessity, McCain and Palin may try to sound like they understand the need for government referees at a free market football game, but in the end they simply can't surrender their favorite theory to some stubborn little facts.