One of the more rousing cheers during the State of the Union last night came after President Obama called out the ridiculous ruling from the Supreme Court last week that threw open the door to a new flood of corporate cash into campaigns. The Bush boys, Justices Roberts and Alito, swore up and down during confirmation they weren’t “judicial activists,” wouldn’t “legislate from the bench” and then promptly overturned campaign finance legislation already passed in state after state, and essentially halting efforts in Wisconsin to toughen up existing laws.

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. 

A new study out today shows that poor and middle class families are hit much harder by taxes in Wisconsin than the wealthiest taxpayers. In Wisconsin, it’s the working families that are asked to carry the burden. Individuals making between 20k and 88k all pay about 11% of their income in sales, property and income tax. The top 1% of income earners, that is, those folks making more than $388,000 per year, only pay in 8% of their income. The top five percent (159,000 and up) average about 8.6 percent of income paid in taxes.

Here’s a link to the Wisconsin specific fact sheet: http://www.itepnet.org/wp2009/wi_whopays_factsheet.pdf

One thing is abundantly clear: the wealthy aren’t paying their fair share, not by any measure. The people in Wisconsin who have the most breathing room in their finances are paying less than those of us living paycheck to paycheck.

Once again despite the efforts of the state’s most notorious corporate tax loophole lobby group, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, more jobs are coming to Wisconsin.

Republic Airways to add up to 800 jobs in Milwaukee

This isn’t the first company to do so either – as I pointed out earlier, there have been quite a few companies relocating to the state, bringing good paying, family-supporting jobs.

News last week the unemployment rate nationwide is up over 10 percent for the first time since the Reagan administration. And of course, the Dow is back up over 10,000, because these days, when Wall Street gets rich, real Americans get screwed. Perhaps a different post for a different day.

As we’ve been told so many, unemployment is a lagging indicator, meaning job numbers will bounce back more slowly than other economic numbers. So even though President Obama’s policies have GDP on the rebound, officially ending the recession, it’s going to take some time for national unemployment increases to subside.

Here in Wisconsin however, unemployment has been dropping consistently since hitting 9.2 percent back in June.

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 some justice! I heard Mike Gableman can be bought for mere millions.

In case you missed the news, WMC-purchased “Justices” Mike Gableman and Annette Ziegler once again ruled in favor of the WMC position – this time that justices shouldn’t have to remove themselves from ruling on a case involving a campaign contributor no matter how much that contributor spent to help elect said justice(s). Which now means the corporate titans at WMC can now point to Wisconsin Supreme Court precedent to spend obscene amounts of money on dirty and misleading campaign ads in support of judges that will rule in favor of corporations without a concern that justices will have to recuse.

Any reasonable person can see the glaring conflict of interest. And those who can’t, I propose a simple task: show me one Wisconsin Supreme Court decision in which Justices Gableman and Ziegler ruled against WMC and the corporate interests they represent.

The state’s largest business lobby, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, isn’t really interested in attracting businesses to our state or creating a positive business climate here. Its singular mission is to attach a massive vacuum to the purse of Wisconsin’s taxpayers and suck out as much cash as possible for corporate interests and the wealthy.

If WMC truly cared about bringing good paying jobs to Wisconsin, it wouldn’t constantly rail against the supposedly bad business climate in the state because it’s simply not true. The conservative Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance spelled it out in plain English last week – according to an upcoming WISTAX report, Wisconsin ranks 24th for corporate taxes. One would think since WISTAX is so loaded with past and present WMC board members the two organizations would be able to get on the same message.

Fear-monger extraordinaire Todd Berry’s 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 -- teacher’s salaries could explode out of control[!!!] bankrupting school districts and leading to MASSIVE CUTS and OHMYGOD HUGE TAX INCREASES!!!!

Of course, Berry and WISTAX’s opposition to lifting the arbitrary cap on teacher’s salary aligns perfectly with the conservative agenda in Wisconsin that wants to take money out of public schools and choke off public school teachers at any opportunity.

Then last week, in the first major post-QEO negotiation, the Madison teachers union, Madison Teachers Inc., voted in favor of a new contract that raised salaries by whopping 1 percent. What a rapid acceleration! The total compensation increase (including benefits) in the MTI contract is 4%. The average increase in total compensation under the QEO? 3.8%.

The latest “study” by the supposedly non-partisan Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance is another example of the group’s 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 taxes that aren’t really there, WISTAX massages, manipulates and leaves out data to fit its conservative agenda. WISTAX claims Wisconsin raised taxes due to the Bush recession, but leaves out that only the top 2% saw any income tax increase. WISTAX also includes closing corporate tax loopholes as a tax increase – ending corporate tax evasion isn’t an increase. Sorry WMC and WISTAX, but everyone has to pay their fair share, even corporations that have used truck-sized loopholes to avoid paying Wisconsin taxes in the past.

And just like WMC, WISTAX and its president Todd Berry are constantly dooming-and-glooming about taxes in Wisconsin. Of course Berry said that he “expects [the tax burden] to get worse” in Wisconsin. What Todd Berry thinks or expects or speculates about doesn’t matter because he isn’t even a broken clock or blind squirrel – he’s never right. Earlier this summer after the state budget passed, Berry was at his Eeyore-melancholic-best, speculating that Wisconsin’s rank could move up “three to five places, so something in the six-seven-eight range.” Wrong – our rank dropped from 11th to 12th. And early in 2009, Berry was out in the media pimping his “prediction” that the state budget deficit really wasn’t that bad – first he claimed it was only $.65 billion, then he moved his guess up to a modest $1 billion, at best a full $5.6 billion short of what the deficit actually was. Todd Berry and WISTAX isn’t just wrong, they're EPICALLY wrong about the most important budget issues facing our state. Either Berry and WISTAX are really bad at research and analysis, or they have an interest in pushing the same talking points as WMC.

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 taking action to curb carbon emissions. Additionally, voters from across the political spectrum support action to reduce emissions: 53% of Republicans, 67% of independents and 87% of Democrats.

The Potawatomi poll also touches on an important part of the climate change debate that conservatives often leave out: the move toward renewable energy will create new manufacturing and technology jobs in the state.

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, does either note that the tax rates for rich people have plummeted, the shelters where the store money away from tax obligation ever-growing and that quality of life requires investment in infrastructure.

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 a war correspondent where he said the "I think the media should be abolished from, uh, you know, reporting," to his inability to explain the Employee Free Choice Act at an anti-EFCA appearance, Wurzelbacher has proven his intention to serve as a dull acid reflux to the body politic.

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 Alexander said.