Progress Now Action

The State Senate took the lead today to end the loophole that lets Wal-Mart and other big corporations evade $15 million annually by exploiting the state tax law (and the taxpayers).

Under the tax evasion scheme, tells the Institute for Wisconsin's Future, Wal-Mart would have one part of its business pay another part of the biz for rent allowing it to "reduce" its Wisconsin profits and consequently, reduce the amount of money it's required to provide the taxpayers of Wisconsin.

Tim Pawlenty, Minnesota's first openly-mulletted governor, is making the trip to Wisconsin later this week to visit his pals during the state GOP convo in Stevens Point. And if he speechifies as good as he interviews, it should be a raucous affair.

Consider this gem from a Saturday radio show: "I have a wife who genuinely loves to fish. I mean, she will take the lead and ask me to go out fishing, and joyfully comes here. She loves football, she'll go to hockey games, and I jokingly say, 'Now, if I could only get her to have sex with me I'd really have it made.'''

Hi-lar-ious! The poor hubby whose wife won't meet his needs -- a joke as timeless as it is classy.

On Sunday's This Week program, George Stephanopoulos asked John McCain, who wants to make health insurance benefits by workers part of their taxable income, the following question:

One of the points Mrs. Edwards made in the Wall Street Journal, she said that your whole life, you had government health care. You were the son of a Naval officer, a Naval officer, now a member of Congress. And her point is, why shouldn’t every American be able to get the kind of health care that members of Congress get or members of the military get?

McCain has been getting ink (finally) about his volatile temper and its relevence. He showed why some have concerns, when he fired quickly back:

It’s a cheap shot, but I did have a period of time where I didn’t have very good government health care. I had it from another government. 

Twenty-one years to the day after he attended the second meeting to put pressure on federal regulators which became known as the Keating Five scandal, John McCain is showing how out of touch he is by continuing to cozy up to lobbyists.

A new report from Public Campaign Action, shows a real mixed record on McCain's support for public financing -- despite overwhelming public support for real change for the way campaigns are financed.

Whether it's Keating Five or the recent revelations about his questionable intervention for Paxson Communications, McCain's reputation as a good government champion is under serious scrutiny.

The Bush-McCain economic blueprint of tax cuts for the rich and corporate bailouts continues to cost American jobs with the latest news that over 80,000 were lost last month alone. That's on top of 152,000 more since the beginning of the year.

And McCain wants to stay the course. 

"So my friends, we can fix this economy. We can fix it. But the first thing we need to do, my friends is make the Bush tax cuts permanent." [Town Hall Meeting; Polk City, FL 01/27/08]

Then again, economics aren't really McCain's bag, at least according to him.

"The issue of economics is something that I've really never understood as well as I should." [Chicago Tribune, 12/18/07]

Um, that's abundantly clear, Senator Obvious. 

Wisconsin AFL-CIO President David Newby has it spot-on regarding John McCain's unwillingness to join a roundtable to talk with working people about the incredible challenges facing families under the current economic disaster of George Bush and his cheerleader John McCain. 

Read what Newby had to say, after the jump.

John McCain is going to Memphis tomorrow to visit the National Civil Rights Museum.

Nice change of pace for a man who in 1989 voted against the establishment of the birthday of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as a national holiday.

Thankfully, McCain failed and the holiday honoring Dr. King was eventually established.

Maybe this'll be a sign of things to come and he'll flip-flop on his flip-flop in order to support the ridiculous Bush tax cuts for the rich and approving of torture which demeans America and puts our troops in additional peril.

Paul Singer has come to Wisconsin in the form of $40,000 in late contributions to Judge Mike Gableman from himself, an executive at his company and couple of people with Singer’s same last name.

Singer is the slug who’s made his money by operating so-called “vulture” funds, where he purchased government bonds from poor counties and got an enormous return on the loan. As Greg Palast reported, he jacked Peru for $58 million on an $11 million debt and sued Congo for $400 million on a $10 million debt.

Singer’s the guy who ponied up $250,000 to the radical-right Club for Growth. He’s the guy behind the California referendum to slice up California’s electoral votes. He’s the guy who was helping Rudy 9u11iani’s aborted campaign including raising $500,000 and bundling $200,000 from his employees for the thrice-married historical footnote.

Exactly one year ago, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel thundered with rage at Linda Clifford.

The Supreme Court candidate had the temerity to use the name of the might Journal Communications newspaper's name in an autocall going to potential supporters that referenced, well, the Journal Sentinel's endorsement of her.

In virtually the last seconds of the race, the Journal Sentinel's coverage of this "infraction" included two big news articles, a condemning editorial and a "cease and desist" letter from the corporate media giant's team of well-priced lawyers.

Hey Scott,

Thanks so much for explaining to me what’s wrong with Milwaukee County in your latest mailer. You know the one I’m talking about, with the little blond girl on the front, in a police uniform with a badge that reads “City of Toyland.” Now, it all makes sense to me—you’re not playing around—the women must go.

This mailer is really a trifecta perfecta. In this one picture, you clearly explained that:

• Your female opponent is weak

• Any female candidate running for office is weak

• Women are unfit to work in law enforcement

Yep, it’s a scary world when little girls are in charge of policing the big city. I mean, according to you, girls like Lena Taylor would do silly stuff, like keep our teens out of prison and work to keep guns off the streets. But man, do I feel more confident when I open it and see the real law enforcement—men, predominantly white, of course. Whew! Doesn’t everyone know that males are best equipped for serious jobs, like law enforcement and County Executive? Maybe all females are too “soft on crime” to effectively enforce the law and keep our streets safe.

Mike Gableman's largest donors come from Colorado it turns out. John & Carolyn Saeman of Denver wrote $20,000 in checks to Wisconsin's Gableman a couple of weeks ago.

The Saeman's, who run an investment company in the Rocky Mountain State, are also big fans of George "Macaca" Allen and Rick "Man on Dog/Savage Love Noun" Santorum.

In addition to the $20,000 to Gableman, they collectively dumped $4,000 on Allen and $8,400 on Santorum.

You can tell a lot about a person by the company they keep.

Citing this week's comprehensive FamiliesUSA report showing five uninsured adults between ages 25 and 64 die each week due to no health care insurance, The Monroe Times editorialized on the importance the state legislature act on real health care reform.

The Times, the home town newspaper of Rep. Brett Davis an opponent of the $2 billion health care cost saving-universal Healthy Wisconsin proposal, is right on that is far past time the legislature act.

Healthy Wisconsin would ensure all of Wisconsin have access to the same generous health care plan state legislators, like Davis, have availble to them.

Let's not forget -- we pay for legislators (including those fighting against us getting their same coverage) to have this comprehensive health care. A state legislator can get full coverage and never worry about health care costs for their entire family for as little as $2 a day. 

Roundly criticized for his Willie Horton-style race-baiting TV spot, Burnett County Judge Mike Gableman got more bad news yesterday.

Dodge County District Attorney Stephen Bauer officially yanked his support for Gableman, citing the ad and calling the ad "revolting."

According to Bauer: "This is not a factual ad. ...This crossed the line. It was revolting, quite frankly. I do think it undermines the entire judicial system."

Editorial boards have begun weighing in on the ad as well and the news isn't good for Gableman.

The Institute for One Wisconsin has completed a comprehensive online library of information about Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the state's largest and arguably most influential corporate lobbying organization.

At WMCWatch.org, visitors will find information about the priorities, people, corporations and contributions of WMC. Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce has an enormous amount of influence on state policy. WMCWatch.org will provide the information and it is up to the people of Wisconsin to decide whether WMC wields far too much sway in our State Capitol.

At WMCWatch.org, visitors have access to extensive information about Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, including:

As Cory pointed out, Mike Gableman's unconscionably slimy ad about Louis Butler is a knock off of the race-bating Willie Horton ad that ran during the Bush-Dukakis race of 1988.

Any thoughts on the next old inflamatory ad they'll borrow from? Maybe this one?

Our wacky neighbors at Pro(foundly deluded)-life Wisconsin are either really, really against both birth control and women, or they are really, really spoiling for a new fundraising campaign.

Most likely it's both columns A & B.

In an article about the celebration at the signing of the Compassion Care for Rape Victims, the Cap Times offered the following:

Pro-Life Wisconsin, which opposes abortion and says all forms of hormonal contraceptives cause abortions, said today it would likely challenge the law in court.

"We are not lying down," lobbyist Matt Sande said. "The law is unconstitutional. It ought to be challenged and we're working on it."

It's hard to take them seriously when you actually read their statements out loud. What's P-LW's next argument, that menstruation kills babies?

Mike Gableman has been touting his crime prosecuting prowess. While on the loathsome Vicki McKenna's show in December (fyi -- she called OWN "soulless"), Gableman said, “I did prosecute everything from child sexual assault cases, arson cases, white collar crime, and domestic abuse.”

But two media outlets have analyzed Gableman's claims, which are currently being echoed by Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce and that Club for Growth, and it's raising serious questions about whether Gableman is a serious serial resume-padder.

After seven years of Republican-control in Washington, DC, the orgy of special interest spending, led by Bush and McCain's abominable Iraq policy, has plunged the country into a $9 trillion debt.

John McCain, the "stay the course Senator," wants to end federal earmarks. It's all in the timing, I suppose. I fail to recall McCain seeking a permanent ban on earmarks when his party called all the shots.

We found out just the other day that McCain, who wants to now extend the ridiculous Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, is also calling for a ginormous corporate tax break -- $100 billion earmark to corporate America by slashing the corporate rate from 35 percent to 25 percent.

When you're handing out a five-year goody bag of special interest tax breaks of half a trillion dollars, who needs earmarks to make their corporate constituents happy?  

In the midst of criticizing the false claims of the Mike Gableman campaign, Newsweek's recent article also focused on an ad from the Greater Wisconsin Committee about Gableman's suspicious appointment.

To quote: "We'll concede that the circumstantial evidence raises questions, and we haven't heard a convincing alternative theory for Gableman's appointment..."

Their conclusion is that wrong-doing hasn't been absolutely proven, but that's their prerogative.

Bottom line: no one has yet to dispute the facts of either OWN's investigation or GWC advertisement.

The distortions of Mike Gableman's campaign have caught the attention of Newsweek and not in a good way for Burnett County's oft-overturned jurist.

The article focuses on part, the patently untrue allegation made by Gableman about the case of Richard Brown. Gableman has repeatedly claimed Brown, a registered sex offender, was let out on the streets. This is a lie.

In fact, OWN felt so strongly, that we filed a request for investigation with the Wisconsin Judicial Commission -- the group which investigated Annette Ziegler's conflicts of interest. The basis is the prohibition in the code from judges or judicial candidate makes false statements about an opponent.

We have not received any communication back from the Commission, but we hope they will act in order to prevent similar violations from the Judicial Code from happening.