One Wisconsin Now

The latest non-profit mouthpiece for business found at wilead.org may be a new organization, but it looks like it has a relatively old way of picking its battles. Example: a press release today by organization head and former GOP staffer Brian Fraley calling for an end to the minimum markup law for gas in Wisconsin. You’d think he was talking about a fundamental issue conservatives are united behind. You would be wrong.

Despite the division in the conservative ranks about the law, the group has picked a side. Why? Well, consider this: The chair of Fraley’s three-person board is John Behling. Behling served as a long-time lobbyist for Capitol Consultants. Two of Capitol Consultants clients are Wal-Mart and Mc Lane Foods, both of which registered in favor of a bill this session (AB 820) calling for an end to the minimum markup law. So surprise, surprise, Fraley and his new group are making this case.

Although U.S. Senator John McCain is trying to distance himself from the most unpopular president in recent history, they actually are like two peas in a pod when it comes to being totally out of touch with the average person. 

Who can forget the presidential news conference in February when George W. Bush was asked about the cost of gas reaching $4 a gallon? He responded with "that's interesting, I hadn't heard that." Only weeks ago, while he was raising money in California, John McCain admitted that he didn’t know the price of gas and couldn’t remember the last time that he pumped it for himself. Then he tellingly said that he doesn’t “see how it matters” if he knows the current price of gas.

This is more evidence of just how out of touch Bush and McCain are on most issues. Perhaps that is why McCain would have the audacity to propose $4 billion in tax giveaways to Big Oil at the same time that they are gouging consumers and reaping record profits. Perhaps it is why George Bush and John McCain would sell off every single public asset to Big Oil even if it wouldn’t significantly affect the cost of gas or solve our long term energy crisis.

Bush and McCain have not only shown themselves to be out of touch on the issue of energy but also on the economy in general. How many times have we heard them both say that the “fundamentals of the economy are strong” even as average people increasingly struggle with meeting their most basic needs? It seems like every week we get a new example from Bush and McCain of just how out of touch they actually are with the rest of us.

Last Thursday I found myself at a press conference held by local McCain supporters. The topic was generally about the economy and “small business” and was hosted at a company that had just moved to Milwaukee’s Fifth Ward. When I arrived at the location I was given a packet of information and led to the waiting area for the press. While waiting, I shared an OWN press release with the media on how McCain votes have been a disaster for women and the economy in general.

First Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker spoke and then handed it off to the host CEO. The last scheduled speaker at the press conference was former State Senator Cathy Stepp. She largely focused on her business and how the out of control gas prices are hurting it. Frankly, I was surprised that she would make energy policy her central theme at this press conference given John McCain’s awful record in both the U.S. Senate and in recent policy statements.

On Thursday One Wisconsin Now filed a complaint against Michael Gableman with the state Office of Lawyer Regulation. The complaint centers around dozens of telephone calls that Gableman made as the Ashland County District Attorney, using state phones. These calls were made to Republican operatives, fundraisers, campaigns and even the Republican Party itself. The calls happened right around the time of a fundraiser for then-Governor Scott McCallum, which was hosted by Gableman.

Why would a public official make such calls on a state phone, particularly at a time when campaigning on state time was so prominent in the news? This and many other questions should be asked of Michael Gableman, but apparently he isn’t talking. I have not seen one report where someone has even been able to reach him directly.

Today John McCain held a women-only town hall in Hudson and made the following comment:

"We haven't done enough. We have not done enough. And I'm committed to making sure that there's equal pay for equal work. That there is equal opportunity in every aspect of our society. And that is my record and you can count on it."

Did McCain get lost in the moment or did he intentionally misrepresent himself to Wisconsin women? Regardless of his reason for the statement, it is clearly not an accurate one. He has clearly not been a supporter of equal pay for women despite what he said today in Hudson. Consider just some of the following points from the McCain record.

In a 4-3 decision the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled against the State of Wisconsin in the Department of Revenue v. Menasha Corporation case. Of all people, ethically challenged Justice Annette Ziegler wrote the majority opinion. Last year hundreds of Wisconsinites called for her to recuse herself from the case because it was a major priority for her benefactors at Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce. Who could forget that they spent some $2 million helping to get her elected? That was more than she spent on her own campaign and almost more than both campaigns combined. She refused to recuse herself and now has delivered a big victory to her benefactors.

It looks like WMC just won a $265 million return on a $2 million investment in just one year. Unfortunately this special interest gain is a big loss for Wisconsin. During this troubling economy and a time of tough budgets, Ziegler’s decision gives us $265 million less to invest in schools, public safety, or to fix our crumbling infrastructure.

Although she chose to step down from many cases last year, oddly this was one that she refused to leave. At the time she said that she would only consider recusing herself if one of the parties in the case requested it. The person that was supposed to represent Wisconsin in the case was Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, who also owes his current job to WMC’s deep pockets. Naturally Van Hollen didn’t cross them by asking for their latest installation to step aside. WMC really covered their bases on this one and it got what it paid for, meanwhile the rest of us just get the shaft.

Today marked the first meeting of the Union Veteran’s Council in Wisconsin. It coincided with other such meetings in at least four other states across the country. Also coinciding with the event was an ad that will be run in areas of the country including Wisconsin. The focus of the ad and the meetings are how the attendees may respect Senator John McCain’s military service, these veterans do not agree with his policies.

At the Milwaukee meeting union workers that have served in combat in every war from World War II to the war in Iraq gathered to talk about the most important issues of the day. From the outset the message was made clear that this group is long term and will not go away after November. Much of the discussion focused on how the Bush Administration has been terrible for not only working people but also for veterans. Many people around the table talked about how Senator John McCain has been a rubber stamp for Bush in the U.S. Senate and how his policies could end up being even worse.

After asking three separate law enforcement agencies and the Government Accountability Board to investigate questionable calls made by then-Ashland County District Attorney Michael Gableman, One Wisconsin Now has filed a complaint with the state Office of Lawyer Regulation (OLR).

Months ago, One Wisconsin Now discovered that Michael Gableman made many questionable calls, when he was the Ashland County District Attorney. Those calls were to many key Republican officials, operatives, campaigns, and fundraisers, all on a state phone. These calls didn’t happen in a vacuum, they happened weeks surrounding a fundraiser that Gableman hosted for then-Gov. Scott McCallum. Further, the calls happened at the same time that campaigning on state time was prominent in the news because of the caucus scandal.

Tomorrow U.S. Senator John McCain will be coming to Wisconsin and holding a women-only town hall. John McCain’s record of rubber stamping Bush policies in the U.S. Senate has been a disaster for not only women but for entire country.

John McCain actually skipped the vote on the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which would have restored workers ability to pursue pay discrimination claims in court. When a 14-year-old girl asked him about this at a town hall meeting, he told her that protections for equal pay wouldn’t do “anything to help the rights of women.” On the same topic McCain has commented that women simply need “education and training” instead of equal pay protection.

John McCain also is a full supporter of unfair trade deals that has led to the loss of countless jobs. Obviously many of those jobs were held by women, they would probably not judge kindly McCain’s record on the economy.

Tomorrow the AFL-CIO will announce the start of the Union Veteran’s Council. The announcement will not only launch the national council but it also coincides with the formation of state councils in five states including Wisconsin. The Union Veteran's Council will also start an ad run across the country including parts of Wisconsin. The Wisconsin chapter will have a veterans roundtable discussion tomorrow in Milwaukee. OWN will be blogging from the event.

4pm Thursday, July 10

Milwaukee Building & Construction Trades Council

5941 W Bluemound Rd Milwaukee, WI

At the same time that ads started running in Wisconsin trying to paint U.S. Senator John McCain as an environmentalist, he was busy demonstrating that nothing could be further from the truth. The ad attempts to distinguish him from Bush on environmental issues. Actually he undermined that argument himself while on a fundraising tour through oil country. He announced that he was suddenly in favor of giving big oil a free pass to start drilling all along our coast. Right around the same time perpetual candidate for Congress, John Gard, started spouting all of the same talking points including promoting some that flatly inaccurate.

In a recent column, the Sierra Club educates John McCain not only on trying to drill our way out of our oil addiction, but they also remind him of his previous statements on the subject. John Gard would do well to take the same schooling on the issue and make the relevant facts a part of his often advertised “town hall” events.

The column shows that although John McCain advocated for opening the rest of the country’s coasts to oil drilling, only two weeks before he was singing a different tune. At that time he repeated his opposition to such a plan saying that it would take “years to develop” and that “it would only postpone or temporarily relieve our dependency on fossil fuels.” Perhaps McCain was hoping that no one was paying attention to the fact that he just dramatically and suddenly changed his position at a time that he was also raising campaign cash from big oil execs.

Today the Health Care for America Now campaign was launched both in Wisconsin and all across the nation. At the Wisconsin State Capitol and in 52 other cities across the country, this new effort is demanding quality, affordable health care for all.

The unprecedented $40 million campaign for health care seeks to bring together millions of Americans and many different national and local groups. In Wisconsin the steering committee currently includes AFSCME, Citizen Action of Wisconsin, Planned Parenthood, SEIU, Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC), and the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO.

Starting today, the campaign is spending an initial $1.5 million on national television, print, and online advertising and is sending out emails to more than 5 million people. Over the next five months, Health Care for America Now plans to spend $25 million in paid media and have 100 organizers in 45 states. Health Care for America Now is offering a bold new vision for health care reform in America. They are asking both national and local leaders to choose as side in the health care debate. It is a critical question that should be both asked and answered. Either they are on the side of special interests and an unacceptable status quo or they are on the side of the average American struggling to pay continually skyrocketing costs.

Additional members of the Wisconsin coalition include ACORN, AFT-Wisconsin, Coalition of Wisconsin Aging Groups, Disability Rights Wisconsin, Grassroots Citizens of Wisconsin, Grassroots North Shore, One Wisconsin Now, UFCW, Wisconsin Alliance for Retired Americans, Wisconsin Alliance for Women’s Health, Wisconsin Council of Children and Families, Wisconsin Council of Churches, Wisconsin Farmers Union, Wisconsin Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, and the faith-based organization WISDOM.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting on the prospect of $200 a barrel price for oil by the end of the year. The price has shot up over the last 7 years but that increase has been much more rapid in the last six months. During that time we have seen it go up from $100 to $150 a barrel. If the price actually hits the $200 prediction, that will translate to well over $6 a gallon for gasoline at the pump.

The pain at the pump is only the beginning of the budget crunch for the average working family. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported today that natural gas is also at a high for this time of year. Experts in that industry are predicting major sticker shock for energy customers, especially when we try to heat our homes in winter. Natural gas futures have jumped 82 percent since just the start of the year. The story reports that increases in the price of natural gas have already driven up electricity bills twice since March.

All of these costs are overburdening working families and impacting our already fragile economy. This is where the failed Bush policies of irresponsible tax cuts for the wealthy, coddling Big Oil, and lacking a forward thinking energy policy has brought us. U.S. Senator John McCain has been a rubber stamp for those polices in the Senate. He supported Bush as much as 100 percent in 2008 and 95 percent in 2007. In addition, McCain now says that he will make Bush’s tax cuts for the rich permanent. Actually he will go even further by offering unprecedented tax giveaways to some of the biggest corporations in the country. Under this economic scheme, Big Oil would get some $3.8 billion in tax giveaways. To the average person, such a massive giveaway to the very industry that has us over a barrel makes no sense at all. To John McCain it’s just business as usual.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported today that gay Wisconsin couples going to California to get married might be subject to prosecution when they get back home. The story points to an obscure Wisconsin law which prohibits Wisconsinites from going to another state to get married, if that marriage would otherwise be illegal back at home. Apparently the law was established to guard against under age couples from getting married in other states and coming back to Wisconsin. Some gay couples have called off their plans to get married in California, specifically citing the Wisconsin law. The statute calls for up to a $10,000 fine and nine months in jail.

Legislators quoted in the story don’t think that the obscure law would apply to these gay couples, but it seems that the decision to prosecute would be up to each individual District Attorney. Even the legislator that sponsored the anti-gay marriage amendment suggests that the law would not apply to gay couples getting married in California. That wasn’t enough to stop anti-gay crusader Julaine Appling from calling for the prosecution of gay couples. As if cheerleading for anti-gay discrimination wasn’t enough, now she seems to be calling for the outright jailing of people that simply want to get married. If you needed any more proof at just how obsessed and extreme some people are on this subject you need not look any further than Appling.

John McCain has been little more than a rubber stamp for the failing George W. Bush economy. Perhaps this is the reason that he has such a hard time bringing himself to admit that this economy has been very hard on the average American. June was the latest time where John McCain claimed that, “the fundamentals of the economy are very strong. Very strong.” Who exactly was he trying to convince with that statement, himself or the many working families that know different? In June this “very strong” economy lost another 62,000 jobs, making it the sixth straight month of negative job growth.

The Bush economy has been a boon for the wealthiest in our nation. John McCain is one of the richest members of the U.S. Senate, but could he really be so out of touch with the average person? Since when is massive job loss a sign of a “strong economy?” It looks like John McCain was right, he really does need more education on the economy.

This morning John McCain tried to get a do-over regarding his admission that he doesn’t know much about economics. While appearing in an interview on ABC this morning, McCain interrupted the interviewer after she referred to his admission. McCain responded saying that he never said that he didn’t know much about economics and that actually, “I’m very strong on the economy. I understand it.” McCain may wish that he didn’t repeatedly talk about his lack of understanding on economics but he can’t change that fact now. Here is a reminder of some of his admissions:

“The issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should,” McCain said. “I’ve got Greenspan’s book.”

“I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated.”

One of McCain’s top advisors admitted that McCain has said he knows little about the economy, noting that “he did say it one time, no question, maybe twice.”

Another big election year means another year for Republicans to make false claims about voter fraud. It looks like they are already running the exact same drill that they have run stretching all the way back to the 1960’s. The Republican National Committee has added a page on its website entitled “You Can’t Make this Stuff Up.” Interesting title since most of the accusations of voter fraud on the page are either totally made up or at least severely short on the facts.

A recent story on Alternet lists a few examples posted on the RNC site. In Louisiana the Republican Party questioned a registration drive because 30 percent of the applications were missing some information – an industry norm – and called for an investigation. The Alabama’s Republican Attorney General said that “fraud and systemic corruption” were rampant in a few Democratic-majority counties. He then made the outlandish claim that absentee ballots were being sold and “traded for gravel” but could not cite any charges filed. In Indiana a Republican Party official made the unfounded claim that large numbers of people were coming over from Illinois to vote in their presidential primary. The local county election director rejected his claims as being totally unfounded.

Former Assembly Speaker John Gard has scheduled several town-hall meetings that he says will focus on gas prices. Unfortunately his positions on our addiction to oil is no different than the failed policies of the most unpopular president in history, George W. Bush. More specifically Gard is talking about giving Big Oil a free pass to dig up and take over wherever they think that they can find oil. Whether it is endangering pristine areas of wildlife or erecting Big Oil monuments right off our coasts, Gard’s folly is trying to drill our way out of this energy crisis. Even some of his fellow Republicans do not agree with this shortsighted gamble for what is sure to be a very limited gain.

While Gard is busy promoting Big Oil’s self serving agenda, I wonder if he will take a moment to correct himself on a recent related claim. Talking Points memo reported recently that Gard parroted a conservative talking point that had been completely debunked. The conservative claim that China and other nations were drilling off the coast of Florida was repeated in a Gard flyer even after Dick Cheney had to admit that it was not factual. When reporters for Talking Points Memo called the Gard operation to ask them about the misinformation, they were given several different false and conflicting answers. Perhaps it would be good for John Gard to take a moment during the town hall meetings to explain why he put out such inaccurate information for public consumption. Like his energy policy in general, the flyer demonstrates the length that he will go to in order to protect Big Oil and their narrow interests.

John McCain’s record in the U.S. Senate has repeatedly demonstrated that he is totally out of touch with the average working person in this country. His recent and constantly shifting policy statements have totally reinforced this fact. Just the other day, while he was fundraising in California, a reporter asked him a very easy question that any regular person could have answered instantly. “When was the last time you pumped your own gas and how much did it cost?” What was McCain’s answer? Well, it was a mixture of “I don’t know,” and “I don’t recall.”

It is no surprise that John McCain is so far out of touch with the daily lives of average Americans. He is one of the richest members of Congress after all. He did marry into a very wealthy family and doesn’t really have to deal with any of the struggles that the rest of us face everyday. Being as rich as John McCain isn’t the problem by itself, but it is that combined with loser policy positions that don’t help real people that need it most.

Fresh off a fundraising tour through oil country, John McCain has changed his mind on trying to drill our way out of our energy crisis. It seems that he is totally in touch with the needs of that powerful interest. The best that average people have been able to get from John McCain is the “gas tax holiday” which has been totally debunked by economists as a total gimmick. When it comes to the economy and the everyday challenges faced by average Americans, John McCain is showing himself to be out of touch and deficient of solutions.