One Wisconsin Now

There was a theme during the Republican National Convention that was as nasty as it was revealing. Speaker after speaker denigrated and mocked the service and work of community organizers. McCain’s running mate Sarah Palin repeatedly questioned the relevance of such selfless service. In typical Rovian fashion, they did most of this just after having a day where “service” was supposed to be their theme. Apparently the big wigs at the RNC decide what does and does not qualify as service. How elitist of them.

The attacks on community organizers really reveals just how out of touch McCain is with the daily struggles of people in this Bush Economy. Community organizers come from all walks of life and represent a broad range of groups. They passionately sacrifice their time and effort to work on the front lines helping those that fall through the ever increasing cracks of our society. They bring neighbors together to solve problems all across America. They work in small towns and in inner cities fighting injustice, poverty, unemployment, illiteracy and a whole host of other things.

It looks like Republican Party efforts to prevent people from voting were dealt a serious blow with news that four of six of the member of the state’s Government Accountability Board failed when their names were process through a new voter identification test.

Why is this news? Because the Republican Party has been trying to get GAB to put in place additional barriers to Wisconsinites having their vote counted.

As John McCain prepares to come to Wisconsin Friday, progressive leaders agree that McCain unfortunately offers more of the same. McCain has been one of the biggest supporters of the same failed policies of George W. Bush that have been a disaster for the nation and the State of Wisconsin. Wall to wall, McCain has supported everything from Bush’s unfair trade policies, tax cuts for the wealthy and Big Oil, privatizing Social Security, the endless war in Iraq, and opposition to affordable health care for all, just to name a few. These failed policies have delivered nothing but pain to all segments of the population and McCain has promised more of the same.

Here are a few comments by several Wisconsin leaders:

Sara Rogers, Wisconsin State AFL-CIO:

“We desperately need good, family-supporting jobs here in Wisconsin and throughout the nation, but on President Bush’s watch, we’ve lost more than three million good manufacturing jobs in this country. Senator McCain’s voting record clearly shows he'd continue this downward spiral. As a vocal supporter of NAFTA and other unfair trade deals, he’d do nothing to end the constant flow of our jobs overseas or to protect workers’ rights worldwide.”

One Wisconsin Now will hold its 2nd annual progressive issues survey at Fighting Bob Fest this Saturday, in Baraboo. Last year we invited attendees to identify the issues that are most important to them. The number one issue at that time was health care reform, followed by Iraq, education, the environment, and civil rights/liberties.

Progressives are energized as never before and Project 09 is a way to let our leaders know what we expect them to do to make Wisconsin an even better place to live, work and raise a family.

For those who wish to participate in the survey but are unable to travel to Fighting Bob Fest this weekend, One Wisconsin Now has created a Project 09 website, which allows participants to enter up to three ranked issues they would like to see tackled in the next year. The results compiled at Fighting Bob Fest will be revealed after the event.

John McCain and the right wing have dubbed his choice for running mate, Sarah Palin, as a reformer. McCain has gone even further actually calling Palin his “soul mate.” That is difficult to believe unless McCain has totally abandoned his oft-professed hatred of earmarks. The Associated Press has compared Palin’s 20 month record as Governor of Alaska, with her more recent rhetoric on earmark reform. The simple version is that the rhetoric about her being a “reformer” does not even come close to matching her record on earmarks and pork barrel spending.

The report reveals that under Palin’s leadership, Alaska has asked for almost $300 per person in requests for pet projects. That is more per person than any other state has received. Alaska’s requests to Congress during her first year in office exceeded $550 million which amounts to more than $800 per resident. Although she distances herself from it now, Palin was supportive of the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere” during her 2006 campaign for governor. Surely this is not the kind of “reform” that John McCain was talking about is it? To make things even more awkward, in the past John McCain has actually listed Palin’s earmark requests as objectionable. Has he conveniently forgotten his objections or has he simply forgotten his own standards?

Wispolitics.com reported that the as-yet-unfrogmarched Karl Rove, apologized to Wisconsin's delegates at a Republican National Convention event this morning for "getting weepy."

He wasn't crying to atone to God and man for being the hack architect for this god awful endless war in Iraq that has caused so many deaths and so much misery. And it wasn't because he violated the law by compromising the security of an undercover CIA agent to punish her husband. And it wasn't for debasing our national discourse with his slash-and-burn character assassination brand of politics.

The Center on Wisconsin Strategy has released its 2008 State of Working Wisconsin report and in surprise to very few, the George W. Bush economy continues to batter the state. In what appears to be a consistent theme throughout the Bush economy, the report finds that although productivity is up that many workers are simply not enjoying the benefit. Actually with each year, working folks have struggled more  and more in the last eight years.

More specifically the report found that Wisconsin has lost some 24,000 jobs since June 2007, 13,000 of which are manufacturing jobs. Wisconsin has a median wage that has fallen in recent years, and has a four-person family income that has fallen nearly $6,000 since 2000, three times the national drop. The report also found that although we have a relatively high health insurance coverage rate, it has been in a steady decline in recent years. One of the key reasons that we are seeing such a drastic decline is because too many employers are shifting away from providing health care for their employees. Unfortunately this is something that Senator John McCain’s health care plan would actually encourage. The rate of employees getting their insurance through their employer has fallen from 73 percent in 1979 to 58 percent in 2006. This change has had a very disproportionate and troubling effect on poverty-wage workers.

After weeks of silence, Guzmán is meeting criticism of his campaign by finally speaking to the press, and accusing one of his opponents, incumbent Democratic State Rep. Pedro Colón (Eighth Assembly District, Milwaukee), of being "anti-catholic" for his vote for the Compassionate Care for Rape Victims bill, signed into law by Gov. Doyle in March.

Ah, the point when someone goes from being just a jerk to be an all-out comic book villain. Today's entrant: John McCain health care adviser John Goodman.                               

"The next president of the United States should sign an executive order requiring the Census Bureau to cease and desist from describing any American -- even illegal aliens -- as uninsured... So, there you have it. Voila! Problem solved."

-- John Goodman, a health care adviser to Sen. John McCain, quoted by the Dallas Morning News.

U.S. Senator John McCain is having a campaign rally in New Orleans tonight just before the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Who can forget the picture of a smiling McCain and George W. Bush holding a birthday cake the morning that the disaster hit? Even worse, who could forget that John McCain twice voted against the appointment of a commission to investigate the abysmal administration response to Katrina?

In a statement following Hurricane Katrina John McCain said that Americans should “come to the aid” of Katrina victims and then he voted to oppose extending unemployment benefits to the victims of the disaster. He also voted against granting them access to Medicaid at their most desperate time of need. Apparently his call to come to their aid did not extend to himself nor beyond his extreme ideology. Repeatedly John McCain’s actions have been the exact opposite of his words on Katrina. Will he take the time tonight to explain his record or will he pretend that it doesn’t exist and misuse the solemn occasion purely for politics? That, like his record on Katrina, would be a real tragedy.

The Government Accountability Board is weighing in on a proposed rule change which, according to the non-partisan League of Women Voters, would disenfranchise voters and cause ending chaos at polling places across Wisconsin.

Wisconsin League Executive Director outlined the serious problems with the proposed rule being considered by GAB today. The rule places additional unnecessary burden on people who simply wish to cast their legal ballot and exercise their constitutional right to vote in Wisconsin. Among her critical points:

Today is the 88th anniversary of women winning the right to vote. Eighty-eight years after women getting the equality to vote, John McCain still does not think that women deserve equal pay. McCain, like George W. Bush, has the wrong policies for America’s women and for struggling families. Even just a brief look at his record reveals that on the issues that matter most to women, John McCain is totally out of touch.

John McCain actually fought equal pay legislation by opposing the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which would have made it easier for women and other workers to pursue pay discrimination claims. At a town hall meeting, a brave 14-year old girl confronted McCain about his opposition to equal pay and he responded by actually saying that the equal pay legislation wouldn’t do anything to help the rights of women.

Other issues that are very important to women are practical everyday issues that affect their families. Things like struggling to pay the rising costs of food, gas and healthcare. John McCain’s economic plan ignores the real needs of the average women and her family and instead focuses on massive tax cuts to corporations like Big Oil and Big Insurance companies.

At the beginning of this month, Sen. John McCain made a stop (read “gimmick”) in Sturgis, South Dakota in an attempt to energize motorcycle enthusiasts, joking about tire gauges and getting some cheers after making hollow statements like “This is my first time here but I recognize that sound. It’s the sound of freedom and thank you for it.”

But the town of Viola, Wisconsin is in no mood to joke or cheer because just last week, S&S Cycle announced that it would be cutting 60 jobs, including 58 from its facility in Viola. The company’s president, Brett Smith, “blamed the economic slump for a downturn in sales” at a time when Sen. McCain believes “the fundamentals of our economy are strong.”

Just over a week ago, the Institute for One Wisconsin launched an email campaign asking concerned citizens to send a message to the board members of Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC). To date over 10,000 communications have been generated in that very short time. This is just another example of how people all across the state are sick of their increasingly partisan behavior. Outgoing UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley accurately stated that WMC has been taken over by “political extremists” and that they have created a “toxic” political environment in Wisconsin. Obviously he is not alone in making that assessment as evidenced by large numbers of emails sent out by concerned Wisconsinites.

The “political extremists” that Wiley describes are apparently so concerned about the email campaign that one of them decided to send his own communication to the WMC board members. In it he pleads that they should not let the emails disrupt their fundraising drive for the ads that they plan to run in the coming months. In an email to WMC board members, WMC Vice President for Government Relations James Buchen said the following:

It appears that the email campaign is an effort to disrupt WMC's fundraising drive for the WMC Issues Mobilization Council, Inc. We hope that this will not be the case. We hope that Directors will continue to show the resolve and fortitude demonstrated at the June Board Retreat when the Board voted unanimously to launch our fall issue campaign.

Yesterday we told you about the early success of our email campaign to the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) board. Since then many more people have responded and thousands more emails have been sent flooding the inboxes of those that sit on the WMC Board. If you have not yet had the opportunity to speak your mind to the WMC Board of Directors, now is the time to take your stand. WMC has been rightfully on the receiving end of much criticism lately by some of the most respected people in our state.

Most recently the outgoing UW-Madison Chancellor John D. Wiley called out WMC for allowing itself to be “hijacked by highly partisan, ideologically driven staff.” The senior staff at WMC have ignored very similar statements in the recent past by other prominent Wisconsinites and all indications seem to show that they will also ignore Chancellor Wiley’s as well. WMC Vice President Jim Buchen responded to the comments claiming that he and the other staff “is not ideologically fixated.” A laughable comment considering just some of the following facts available at WMCWatch.org:

Many of the staff have worked in or come directly out of Republican Party politics.

Only Republicans receive a high rank on their phony “scorecard”.

They have spent millions of dollars to support Republican candidates.