March 2011:
What if the Governor Had Been a Democrat?
by Lenny Woodson
(It's been so long since we had one in Wisconsin, Lenny is going on distant memory. Don't even bother suggesting Doyle was a true Democrat.)
Here in Wisconsin a right-wing radio personality was trying to cover for Walker's faux phone call faux pas by suggesting how much worse it would have been if a Democrat had been in the Governor's seat.
Really? How horrible could that have gone? Isn't that about the place where the two parties diverge? The Republicans want to hurt everyone but the rich and the Democrats want to help as many people as they can while trying to be fair to all.
Let's say there was a couple of rich Democrat brothers who wanted to pour in a bunch of money to influence local governments. A stretch for sure, but let's play along. Let's call them the Good brothers (Soros is a right wing cliché by now).
Brother David Good gets the Dem Governor on the phone:
"Governor, how's it going? How can we help? You know, the quickest way to fix this budget crisis is to bring the tax rate on corporations back up to what it was before the Reagan Administration messed with the economy in this country."
Dem Gov: "Raising taxes is never a popular move."
Good: "Nonsense. The average citizen doesn't care if rich corporations pay their fair share. People want quality government services. They expect the streets to be plowed and the garbage picked up. They want their schools to be exemplary, so it wouldn't hurt to reduce class sizes and increase state aid to public schools either."
Gov: "That could be hard to do in these difficult times, David."
Good: Now listen, you have to be strong on this. You may have to raise taxes on the obscenely rich like me and my brother. Hell, we're so rich, we wouldn't even notice a tiny percentage. Here's another idea. Do what Roosevelt did, put those unemployed people to work. Fix the bridges and dams that are crumbling in your state. Build some green energy. Use your imagination, man.
Gov: "Those sound like great ideas, but how do we sell them?"
Good: Go on Morning Joe. That Mika Brzezinski, she's a real piece of ass."
Gov: Oh yeah.
(Come on, it's a democrat governor. What did you expect?)
Good: And get those hobos some suits! Nobody wants to see those guys living down there under that bridge wearing those rags.
February 2011:
Walker Talks to a billionaire donor: Not just another Face in the Crowd
-- February 25, 2011
There is a classic movie entitled Face in the Crowd starring Andy Griffith where he plays a homespun storyteller and country singer who rises to national fame with cracker barrel wisdom and a conniving pandering which allows him to influence his audience on everything from products to politics. He uses his fame and everyone around him to build his power and wealth. Not to give too much away, but he is exposed when someone leaves the microphone on when he thinks his show is over. His true feelings about the suckers and idiots who supported him comes spewing out of him and over the airwaves.
A similar thing happened to Governor Scott Walker when his phone conversation with a man he thought was billionaire donor David Koch. In that twenty minute exchange between two voices who believed themselves to be cunning political insiders, Walker's true motives and feelings were exposed for all to hear. The truly sad part, and I believe I recognized it even in the classic Griffith movie, is that the followers never believe they are the suckers and idiots the meglomaniac is talking about.
The most telling portion of the phone tape is when Walker attempts to dissuade Koch from calling an AWOL senator because, "he's not one of us." Who exactly is "us?" Most apparently, not a Democrat, no matter how pragmatic he may be. Billionaires like Koch and governors who crush unions, give tax incentives to corporations, and take money from billionaires are definitely "us." Later in the conversation, Joe Scarborough of Morning Joe is one of "us." Given this pattern, it most assuredly implies that lowly working people, even if they vote Republican are not "us."
At the end of the conversation, the Koch brother tosses a cherry on the bribes he's already delivered by telling Walker, "once you crush these bastards, I’ll fly you out to Cali and really show you a good time."
To which, Walker replies, "All right, that would be outstanding. Thanks for all the support."
Guess what, only "us" gets to go to Cali for the good time. All other Wisconsin citizens, Democrats or Republicans, working men and women, union or not, if you aren't rich or powerful, you aren't one of "them" and you are NOT going to have a good time.
It's Not a Budget Crisis, it's a Walker Crisis
--February 24, 2011
The only thing more aggravating than politicians making claims without backing them up with facts or details is reporters filing reports without checking to see if there are any facts or details to support those claims. Case in point, the supposed budget crisis in Wisconsin.
Gov. Scott Walker claims in order to make up a 137 million shortfall in the state's budget he must eradicate public unions. Mathematically, the shortfall can be overcome by a mere $30 a year for each adult in the state, an amount that would barely register as a tax increase. In addition, Walker claims that in a depressed economy unions should not be able to exempt members from shouldering some of the sacrifice. However, being a wealthy corporation owner does exempt you from shouldering any of the burden. Corporations in the state now account for only approximately 10% of the tax base.
As protests increased in the state, Walker insisted he represented a silent majority of taxpayers who support his union busting activities. Three separate polls have shown that approximately 60% of the state's residents do not favor his attacks on unions. A national poll shows that approximately 60% of citizens across the country support collective bargaining.
Clearly, the issue is a personal one for Walker. In his own words, he identifies with Ronald Reagan, a boyhood hero whose greatest political accomplishment, according to Walker, was the dismantling of the air traffic controllers union. During his time as Milwaukee County Executive, Walker attempted to run roughshod over the unions. It saved the county a mere $52,000, but cost the county millions in settlements. He views his union-busting as a crusade which will sweep the entire country. He likes to refer to Wisconsin as the first domino.
It's all about Walker. If you look at the Budget Repair Bill, you will find that the entire document delineates ways for Walker to circumvent Wisconsin laws and administrative code to transfer all power to him or his administration. The bill allows him to:
-- cut state aid to municipalities.
-- cut all state aid to public K-12 schools. About 900 million dollars total.
-- cut all state aid to UW schools, causing a tuition hike by 26 %.
-- take 28 million from Employee Trust Fund, the pension fund, to pay the state's portion of the State Employee's medical and pension contributions until 2013.
-- give the Dept. of Health Services the ability to rewrite Medicaid policy and to use "emergency" rules to quickly make changes to overrule existing statutes.
-- sell off most of the state's power plants.
The final line of the document may as well read: "And whatever else the Governor wants to do, he can do without the approval of the legislature or the People of Wisconsin."
December 2010:
Last Hope for the Future of Our Democracy Dims a Little
The End of the Internet as We Know It
-- December 22, 2010
Net neutrality is a principle that says that Internet users, not Internet service providers (ISPs), should be in control. It ensures that Internet service providers can't speed up, slow down, or block Web content based on its source, ownership, or destination.
The FCC, let by Obama-appointee Julius Genachowski voted to adopt rules that will allow AT&T, Comcast, Verizon and other ISPs to discriminate between sources and types of content.
Senator Al Franken commented: "The FCC's action today is simply inadequate to protect consumers or preserve the free and open Internet. I am particularly disappointed to learn that the order will not specifically ban paid prioritization, allowing big companies to pay for a fast lane on the Internet and abandoning the foundation of net neutrality. The rule also contains almost no protections for mobile broadband service, remaining silent on the blocking of content, applications, and devices."
1. The rules passed by Obama FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski create different corporate censorship rules for wired and wireless Internet, allowing big corporations like Comcast to block websites they don't like on your phone.
2. The rules passed would allow big providers like Verizon and
Comcast to charge for access to the "fast lane." Big companies that could afford
to pay these fees like Google or Amazon would get their websites delivered to
consumers quickly, while independent newspapers, bloggers, innovators, and small
businesses would see their sites languish in the slow lane.
3. The rules allow corporations to create "public" and "private" Internets. These rules would embrace a "public Internet" for regular people vs. a "private Internet" with all the new innovations for corporations who pay more -- ending the Internet as we know it and creating tiers of free speech and innovation, accessible only if you have pockets deep enough to pay off the corporations.
Ironically, if it were not for a currently comparatively free internet, everyone would have to take the corporate media''s word that the Obama Administration had "saved" net neutrality by pulling off another "miraculous compromise."
Does Obama have No Intention of Running for a Second Term?
---December 7, 2010
On September 30, 2010, on his way to a speaking engagement at UW-Madison, Obama made a surprise visit to the football team at my son's high school. As he answered questions and shook hands with every single player, coach, and manager, he was stopped in his tracks by one zealous young player who shouted, "I can't wait until I'm old enough to vote for you in two more years."
"Do you know something I don't?" Obama asked in a serious tone. "I don't believe I've made that decision yet."
At the time, I laughed the comment off as the joke of a quick wit, but the headlines in the papers these days would seem to suggest the current president's reticence at committing to another term was indeed sincere.
"Bi-partisan Deal Not Sitting Well with Democrats!"
Wouldn't it be more accurate to say, "Not Sitting Well with the 98% of us not making over a quarter of a million dollars a year?"
Could it be that as a relatively young man, Obama has ambitions beyond the presidency, ambitions that require he not burn his bridges to those in that wealthy 2%?
I am not quite jaded enough yet to be persuaded that's his motive, but I am intelligent enough to have to wonder. After all, it's much harder to believe extending the tax cuts for the most wealthy could benefit the country's effort to stabilize the economy and balance the budget.
November 2010:
Democrats fail to convince anyone they did anything the last two years
--November 3, 2010
So, the mealy, half-assed democrats who had control of both houses, albeit a small and tentative control, refused to pursue a "too progressive" agenda for fear of not being elected again find out they can't get re-elected anyway. By trying ineffectually to compromise with the obstructionist right and to appease their own special interest groups, they soft-pedaled the agenda they were sent to Washington to enact.
They disillusioned and alienated the swing voters who got them elected overwhelmingly in the last election. The Greens who so many times before cost the Dems elections by voting for pointless third-party splinter candidates would have come out again in force if only they'd seen some meaningful movement toward emission controls or renewable energy development. Think of the swell of support from both left and right if universal health care had been pursued with tenacity or even if a public option had been included in the anemic health insurance tweak which did pass. Polling from both extremes showed the electorate supported health care reform by a 60-80% margin. If those groups in the greatest need, the unemployed, the homeless, the discriminated against women, gays, lesbians, and all the minorities had perceived some positive action, some reason to get out and vote to support the party in power, they'd still be in power.
In fact, days before the election, Obama admonished a gay and lesbian group which had been appearing with protest signs at all his rallies, "We heard your point. And as I said before, we increased AIDS funding. ... The people who will take over if we don't focus on the election, I promise you, will cut AIDS funding."
Why wasn't that the motto for the entire campaign? For all the Democratic campaigns? The question should have been, "Do you want to send the same folks back to Washington who ruined this country with eight years of W?"
Make no mistake about the fact that there is a battle going on in this country over what American democracy will look like in the future. During the last Great Depression, the tide toward what was good for the populace was able to carry the day. This time around the right wing, corporate, money hoarding elite has decade-by-decade secured more control over the process, the financing of elections, the counting of votes, the gerrymandering of districts, the coverage of the media, and the evasion of financing the government itself.
The message of these mid-term elections is simple. If you stick to your principles, work for the platform you were elected on, and fight special interests and the status quo, you may not get elected again, but if you choose to play it safe, ruffle precious few wealthy feathers, and then blame others for your ineffectiveness, you SURELY will not get re-elected. And don't call me Shirley.
August 2010:
Google and Verizon to Create Own Internet
--August 10, 2010
Google and
Verizon just jointly announced a proposed policy framework for net neutrality,
and it's worse than we expected.
The Google-Verizon plan would end the Internet as we know it. Right
now there is only one Internet that treats everybody and all content equally.
But the proposal would change all of that. And insidiously, it would effectively
dismantle net neutrality while claiming to protect it.
This proposal is just the latest example of corporations
trying to write the very regulations that govern their behavior. Frankly,
it's just another indication that the FCC has waited too long to put appropriate
protections in place for Internet consumers.
The FCC can enforce net neutrality by revisiting a Bush-era
decision to deregulate broadband. By reclassifying broadband, the FCC can do
everything it needs to do to protect American consumers. In fact, FCC chair
Julius Genachowski announced his intentions to do this, but has backed away from
this plan under pressure from the telecommunications industry.
The FCC has all the tools it needs to ensure the Internet remains a
vital engine of information exchange and innovation, but it seems to lack the
political will to live up to its mandate.
Sign the petition to tell the FCC to stop delaying and start acting
to protect American consumers and ensure we all can rely on strong net
neutrality protections:
Tell the FCC: It's up to you, not Google and Verizon, to
regulate the Internet.
July 2010:
Utah Holding Huge Gun Permit Blowout Bonanza
-- July 6th, 2010
In 2004, Utah received about 8,000 applications for the permits. In 2009, that number had skyrocketed to 73,925.
Pass a Utah gun safety class which can be taken anywhere in the country and pay the $65.25 permit fee and you, too, can carry a handgun in at least 28 other states in addition to Utah. The prized permits is good for five years and costs $10 to renew.
Nearly half of the 241,811 permits granted by the state are now held by nonresidents, according to the Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification, which administers the permits.
It is, perhaps, not a surprise that the 28 states which honor Utah's crazy gun proliferation permit are predominantly red with Michigan, Florida, Vermont, and Colorado honoring only permits held by Utah residents.
“We teach passive shooting in Utah,” said State Representative Curtis Oda.
As close as can be deduced from the representative's nugget of qualification is that those people killed by a gun held under a Utah permit do not die a violent death. The passively shot bullets don't penetrate a victim's body as much as they insinuate themselves inside the wounded person and become uncooperative with the functions of the internal organs until they stop resisting.
May 2010:
Cushing Wins NFL Rookie of the Year Award...Again: AP Sportswriters surprise everyone with the percentage of backbones in their number -- May 12, 2010
Even though many of the voters chose not to change their vote because they were more appalled by the precedent of re-voting than the worry over female fertility drugs, and several switched to voting for Cushing for the same reason, this is a seminal step toward an era where witch hunts, accusations, and secret lab tests are disdained in favor of evaluating performance and effort.
For those who changed their votes, I can only ascribe the following: The idea that taking diuretics, female fertility drugs, or steroids of any kind could cause any player to make more tackles, more interceptions, or more sacks is so preposterous as to challenge the credibility of anyone who would propagate or support such a specious theory.
January 2010:
So, once again, my e-mailbox is inundated with pointed, almost accusatory demands for my donated money, time, and effort to help Obama get his watered-down healthcare package through Congress. The bill is primarily a Republican version of what started out to be a reform initiative. Why would I want my representatives to vote for that?
Obama's people are so desperate to pass this lame product they've resorted to bragging up elements of reform which are clearly not addressed in the bill and are a long shot in the reconciliation action supposedly planned for the near future like:
Ending insurance company abuses
Ending the denial of coverage to those with pre-existing conditions
Prohibiting drastically raising premiums.
Taking life-and-death decisions out of the hands of insurance companies and returning such decisions to patients and doctors.
Unfortunately, these essential reforms are not in the healthcare bill as it now stands.
On top of trying to mislead me about his lack of reform, Obama alienates me further by supporting the firing of an entire teaching staff in New Jersey who were holding students accountable for attending school and mastering the curriculum.
Yeah, I'll be quick to volunteer my money for that sort of political agenda. At this rate, Democratic Party candidates may not want Obama to campaign for them in 2010.
December 2009:
So, my mailbox is jammed with fundraising requests, all proclaiming the desperate notion that huge amounts of money are needed to combat the evil rightwing horde attempting to derail Obama's healthcare reform compromise.
However, after sifting through request after request, I find not a single one asking me for money to support revising the compromise to something actually resembling reform. There are no requests for my support of:
1.) Removing the provision punishing people for not paying private insurers at least 8% of their income. (Enforcement of this would surely be limited to tagging those individuals who actually had to seek medical attention. IE: the very people who needed the reform the most.)
2.) Removing restrictions on a woman's right to choose.
3.) Requiring reasonable limits on private insurers' capacity to raise fees, deny claims, and exclude those with preconditions.
4.) Allow for competition, foreign and domestic, to control exorbitant pharmaceutical costs.
5.) Including a public option or a single payer alternative.
Instead, the contention in these supposedly "blue state" fundraising requests appears to be that I need to fund the passage of the compromise merely because the conservatives are working hard to oppose it, albeit on their own grounds.
Isn't this all a bit too much like the lockstep political response we deride in the conservative base?
I believe I'll wait to re-open my pocketbook when the requesters stop treating me like the folks they want to use my money to oppose.
Passing Health Care Reform Legislation which is harmful and ineffectual just to say you did it is worse than not doing it at all -- Dec. 16, 2009
“Honestly the best thing to do right now is kill the Senate bill, go back to the House, start the reconciliation process, where you only need 51 votes and it would be a much simpler bill.” -- Howard Dean
"The fundamental failing of the newest Senate proposal is that it requires individuals to purchase health insurance, but does nothing to rein in what insurance companies charge. If it's a choice between this bill and no bill, we're better off with no bill at this time." -- numerous sources, and the opinion of anyone who's read the bill
"When urging its passage
today, President Obama said two things that are manifestly untrue. He says that
the bill fulfills all of the promises he made in his September speech before a
joint session of Congress, but it doesn’t.
What the President said in September: They will no longer be able to
place some arbitrary cap on the amount of coverage you can receive in a given
year or a lifetime.
A loophole in the Senate health care bill would let insurers place annual
dollar limits on medical care for people struggling with costly illnesses such
as cancer, prompting a rebuke from patient advocates.
President Obama also said that “whatever ideas exist in terms of bending
the cost curve and starting to reduce cost for families, businesses, and
government, those elements are in this bill.” Not true either. Instead,
the “bend” comes from taxing middle class insurance benefits, which makes them
worse. -- Jane Hamsher, http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2009/12/15/kill-the-senate-bill/
"The harm this bill will do
thanks to the excise tax on employer-provided insurance benefits is enormous.
The health care bill is designed with the goal of making millions of middle
class Americans’ health insurance coverage much worse. That is not a bug, it is
a feature.
The excise tax is meant to force your employer to cut back your insurance
benefits, reduce your coverage, and increase your co-pays and deductibles. This
is not the conclusion of partisan think tanks, bloggers, or activists, this is
the conclusion of the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the
Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)." --Senate Health Care
Legislation: Making Your Insurance Worse – By Design, Jon Walker, http://firedoglake.com/
"Okay, fine, so single-payer is off the table, no use continuing to whine about that, even though it’s the obvious solution to all of the biggest problems and congressional aides in private admit this." --Health Care For Almost One-Third of Everyone (Who is Left-Handed and Over 50)!, Matt Taibbi http://trueslant.com/matttaibbi/
"Single-payer national health care - popular and practical, just and necessary - remains the essence of genuine health care reform."
--Andrew D. Coates, assistant professor of medicine and psychiatry at Albany Medical College, practicing physician, and a member of the board of directors of Physicians for a National Health Program.
"I think at the end of the day, the only way you're going to provide comprehensive universal health care to all is with a Medicare single-payer system, which ends hundreds of billions of bureaucracy and waste engendered by the private insurance companies." --Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)
June 2009:
God, Guns, and selective parts of the Gospel
--June 26, 2009
A Louisville church is scheduled to celebrate the 4th of July season with a "Bring-Your-Gun-to-Church Day" which will include a $1 raffle of a handgun, shooting practice, and a picnic.
“God and guns were part of the foundation of this country,” said Mike Pagano, 49, the pastor of the Assembly of God church. “I don’t see any contradiction in this."
Of the 40 states with right-to-carry laws, 20 allow guns in churches.
On March 8, 2009, Pastor Fred Winters of the First Baptist Church of Maryville, Illinois, was shot while at the pulpit.
“When someone from within the church tells me that being a Christian and having firearms are contradictions, that they’re incompatible with the Gospel — baloney,” Pastor Pagano said.
On July 27, 2008, Jim David Adkisson fired a shotgun on a youth musical, killing two and wounding seven at a Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee.
“I don’t understand how any minister familiar with the Bible can do this,” offered a dissenting pastor. “Jesus didn’t say, ‘Go ahead, make my day.’ ”
On March 12, 2005, a man opened fire on the services of the Living Church of God in Milwaukee, killing seven.
"And don't start comparing us to those crazy Islams with their prayer rugs and their machine guns," said one parishioner who claimed to be a carrying concealed. "This here is a civilized religion. If you find 72 virgins in our heaven, you won't be allowed to do nothing to 'em."
On September 16, 1999, a man unloaded three magazines from a semi-automatic handgun killing seven and wounding another seven before turning the weapon on himself at the Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.
"Listen here now, if Jesus'd had a gun, maybe he wouldn't've been crucified."
Iranians to ask U.S. Supreme Court to choose President
-- June 22, 2009
With demonstrations against the election results continuing in the streets of Tehran, Iran was looking for a solution to the problem of a corrupt election.
The United States, a country with a record of two consecutive suspect elections to decide its leader, before its most recent election ended in a landslide, seemed to be a logical place to turn for a solution.
How did the U.S. manage to keep it's citizens mollified despite oppressive campaign tactics and obvious voting irregularities? The country had its Supreme Court decide the election even though the votes clearly elected the candidate who did not become President.
That sounds really good to Iran's supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and incumbent and apparent election loser, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
" We don't got no hanging chads," scoffed an Iranian election official. "All we got is three million extra votes in the precincts favoring Ahmadinejad."
March 2009:
Bush Administration Wins Most Inept Award
--March 25, 2009
The National Academy of Presidential Scholars voted to catapult the Bush Administration to the inauspicious depths of Most Inept Administration in U.S. history.
The august assembly voted overwhelmingly to install the recent administration below the likes of the Harding, Grant, and Hoover administrations.
The scholarly group cited recent information that every agency in the Bush cabinet was corrupted, gutted, neglected or suppressed.
Recent headlines:
--Labor Agency Failing Workers, Report Says
--EPA to begin reviewing permits and tracking industry emissions again
--FDA to reinstate food inspections
--Energy Department to work on energy rather than subverting scientific reports
In an unprecedented move, the meeting of the scholars was adjourned indefinitely.
February 2009:
Bush Administration 11th Hour Auctions Sell Off Much of the Country
-- Feb. 4, 2009
In a news conference, Interior Secretary Kenneth Salazar said that he concluded the Bush administration had “rushed ahead to sell oil and gas leases at the doorstep of some of our greatest national icons, some of our nation’s most treasured landscapes” without proper scientific review or consultation.
The Secretary's office was also looking into allegations that a bidding war took place between Denny's and IHOP for the last remaining eagle eggs to be used for All American Omelets.
There was compelling evidence, but no confirmation as of Wednesday that the rights to license a new National Anthem came down to a sealed bid affair between Simon Cowell and David Archuleta's father.
Other unverfied, but seemingly plausible stories had Donald Trump winning a bid on the lease of Guam and the Catholic Church ponying up a huge bid for the country's first born male children beginning in 2009.
Archive: