Uppity Wisconsin

Go, Big Red takes on a whole new meaning in the US Senate race.

David Sirota post on Open Left blog:

I never thought we'd see a Republican Communist - and certainly not one who is the nominee for U.S. Senate in a major swing-state...

We can thank Wisconsin Republican Senate nominee Ron Johnson for at least being honest about his party's extremist vision. While most Americans probably don't see Chinese communism as the way forward, Republicans clearly do - and we can thank them, at minimum, for letting us know how they see the world.

The LaCrosse Tribune:

 

 

We have a suggestion for how Scott Walker can best use his ubiquitous brown bag.

 

Whenever the Milwaukee County executive is ready to unveil yet another insensitive campaign message, he should follow these simple steps:

 1) Open bag.

2) Place around mouth.

 3) Blow vigorously.

4) Take a deep breath.

5) Repeat, if necessary.

 6) If all else fails, inflate the bag once more and pop it.

Maybe then, Mr. Walker will wake up and smell the baloney.

Read the whole thing.

There are two approaches that politicians usually take in dealing with foreign trade. 

The first is Feingold's fair trade approach:  trading freely with only countries that have the same worker and other protections as we do in our country.  The second is the free trade approach where you trade with foreign companies and hope that through the forces of the free market that foreign countries will somehow be lifted to the high standards of the United States.

Ron Johnson, following the lead of Newt Gingrich, is proposing a third approach:  Instead of pushing morally bankrupt countries like China toward emulating the high standards of the U.S., we should emulate them.

When Ron Johnson says he wants to turn Wisconsin into a red state, he wasn't kidding!

Recently he told the Wisconsin Radio Network that we need to me more like China and that businesses were locating there because there was less regulation and less "uncertainty" than in the U.S.  Specifically, when asked, how do we bring jobs back to Wisconsin, Johnson responded:

I

Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, a Republican in Democratic clothing, is facing a primary challenge from Chris Moews (pronounced Mays), a Milwaukee police lieutenant who's actually a Democrat.

And since there's a big GOP primary, which means Democrats might actually decide who gets the nomination, Clarke, although still the favorite, is a little worried.

His campaign's strategy is an interesting one;  Trying to make Moews seem like he's not really a Democrat, or not Democratic enough, at least.   Talk about the pot calling ...

I am one of those people who will actually watch those boring, boring, hearings on C-SPAN that most of us flip right on past while watching TV, and this past week I’ve been watching one of the longer events the channel broadcasts...but it’s been far from boring.

The Coast Guard and what used to be the MMS were in Houston looking into what caused the Gulf oil spill and they’re taking testimony from representatives of the involved parties...and let me tell you, this is more than just an accident inquiry—it’s also a warm-up for the lawsuits that are surely going to follow.

We’ve had dozens of trial attorneys basically conducting a deposition process, witnesses who can teach a master course in “plausible unawareability”©, BP employees who have taken the Fifth and refused to testify at all, and, overseeing the entire process, a retired Federal District Court Judge and a Coast Guard Captain who might very well be on the way to trading his eagles for stars one day soon.

Do you really believe all those “we’ll make it right” BP commercials?

If you watch this hearing, that impression may well change.

Here's some hot news:

Johnson heavily outspending Feingold on television.

Ya think?

And such memorable stuff, too.  The Johnson Way:  Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Free, Strong and Independent.

Did we forget Clueless?

Scott Walker's tasteless and thoughtless new TV commercial, in which he dons boxing gloves and promises to come out swinging and keep on punching at Tom Barrett until he knocks his block off (that's not the language but it's the image) has gotten him a heap of publicity -- the kind you don't want, unless you subscribe to the theory that all publicity is good.

The Associated Press, which first pointed out that Walker was threatening to beat up a guy who'd already been beaten up when playing Good Samaritan last summer, Tom Barrett, asked a political science professor for an opinion (who knew it was a science?):

The fighting metaphor is a common one in politics, but the Walker campaign should have thought twice before using it against Barrett, said University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor Charles Franklin.

"The Walker campaign doesn't have any strategic or tactical reason to want to remind voters of Barrett getting into a fight," Franklin said.

Word is that the Journal Sentinel is about to launch a big new project, with several staffers, to fact check statements being made during this election campaign.

Ho hum.  It will, of course, be a pox on everyone's houses.  It's totally predictable that no political statement will completely pass the newspaper's test.

Here's hoping they start there fact checking with the columns and blog of one Patrick McIlheran, a JS employee who never lets an inconvenient fact get in the way of his  right-wing agenda.

His editors clearly aren't up to it.  Maybe the new team will be.

Wanna bet?

Best blog headline of the week, from former Madison Ald. Brenda Konkel: "Am I running for mayor?"

Reminiscent of the debate opener by James Stockdale, onetime admiral who was running for vice president with Ross Perot in 1992.

Asked LeMay: "Who am I am and what am I doing here?"

No one seemed to know.

In yet another ridiculous claim, Ron Johnson said yesterday that a bond loan his company got where the lender got over a million in interest income at a basement-bargain tax rate of zero "didn't cost taxpayers a penny." 

This is simply not true.

For the sake of argument, let's conservatively estimate that Johnson got a 20 year bond loan at 3 percent.  On a four million dollar loan, that would generate about 1.3 million in interest income for the lender.

Just wanted to remind all of you that today is the fundraising deadline for the primary.  Support your favorite candidates on the right by slipping them a little love in the way of cash. I've done mine.  You can make a one-time donation or a montly donatioin right on-line with a credit card.  Many of these candidates are facing a rough time in this election cycle, and could use your help.  Vote with your bucks.

Fighting Bob Fest is an annual Chautauqua featuring progressive speakers, networking opportunities, and entertainment. Fighting Bob Fest carries on the tradition of Robert “Fighting Bob” La Follette by providing a forum for progressive ideas on issues facing Wisconsin and the nation.

Freedom and justice are defended through education, and the exchange of ideas promotes solidarity among progressives. To this end, Fighting Bob Fest strives to provide citizens with a forum for democratic participation where frustrations with current policies can be constructively molded into calls to action.

Visit us at the Uppity Wisconsin/Netroots Wisconsin booth!

More details at http://fightingbobfest.org

Here's a new ad from the Democrats.

In a hilarious turn of events, Ron "from the ground-up" Johnson is now defending himself against charges that he was once the kind of welfare queen he claims to hate, with the ultimate alibi: he wasn't even in the state when the company (he claims he started) got the welfare!

He tells WKOW's Bob Schaper:

"This grant was secured in March of 1979 by Wisconsin Industrial Shipping Supplies in exchange for a substantial business investment for the City of Oshkosh.  Ron Johnson moved to Wisconsin in June of 1979 and started Pacur, which has become a true Wisconsin success story." 

Ah, the wicked web we weave.

The problem with this alibi is that it is yet another contradiction of Johnson's riduculous claims that he started PACUR from the "ground-up."  

Apparently to Johnson, "ground-up" means arriving in Wisconsin married to the Shrink-Wrap Princess and being dropped into a multi-million dollar facility that is already built, has a multi-million dollar transportation infrastrure in p

Some big news in Sunday's Journal Sentinel:

Democratic candidates in Wisconsin have quit campaigning for office, apparently because August is too humid or something.

Scott Walker and Mark Neumann are campaigning and so is Ron Johnson.   Apparently their opponents are too lazy or have just given up.

Johnson, by  the way, is still telling the story about his daughter's health problem, and the newspaper is still reprinting it, even though it has nothing at all to do with the health care reform bill passed this year.

POSTSCRIPT:  Almost forgot.  Look for some political commercials and issue papers from candidates promising to stop the 'brain drain" from Wisconsin, now that a right-wing group has done a poll showing people think that's a problem.  What would be more useful would be a study to find out whether it really is a problem, like the study awhile back that showed the story about retirees leaving Wisconsin because of high taxes wasn't true.  But it's campaign season, so perceptions outweigh fact