Progressive Thinking

MADISON - Yesterday, as you may have seen, the Wisconsin State Supreme Court came down with another terrible decision on the John Doe II investigation and essentially fired Special Prosecutor Francis Schmitz on the spot.

I wrote about Justice Shirley Abrahamson’s superb and scathing dissent, which you can read here:

Justice Abrahamson slams the canning of the John Doe prosecutor

We then posted the reaction of Prosecutor Schmitz, which is amazing. He says the rightwing groups he had to contend with in this case were trickier than the “violent criminals and terrorists” he used to have to deal with:

Read the defiant statement of the John Doe II prosecutor

We also sent out a letter to five district attorneys in Wisconsin, urging them to take up this battle and appeal the decision of the State Supreme Court straight up to the U.S. Supreme Court:

Open letter requesting DA intervention in John Doe II case

Now it’s your turn: If you’re in any of the five counties — Columbia, Dane, Dodge, Iowa, or Milwaukee — please call or send an email to your district attorney. Their contact information is at the top of the open letter.

The two likeliest DAs to take this up are John Chisholm of Milwaukee County and Ismael Ozanne of Dane County. So if you live there, be sure to contact them. Here’s their info:

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Phone (608) 266-4211

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Phone (414) 278-4646

We can’t let this horrendous State Supreme Court decision stand.

It would impair our ability to impose sensible limits on campaign spending in the future.

If you believe in fighting for democracy, as I know you do, please contact these DAs today.

Thanks for your activism.

Before I get to my thank you notes for Thanksgiving, I wanted to share with you two postings by our research director, Mike Buelow.

He noticed a couple bills that are wending their way through the legislature, and both represent dangers to the children of Wisconsin. But they are backed by powerful interests.

The first one would allow a child of any age to go out hunting. This would overturn the current law, which requires a child to be at least 10 years old. Other aspects of the bill would also increase the chances of something going terribly wrong, but the NRA and some hunting groups support it, as you’ll see here:

Bill would remove age, weapons restrictions in hunting program for children.

The second bill would lower the age limit for kids using utility vehicles, and it would also up the horsepower of ATVs. This bill is backed by Polaris Industries, which manufactures the vehicles. The CEO of Polaris, by the way, has given a lot of money to Walker. See how much by clicking here:

Polaris Industries backs lower age limit for rec vehicles.

So it’s business as usual in Walkerville.

But it doesn’t get me down because I’ve noticed a ton of opposition to this anti-democratic way of governing everywhere I go in Wisconsin.

And I’m thrilled to be working with so many great pro-democracy activists in this state. I thank many of them here:

Thankful on Thanksgiving to advocates for democracy in Wisconsin

I’d like to thank you, too, for reading our postings and for supporting our work. You make it all worthwhile.

Have a nice Thanksgiving!

MADISON - I refuse to be gloomy!

Yeah, I know, we took a big hit on the GAB bill and the campaign finance bill. But I’m hopeful that things will turn around.

And one of the reasons I’m hopeful is that there is tremendous pro-democracy work going on around this state. For example, at the very time that the State Assembly was rubber-stamping these horrendous bills, I was at an inspiring conference in Milwaukee, where 150 pro-democracy and issue activists came together to chart a promising way forward. I write about it here:

Dark day in Madison, sunny dawn in Milwaukee

While I was in Milwaukee, our research director, Mike Buelow, was looking into a recent court decision that will handcuff the ability of the DNR to regulate high-capacity wells, which are siphoning off our water to factory farms. There’s one big factory farm that may benefit the most, as Mike reported here:

Milk Source, a big Walker donor, wins in judge's ruling on wells

Mike Buelow also uncovered all the money that employees of Johnson Controls have been giving Scott Walker, who doled out WEDC loans of almost $2.5 million to the company, which is now laying off workers:

Love triangle:  Johnson Controls, Walker contributions, and WEDC

By the way, I’m going back to Milwaukee tomorrow night to talk about “The Assault on Democracy in Wisconsin, and How We Can Fight Back.” So please come see me if you can.

Here are the details: I’ll be speaking at ATU Hall (Amalgamated Transit Union), 734 N. 26^th St, at 7:00 p.m. this Thursday night, Nov. 19.

And please tell your Milwaukee friends about it, too. It should be fun, and I promise to be hopeful.

MADISON - It happened late Friday night.

I was almost all alone in the Wisconsin Senate Gallery. A cop was there, and a page, and occasionally one other person. That was it.

We were the only witnesses, other than the media, to the mugging of democracy that was happening right below us, on the Senate floor.

The Republican senators, with the notable exception of Sen. Rob Cowles, managed to make a horrible campaign finance bill more horrible, and then all of them smashed the Government Accountability Board to bits.

You can read my account here:

The mugging of democracy in Wisconsin

We recently unveiled our “Influence Peddler of the Month.” For November, it’s none other than Americans for Prosperity, which was founded by the Koch Brothers. You can see how that group throws its weight around in Wisconsin by clicking here:

Influence peddler of the month - Americans for Prosperity

And if you’ve got any spare time, please come hear me speak over the next few days about “The Assault on Democracy in Wisconsin, and How to Get Money Out of Politics.” This is where I’ll be:

• Nov. 10: Green Bay, 11:30 a.m., The Village Grille, 801 Hoffman Rd.
• Nov. 11: River Falls at 7:00 p.m. at the public library
• Nov. 12: New Richmond, 7:00 p.m., at Ready Randy’s, 1490 131^st St.
• Nov. 19: Milwaukee, 7:00 p.m., 734 N. 26^th St.

If you know anyone who also might be interested, please share these details with them.