tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13568138Thu, 18 Mar 2010 20:43:34 +0000http://www.wisdc.org/blog/bigmoneyblog.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (David)Blogger343125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13568138.post-4456716208792572927Thu, 18 Mar 2010 15:36:00 +00002010-03-18T11:22:14.554-05:00After the letter we received from the Washington, D.C.-based interest group Citizens United was made public, we have heard from a number of attorneys with expertise in trademark law and have reviewed numerous cases including Bosley Medical v. Kremer, TMI v. Maxwell, Taubman v. WebFeats, Lamparello v. Falwell, Utah Lighthouse Ministry v. Foundation for Apologetic Information, and Citizens United vhttp://www.wisdc.org/blog/2010/03/wdc-response-to-cease-and-desist-letter.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike McCabe)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13568138.post-4998934238039758167Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:28:00 +00002010-03-15T15:23:34.725-05:00The public square has always been as much a metaphor as a real place, but in either case it's on the endangered list. Shopping malls pretty much led to the extinction of the traditional town or village square in most American communities. The money-is-speech doctrine is doing the same to the metaphoric version.Those who wish to control speech in this country don't have to engage in censorship or http://www.wisdc.org/blog/2010/03/making-free-speech-expensive.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike McCabe)5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13568138.post-2690260513223128193Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:01:00 +00002010-03-11T16:04:42.830-06:00Doris "Granny D" Haddock was tiny by any measure of physical stature but a giant in civic terms. Her passing at the age of 100 has made international news, I suppose mostly because of the amazing story of her walk across America a decade or so ago. But Granny was so much more than the sum total of that remarkable trek. She was a great many things, foremost among them an unforgettably powerful http://www.wisdc.org/blog/2010/03/get-job-done-or-go-home.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike McCabe)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13568138.post-329697523879486025Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:21:00 +00002010-03-10T09:31:19.034-06:00I first met Doris Haddock in February 2003, at a forum on campaign finance reform at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. The woman affectionately known as Granny D already was known far and wide by then, having completed her 3,200-mile trek across America to demonstrate her concern for the health of our democracy and dramatize the need for campaign finance reform. I was privileged to be able http://www.wisdc.org/blog/2010/03/thank-you-granny.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike McCabe)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13568138.post-2694773066564037475Fri, 05 Mar 2010 17:19:00 +00002010-03-05T15:14:22.948-06:00The U.S. Supreme Court's display of judicial activism on steroids in the area of election financing has Americans across the political spectrum united in revulsion. The court's legislating from the bench even is creating nervousness around the water coolers at Fortune Magazine and the Wall Street Journal.Ordinary citizens are right to be outraged. But it's doubtful the fretting by business-sectorhttp://www.wisdc.org/blog/2010/03/how-to-smear-without-leaving-smudge.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike McCabe)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13568138.post-2879625789905447721Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:17:00 +00002010-03-02T14:18:39.993-06:00Anyone with a little gray hair who has known Wisconsin for a lifetime can't help but feel that we're being taken on some Clarence Oddbody alternate reality tour. This can't be Wisconsin. Must have gotten some bad liquor.That feeling swept over me again yesterday when we issued a report showing donations from so-called "payday lenders" to four campaign fundraising committees controlled by http://www.wisdc.org/blog/2010/03/our-trip-from-bedford-falls-to.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike McCabe)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13568138.post-8626184257907130538Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:46:00 +00002010-02-17T16:04:36.154-06:00When hundreds of us marched yesterday to protest the U.S. Supreme Court's assault on our democracy with its ruling on election financing in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, we were giving voice to anger and frustration that is felt by an overwhelming majority of Americans. A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that opposition to the court's decision runs very deep and is very http://www.wisdc.org/blog/2010/02/speaking-for-masses.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike McCabe)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13568138.post-3393970867394115478Fri, 05 Feb 2010 19:41:00 +00002010-02-05T14:55:44.632-06:00The Wisconsin Idea sure has fallen on hard times. Long forgotten is how intertwined this signature principle of our great state university system was with the Progressive movement. The UW Extension, one of the earliest manifestations of the Wisconsin Idea and one of the chief ways the university was extended to the boundaries of the state, is itself a Progressive Era reform.Oh, how the UW has http://www.wisdc.org/blog/2010/02/shame-on-u.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike McCabe)11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13568138.post-1233859346608171947Thu, 28 Jan 2010 19:40:00 +00002010-01-29T13:05:05.440-06:00In 1819 Thomas Jefferson wrote: "The Constitution . . . is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary which they may twist and shape into any form they please."Seems what Jefferson meant as a warning to America, the current majority on the U.S. Supreme Court took as a job description.http://www.wisdc.org/blog/2010/01/supremes-doing-twist-and-shape.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike McCabe)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13568138.post-5678368753332137300Sun, 24 Jan 2010 17:18:00 +00002010-01-25T08:32:46.884-06:00In yesterday's post, I said first impressions of Supreme Court rulings often create false impressions. A commentary by a nationally syndicated Chicago Tribune columnist is a good example. It spreads two misconceptions. First, that Thursday's decision somehow grants corporations a long-denied ability to speak. And second, that many if not most corporations will not exercise this supposed newfound http://www.wisdc.org/blog/2010/01/adding-journalistic-injury-to-judicial.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike McCabe)7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13568138.post-456911438860568579Sat, 23 Jan 2010 20:41:00 +00002010-01-25T08:34:01.087-06:00Read it and weep for American democracy. An unfathomably and unspeakably bad ruling. But the temptation to say "game over" is exactly the wrong reaction to the horrible damage the U.S. Supreme Court has done to our democracy. The game is never over.There is a large menu of possible courses of action. Public financing of elections. Greater disclosure. Shareholder approval of corporate political http://www.wisdc.org/blog/2010/01/next.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike McCabe)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13568138.post-5040694667216405828Tue, 19 Jan 2010 21:19:00 +00002010-01-19T15:44:31.116-06:00On Thursday the Wisconsin Supreme Court is again going to consider whether to finalize new rules allowing judges to rule on cases involving their biggest campaign supporters. Last fall, four of the court's seven members approved recusal rules written by Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce and the Wisconsin Realtors Association. About six weeks later Justice David Prosser withdrew his support, http://www.wisdc.org/blog/2010/01/same-song-different-vocalist.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike McCabe)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13568138.post-4905518470823511486Tue, 19 Jan 2010 20:06:00 +00002010-01-19T14:14:46.190-06:00Polling done by the University of Wisconsin's political science department shows statewide opposition to the use of public money to send students to private schools. Right-wing think tank that helped pay for the polling doesn't like results. Asks UW to alter presentation of the data. UW agrees to do it.Holy crap.http://www.wisdc.org/blog/2010/01/say-it-aint-so-uw.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike McCabe)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13568138.post-2765252076722345552Wed, 13 Jan 2010 15:34:00 +00002010-01-13T10:20:26.522-06:00Just heard that no decision was issued by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Citizens United case today. There had been intense speculation that the ruling would come down yesterday. Didn't happen. Then a new flurry of media alerts from court watchers warned that today could very well be the day. Wrong again. For that matter, there was similar speculation late last fall that a decision was http://www.wisdc.org/blog/2010/01/are-supremes-getting-cold-feet.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike McCabe)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13568138.post-7034911559473577159Tue, 05 Jan 2010 15:20:00 +00002010-01-05T13:42:10.018-06:00Mark Neumann became the first 2010 candidate for governor to respond to public discontent with politics and politicians and put forward some government reform ideas, including a couple of good ones. Namely banning campaign donations from employees of companies bidding for state contracts and not allowing government employees appointed by the governor to engage in any kind of fundraising for the http://www.wisdc.org/blog/2010/01/you-can-do-better-than-that-mark.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike McCabe)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13568138.post-9126079350584102895Mon, 28 Dec 2009 15:52:00 +00002009-12-28T15:30:57.518-06:00When Governor Jim Doyle signed the Impartial Justice bill into law on December 1, a Virginia group called the Center for Competitive Politics all but promised to sue to block the law. CCP's president left no doubt his outfit was shopping for a litigant in Wisconsin even before it got the governor's signature.CCP is indeed behind a lawsuit filed in federal court last Tuesday challenging the http://www.wisdc.org/blog/2009/12/scraping-bottom-of-barrel.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike McCabe)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13568138.post-5031242114090024805Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:17:00 +00002009-12-21T11:35:11.433-06:00 Most every voterIn the whole state of WisconsinLikes Impartial Justice a lot . . .But Right to Life,A powerful big old lobbying group,Does NOT!Right to Life hates Impartial Justice! The whole darn law!Now please don't ask why. Who knows what they saw.It could be their heads aren't screwed on quite right.It could be, perhaps, that their shorts are too tight.But I think that the most likely reasonhttp://www.wisdc.org/blog/2009/12/your-lawsuits-foul-one-right-to-life.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike McCabe)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13568138.post-7833784381192171850Mon, 14 Dec 2009 21:53:00 +00002009-12-14T16:27:03.693-06:00On October 28, four members of the Wisconsin Supreme Court approved rules written by Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce and the Wisconsin Realtors Association allowing judges in our state to rule on cases involving their biggest campaign supporters. A little more than a month later, one of the four - Justice Patience Roggensack - wrote a newspaper commentary defending the action.Judging from http://www.wisdc.org/blog/2009/12/warped-view-from-bench.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike McCabe)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13568138.post-2234735628394166621Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:54:00 +00002009-12-14T15:01:29.297-06:00We could have told Tiger Woods this was coming. Living up to contracts isn't Accenture's strong suit.http://www.wisdc.org/blog/2009/12/been-there-seen-that.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike McCabe)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13568138.post-1040853239738019720Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:02:00 +00002009-12-08T10:24:31.154-06:00Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce and the Wisconsin Realtors Association said jump and the majority of Wisconsin Supreme Court justices (namely Prosser, Gableman, Ziegler and Roggensack) jumped. WMC and the Realtors said jump again, and the high court held an "open administrative conference" yesterday to ask how high.Amazing spectacle. The Flexible Four allowed two of the most powerful http://www.wisdc.org/blog/2009/12/jumpin-justices.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike McCabe)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13568138.post-5569266147481087621Thu, 03 Dec 2009 15:17:00 +00002009-12-04T09:03:51.680-06:00Democratic Governor Jim Doyle and 74 legislators who approved a controversial bill in 2007 to deregulate the cable industry have received more than $493,000 in campaign contributions since then from special interests that supported the measure.The cable deregulation law, which supporters boasted would increase competition and lower customer bills, was the subject of a Legislative Audit Bureau http://www.wisdc.org/blog/2009/12/campaign-contributions-and-cable-con.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Michael Buelow)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13568138.post-8418808804558025174Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:00:00 +00002009-12-02T14:10:34.054-06:00Amended campaign finance reports for two mega-fundraising committees were filed on the Government Accountability Board's electronic filing system shortly after the Democracy Campaign posted a blog Monday saying the original year-end 2008 reports known to be erroneous had been on the GAB site for 10 months.http://www.wisdc.org/blog/2009/12/fix-blessed-problem-update.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Michael Buelow)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13568138.post-2591046324830669469Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:38:00 +00002009-12-01T09:30:30.528-06:00I couldn't resist paraphrasing Democratic Representative David Obey's recent reaction to the wildly erroneous information on a federal government website about the jobs created by the federal stimulus program because it reflects our sentiments about the Government Accountability Board's new electronic filing system.Some grossly erroneous campaign finance reports on the board's Campaign Finance http://www.wisdc.org/blog/2009/11/fix-blessed-problem.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Michael Buelow)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13568138.post-3941184791467872411Sun, 29 Nov 2009 02:24:00 +00002009-11-28T21:45:55.492-06:00A couple of things in the newspapers caught my eye recently. One was a news story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about how taxes in Wisconsin compare to other states. The other was a commentary by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman on what has to happen to prevent America's decline.The headline over the Journal Sentinel story was "Wisconsin improves its ranking on taxes." Revealing http://www.wisdc.org/blog/2009/11/approaching-average.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike McCabe)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13568138.post-4648112911236724197Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:55:00 +00002009-11-16T09:27:09.376-06:00Stunningly outrageous though it was, the state Supreme Court's approval of new judicial ethics rules written by Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce and the Wisconsin Realtors Association allowing judges to rule on cases involving their biggest campaign contributors was hardly an isolated instance of ghostwriting by powerful interests for obedient public officials.This from The New York Times:"Inhttp://www.wisdc.org/blog/2009/11/puppets-on-potomac.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike McCabe)0