BlogWatch #1
Part-Timers Get $47K a Year Plus
Expenses? Only In The Legislature
The Assembly spent only 27 days in session doing the
public's business from the beginning of 2007 through
March 13, 2008 because Wisconsin has a part-time
legislature, according to Republican Assembly
Speaker
Mike Huebsch.
That's a revelation because being a Wisconsin
legislator has been considered a full-time job since
the mid-1990s, with a salary to boot.
It seems unlikely most Wisconsin residents think
part-timers should get $47,413 plus an average
$8,771 in food and lodging expenses a year. And by
the way, Huebsch and other legislative leaders -
Assembly and Senate Republicans and Democrats -
voted 8-1 to increase legislative pay 6.3 percent to
$50,438 in 2009.
See the complete blog and
comment
HERE, and then call your senator and assembly
person and ask WHY they voted for it!
According to WDC these raises were approved by
two legislative committees in late November and
early December.
The Joint Committee on Legislative
Organization approved the pay raises by an
8-1 vote. Sen. Joe
Leibham
voted against the raises (see his press release
HERE)
and Rep. Mark
Gundrum did not
vote because he is in Iraq. Those voting FOR
the raise were: Reps. Mike
Huebsch,
Jeff Fitzgerald,
Jim Kreuser
and Jon Richards,
and Sens. Fred
Risser, Russ
Decker,
Dave Hansen
and Scott
Fitzgerald.
It was also approved by
the Joint Committee on Employment Relations,
a committee of legislative leaders that handles
all state employee pay raises and contracts.
The committee vote was 8-0. Those voting for it
were Reps. Mike
Huebsch, Jeff
Fitzgerald,
Kitty Rhoades
and Jim Kreuser,
and Sens. Fred
Risser, Russ
Decker,
Mark Miller
and Scott
Fitzgerald. When
everybody else is losing in the economy they
helped create, they made sure they won't lose.
BlogWatch #2
What Happened to Free Market Republicans?
Posted by Troy Fullerton in
Am I missing something, or am I the only one who
has a problem with this? The Wisconsin state
Senate approved 30-1, and the Assembly concurred
84-13, a bill that “would create new restrictions on how
wineries sell their vintages.”
From the Journal
Sentinel:
The bill, SB 485, requires larger wineries that
produce more than 25,000 gallons annually to sell their
wines to wholesale distributors, which then sell the
wines to restaurants, taverns, liquor stores and other
retailers.
Yes, the bill goes on to state approximately 75% of
wineries in Wisconsin produce less that 25,000 gallons,
and would therefore be exempt from the wholesaler
mandate, instead being able to form cooperatives to sell
directly to retailers.
<snip>
See the complete blog and comment
HERE, and then call your senator and assembly
person and ask WHY they voted for it!
See the Senate
votes
HERE
and the
Assembly votes
HERE
This is an
absolutely excellent article by a conservative,
though it doesn't appear that he fully
understands what drove the Republicans to vote
for such a stupid piece of anti-free-market
legislation. It's called money.... campaign
money .... yet conservatives still oppose a
clean political system. Only when the elections
are funded by the taxpayers will this corruption
stop.
Action Item
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AMA champion Sen. Debbie
Stabenow, D-Mich, has submitted her bill, S.
2785, otherwise known as the
Save Medicare Act of 2008.
In three short months Medicare will cut
physician payments by more than 10 percent.
This cut will be a disaster for Medicare
patients, as 60 percent of physicians say it
will force them to limit the number of new
Medicare patients they can treat. But Sen.
Stabenow’s bill is an excellent step to
preserve seniors’ access to health care, and
the Patients Action Network applauds her
ongoing commitment to solving this important
health care access issue.
Now we need your help. Your senators are
home for their spring break (also known as a
district work period) and it’s a perfect
time to catch up with them on our
issues—especially encouraging them to
cosponsor our new bill!
We need you to call or
email Sen. Herb Kohl (D) and Sen. Russell D.
Feingold (D) TODAY. Urge them to support
S. 2785.
Use the Patients Action Network Toll-free
Hotline at (888) 434-6200.
For more information go to the
Patients Action Network. Thank you for
your continued interest and support in this
important issue!
© AMA, Patient's Action Network | All Rights
Reserved
Click
here to unsubscribe. |
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I support this action fully. The
Neocons are trying to dry up Medicare funding to force doctors
to shun traditional Medicare patients and send them to Medicare
Advantage services instead (private HMOs that can give campaign
contributions, but provide less care). Funny how that works.
We must block this action
prompted by special interest cash. Please call Kohl's and
Feingold's offices to support S. 2785.
BlogWatch #3
No, this isn't really a BlogWatch, it's a
commercial. Unpaid at that.
My daughter has the pictured office furniture for
sale and I thought I'd take this opportunity to help her and,
potentially, someone on my eNewsletter list. If you have need
she is asking $900 for the lot (retail value about $3000) and in
excellent condition. Located in Sussex WI.
Contact me, Jack
Lohman, at 414-477-8686 to see it.
8
Contact information
Lohman is a
retired business owner that
volunteers’ time on the issues of
Election reform
and Universal
health care -
Contact: Jack E. Lohman
jelohman@gmail.com
or
jelohman@charter.net
Phone 414-477-8686
(cell)
http://MoneyedPoliticians.net
www.ThrowTheRascalsOut.org
www.WiCleanElections.org
www.BusinessCoalition.net
www.MoneyedPoliticians.com
(my book: Politicians - Owned and Operated by Corporate America)
www.SmokeFreeDining.net
(A searchable restaurant database)
Wisconsin State Assembly pages:
http://www.legis.state.wi.us/leginfo/contact/legislatorslist.aspx?house=assembly
Wisconsin State Senator pages:
http://www.legis.state.wi.us/leginfo/contact/legislatorslist.aspx?house=senate
9
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If either fails please notify me directly at
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Thanks.
Disclosure:
I am a center-right Republican that (regrettably) voted for Bush
twice. But the
Republicans look worse here because they (are/were) in power and the party blocking
reform. Next year it may be the Democrats taking center stage. Were I to
have a political choice it would be for a strong third-party reform
candidate in all seats. I do not like our very costly and ineffective
duopoly. Jack Lohman
See Lohman's complete disclosure
HERE.
