Wisconsin Clean Elections Coalition

Promoting fair elections for all parties and independents

eNewsletter #9
(April 11, 2006)

This is a periodic newsletter on election and health care reform. If you wish not to receive it please unsubscribe at the bottom and accept my apologies for the intrusion.
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In this issue:

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1)  How to kill a political prosecution

2) Health care news from The Center of Public Integrity

3) It's about politics, money

4) Tidbits

5) On universal health care

6) Your Congressman's Townhall Meetings

7) Book recommendations

8) Contact Information

9) Removal instructions
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Please do not respond to this email address. It is used for cleanup purposes only. Please use jelohman@gmail.com

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Milwaukee County's Lee Holloway, Off the Hook?

It would set a dangerous political precedent if county supervisors de-fund the prosecution of its chairman, Lee Holloway, especially in this era of political corruption. But that is seriously at risk with the delay of the $150K needed to move forward with the prosecution.See http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=414838

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From today’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial: “By voting, 4-3, to postpone for one month providing $150,000 in additional funding for the case, the four decided to put their loyalty to Holloway ahead of their responsibility to county taxpayers.” See http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=414772

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Join the Rally: Citizens interested in learning more about the Holloway ethics prosecution, participating on the organizing committee, or donating money and professional services to the recently established Ethics InvestigationSupport Fund, are urged to attend the Citizen's for Responsible Government organization and education rally scheduled for 6:00 PM on Wednesday, April 12th at Serb Hall, located on the corner of 51st and Oklahoma . Maria Monreal Cameron, and Leon Todd, will be among the featured speakers.

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Call your Milwaukee County Supervisor today and demand that the prosecution move forward. Guilty or not guilty, the taxpayers deserve a fair judicial process.

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Health care news from The Center for Public Integrity

Drug Companies Put $44 Million into State Lobbying Efforts: Campaigns push back against moves to cut prices, spending on medication

Fighting a flurry of legislative and public policy initiatives aimed at reducing prices and slicing drug budgets, the pharmaceutical industry spent more than $44 million on lobbying state governments in 2003 and 2004, a Center for Public Integrity analysis of lobbying records has found. The industry also funneled more than $8 million to the campaigns of candidates for various state offices over the same period, according to a Center analysis of state campaign money. Complete report at http://www.publicintegrity.org/rx/report.aspx?aid=794

Deep Pockets Contribute to Success: Industry spends millions on state campaign donations, Calif. Fight

The pharmaceutical industry, which mounted a huge lobbying campaign to thwart attempts by states to reduce drug prices, also has spent tens of millions of dollars on campaign contributions and fights over ballot initiatives, a Center for Public Integrity analysis of state campaign funds has found. Complete report at: http://www.publicintegrity.org/rx/report.aspx?aid=795

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States See Importation as Solution to High Drug Costs: Several seek, have plans despite federal and industry opposition

Pursuing average savings of 25 percent to 50 percent belowU.S. prices, many states have defied the federal government and turned to countries such as Canada for access to affordable prescription drugs for their citizens. An analysis by the Center for Public Integrity disclosed that 34 states have implemented or considered bills relating to the importation of prescription drugs since 2003. Complete report at: http://www.publicintegrity.org/rx/report.aspx?aid=793

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It's about politics, money

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Tuesday April 11, 1006

Mr. President, tear down this wall. No, not the one in Berlin; that one is already gone. I'm talking about the 14-foot fence that's being built between the United States and Mexico. I'm not against the fence, mind you. We must stop illegal immigrants from entering the U.S., and the fence will help. But this whole immigration issue is a political farce.

The president and our politicians have been paid well - in campaign contributions from corporations seeking to depress U.S. wages - to turn their heads as Mexicans crossed the border. And the same politicians are now up in arms because their hands-off policy has created a problem.

The real travesty is that were it not for our moneyed political system, illegal immigration would never have grown to its current proportion. But now that the problem is being discussed, I'd feel a lot better if I knew that campaign cash was not still controlling it.

Full public funding of campaigns would eliminate these conflicts. If politicians are to be beholden to their funders, I'd rather those funders be the taxpayers. For less than $10 per taxpayer per year, we could have a government owned by the people instead of the special interests.

Jack E. Lohman

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Tidbits

What can Tom DeLay do with his $1.3 million in funds? See http://www.capitaleye.org/inside.asp?ID=212. Regretfully, the Democrats will not have Delay to kick around any more, but McCain says there is good news to follow. More indictments are on the way. 

"D" for Disaster (drug plan , that is): http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/04/07/d_for_disaster.php

On BGH: I just returned from a visit to Minnesota, and guess what? You can actually buy milk there that is labeled "BGH Free." Minnesotans can elect to drink and feed their children milk from cows that have not been adulterated with hormone shots, which some studies have linked to cancer but at the very least reduce our body's ability to fight disease. But we in the Dairy State lost that option when the chemical company Monsanto won over (read that: lobbied and gave campaign contributions to) our state legislature to make it ILLEGAL to advise Wisconsin consumers when they spiked their cows with BGH. So much for Truth in Labeling in our state. The US is the only industrialized country that has not totally banned BGH injections! So much for a clean political system. See http://www.ejnet.org/rachel/rehw483.htm and http://www.bioline.org.br/request?nl94001  for more details.

I'd like to learn more about this so if you know of BGH opponents or citizen groups please email me their contact info to jelohman@gmail.com. 
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"Make-work" on Wisconsin Highways: It was also interesting that when I drove up earlier this year Interstate I-90 seemed just fine to me. But what do I know? Now they have 5 miles near Menomonee and another 5 miles north of Madison totally torn up and are replacing the entire pavement in all northbound lanes of those two stretches. That after the director of the Department Of Transportation cried that his DOT budget in a crisis, and Doyle countered that his budget has grown by 30%. Even when budget cuts were taking place their's increased by $70 million. No guys, the crisis is in the campaign funding system and the money the road contractors give to politicians to get these roads on the list. Fix that and you've fixed virtually everything else. (Yes, Governor, we know that reform is no longer a priority of yours. So much for Truth in Promises.)

Some of you may also remember the Hwy 45 fiasco between the Appleton and Good Hope exits. What could have been solved with an inexpensive repaving job was escalated to a total redesign. They moved the left lane exit onto Appleton to the right side and left us with the same two lanes going north and south that we started with! Who says it doesn't pay to be generous?

And I'm certainly not a road designer, but I would have thought that a simple cloverleaf like the ones that dot California freeways would have worked just fine for the new Marquette Interchange, but perhaps that would have been too cheap.

Citizen's Against Government Waste, the watchdog group that publishes the excellent Pork Book, has been disclosed to having taken money from the tobacco industry (and others) and lobbied on their behalf. See http://www.sptimes.com/2006/04/02/news_pf/Worldandnation/For_price__watchdog_w.shtml . CAGW's president, Tom Schatz, does not deny, but rather justifies, the industry contributions. (CAGW published the "wasteful spending" chart included in our last newsletter.)

See the effects of the Bush Tax Cuts at http://www.ctj.org/pdf/cg0406.pdf

www.ThrowTheRascalsOut.org No changes since last eNewsletter but we will be expanding it in the next few weeks.

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On Universal Health Care 1

Massachusetts Health Reform, A false promise of Universal Coverage
Published on Thursday, April 6, 2006 by CommonDreams.org
by Steffie Woolhandler, M.D., M.P.H. and David U. Himmelstein, M.D.

It’s a stirring scene. The Governor, legislative leaders and leaders of Health Care For All standing in the State House Rotunda declaring victory in the fight for universal health coverage. Unfortunately, this week’s tableau merely repeats one from 20 years ago when Governor Dukakis was celebrating passage of his universal healthcare bill. That plan imploded within two years, and today about 250,000 more people are uninsured in Massachusetts than the day it was signed. Unfortunately, Massachusetts’ new health reform legislation looks set to repeat that disaster.

What's in the New Bill?
What's Wrong With This Picture?
What Are the Alternatives?

Read the complete article at: http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0406-35.htm

Note: Drs. Woolhandler and Himmelstein are co-founders of Physicians for a National Health Plan (www.pnhp.org)

On Universal Health Care 2

The Massachusetts Miracle
By Jack E. Lohman

Of course health care is a mess, and for the same reason everything else is a mess: politics and greed. Health care is no longer a humanitarian service; it is a profit-making industry, and a very profitable one at that. Having just retired from after 35 years in the industry, I'd encourage you to break the crisis down to two questions.

1) Why is health care so costly in the first place?

2) What is the best and most humanitarian way to deliver it?

It is costly as hell because Congress has changed many of the rules at the behest of major contributors of campaign cash. More than $100 million per year from health care interests (hospitals, medical associations, HMOs, insurance and the pharmaceutical giants), all to make the for-profit system more profitable. They like to spin it as "market driven," but make no mistake, that means for-profit. They know it and you should too.

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See the complete article at http://www.fightingbob.com/article.cfm?articleID=515

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Your U.S. Congressman's Townhall Meetings

If listed below, your congressman holds regular townhall meetings were the public can openly ask him or her questions. If you are a lobbyist you can meet behind closed doors, but as a voter I prefer holding them accountable in public. If you visit, ask pointed questions like: "When is your profession going to pass a meaningful ethics bill, or quit taking money and free trips from special interests?" Then sit back and watch them squirm. It is best to get a number of friends to join you to make the crowd bigger and to show them what their congressman is really made of.

District 1: Paul Ryan

Town Hall Meetings at http://www.house.gov/ryan/press_releases/2006pressreleases/4606LS.htm
Issues at http://www.house.gov/ryan/legislative.htm

District 2: Tammy Baldwin

Town Hall Meetings at http://www.tammybaldwin.house.gov/pr_display_page.asp?page=pressreleasedisplay&type=1&releaseid=453&pageno=1
Issues at http://www.tammybaldwin.house.gov/issues_index_page.asp?page=Issues
Challenger: Dave Magnum (R) at http://davemagnum.com/

District 3: Ron Kind

Town Hall Meetings at
Issues at http://www.house.gov/kind/ (see Hot topics)

District 4: Gwen Moore

Town Hall Meetings at (None scheduled, no listing on web)
Issues at (None listed on web, must ask directly)

District 5: F. James Sensenbrenner

Town Hall Meetings at http://www.house.gov/sensenbrenner/townhall_meetings.htm
Issues at http://www.house.gov/sensenbrenner/issues.htm
Challenger: Bryan Kennedy at http://www.bk2006.org/

District 6: Tom Petri

Town Hall Meetings at http://www.house.gov/petri/townmeet.pdf
Issues athttp://www.house.gov/petri/issues.htm

District 7: David Obey

Town Hall Meetings at (None scheduled at this time)
Issues at http://obey.house.gov/HoR/WI07/Legislative/Legislation.htm

District 8: Mark Green (Open Seat, Green is running for governor in 2006)

Town Hall Meetings (Don't even think about it!)
Issues at
Candidate: John Gard (R) at http://gardforcongress.com/
Candidate: Terry McCormick (R) at http://mccormickforcongress.com/
Candidate: Nancy Nussbaum (D) at http://www.nancy2006.com/
Candidate: Steve Kagen (D) at http://www.stevekagen.org/
Candidate: Jamie Wall (D) at http://www.wallforcongress.com/

Senator Herb Kohl

Town Hall Meetings at (None scheduled at this time)
Issues at http://kohl.senate.gov/ (see Hot Topics)

Senator Russ Feingold

Town Hall Meetings at http://feingold.senate.gov/listening/index.html
Issues athttp://feingold.senate.gov/listening/frequent_issues.html

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Book Recommendations

Read the reviews on www.amazon.com

Greed and Good: Understanding and Overcoming the Inequality That Limits Our Lives
By Sam Pizzigati (ISBN: 1891843257)
Liberal, but very hard to deny the premise of this book. See author's web site at http://www.cipa-apex.org/toomuch/index.html  and subscribe to his newsletter.

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Dismantling The American Dream: Globalization, Free Trade, Immigration, Unemployment, Poverty, Debt, Foreign Dependency, More
by Kenneth Buchdahl (ISBN: 0975320718)
He watches the dominoes fall, and the outcome isn't pretty. I wish the author would have connected the dots to the moneyed political system that is tipping over the dominoes, but it is nonetheless an excellent read.

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Contact information

Lohman is a retired business owner in Colgate WI and 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)

www.WiCleanElections.org

www.wi-cfr.org

www.SmokeFreeDining.net

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