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10/20/2010
Crude, fabricating reprobates?
You are smart enough to disregard the malicious lies all over the airways. Pleeeeze tell me you are smart enough. The pols tell us “yeah, you get mad at it, you tell us you ignore it…. But you really don’t. We know you’re listening….”
Well, I’ve heard it. Lots of it. Some of us (the majority? – that’s the $64,000 question) see the muckraking for the lying and malicious deception it is. Others of us believe the cesspool of lies. (“I won’t support Reid Ribble – he’s going to discontinue Social Security!” – which of course, is a big huge lie - and just one of the many being told.)
Now the crude fabricating reprobates at One Wisconsin Now (OWN) and other minions of their ilk – Greater Wisconsin is actually paying for this mud - are spending a piece of their millions in a lying ad to impugn 57th A.D candidate Chris Hanson’s character. And it’s wrong. Pure wrong.
(Do I need to be name-calling? Well… yes. There’s nothing good to say about these guys. And yes, some of it is personal experience – and yes, personal grievance. Their minions and cohorts spent a $half million on my campaign demeaning my character with lies. It's part of what you sign up for, but it isn’t fun. Regardless of the pain or fun these guys deliver, it isn’t right. It’s wrong. Pure wrong.)
The self-proclaimed investigators over at OWN are claiming Chris doesn’t pay taxes on her business. This is pure stupid. Hanson Benefits is, like many small businesses, an S-corporation. By law, the profits from an S-corp are shown on the owner’s personal tax returns. Little wonder the business doesn’t show up as paying taxes. Pure stupid.
They’re also claiming Chris is an insurance “lobbyist.” That’s ridiculous – and more seriously, that’s a lie. Chris is a phenomenal expert on health insurance for small businesses and individuals. Is that a complex field to have ably navigated and helped clients with the last 10 years? For sure. Chris has been active with many professional organizations and at times, has exercised her right as a citizen to talk with legislators about the issue she knows best – health insurance for small business people. OWN, get it into your head. This is Chris’ right and responsibility as a voter and Wisconsin resident.
The truth of the matter is… you are smart enough to recognize these lies for what they are – and we desperately need Chris’ expertise in the Assembly.
Mike over at Letters in Bottles wrote my piece for me this morning. He does a tremendous job talking about a few slam ads – defending Russ Feingold (well, he doesn’t say he agrees with him!), Reid Ribble and Rebecca Kleefisch in the process. It’s well worth a read.
The Democrats’ Closing Argument: Republicans Are Evil
…. Conservatives don't want sick people to die. We don't want families to have to choose between food and health care. What we want is to reform the system we have and make it more affordable for families. Problem is that we don't want government to do it or to tell us what we should or shouldn't buy.
But for Democrats this year, the public has already decided that they don't like their policies. So the only strategy left is to vilify and demonize the Republicans. I'm not so sure it will work this year.
As a closing aside, did you read David Brooks’ article I included in FoxPol News yesterday? He claims all this campaign spending isn’t what it’s cracked up to be, doesn’t have the effect politicos think it does. Interesting. Also, George Will had a few interesting observations this weekend –
Total spending, by all parties, campaigns and issue-advocacy groups, concerning every office from county clerks to U.S. senators, may reach a record $4.2 billion in this two-year cycle. That is about what Americans spend in one year on yogurt but less than they spend on candy in two Halloween seasons. Procter & Gamble spent $8.6 billion on advertising in its most recent fiscal year.
Ok, let them spend their billions. You be smart! Be discerning. And Jack, before you harp about campaign spending reform and corrupt politicians, please consider limiting your comments to the moral character and wisdom of man.
[Reason, yesterday] ... if you don't in the end trust voters to make informed decisions, then all the mandatory disclosure [or I would add, public funding of campaigns] in the world can't help them.
> Jo Egelhoff, FoxPolitics.net
COMMENTS
>>>Ok, let them spend their billions. You be smart! Be discerning<<<
I hope that people will be, especially given this;
>>>Some analyses have Republican front groups outspending Democratic groups by as much as 6 to 1 on TV ads.<<<
I wonder how effective the Clean Money proposal would be?
1) Qualifying: Candidates must collect a prescribed number of signatures and minimum $5 qualifying contributions from registered voters in their district. To cover minor costs during the qualifying period, candidates are permitted to raise a limited amount of seed money from private sources in amounts not exceeding $100 per contributor.
2) Primary funding: Candidates who meet the qualifying requirements and agree not to raise or spend private money during the primary and general election campaign periods receive a set amount of money (up to 1/3 of the total grant) from the Clean Money fund.
3) General election funding - Candidates who win their party primaries and qualifying independent candidates who agree to the voluntary restrictions receive a set amount of general election funding from the CMCR fund.
4) In order to maintain a financially level playing field, Clean Money candidates who are outspent by privately financed opponents, or targeted by independent expenditures or issue ads, are entitled to a limited amount of matching funds.
Dean Weichmann (Wed Oct 20 09:32:21 2010)
Jo:
Right on with your comments. I think the negative ads will backfire, because I think most voters are seeing through these lies and smear campaigns and are turned off by them. In fact, some that had been on the fence may in fact vote for the person that does not go negative.
I am glad that in the debate last night that Chris stayed with the issues but it must be hard to take this abuse in TV ads and not feel the pain when someone outright misrepresents the truth.
The issue about Chris's company not paying taxes really shows how little the other side knows about business. You are correct in saying that in a Sub-S corporation the profit flows through to the owner/owners and they pay taxes based on their individual rate. Usually, those taxes are in fact more than if they were a regular C-Corp. The fact that a supposed CPA from OWN would comment about it shows the bias and in fact the extent of the lie. A competent CPA should know this. I guess if I were a business owner, I would have serious doubts about using this firm.
Mike Thomas
Mike Thomas (Wed Oct 20 09:57:30 2010)
Dean, Clean Money will be effective because it is voluntary and those candidates who choose it will be favored and those who win will be working in the public's best interest.
Jack Lohman (Wed Oct 20 10:09:30 2010)
Oh, really Jack? As a rank and file taxpayer, which aspect of MY involvement in "Clean Money" is voluntary???
Tom (Wed Oct 20 11:23:28 2010)
The more I read the better it looks.
With this system in place one would not need to be a millionare to run. This would help with the bias toward money that is in place now.
It would be great to have an non-partisan, non-biased information agency to evaluate candidates. Any idea on how to do that?
>>>It’s working great in two states! In Maine, 77% of the state senate and 55% of the state house are made up of candidates who ran "clean." The Arizona state house will be 45% "clean," as will 17% of the state senate.<<<
Dean Weichmann (Wed Oct 20 11:53:07 2010)
Would someone share information regarding the size of the bureaucracy needed to enforce this "clean money" regime? Possibly we should just let Dean's "non partisan, non-biased information agency" select our candidates for us. We're too dumb to know what's good for us anyway.
rono44o (Wed Oct 20 12:23:45 2010)
Well rono, since no one has a clue about that I expect that we will continue to have political ads up the wazoo that are so interesting an informative that we can hardly stand it.
Where does the idea of accurate, unbiased information translate to select our candidates for us?
Without information we will continue to be too dumb to know what's good for us anyway.
Dean Weichmann (Wed Oct 20 12:57:57 2010)
Tom, as a taxpayer you will have no option. It will cost you about $6 per year to help fund our clean elections political system. I know, that's a terrible infringement.
But, Tom, we taxpayers ALREADY ARE paying for the campaigns, and at hundreds of times that amount, when companies add their political costs to the price of their product and we reimburse them at the cash register. But worse, we pay over $1 trillion per year for all of the government spending that results from politicians being owned by special interests. Instead, for $2 billion per year we could fund the campaigns totally. Do the math.
That’s about $6 per taxpayer per year for congress, and less than $5 per taxpayer at the state legislative level. And in Arizona it’s not even the taxpayers who pay, it’s a surcharge on criminal fines. If you don’t want to contribute, don’t speed.
If our politicians are to be beholden to their funders, those funders should be the public.
Jack Lohman (Wed Oct 20 16:34:45 2010)
I would be laughing if it were not so serious. What you clowns do not understand is the Republorats do exactly the same thing.
Mark Reiter (Wed Oct 20 21:05:33 2010)
Yes Mark, can't be denied. Some are better and some worse than others. To be sure, there are groups in the country - on the right - that operate like OWN.
Jo (Wed Oct 20 21:36:54 2010)
Yea, they do Mark. But currently they do it in favor of the corporations that fund their elections when, with a clean money system, they'd be doing it on behalf of the best interest of the country. Much of the crap would not have occurred: they would not have repealed Glass-Steagall, as just one of many examples.
Both parties are bought by the bad guys that want in your pocket.
Jack Lohman (Thu Oct 21 00:48:20 2010)
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