Inaugural Edition Volume 1 October 1, 2010 HE’LL KEEP LYING IF YOU KEEP BUYING ISITHARSHTOPOINTOUTthat Scott O'DONNELL PARK? Unformed proposals Walker's entire career has been built on two- by supervisors to knock it down and sell the faced deception? That he's something out of land have his belated backing, largely to the Batman comics? Like the town boss deflect the gathering storm clouds. Why Marlon Brando talked about in that old under his watch has maintenance on all western ("You’re a one-eyed jack around county properties and buildings been these parts but I've seen the other side of deferred by $300 million? What else is your face")? waiting to fall down and kill people? It's time Wisconsin saw that hidden AND NOW A NEW CAMPAIGN PROMISE! That face. as county executive he would cut $1 million Walker will not last long as Milwaukee from the 2011 budget. But he's promising County Executive. He's already said he's "out something that's not there. He hasn't won of there" win or lose. the wage concessions he's building the YET SUDDENLY ALL PRETENSE of “no new budget on. And $1 million of a $258 million taxes” for county residents has evaporated in budget would amount to about 4/10th of 1% his desire to be governor. There's been a of that budget he can't deliver. series of hasty announced expensive SO WE ARE NOT EXAGGERATING. As long reversals. as the pubic keeps buying, he'll keep lying For decades he ignored the about his record. He just wants to skip town deterioration and bad management at the and impose his methods on the entire state. mental health facility, the one place the Yes, the reports and endorsements in public relied on for this medical safety. He ACTION! reflect strong opinion. ACTION! even wanted to replace one outdated and speaks its mind and hopes the public will non-accredited facility with another. Now take our analysis, our sources, check the that newspaper and pubic investigations public record and spread the word. Corner have exposed sexual assaults against everyone with the truth before that Nov. 2 patients, callous incapable management and vote. neglected staffing levels, he suddenly Include those hardy Wisconsin supports a spanking new mental health moderates who don't like how illogical facility that could cost the taxpayers $400 gimmicks and big money are trying to million, perhaps 10 times as much as the drown out factual history with a loud and cost of timely solution. He pledges to add belligerent media voice. $5.5 million for nurses and other staff. This WE HAVE THE UNCENSORED VIEWPOINT. is known as closing the barn door. Damage AND YOU HAVE THE VOTE. control, not leadership. Fight for Barrett, the only choice OKAY, there is another choice in the governor’s race, the guy in the other party. But honestly. Even if you’re a lifelong Republican and can’t quite cross over to the Democratic side, do you really think your party’s choice has anything remotely to do with the sort of true conservatism and and concern for good government that once drew you? Is your knee jerking but your heart really lies elsewhere? ADMIT IT. Only Tom Barrett has come up with practical details to fix Wisconsin, not vague promises that have more to do with salesmanship than administrative competence. Only Barrett has offered paths to new jobs, fixes for com- merce that will put America first, projects to build our natural resources, health and schools -- a series of pragmatic and precise plans. LOOK AT THE RECORD OF WHO’S REALLY DELIVERED. Then read the plans carefully and remember who keeps promises. Only Barrett, who is a liberal, but uncowed by extremists on either side. He cares about businesses as well as working families. He believes the two must grow together. So do workers. We need good businesses that want to grow employment. So we need the only governor who will listen and respond. Obama honors gubernatorial candidate Tom Barrett at an August fund-raiser in Milwaukee. PAGE 2 — ACTION! from Milwaukee Area Labor Council, AFL-CIO VOLUME 1, Friday, October 1, 2010 Feingold thinks! And he thinks about us issues and the intricacies of The other guy only government. And because of his has money to dupe backbone. There are a lot of Democrats and with dead ideas even some Republicans who now wish they had his guts with that lonely stand IT'S NOT JUST THAT RON JOHNSON is against the Iraq war and against the the ideal Tea Party cipher, it's that his overly broad 2001 Patriot Act -- worries slick TV handlers are trying to concoct about unfettered powers of the Feingold-Lite. government that have sadly come to Do you remember? Feingold burst pass. There is also his willingness to on the Wisconsin political scene in work with the other party -- and yet he 1992 with a series of self-disparaging famously balked when they tried to run TV ads, a debunking of political their games on his cooperation. platitudes and a fun tour of things That streak of Wisconsin Wisconsin. He was authentic -- a progressivism runs deep, including serious intellectual "policy wonk" support of gun rights. He's hardly the capable of making fun of himself, a tired career politician Johnson tries to true small-town Wisconsinite devoted paint in commercials. for all these decades to holding listening sessions every year in all 72 Feingold’s big flaw: Doesn’t Wisconsin counties and annually suffer fools gladly showing up on Labor Day afternoon for TOUGH AS HE IS, he has also proven the labor festival in Janesville. flexible to good arguments but unlikely This year (to show how crazy- to suffer fools gladly. Which may put partisan this contest has become in the him at a disadvantage against Johnson, media), that devotion to Wisconsin who does say some crazy things. rituals led the GOP to suggest he was In fact, that whole "career ducking Obama’s Milwaukee Laborfest politician" critique has backfired, appearance. Quite a laugh because especially when you recall Johnson on Feingold has always shown up at TV with Liz Cheney criticizing career Milwaukee's Laborfest in the morning politicians, forgetting that was what her before heading to Janesville, and did so father assuredly was. again. But even for an afternoon with Of course, there are bad, tired the president he wasn't gong to break Reasons to return Russ Feingold to the United States Senate "career politicians" in both parties but his standing commitment to his there are also models of people hometown. economy -- illegal dumping will do that wanted more options -- but he opposed dedicated to their communities and -- and says the 50,000 plus jobs that Obama's Wall Street reform regulations unflagging after decades of As strong for state business Wisconsin lost due to free trade with for an unusual reason: He didn't think commitment. Feingold is the dictionary as for its people China during George Bush's presidency they were tough enough. No wonder definition of that commitment. The was "creative destruction." JOHNSON SHOULD KNOW Feingold big business hates him. effort by an unknown out-of- touch has always worked as hard for IN CONTRAST,FEINGOLD was one of His maverick ways caused long- businessman from Oshkosh to paint Wisconsin businesses as for Wisconsin a handful of bipartisan senators in time political reporter Craig Gilbert to him as jaded angered many in both workers. On Sept. 16, the senator took those Bush years that opposed a conclude in the Journal Sentinel Sept. parties. They may not always like time off from the campaign trail to join policy that rewarded multinational 19: “Feingold has voted with his party Feingold's conclusions but they respect Sen. Kohl in testifying before the US corporations looking for cheap labor less often than most other Senate his deep process, and they wonder if and no environmental standards. It's a International Trade Commission on Democrats, and in some years less Johnson's political hires think Wisconsin view adopted by new president behalf of Wisconsin's pulp and paper often than almost everyone on his side voters can be so easily duped. Obama, who for years has called industry, supporting allegations that of the aisle. That includes times when JOHNSON WOULD BE COMIC RELIEF, Feingold the nation's best senator, even he has voted to the right of his party as except for the amount of money and China and Indonesia have dumped and though they sometimes disagree on subsidized coated paper in the world well as times when he had voted to the slick ads being poured four to one market, causing plant closings in tactics. left of it.” against Feingold and the blatant effort Wisconsin. Pundits agree: Feingold’s the FEINGOLD WAS A FORCE to reckon to capitalize on general anger over the Feingold noted how economic with even as a UW-Madison and then slow pace of recovery from a disaster damage to Wisconsin's paper industry true maverick Harvard law student working his way created by a GOP majority. ripples through the economy. He called FEINGOLD REMAINS THE TRUE through college and then entering Now it's not a laughing matter. for further action to stop this practice. MAVERICK in national and Wisconsin private practice (oh yes, Johnson's ads Feingold will need full bore Wisconsin But Johnson thinks the US should politics, a stubborn thinker who has lie; he has worked in the private sector) at his back - the Independents, the emulate China and has said as much.