Somehow we were sent to invade a nation because it was a direct threat to the American people, or to the world, or harbored terrorists, or was involved in the September 11 attacks, or received weapons-grade uranium from Niger, or had mobile weapons labs, or WMD, or had a need to be liberated, or we needed to establish a democracy, or stop an insurgency, or stop a civil war we created that can’t be called a civil war even though it is. Something like that.
State parties loaning staff to Oshkosh Assembly candidates
By Bethany K. Warner of The Northwestern
All politics is local, the saying goes.
But that notion gets called into question, campaign watchdog groups say, when legislative staffers from Madison are loaned to local candidates.
The two candidates running for the 54th Assembly District seat – Republican Julie Pung Leschke and Democrat Gordon Hintz – both have campaign staff members currently on leave from their legislative staff positions.
Craig Trost a legislative staffer for Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, is helping the Hintz campaign. Brian Pleva, a legislative staffer for Rep. Jeff Fitzgerald, R-Horicon, is helping the Pung Leschke campaign.
The arrival of outside campaign help underscores the importance both parties are placing on the race in the 54th. Some, like Mike McCabe, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, argue it also shows the need for further campaign reform.
Group pushes for emergency contraception for rape victims
By Krista B. Ledbetter of The Northwestern
Judie Koeppler is looking for some compassion for rape victims. But a bill that would've offered what she was looking for died at the end of the 2006 state legislative session.
Compassionate Care for Rape Victims, a bill introduced in both the state Assembly and Senate, would have required all Wisconsin hospitals that provide emergency services for rape victims to provide information about emergency contraception and dispense it if requested by the patient. Because it was pending at the end of the legislative session, the bill expired, and will need to be reintroduced in January if it is to be considered again.
Koeppler and Susie Elbing, both members of Concerned Citizens for Women's Health in Winnebago County would've liked to see the bill become law. They said offering information about and providing emergency contraception, or Plan B, directly at the hospital would help the thousands of women per year who get raped prevent an unwanted pregnancy.
"Eighty percent of rape victims are under the age of 16," Elbing said. "It is inexcusable and senseless to not tell this girl there's emergency contraception."
A study conducted by the Compassionate Care for Rape Victims Coalition in late 2005 and early 2006 concluded that 33 percent of hospitals in the state dispense Plan B unconditionally. The remaining hospitals either never, or sometimes provide the emergency contraception.
"This is all about preventing abortion," Koeppler said. "Emergency contraception is not going to cause an abortion, it's going to prevent a pregnancy that could likely end in abortion."
Opponents of CCRV said recent legislation to allow Plan B to be sold over the counter renders the bill needless.
Sen. Carol Roessler, R-Oshkosh, said the bill's flaw was that it mandated that faith-based hospitals would have to provide something that went against their moral mission.
"That is where I see the problem," she said.
However, in Oshkosh, both Aurora Medical Center and Mercy Medical Center have procedures in place to offer information about emergency contraception, and provide it if requested, said Koeppler, who sits on Affinity's professional activities committee.
Mercy, a faith-based hospital, follows Directive 36, developed by United States bishops in consultation with the Vatican. It states a rape victim should be allowed to defend herself against possible conception from a sexual assault, and should have access to emergency contraception if she is not pregnant.
Editorial: Recommending Daley From the Journal Sentinel
Posted: Oct. 18, 2006
Tim Daley, a Democrat and Union Grove attorney, is our pick in his race against GOP Rep. Robin Vos in the 63rd Assembly District.
There have been missteps in Vos' first term, chiefly his vote to kill an ethics reform bill. It would have merged the state Elections and Ethics boards, creating a new Government Accountability Board with teeth to monitor behavior at the Capitol. Vos voted against the measure. He said the current system works OK. He's wrong.
Daley would like to see the bill resurrected and also opposes the Taxpayer Protection Amendment. Vos favors it.
On government funding for embryonic stem cell research and on the gay marriage amendment, Vos gives unsatisfactory answers. He says he is for embryonic stem cell research if the embryos are first put up for adoption with the donors' consent. On gay marriage, he says he is for the public deciding but, when pressed, says he will vote for the amendment.
Daley is for embryonic stem cell research, with no unreasonable strings attached and is against the gay marriage amendment. Vos is commendably accessible to constituents, but Daley is more right on the issues. Not a good fit for this district that skews Republican? Ethics reform, funding promising research and fairness for all Wisconsin residents cross partisan boundaries.
St. Norbert Poll Shows Doyle With 13 Point Lead
(AP) MADISON Gov. Jim Doyle leads his Republican challenger by 13 points in a new poll released Thursday. The lead is more than double that shown in a survey released earlier this month.
The latest poll done by the St. Norbert College Survey Center and paid for both by the college and Wisconsin Public Radio surveyed 400 likely voters between Oct. 9 and Oct. 16. The margin of error was plus or minus 5 percentage points.
Side-view mirrors show Detroit’s problems
Report puts a number on Asian advantage over big U.S. automakers
It’s no secret that like companies like Nissan and Toyota are outrunning their American rivals, but now a new study has put a number on the advantage Asian automakers have over Detroit’s Big Three.
U.S. automakers make an average of $2,400 less per vehicle than their Japanese counterparts because of less-efficient purchasing and manufacturing procedures, according to a study by the Harbour-Felax Group, an industry consulting firm based in suburban Detroit.
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By restructuring through layoffs and plant closures, GM and Ford are not focusing on the root cause of their problems, Felax said. One large U.S. automaker, which Felax declined to identify, makes 81 different types of wing mirrors, while its Asian counterpart Honda only makes two, she said. By using more common parts and processes, U.S. carmakers can close the gap with their rivals, she said.
“You can cut labor, but at the end of the day you can’t cost cut your way to competitiveness,” Felax said, adding that automakers need to share components between their vehicle brands to save money, especially commodity components that will not have a major impact on a car buyers' purchasing decision, like wing mirrors or batteries.
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Felax calculates that for every component that is shared between vehicle models, automakers stand to save between $1,000 and $1,500 dollars per vehicle.
“So if you multiply that saving by the volume of vehicles made by any one of these companies you can see there’s a potential for saving billions of dollars,” said Felax. “GM still produces the largest volume of product of any other carmaker, and this is an issue over which they have total control” — as opposed to the vagaries of consumer tastes and gasoline prices.
For months, politicians and activists have been saying that the low prices at the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart Stores, come at a tremendous cost to its low-paid employees. They point to lawsuits that contend the company discriminates against women and forces low-paid employees to work through lunch breaks and after their shifts, without extra compensation. Wal-Mart has also been boosting its political contributions to stop initiatives aimed at forcing the retailer to raise pay and benefits.
Now, as Wal-Mart rolls out a new round of workplace restrictions, employees at a Wal-Mart Super Center in Hialeah Gardens, Fla., are taking matters into their own hands. On Oct. 16, workers on the morning shift walked out in protest against the new policies and rallied outside the store, shouting "We want justice" and criticizing the company's recent policies as "inhuman." Workers said the number of participants was about 200, or nearly all of the people on the shift.
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The protest wasn't led by any union group. Rather, it was instigated by two department managers, Guillermo Vasquez and Rosie Larosa. The department managers were not affected directly by the changes, but they felt that the company had gone too far with certain new policies. Among them were moves to cut the hours of full-time employees from 40 hours a week to 32 hours, along with a corresponding cut in wages, and to compel workers to be available for shifts around the clock.
In addition, the shifts would be decided not by managers, but by a computer at company headquarters. Employees could find themselves working 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. one week and noon to 9 p.m. the next. "So workers cannot pick up their children after school everyday, and part-timers cannot keep another job because they can be called to work anytime," says Vasquez.
In addition to scheduling changes and reduction in hours, workers are now required to call an 800 number when they are sick. "If we are at an emergency room and spend the night in a hospital and cannot call the number, they won't respect that," says Larosa, who has worked at the store for six years. "It will be counted as an unexcused absence."
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The scheduling changes, which have been rolled out in Wal-Mart stores around the country in recent weeks, are a sign that the retailer is acting on ideas outlined in an internal document that was leaked last year. In the memo, a Wal-Mart executive said it would find ways to rid its payroll of full-time and unhealthy employees who are more expensive for the company to retain.
Wal-Mart executives have recently told Wall Street analysts that the company wants to transform its workforce from 20 percent part-time to 40 percent. Recently, it was also reported that older employees in some stores who had back and leg problems were barred from using stools on which they had sat for years.
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What's next at the Hialeah Gardens store, where store managers have had to pitch in to keep the store open? Is this the first step to forming a union at the store? That's unlikely, given the fate of previous attempts to unionize store employees. When employees in Jonquière, Que., Canada, voted last year to unionize, Wal-Mart shut the store. Vasquez says the workers haven't really talked about their plans, beyond getting the company to change its practices. "At this point, we just want to be heard," he says.
“What’s up here? Why did these three people avoid giving answers? Is this an indicator of how they will act if elected to the 2007-2009 term in the state Assembly?...The bottom line here is that constituents are entitled to know where political candidates stand when the issue is a statewide survey prepared by non-partisan interests. With few reasonable exceptions, candidates who don’t answer six survey questions probably shouldn’t be in office in the first place.”
