Do The Right Thing - Observations from Mark Block

Group files complaint against Wis. justice-elect

Associated Press July 10, 2008

MADISON, Wis. - A liberal group has filed a complaint against Supreme Court Justice-elect Michael Gableman, requesting an investigation into possible fundraising calls he made as Ashland County’s district attorney in 2002.One Wisconsin Now asked the state’s Office of Lawyer Regulation to look into calls Gableman made to Republican political operatives before a fundraiser he hosted for then-Gov. Scott McCallum.

One Wisconsin Now previously asked two district attorneys, the attorney general’s office and the state Government Accountability Board to investigate, but they all said they didn’t have jurisdiction.

Gableman is currently a Burnett County judge and will become a Supreme Court justice in August

The harassment and frivolous complaints from One Wisconsin Now will never end until another group begins to harass their group. I challenge the readers to find someone that can afford to take on this group, and the other groups funded by George Soros before they win their intimation campaign.

EPA is expected to release officially release their plan to take over the U.S. economy tomorrow.  Below is a pre-publication column Phil Kerpen, Americans for Prosperity wrote about it that should run tomorrow, to give you  a sense of the stakes. 

The EPA’s Attack on the U.S. Economy
Phil Kerpen

Opponents of a massive new energy tax and federal bureaucracy breathed a small sigh of relief last month when the Lieberman-Warner climate tax bill went down in  flames on the Senate floor, with even 10 Democrats breaking from the party line and saying, in writing, that they would have opposed the bill on final passage.  Unfortunately, power-mad bureaucrats at the Environmental Protection Agency are undaunted.  Empowered by an activist Supreme Court in the 5-4 Massachusetts v. EPA decision, the EPA is expected today to release a staggering document blueprinting a dizzying array of greenhouse gas regulatory programs under dozens of different provisions of the 1970 Clean Air Act.  This document, called an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, will formally begin the process of implementing restrictions more draconian than the Lieberman-Warner bill without a single vote of Congress.

While the Supreme Court decision that opened the door to this mischief was limited to motor vehicle regulation, the EPA blueprint (judging by various leaked versions that have been available for weeks) goes far beyond that, filling over 200 pages (plus over 800 pages of appendices) with a radical plan for reordering the entire U.S. economy.

Not only are motor vehicles regulated—and much more harshly than the already-coming motor vehicles regulations coming from the Department of Transportation because of last year’s energy bill—but so are light-duty trucks, heavy-duty trucks, buses, motorcycles, planes, trains, ships, boats, tractors, mining equipment, RVs, lawn mowers, fork-lifts, and just about every other piece of equipment that’s got a motor in it.  The regulatory requirements in many cases could require complete redesigns, as well as operational changes.

Those are just the mobile sources, and bad as they are, the stationary source regulations could be much worse.  EPA hopes to be able to regulate stationary sources by instituting a cap-and-trade scheme—the same massive multi-trillion dollar hidden tax hike scam that the U.S. Senate rejected last month—through a tortured statutory interpretation.  If they’re unable to do that, we’ll end up with (yes, I know this is hard to conceive of) something even worse:  Old-style, command-and-control regulation of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

The worst excess here is in the Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) program.  That program requires permitting for sources that emit as little as 100 tons per year.  That threshold may make sense for some air pollutants, but for carbon dioxide it’s frighteningly low, and would subject millions of never before regulated entities to an expensive and lengthy EPA permitting process.  This is an unprecedented regulatory nightmare, with permitting and expensive control technology (although what it would be for carbon dioxide remains unclear) for most medium to large buildings that use fossil fuel furnaces for heat.  Any building over 100,000 square feet would be pulled in, as would much smaller buildings that produce carbon dioxide in their businesses, such restaurants, schools, and hospitals that have commercial kitchens with gas burners.

Not only would the burden of this permitting process be debilitating for businesses across the country, it would also grind state environmental agencies and the EPA to a standstill, inundated by so many permit filings that it would be impossible to pursue any legitimate environmental protections.  While the backlog grows, all new construction activity across the country will stop.

The EPA blueprint has a lengthy discussion of how to avoid this outcome, suggesting that they can set their own threshold for permitting.  They can’t.  That’s the trouble with making national economic policy through an activist Supreme Court and a rogue regulatory agency—there’s nobody in charge.  Congress could design a regime with whatever threshold it considered appropriate, but the EPA can only stretch the 1970 Clean Air Act (whose author John Dingell, has stated unequivocally that it should not be forced into service to regulate greenhouse gases) so far.  Even if the major environmental groups agreed to look the other way while more reasonable rules were implemented, all it takes is one environmentalist to file a lawsuit and point out that clear statutory language establishes the threshold for PSD regulation.  Then the economy stops moving.

The EPA is an agency out of control.  A multi-trillion dollar, radical reordering of our economy deserves at least the participation of our democratically-elected, accountable branches of government.  Whether or not Congress chooses to establish a regime for greenhouse gas regulation, it must immediately pass legislation to stop the EPA from implementing its devastating vision for the U.S. economy.

Mr. Kerpen is policy director for Americans for Prosperity.

Congressman Paul Ryan has introduced his Roadmap for America’s Future.

Many people say it has no chance of becoming law and being implemented.

In 1977 I was a legislative aide to the late Congressman Bill Steiger. He introduced legislation that rolled back the capital gains tax rate from 39.9% to 28%.

Everyone - including then President Jimmy Carter siad it had no chance to becoming law. However the country was demanding change. The country was in trouble. It passed.

Bill Steiger, then a young 37 year old Congressman from Wisconsin made history by doing the right thing and beating all odds.

Can history repeat itself with a 36 year old Congressman from Wisconsin 31 years later? Will Paul Ryan’s Roadmap for America’s Future become law?

America is in trouble. If the American public demands change - history can repeat itself.

In 1976, when Gerald Ford was President, Governor Pat Lucey appointed Shirley Abrahamson to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Justice Abrahamson has served the state a long - long time. Perhaps too long.

This week she gave a speech heavy on the need for the judical branch to be non-partisan and above all else non-political.

When approached after her elequent remarks by an admirer that congratulated her on the remarks she said:

“IT WAS JUST A SPEECH”.

Perhaps the voters of the great state of Wisconsin will Do The Right Thing and retire Justice Shirley Abrahamson in Spring of 2009.

Stevens Point Wisconsin was the place to be this weekend if you wanted to observe the Wisconsin Republican Party and here are some observations.

Congressman Paul Ryan rocks!!! I have said it many times-I hope to live long enough to see him President of the United States or at least my kids will be able to vote for him.

Congressman James Sensenbrenner told it like it should be told. In blasting Speaker Mike Huebsch he make it clear that Republicans will could be in the minority in the Wisconsin Assembly with leadership that governs like the GOP Congress did prior to the elections of 2006.

“Unfortunately, Speaker Huebsch decided to push it [the budget repair bill] through the Assembly.  And he did so in a manner which does not fix the problems of overtaxing, and replaces transportation fees with more state borrowing - exactly the same move which helped destroy the Republican brand.  Everyone can see this is a political shell game that simply postpones the hard decisions.  Sometimes, leadership consists of saying “NO” to bad policies, rather than going along to get along.”

Congressman Tom Petri did not attend the convention. He was only Republican Congressman from Wisconsin that voted with the Democrats this week for a tax increase.

County Executive Scott Walker is Doing The Right Things to prepare for a run for the Governor’s office in 2010.

Chairman Reince Priebus is one of my heros. He is doing an incredible job in rebuilding a party that lost “it’s brand”, and not only talks the talk - but walks the walk.

However as you looked around the convention hall you had to wonder why the Waukesha County delegation seats were almost empty -

McCain will carry Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin Department of Revenue recently sent over 1,000 letters to people that buy cigarettes on the Internet and told them to cough up the tax owed.

I predicted last year that raising the tax on a pack of cigarettes would decrease the total amount of taxes the state collected due to people buying on the Internet and the dramatic increase in smuggled products to escape paying the absurb tax that hits the poorest of people.

(side bar: I have a very biased opinion cause I smoke)

I hope to write in the next couple months how much tax revenues went down because of the tax increase. Perhaps our legislature will actually repeal the tax increase - right

What group is next to get letters from the State Department of Revenue??? Do you buy anything over the Internet??

p.s. If you don’t think that smuggling is taking place - here is a good article from the Wall Street Journal.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel or more appropriately Dave Umhoefer recently won the Pulitzer prize for investigative journalism.

Looks like another great piece of investigate reporting by AP reporter Ryan Foley.  He uncovered more cronyism in the Doyle administration and totally unethical behavior by lawyer, former Governor Tony Earl. 

Political hire costs Wisconsin taxpayers $346,000

Editorial - Don’t be bluffed by budget fear - Go ahead., make the taxpayers’ day.

Beloit Daily News, 5 5 2008

ACCORDING TO THE Doyle administration, unless Wisconsin decision-makers come up with a plan to fill the $527 million budget hole soon, there will be no choice but to cut state payments for schools, municipalities, construction projects and more.

OK. So what?

Not that we’re supportive of the dilly-dallying taking place in Madison, mind you. Those full-time elected legislators - you know, the ones who only spent about four weeks in session last year - have few responsibilities more pressing than establishing the state’s budget.  The failure, again, to manage the state’s finances in a timely and responsible way just adds to the mounting evidence that the people have been poorly served.

THE POINT is that if it becomes necessary to cut … then cut!

That’s what responsible budget managers do, from coast-to-coast, in the private sector, which does not have the luxury of coercively adding revenue (read: raising taxes) or resorting to the kind of accounting legerdemain that is a staple of government.

One need look no further than last week’s announcement that General Motors is shelving the second shift in Janesville, putting some 750 workers out on the street. That is a painful process that will reverberate across the Stateline Area. Does anyone think General Motors’ managers wanted to make that truly tough choice?

By comparison, state government’s challenge is modest.

WE’VE SAID IT before, we’ll say it again. So long as every government employee - state workers, school teachers, city staffers and so on - can expect job security, annual raises and the kind of benefit packages that are rare as snowballs in Miami, stop trying to tell taxpayers how hard decisions are being made.

They’re not. And government does nothing for its sinking credibility by claiming otherwise. The answer is smaller government, coupled with an attitude adjustment by the people.

The Founders did not intend for government to meet every need or touch every corner of citizens’ lives. In fact, the Founders surely would be mortified by today’s bloated bureaucracies and endless demands on the people’s purse.

I have been travelling the state in past couple weeks and have heard quite a few stories of people that want to do the right thing and some stories of people that think they want to do the right thing - but seem to be totally clueless.

Case in point - Representative Kagen from the Green Bay area. Seems he told a group of loggers that are in serious financial hardships for a variety of reasons that he needed to check with his friends with butterfly collections on the impact to their hobby before commenting on restrictive policies of the federal government on the logging industry.

I heard this story sitting a restaurant in the early morning in the most northern part of Wisconsin. The restaurant - usually empty at this time of day - was packed with loggers that didn’t have work to do because of the extreme actions of the environmentalist.

What a perfect commercial - Congressman Kagen checking with his friends on the impact of their butterflys while the north woods of Wisconsin sees jobs lost - businesses closed - families unable to make ends meet - while his friends are trying to determine the impact of their butterfly collection. 

In my opinion Kagen has no clue on Doing The Right Thing.

James Troupis, a friend and Great American is teaching law in Russia.

Fascinating reading on his blog. Brings tears to your eyes to realize how much our freedom means to the Russians.

From Russia With Law