John Doe – the "Fighting Bob" tryst of the century

The widening John Doe investigation in Wisconsin erupts in an irony of time and politics. For the love of Wisconsin’s “Fighting Bob LaFollete” (1906-1924), the father of progressivism, the roots of his words and warnings regarding corporations and trusts one hundred years ago, are resounding in the state he served throughout his life. The investigation has spread to, a least, five Wisconsin counties. Subpenas have been issued to over a dozen conservative groups. John Doe promises to evolve into the “Gettysburg” of progressivism vs. corporate person hood as defined in the controversial Citizens United decision of the Supreme Court.

Legal armies are being assembled and strategies crafted and planned to engage in the battle of the century over big money vs. preservation of individual voting rights. The legal battle brewing in Wisconsin carries national implications as the over balance of power at the top is being investigated. The bulldozer of the conservative campaign money in the recall elections of Senators followed by the recall election of Scott Walker broke all records of any election in state history to the point where Walker spent $35 per vote.

Free Wisconsin July 28,2012
The June 5 Recall Election Plan

Then came the election of historic proportions with national implications for the political agendas of Republicans and Democrats in the November Presidential race, and with it came the money in truck loads bearing the insignia on door: “Citizens United”. The hype, and media buyout was “as advertized” and Walker began raising big money from big donors across the land until in the end, he would spend $35 per vote received.

Some major artery just south of the aorta had split and the money from conservative groups and donors poured into Wisconsin like never before. Yet, in many ways, this was just an experiment. This was a first transfusion of money into a major statewide elections since the birth of a corporation as “a person”, and in some documented cases, laws were broken. It remains to be seen how intentional and far reaching the illegal actions of the host of conservative groups may have gone astray of the rule of law. But, we do know that mailers were sent out by Americans for Prosperity that appeared designed to disenfranchise voters, false voter ID information was advertized on County Clerk web sites, and electronic voting tallies from the Walker recall were given up before the 10 days required by state statute.

Now a full front investigation is afoot in the state and major champions of Citizen United and the “money is speech” argument are uniting in force and poised on a legal battleground. All this in the very State of Wisconsin where the strongest voice against corporate overreach echoes through the halls and porticoes of the state capitol from a hundred years ago – from the strong voice of Fighting Bob La Follette.

From a speech of Robert M. La Follette delivered at the annual banquet of the Periodical Publishers Association in Philadelphia on February 22, 1912

The Third Period – The Combinations of Corporations

The evil hour was come upon us. Daring, unscrupulous men plotted in violation of the common law, the criminal statutes and against the public right to become masters of that market and take what toll they pleased. And thus we entered upon the third of our business and commercial life – the period of combination of corporations under a single control in each line of business. It was not an evolution; it was a revolution.

From “A Personal Narrative of Political Experiences” Appendix p. 767

La Follette vs. James Bopp Jr.

If we are indeed met on a great battlefield of war testing weather our nation as conceived and dedicated can long endure, we are met in in face of an opposing general, James Bobb Jr., from the conservative right who carries a string of victories and trail of burnt villages in his wake. Many on the far right who have been quick to remind us that our government is not a democracy but a republic, are now on the rampage to take the further step to use Citizens United as the final nail in the coffin to bury democracy in favor of a totalitarian oligarchy. The leader of the final tyranny is James Bopp Jr. who shows great favor for the word republic over democracy…

The New Price of American Politics
James Bennet Sep 19 2012, 8:56 PM ET – Atlantic
He believes, in fact, that there can be no such thing as an “outside” group in American democracy—­he believes that’s the whole point of the republic.

By Stephanie Mencimer Mother Jones Thu Jan. 21, 2010
The Man Who Took Down Campaign Finance Reform
Bopp, the longtime counsel to the anti-abortion group National Right to Life, has now almost singlehandedly obliterated many of the nation’s relatively modest restrictions on corporate election spending, including the landmark McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform legislation. And he’s done it all in the name of the First Amendment. In 2007, Bopp persuaded the Supreme Court to eliminate limits on corporate funding of television ads in Federal Election Commission v. Wisconsin Right to Life, arguing that the rules were an unconstitutional infringement on free speech.

Bopp is out leading the charge with the argument that might be paraphrased, “How dare you investigate the wealthy job creators of this country?”, and that the subpenas and searches were unconstitutionally broad given they involve political speech.

As flimsy as the Bopp challenge may sound to the ear of progressives, the judges who dismissed a request to stop the investigation seem to be calling up reinforcements.

Doe judge seeks representation from Department of Justice

By Patrick Marley of the Journal Sentinel Nov. 26, 2013

Madison — The judge overseeing a secret investigation of recall campaign fundraising and spending has asked the state Department of Justice to represent him in a court challenge to the probe.

Reserve Judge Gregory Peterson said Tuesday he made the request through Director of State Courts John Voelker. Peterson said it had been indicated to him that the department would represent him and that other judges involved in the case are seeking representation as well.

The Fourth Period – The Failure of Democracy with Capitalism?

The battle and the test of strategies for defending Citizens United, “corporations are people”, and “money is speech” against the last remnants of a Democracy of majority rule, may well play out in the state of Robert La Follette, who warned of the dangers of corporations in combination over a hundred years ago.

Why aren’t people out in the streets?

That was the question posed several times by Henry A. Giroux when he was a guest of Bill Moyers last Sunday as progressives fear the plague threatening the political landscape painted by Citizens United and special interest control of politics. The final death throws of capitalism present a desperate need for new rules for economic development. Mr. Giroux speaks of an approaching revolution into a new paradigm of community and government.

The Ghost of Authoritarianism in the Age of the Shutdown
Henry A. Giroux | Tuesday, 15 October 2013 11:45 By Henry A Giroux, Truthout | Op-Ed

During the past few decades, it has become clear that those who wield corporate, political and financial power in the United States thrive on the misery of others.

Moyers is correct, but his argument can be extended. What Americans are witnessing is a politics that celebrates a form of domestic terrorism, a kind of soft militarism and a hyper-masculine posturing in which communities are organized around resentment, racism and symbolic violence. With the partial government shutdown and the looming debt ceiling crisis engineered by the extremists driving the Republican Party, the amount of human suffering, violence and hardships that many individuals and families are experiencing border on catastrophic and open up a whole new act in the theater of cruelty, state violence, human misery and the exercise of raw and savage power.

Entrepreneurial identities replace all modes of solidarity invested in democratic principles, and self-interested actors supplant the discourse of the public good. The production of capital, services and material goods “are at the heart of the human experience.”

Perhaps, the new paradigm for community will grow from the John Doe investigation brewing in Wisconsin. The speech of Fight Bob La Follette delivered on the steps of the Captiol in Washington D.C. August 11, 1924 – seem to hold as much relevance today as they did nearly one hundred years ago.

Bradley Foundation "BOO" Billboards

Bradley Foundation

Just in Time for Halloween

The right wing is out of the closet to expose it’s skeletons of racism, sexism, disregard of the middle class.

With the new aggression of the right, the level playing field for campaign contribution has been on “tilt”, allowing the privileged to vote with dollars. The Einhorn Family Foundation (Daniel Einhorn in the photo below far right) is funneled money from the Bradley Foundation (Michael W. Grebe president and chief executive of the Bradley Foundation pictured top) to support “a public education project”. The billboard at the bottom of the photo epitomizes Einhorn’s contribution to “public education”. If you happen to control a hedge fund, the images of a black man and woman, and a larger picture of a white woman, behind bars, with the words “We Voted Illegally”, constitutes “public education”. The Bradley Foundation funded the billboard campaign under the category: “civic growth and prosperity”.

You can contribute Tax Free

How many times have you heard the likes of Griebe and Einhorn complain that they are taxed twice by paying a corporate tax on top of an income tax? In the case of this
“public education” project it is the taxpayer who is getting the double whammy. The men pictured pay no tax on holdings, while they can award an individual contributor a further tax exemption for a donation because, after all, they are providing the service of “public education”.

The right has ratcheted up their power grabbing agenda to upset the playing field to their advantage which is well past “tilt” to “earthquake”. They are using foundations to “influence legislation AND participate in campaign activity as a substantial part of their activities”. Little known Wisconsin foundation behind ‘voter fraud’ billboards

Exemption Requirements – Section 501(c)(3) Organizations

To be tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, an organization must be organized and operated exclusively for exempt purposes set forth in section 501(c)(3), and none of its earnings may inure to any private shareholder or individual. In addition, it may not be an action organization, i.e., it may not attempt to influence legislation as a substantial part of its activities and it may not participate in any campaign activity for or against political candidates. IRS

The Citizen’s United Loop Hole the size of a Hedge Fund

It all began long ago in the case of Santa Clara v. Southern Pacific Railroad (1886). During oral arguments, one justice suggested that the Court didn’t want to waste time belaboring whether or not corporations are “persons” under the law. The court’s clerk (a former corporate lawyer) seized upon the brief interjection and grotesquely transformed it into a rigid and powerful doctrine known as “corporate personhood.” Thus a huge expansion of corporate rights was made without any real examination of whether it made sense.Montana Challenge

As it stands all of the millions of dollars invested in activities that are obvious infractions of the IRS definition “it may not attempt to influence legislation as a substantial part of its activities and it may not participate in any campaign activity for or against political candidates” was inadequately addressed in a foot note of the Citizen’s United ruling. While the majority of people. when applying common sense, can clearly see an obvious and blatant infraction of the rules, the Supreme Court has failed miserably to clarify in certain terms exactly what is meant by the ruling. Thus the likes of Griebe and Einhorn are allowed to erect billboards in the minority neighborhoods. Super-Pacs are allowed to spend millions on messages, with obvious effects on campaigns, while claiming they are not campaign messages.

The Bradley Foundation is HUGE and Covert

Michael W. Grebe president and chief executive of the Bradley Foundation, which during the period of 2001 to 2009, doled out nearly as much money as the seven Koch and Scaife foundations combined.

Less than a week after being elected governor, Scott Walker and his wife met privately with Michael Grebe, one of the most powerful philanthropic forces behind America’s conservative movement. The list of major recipients reads like an all-star roster of conservative think tanks: millions of dollars directed to well-known groups such as the Hudson Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, and the Federalist Society – all trying to put their stamp on three branches of government.WSJ Bradley Foundation Builds Conservative Empire

Grebe likened the Bradley Foundation to the 1960s Green Bay Packers, who ruled the football world with a fearsome ground game and a deceptively simple running play, the sweep.

“We’re going to run off tackle, right over there, and we’re telling you we’re going to run there and we’re going to knock you on your butt and carry the ball down the field,” Grebe said during an interview inside the foundation’s headquarters near downtown. “There are no surprises.”

Bradley Foundation jsonline

The Bradley Foundation is a “Philanthropic” Organization

As a tax exempt foundation the Bradley Foundation is not allowed to involve itself in political activities. So, how is it that the foundation’s money supports ideas, as well as political leaders like Scott Walker, who have turned those ideas into action, and have helped drive America’s conservative revolution over the past quarter-century?

Good question.

Taking Michael Grebe’s football analogy and running with it, the video below cries foul to the political activities of this tax exempt foundation and its president “Greedy Grebe”

Tax info? THE SECRET CANDIDATE Interviews?

For the first time in history a candidate with off shore secret money – and he’s getting away with it.

Mitt Romney is setting a dangerous precedent toward secrecy.

If Mitt Romney is elected on his own terms defined by refusing to reveal his long term tax returns and refusing to answer direct questions from the press, he will have succeeded in lowering by bar of transparency for all future candidates.

The established arrogance that exists in the corporate board room – where a CEO can choose who is allowed access to the inner sanctum, and what information will be released, may be the status quo for the business world, but it does not serve the purpose of transparency demanded for a democracy to function. The sharp shift toward secrecy demonstrated throughout Governor Romney’s campaign is a further bounce along the trend line set with the Citizen’s United Ruling that was a first step in making secret contributions to political candidates constitutional and legal. Romney is looking through his corporate glasses in his view of American Democracy and imposing a bend toward greater secrecy as exemplified in his refusal to reveal his tax returns, his off shore investments, and now, his refusal to give interviews to the press in the final days of the campaign.

Below is a quote from an article in “Vanity Fair” by By Nicholas Shaxson in which he points out the interesting, if not scandulous, instance of a presidential candidate in the United States, betting against the currency of the United States:

The media soon noticed Romney’s familiarity with foreign tax havens. A $3 million Swiss bank account appeared in the 2010 returns, then winked out of existence in 2011 after the trustee closed it, as if to remind us of George Romney’s warning that one or two tax returns can provide a misleading picture. Ed Kleinbard, a professor of tax law at the University of Southern California, says the Swiss account “has political but not tax-policy resonance,” since it—like many other Romney investments—constituted a bet against the U.S. dollar, an odd thing for a presidential candidate to do. The Obama campaign provided a helpful world map pointing to the tax havens Bermuda, Luxembourg, and the Cayman Islands, where Romney and his family have assets, each with the tagline “Value: not disclosed in tax returns.” (Reflected in the etch-a-sketch map above>Vanity Fair Article Not committing to one to one interviews The Romney campaign is not committing to granting any network interviews in the final two weeks of the campaign. Kevin Madden walked to the back of Romney’s plane Tuesday afternoon on the flight from Palm Beach to Las Vegas to talk about the debate. A television correspondent noted that President Barack Obama is sitting down with Brian Williams and Jay Leno this week and wondered if the Republican nominee will give an interview to a network. Politico Report

Romney Family Money Outside the United States 1. IRELAND Ann D. Romney Blind Trust held an interest in Goldman Sachs Liquid Reserves Fund and others VALUE: NOT KNOWN 2. BERMUDA The Ann D. Romney Blind Trust held interest in Bermuda company VALUE: NOT DISCLOSED IN TAX RETURNS 3. CAYMAN ISLANDS Ann D. Romney Blind Trust held interests in numerous investment partnerships. VALUE: NOT DISCLOSED IN TAX RETURNS 4. LUXEMBOURG Romney Family Trust held interests in Bain Capital and other funds. VALUE: NOT DISCLOSED IN TAX RETURNS 5. SWITZERLAND Bank Account, held approximately $3 million. VALUE: $3 MILLION 6. GERMANY Romney Family Trust interests in German private equity company. VALUE: NOT DISCLOSED IN TAX RETURNS 7. AUSTRALIA Romney Family Trust held interests in a propery managment company.’ VALUE: NOT DISCLOSED IN TAX RETURNS Source Mitt and Ann Romney Tax Returns 2010 and Romney Campaign Conference Call on Romney Tax Returns.

Big election about small things?

The “Big election” heading above is being used by Romney/Ryan on the campaign trail to enforce the idea that Obama is focused on minutia to hide his big failure. The move toward secrecy and managing a democratic system by the rules of the board room, is no small thing. It is a major shift toward plutocracy. The specific trail of secret, off shore investments in the column above are just so many “little things” that would place a real conflict of interest in the lap of the man sitting in the chair in the oval office. Romney’s policies promise to take the Citizen’s United ruling, that gave free reign to the wealthy to influence elections, and move the model of “corporations are people” into the oval office.

Make an ATTACK! Ad

Or at least, a phone call

It is only the beginning

The onslaught of commercials is coming like the wicked witch of the West on an F5 tornado to flatten and swirl every progressive and democratic principle, just as it did in the 2010 election to crush Russ Feingold under a house to give us Ron Johnson. It gave us Scott Walker, the Fitzgerald Brothers and turned the control of Congress over to the Koch Brothers.

It happened on the shortest day of the year. The Koch Bros. usurp the power of the House, the Senate, the President and the People of the United States.

The first message of the fringe right wing spin machine is directed at Democratic Senate Candidate Tammy Baldwin. The Citizens United ruling has turned Democracy on its ear, and allowed for an endless flow of money to be flushed into the toilet of deceit in the form of attack adds.

Only the Beginning

The ad above is produced and paid for, impart, by the the Wisconsin Manufactures and Commerce – Wisconsin’s Business Voice. © 2007 Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce
WMC Website

WMC aggressively opposed workplace regulations restricting employer communication
in union organizing drives and minimum wage hikes, as well as substantial business tax
hikes and liability expansions.

Its ads single-handedly got Annette Ziegler and Michael Gableman elected to the state Supreme Court – changed the court from a moderate body to an actively conservative, pro-corporate majority.

Eleven of WMC Board Member Businesses Paid No Corporate Income Taxes in 2003, 2004. Of the 25 companies in which corporate executives sat on WMC’s Board in 2003 and 2004, 11 paid no corporate income tax to Wisconsin. These include: Ariens, Associated Banc-Corp, Emerson, Greenheck Fan, Hutchinson Technologies, Market & Johnson, Serigraph, Snap-On, Manitowoc Company, Wausau Paper, and Webcrafters. This extends to national corporations operating in-state. In 2005, Microsoft, Merck, and Sears earned a combined $18 billion in profits – but paid absolutely nothing in Wisconsin corporate income tax. [Source: Institute for Wisconsin’s Future, 12/07/07] Wisconsin Watch

It Won’t Happen Again – Not this time.

After suffering through a year of the agenda that resulted from the last round of attack adds aired during the last election, when the people lost Russ Feingold and came close to losing Ron Kind, the people will not let it happen again.

Tod Taske is Chair of Milwaukee Manufactures and Commerce He is also chairman/president/CEO of Wauwatosa-based Briggs & Stratton Corporation For Further Information Contact: Kurt R. Bauer, (608) 258-3400

Dan Ariens is Vice Chair of Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce 655 West Ryan Street Brillion, Wisconsin 54110-0157 Phone: 920-756-4688 Fax: 920-756-2407

The first attack ad is now running.

It is only the beginning. How do you fight back against the onslaught of commercials that is coming like the wicked witch of the West on an F5 tornado, to flatten and swirl every progressive and Democratic principal and crush it beneath a house full of money? Make your own ATTACK add! – Or, at least, a phone call.