Blogging Blue

I don’t ordinarily brag about how great my family is - but rest assured, they’re positively phenomenal - but I wanted to take a minute to brag about my stepdaughter Alexis. Alexis was one of three students chosen to give demonstrations at Summerfest on behalf of her dojo, and she did a great job. There’s a few pictures after the break:

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Recently it was my pleasure to have the opportunity to sit down and chat with Glen Brower, the Democratic candidate running against Rep. Mark Honadel in Wisconsin’s 21st Assembly District. Upon meeting and speaking with Mr. Brower, I was struck by two things: his obvious passion for serving the public as well as his desire to fundamentally change the way our state government works.

Our interview started with the question all candidates should be able to answer without hesitation: “Why are you running for office?” When asked the question, Brower responded that he was running for the Assembly because he was outraged at the course our nation and our state had taken in recent years, and he noted he wanted to make an impact on the issues affecting Wisconsinites as a member of the State Assembly. Brower also noted his lifetime of service, both as a member of the United States Army and as a public servant, and he stated he wanted to continue to serve the public and contribute to the community as a member of the Assembly.

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I’ve spent a little bit of time here talking about Senator John McCain’s numerous flip-flops throughout his Presidential campaign. First there was the flip-flop on negotiating with terrorists, then there was the flip-flop on how soon he’d bring troops home from Iraq, just to name a couple of the many issues on which John McCain has changed his position. Courtesy of YouTube and Caffeinated Politics comes this “mix tape” of John McCain’s best flip-flops:

Considering how much conservatives attacked Senator John Kerry during the last Presidential election for all his supposed flip-flops, I hope those same folks will now show some consistency and attack John McCain for his multitude of flip-flops.

Given the prevalence of YouTube and other mediums for preserving comments made by politicians, you’d think John McCain’s folks would be a little more savvy when giving him his talking points, because it’s just a matter of time before these constant flip-flops start getting reported by the mainstream media, which up until this point has largely ignored the extent to which John McCain has attempted to reinvent himself through these flip-flops in order to make himself more palatable to the Republican base.

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Despite his previous comments that he doesn’t know much about the economy, Republican Presidential nominee John McCain really wants the American people to believe he’s the best man to get our nation’s lagging economy back on track. He’s touted his record on pork barrel spending, and he’s said he’ll cut government spending, but it’s interesting to me that a man who can’t even pay his own taxes on time wants to be in charge of getting our economy back on track. Apparently Mrs. McCain owns a number of properties, including a condominium in La Jolla, California, and for the past four years taxes on that property haven’t been paid:

San Diego County officials, it turns out, have been sending out tax notices on the La Jolla property, an oceanfront condo, for four years without receiving a response. County records show the bills, which were mailed to a Phoenix address associated with Mrs. McCain’s trust, were returned by the post office.

It’s interesting that it took a Newsweek article to get the McCains to stop being scofflaws and pay their property taxes, but what even more interesting is the fact that Mrs. McCain didn’t even pay the full balance on her taxes:

County officials say the trust still owes an additional $1,742 for this year, an amount that is overdue and will go into default July 1.

By itself, this could be chalked up as an honest mistake, but let’s not forget the McCains also have more than $100,000 in credit card debt, a fact that sharply contrasts with Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama, who reported no liabilities and college saving of between $100,00 and $250,000 for each of his daughters. I don’t know about you, but I prefer having the guy who pays his taxes and bills while saving money for his kids at the same time help get the economy back on track as President.

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There’s been a lot of controversy recently about the possibility of a Wal-Mart being placed on the site of the failed IcePort development in Cudahy’s downtown area. The Mayor of Cudahy, Ryan McCue, is the subject of a recall effort after voting against allowing the Wal-Mart in Cudahy, despite his previously stated opposition to putting a taxpayer-subsidized Wal-Mart in Cudahy:

I do not think that the City of Cudahy should provide a $12 million tax subsidy to the world’s biggest retailer. Residents may not even see the tax benefits from the development for 20 years.

Throughout the controversy, websites have popped up both in support of the Wal-Mart and and in opposition to it, and there have been a lot of myths, half-truths and outright lies that have been told. Putting aside the issue of whether or not a Wal-Mart in Cudahy would be subsidized by Cudahy’s taxpayers - which I believe it would - there’s still the issue of Wal-Mart’s proven track record of trying to avoid paying its fair share of property taxes:

The Cudahy taxpayers have also been told that Cudahy can rely on Wal-Mart re-paying for this taxpayer subsidy of over $1000 per Cudahy family with the “new taxes” that will be paid by Wal-Mart in the future. First, at the present tax rates it will take Wal-Mart over 30 years before they would even pay off the existing Municipal Bond debt, let alone pay for the fire, police and other services provided by the City. Remember, their Menomonee Falls store did not even last that long, and closed after only 15 years. Second, the citizens of Tomah, Wisconsin also got similar promises from Wal-Mart just a few years ago when they subsidized a new Wal-Mart Distribution Center for multi-millions of tax dollars in their city. The ink on that agreement between Wal-Mart and the City of Tomah had barely dried when, after just a few years, Wal-Mart sued and won a $949,000 property tax refund from the City and a 25% reduction in future tax bills. Wal-Mart did not care that Tomah taxpayers would have an additional 20+ years of payments due on those Municipal Bonds issued for just that Wal Mart development.

For more information on the lengths Wal-Mart has gone to in order to dodge paying its fair share of taxes, click this link.

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