In my state of Wisconsin –
Wisconsin
Regulations, Wisconsin
Wisconsin’s anti-dumping laws hurt consumers
“A Michigan-based supermarket trying to expand into Wisconsin has come up against an absurd law against selling products at “unfairly low” prices. As reported by MLive, the Meijer grocery store chain is facing complaints that its grand opening sales violated Wisconsin law for offering products at prices below cost. Why is that bad?” ViaWisconsin’s Unfair…
Business, Crony Capitalism, Wisconsin
In Wisconsin, Walker’s Economics are Mostly Nixonian
Republicans who somehow – against all evidence – think that Scott Walker is a market-man should think again. There’s yet more evidence that his corporatist Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation isn’t merely rigging the market with public money, but rigging the market with public money while sending jobs overseas: ….27 News reported four more companies –…
Courts, Law, Liberty, Wisconsin
Federal Judge Barbara Crabb Overturns Ban on Same-Sex Marriages in Wisconsin (Court Ruling Embedded)
Crime, Law, Liberty, Wisconsin
No one who knows him has ever thought Gov. Walker of Wisconsin a libertarian
Here’s just another one of the reasons no one ever has: MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Gov. Scott Walker wants to spend $3 million to expand GPS tracking for some people on restraining orders and $6 million to collect DNA samples from everyone arrested for felonies. The expanded DNA collection Walker is proposing would also include…
Open Government, Public Records, Wisconsin
A Grinning Poster Boy for Closed Government
Gary Bies, R-Sister Bay, a member of Wisconsin’s Assembly majority, is doing what majorities of both major parties do: trying to limit knowledge of government’s action from their own constituents. Bies proposes to make open government that much more closed: A state Republican wants to allow government entities to charge members of the public…
History, Wisconsin
How Wisconsinites have kept the lights on
Presidential Race 2012, Wisconsin
Which Romney for Wisconsin?
In January, looking ahead to Wisconsin’s big political year, I thought that Gov. Walker would be recalled in June, and Gov. Romney would win both Wisconsin and the presidency in November. The first prediction was well off-the-mark. (Gov. Walker actually did better in 2012 than he did in 2010.) The November contest is yet ahead,…
U.S. Senate race, Wisconsin
The Baldwin-Thompson U.S. Senate Debate (9.28.12)
We’ve a competitive U.S. Senate race here in Wisconsin, between former Gov. Tommy Thompson and incumbent Rep. Tammy Baldwin. Recent polls show a Baldwin lead, but everyone in the state sees that this will be a close election on Nov. 6th. Here’s an assessment of this first debate, on overall impression, format, style, and substance.…
Food, Law, Liberty, Regulations, Wisconsin
Will Jury Nullification Be Only Hope for Wisconsin Raw Milk Farmer?
Jury nullification is lawful in Wisconsin, but one may not ask for it expressly: [Vernon] Hershberger’s fate may well hinge on whether jurors selected for that trial are willing to go along with a strategy raised earlier this year on the Farm-To-Consumer Legal Defense Fund. “A question that has been raised about the trial is:…
Agriculture, Food, Law, Liberty, Regulations, Wisconsin
Friday Poll: Raw (Organic) Milk
Wisconsin is prosecuting a dairy farmer, Vernon Hershberger, over his sale of raw milk. Hershberger is representing himself, and his effort to have the charges dismissed has been denied. Should organic milk sales be lawful in Wisconsin, America’s Dairyland? What do you think? Raw (Organic) Milk Poll
Law, Liberty, Wisconsin
The Right to Bargain with Government
It is a simple principle of liberty that any person, in any employ, should have the right to bargain peacefully with, and even against, his or her own government. No worldly thing is as powerful as the state: it alone possesses the right to tax and to arrest. No matter how influential other institutions may…
Elections, Liberty, Wisconsin
The Secular Call
Elections, Law, Wisconsin
Wisconsin General Recall Election Voting Rights
Wisconsin, Wisconsin Recall 2012
Are Kathleen Falk’s union backers the best thing that ever happened to rival Tom Barrett?
In the Wisconsin recall battle, could Tom Barrett have any better asset than the unions who favor Kathleen Falk over him? Nietzsche would say no: Any union criticism of theirs that doesn’t kill him actually makes him stronger. Falk trails the late-entering Barrett for the race to challenge Scott Walker, and she’s desperately willing to…
Free Speech, Law, Liberty, Politics, Wisconsin
The Place of Peace and Honesty
Is there a place where hundreds of thousands have protested, occupied their Capitol building, nearly a million later signing election petitions, without violence, at limited public costs, and without fraud? What spot of peace and honesty, integrity and democracy, is like that? Could there even be such a place, in all the world? There is.…