The folks at If It Was My Home created an amazing map that shows what the BP oil spill would look like in your backyard.

I knew the extent of the oil spill was massive, but seeing it mapped over Wisconsin really shocks. From Dubuque, Iowa, to Green Bay, Wisconsin, we’d be covered.

The Tea Partiers held a Tax Day demo at the Wisconsin state capital today. The local organizers said the crowd totaled 12,000. Seemed like a stretch. Much closer to 3000.

Tommy Thompson took the stage late in the rally. His face was as red as his tie. He was so fired up, I was worried he’d have a heart attack and we would see “ObamaCare” in action.

Rumors have been flying about the possibility of Tommy running against Russ Feingold this year. Much to the dismay of the people who chanted “Run, Tommy, Run,” he has decided not to. Like just about everyone else who spoke, he had a very pro-God ending.

I did speak to Terrence Wall, a local Madison developer, who is running against Feingold. He criticized Feingold, saying he’s been in office since 1982 and is now a career politician. “He hasn’t accomplished anything,” said Wall.

Wall said that his top priority is to get jobs started and rebuild confidence in the state, and “get government out of the way.”

I asked him, given what he said about the government being in the way, where he came down on civil liberties. Would he have voted for the Patriot Act? (Feingold was the only Senator to vote against it.)

Wall said he would have voted for the Patriot Act. It’s about “striking a balance” between security and rights. “I’m for civil liberties,” he said. “And they’re going after terrorists; they aren’t going after you and me.”

Well what about the No Fly Lists? “I had a friend who was on one of the those by mistake.”

Wall should be an easy target for Dems. Wall says he’s against taxes, and oh, is he ever. According to the Capital Times, “Wall has not paid personal state income taxes in nine of the past 10 years, according to the state Department of Revenue. That’s quite remarkable, as Wall is a son of privilege who has always enjoyed great wealth and whose real estate empire has, according to his own campaign spokesman, incurred tens of millions of dollars in tax obligations over the past five years.”

The Capital Times continues: “Let’s consider Feingold’s record. According to Department of Revenue figures, the senator paid net taxes between $6,000 and $9,400 each year from 1999 to 2008. So how come Russ Feingold pays more net taxes than Terrence Wall? That’s easy. Feingold’s one of the great mass of Americans who work hard, pay their taxes and try to abide by the rules. Wall’s one of the elite few who think that their money and position give them the privilege to write a special set of rules for themselves. Feingold thinks everyone should pay their fair share. Wall thinks that working Americans should pay their fair share — and his.”

Top Ten Signs at the Mad Tea Party:

“One Nation Under God, not Obama”
“Your dog has birth papers Do You Mr. President”
“First they ignore you . . . Then they laugh at you . . .then they try to fight you . . . then you win. –Gandhi”
“Cap your income and Trade your freedom”
“Chris Matthews needs a diaper change”
“Teach a man to fish and you lose a Democrat voter”
“On the eighth day, God created capitalism”
“Free markets not Free loaders”
“I will not grab my ankles”
“Social Justice sucks if you work hard”

There were some non-Tea Party people around too. A group of young women with glasses and short hair had signs that read “Giving tea a bad name.”

But the most ironic moment was hearing the organizers blaring Rage Against the Machine. Huh?

Every year Senator Russ Feingold holds listening sessions in all of Wisconsin’s 72 counties. Under dreary midwinter skies, two hundred people crowded into the Mazomanie Community Center in rural Dane County, Wisconsin, on February 22 to chat with their junior senator.

I caught up with Feingold before the session started. (In fact, I may have been the only member of the press there until Molly Stentz, news director at WORT-FM, Madison’s community radio station, showed up.)

The Progressive: What are you hearing at your other listening sessions?

Feingold: Most of the comments at 27 listening sessions already this year have been about health care, but not exclusively. People are asking about cap and trade, about government spending, but health care is still the biggest.

The Progressive: What’s your opinion on the recent Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United case?

Feingold: Terrible decision. One of the most lawless decisions in the history of this country and of the Supreme Court. It throws open our political process to huge corporations including foreign money. Unfortunately the only thing that basically is still standing is the McCain-Feingold bill that I wrote. But that’s not enough. That just has to do with direct contributions. This creates a massive transfer of power to large corporations. It’s a real threat to our democracy. In fact, I am noticing that people all across the political spectrum, other than apparently the Republican Party, agree that it’s a bad decision.

The Progressive: How will this affect your re-election campaign?

Feingold: I’m not concerned about that. I’ve been outspent every single time. That’s not the issue. The issue is the taking away of democracy from the average citizen.

The Progressive: What do you think of the Move to Amend group, the people who are organizing to change the Constitution to address issue of campaign contributions?

Feingold: I don’t think the way to do it is by amending the Bill of Rights. I oppose that and I think that’s unwise but I certainly understand the sentiment. The best thing to do is to get new justices, different justices, who will do the right thing. They completely ignored the judgment of the Supreme Court from two years ago. So, really, this is a lawless thing by people who pledged to follow precedent. I also am open to legislative changes that will help. But in the end we need these decisions reversed back again.

The Progressive: When will the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq end?

Feingold: Iraq is under way; it’s not as fast as I’d like, but it’s starting. And Afghanistan I’m very worried about. I think we’re moving in the wrong direction. I’m very concerned about that and we need to push hard against the [Obama] Administration on that particular thing.

It’s too bad that no television crews were around to capture this animated town hall. It was an older crowd, though some young women wearing bright pink T-shirts stood out in the back. Mazomanie lies about 45 minutes northwest of Madison, but that didn’t stop a contingent of AARP folks from the state’s capital from showing up.

Health care dominated the debate. Person after person stood up and talked about the dire need for reform. One woman said she was at the point where she had to choose between food and medicine. An unemployed architect was worried about COBRA running out. We need help now, he said, adding he was dipping into his 401(k) to pay for his insurance. Robin Transo runs a free clinic in Crawford County and she talked about the need for preventative care. Her clinic served 850 people last year and gave 450 kids access to dental care.

The majority of attendants supported single payer and asked the Senator to be a vocal advocate for it. Feingold said that he is fighting for public option in closed door meetings. “Frankly, something as big as this, we’re much better off if we’re bipartisan,” said Feingold. He admitted that single payer is a better option “but we don’t have the votes.”

A few people said it was time for the Democrats to “start playing tough,” which was met with applause. There’s a growing sentiment across the country that government can’t do anything, one guy said. Where is the push back from the Democrats?

“I do push back,” said Feingold. “And I’m not a big government guy. I think government should stay out of things unless it has to get in. But for me to have to listen to people who are on Medicare saying that ‘it’s terrible that the government wants to get involved in health care,’ and ‘don’t touch my Medicare,’ is absurd. That’s what we’ve had to put up with. And here’s the other thing I really find fascinating. People are saying they are so worried about big government. Where were these people for eight years when I was trying to point out the big government intrusion in our lives through the Patriot Act and warrantless wiretapping?” [more cheers]

“Why was there no interest in the abuses of big government then?” he asked. “When a government abuses its power and goes into areas it doesn’t need to belong in, I’ll be the first to call them on it. But I will defend the VA, I will defend Medicare, I will defend Social Security. There’s a serious proposal out there being endorsed by many Republicans, led by Paul Ryan, that saying anybody under 55 will no longer be eligible for Medicare and Social Security as a public program That is their agenda, honestly stated. And I disagree.”

While health care seemed to be on everyone’s mind at this listening session, people brought up other concerns, including the need for strong environmental protections, the plight of local dairy farmers, and unfair trade practices. When asked about President Obama’s commitment of $8 billion for new nuclear reactors, Feingold said he was “not a fan” of Obama’s position, noting that Wisconsin could be a disposal site for radioactive waste.

Dr. Gene Farley, 83, has been a staunch advocate for universal single-payer health care for decades. He asked the first question: “How do we get health care reform passed this time, even though it’s not necessarily the one I want? We have to have it.”

“I think single payer is much better than the current system. I don’t back off from saying that. But obviously we do not have the votes to do this now,” said Feingold. “Gene Farley is my test. If Gene Farely is willing to say we’re going to do something less than single payer, and he doesn’t want to say it, I’m going to say it too. I’m worried only a comprehensive system can actually provide the savings and controls that we need.”

I spoke to Dr. Farley afterward. “I’m a great admirer of Russ. I don’t always agree with him. I feel he’s very ethical,” said Farley. “Most of the time I support him. Sometimes I’d love to push him. His strength is he’s not always pushable; his weakness is he’s not always pushable. But he’s good.”

I asked him if he wanted health care legislation to pass. “Obviously I’m for single payer,” he said. “I feel strongly that we have to pass what’s there now. . . . If we can pass this bill, however incomplete it is—it has a lot of good things in it—then we get a building permit. Once you have a building permit you can start building and you can modify the blueprints as you go along and make improvements. My goal is the nearer single payer we get, the better. I want that building permit.”

As President Obama guarantees $8 billion in loans to build the first U.S. nuclear power plant in nearly three decades, states are getting into the act, too.

Here in Wisconsin, nuclear power is tucked into state legislation called the Clean Energy Jobs Act.

“About 95% of the bill is great. The major portion of the bill talks about setting the first ever energy efficiency standards for Wisconsin and also boosting the use of renewable energy sources in the state,” says Diane Farsetta, the Carbon Free, Nuclear Free campaign coordinator with the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice.

“The problem is it would also gut the protections that we have had on the books for twenty-five years.”

Currently, Wisconsin law says that new nuclear reactors can’t be built here unless there is a federally licensed repository to permanently store the toxic radioactive waste that nuclear reactors produce. That type of facility doesn’t exist, so radioactive waste is piling up at the two working and one defunct nuclear reactor sites. Changing this law could allow more nuclear waste to pile up.

The Clean Energy Jobs Act is based on recommendations of the Governor’s global warming task force. “Here in Wisconsin giving support to new nuclear reactors is a way to get Republican votes,” says Farsetta. “It’s a political gamble. It’s not based on the science, it’s not based on the actual merits of this power source.”

“The people who are crafting the bill thought, hey, maybe we can get some votes that we wouldn’t get otherwise, if we add that language in there,” she says. “We’re saying, that’s not good enough. That’s not good enough to put communities across the state at risk to becoming de facto nuclear waste dump sites.”

Farsetta says there’s no need to pretend we have to choose between building more coal plants or building new nuclear reactors. Renewable energy costs are decreasing while storage systems for renewable power are becoming stronger.

“Nuclear power is just a dangerous and costly distraction from doing that,” says Farsetta.

On Tuesday February 23, the Carbon Free, Nuclear Free campaign is organizing a lobby day at the state capitol. Proponents of the bill hope it will pass by Earth Day.

“We have a window of opportunity now,” Farsetta says. She encourages people to call their representatives and say I’m really glad Wisconsin is considering a bill about climate change, but the nuclear power language needs to be taken out of it.

For more information contact the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice Carbon Free, Nuclear Free campaign at http://www.wnpj.org/cfnf.

This past Sunday goes down as a great day for biking in Madison. From 8 am to 2 pm, Madison closed off major avenues to cars, and opened up a whole new public space.

Dangerous intersections became car-free zones. Art projects clogged the streets. Cyclists, and at least one skeptical skateboarder, owned six lanes of traffic rather than the measly strip of concrete between moving cars and parked cars or the curb.

It was our first ciclovia!

Bogotá, Colombia, is often credited with starting ciclovias, which means “bike path” in Spanish. Every Sunday more than 70 miles of Bogotá’s streets are off limits to cars from 7am to 2pm. The city of Madison marked off 6 miles, including the scenic John Nolen Drive, which lies between Monona Bay and Lake Monona.

Shakespeare, as in Robbie Shakespeare, of Sly and Robbie fame, rocked the Barrymore Theater on June 10. Sly and Robbie have been the backbone of Jamaican reggae for more than thirty years. But their influence is felt worldwide.

According to Allmusic.com, “Their rhythms have been the driving force behind innumerable songs — one statistician estimated that together they’ve played on approximately 200,000 tracks, and that doesn’t count remixes, versions, and dubs. As a production team, the pair has been the equivalent of a creative storm, the cutting edge of modern dub, ragga, and dancehall.”

They’ve played on and produced albums for a variety of artists including Bob Dylan, Grace Jones, Bunny Wailer, Ben Harper, No Doubt, Serge Gainsbourg, the Rolling Stones, Gilberto Gil, and Carlos Santana.

Sly Dunbar was on drum kit and Robbie bounced the heavy bass lines, with a top-notch back-up band. (The rhythm guitarist bore a striking resemblance to Nelson Mandela, which was kinda cool.)

They started out playing “Liquidator Dub,” which is the opening track to their excellent album “Masters of Dub.”

For people unfamiliar with the genre, dub music is a form of reggae that features a throbbing bass and drums sound. Often older tunes are remixed into a dub style. So, for example, “Liquidator Dub” is a remix of the 1969 hit, “The Liquidator,” with lots of echoes and reverb.

And it’s this remixing that Sly and Robbie are so good at. Unlike other reggae bands, Sly and Robbie take old songs and make them sound fresh. I saw Stephen Marley, scion of Bob Marley, a few months ago at the same venue and was disappointed by the weak Bob Marley medley Stephen threw in. Sure, the audience expected it, but did it seem stale.

Sly and Robbie drew from reggae hits from the past and performed current ones, too. They played a pared down version of “Welcome to Jamrock,” a recent hit by Damian Marley (another progeny of Bob Marley).

And when Robbie sang the old dancehall tune, “You Don’t Love Me (No, No, No),” I wanted to melt. It’s one of my favorite songs, ever. And to see it performed live by the Masters of Dub was truly memorable.

Robbie looked like a samurai, dressed in a long, black sleeveless coat hanging over his jeans and sneakers. He wielded his bass like a sword. I could feel the bass line in my chest. As a friend said, he could play the same note for 100 measures in a row and still make it sound interesting.

Sly Dunbar was amazing on drums. It resonated on the dance floor.

After nearly 2 hours of groove, the band bid farewell. Robbie was the last one on stage. He sang and played a long meandering solo on his guitar. He left the stage while still playing his bass.

After all these years, they didn’t dial it in. They even came to the lobby and smiled for photographs. I happened to be right there at the merch table and snagged an autograph.

I was one of fifty or so hungry bicyclists who lined up at a makeshift commuter station that was set up on the bike path on Lake Monona this morning. The draw? Free bacon.

It’s Bike to Work Week here in Madison. Events are happening all over town, with inducements that range from morning treats to after work happy hours. A few local businesses, including Planet Bike and Just Coffee, sponsored this morning’s commuter station, which was

photo by newlow

stocked with bacon, coffee, fresh fruit, bakery, and bike repair. How cool is that?

At lunchtime I wandered over to the farmers’ market and found another Bike to Work Week event at the cement park in front of an ugly state office building. Machinery Row workers were on hand to fix people’s bikes.

Courtney Klaus, who works for the Department of Natural Resources, was taking advantage of the opportunity. She was getting her brakes looked at.

Klaus is a fan of Bike to Work Week. “It’s great. I’m an all-year-round bicyclist, but I enjoy hearing my co-workers talk about it,” she told me. “My boss rode to work for the first time yesterday and he liked it. He’s going to try it again-and he lives in Verona.” (That’s quite a haul–around 10 miles away.)

“It’s really good for bike advocacy,” she added, “especially when they fix your bike.”

We need more advocacy for bicycling these days. In early June, GOP Representatives John Boehner and Eric Cantor proposed to end funding for many bicycle projects. The GOP wants to cut the Safe Routes to Schools program, which helps kids learn basic bike safety rules. The Republicans want to kill a program that pay for crossing guards, bike paths, and new sidewalks. We can fund never-ending wars in Afghanistan and Iraq but teaching our kids how to bike to school breaks our budget?

Andy Clarke, President of the League of American Bicyclists, says this attack on bicycling and walking is “short-sighted and out of touch with reality.”

Even here in Wisconsin we have to fight for crumbs. For the first time, $5 million has been added to the state’s transportation budget specifically designated for bicycle projects. That may sound like a lot of cash-until you realize this amount accounts for less than 1/10 of 1% of the state’s proposed $6.5 billion transportation budget.

According to the Bike Federation of Wisconsin, Wisconsin currently ranks nearly last in total dollars spent on bicycle infrastructure, even though bicycling is a $1.6 billion industry in the state. The Bike Fed points out that “40% of all trips made by automobiles are two miles or less. Improved bicycle infrastructure alleviates congestion, eases wear on existing roadways and reduces pollution.”

Biking is good for the Earth and it’s good for the soul. Now about that bacon . . .

One of the most pernicious effects of the U.S. government’s commitment to militarism is a toxic landscape. Current legislation pending in the House, H.R. 672, the Military Environmental Responsibility Act, would force the military to comply with environmental and public safety laws.

Photo from CSWAB

“The Department of Defense and Department of Energy have not been held to the same environmental standards as everyone else, and as a result the military continues to be the nation’s biggest polluter,” says Laura Olah, executive director of Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger (CSWAB).

Olah knows a lot about military pollution. She and her neighbors in rural Wisconsin discovered their drinking water wells were polluted with high levels of carcinogenic solvents. Fifty years of weapons manufacturing from the nearby Badger Army Ammunitions Plant had poisoned groundwater, contaminating wells more than a mile away.

This tenacious bunch of citizens has been fighting to get the Department of Defense to clean up after itself for nearly twenty years.

“The bill will help leverage cleanup at the local Army base which should have been completed years ago,” says Olah. “The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and EPA finalized enforceable cleanup orders more than a decade ago but the biggest contaminated site at Badger still hasn’t been touched.”

“Explosives, mercury, solvents, and other toxins that pose a risk to both human health and the wildlife are still found at unsafe levels in surface soil and with the years of delayed cleanup, these contaminants have migrated to surface water and to groundwater, polluting nearby rural drinking water wells,” she adds. “Demanding a complete and comprehensive cleanup will ensure that future generations will not be burdened with the legacy of pollution from Badger.”

CSWAB is part of a national coalition of affected communities and organizations that are supporting this federal legislation. H.R. 672 seeks to eliminate military waivers to key environmental laws such as the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, and the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

H.R. 672 would “require the Department of Defense and all other defense-related agencies of the United States to fully comply with Federal and State environmental laws, including certain laws relating to public health and worker safety, that are designed to protect the environment and the health and safety of the public, particularly those persons most vulnerable to the hazards incident to military operations and installations, such as children, members of the Armed Forces, civilian employees, and persons living in the vicinity of military operations and installations.”

On June 5, World Environment Day, CSWAB and other coalition members organized a national call-in day to increase the number of Congressional co-sponsors.

Representative Bob Filner, Democrat of California, introduced the Military Environmental Responsibility Act on January 26, 2009. As for April 18, there were only five co-sponsors:
Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ)
Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA)
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA)
Rep. Michael Honda (D-CA)
Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)

This isn’t the first time these groups have worked together on this issue. The coalition sent a letter to the White House, organized by Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger, expressing support for H.R. 672 back in March.

The letter states, “Unregulated military projects have placed countless communities, workers, soldiers, and families at increased risk for cancer and other deadly disease from exposure to military toxins–the hidden casualties here at home. Even as we write this letter, contamination caused by munitions production, testing, and disposal is poisoning our drinking water wells, contaminating the air we breathe, destroying our lakes, rivers, and fisheries, and polluting our soils and farmlands.”

Olah is optimistic that the legislation will eventually pass.

“Independent reviews by the Government Accountability Office have shown that environmental compliance does NOT interfere with the military’s ability to do its job,” she says. “As taxpayers, we are paying for thousands of military cleanups like the Badger Army Ammunition Plant, which alone may ultimately cost more than $200 million. The bill is not only in the best interest of the health of our soldiers, civilian workers, neighboring communities and families–it’s in the best interest of our pocketbooks.”

Weird, huh? Had to take a closer look. Guess what’s inside–mulch!

Providers of low-income housing that are fighting to keep their tax-exempt status organized a rally and mini-tent city at the Capitol in Madison yesterday. About 100 people gathered at lunchtime under beautiful sunny skies.

Organizer Dean Loumos, executive director of Housing Initiatives, said that by not guaranteeing tax-exempt status, the legislature will make  “affordable housing unaffordable, which increases homelessness.”

Increased homelessness is the latest in a string of Wisconsin woes.

“According to the city’s Community Development Block Grant office, the estimated homeless population increased 17 percent in 2008 to more than 7,500,” reports WISC-TV. “Officials said that the number of people served by county shelters rose 13.5 percent, but shelters turned away more than 3,600 people—a 22-percent increase. The number of children in homeless shelters also rose 55 percent, which is the highest level in a decade.”

And 2009 looks like it could be worse: The Bureau of Labor Statistics says Wisconsin has lost a record number of jobs in the first three months of the year. The Bureau of Labor Statistics report says Wisconsin companies cut more than 14,200 jobs in the first quarter.

Barb Lindsay, director of social services at Salvation Army in Dane County, told WISC-TV that, “People are coming in. They had jobs, they don’t have jobs now or they just can’t get a job. It’s getting harder and harder,” she said.

So why create policies that will lead to an increase in homelessness now? People are having a tough time as it is. And it’s the most vulnerable people who will end up homeless.

“One of the biggest reasons people with disabilities have been forced into institutions is the lack of affordable housing,” said a wheelchair-bound Steve Verriden of Wisconsin Adapt, a disabled-rights activist group, reports Isthmus. “They’re taking away one of the only tools we have left.”

Loumos and his crew of “citizen lobbyists” planned on speaking to elected officials after the rally. “We don’t have the suits. We don’t have big checkbooks,” Loumos told the crowd. “And they’re not going to get a dime from us. We’re not going to give them nothing to ask them to do what’s right.”