Category: Politics

Senate Passes Big Corporate Giveaway: Feingold Yes; Kohl “Present”

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Tax law sausage making for the donor class. Wouldn’t we all like a 5.25% tax rate! Jonathan Weisman takes a look:

The Senate gave final approval today to the most significant corporate tax legislation in nearly 20 years, sending President Bush a sprawling, 650-page measure that closes egregious tax loopholes, reduces taxes for domestic producers and doles out scores of tax breaks for interests ranging from tackle box makers to Native Alaskan whaling captains.
The Senate vote of 69 to 17, taken in a rare holiday session, belied the acrimony underlying the measure, which includes almost $140 billion in tax breaks over 10 years, offset by loophole closures and other revenue raisers. The House passed it Thursday night by a similarly comfortable margin, 280 to 141, and Bush is expected to sign it into law.

HR 4520 Roll Call Vote
I frankly am amazed that Senator Feingold voted for this. Senator Kohl took an interesting path voting present (?)….. Politics. Send your comments to campaign@russfeingold.org or Senator Kohl
Interestingly and appropriately, Tammy Baldwin voted against this bill.
All the web | Clusty | Google | Teoma | Yahoo | David Welna Audio

A look at 527 Groups

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Financial Data on 527 Groups
Section 527 political organization must file Form 8872 quarterly with the IRS listing their contributions received and expenditures. OpenSecrets.org has mined these IRS filings and produced a wonderful web site with helpful lists, including:

Forms 8872 filed by ? 527 groups are searchable on the IRS web site. Here are the most recent Forms 8872 filed by some of the “major players” in the 2004 election on both sides of the aisle:

Democrat-Backed Groups:

  • America Coming Together
  • America Votes
  • Billionaires for Bush
  • Media Fund
  • MoveOn.org Voter Fund
  • Sierra Club Voter Education Fund

    • Republican-Backed Groups:

  • Club for Growth
  • Leadership Forum
  • Progress for America Voter Fund
  • Swift Boat Veterans for Truth
  • Taxpayers for Conservative Government

    • For further web commentary, see PLI’s How Fast Can A Swift Boat MoveOn? Election 2004 And The 527 Groups and Corporate Political Activities 2004: Complying with Campaign Finance, Lobbying & Ethics Laws.

    Via Taxprof

    Publicly financed Stadiums: Dallas says no to a giveaway

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    Gary Cartwright:

    THE POSSIBLE RETURN OF THE DALLAS COWBOYS to their 1960 birthplace at Fair Park seemed so right that you just knew it was going to go wrong. Until the Cowboys moved to an Irving freeway intersection in 1971, they were Dallas’s team?all of Dallas, not just the rich suburbs?and certainly not America’s team. But with the announcement in August that the team’s new home would be Arlington, which isn’t even in Dallas County, the dream died, doomed by the laws of physics: the collision of an irresistible force like Cowboys owner Jerry Jones with an immovable object like Dallas mayor Laura Miller and the political inertia that resulted.

    I applaud UW Grad and current Dallas Mayor Laura Miller’s realistic position on this. Quite different than the local Miller Park fiasco….. Background links: Alltheweb | Clusty | Google | Teoma | Yahoo

    Why Spend taxpayer $’s when we don’t Capitalize on what we have now?

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    WTN’s recently released report [5.6MB PDF]includes these highlights:


    • Academic research and development activities in Wisconsin total about $883 million in the latest year. That includes the UW System, the Medical College of Wisconsin, other private colleges and universities, the Marshfield Clinic?s research arm and the research programs of the Veterans Administration hospitals.
    • Academic R&D is responsible for more than 31,000 jobs, directly and indirectly, in Wisconsin. That is according to an economic multiplier used by the U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Association of American Universities.
    • Academic R&D represents an area where Wisconsin performs well versus other states in attracting federal dollars. Wisconsin is 15th nationally, even without the inclusion of the Marshfield Clinic and the Veterans Hospitals.
    • Academic R&D in Wisconsin has continued to grow, even as the economy retrenched in 2000-2003. In the last year alone, for example, R&D conducted in the UW System grew by $47.5 million.
    • Academic R&D in Wisconsin could be at risk unless state support for the infrastructure supporting such research is maintained. Other states are investing in their infrastructure because they believe it makes sound economic sense.

    The report contains these recommendations:



    • The governor and Legislature should continue to invest in capital improvement programs such as BioStar and HealthStar, which leverage the assets of the UW-Madison and help to create spinout companies and jobs.
    • The governor and Legislature should begin, in the 2005-2007 state budget, the process of restoring state support for UW System operations. Although many states have experienced similar budget difficulties, the erosion in the UW budget has been relatively steady for years and cannot continue if the state wants to protect its investment.
    • The governor and Legislature should create a Wisconsin Innovation and Research Fund to help secure federal and corporate grants by providing small matching grants to UW System and private college faculty who collaborate with business on R&D.
    • The UW-Madison, the Medical College of Wisconsin and the Marshfield Clinic should re-examine already strong collaborative research relationships to look for more opportunities to joint attract research funding and conduct science. Incentives to conduct inter-institution and interdisciplinary research should be established. This is similar to an approach being followed in Minnesota, where the University of Minnesota and the Mayo Clinic have recently announced joint initiatives.
    • The governor and the Legislature should establish a commission, similar to the Michigan Commission on Higher Education and Economic Growth, to explore other options and to more deliberately track ?best practices? in other states.

    Judy Newman interviewed local scientists, along with other interested parties.
    I continue to believe the primary issue for us is not money, rather risk taking. We’ve certainly spent a great deal of academic research, only to see WARF license the technology to firms such as California based Geron, among other non Wisconsin entities.
    These licensing activities beg the usual question: why should the taxpayers continue to pay when the fruits go elsewhere, similar to the long time discussion of our brain drain (two of my four UW roommates are in Colorado and California….)?
    My View: Why spend more taxpayer money when we don’t capitalize on what we have now! I can’t imagine yet another government level technology council….
    UPDATE: Tom Still (Report Editor and President of the WTN) sent me a followup email:

    Jim — Thank you! It’s good to get the information out and let people debate how to set priorities. I appreciate your thoughtful approach.
    — Tom

    Send him yours: tstill at wisconsintechnologycouncil.com

    Shanghai American School Turns over N. Korean Refugees to the Chinese

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    Rebecca MacKinnon:

    The human rights activist website Chosun Journal has information about eight North Korean refugees who entered the Shanghai American School on Monday, Sept. 27, and were subsequently handed over to the Chinese police.
    The original account is here. Full text is also continued below.
    Will the U.S. media report this incident? Did the school do the right thing? Could they have done otherwise and not gotten in trouble with the Chinese authorities? Will Americans be outraged? What would you do if North Korean refugees sought asylum in your school which was clearly not on embassy grounds?
    There ought to be a public discussion about what Americans living abroad who care about human rights should do in such situations, and what U.S. consulates will or won?t do to help them.