Ed Garvey, Wisconsin Progressive, labor attorney, Director of the NFL Players Association, and Democratic leader died this morning at a Verona nursing home. He was 76. He had been battling Parkinson's disease, which led to his retirement in 2013.

TUCSON, AZ - Ed Garvey, the friend of many, the leader of "what could have been" and a good man has died and I am saddened.

When he and Barbara Lawton ran for governor and lt. governor in 1998, they were a fantastic team that offered hope and moxie to the people of WI. But big money talks. Gov. Thommy Thompson was running for his fourth term and as the ALEC (Am. Legislative Exchange Council) representative in the race, Thompson had most of the money.

Schools and local governments were already being financially strangled and local control had disappeared with the 1993 cost controls to rein in unions and stop local spending.

Here we are decades later and local control has been killed along with public unions. Barbara and Ed were right. We could have and still can create a WI good for families and the environment but not under Gov. Walker, a dour ALEC replay in some respects of Thompson.

I will not forget Ed in the drizzle.

US Rep Dennis Kucinich was running for president in the WI primary and Ed and I invited him to speak in Madison. The rally is set up at the small private airport in Madison early in the evening. A good crowd waited. Kucinich's plane is late. We had a speaker's platform set up, it's getting dark, looks like rain. I ask Ed to talk to take up time. Plane lands, drizzle starts, ends up Kucinich is exhausted, needs to eat, and we find some one to go get a vegan dinner while he rests!

I go back outside and get Ed's attention. I ask, "Can you speak some more while they get Dennis rested and fed?" Ed says "I already talked for 20 minutes," goes back to the mic and explains what is going on, laughs and says something like Buzz wants to know if I can speak some more. Crowd laughs, we held the media there, Kucinich gave a great speech and made the news.

Oh, Ed, you could talk, think, had no fear and you gave hope! Thank you! Your were and are an inspiration to many! You fought for progressive ideals for decades as we have to do now.

http://newiprogressive.com/images/stories/S5/union-workers-s5.jpgBill would expand overtime pay to 80,000 middle class workers.

http://newiprogressive.com/images/stories/S5/road-wi-flood-washout-s5.jpgWalker’s 2017-19 Capital Budget proposal funds just more than 50 percent (53.5%) of the level in the 2009-11 budget, increasing transportation debt and setting our state further behind.

http://newiprogressive.com/images/stories/S5/walker-20150924-s5.jpgSen. Kathleen Vinehout writes about the “Reform Dividend” Gov. Walker first highlighted in his budget address and whether it is real. She adds the findings of her research, including a comparison of Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Wisconsinites need a Supreme Court Justice who will defend working people, not an extremist Judge who will roll over in deference to the destructive agenda of President Donald Trump.

MADISON - On the occasion of the dates for Judge Neil Gorsuch's confirmation hearings being announced, Wisconsin elected officials held a press call yesterday to highlight their concerns with Judge Gorsuch’s judicial record, thank Senator Tammy Baldwin for her bold leadership on behalf of Wisconsinites, and call upon Senator Ron Johnson to oppose the confirmation of Judge Gorsuch. These Wisconsin elected officials made it crystal clear: Wisconsinites need a Supreme Court Justice who will defend working people, not an extremist Judge like Neil Gorsuch who will roll over in deference to the destructive agenda of President Donald Trump.

"Supreme Court nominations are among the most consequential decisions a president makes. Justices can sit on the bench for decades, and their interpretations of our constitution can affect the day-to-day lives of our American neighbors for years to come," Senator Chris Larson stated, "the people of Wisconsin deserve an independent Supreme Court Justice who will stand up for them over powerful special interests ... On a range of fundamental issues, from sex discrimination to worker safety, [Judge Gorsuch] has refused to let ordinary people have their day in court."

"I too am deeply disturbed by Neil Gorsuch’s record. In particular, I’m disturbed by his decision in the Hobby Lobby case," said Dane County Supervisor Jenni Dye, "When a woman makes a decision about using birth control, that shouldn’t have anything to do with her boss’ opinions. She should have the right to make that decision for herself and her family. But for Neil Gorsuch, it’s the employer’s religious beliefs, and not the woman, that matters."

"Given what we’ve seen and heard from President Trump in the past few weeks, I think it’s more important than ever that we have a Supreme Court that can be an independent check on this president," added Representative Daniel Riemer. "Donald Trump has made clear that he wants judges who will rubber stamp his extreme, unconstitutional agenda. We should all be deeply worried that that’s exactly what he found in Neil Gorsuch. Remember: Supreme Court Justices serve for life. And we need people on the court who will stand up for our Constitution."

The platforms created by both the Republican and Democratic Parties last year are excessively wordy campaign advertisements with nothing enduring or permanent to say. Neither is likely to satisfy the strong yearning Americans have for a government that serves them for the benefit of all.

ALTOONA, WI - For one week a year, party platforms are relevant . . . to a few thousand people who are delegates to their party’s convention. More than 300 million other Americans pay them no mind that week or any other. The Sunday morning TV news programs don’t examine them. The radio talk show hosts don’t discuss them. After all the balloons and confetti have dropped and the conventions have broken up, even party insiders stop paying any attention to their own platforms. Candidates don’t follow them. Neither do elected office holders as they conduct the public’s business. Anyone willing to actually read the major party platforms can see why.

Reading the platforms is a painful exercise. They are dreadfully long. Page after page induces the gag reflex. They are excessively wordy campaign advertisements aimed at influencing who knows who. What becomes clear as you plow through them is that there is nothing enduring or permanent about them. They really are scaffolds, not platforms.

The Republican scaffold drones on for nearly 60 pages and in it the party declares itself the “Great Opportunity Party.” It takes repeated swipes at President Obama, insisting that for “the past 8 years America has been led in the wrong direction” but making no acknowledgement that Republicans held a majority of seats in Congress and controlled most of the nation’s statehouses for nearly that entire time.

The authors boast the document “lays out — in clear language — the path to making America great and united again.” It goes on to call for everything from “protection against an electromagnetic pulse” to “confronting Internet tyranny.” There’s a section on Africa that touts “AIDS relief under PEPFAR” without explanation. There is a reference to the “Dodd-Frank law, the Democrats’ legislative Godzilla” with no description of what the law is or does or fails to do. In another whack at Obama, it refers to the “Solyndra debacle” and assumes readers remember what that was.