Stay classy, Sarah Palin!

No wonder Charlie Sykes et al like Sarah Palin so much. She's the kind of gal who'll chuckle along as some talk radio thugs call Alaska state senate leader Lyda Green -- a Republican and a cancer survivor -- a "bitch," a "cancer"and, for good measure, make a fat joke.

via Sadly, No!



Truly, this performance is the sort of thing that should win over independent women voters and disaffected Hillary supporters. Did I mention that women appear more skeptical of Palin than menfolk do? Perhaps they don't feel as energized by the pick as callers to Charlie's show.

Sarah Palin's classy performance brings to mind someone else...Oh yeah, her putative boss.

Sykes: Palin will reform the GOP...

…as for the country, umm, I’m guess they’ll get back to us on that one:

Democrats repeatedly and forcefully tried to frame the campaign's narative as a rejection of four more years of George W. Bush. By choosing Sarah Palin Mccain (sic) is signalling (sic) his own counter-narrative: Reform.

Take out Palin's gender and you have a compelling Mr. (Mrs.) Smith Goes to Washington story. The Wall Street Journal calls it a Reform ticket designed to transform the GOP brand.

Take out the typos, and what you’re left with is this: Sarah Palin, according to Sykes and the Wall Street Journal, is a good choice for the Republican Party.

And while I certainly think the GOP is in need of reform, it seems doubtful that most Americans will reward the party’s sudden self-awareness by putting Palin a heartbeat away from the presidency.

Note--Blogger seems determined to fix Sykes' spelling errors.

Cross posted at Pundit Nation.

Capper’s away…

…at the castle.

Does anyone know where he hides the key to the liquor cabinet?

Sykes: Palin not ready to be president

“Brilliant!” Charlie Sykes declared after news leaked of McCain tapping Sarah Palin as his veep.

Later in the show he asked, rhetorically, whether she’s ready to be president.

Somebody's asking me, "Charlie, are you seriously arguing that Sarah Palin is ready to be president?"And I'll be honest with you. The answer is no. No she's not. Which is why she's not running for president. Will she be pres--... will she be ready to be president in four years? THe answer is yeah, I think she will.

(About a third of the way through the podcast, while talking to "Julie.")

And with that, Charlie takes experience off the table as an issue in the race. Because Charlie is saying that it's perfectly fine for McCain to pick someone who's not ready for the big job to be one heartbeat away from the big job. Apparently Charlie blithely assumes that a President McCain would emerge from a four year term in sound mind and body. McCain's a fit guy. But no one lives forever, particularly 72-year-olds who've had cancer four times.

As rabid left winger David Frum puts it:

But question: If it were your decision, and you were putting your country first, would you put an untested small-town mayor a heartbeat away from the presidency?

And the cries that "she has executive experience" are to laugh. Quick: Which do you think is a more difficult undertaking? Running the quasi-socialist state of Alaska (a state with fewer people than Milwaukee) during a time of peak oil prices or mounting an insurgent candidacy to beat a dominant front runner? Oh, and she drove that little town she ran as mayor into a fiscal ditch.

And while Charlie like to say that "the world is a dangerous place" and Obama's foreign policy is naive at least Obama has positions. You try to track down Palin's positions and you get a big 404.

Meanwhile. she's got her own troopergate scandal, she drove the hamlet she ruled as mayor into a fiscal ditch and she was in favor of the bridge to nowhere before she got inspired by REFORM (and national ridicule and a lack of fed funds) and decided to kill it.

Update: Four out of five doctors are pretty sure McCain won't die on the job, so it's OK to put Palin in there:

“She’s going to learn national security at the foot of the master for the next four years, and most doctors think that he’ll be around at least that long,” said Charlie
Black, one of Mr. McCain’s top advisers, making light of concerns about Mr. McCain’s health, which Mr. McCain’s doctors reported as excellent in May.

Also, she's been aware of this whole Iraq war thing since at least 2006:

Palin: I've been so focused on state government, I haven't really focused much on the war in Iraq. I heard on the news about the new deployments, and while I support our president, Condoleezza Rice and the administration, I want to know that we have an exit plan in place; I want assurances that we are doing all we can to keep our troops safe. Every life lost is such a tragedy. I am very, very proud of the troops we have in Alaska, those fighting overseas for our freedoms, and the families here who are making so many sacrifices.

And, don't worry, it seems she had a penchant for firing people who she felt didn't fully support here before troopergate. McMavericky.

Let's Do The Time Warp Again

This is the first time I've seen a Fischer Fry when Fischer fries himself. We all know how Fischer seems to be having problems with orientation towards time, what with not even knowing how much vacation time he gets, how much he used, or what hours he's supposed to work.

Poor fella.

Now it just gets worse. In his fervor to attack Greg Kowalski, he somehow manages to get a post up dated at 1:30 in the afternoon. The same post is reposted later in the same day, without removing the first one.

Old Kev said that it was a technical problem, but Cindy Kilkenny points out that not one other NOW blogger seems to have that problem. Nor would it explain why both posts were put up. After all, we all know that Kevin knows how to delete posts.

But in honor of Kevin's ongoing problems, here is a little cult classic for him to start his weekend jam:

Sweating With Sykes

After last night's historical speech, TMJ4 had Charlie on to give it his spin. Just looking at this face, one could tell Obama hit the sucker out of the park much better than Sykes expected. Sykes pale complexion and sweaty brow, his stuttering and deer in the headlights look was more than enough to tell how the tide was rising.

Then he opened his mouth and his biggest complaint? Obama's speech was too partisan. Huh? They pay him for this? Um, Charlie, Obama, the first African-American presidential candidate in history, has been attacked by you and your doppelgangers for month, and now you're surprised to find out he was a Democrat all along?

Or perhaps, Sykes was just a little nauseous. He may have just learned, before air time, that Obama had drawn some 80,000 people, while McCain can't even give away tickets to his announcement of a running mate.

Tip o'the crown to Caffeinated Politics.

Charlie Snide Sykes

Amusing. Despite receiving a handful of mean emails from libs, Charlie Sykes bravely will continue to call Barack Obama "The One," he told his listeners today.



Uncommon valour, indeed.



Chuck also read from a message he received from someone who doesn't like his use of the term "The One." Chuck was quite careful to point out where the letter writer used all caps and pointed out his misspellings. In fairness, Chuck usually passes Scott Walker's subliterate emails without editing as well.



Demonstrating the 7th grade sense of humor that makes him an intellectual giant among Milwaukee's right, Chuck pointed out the message writer said Obama supporters are "hungary" for change. Chuck, tumescent at his own wit, told his listeners how he wrote back to tell him that "Hungary" is a country.



Will Chuck go on to inform McCain that Czechoslovakia is not a country, that Iran is in fact tiny compared to the former Soviet Union, that Iran is not training al Quaeda and educate him on the difference between Suunis and Shi'ites (and maybe fill him in on the intertubes as well)?



Can't wait.

Charlie Sykes, economic illiterate

Charlie Sykes, desperate to spin the economy as being healthier than it is (he clearly remembers that "It's the economy, stupid" rendered George H.W. Bush, a better man than his son, a lowly one-termer), hailed the upward revision for second quarter gross domestic product today. The initial estimate pegged GDP growth at 1.9%. The revision put it at 3.3%.


Now, let's leave aside for the moment the fact you can't eat GDP and there are questions about its value as an indicator of overall economic health. Or the fact that government stimulus checks were a significant driver of personal consumption isn't something that should warm the invisible hand of a supposed free marketeer like Charlie Sykes. Or the fact that quite a few economists are dour about the outlook for the remainder of the year as the mortgage crisis steps into a new phase and financial institutions are holding liquidation sales on their assets.


Leave all that aside. The thing that marks Charlie Sykes as an economic illiterate is that when he tried to explain what a recession was to his listeners he said it was economic contraction (not his words) for "a number of quarters." A "number"? Try two consecutive ones. Shouldn't Charlie know that? One might think that Charlie is being deliberately obfuscatory (i.e., should the next quarter go south Charlie can say "Nothing to see here, it's only one quarter, a recession is a number of quarters of contraction.") But the Brawler isn't sure. He recalls Charlie earlier this year defining a recession as three quarters of contraction.


And, of course, the two consecutive quarters of decline isn't technically the definition of a recession anyway. At least not according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, which, after all, calls recessions.


From the NBER web site:

Most of the recessions identified by our procedures do consist of two or more quarters of declining real GDP, but not all of them. The most recent recession in our chronology was in 2001. According to data as of July 2008, the 2001 recession involved declines in the first and third quarters of 2001 but not in two consecutive quarters. Our procedure differs from the two-quarter rule in a number of ways. First, we consider the depth as well as the duration of the decline in economic activity. Recall that our definition includes the phrase, "a significant decline in economic activity." Second, we use a broader array of indicators than just real GDP. One reason for this is that the GDP data are subject to considerable revision. Third, we use monthly indicators to arrive at a monthly chronology.

So, Charlie, who's fond of talking about "unintended consquences" and pretends to know how markets work, reveals himself as a buffoon to anyone who listens. But you already knew that.

Whallah! Fever

I am afraid. Very afraid. It is my sad duty to announce that the Brew City Brawler is very ill.

He has apparently caught Election Season Fever, and has become delirious. Symptoms include writing Whallah!-type posts, but forgetting he is part of Whallah's writing team. Hopefully, it is not long term, and he will soon recover. In the meantime, may I direct your attention to these posts by the mighty, if ailing, Brawler:

Something is akilter in our great republic

Charlie Sykes hates Medicare, Pell Grants, CHIP and anti-discrimination laws

Charlie Sykes, Michelle Obama and funny laffs

Dear Charlie Sykes

Why is Charlie McCain so obsessed with teh gay?

Sadly, this fever is also highly contagious, and it has been contracted by the Other Side as well, who has some insight into the long sequestered, but not forgotten, Jessica McBride.

How Dare He, Indeed?

I looked up hubris, too. One of the definitions is presumption. As in, "The right-wing blogger had enough hubris to presume no other candidate ever wanted to accept in front of columns."

History shows us differently. So does Ben Smith.

Dear Charlie. Find some other rag to worry. This one was pretty weak to start with, even for you.

What The Real Losers Wear

Both Sykes and McIlheran link to Badger Blogger, which has a post that includes a video that someone took to Burlington Coat Factory, to videotape shirts that have old Soviet symbols on them.

For the life of me, I don't understand why anyone would want such a piece of clothing, unless they were going for shock value.

I also don't understand why someone would take the time to get outraged about these shirts, while they ignore this shirt, this shirt, this shirt, or any of these shirts.

Oh, yeah, now I remember. Selective outrage.

There's more to the story on the Other Side.

Expectations

Given all the love being shown to Senator Clinton by McCampaign and assorted right wing bloggers I think we can all agree that if John McCain doesn't name Hillary Clinton as his running mate then he has sold out every single one of his supporters and should be called out for a low-life, no good yada yada rattle rattle.

In fact, if McCain doesn't get a three point bounce from the Bartoshevich ads then he's an abject failure.

Blinded By Science

We know how the right wingers love to hate anything to do with global climate change. That is their favorite bogeyman next to Democrats and taxes.

They will argue against climate change until their blue in the face.

Now we can see why. Fischer has a post, which links to a report about the Farmer's Almanac (not to be confused with the Old Farmer's Almanac) which predicts that this winter will have colder than normal temperatures and higher than normal snowfalls.

But how do they come by such an alarmist forecast? This article explains:

The almanac — not to be confused with the New Hampshire-based Old Farmer's Almanac which is 26 years older — attributes its forecasts to reclusive prognosticator Caleb Weatherbee, who uses a secret formula based on sunspots, the position of the planets and the tidal action of the moon.

Weatherbee's outlook is borne out by e-mails the almanac has received in recent days from readers who have spotted signs of nature they say point to a rough winter, Geiger said. These folklore signs range from an abundance of acorns already on the ground to the frequency of fog in August.

So, we can just get rid of all those educated climatologists and meteorologists with all their satellites, pattern formulas, and fancy equipment. All they need is a hermit that checks sunspots and acorns to have a full year's weather prediction.

This might also go a long way to understanding where they come from in regards to medicine, fiscal policies and foreign diplomacy.

Selling Their Souls

As Keith pointed out earlier, Chancellor John Wiley's keen observations of the damage that the WMC is doing to the State of Wisconsin with their Machiavellian manipulations and maneuverings has caused fits of conniptions and consternations among the right wingers.

But what Keith has shown us is but the tip of the derangement iceberg among the righties.

Christian Schneider has a post "dissecting" Wiley's observations, calling them hyperbolic. Unfortunately, his refutations are pure hyperbole themselves. An example:

Yet, apparently those changes are what are necessary to keep Wisconsin from - and I hope you’re sitting down - becoming a “permanent third-world state.” Honestly, if any political science student at UW-Madison used that kind of hyperbole in one of their research papers, they should be forced to re-take the course (unless it was taught by Kevin Barrett.)

Um, yeah. Well, if we have to explain the difference between a treatise and a research paper, then they're already lost to the point anyway. And why the Barrett mention? Just to rile the dander of the lemmings that eat up this pablum anyway.

My good friend, the Illusory One has pointed out some more of the truth about WMC and their lying henchmen.

Not to be outdone by Schneider, the master of linguistic and logic gymnastics, Patrick McIlheran chimes in with his two cents on the issue. He quaintly titles his piece "The nerve of these....tradesman!" After a long and winding road full of smoke, mirrors, stroked statistics and logical leaps that have not been seen since McBride closed down her blogs, he comes to this conclusion:

Wiley seems particularly frosted that business owners have gotten so uppity as to forget their place: Which is to shut up, make more . . . well, whatever it is such tradesmen make all day, and anyhow just do their job, which is to support the university by submitting to ever-higher taxes and to be grateful for the opportunity to do so.

Basically, McIlheran takes a long and convoluted path to admonish the Chancellor for calling for equality. That rotten scoundrel! How dare he want equality for the people!

Unfortunately for PaddyMac, the definition of tradesmen does not include megarich CEOs of corporations. The proper word for the group that Paddy is looking for is plutocracy.

The only tradesmen in this story would be people like Schneider and McIlheran who have traded their souls for a lump of fool's gold.

Musical McMansions

By now, unless you live under a rock, you should have heard of McMain's inability to recall how many homes he and his wife own. If you haven't, Zach has more on it here.

There's a new musical video out to commemorate this:




But even though McCain might not have a clue to how many houses he has, it does not mean he is an elitist. It just means he has no clue to what's going on.

Bar Talk

Throw in the high-falutin' ways of outgoing UW Chancellor John Wiley and out pops astute observations from that which is the Charlie Sykes audience.

9:56 AM Whitefish Bay Mike wrote ...
I'm not a business owner, but when I look at WMC I see a group devoted to making Wisconsin a great place in which to work, live and do business. To have our Governor be against such a noble group of people is alarming.

9:48 AM Kurt/Elkhorn wrote ...
All the college degrees in the world don't give you practical experience. An engineer who never leaves the drafting room never knows how it really works because all he knows is theory, not unexpected conditions. Maybe Mr.Wiley needs some time in the real world. Education gives basic concepts to learn from, not superior knowledge gained by dirtying your hands.

7:19 AM Dan Baggott wrote ...
Mr. Wiley should keep his mouth shut especially with wasteful spending in the UW-System. Some of these academics are only book smart with paper degrees but when it comes to common sense and logic they are dumb as a doorknob.

6:47 AM Kevin Binversie wrote ...
I read that yesterday and the only thought after I shrugged it off to "Wiley shoulda stayed a Physics Professor..." was "What do you expect from a man who saw the business community as a cash cow to be milked, not as the potential future employers of his school's graduates?"

That oughta learn Wiley for opening his liberal pie hole.

Can't Touch This

From Crooks and Liars:

After reading at HuffPo yesterday that a right wing smear group produced an ad so atrocious (and potentially illegal) that even FOX News wouldn’t touch it, I knew it had to be bad.

There are a lot more goodies in the this story, especially that the ad may be illegal, if not atrocious and inadvertently funny. The post goes on...

I wonder if the other networks are irresponsible enough to pick up on FOX’s “mistake” and use it as an excuse to run the ad. I wonder if that was the idea all along.

Locally that irresponsible party would be Charlie Sykes.

Easy Cuts

Kevin's right. It's time to cut the fat.

If a budget item is unaffordable, serious consideration should be given to dumping it. The well (the taxpayers) has been tapped too often and too much. There isn’t as much to give anymore.

Part-time legislators don't need full time staff. It's time for Kevin to practice what he pontificates and make the cut of his own salary. Take one for the team, Kevin, and take one with you, please.

They Forgot The "H"

But it is rather apropos that they right wing conversation culture is sponsored by the whine festival.

Well, Technically, He's Telling The Truth

McIlheran has a post up today that is commemorating Stuart Carlson's last day as an employee of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. PaddyMac starts out with this:

Today is cartoonist Stuart Carlson's last day of being on the Journal Sentinel opinion pages. He is among those journalists here who took voluntary buyout offered by the company.

He then continues on with a half-hearted tribute to Carlson's work with the company. But McIlheran does not tell the whole truth in those two sentences.

While it is true that Carlson took the buyout, it's not like he had much of a choice. Mr. Carlson wrote to Michael Horne, of MilwaukeeWorld, who first reported the names of people being forced out of the paper. In his letter, Mr. Carlson wrote:

Hi, Michael,

'Fraid it's true. Given the cutbacks planned at the JS I was told they could no longer "justify" having a full-time editorial cartoonist. Although I'm taking the buyout, I'm not going willingly. I'm being forced out.
Another sterling decision by the best and brightest in the paper's management.
I'll continue to be nationally syndicated in papers like the Wash Post.
I'll be looking for some other career around here.
Hope all is well with you.

Yours,
Stuart Carlson

I'm not Catholic anymore, so I don't know what the penance is for the sin of omission, but McIlheran best hie himself to the nearest church and do some confession time.

And the fact that MJS would force out a quality person like Stuart, but keep PaddyMac, shows that it is no longer worth the paper it's printed on.

Double Down on Stupidity

First off, thanks capper for drawing me away from a crunch project I'm cranking out.

But running that weekly dose of Michael Ramirez, one of the biggest troglodytes on the Journal editorial pages who is second only to the bird brain that gives us the uber-whinny cry-baby Mallard Fillmore, made me hit the brakes and give another whack to this dead horse.

One wonders. Could there be a bigger idiot in all of editorial cartooning than Michael Ramirez? If there is a cheap shot or a bone-headed dumb point, Ramirez cannot resist the temptation to subject it to extraordinary rendition.

Conservatives have got to ponder if rather than thinking that the Journal is providing them with a service, they are actually holding up this stuff for ridicule, much like the inadvertently funny Jonah Goldberg.

But as Charlie's blog proves you can be the lowest of the low intellectually, such as the renowned Michelle Malkin, and find a place in his pantheon.

Now to the quick point on the cartoon. For those of you who don't want to subject your eyes the scrawl makes the point that we are at the mercy of Putin and company, particularly per the Georgia invasion, because we have to buy their oil as Democrats refuse to drill here and now.

Did Ramirez, or Sykes that matter, ever think that with the time it would take -- as per the US Department of Energy -- to extract and set up the distribution system for this petrol, that Putin could have Russkie troops in and out of the Republic of Georgia say maybe 20 times?

In other words the point of the cartoon is utterly stupid and puerile.

If Charlie's readers think that this passes for public policy, they may not have noticed that their collective intelligences are being insulted.

This Explains It

Charlie Sykes likes to think of himself as an author and a well-read man. So much so, that he has gotten into the silly habit of posting the "hot read" of the day, which usually consists of a copy and paste of someone else's work, with only enough of his own writing to provide a link.

Today's "hot read" shows the level of sophistication Charlie has in his reading choices.

It also shows why he feels such affinity towards Bush.

They have common reading skills.

Master Of Shrugging Off Reality

PaddyMac is all gaga over McCain and his "tough guy" response to Russia's invasion of Georgia.

Paddy even dismisses that McCain's top foreign policy advisor is a PR mouthpiece for Georgia, and has for years been funneling money from Georgia to McCain. For this, McCain has been exceptionally friendly towards this small country.

We will look past the hypocrisy of McCain and the right, who criticize Russia for invading this sovereign nation, while they cheer Bush's invasion of Iraq, and encourage an invasion of Iran as well.

What we will look at is the fact that the military apparently isn't too keen on all of McCain's posturing. The fine men and women of our military apparently are all too aware of what the consequences are for this cowboy mentality. Not wanting anymore of the same kind of poor leadership and impulsive, reckless orders that they've had to deal with for the past six years in service of this country, they have been donating money by the fistfuls to Senator Obama. For every dollar a military person has donated to McCain, they have donated six to Obama's camp. That alone is pretty telling.

And if that wasn't clear enough, let us let some of the top military leaders clarify it:

It is not difficult in Washington to find high-level military officials who have had close encounters with John McCain's temper, and who find it worrisome. Politicians sometimes scream for effect, but the concern is that McCain has, at times, come across as out of control. It is difficult to find current or former officers willing to describe those encounters in detail on the record. That's because, by and large, those officers admire McCain. But that doesn't mean they want his finger on the proverbial button, and they are supporting Clinton or Obama instead.

"I like McCain. I respect McCain. But I am a little worried by his knee-jerk response factor," said retired Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, who was in charge of training the Iraqi military from 2003 to 2004 and is now campaigning for Clinton. "I think it is a little scary. I think this guy's first reactions are not necessarily the best reactions. I believe that he acts on impulse."

"I studied leadership for a long time during 32 years in the military," said retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Scott Gration, a one-time Republican who is supporting Obama. "It is all about character. Who can motivate willing followers? Who has the vision? Who can inspire people?" Gration asked. "I have tremendous respect for John McCain, but I would not follow him."

"One of the things the senior military would like to see when they go visit the president is a kind of consistency, a kind of reliability," explained retired Gen. Merrill McPeak, a former Republican, former chief of staff of the Air Force and former fighter pilot who flew 285 combat missions. McPeak said his perception is that Obama is "not that up when he is up and not that down when he is down. He is kind of a steady Eddie. This is a very important feature," McPeak said. On the other hand, he said, "McCain has got a reputation for being a little volatile." McPeak is campaigning for Obama.

So, given Paddy's posting on the matter, one must wonder: Why does Patrick McIlhern hate the troops?

You Too Can Be PaddyMac

Newspapers across the country, including the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, are feeling the crunch of the poor economy and are laying off staff members right and left, although mostly from the left.

To fill the gap, MJS has been having people write their columns for free. How nice of them.

But apparently, they are having problems finding people that are willing to do their work for them for free. They have been plugging for community columnists for several days now, and have reached the point of being so desperate that they are even asking for help from McIlheran's readers.

So if you want to be the next PaddyMac, hurry and join. Or if you want to be correct, and not just right, you can join us here.

ADDENDUM: A friend of Whallah! has just notified me that MSJ may be paying the community columnists a nominal fee per column. The fee is small enough that it makes the gist of this post still true.

Sometimes A Rattler Is Just A Snake

Freud would have a field day with The Kevster's latest anti-DNR screed.

He's having a squeamish little hissy fit because the DNR is following their mandate to conserve the native species of Wisconsin and that includes, to Kev's chagrin, snakes.

You can almost see the revulsion as Kevin squeals and squirms about those awful, icky snakes. "They could kill you," he yelps. Well, probably not.

A late 1950s study estimated that 45,000 snakebites occur each year in the United
States.[3] Despite this large number, only 7,000 to 8,000 of those snakebites are actually caused by venomous snakes, resulting in an average of 10 deaths.[6][7] This puts the chance of survival at roughly 499 out of 500. The majority of bites in the United States occur in the southwestern part of the country, in part because rattlesnake populations in the eastern states are much lower.

But facts won't stop our Kev. At least, they haven't in the past. This is just another excuse for him to show off his ignorance and spotlight his contempt. It's a good thing that he doesn't draw a government paycheck for sitting on his backside and writing all his anti-government, anti-conservationist tripe. [insert knowing wink here]

If he wants to stop the senseless deaths in America I have a suggestion. I'll bet he won't take it. He likes his metaphors to be steely.

Playing The Strong Suit

Sykes is again running scared from the bogeymen in his mind.

It never ceases to amaze me that someone who is constantly accusing others of using the "victim card" is always so quick to use the card himself. Even if he has to make stuff up to use it.

Of course, to be fair, he's not the only right winger to do that.

I guess that they just complain about it more, because they stick to what they know best.

How Does He Do That?

Sykes this morning was going on a wild rant full of self-contradiction, hypocrisy and outright lies regarding the whole Georgia/Russia affair that is going on.

First he talked about how great McCain was for standing up for the Georgian people, and that his words brought them such great comfort. Yet this is the same guy that got his panties in a bundle about Obama doing a speech in Germany. In fact, the right wing is still in a tizzy about the whole thing. So much so that they are going to the extreme of violating Godwin's Law.

He went on how the liberals should be ashamed of ever trusting Russia, and that McCain's machismo is why people should vote for him in November. Sykes however failed to mention that it was Bush, who is hardly a liberal, was the one that peered into Putin's eyes and liked what he saw. He also willfully neglected to tell his audience about McCain's chief foreign policy advisor is on the take from Georgia. You can read about all of Bush's and McCain's cognitive dissonance at my other home, Cognitive Dissidence.

How Sykes can be so hypocritical and blatantly lie to such an extreme, and not have his head explode is beyond me. Jay Bullock believes that it is the right wing's campaign strategy to be full of double talk, which would explain why Sykes' head hasn't imploded. For me, I'm thinking it's the hair spray.

Whallah's Newest Contributor?

In a moment that would make any Whallah! contributor, Dad29 comes up with this:

The ultimate moron pontificates, cutting off callers by the handful.

"I'm not saying send troops. But we have only 3 days until we have to send troops."

Uh-huh.

His proposal?

Stop buying stuff from Russia. Like, for example, steel.

So we'll make our military goods from used Kleenex, I suppose.

You know, I'd offer Dad an invitation to join Team Whallah!, but I'm afraid he would accept...

Why Kevin Fischer Will Never Be Taken Seriously

It's beause he writes willfully stupid stuff.

There's room for dealing with Senator Edwards' behavior from whatever viewpoint you'd like to argue but what does his wife's reaction and Christian forgiveness have to do with Liberal or Conservative?

One Trick, Indeed

From Jay Weber's post over at The Right View Wisconsin

...I’m going to vote for Republicans who are one trick ponies: cut taxes, reign in spending.

We've been watching you guys spend. Believe me, you reign alright. You rock. You rule. Whatever. You R's are big-time spending experts.

Egads!

As if their individual blogging efforts weren't bad enough, Randy Hollenbeck and Kevin Fischer have joined forces with Jay Weber, Orville Seymer, Chris Kliesmet, Jim Hayett, Amy Hemmer, Scott J. and Wayne U. in a new blog, "The Right View Wisconsin." Presumably, this new blog will allow the above-mentioned individuals to more effectively share conservative talking points and to allow for easier groupthink, and I can't wait to see what kind of racist, Nazi-sympathizing content the folks over there come up with.

Right View Wisconsin is sure to provide plenty of fodder for Whallah!, so we'll do our best to keep up!

Best Whallah! Comment Of The Day

This comes from a commenter named Jason, who left this comment at Boots & Sabers, regarding the drama of Green Bay:

That’s pretty low, badger.

I don’t care where Brett plays. It would be fun to have him back for a season, but they could very well have as bad a season with him under center as they would with rodgers, and he’d be gone in a year anyway. I’ll leave the speculation on how much he’s got left in his tank to the professionals who get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to make these decisions, and who make them based on far more information than a fan could possibly get from sixteen 3-hour exhibitions almost a year ago.

What I really think is funny, though, is what a shrill, whiny soap opera this has become. It’s the talk radio treatment perfected by Rush Limbaugh. I’m not a fan of his “politics”, but I have to respect the impact he’s had on our culture. Take an unusual, but reasonable, situation, blow it all out of proportion, paint it as good versus evil and ascribe all kinds of shadowy motives to the one you’ve decided is evil, then proceed to call names and throw a tantrum for an hour, in the case of a radio show, or weeks in the case of a long term contract dispute. Of course, reality is always far less sexy than the drama created by the media, and the players tend to be normal, ethical, professional adults just trying to do the right thing. But that doesn’t sell advertising or move newspapers.

It’s made us stupid, but it’s entertaining. Way to go Rush!

Posted by Jason on August 06, 2008 at 1318 hrs

Best Whallah! Quote Of The Day

This comes from Michael Horne, at Milwaukee World, who is talking about an upcoming debate between Scott Walker and Tom Barrett:

Yes, it should be some debate. Regrettably, for Walker it is on a subject where the facts are all stacked in favor of rail, and against the failed and socially destructive policies of Scott Walker and the talk radio cabal.

Remember, people in automobiles listen to talk radio. Folks on mass transit don't. It's an empirical fact, and that's why the A.M. talk radio tunnel of love echo chamber squakfest brigade opposes rail.As I always ask my friends who live in cities with light rail, "What do the talk radio people have to say about rail transit?" The answer -- nothing. They have moved on to other inflammatory topics.

Put on a Happy Face

In winger-world where whistling past the grave yard is uplift, John McCain's talking point that Paris Hilton in the send up of the childish "Celebrity" ad is advocating an energy plan "more coherent than Obama's" is purveyed by Charlie Sykes to his audience.

What non-McCain fans might notice is that Senator Straight-Talk is slapped around 28 ways to Sunday in the clip, whereas for balance Obama is referred to as "that other guy."

But on the other hand if McCain would really focus on the video, if he could only work that play arrow, he too would be totally hot.

If I Were A Right-Wing Blogger III

I'd be hammering the Celebrity meme hard this week. I'd be pounding on the candidate with the 73 lines of credits on IMdB. I'd be just wetting myself to tell you about the naivete of a candidate who'd let himself be used to promote Saturday Night Live: The Best of Tracy Morgan (2004) (V). (How did they manage to fill an hour of that?)

It would be Showtime all the time for the candidate who'd been in "24" and Wedding Crashers and "WWF Raw Is War". There's some Presidential gravitas for you.

Give us the President who's been in the most Vince Vaughn movies.

McIlheran Admits He Has A Problem

The first step to getting help is always to admit that one has a problem. Let's hope and things good thoughts that McIlheran is serious in his admission and will get the help he needs to understand things better:

That's Entertainment!

McIlheran has a column in this morning's paper in which he congratulates Rush Limbaugh for twenty years of national airtime. He goes on to crow about just how wonderful he thinks talk radio is. He goes on and on about how he thinks squawk radio is entertaining and then some. He even quotes the other half of the McSykes comedy show:

For many of us, it spared us from losing our appetite for news, as well. Sykes, a journalist before taking to the airwaves, describes Limbaugh as water on parched earth when conservatives first heard him. “It was the first time they heard someone espousing their beliefs, showing some respect instead of being condescending,” said Sykes.

[...]

“If you’re a liberal,” said Sykes, “you have no problem encountering liberal ideas. You swim in a sea of liberal ideas, liberal assumptions, liberal commentary.” What talk radio did was provide an alternate frame for those who aren’t liberal, letting listeners know they weren’t alone in thinking liberal premises were a load of deep-tunnel overflow. Talk radio laughed at things that deserve mockery but weren’t getting it. It made current affairs a sport, not a chore.

McIlheran points to the success of Limbaugh by saying he as "something like 20 million listeners" Whoopee. Given that the current population of the United States is over 303 million people, that means that Limbaugh draws 6.5% of the people. Not exactly a large share of the market, is it?

And what are these beliefs that talk radio espouses, that supposedly sooooo many people agree with? That women that stand up for themselves should be considered Nazis? That women should be owned? That it's OK to insult other religions? Other races? To call autistic kids spoiled brats?

You name it, they've insulted it. Yeah, that's what I want people to think of when they think of America...a bunch of racist, sexist, lying pigs. And we won't even get into their hypocrisy, trying to preach morality, when they have several issues of their own that shows their duplicity.

Bruce Murphy wrote a column just after McBride managed to hasten her departure from TMJ radio. That article sums up local squawk radio very accurately:

For Belling and the other radio squawkers, image is everything. They can’t afford to be regularly exposed as wrong because it demeans the franchise, and the franchise’s entertainment value depends solely on their personality. Thus, they screen callers to decide what points of view they can live with, ones that won’t undercut them too badly.

By contrast, a journalistic enterprise like the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel runs corrections on an almost daily basis, prints letters that disagree with editorials, and disciplines or even fires reporters who make egregious errors. Yes, the paper can be self-serving or slow to correct errors, but over time, a good newspaper will always prove itself bigger than any one person, even the editor. It can afford to admit errors and should even be admired for doing so, because this serves the entire community of readers.

Belling and Charlie Sykes make no pretense of serving the entire community. Belling’s longtime slogan, “Standing Up for Milwaukee,” generally meant he was standing up for every city but Milwaukee – namely all the suburbs surrounding Milwaukee. Sykes’ slogan, “Standing Up for What’s Right,” ripped off Belling and suggested a similar bias.

Both are smart, savvy media junkies who often sound like reporters but are actually entertainers who don’t abide by the rules of journalism. Day in and day out, they have to make outrageous statements that anger people, most of whom will never get a chance to respond. This builds ratings, but also builds up enemies they can’t afford to let on the air because the host’s image is at stake.

Squawk radio has absolutely nothing to do with the news. They take a news story, removed the facts that they don't like, and endlessly repeat the facts that they do like. Such as the myth of the "liberal mainstream media" or that it is Obama that is naive, when McCain repeatedly has shown and even admitted he doesn't know what he's talking about.

This explains why they have to spend so much money to keep squawk radio going, and why they're so deathly afraid of the Fairness Doctrine. Because what they say can't hold up to the light of the truth, and their rantings aren't as popular as being hopeful and positive. Look at the current Presidential campaign. The squawkers are besides themselves with Obama's popularity, and the fact that no matter how much mud they try to throw, they are the ones that always come out looking the worst for it.

If one wanted to be generous, one could call squawk radio the verbal form of blogging, presuming that the blogger isn't a very good one. (Then again, none of them are very good at blogging either.)

A more accurate term would be "Propaganda."

ADDENDUM: Isn't it ironic that these "entertainers" dismiss any celebrity that espouses a position different from theirs, questioning their qualifications to have an opinion, but then call themselves entertainers?

The Poisoned Political Environment

James Rowen has been busy.

When he is not championing ecological causes, or promoting good citizenship, he takes time to go after the squawkers.

He points out to the bad logic and bad typing of PaddyMac (wasn't Paddy supposed to be a spellchecker or something?). Perhaps Paddy would have been better taking on subjects he might have a chance on, like cream puffs.

He points out that both Chuckles and Limbo are nothing more than bloviating boors.

Then James takes it a little easy on himself with another cream puff, Kevin Fischer, and his regular use of irresponsible hyperbolic, histrionic rhetoric (got a dictionary, Kevin?).

Then he gives not just one, but two, posts on the schmuck know as Michael Savage. But we already knew Savage was a major league dumb-ass.

Which leads to one question for James: Why the heck aren't you blogging here yet?!?!?

If I Were A Right Wing Talk Show Host...

Daniel Cody nails it.

What Did He Teach Again?

What is it with the local right wing media and their bogus claims on their resumes?

The most recent bit of silliness comes from James T. Now Harris often mentions that he used to teach, but he never says what he taught. I would feel safe placing a hefty wager that he did not teach any of the sciences.

He definitely has his biochemistry quite confused. Perhaps he's been testing his bear spray on himself or something, but we got news for James:

Neither dinosaurs or SUVs have ever been on a moon of Saturn.

Pundit Nation and the Illusory One have more on Harris' apparent audition for Faux News.

Sykes: Liar or Idiot?

Our own Brew City Brawler, who apparently had too many mai tais in his day, and forgot he has priveleges here, makes me work harder by pointing out his latest disection of our own Sykes, ending with this:

One wonders whether Chuck was even aware of this. If not, he's talking about stuff he doesn't understand. If he did, he's a liar (one who distorts or invents facts). In any event, this brief, nonfactual comment delivered with smug, nasal authority, is a perfect synedoche for Sykesland: It's an apparently imposing, logically and solidly built stronghold of conservatism until, upon closer inspection, you see that the walls are made of bricks made of nothing but truthiness that fall at the blast of a kazoo.