Limbaugh Hospitalized: Admits Taking Pain Pills Again

I'm surprised, but not shocked:

Limbaugh, 58, suffered from chest pains, sources said. Limbaugh was sitting in a chair in his ninth-floor hotel room at the Kahala when emergency crews arrived, sources said. He told medical crews that he was taking medication for a back problem, sources said.Paramedics treated him and took him to Queen's Medical Center in serious condition. He will not be released from the hospital on Wednesday night, sources said.

Again, surprised, but not shocked.

What's Playing On Paddy's iPod

After reading this, I can only imagine that this is PaddyMac's theme song:




The thing I don't understand is why Paddy keeps rooting for the people that won't let him join their group. Is it wishful thinking or just some bizarre money-related masochistic tendency?

Illy-T (who really needs to start writing here) has more on "Li'l Milton" McIlheran.

The Hip Bemusings of James T. Harris

Take one faked photo.

Add one gullible right wing squawker.

End up with one big sucker.

He Seems More Like Number Two

Scott Walker sent this tweet out the other day:

Really, is that what he wants to brag about? Being named number one by a failed attorney general candidate and an lecherous, adulterous liar?

Well, he probably does, since he is playing for the extremist vote and totally blowing off the moderate right and the independent voters.

This approach would help explain why he is tanking in the popularity department.

Another Right Wing Meme Disproved

Charlie Sykes, Patrick McIlheran, and the entire echo chamber of the right wing tells us that people are leaving Wisconsin in droves due to the high taxes, business unfriendly regulations, etc., etc., etc.

Yeah, things must be real bad here:

Wisconsin's population has grown to more than 5.65 million, according to new state-by-state estimates for 2009 released Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The state’s population grew 0.5 percent, adding more than 27,000 residents, between July 1, 2008, and July 1, 2009, the bureau reported. Its population is now 5,654,774, up from 5,627,610 in 2008 and 5,601,571 in 2007.

PaddyMac Prefers Profits Over People

Predictably, PaddyMac bemoans the fact that the Senate passed their version of health care benefits. It's not that he is necessarily against people getting health care benefits, since he doesn't even mention that. It is that the insurance companies won't get to gouge:

Only might I add:

While sensible, ordinary people might see this and quake – because it’s disruptive when key industries are destroyed and, worse, it signals that we think it A-OK for government to go around destroying legal industries – those committed partisans of the left, those complaining that Obamacare doesn’t take us to single-payer, would see this destruction as a feature, not a bug.

Gee, who'd have thunk that maybe it's not nice to put gouge people and then deny their claims anyway, just to increase their own profit.

Nice to see him so full of the Christmas spirit.

You, Sir, Are No Grumps!

PaddyMac gets really precocious this morning in his piece in the morning's paper:

Look, if it's not the holidays without a Grinch, if Dickens had no carol without Scrooge, then it's no good putting off one's duty to say, "Bah! Humbug!" Besides, what's a conservative columnist for, since we're presumed to be grumps?

All I have to say to Paddy is this: I know grumps. I have blogged with grumps. And you, sir, are no grumps! Grumps is entertaining, insightful and honest. Those are three attributes you can only pretend to have.

Also let it be noted that it appears that in his mewlings, PaddyMac also goes on to be whining about the failure of not having mass transit, capitalism, and environmental issues. Although he would never admit it openly, it is nice to see him admit that the positions he is shilling for are flops.

MJS Now Going A La Carte

For those of you that, like me, still subscribe to the hard copy of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel already know that they tried to phase out the TV Cue section of the Sunday paper. First they pared it down from all the extras to just the TV guide. Then the paper made subscribers to call and tell them that they still wanted to receive the guide, even though they had already paid for it.

Now they have had a special fly attached to the TV Cue which shows that the paper is worth even less than ever before.

After a little bit of touting on how they restored the parts that they took away in the first place, they have this little bit of news:

Like what you see? Keep getting it in 2010 for only 25 cents per week.*

*This small increase will be reflected in your next billing statement.

The new and improved TV Cue will be provided free-of-charge to current TV Cue subscribers for the remainder of 2009. Beginning January 3, 2010, you will continue to receive TV Cue for just an additional 25 cents per week. No longer want TV Cue? Call (800) 759-NEWS (6397) or go online to www.jsonline/tvcue before December 28, 2009.

So, for a section that is only slightly less confusing and slightly less inaccurate than Patrick McIlheran on the subject of climate change, and something for which you've already paid, they now want to charge you extra.

I wonder how much they would charge for agenda-free investigative journalism, hold the PaddyMac.

Cross posted at Cognitive Dissidence.

Can You Dig It?

Look what Jay Bullock dug up as PaddyMac keeps digging himself deeper:

Now, I'm willing to cut McIlheran a little bit of slack, here, because one would like to think that Michaels knows his own biography well enough to, you know, write honestly about it. But here's Michaels, exaggerating his own role as Defender Of The True Discourse despite, of course, his own tainted past and his willingness now to play fast an loose with documented fact.

But that doesn't mean that McIlheran doesn't owe us another retraction and correction. Given that it took him two weeks, and an uncorrected-in-print-or-online op-ed in a Sunday paper, before he admitted he was wrong about one fundamental aspect of "climategate" (it was a "subtlety" that "slipped past" him), I expect this big fat error will go unmentioned, too.

My eyes! Aaaaah, My Eyes!!

PaddyMac Shorter

Love the teacher, just make sure they don't get paid or have any benefits.

Sykes' Poor Punctuation

It should be an exclamation point, not a question mark:



At least it made the Chief chuckle.

McIlheran's Painful Hypocrisy

In Sunday's article, Preview Paddy* writes about a sting operation at a Planned Parenthood in Appleton, and calls it great journalism. Whatever.

He ends his piece with this:

It's been a tough year for the press, so much that people worry about whether we'll have an informed public in the future. The worry's genuine, but against it we can count the fact that there still exists out there the drive to reveal sordid hidden truths, an instinct so on-target as to make defenders of the powerful snarl, "Why don't they just go away?"

It is more than ironic that Paddy would worry about the "informed public," considering that the vast majority of his work (think in the 90 percentile range) is nothing more than parroting the National Review or some other similar site and flat out lying to his readers.

What I am curious about is whether he really knows that he is lying and doesn't care or if he is really that deranged.

*Yes, he is still emailing out previews even though his boss said that it would be stopped.

Q: Why Charlie Sykes Loves Sarah Palin

A: They have so much in common - like being real good liars.

Whatever Happened To Conservative Belief In Indiviual Responsibility?

From Peter Patau, remarking on Vicki McKenna's whining about last week's snow storm:

But here was McKenna complaining about her drive on County M: "I was white-knuckling it all the way, even with 4-wheel drive." Oh, the poor thing. Public officials and their inadequate snowplowing was endangering her life. Whatever happened to the conservative belief in individual responsibility? How about slowing down if there's too much snow and ice? How about taking responsibility to maintain control of your vehicle yourself? Instead, McKenna and her callers were complaining that government wasn't doing enough to help them.

But now the secret is out. Conservatives believe in individual responsibility -- but only until it starts snowing. Then they want the government to bail them out.

Stay Classy, Charlie

Charlie Sykes, defender of women's rights (to be treated like meat).

It's not the first time either.

Real Irony Wisconsin

Irony: Fred Dooley complaining about someone making things up.

Tis The Season To Be Banned

A few months ago, someone or someones started doing some sock puppetry, using my name on Badger Blogger. Even though it was shown not to be me, I was blocked from their site. (Meh, no great loss for me.) (Even though they admit that they were having these problems, they have yet to apologize.)

The same thing has been going on around the blogosphere, including at this very site. The most recent victim is Fred Dooley, who accused Mike Mathias and I of doing things completely out of our character. Even when this was pointed out to Dooley, he claimed that "he checked" and confirmed it was us.

Lo and behold, Dooley finally figures he was duped, and apologizes to those whose names who had been used. However, he makes no mention of how he had "checked" and confirmed it was us, which should raise suspicion in anyone's eyes about what statements Dooley makes that might be true and which ones are false.

In all of the hoopla, Zach Wisniewski points out the hypocrisy that Dooley has shown over the years on what he tolerates from the right, but won't take a fraction of from the left. For his troubles, Zach joined a growing list of impressive people by getting banned himself.

And in related news, Charlie Sykes has just started using twitter. I am proud to say that I am one of the first, if not the first person he has blocked from following his account.
That said, I can still read it, so it is nothing more than a minor nuisance. Look for more fun with this.

Mr. Remarkable

Charlie Sykes thinks that James T. Harris is "remarkable."

I could, and have, made quite a few remarks about Harris, including how Harris thinks someone comparing President Obama to Hitler is OK or how Harris thinks he owns his daughter like a slave.

That's like when he thought the bigoted bumper sticker created by Tom McMahon was "pure genius" and "brilliant."

If this is the kind of thing that Charlie Sykes thinks of in a positive manner, it makes me feel even better that he doesn't like me.

It does reinforce the appropriateness that we can call Sykes award-winning now. Congratulations to Sykes for being the winner of the "Moronic Moron Award."

Fischer Gets An Early Christmas

Kevin Fischer got an early Christmas present this year, but he will have to wait until next year to enjoy it.

Cindy Kilkenny announced last night that she is going to retire from Fairly Conservative on January 12, 2010. She wants to move on to other projects.

Unfortunately, that means we can expect to deal with several drunken and obnoxious blog posts then.

Aw, who am I kidding? He's doing that now.

Best Prophylactic In The World

One of Kevin Fischer's blog posts. Or just a picture of Fischer would do to.

PaddyMac: Don't Let Them Undo Your Undoing

Predictably, PaddyMac has taken up the topic of whether judges running for office and taking donations from megarich and megagreedy groups like WMC should be also allowed to rule on cases involving those that helped pave their way to getting elected.

Most people would point out the obvious conflict of interest in that and would say of course not!

But not our Paddy. He is perfectly fine with people like Mike Gableman and Annette Ziegler taking big time money support for their campaigns, and then ruling on cases that benefit their benefactors.

Illy T, who is much wiser in ways of the law and of these races, has a much more detailed account of why Paddy has obviously been kissing the Blarney Stone.

And since we are pointing out PaddyMac's lack of even truthiness about him, Jay Bullock did a follow up on on his post correcting another one of Paddy's blunders.

PaddyMac's Global Non-Warming Conspiracy

Yes, the same Hadley Centre Patrick McIlheran just got done accusing of "hiding the decline in observed temperatures."

And yes, that is from McIlheran's own link to Der Spiegel. What's not so well hidden is the decline in the right-wing guy's credibility, which is less easy to measure,* but a constant amusement to observe.

* Pius or minus 1.5 micrometers from zero.

That is from Illy-T. Read the whole thing here.

ADDENDUM: Jay Bullock also takes a whack at PaddyMac:

Now check McIlheran's first link, the one to the email from Phil Jones at the CRU. Note the date: "Tue, 16 Nov 1999." That's right, ladies and gentleman, Patrick McIlheran, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's "Right Wing Guy," just accused Phil Jones of describing a method for "how to 'hide the decline' in observed temperatures" since 1999--in 1999. How does McIlheran explain this? Is Phil Jones a witch, maybe, and McIlheran would like to throw him in the lake to be sure? Or maybe Phil Jones got a fortune cookie in 1999 predicting flatlined temps. Magic eight ball? ESP? Time machine? What? I really want to know!

I realize that the Journal Sentinel is getting down to a bit of bare-bones staffing, but is there not one single person there responsible for checking facts? Surely someone clicked on the links McIlheran included in his own submitted op-ed and saw the absurdity of this. How does something that obvious get through?

There Oughta Be A Vaccine For This

Actually, the post in question is about the news article that Archbishop Weakland had shredded the reports he had received about his priests that were molesting children.

Paddy's main complaint is that this could open the door for the Church to get sued even more.

No sympathy for those that were molested, just for the Church's bank account.

Rack 'em Up.

PaddyMac continues his unedifying attack on global climate change, grasping on to whatever he can, even if he has to stretch for it, calling one set of numbers out of the tons of information as using "a magic eight ball."

Illy-T has already put him behind the eight ball.