What If the TEA Parties were black?

Young Chris Walker has a very good post up discussing how well the TEA Parties would be accepted if they were populated with mostly African-Americans?

In it, he quotes why whites can get away with crap no one else could:

To ask any of these questions is to answer them. Protest is only seen as fundamentally American when those who have long had the luxury of seeing themselves as prototypically American engage in it. When the dangerous and dark “other” does so, however, it isn’t viewed as normal or natural, let alone patriotic. Which is why Rush Limbaugh could say, this past week, that the Tea Parties are the first time since the Civil War that ordinary, common Americans stood up for their rights: a statement that erases the normalcy and “American-ness” of blacks in the civil rights struggle, not to mention women in the fight for suffrage and equality, working people in the fight for better working conditions, and LGBT folks as they struggle to be treated as full and equal human beings.

And this, my friends, is what white privilege is all about. The ability to threaten others, to engage in violent and incendiary rhetoric without consequence, to be viewed as patriotic and normal no matter what you do, and never to be feared and despised as people of color would be, if they tried to get away with half the shit we do, on a daily basis.

Breaking News Already Broken

Patrick Dorwin at Badger Blogger notes that Mark Belling reported today that the high speed train station in Madison will be moved. Dorwin's money quote:

Don’t expect to read about this in the newspaper anytime soon. They never want to repeat news broken by Belling, even when they know its true.

He's right, of course. The newspaper reported this about six weeks ago.

Coming soon: Belling reports the collapse of the Roman Empire. This too will not be covered by the mainstream media.

Walker Should Make Belling His Spokesman

The pseudo-Team Walker thinks that Mark Belling is just wonderful because he spent not one, but two days whining about Mark Newmann for being more environmentally conscientious than the average conservative.

Apparently, Belling, and pseudo-Team Walker feels Neumann isn't sufficiently "profits-before-people" for them.

That's fine. In fact, that is splendid. I think Walker should make Belling his spokesperson.

Then they can also explain why such a rabid Walker backer is also racist and a misogynist. Perhaps they are commonly shared traits?

Yeah, We've Had Them For Years

Saw this story on the twitter:

A growing number of conservative groups are bankrolling startup news organizations around the country, aggressively covering government and politics at a time when newspapers are cutting back their statehouse bureaus.

The phenomenon troubles some longtime journalists and media watchdogs, who worry about political biases and hidden agendas.

The news outlets have sprouted in larger numbers in recent months to fill a void created by the downsizing of traditional statehouse coverage and to win over readers, including those from the tea party movement who don't trust the local paper or the TV news.

"Our state Capitol used to be bustling with the media," said Matthew Brouillette, president of the Harrisburg, Pa.-based Commonwealth Foundation, whose news outlet, the Pennsylvania Independent, went live in January. "Now, you can swing a dead cat and not hit anybody in the state Capitol newsroom."

The news outlets usually receive their money from right-leaning, free-market organizations. Idahoreporter.com, for example, is funded by the Idaho Freedom Foundation, a think tank that has barraged local governments with public records requests since last year in an effort to expose waste.

Similar news operations are now in place in Washington state, Michigan, South Carolina, Montana, Wyoming, Florida, West Virginia, Arizona, Missouri, Maryland, Nebraska, Illinois, Texas, Tennessee, Ohio and elsewhere.

This is not exactly breaking news here, folks.

For years we've had the Bradley Foundation-sponsored WPRI (Wonks Promoting Republican Ideology), that has none other than Charlie Sykes as editor/contributor/panderer. WPRI has already been busted out as being an amazingly unreliable source of information, thanks to the hard work of the people at One Wisconsin Now.

Another phony set up is the MacGuyver Institute (for the Chronically Impaired) who's claim to fame is to take some duct tape, a bendy straw and a paperclip and come up with a costume that they are a respectable news source. Of course, again thanks to OWN, we know better about them as well.

And yet a lowly, unsupported blogspot like Whallah! is more reliable than these two facades put together.

And There Goes The Hypocrisy Meter

It just exploded as well.

Thanks, Fred:

The left would rather insult than listen, they'll keep their rabid base but they are losing the country.

There Goes The Back Up Irony Meter

Charlie Sykes has spent the last couple of hours ripping into State Representative Pedro Colon for his rather boorish and inexcusable comments regarding Representative Steve Nass, who was saying his final good-byes to his mother.

Fair enough. Colon deserves to get called out on that.

But then our recently installed back up irony meter blew up, when Sykes commented that you would never see conservatives doing something so inappropriate to a liberal.

Really, Charlie? As inappropriate as Colon's comments were, at least he didn't lie, like you did, to tell his smears.

Our Irony Meter Exploded

Whallah's Irony Meter has exploded this morning.

It occurred when Charlie Sykes kept referring to AFP's Mark Block as "a two-bit political hack."

We apologize for the inconvenience.

Good Advice From One Who Knows

Greg Kowalski points out that a former school board candidate from Franklin is pondering getting into the blogging game at FranklinNOW.com

Young Kowalski gives this would be blogger some sound advice:

Hugo - best of luck to your future on the blogs. I suppose I only got one tip for you that some could argue I learned the hard way: Don't let State Senator Mary Lazich's aide get to you! Think of it this way - if he attempts to be overly critical of any of your positions you could very well share a Milwaukee Magazine article with him!

Personally, I would have told Mr. Nguyen to avoid FranklinNOW.com altogether, but hey, that's just me.

The Cowardly Belling

Like most conservative bully boys, Mark Belling turns out to be a coward when confronted directly.

Case in point, yesterday, there was a listening session at the West Allis Library regarding the sales tax that would provide dedicated funding for the bus system.

Wauwatosa Alderman Dennis McBride shared an interesting story with the crowd:

Wauwatosa Alderman Dennis McBride, who introduced himself as an original U-Bus rider when he attended UW-Milwaukee, amused the west side crowd with an account of a constituent who had heard “some guy on talk radio named Mark” excoriating McBride’s longstanding support of public transit. When McBride called “Mark” (Belling – a notorious enemy of the Milwaukee bus system), the talk show host’s staff first said their boss was “talking about Alderman McBride,” then when McBride identified himself, announced that Belling had moved on to another subject. While attentive citizens murmured about Belling’s apparent cowardice, McBride added that the resident who called him said “I don’t ride buses,” to which he replied that if the 150,000 people who ride the bus were all driving cars, it would add a great deal of gridlock to the woman’s own use of her car.

But, he added, talk to the legislators present about it – an alderman can’t pass a state law, whereas those who can, “are probably afraid that some guy named Mark” is going to say nasty things about them if they vote for AB 282. Legislators want to know that constituents will stand by them next November if they do vote to pass AB 282 into law. McBride also complimented West Allis on the redevelopment of the 70th Street corridor, insisting that it couldn’t be maintained without good transit connections.

I wonder if our lawmakers would be so afraid of doing the right thing if they realized that people like Mark Belling and Charlie Sykes are nothing more than fakers.

Ann Coulter, Fred Phelps: Two Peas in a Pod

PaddyMac found it noteworthy to post about Ann Coulter's reaction to Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist's Church's ongoing harassment of the families of fallen soldiers. Paddy, who is apparently in agreement with Coulter's take, writes:

What the rabble led by Fred Phelps with signs reading "God Loves Dead Soldiers," "You're Going to Hell" and "God Hates Fags" are doing, writes Coulter, is a well known legal concept: the intentional infliction of emotional distress. You can sue for that. "It means what it says: speech or conduct specifically intended to inflict emotional distress. The usual description of the tort of IIED is that a reasonable man viewing the conduct would react by saying, 'That's outrageous!'"

Makes one wonder what they would be saying if Ann Coulter was sued for the same infraction when Coulter attacked the 9/11 widows:

New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton accused commentator Ann Coulter of making a “vicious, mean-spirited attack” on outspoken 9/11 widows whom the television pundit described as “self-obsessed” and enjoying their husbands' deaths.

Coulter writes in a new book, “Godless: The Church of Liberalism,” that a group of New Jersey widows whose husbands perished in the World Trade Center act “as if the terrorist attacks happened only to them.”

She also wrote, “I've never seen people enjoying their husbands' deaths so much.”

I would say that that was specifically meant to cause emotional distress.

At least we have confirmation that, despite all their hysterical shrieks, it is really people like Paddy and Coulter who are the fascists that would take away the people's rights.

Get Bucky Off of WTMJ!

It was recently announced that the University of Wisconsin will be dropping all contractual relations with Nike due to Nike's ongoing problems with sweatshops and generally treating their employees like dirt.

Jake, at Jakes' Economic TA's Funhouse, wants UW take it even further with their spring cleaning. He suggests that UW end their relationship with WTMJ 620 AM as well:

In addition, WTMJ constantly denigrates this great unviersity on their airwaves. Daily shows hosted by people such as Charles Sykes and Jeff Wagner mock the unviersity's culture and academic a`cheivements. Those of us that love this university and all that it is associated with are insulted when we hear a Charles Sykes promo in the middle of our Badger games, and do not need to hear those loudmouths disrupt our enjoyment of listeneing to Badger games.

Sykes and Wagner also act as a favorable front group for politicans such as Scott Walker and Glenn Grothmann, who are in favor of drastically cutting state funding to the university, which drives up to tuition to unaffordable levels for many Wisconsinites and Badger fans. TMJ talk show hosts are also are heavily associated with the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute (WPRI), an institution that threatened the UW's commitment to fair and quality research by signing a contract with faculty member Ken Goldstein. WPRI further sullied the UW's reputation when Goldstein had to back out of the contract because WPRI was manipulating the results of his research to fit their anti-UW and public services agenda. This great unviersity does not need to be associated with a station that uses itself as a platform to constantly knock down the UW.

And if they needed something to fill that missing airtime, we already gave them a fine suggestion that they could start on a part-time basis: Xoff on WTMJ!

Good News For Sykes' Incite

Breaking news: Sykes will now increase the viewership to one. That one person being Scot Ross from One Wisconsin Now:

Xoff, you are forgetting the convenience for Journal Communications because they are able feature (re: "synergize") all four of their media properties: the Journal Sentinel, 620 WTMJ-AM, WTMJ-TV, and the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute.

The fireworks are sure to fly!

Will Paddy Mac can display his "Americans for Prosperity/C. Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence Award" alongside Sykes' finalist trophy for the Pulitzer Prize.

Will Chuckles repeat his laughable "Now Neumann Has to Run Against Feingold Because It's What Barrett Fears Most" meme from Thursday?

Will Owen offer up some of his expansive and literate blog gems like "wow" and "good grief" and "lovely" and "No mercy for a woman like this"?

Oooo, I'm on the edge of my seat.

Tip of the crown to Illy-T, who has more observations of his own here.

Why Sykes Uses So Much Hair Products

I had the mischance to hear parts of Charlie Sykes' show a few times this week as I drove from one appointment to another.

For at least two days, Sykes mocked Tom Barrett's new use of new media with SayNow.

Sykes mocked Barrett for having people calling in which struck me as quite ironic and hypocritical.

Where would a person who makes his living by having a talk show asking people to call in and discuss politics come off mocking a politician who actually listens to the people, unlike his buddy, Walker, who only talks to people, not with them.

Which leads us to the question in the title. Sykes must need that much hair products to keep his head from imploding.

Those Classy Talk Radio Listeners

Last Friday, we brought to you the story that the Democrats were trying to reinvent the Whallah! by having volunteers listening to talk radio and report their findings, if they survived the mission that is.

Milwaukee NewsBuzz has picked up on the story and carried it farther. They interviewed Sachin Chheda, head of the Milwaukee County Democratic Party, who shared a lovely email from one of talk radio's listeners:

The party received a few e-mails of interest from suspected Republican moles after the broadcasts, according to Chheda, and at least one threatening e-mail:

“You useless scum-sucking liberal. How dare you start a movement to try to silence freedom of speech. Without talk radio you wack [sic] jobs would have this country in worse condition than that a-hole in the White House has it now.

“You people really need to get a life. If you consider talk radio damaging (to) your liberal views, you are nuts. If being a lefty (is) so great it would be stronger and scum like you wouldn’t have any problems. Freedom of speech, love it, live it. If you don’t like it MOVE THE F*** OUT OF THIS COUNRTY. There is planes leaving every hour on the hour I’ll buy the tickets to get communist [sic] like you out of this country.”

It was signed “Hitman 43.”

And then they wonder why they get marginalized.

Limbaugh's Afraid of Assassinating Own Character

I have to ask: What character?

The president is trying to trick Rush Limbaugh into talking about himself and would rather engage in "character assassination" than debate conservatives in the "Arena of Ideas," the conservative talker charges in an e-mail to POLITICO.

Two days after President Barack Obama labeled Limbaugh and conservative television host Glenn Beck "troublesome" in a CBS interview, Limbaugh says Obama is trying to get him off his game.

"I think the president is trying to distract me, to get me talking about ME on my show instead of talking about him and the regime's agenda. But it won't work. I'm wise to their tactics," he wrote. "I know that a majority of Americans are angry at the regime's (and the Democrats') constant attempts at character assassination of their opposition. They want no part of engaging us in the Arena of Ideas. They seek instead to discredit and marginalize us, and it has gotten old."

In other words, if Limbaugh starts talking about himself, it's character assassination.

Yup, sounds about right.

Talk Radio Vs. Rail

James Rowen gives us a history lesson on how Milwaukee's talk radio has been anti-Milwaukee by sabotaging rail and mass transit and has sabotaged mass transit every chance it gets. Here's a snippet from James' post:

Though, as always, the Right exempts road building and its tax-supported billions from the perils of Big Government.

But my point today is to provide reminder of the damaging role that talk radio has played in getting us to where we are today - - a one-dimensional, congested, rail-free zone, as I wrote about for Crossroads a couple of years ago - - even though local conservative talk radio hosts en masse hypocritically and predictably jumped on the Zoo Interchange problems and pointed fingers everywhere except at themselves.

And I'm not overstating conservative talk radio influence in SE Wisconsin when it comes to whipping up fears about light rail among core suburban listeners, and in downright panicking office-holders who might stray from the anti-rail template.

Walker 2016

From the inbox, slightly edited for grammatical purposes:

This morning Scott Walker announced, at his campaign headquarters, WGOP 620AM, that he will be running for President in 2016.He says he came to that conclusion when his POINT man, Charlie Rove Sykes, POINTED out to him that after studying that guy's background that in there now that he could do the same thing by playing the Community Organizer game. So here is his plan.

As soon as elected Governor he will get rid of DOT in its entirety. In its place he will the method the Amish use for barn raising. Every business in the area where highway/bridge work is needed the businesses in the area will furnish the materials and the people who live in the area will do the actual work. Community Action in action and at NO cost to the Taxpayer. On that alone he claims he will have the budget balanced by the end of his term with a trillion dollar surplus. Jeff Wagner then asked Scott if there are that many Amish that live in the area. Also, Jeff, pointing out that he is a law and order kind of person, questioned whether it is constitutional to make him get his hands dirty if his street needed repair and they used that Community thingy.

For the prison problems he would build 3 large barns, as those 8,000 cow dairy farms do and put all the prisoners in them which would cut the prison budget by at least 75% as they could get rid of at least 90% of those nasty State employees guarding the prisons. As that prisoners have no rights, they should be easy to herd. He would then put Jeff Wagner in charge of the Early Release Program.

As for MPS, Walker said he would appoint Charlie Rove Sykes to head up the entire system. He says he can think of no one more qualified to work with the Union and take away any benefits that they have earned and, if necessary, replace the teachers with prisoners to teach. Another 95% savings. Then Jeff Wagner wondered why he couldn't have the job. Even though he doesn't have any children he could teach those brats as well as anybody. Remember he has a niece and nephew.

With a plan like that how could he not be elected President? He finally did give Jeff Wagner a job. He appointed hims "Official Finger Pointer" and "Questioner of Anything That Anyone Does Even If He Knows Nothing About It." In other words, it's the same job he has now.

He said he had already measured for drapes in the mansion and checked the concrete on the dome of the Capitol so none would fall on the sidewalk. Safety for public has always been high on his list.

Finally, so Charlie Rove Sykes would be able to do his new job better, he will be moving to the Central City so he will better understand their perceived problems. Rove Sykes had no comment about that statement.

See you in Washington.

Reinventing The Whallah!

While I was running around trying to make the best of a bad furlough day, I caught a blurb by Charlie Sykes mentioning something about a group trying to recruit people to monitor the talk radio.

When I was finally able to sit down at my computer tonight, I found this post on Syke's blog with this snippet:

As of this month, the Dem Party’s Communications Committee is kicking off two media initiatives that could have a powerful effect on our success in the upcoming elections, from the local level all the way to the Governor’s office and the U.S. Senate: a Radio Monitoring Team and a Rapid Messaging Team.

The Radio Monitoring Team will be charged with listening to Mark Belling, Charlie Sykes and Jeff Wagner, the trifecta of radical right wing radio in Milwaukee. Each team member will take several listening shifts each week, and will make a brief report on each broadcast. We don’t expect you to call in to these shows. You’ll simply listen and report back so that we and our candidates can stay on top of the latest right wing talking points. Since the times of these shows range from 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. weekdays, this would be an ideal activity for students, retirees, third shift workers and people who are able to make their own schedules.

Uh, what?

I have two comments regarding the Dems' plan.

One, after three years of doing this, you don't want just anyone doing it. It takes a trained ear and a strong fortitude for people to be able to stomach more than a few minutes of Sykes or the others.

Secondly, Duh! Didn't they ever year of Whallah!

Anywho, at least the link that Sykes provides has been broken, and there is a new thing to greet Sykes' readers, and I must say, they did well on it:

Hey Sykes and Belling Fans

Welcome to the Grassroots Northshore site.

The page you’re looking for is gone.

But now that you are here, you are among your real friends, the people who represent the interests of yourself and your family.

No doubt over the time you have been listening to Mark and Charlie, you have had your emotions needlessly stroked and have been steered in the wrong direction in favor of corporate friendly policies.

As the Boca Rattan GOP memo and Chairman Steele’s little romp at the Los Angeles strip club prove, the GOP cares nothing about your values and you.

Sure, you might not like our latte drinking, New York Times reading, high falutin’ ways, but all of us want what you want — a decent job, a nice house to live in, roads that don’t crumble, and health insurance that doesn’t cut you off just when you need it.

All the GOP, Charlie Sykes and Mark Belling want is for you to look the other way when your jobs are being sent overseas, taxes on the obscenely wealthy are cut so our school and infrastructure goes to hell, we have health coverage that busts our health and our incomes.

Just talk to us, we’d be happy to listen. You know we will be listening to them.

Too bad that this will probably go past most of their heads.

Things Aren't Looking Good For Sykes' Pals

It is no secret that Charlie Sykes holds a special place in his hear, or more likely his wallet, for Scott Walker and Rebecca Kleefisch in the upcoming autumnal elections.

But unfortunately for him, and fortunately for the state, they don't appear to be doing too well.

Walker is losing face this week and is continuing his inevitable slide down the polls.

But Kleefisch is actually having a worst time of it. And I don't mean from liberals. Look at what the very conservative Little Miss Sunshine had to say about her and a Facebook/Twitter survey Kleefisch held for herself:

Translation:
"I can't get no love in the district I live in. People are voting for someone else. Wah wah wah. Oh, I know, I'll make up a poll!"

Mrs. Kleefisch, I implore you. Wisconsin voters are looking for genuine. They are looking for a candidate who doesn't have to fabricate news or support from made-up polls. They are looking for a lieutenant governor candidate who isn't desperate to attach him or herself to the current candidate for governor. What's next, a hello-kitty lunch box from days past that you take to work to save on littering with your brown bag?

Charts of Facebook fans don't equal votes. These other candidates also have "Friends" over fan pages. Brett Davis, for example, has 1,150 "Fans" and 925 personal friends. That's 2075. Sure there's duplicates... but come on, at least do the math. And , were these people even contacted about your poll?

It just seems a little shady to me.

Ouch!

If things keep going so sour for Sykes' people, pretty soon he will have to change his nickname of "the Blogfather" to "the Blog Fodder."