By Golly, She Really Is A Conservative Reporter

Rebecca Kleefisch has herself listed as a "Conservative Correspondent" on her Linked In profile.

Today, she proved it.

She reported that she was first in the state to file her nomination papers.

But, the truth is, she wasn't. Unless she changed her name and gender.

Warning: Exploding Heads In 3...2...1...

Patrick McIlheran and Charlie Sykes use a lot of hair spray to keep their heads exploding from all their hypocrisy.

But I don't know if there is enough hair spray to help these two pro-school choice zealots now.

From JSOnline: Study shows no big advantage for charter schools:

Researchers followed 2,330 students who applied to 36 charter schools in 15 states and found that students who won lotteries to attend the schools did not perform significantly better in reading or math, nor have greatly improved attendance and behavior, than students who lost the lottery and had to attend other schools.

Correctly Reading The Feingold/Johnson Poll

The right wingers are already trying to make hey with the latest poll results from Public Policy Polling. The wingers are misinterpreting the poll to think that Feingold is ahead by only a point or two.

However, the Chief points out a pertinent factoid:

Johnson is largely unknown to voters in the state. 62% have no opinion of him.

Thus, to correctly interpret the poll results, it should be thus:

• Feingold 45%
• Anyone but Feingold 27%
• Johnson 16%

In other words, Johnson is losing to an Feingold and anyone else. And for this, the GOP sold their delegate votes?

Linked In Questions For Kleefisch

Rebecca Kleefisch, the would be video-journalist turned would-be Lieutenant Governor candidate, has a very strange Linked-In profile:


There are two things that stand out to me immediately.

One is that she lists her Lt. Gov. has a past job. But she is still actively campaigning. Kind of sloppy, to say the least.

The other is that she lists herself as "Conservative Correspondent at Journal Broadcast Group."

I always thought that the whole thing about self-promotion was to make yourself stand out in a crowd, not boast of being one of the sheep.

Why Hasn't His Head Exploded Yet?

I am starting to believe that Patrick McIlheran is not of this planet. There is no way that any normal human could pull off what he did today.

First, he starts out mewling that I, on behalf of myself and my colleagues at Milwaukee County First, had the audacity to expect our elected leaders to actually do their jobs in protecting the public safety as opposed to being worried about how a catastrophic event might affect their political campaigns. The nerve we have. I'm sure he is disappointed that we would actually want to hold Walker accountable and responsible for his behaviors.

He also gets out his scolding on for people being outraged that their safety is being endangered for political gain. To further his hypocrisy, he is just fine with Scott Walker being the first out of the gate spinning his damage control spiel saying that it wasn't deferred maintenance, even though it will be a loooong time before the investigation is done.

Then he spews out some rambling thing praising Sam the Scooper for smarting off to Vice President Biden. You know, that whole speaking truth to power thing is sooooo patriotic. Unless that power happens to be Walker apparently.

McIlheran then ends his day by getting snarky about a political writer that is critical of conservatives. This is coming from a guy who would rather sell our safety for the sake of a few political points or the chance to have an extra nickel in his pocket on tax day. Of course, under the Walker plan, which Paddy endorses, that nickel will cost him thousands of dollars later. But no one ever accused Paddy of being intellectually honest.

But the amazing thing is that PaddyMac is able to pull off that much hypocrisy and double talk without his head exploding. He must use the same hair spray that Sykes does.

Paddy's Superiority Complex

PaddyMac takes a shining to "The Bell Curve," the racist book written by Ron Johnson's buddy, Charles Murray.

In other words, for Paddy, white makes right and bright.

The Brawler flattens that bell curve.

There Are Worse Things

Our frequent and faithful conservative commenter and critic, Dan from Las Vegas, tells us about a commercial he heard Rush Limbaugh do for an identity protection company. Dan criticized both Limbaugh and the company, Lifelock, for using a dead soldiers identity from Wisconsin who had their identity stolen by some low lifes.

Here's a snippet:

To use a dead soldier for an advertisement for identity theft smacks of being immoral and if they didn't have permission to use the soldier or her mother's name, if find it to be down right disgusting and unethical.
I think the Lifelock commercial is disgusting and it ought to be dropped right away. Lifelock and Limbaugh ought to be ashamed of themselves.

I have to agree with Dan that this is almost as vile as the jerks that used the identity for ill-gotten gain. While what Limbaugh and Lifelock might or might not have been legal, it was definitely tasteless.

But on the bright side, even Limbaugh's poor taste, or even that of the criminals', is not the worst use of a dead soldier that I am aware of. That dubious prize will long be held by Westboro Baptist Church.

McBride seeks friends, part-time work

Mayor Scrima, next time you need your office painted, I am willing to do it for 500 bucks plus the cost of the paint. Contact me through The Freeman. Or just send me a message on Facebook (if you ever confirm my long languishing friend request).

-- Who else but Jessica McBride in the Waukesha Freeman. Quite a comedown from the glory days.

Let's Have A Real Race

The other day, Brew City Brawler picked up on something from the Charlie Sykes show, in which Neumann called in to take Sykes on yet another attack. From the Brawler:

While on the air, Neumann mentioned he had sent Charlie an email earlier in the week saying he would be happy to debate the issues with Walker on Charlie's show. He would still be happy to do that. Charlie muttered something to the effect of he'd look into it.

So will Charlie facilitate such a debate? Or does he fear that Walker would founder if he actually had to debate Neumann vs. simply calling in with sputtering points?

Xoff picked up on this and said that all the Republican rivals should have debates throughout the state.

I'd say let's have the best of all worlds and revitalize a former idea.

Let them have their debates done several times, but at the WTMJ studio, with it being simultaneously broadcasted around the state, like they do with sporting events.

But lose Sykes, since we know he is just a puppet. Instead, put Xoff On TMJ and let him be the moderator. That way there can be no claims of bias, since he probably dislikes most Republicans equally.

Ron Johnson Wants His Religion To Be Your Religion

The Tea Party's favorite neophyte needs a lesson in why the Pilgrims, "Made haste from Babylon."

Ron is pro-life, pro-family, and believes that freedom of religion doesn’t
mean freedom from religion.

Remember when JFK had to promise that his religion wouldn't be a part of his decision making? Wasn't that a simpler time?

Clear Channel: Pride Is OK As Long As It's Not Too Proud

Clear Channel has been censoring Pride advertisements in St. Petersburg, Florida:

Clear Channel refused to comment on the matter to local media, but I think the difference between the accepted and rejected ads is pretty clear. Gays are OK, as long as no sex is implied. The two women on the beach seem to be getting along quite nicely, and the two men, while looking right at the camera, are shirtless and touching in a really not-straight-bro way. The drag queen is barely showing any skin and the two men in the family are sitting a comfortable distance apart (wonder what Clear Channel would have thought if they were together and the kid was on the left?).

But I'm really wondering why Clear Channel gets to make this decision at all. Their business depends directly on public subsidies - if the government didn't build roads in a particular area there would be no people to look at a particular ad. People can't avoid looking at their ads while driving because people are attentive to the road, so people have an interest in and a right to determine what messages are presented, or not presented, along the roads they built.

Obviously no one's going to go forcing them to explain themselves or reverse their decision. St. Petersburg Pride has removed all of their ads, saying they "would not allow Clear Channel to dictate what message we could convey." As well they shouldn't.

H/T Dean Mundy on Twitter, who does not necessarily endorse what he tweets.

Missing The Bigger Picture

It started when Owen Robinson posted his column regarding the limits of government, which includes this:

Time after time we are seeing the inherent limitations of our federal government. It is not capable of acting to correct our nation’s and world’s ills. It can’t plug the gushing oil well in the gulf. It can’t make companies hire people. It can’t thwart illegal aliens. It can’t create Mideast peace. It’s not a matter of desire; it’s a matter of capability. Our federal government is not God and has a limited capacity to effect change.

These are but a few recent examples of government’s inability to properly manage certain things. It’s not government’s fault. It would never be able to manage such complex events. It is our fault in supposing that our government should manage such events. In fact, wiser people would recognize that such events are properly resolved with creativity, assertiveness, and intelligence which government is naturally incapable of achieving.

This simple inadequacy of government to manage complex events is what makes me fear the coming onslaught of government-run health care. It’s one thing for President Obama to claim responsibility and authority of the BP oil spill as it continues to spew oil into the gulf. It’s quite another thing for President Obama to claim responsibility and authority for grandma’s next chemotherapy treatment.

Government has a role and a purpose, but it is necessarily limited because government can never be as flexible or creative as the private sector in finding solutions. Let us recognize the limits of government and turn to ourselves when adversity presents itself.

PaddyMac is besides himself with glee regarding Owen's post.

The Brawler points out that the government has been responsible for many great things, like reducing poverty among the elderly.

But what all three of these gentlemen miss is the obvious, bigger picture.

Where Owen said that the government will never be as "flexible or creative as the private sector" in fixing things, what they fail to realize or admit is that most often, as with the BP oil spill, it is the private sector that screwed it up so royally that the no one can fix it. It is also the private sector that then turns to the government to clean up their mess.

How Many Mistakes Can You Find?

Look at this tweet by Jill Bader, Scott Walker's campaign mouthpiece:


How many mistakes can you find? I spotted three:

1. There is no rampant voter fraud in Wisconsin, much less Milwaukee, unless you count the voter fraud that was spurred by false rumors on talk radio.
2. Even if there was voter fraud, how is Barrett responsible? Is he the one doing the fraudulent voting, or is the talk radio listeners?
3. Sykes hasn't written a post in ages. What Bader is crediting him for is nothing more than a couple of copy and paste jobs.

But I will give Bader credit for one thing. At least she's not as bad as her boss, who is campaigning from his county office.

McIlheran Should Be Ashamed

The Sunday before last, Patrick McIlheran wrote a column celebrating the clearing of former US Attorney Steven Biskupic.

Biskupic, I'm sure the gentle reader will remember, was investigated for possibly being part of the Bush/Cheney attempt to smear Democrats by bringing up trumped up charges against Democrats or their staff. Biskupic went after Georgia Thompson of the Governor Doyle's staff. Ms. Thompson was convicted, but had that overturned by a higher court, who called Biskupic's evidence as being "beyond thin."

The problem with PaddyMac's article is that he seems to have his sense of proportionality all out of whack. Or as Erik Gunn of Milwaukee Magaizine's "Pressroom Buzz"puts it:

At least McIlheran acknowledged that Biskupic's target, Thompson, lost her job and spent four months in prison. Still, his dudgeon at what remained an arguably legitimate inquiry into the U.S. attorney's motives for pursuing the Thompson case is astonishingly disproportionate in light of all that Biskupic suffered -- namely, a nice job with a private law firm, where an educated guess says he probably makes at least as much in one year as Wisconsin taxpayers had to pay to reimburse Thompson for her legal fees.

Harris Goes Beyond The Pale

We already knew that James Harris was a sexist, when he said he owned his daughter.

Harris' sexism and misogyny became more and more focused on Michelle Obama.

But when he refers to the First Lady as a prostitute, that goes beyond the pale.

He is obviously intimidated by beautiful, intelligent women, especially if they are African American.

The man really needs to go to therapy to deal with his own insecurity issues, instead of making a fool of himself like that.

The Chief has more.

Who Wants To Help Sykes With His Mortgage?

Apparently not the Brawler:

The funny thing is, Charlie Sykes was crying class warfare earlier this year when the Obama Administration was talking about reducing the mortgage interest deduction for households pulling in more than $250,000. Such an action would crash the market because Chuck's neighbors would have to postpone building a new gazebo in their arbor.

But for Charlie Sykes, it's always about two Americas. His, and everyone else's.

Rowen Takes Stock Of Talk Radio

In a commentary about how Sykes et alia seem to only focus on the negative, especially with the stock market, James Rowen offers this sagacious advice:

The truth is that the markets - - interconnected worldwide electronically, and balanced against and intermingled with each other - - are still trying to find their way out of a financial meltdown born of reckless deregulation and greed that started in 2007 and led to the worst economic crisis since 1929.

So there will be volatility. Not a partisan dynamic.

You have to remember that talk radio is part politics, part entertainment/distraction and hardly fact-driven.

So the next time you hear a talker worrying aloud about the Dow-Jones average - - keep an open mind and consider the exact opposite from what you're hearing.

And if they are bemoaning falling prices, or touting gold, maybe it's a buying opportunity in stocks.

GOP-Endorsed Senate Candidate Verifiably Insane

Ron Johnson, via Illy-T:

Remember, this is the principled First Amendment champion who was filmed with his posse tearing down the political campaign signs (i.e., "speech") of two of his Republican opponents.

[We have] good people in talk radio who will tell us the truth. Now of course liberals will try and shut these people up. They'll do everything in their power to shut these people up, so it will be our job to make sure the liberals don't succeed.*

Rupert Murdoch, Rush Limbaugh, Charlie Sykes ... those are the real victims in America, and their mighty Truths are under attack.

"Good people in talk radio who will tell us the truth?"

Such a large disconnect from reality is most definitely a symptom of schizophrenia.

Why Is He Even On The Air?

Leave it to Glenn Beck to make Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter look almost human:



And why do right wingers think it is even close to acceptable to pick on someone's kids?

Sounds like a certain troll I know...

H/T Zach