Talk Radio: Not As Powerful As They Pretend To Be

Recently, they changed the way that they measure a radio shows popularity and the size of its radio audience, relying more on raw facts than a person's memory or answering as they think they ought to.

The ratings game has already changed a lot already. Erik Gunn from Milwaukee Magazine does a good job at spelling it out, much to Charlie Sykes' chagrin:

His discussion of the declining ratings at properties of the Journal Sentinel's corporate sibling, the Journal Broadcast Group (WTMJ-AM and WLWK-FM), is much more muted. We noticed, however, that Belling's chief rival, Charlie Sykes, ranks at No. 4 among morning shows (though Dudek didn't mention him by name).

"If you find a pattern in all this, let me know," Dudek concludes in his column. Well, here's one:

The audience for politically conservative talk radio is actually pretty small. The other stations that duke it out for listeners are variations on pop music - sliced and diced for specific segments of taste and demographics.

Does this suggest that perhaps the "power" of talk radio is just a bit less than the conventional wisdom holds?

The Epic FAIL of Epic FAILS

Last week, Tom Barrett's campaign web site went down for a few hours, either due to problems renewing the domain, or simply due to changing ownership of the domain, much like we experienced at Milwaukee County First earlier this year.

A relatively minor issue, but Scott Walker his his two main cheerleaders, Mark Belling and Charlie Sykes, thought it was worth a lot of attention.

Belling said on his radio show that it was indicative of Barrett's leadership style or some other similar type of rot.

Sykes took the hyperbole even further, calling it an Epic FAIL, and spent literally hours on this.

But I wonder if people would really see that as a failure on Barrett's part. I wonder it even more if they were to compare Barrett's faux pas to the fact that Scott Walker's Twitter account was suspended due to their spamming way.

We Choo-Choo-Choose The Truth

When it was announced that the Wisconsin Department of Transportation scratched out Oconomowoc as a place for a station for the high speed rail, Sykes and company had a field day.

Sykes has spent the last untold number of months griping about the train (but not the jobs it was bringing). Now he was off on a whole daily rant about how the draconian and dictatorial State was punishing Oconomowoc for "just asking a few questions." He would then add off how much better they were anyway, because no one wanted the dumb old train anyway.

But as is the norm, Sykes is dead wrong on more than one count.

First, as the astute Brew City Brawler points out, the mayor of Oconomowoc was doing more than just asking a few questions:

From the story:

In June 2009, the council unanimously passed a resolution giving initial support for a rail station, but since that time, Mayor Jim Daley has ousted former Mayor Maury Sullivan and two new aldermen have been elected.

Sullivan had said he wanted Oconomowoc to have a stop on the rail if the federal program was going to be initiated. Part of Daley’s campaign platform was his opposition to a high-speed rail station in Oconomowoc, and he maintained his opposition in an Aug. 4 interview.

To make Sykes look even more foolish, which is no small task, who claims the train station is something that no one wants in their community, there's quite a push from a number of places including Wauwatosa, Hartland, Sun Prairie and Waterloo.

I'm sure Sykes will be issuing a correction shortly, since he is so concerned with accuracy in reporting.

We'll Give Them A Quarter Point

On Friday, Sykes gleefully posted a point made by Brian Fraley of the Republican front group, MacGuyver Institute (for the Conservatively Insane), which basically stated that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel was full of it when they said that Scott Walker and Mark Neumann wanted to cut health care benefits to the elderly and disabled.

Sykes added that MJS never ran a correction based on their assumptions.

Of course, the unoriginal Patrick McIlheran had to chip in his two cents on the same subject.

I will give them a quarter of a point, since they are correct that Badger Care wouldn't service the elderly.

But that's where they stop being correct.

It can take two to three years for Social Security to recognize someone as disabled. During the time they are waiting for Social Security to deem them eligible, they are without insurance. Badger Care covers these people during the gap.

In fact, it is more than a little disappointing that Walker would be against this, since he ran the local version of Badger Care, which was called GAMP, successfully for the first seven years of his time as county executive.

So they lose half a point there.

The other quarter point comes from the fact that MJS did, unfortunately, run a correction, echoing the same incorrect information the squawkers were spewing.

If They Only Knew

Mike Plaisted on Sheriff David Clarke's bid on retaining his tin star:

No mention of his nut-right tea party ravings. No admission of his regular appearances on wing-nut radio and his tacit (or express) endorsement of all their often racist arguments and campaigns. No mention of the fact that Clarke's expensive billboard advertising is underwritten by the usual Republican and right-wing moneybags who have poisoned the political dialog in Milwaukee and nationally for decades.

If African-American Democratic voters knew Clarke's record, affiliations and the substance of his political grandstanding better, they would never return him to office. But Clarke is going to make sure they know he's African-American, as he has every right to do. But, alongside every one of those billboards should be a disclaimer: *NOTE: David Clarke is NOT a Democrat. More about that in a future post.

See also: "Running as a Democrat"

Vandal

From the talented Stuart Carlson:


Go to the above link and see the words that Carlson wrote about the upcoming farce.

The thing that gets to me is the hypocrisy of the whole stunt. The same people going to and supporting Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin's defacing of the Lincoln Memorial and of King's memory, are the same ones that are having holy fits about a mosque/community center being built near Ground Zero in New York City.

The Secret Of Right Wing Blogs Revealed

At great risk, we at Whallah! have found the secret scripture of right wing bloggers:


Source

McIlheran's Train Has Been Derailed

Congresswoman Gwen Moore came out in support of the Milwaukee County Transit System, saying that it should be first priority over the KRM rail line.

P-Mac jumps on the story with a very distorted view of what actually was said:

U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore raises at least the right kind of question about plans for commuter trains from Kenosha to Milwaukee:

“Moore says she's not opposed to commuter rail but believes funding for Milwaukee County's embattled bus system must come first,” the Journal Sentinel reports.

Which is the right thing to ask: Are the train's benefits, such as they are, worth the cost?

Except that is not what she said. What she really said was:

Like Milwaukee County Board Chairman Lee Holloway, Moore says she's not opposed to commuter rail but believes funding for Milwaukee County's embattled bus system must come first.

"A new commuter line between Kenosha, Racine and Milwaukee will undoubtedly offer new benefits to our communities," Moore said in a written statement. "But I think it's important for (the Milwaukee County Transit System) to have a dedicated source of a funding because any new expenditures could come at the cost of current bus service. That's unacceptable."

She is not opposed to the KRM and points out that it would be wonderful asset. She just pointed out that the first priority would be to stabilize and enhance the current system, otherwise the KRM wouldn't have an anchor for one of its ends. Furthermore, she recognizes the fact that if something isn't done to shore up the transit system, it will only continue Scott Walker's agenda of ruining our economy and driving up unemployment.

All she is doing is following the recommendations made by Milwaukee County First.

Paddy later complains about taxes and how most people wanted a dedicated fund, as was passed in a referendum two years ago. But for my money, I'll follow the findings of the Public Policy Forum before I pay attention to a Republican opposition researcher.

Charlie The Brave

To Mequon-livin', tassel-loafer-wearin', thrice-married Charlie, this is of course elitism, a big middle finger to his mouth-breathing audience. So in a self styled exercise of speaking truth to power, he blasted Pimental and editor Marty Kaiser (who is conservative -- gotta love Chuck's headgames) and told his listeners that even if it put his job at risk -- Marty's a big wheel, y'know-- he would "give you information you are not going to get from the rest of the media." Indeed, there is "no reason for me to have this job if I don't tell people exactly what I think about this."

It's difficult to tell whether chuck really thinks he is making some kind of principled stand or if he's just playing his audience for rubes. And frankly I can't decide which is more amusing.

-The Brawler

Read the whole thing here.

Why Chuckles Should Do Better Than Rip and Read

Charlie had a good time with this today before it came out that, well, just give it a look.

From Brett Davis' press release (emphasis added):

Lieutenant Governor candidate and State Representative Brett Davis has learned that the Wisconsin Department of Corrections is now
using state dollars to pay for driver’s licenses and state-issued identification
cards for prison inmates. Davis learned the policy change went
into effect on July 1 of this year.

“These absurd spending programs continue to show Governor Doyle to be hopelessly tone deaf to the will of the people of Wisconsin.”

All really good, inflammatory rhetoric that looks boffo on a campaign website. It overlooks the fact that the measure was part of the 2007-08 budget that Scott Suder and Mark Pocan put together.

I guess though, as one of Brett's constituents all these years, I kind of assumed he was reading the bills he was voting for.

Maybe he should have talked to Scott Suder about the problems that being careless with ID can cause.

Cross-poted from The Happy Circumstance

Paddy Mac, opposition researcher

If there be any lingering doubt that Patrick McIlheran and the Journal Sentinel have become the conduit to carry the Republican message in Wisconsin, today's paper should erase it.

Paddy Mac, in a column in the paper, followed by another blog item online, trashes a Democratic candidate for the State Assembly in Taylor County.

Paddy probably doesn't even know where Medford is, but he and his Milwaukee-based paper devote a lot of space to an obscure race in the hinterlands.

Think this is an example of great investigative journalism by McIlheran? Or that the Republicans found an outlet to dump their opposition research?

I know which one I'd put my money on.

In the distant past, when Paddy first started to write his daily right-wing drivel, I complained to Ricardo Pimentel, the editorial page editor, who assured me that there would soon be some balance, and I would be pleasantly surprised by the announcement -- which never came. It's been a couple of years now, the JS has greatly reduced its staff, not added any columnists, but still has found room for Paddy.

Will he now work his way through each of the competitive legislative races, doing the Republicans' dirty work for them?

In the past, I'd have been surprised. But nothing the JS does surprises me any more, unfortunately.

Mark Belling: Spittle Man

Cindy Kilkenny has a post up pointing out the silliness which is Mark Belling and his tirade about Tom Barrett not having a water heater inspected after it was installed.

The comment thread has some great lines in it, including this one, which pretty accurately sums things up:

Belling has limited time left. There is no way to grow his audience, and he has to ramp up the rhetoric and fabricate issues to get anyone to listen to him. I feel sorry for anyone who listens to him thinking they are getting content or information. They are getting spittle.

Fisking The Unfiskable

The headline reads, "An amateur getting up to speed " so you can't blame me for thinking it would be McIlheran apologizing for taking so long to turn into a journalist. But, no. It was a lavish tongue bathing of The Improbable Candidate, Ron Johnson.

Paddy tells us what we already knew; that Johnson often seems clueless in public, as if he was too shy when out of his element to observe the social niceties.

So there was Ron Johnson, running for U.S. Senate, touring Joy Global's
P&H mining equipment factory on National Ave. in July and not doing what
candidates are supposed to do.

Paddy presents Johnson as some sort of benighted savant in corporate America rather than a man who has walked a plant floor since 1979 when he was taken into his in-laws' business.

The tour passes a gear five feet in diameter. He touches it, naturally,
though it casts no ballots.

It's almost as if he expects Johnson to coo at the wonder of the big casting.

Remember that movie cast game from The National Lampoon? They listed Hollywood actors in the format of You Want___, You'll Settle For____, You Get____ as in You Want Sylvester Stallone, You'll Settle For Jason Statham, You Get Vin Diesel. P-Mac plays the WisGOP version and Johnson gets cast as the bottom of the barrel.

Republicans hoped that Wisconsin's most masterful politician in 30
years, Tommy Thompson, would take on 18-year incumbent Sen. Russ Feingold this vulnerable year. They nearly got Terry Wall, a businessman with political
experience.

Instead, they're likely to get Johnson, an Oshkosh plastics
manufacturer with almost no engagement with politics until last fall (provided
he beats underfunded Watertown businessman Dave Westlake in the
primary).

P-Mac glosses over the fact that the Republicans pissed all over T-Wall in a race to distance themselves from him trying to get to Johnson's wallet. That Westlake has had a consistent message without the gaffe-fest of Johnson means little because he commits the Republican sin of penury. Paddy also neglects to mention the abortive candidacy of Dick Leinenkuegel, a seasoned politician elbowed aside in the rush to find a candidate who was absolutely unqualified for high office.

Paddy Mac makes excuses for Johnson without question.

Which means he's got to brush up quickly on other issues, too. Feingold's
surrogates have claimed Johnson is being heavily handled, filled with talking
points on what the senator repeatedly insists are "extreme" positions. Yet
Johnson freely confesses to his own beginner mistakes, such as saying
"licensing" when he meant "permits" in an interview on guns.

Never mind that he said "licensing" in the context of automobiles. He backtracked on the Great Lakes oil question by saying he never heard the question. He waffled on selling his BP stock, saying he'd sell when the market was back up and ignoring the reason that Badgers of good will might want him divested. His latest whopper is that sunspots are the cause of Global Climate Change and that cars help the trees grow. These are not stories of a political innocent finding his way. This is a loose cannon rolling on the decks of the ship of state firing money bombs and faux pas at random.

McIlheran goes on to tell us:

He dismisses talk about changing birthright citizenship, cautiously lauds
the drawdown in Iraq, says Republicans "went off the rails" with overspending
and says "the way you raise revenue is you get the economy going again" rather
than raising taxes.

All good positions taken years ago by Johnson's opponent, Russ Feingold.

Paddy Mac ends his paean to unpreparedness with an elegiac image.

He elaborates on answers, lacking the talking-point caution customary to
candidates. You can see he's been thinking about this stuff lately, an
intellectually curious man who spent the summer learning about trade by touching
gears, thinking about how his principles apply to politics.

I'm guessing that a self-funded candidate who managed to scare off the deep pockets of a Wall and Leinenkuegel didn't learn about trade by touching gears this week. It does make sense though, that McIlheran would find inspiration in a man ill-prepared to do the job he seeks. That CV has served him well since the JS promoted him to writing fluff like this.

How about this course for the Simple Candidate. Talk to someone other than conservatives. Dave Westlake has been pounding the pavement for a year talking to conservatives, liberals and non-political groups. All he gets for his trouble and loyalty is McIheran's scorn.

Next, debate your opponent. You've scared off all the serious candiddates save one. Stand up like a man and debate him in front of a public audience. Enough star chambers and command performances for the priveleged few.

Third and last, say what you mean. Stand by it. Own up when you foul up and don't hang around with hacks like P-Mac. He's not helping you, either.

The RoJo Policy Towards The Press Continues

From xoff at Uppity Wisconsin:

Patrick McIlheran, the Journal Sentinel right-wing columnist in residence, tags along with Senate candidate Ron Johnson, and -- wow! -- he turns out just to be a regular guy, not a politician!

He's just learning the ropes, Paddy says, so you'll just to excuse him if he doesn't know shit from Shinola when it comes to issues.

The real news of the column, however, is this: While RoJo's handlers hide him from the news media as much as possible, except when he needs to walk back the latest of his daily gaffes, Paddy Mac is invited to tag along.

It doesn't surprise me at all. Any similarity between what McIlheran does and actual reporting is purely accidental.

IOOKIARDI - Marriage Edition

In today's installment of "It's Only OK If A Republican Does It," we turn to James Wigderson.

Wigderson takes umbrage with the fact that the left has been pointing out "self-made millionaire" RoJo became self-made by marrying into it.

Wigderson then decides to bring up Russ Feingold's marriage history:

However, do Wisconsin Democrats really want to go into whether or not Johnson was “lucky” in whom he married (for over 30 years)? Which of Senator Russ Feingold’s three wives was the lucky charm for him? Or will it be number four? After all, the plural of spouse is “spice” and right now Feingold is on a pace to pass Larry King. I would assume that Feingold supporters would be doing everything they can to keep a candidate’s personal life off limits. Yet Feingold and his supporters keep going back to mentioning Johnson’s personal life.

We at Whallah! anxiously await Wigderson's pieces on Charlie Sykes and Jessica McBride's marital and extramarital exploits. The one on Sykes will probably be in a few weeks, to time it with Liz Woodhouse Day.

Kleefisch Gets Caught In An iLie

Rebecca Kleefisch, Sykes' conservative correspondent, and Lt. Governor candidate, got herself caught up in a little bit of a lie, when she was trying to play the role of Jane Common Woman:

Rebecca Kleefisch Lies from Sara N. Dipity on Vimeo.

H/T sarandipity on Twitter

McBride 'stunningly ill-informed?'

Our gal Jessica McBride?

Authoring "a stunningly ill-informed article"?

On a racial topic?

Hard to believe.

Judge for yourself.

Sykes' Parenthood Hypocrisy

Via the Brawler:

Charlie Sykes, who exited two child-producing marriages, now jumping on Jennifer Aniston regarding her remarks that women "don't have to fiddle with a man to have that child." Deploring "Hollywood celebrities glamorizing fatherless parenting." "are dads optional?"

Apparently it is OK as long as it's the father that takes himself out of the equation.

Sykes Has A New Dilemma: Support Walker Or Himself

We all know that Charlie Sykes does little more than parrot the talking points that the GOP email him that morning or the night before. So day in and day out, Sykes will use his bully microphone to rant and rave about the continued high unemployment or the poor education that our children are supposed to be receiving. And if he is not tearing down the good things, he is building up the bad, such as with false praises of Scott Walker, even if he has to lie to do so (which is most of the time).

But Sykes is also an author, who has a number of published books. One of his more well-known books is "Dumbing Down Our Kids," in which he decries that kids can't read or write like they should be able to, and how that is a drain on society. Or something like that.

And that is where Sykes faces a new dilemma.

Over the weekend, Sykes' favorite boy, Scott Walker, shot his fool mouth off and told kids that they would be best off to drop out of school and try to get a job in this depressed economy. And that is in spite of the fact that people with higher educations are experiencing less problems with unemployment than people with only a high school diploma or no diploma at all.

So now, does Sykes stay true to himself and say Walker was wrong in that comment or does Sykes throw himself under the bus to help support Walker's campaign?

Hey, Look At Us! Pleeeeeease!

Brian Fraley, part of the Republican front group, MacGuyver Institute, wrote a piece that can only be described as a desperate plea for attention and/or credibility:

Can you imagine that? The Doyle Administration is actually forecasting an imbalance of a quarter of billion dollars in the General Fund and most of the State of Wisconsin is clueless because for whatever reason, the news has gone unreported by traditional information sources. People may be suffering ‘bad economic news’ fatigue, but that’s not a reason to let such news go unreported.

It is a compelling example of the need for MacIver News Service to exist.

However, immediately following that, Fraley belies his protestations of being a legitimate news service:

Through MNS, we provide the public with copyright free, original news reporting on the actions and policies of state and local governments, including the actions and policies of specific elected public servants. Our perspective pieces offer analysis and commentary on these same policies and people.

The MacIver Institute cares about public policy and the impact public policy decisions will have on Wisconsin’s future.

We understand the economic model of the news business has changed. Outlets that used to have significant resources devoted to following state government are now lucky to have one set of eyes watching the Capitol on a part-time basis.

In part, that’s why we started the MacIver News Service.

Any blogger, pamphleteer, newspaper or broadcast station in the state is free to reproduce our articles, with attribution, at no cost. Thanks to our various distribution and social networking channels, our reports have been seen by hundreds of thousands of individuals over the last year and a half.

So while we are dismayed at the fact significant stories are being missed by the traditional media, we are proud of the reputation we’re building. Here at MacIverInstitute.com, our goal is to create a place to which people who share our concerns can turn for information and insight.

An actual news service is only interested in reporting the news, not setting forth a certain political philosophy or controlling the facts that are to be disseminated in order to promote a candidate or an agenda.

If they want to be considered a credible news source, they need to work on their objectivity and a full representation of the facts, not just the ones they think will promote their political agenda. But then again, being a news service isn't what they were formed to do, now was it?

TMJ4 Gets National Attention For Giant Strawberries

Not exactly a knee slapper, but sometimes any attention is better than none, I guess:

We Take Ayn Rand Seriously

This has been making the rounds for a while, but I just can't help but thinking of Charlie Sykes or Patrick McIlheran with their skewed perception of reality when I read this:

Now let me explain why your son was wrong.

When little Aiden toddled up our daughter Johanna and asked to play with her Elmo ball, he was, admittedly, very sweet and polite. I think his exact words were, "Have a ball, peas [sic]?" And I'm sure you were very proud of him for using his manners.

To be sure, I was equally proud when Johanna yelled, "No! Looter!" right in his looter face, and then only marginally less proud when she sort of shoved him. The thing is, in this family we take the philosophies of Ayn Rand seriously. We conspicuously reward ourselves for our own hard work, we never give to charity, and we only pay our taxes very, very begrudgingly.

That does sound like the GOP creed. They want all the money for learning to crap on everyone else, and they don't like to share.

Something Smells Fishy

Ron Johnson, just like Scott Walker, runs to Charlie Sykes every time he gets into trouble, hoping that Ol' Chuckles bombastic blathering will help them past the self-inflicted damage.

Johnson, still reeling from a series of blunders, including flip flopping on whether to sell his BP stock, praising the thought of sending American jobs overseas, and wanting to limit people's ability to exercise their Second Amendment rights, was in desperate need for some help from old Uncle Chuck.

But RoJo is really nothing more than Wisconsin's version of Joe the Plumber. A fake who doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut, as One Wisconsin Now points out:

Ross said Johnson's fishing story wasn't particularly important, but part of a larger issue of Johnson's evolving public positions and possible embellishment of his "rags to riches" story. Johnson's television ads indicate his business skills make him a qualified leader.

Johnson's website reads, "In 1979, Ron and Jane moved to Wisconsin, where Ron started a business called PACUR with his brother-in-law." It also says, "PACUR has grown from a company supplying a single customer to the largest producer in the world of a specialty plastic used in medical device packaging and high tech printing applications." [Johnson campaign website]

The truth about PACUR and Johnson:

· PACUR was created as an off-shoot of the Curwood plastics company

· Curwood was founded by Johnson's father-in-law, Howard Curler

· Having just moved to Wisconsin, Johnson went to work for PACUR when he was 24-years-old along his brother-in-law, Curler's son.

· PACUR's sole client for years was Curwood.

"Just because your dad liked to fish does not make you a fisherman, and because your father-in-law built you a business, does not make you an entrepreneur," said Ross. "And unfortunately, Ron Johnson has fallen for the failed Bush tax cuts for millionaires hook, line and sinker."

Ya know, for a couple of professionals, you would think that RoJo and Chuckie would be able to be better liars than they are.

Bruce Murphy Deals A Royal Flush

In his weekly column, Bruce Murphy takes it to Charlie Sykes, Mark Belling, Patrick McIlheran and my BFFs at CRG and their misinformation (and outright lies) about MMSD and the Deep Tunnel.

The whole column is one of those must reads, but I'll give you a sampling here:

The recent flood dropped at least 40 billion gallons of water on the metro area in about five hours. Probably no deep tunnel in the world could handle that much volume. Milwaukee’s Deep Tunnel holds only 432 million gallons.

The irony of the complaints by Sykes, Belling, McIlheran and the CRG is that they all claim to be fiscal conservatives. But their constant harping that the sewerage system doesn’t work creates momentum to spend huge amounts of taxes. The only possible solution to reduce overflows was studied by the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District in 2007, which found it would cost an estimated $6 billion to add enough capacity (about 1.7 billion gallons) to the Deep Tunnel to get closer to a goal of no overflows. And the pain of that taxation (for very scant gain in sewage overflows) would be felt by all 28 municipalities in the metro area served by the MMSD – the same communities Belling and Sykes claim to be standing up for. Except when they aren’t.

What Religion Would That Be?

Peter DiGaudio is as much fun on twitter as he is on his cyclic blogging. For example, DiGaudio thought this to be worth the re-tweet:


By inference, that must mean that liberals are Christians, since it was the very Christian James T. Harris that claimed to own his daughter.

Cartoon FAIL Times Two

Kevin Fischer, a cartoon caricature in his own right, put up what I am sure he considered to be a very witty cartoon which disparaged gay marriage, women's rights and unified health care.

A commenter soon put him to rights on the Bill of Rights:

The "It's Not In The Constitution" argument was contemplated by the Founders and addressed by the Ninth Amendment.

"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."

You can't even get the Citizenship 101 stuff right.

Maybe Fischer is giving Constitution lessons to Ron Johnson.

Putting The Faux Into Faux Outrage

Charlie Sykes is leading the pack of rabid echo-maniacal bloggers in questioning whether the person that Senator Russ Feingold uses in his latest commercial is even a real person.

First, let me say that I don't know if it is a real name of a real person, or a name taken out of the blue. And frankly, I couldn't care less. But since the right want to make a deal out of it, let's look at some things.

First of all, as my good friend, Jay Bullock, points out, there would be good reason on why not to use a person's real name:

Consider: How do we even know it's a fake name? Because as soon as the ad appeared, the right-wing smear machine flew into action to see if they could find this "Elizabeth M. Ackland." Google searches, Lexus-Nexus searches--Charlie Sykes even went so far as to search cemeteries. This is not just a casual "I wonder who that is" curiosity. This is obsession. So if you want to believe that the motives of people like Charlie Sykes in digging obsessively for information about Ackland were entirely pure, be my guest. But you have to ask yourself: Why were the right wingers so hell-bent on finding Ackland, if she were real? Of what possible use to them would the information be about where she worked? Where she lived? Where her children went to school?

Yeah, scary. When you consider the way that the Charlie Sykes stormtroopers (not a Nazi thing--they embrace that for themselves) treat the personal and professional lives of those of us who are real and do attach our real names to what we do and our support for candidates, it would have been irresponsible for Feingold to subject an innocent person and her family to the hell that was sure to follow.

(You know Jay is hitting the nail on the head when Freddy The Fly Dooley starts to throw tantrums and resort to name calling.)

Illy-T reminds us that this is not an unusual course of action for the right wing hate squads, and reminds us of how Michele Malkin made life hell for a sick twelve-year-old boy and his family during the S-chip debate three years ago.

Illy-T and Jay also remind us that this isn't the first time that someone used phony people. Via xoff, we are reminded that Scott Walker had used paid actors to portray "real people" in a TV ad.

Out of curiosity, I googled mrs. capper's name. It came up with one hit, for a facebook page that belonged to a woman who most definitely wasn't my wife. Just because Sykes' stalking came up empty doesn't necessarily mean that the person doesn't exist.

However, there is one thing that my esteemed brethren of the left have missed. This one thing shows that Sykes is the ultimate master of all hypocrisy and why he is the one that put the faux in this round of faux outrage.

That one thing, my dear reader, is a name:

Liz Woodhouse.

It's Like He Can't Help Himself

Charlie Sykes' creepiest moment?

Understatement of the Year

The top contender for this year's Understatement of the Year award goes Illy-T, who demolishes PaddyMac who tries to pretend he's a Constitutional scholar:

I understand it's nearly impossible to believe, but Ann Coulter is lying and Patrick McIlheran is playing her apparently witless dupe.

I Hope It's In The Cow Barn

Today, Jeff Wagner is supposed to be holding a live debate between Scott Walker and Mark Neumann at State Fair Park. Yeah, like Wagner is going to be a fair and effective moderator.

Anyway, I hope they plan on holding their little rap session in the cow barn. At least there, they already know how to deal with all the bullshit that will be flowing.

Faux Outrage, Real Hypocrisy

Scott Walker must not be doing so well in the polls and is feeling pretty nervous.

He has joined in the likes of Charlie Sykes, Mark Belling, Fred Dooley, Tom McMahon, Patrick Dorwin and the rest of the Posse Comatose to attack Tom Barrett about the MMSD dump from the record breaking rainfall a couple of weeks ago. You know, the one that Walker ran away from when his leadership was needed the most.

They wail and moan about the poop in the water and snarl that Barrett hasn't fixed the problem.

The funny thing is, it is these same people that, day in and day out, week after week, month after month, and year after year, piss and moan that their taxes are too high. Now they're pissing and moaning that Barrett didn't raise their taxes enough.

I wonder if they realize how foolish they make themselves look sometime.

Sykes' Problem With Raw Spewage

Charlie Sykes has been focusing like a man with OCD on the sewage dump that coincided with the eight inches of rain that fell in one day a couple of weeks ago. His obsession with the floaters in the lake is much akin to the poo-flinging monkeys at a zoo.

A faithful reader wonders of Sykes is suffering from "Barrett Derangement Syndrome". I always thought it was because Sykes was Anal Retentive.

Brawler also touched on the subject the other day:

He's certainly trying hard, spinning hard that it's a failure in wake of recent floods (and crying "media conspiracy" when confronted with facts that argue otherwise) and trying to stick the "Wisconsin's biggest polluter" label on Tom Barrett. Charlie has been on topic for at least two weeks, including on Sunday INCITE!, an impressive level of focus for Chuck (who often says he isn't going to let an issue go ... and then does). A level of focus, that suggests at least to the Brawler, that he may be in cahoots with others who see it as a potential knock on Barrett and counter to the "Walker is incompetent" theme.

Being the trend setter that I am, I noticed Sykes' scatological tendencies a while ago, pointing out the hypocrisy of Sykes' stance, since the alternatives would be a lot more poop in the lake, or a tax hike of several billion dollars. That is probably why Sykes never talks about solutions as he flings his poo around the studio.

Glenn Beck's Favorites

Kind of says it all, doesn't it?

Fischer Predicts Walker Victory

Kevin Fischer: Wedding Damner

Kevin Fischer has his undies in a bundle because he wasn't invited to Chelsea Clinton's wedding. Apparently, he must have heard that they had an open bar or something.

I won't bore you with what an ignorant, hateful post it is. Instead, I'll share what the Chief wrote about it, in rather direct terms:

Which begs question: Why bother pretending to discuss public affairs when we bloggers can fling names like oh so many piles of shit in a monkey cage at the zoo?

Seriously. Fischer is an inbred idiot man-child so entrenched in his worldview that no argument is ever going to persuade him to change his mind, so what's the point of pretending like we're having a policy discussion? Why don't we just dispense with the pleasantries and just get down to calling each other impotent twats?

I'd be more than happy to go this route in the future. It's not like Fischer has anything interesting to say about anything else.