Belling Is A Double Liar

Mark Belling is being ridiculed in the paper for making the false accusation that Senator Russ Feingold had not actually been at this house during the filming of his most recent commercial. This is, of course, blatantly false.

The article does have a couple of key lines that gives an amazingly harsh and honest look inside squawk radio:

We asked Belling for his evidence.

"I have none," he said in an e-mail to PolitiFact Wisconsin. "It’s an accusation. They can deny it and if they're right, I'll admit it.

"But it's very fishy."

[...]

"I have no proof,’’ Belling said. "I'm making an accusation that it's faked, and they can confirm or deny it."

[...]

As for Belling’s accusation, the veteran talk show host tried to turn Feingold’s own ad against him, to suggest he’s so out of touch with state voters that he was even out of state when the ad was filmed. He said he based his assertion on his own review of the photography and on one unnamed source, who had no knowledge of how the shoot was conducted but who thought it looked fishy. As for Belling’s proof, we’ll use his own words to describe it: "I have none."

And we’ll add three words of our own: Pants on Fire.

It should be pointed out that, at least locally, Zach Wisniewski was the first to point out the allegation was false, a full week before Belling decided to come out with "his" findings.

McIlheran: Walker's Failings Aren't Walker's Fault

In his column in Sunday's paper, Patrick McIlheran tries to stand up for Scott Walker and his failed economic development program.

McIlheran manages to blame everyone and everything shy of sunspots for Walker's failure:

Barrett's real point was the geography. The former freeway is county land. When former Mayor John Norquist ordered the freeway destroyed, he and others predicted that development would flock there. It hasn't, and Barrett said this was Walker's fault.

It must be someone's fault, since such great things were predicted. So sure was the Milwaukee County Board of the site's appeal that it added some conditions. Anyone buying Park East land from the county had to pay union-scale construction wages, had to hit certain racial hiring quotas, had to prefer city contractors, had to meet certain "green" building standards.

These rules add significant costs. Builders warned the board of this. The board scoffed. Walker vetoed the conditions as job-killing social engineering. The board overrode him. The land was "so valuable that, in my mind, we will get what we want," said the plan's sponsor, Willie Johnson Jr.

What we got was gravel. Walker, it turns out, was right. The land lay unbought through boom years as developers took their capital to less costly, less bossy places. This was the predictable result of harnessing economic development to an urge to re-engineer society.

At this point, I should note that Barrett, when running for mayor, supported a package of such requirements for that land.

In other words, it's the fault of African Americans, people wanting to make a wage that would support a family, environmentalists, the County Board and Milwaukeeans that Walker couldn't get that land sold in eight years. At least in McIlheran's world.

Unfortunately for McIlheran, his world and reality don't often sync up together.

If these conditions were so abhorrent, why has Tom Barrett and the City of Milwaukee, who face much the same conditions as the County, able to excel at economic development? In fact, Barrett and the city have such a good track record that Walker had once proposed that the County give the City the land for them to work on the development.

What McIlheran doesn't mention is the fact that instead of competent people, Walker had a revolving door for his appointments to that position until he put in campaign staffers like Bob Dennick and Tim Russell to lead the economic development efforts. Their success was somewhat less than spectacular, often leading up to massive deficits. Then in 2009, Walker totally abolished the Economic Division, only to ask for it to be reinstated this year. Even then, it took him until last month to fill the position.

I'm no expert in economic development, but I would suspect it would make things easier for companies who wanted to come to Milwaukee County to have someone to contact rather than get lost in a bureaucratic shuffle. Likewise, things would probably be greatly expedited by having some actually actively trying to sell the land than hoping a passerby might see the lot full of gravel and think this would be a great place to build his business.

Even if McIlheran was correct that the prevailing wage laws or the expectations of the building to be tinted even the slightest bit of green might have made things a little more difficult, Scott Walker never allowed it to get that far to find out by sabotaging the process well before it got that far.

See also: James Rowen vs. the Mr. Teflon

Wagner Rule #1

"Nothing ever good comes from being outside a strip club at 2:30 in the morning.'

-Jeff Wagner

But does he mean what says?

From the Brawler:

Jeff Wagner, always fond of doing stories on strippers, is deploring the Common Council for unanimously shooting down a proposed strip club on Old World Third Street. It would have been "an attraction for conventioneers!" it would have been an upgrade over what's already there! It would have "attracted jobs and attracted people." It's decisions like this that turn people against Tom Barrett!(?) Perhaps he should lobby for a Silk to open near his North Shore home.

Now, About That Award, Mr. McIlheran

Last night, we pointed out that Patrick McIlheran should return his "Defender of the American Dream" award that he received from the corrupt Americans for Prosperity, which conspired with Tea Parties and the Republicans to perform an illegal voter suppression technique know as voter caging.

McIlheran, disappointingly, but not surprisingly, defended this scheme by minimizing the true intentions.

Unfortunately for Paddy, this scheme is peeling away like the layers of an onion to show the fetid insides. As xoff shows:

The documents included in Dake's email, which is available here,

--A non-disclosure agreement for voter suppression participants from the state GOP.

-- An affidavit and instruction process for voter suppression activities, which includes direction about photographing the homes of people targeted for voter suppression activities.

-- A strategic planning memo that includes the first part of the plan was a voter caging mailing to the 16th Assembly District, which has the third-highest number of African-American voters of any Assembly District in the state.

So again, McIlheran needs to return that award, unless of course he does not support the the voting rights of all Americans.

McIlheran Should Return His AFP Award

Last year, Americans for Prosperity rewarded Patrick McIlheran with their "Defenders of the American Dream" Award. He needs to give it back, unless they mean the American Dream is to deny minorities and young people their voters' rights.

It has been revealed by One Wisconsin Now that Americans for Prosperity has been in cahoots with the Republican Party and some Tea Party Groups to conspire to commit the illegal act of voter caging.

Voter caging is an illegal method to try to suppress voters' rights and is usually aimed at college students and minorities:

Usually, caging occurs when an official-looking, non-forwardable piece of mail is sent to a group of registered voters, often to minorities and students. The parties involved in caging then compile a list of voters whose mail was returned as undeliverable. On Election Day, these organizations will use the undeliverable mail to challenge voters at the polls, utilizing law enforcement and attorneys to support their challenges.

The goal of caging is two-fold. First, is to force as many voters as possible to cast provisional ballots, which require voters to follow-up the day after an election for the ballot to be counted. Historically, about 35% of all provisional ballots are never counted. Additionally, voters whose registration is challenged at the polling place are unlikely to have the required material to complete an Election Day registration, meaning the voter will be turned away at the polls.

The second goal is to create long lines at the polling place as the caging operation challenges voter after voter. Many people cannot afford to sit in line to vote for hours on end. Long lines discourage voters and many simply leave without casting a ballot.

Via OWN, you can read the conspirators' outline of how they were going to do this and the transcript of the tape of Tim Dake of the Grandsons of Liberty talking about this plot.

Even McIlheran's own Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who tried to minimize the reality of this grave injustice, ends up showing Dake, Reince Priebus of the WISGOP and Mark Block of the AFP tripping themselves up in one contradiction after another.

So now will P-Mac give his award back and stand of for voters' rights? Of course not. He probably won't even acknowledge this exposure of wrong doing.

No, Patrick, Competence Matters

Patrick McIlheran has his Sunday opinion piece up and this one is a real laugher. Patrick is actually trying to portray Scott Walker as the responsible candidate in the race for governor.

To prove his point, he decries the state's failure to keep petty criminals locked up for excessive lengths of time or to be able to turn around Milwaukee County's Income Maintenance program in one day:

The state doesn't pick up garbage anyhow, but surely the mayor meant it as a sign of some task that no one questions. The state has some of those - keeping prisoners locked up, for instance, or passing out food stamps. Gov. Jim Doyle decided the state couldn't afford the former and started releasing inmates early. His administration so badly botched the food stamps that federal authorities stepped in.

However, before Walker dumped the House of Correction on the Sheriff's Office, one of myriad of problems occurring there were prison escapes. I guess it's better if you make it look like you're not releasing them intentionally, but through negligence.

Paddy also forgets to mention that the reason the state took over the food stamp program was because Walker had mismanaged it so poorly that it was either the state take over and fix it (which they did do) or let the taxpayers in the state and Milwaukee County be hit with a multimillion dollar class action lawsuit.

Not exactly a stellar example of Walker's responsibility, is it?

But the best of the worst is when PaddyMac tries to make Walker's use of a private cleaning company better for the courthouse and the tax payers, and that budgets should be cut.

Apparently, in Paddy's world, instead of some county worker making $10 an hour is much better to give the CEO of a cleaning company a big old contract. Never mind that said CEO is a campaign contributor.

And about those budget cuts. They only produced situations like the horrible events that have been occurring at the mental health complex or the county's infrastructure to fall down. I wonder if Paddy would also call these things a "trade off."

Sykes' Operatic Dissonance

From xoff:

For a guy who's married to a former opera singer, right-wing radio's Charlie Sykes sure had some nasty things to say about the money in the state budget to help preserve the Oshkosh Opera House:

No money to catch child molesters, but cash for an opera house in Oshkosh. How’s that going to look on a bumper sticker next year?

Can't wait to see how Sykes squares that with the revelation that anti-stimulus Senate candidate Ron Johnson wanted to get stimulus money for that same opera house.

Will Sykes try to help him weasel out of it, as usual, or ignore it completely?

Pride Goeth Before A Fall

Patrick McIlheran, echoed by the other half of McSykes (version 2.0), are busy slapping Charlie Sykes, Mark Belling and Jay Weber (what, no love for Jeff Wagner or James T. Harris?) for Walker's victory in Tuesday's primary victory.

xoff had already addressed that silliness here, as did The Chief at his site.

But I just needed to add my two cents to the matter, since I already debunked that drivel two years ago.

Jessica McBride was complaining about the budget that had just been recently passed and how so many Republicans had voted for it. She had put the blame on the fact that these upstate Republicans just didn't have talk radio to tell them how to vote.

The problem with her argument, and with that of McSykes, is that there is talk radio all over the state:

Too bad that she is lying, or at the very least mistaken. A quick Google of radio stations in Wisconsin, and Whallah!, there is a list of radio stations in Wisconsin, at least 20 of which are identified as talk or news/talk stations in the northern and central parts of the state. Now, if one looks at the map again, a good third of the legislatures are within easy range of WTMJ. Some of the other talk radio stations are located in Wausau, Green Bay, Superior, Wisconsin Rapids, Marshfield and Eau Claire. That pretty much covers all of the other Republicans as well.

The fact that there are so many talk radio shows all over the state eliminates the argument presented by McBride, or two years later, by McSykes.

The other issue with McSykes self-congratulations is the simple fact that Paddy Mac was lying about another part (emphasis mine):

The real difference between La Crosse, Eau Claire, Green Bay and Appleton on the one hand and the places around Milwaukee is explained, rather, by the fact that an AM signal travels only so far. The major talk-radio players in Milwaukee -- Charlie Sykes, Mark Belling and Jay Weber -- all covered the contest exhaustively. I think they did so fairly: Notably, both Walker and Neumann got on the air repeatedly with these hosts and were allowed to explain their views. The hosts, of course, formed opinions and expressed them, but given that both candidates were conservatives, the commentary was heavy on analysis and light on excoriation. This analysis and opinion, it seems, made a huge difference in turnout and result.

And that result was this: If a county was within the sound of Milwaukee talk radio’s voice, it voted Walker overwhelmingly. This is the power of ideas, well expressed.

I don't listen to Weber, but I distinctly recall both Sykes and Belling criticizing Mark Neumann at every turn, for grievances real or perceived, in order to help the establishment candidate.

But one shouldn't be shocked at this misrepresentation of reality by McIlheran and company. If it wasn't for their misconstructions and confabulations, they wouldn't really have any way to promote their candidates or themselves.

Big stick packs little wallop

The Journal Sentinel's map of the GOP primary for governor, at left, prompts all sorts of analysis about how and why Scott Walker beat Mark Neumann. (The redder it is, the bigger Walker's margin. The greener it is, the more Neumann won by.)

Patrick McIlheran would have you believe it's because of rabid right talk radio, which backed Walker, who cleaned up in southeastern Wisconsin.

Let's think about that for a moment.

The area Walker won is basically the Milwaukee television market. Walker, as Milwaukee County executive, has been all over the news in that market, on a daily basis, since being elected eight years ago.

Eight years of free media coverage is an immeasurably huge advantage. Neumann hasn't been in the news at all since he ran for the Senate in 1998. It is absolutely no surprise that Walker would win in his home media market.

It is true that Charlie Sykes and Mark Belling made untold contributions of corporate air time to the Walker campaign, and also backed the Jessica McBride protege, Rebecca Kleefisch, who won for lietenant governor. But she also is known in the media market as an ex-TV announcer, is from southeastern Wisconsin, and was the only woman in a multi-candidate field.

What would have really been news would be a Neumann victory in southeastern Wisconsin. Who on earth doubted Walker would win here?

Talk radio's audience is simply not that big. If everyone who listens to Belling and Sykes votes for Walker in November, that might give him 15% of the vote. A nice start, but a long way from 50.

The test on Tuesday was not whether Walker would win southeastern Wisconsin. It was how Walker would do in the rest of the state, and now we have the answer: Not so hot.

The map tells the tale.

One more note, as Paddy Mac sings out of the Sykes-Belling hymnal: The biggest stick in the state, taht 50,000-watt megastation that Paddy credits for Walker's win, apparently doesn't reach Milwaukee's east side, Bay View, Cudahy, Oak Creek, or South Milwaukee. Sykes did everything he could to slime Chris Larson and promote Jeff Plale, the Democratic state senator the Repubs love. But Larson creamed Plale by 20%.

Can talk radio have some influence this market in a Republican primary? Sure. But beyond that, as Sykes might say when he gets really risque, it isn't worth a pound of poop.

They All Had Experience

I've heard many pundits state that Ron Johnson's barrage of attacks on Russ Feingold as being a career politician is taking a secondary toll on Scott Walker, who is also a career politician.

Walker's supporters have been working overtime in trying to damage control. A prime example would be Patrick McIlheran's piece from Sunday's Crossroads sections in which he declares Walker the only one who has a chance to beat Tom Barrett in November. He throws everything except the kitchen sink, hoping something will stick.

He backs this up with a blogpost on Monday. Showing his desperation, he cites Aaron Rodriguez (who has blogged for Walker's campaign site), Brian Fraley (paid Republican operative and former Walker campaign staffer) and Badger "we got guns" Blogger.

The general meme they are trying to push is that being a career politician isn't always a bad thing. It just means that he has experience.

But given the deplorable state of the county, with buildings collapsing, hurting and killing people; the systematic failure at the mental health complex; the massive pension loan debt as well as the unpaid repair bills Walker has stuck tax payers with; and the state having to take over programs to protect tax payers from a class action law suit stemming from Walker's ineptitude, it becomes obvious that Walker might have the experience, but not the track record of being successful.

To show the gentle reader what I mean, consider the following:

• Captain Edward Smith had experience, and still drove the Titanic into an iceberg.
• General George Armstrong Custer had experience, until Little Big Horn.
• Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus had experience, but didn't know what to do when someone dropped a match.
• George H. W. Bush had experience, and yet he ran us into one of the worst economic recession ever recorded.
• King Louis XVI had experience, and was also a good conservative, until he lost his head.

As you can see, experience doesn't mean much if you don't learn and grow from that experience. Considering the shape of the county, Walker hasn't learned a single thing.

Sykes: Sexual Assaults No Big Deal

This morning, on the day before the primaries, Charlie Sykes was naturally talking about the elections and trying to convince his dwindling audience why they should vote for Scott Walker, Ron Johnson, etc.

Two things really struck me while listening.

One, things must be looking a lot tighter than Walker would like, if he is not losing outright. Why do I say that? Because Sykes was already making excuses for a Walker loss on Tuesday. He kept listing two reasons why Walker could lose:

1. A high turn out of "uninformed, casual voters" who only know what they see in the commercials
2. Democrats and/or union members crossing over to vote in the Republican races.

Considering the number of people that have Neumann signs, or are being active for him, not just here in the Milwaukee area, but all over the state, that is rather elitist and condescending of Sykes. If I were a conservative voter, that would be more likely to push me into Neumann's camp.

As for the crossing over, I don't see it happening. For a cross over to have any real significance, it would require the bulk to occur in Milwaukee and Dane Counties. It's not going to happen in Milwaukee, because there are too many people that are eager to start taking the County back, and give the boot to Jeff Plale, Peggy Krusick and David Clarke. It's my understanding that there is at least one heated Democratic race in Dane County too, which would eliminate a section of those possible cross overs.

Like I said, they must be feeling pretty damn scared right now.

The other thing that Sykes said nearly forced me to pull over in disbelief.

When he opened the phone lines for callers to say who they were going to vote for, the very first voter proudly stated he was voting for Neumann. When Sykes asked why, the caller stated that Walker proved himself to be a bad leader as shown by the O'Donnell Park tragedy and the ongoing horrors at the mental health complex.

Sykes blew off the caller saying that those were simply lefty/union talking points.

Is Sykes really saying that the death of a teenage boy and the sexual assaults of cognitively disabled women as being mere talking points? I thought Sykes was a misogynistic reprobate before, but even I wasn't ready as to how low he would stoop.

Since this is the talking point of Team Walker and the Republican Party, keep that in mind when you go vote. The death of a boy or the raping of women is no big deal, as long as they get to forward their ideological agenda.

We Should Be Carpetbombing Them Instead

Patrick McIlheran found an unusual survey done by Rasmussen, but was even more perplexed by the results (emphasis mine):

Rasmussen asks Americans which other countries we ought to be ready to defend by arms. A majority says there are five.

Canada I get, and Britain. “Israel has U.S. support even if it makes the first move,” the pollsters report, with 51% saying we ought to help out if the Israelis do the world a favor regarding Iran’s nukes. World War II is so over, at least as far as a willingness to defend Germany.

And -- this surprised me a bit -- a majority say we ought to defend Mexico if it’s attacked.

What I want to know is why he found it surprising more people would prefer to be in protective of a neighbor, a business partner and just fellow human, even if they have different color.

"But this ticket was issued. I have a copy of this ticket"

A week ago, Charlie Sykes was squawking about Chris Larson getting a ticket for disorderly conduct for what turned out to be nothing, since the charges were dropped.

He kept saying how he "had a copy of this ticket," like it really meant anything.

Not nearly as much as the other ticket he has in his possession.

Well, seeing as how Charlie has picked up the hobby of collecting tickets, here is another one for him. According to WisPolitics.com, the story behind the ticket goes like this:

According to the South Milwaukee Police report, Elizabeth Plale reported that following an argument at their home, her husband tried to stop her from leaving their residence. She told police he grabbed her suitcase and threw it onto the lawn and "kicked her in the lower back area."

Plale denied that he kicked her, but told police he pushed her out the door. He told police that during the argument "a side of him came out that he had never known before."

Plale was cited for a municipal charge of disorderly conduct. Court records show that Elizabeth Plale filed for divorce Nov. 26, 2001. The divorce was finalized Sept. 22, 2003.

Plale admitted that he paid the fine associated with the ticket.

I don't know about you, but in my book, domestic violence is a bit more significant than an dropped ticket for beeping a horn.

It's Hard To Be A Conservative Part 58,3247

You have to condemn Mark Neumann for being a self-funded candidate, but embrace Ron Johnson for being a self-funded candidate.

Sarah Palin Discusses Charlie Sykes

Lifted from Illy-T:

"I don't read some of it because ... impotent, limp and gutless reporters take anonymous sources and cite them as being factual references," Sarah Palin told Fox News celebrity Sean Hannity.

Charlie loves his anonymous sources.

How The WPRI Report Killed The Minimum Mark Up Law

What? Oh, never mind.

H/T Illy-T

What Is It With James T. Harris, Temper Tantrums And Hypocrisy?

James T. Harris, showing no signs of insight or self-awareness, posted this tweet the other day:


That's what I love about this job. These fools set themselves up so easy for us that these posts almost write themselves.

Perhaps Harris forgot about the recent little tantrum he threw when his host, Earl Ingram, refused to allow Harris to use Ingram's show for a self-promotion photo op.

But even if he forgot that, how could anyone forget the time that Harris publicly embarrassed himself on a national stage when he was called out by a black conservative commenter? Here's Harris in his full fledged tantruming glory, starting about the 2:30 mark, but really picks up about the 2:50 mark:



It's amazing that the divas like Harris just have no clue on how they appear to the rational world.

Kleefisch Campaign Goes Into Silly Mode

Rebecca Kleefisch is still trying to make that run for Lt. Governor. She came out with her first ad, but for her sake, I hope she didn't buy any air time for it.

Besides not really saying anything but the usual, expected empty rhetorical platitudes, she has this visual which I captured from her ad:


There are some really amateurish mistakes in this one screen shot.

One, no one outside of Southeastern Wisconsin knows who Charlie Sykes or Mark Belling are and are unlikely to care what they think of Kleefisch. Secondly, the majority of the people in Southeast Wisconsin do know who these two are, and still don't care, or even find it as a reason to go the other way. If she is hoping that these two reprobates will get her elected, she is in for a harsh disappointment.

Also, I don't know where they filmed this, but it is kind of a put off having such a bright background. It takes the attention off of her. On second thought, maybe that is what she is trying to achieve.

But this ad isn't the only faux pas that Team Kleefisch has made.

It's not usually a good idea to infer that your opponents are pagan heathens. And it's a turn off to both the right and left wings to say that you're going to use the Bible instead of the Constitution in making official decisions.

Michael Horne also raises a very interesting question: Where the heck is her husband, state Representative Joel Kleefisch? Does he not support her campaign or is she trying to hide the fact that she is part of the Republican establishment?

You Know It's Bad When Your Base Turns On You

Even Jerry Bader, squawker from the Fox Valley, is getting disgusted with Scott Walker's hypocrisy and lack of character:

Then...The Walker campaign sent out a direct mailer on Saturday (I received it at home) which seemed downright desperate; it attempts to idenitfy Neumann with...wait for it...Nancy Pelosi!!! In fact, it seems as desperate as any of the attacks Neumann launched at Walker early on. It certainly doesn't give the appearance of a candidate with a comfortable lead. In fact, it doesn't give the appearance of a candidate with ANY kind of lead. Neumann is holding a Sunday afternoon news conference to address the mail piece.

As I said above, I have no idea how much this race has tightened, but whatever the gap is it's not enough for Scott Walker's comfort. And I'm every bit as dissappointed with this from Walker as I was from Neumann early on. Unlike other conservative talk show hosts in the state, I didn't have a horse in this race early on. In fact, I welcomed the Neumann entry into the race. It was the nasty campaign tactics that prompted me to urge him to drop out. Neumann's latter stage strategy has apparently made him competitive with Walker. I'm not going to be hypocritcal and give Walker a pass. Trying to suggest that Mark Neumann is a free-spending liberal whose picture should be next to Nancy Pelosi's is as preposterous as anything Neumann alleged early on.

Scott Walker's campaign was as indignant as indignant gets at Neumann's early tactics. It's sadly dissappointing to see that when the internal polling apparently gets uncomfortable for him he stoops to the same tactics. And what's particularly unnerving is that apparently the Walker campaign kept this powder dry for just such a deployment if they felt it was needed. Playing the "Pelosi" card???? Just how TIGHT is this race???

You know Walker is in trouble when even the paid help isn't helping any more. I just wonder if Charlie Sykes or Patrick McIlheran will have the courage to call Walker out on his poor behavior.

H/T Fairly Conservative and Team Neumann

Assurant Insurance: Victim of HCR or Themselves?

A while ago, Assurant Health announced that they would be cutting 130 jobs as it "prepares for changes under federal health care reform."

Michelle Malkin jumped all over that and labeled HCR as one of "Obama's job-killing" actions.

Of course, the local squawkers and echo chamber, incapable of independent thought, never bothered to fact check it and they also did their best Chicken Little imitations.

Milwaukee News Buzz points to an article in The New Republic which points out what the real problem is for Assurant and companies like them:

The health law forces insurers to cover basic benefits. It restricts their ability to mistreat consumers. And it limits the money they can spend on administrative overhead or broker commissions. Once fully implemented, reform will also prevent these carriers from avoiding people with pre-existing conditions. Make no mistake: These are all good things. They mean insurance is becoming more accessible, more comprehensive and more efficient.

They then cite an example of this:

Alas, that may also be bad news for Assurant. If the company's name sounds familiar, that's because it was in the news early this year when a Colorado jury slapped it with a $37 million judgment for wrongly refusing to pay the bills of a woman in a car accident. (The company claimed the woman had hidden evidence of a pre-existing condition. The jury, obviously, disagreed.) And when the layoffs were announced, an article from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel noted that reform would "undercut one of Assurant's strengths -- determining which customers are the best risks." I have no idea whether Assurant can find other ways to survive as a business. But, if it can't, then we're better off relying on competitors that can.

Also, Assurant has had other problems, like when they were targeting minorities with HIV, because they wanted to "contain costs." Their amoral actions ended up costing the company $10 million dollars on just one case.

Perhaps it's time for Malkin to go back on patrol with the Fashion Police. I hear things are getting sloppy again at Dunkin Donuts.

Shocker! Glenn Beck Lied!

At a "religious" rally yet!

After being called on a white lie he told during his Restoring Honor rally, Glenn Beck admitted Thursday that he stretched the truth because he “thought it would be a little easier.”

Beck had claimed that he held George Washington’s handwritten first Inaugural Address in his hands at the National Archives, but a spokeswoman at the institution said he did no such thing. Keith Olbermann, Ed Schultz and others called him out for the fabrication.

Video can be found at the link.

Another Day - Sykes Gets Caught In Another Lie

Today, Sykes spent a considerable amount of time defending state Senator Jeff Plale by attacking his Democratic primary opponent Chris Larson.

Sykes brought up an old ticket that Larson had received when he was a young man. Jason Haas points out the hypocrisy of Plale and his allies like Sykes in attacking Larson on this, especially when Plale hires convicted felons without blinking an eye. Of course, as Zach points out, Plale tends make a habit of hanging around with shady characters.

Anyway, back to Sykes. Sykes brings up an incident from 2004 when a city contractor tows Larson's car away. Larson hopped in his car and was beeping the horn to get the tow truck driver's attention.

Sykes continues:

"When the car gets to the tow yard, Chris Larson is, yeah, blowing the horn, refuses to get out. The towing company calls the cops. The cops cite him for disorderly conduct. As far as I can tell, the case was resolved, uh, when it was dismissed with prejudice which essentially means a little plea bargain type thing, where you go take the class - anger management - I don't know what, you do something, and [mumbling] you know, you don't pay.

"But this ticket was issued. I have a copy of this ticket."

Naturally, I contacted Supervisor Larson and asked him about it. Larson replied:

"Basically, I thought the guy was stealing my car and I was the one who called the police. The ticket was given because I didn't have an ID on me and therefore couldn't verify who I was. The ticket was dropped pretty quickly after it was issued. Also, I was never arrested in my life."

This raises a number a couple, three questions:

1. What is the significance of Plale/Jensen running to Sykes? Is Plale really a D.I.N.O.S.A.U.R., like David Clarke?
2. When is Sykes ever going to be held responsible by WTMJ for all of the lies he tells? After all, xoff won't wait forever.
3. I believe Sykes when he says he has a copy of Larson's ticket. But does he still have copy of his own ticket?
   

Charlie Sykes' Really Bad Week

Poor old Chuckie. He must be feeling the strain this week.

First, it is revealed that he is only #4 in the morning show ratings race. He'd be #5, but there is no stations that play polka at that time. WTMJ spends a lot of money on him. I don't think that they would be happy paying that much for that little.

Then it turns out that Sykes has been trying to procure the sex offenders vote or something.

Today, Sykes blogged an email he received from "a listener." Said email, which he repeated on his show, claimed that Nancy Pelosi, who was here to speak with the veterans, held a super secret fund raiser for Tom Barrett.

The fund raiser was so super secret that neither Barrett or Pelosi even knew about it. Sykes' masters, WISGOP, took Sykes' lie and ran with it, causing themselves no end of embarrassment as they had to withdraw their accusations, blaming it on an "unreliable source."

Hell, anyone could have told them that Sykes was an unreliable resource. This wasn't the first time, nor the second, nor even the third time that Sykes got caught up in a lie, often trying to put the blame for his own dishonesty onto others.

But as I've said before, if a man can lie to his own family, what makes you think he won't lie to you?

Maybe it's time to brush off the old campaign and once again push to have xoff on TMJ!

What's Sykes Standing Up For Again?

Just wondering what Sykes is standing up for, because it sure as hell ain't Milwaukee.

He joins his BFFs at Badger Blogger* in ridiculing the unions, who are going to hold a rally on September 10th to demand some accountability from Scott Walker.

Remember, it was Walker's illegal budget and poor management skills that led to things like a young man losing his life when part of a county owned and maintained building fell on him.

It was also Walker's ineptitude and disregard for the county's most vulnerable citizens that allowed dozens of sexual assaults at the mental health complex. To make matters worse, Walker had a chance to fix it years ago, by adding more staff and creating a secure ward, when he was warned of these problems.

Now that Walker has ordered more of the same problems to happen, Sykes et alia don't want this brought to the public's attentions. After all, what's is some sexually assaulted women or some collapsed buildings when you can pretend to save a couple of bucks on taxes? I'm sure they would call that a reasonable trade-off.

*You would think Sykes would have learned by now about listening to unreliable sources.