Hey, You Two! Get A Room!

The public displays of affection between Sykes and RoJo is just getting a little too much.

Kane Trumps McIlheran

On October 26, Patrick McIlheran posted on his blog that Council President Willie Hines was ready to run for mayor, regardless of whether Barrett wins or not on Tuesday.

Only thing is, it's not true.

Eugene Kane does what McIlheran only wishes he could do, which is practice actual journalism. Kane actually spoke to Hines to see what's up. He learned this:

It was reassuring to learn Hines isn't planning to announce a new campaign just as most voters are suffering fatigue from the latest round of political warfare. But the fact Hines plans to run for mayor of Milwaukee - whether Barrett wins Tuesday or not - is probably the worst-kept secret in political circles in Milwaukee.

In true conservative fashion, McIlheran deleted his post, without as much as a mea culpa or an "Oopsie, I screwed up again."

Perhaps if the powers that be at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel weren't so busy trying to help run Scott Walker's campaign, they could get around to replacing McIlheran with a real journalist, or at least offer Kane a bonus to tutor the poor man on how to be what he claims to be.

Tip of the crown to James Rowen.

The Latest Right Wing Meme: Blame The Victim

I've noticed over the last couple of days that the true nature of the right wing is starting to show themselves, even before they won a single election.

Zach at Blogging Blue picked up on the first one when he noted that Fred Dooley of Real Dimwits of Wisconsin said that a woman deserved to have her head stomped on for exercising her First Amendment right:

I’m not exactly sure what Lauren Valle did that merited being pushed to the ground and having her head stomped on by several men, but it’s curious to me that Fred Dooley is defending the actions of a bunch of overzealous thugs who resorted to physical violence against a woman because she dared to exercise her First Amendment right to freedom of speech.

Likewise, Peter DiGuadio doesn't disappoint in the ignorance department. Peter's first points out a story of a man who was sexually molested as a child by a priest and had snapped and attacked the priest decades later. Peter is correct in the sense that the man had no excuse to physically attack his molester this much later in time. However, Peter couldn't leave well enough alone. First he blames the left, especially Bill Maher.

Then, after a short rant about his favorite boogeyman, the Muslims, Peter shows how deranged he can be (emphasis mine):

I hope the guy who did this gets the max. And yes, to be equitable, he should be charged with a hate crime, since he targeted his victim based on his religion. Oh yeah, that’s right. Whites, males, Christians (especially Catholics) don’t count. Now if the victim had been a Moooslim …

Is DiGuadio really saying the sexual molestation of children is part of the Catholic philosophy? Sure seems like it to me.

Rounding off the trifecta of twits is James T. Harris. Harris is apparently upset about a story that broke, in which Republican Secretary of State candidate Apostle David King is the defendant in a lawsuit claiming that a woman was raped and impregnated by King:

Charlette Harris, 31, said King hired her to work at BuySeasons Inc., a New Berlin firm. During a lunch with him in August, her suit contends, he bought her several mixed drinks and later took her to his apartment. She says she passed out but in September learned she was pregnant. She says she is a lesbian and has not been with any other men.

So how does Harris handle the situation? He calls the rape victim a "crack ho":


If these idiots are like this now, can you imagine what things would be like if the Republicans win in the upcoming election?

Now That's NOT Entertainment

In this week's issue of Pressroom Buzz, Erik Gunn takes a look at the Juan Williams controversy.

In the article, he discusses the affect of opinions of new reporters on how they report the news.

He also hits on some old news facts, but in a way making it worth the read:

And talk radio hosts at WTMJ-AM and WISN-AM evidently suffer from no limitations. Last week, Charlie Sykes was heard openly plumping for a fundraiser for Leah Vukmir in her state Senate bid.

Of course, Sykes et al and their bosses will readily disavow the "journalist" label, at least when it becomes inconvenient, and hold themselves out as "entertainers" or "commentators." But are such distinctions really that clear to the public who views TMJ as the Journal Sentinel's radio station?

And then there's the constant refrain that the media are collectively biased anyway - to the left, if you're conservative, and to the corporate/conservative interests if you're liberal. In the aftermath of the Williams firing, Chris Wallace at Fox trotted out a series of instances that suggested other NPR employees had expressed strong opinions in other contexts.

There's no question that journalists have opinions, and that to some degree, those opinions are going to frame not only what stories they cover, but also how they cover them.

But I have a hunch that sometimes, maybe even often, journalists, aware of their opinions - and perhaps a bit defensive about them - either pull punches on stories that go after people or institutions of which they're actually critical - or pump up negative stories about people or institutions they actually agree with.

Fox News No Match For Milwaukee Dems

Fox News, who has donated one million dollars to the sleazemeisters of the Republican Governors Association, tried to crash Monday night's meeting of the Democratic Party for Milwaukee County.

It appears that Fox bit off more than could chew this time:



The sad news is now Faux News will do what they usually do, and just go ahead and make stuff up.

Wise Judgement

Patrick McIlheran pontificates on some of the editorials in Sunday's paper.

He proudly crows about the paper's endorsement of Scott Walker. I've already pointed out that what they consider to be Walker's strengths are actually failures.

Also, Paddy touts his buddy's, Rick Esenberg's, opinion piece on why RoJo would make a better choice. Paddy selects this phrase "a gem":

“It is the peculiar conceit of the chattering classes (of which I am certainly a member) that an unintelligent person can build a successful business. That sounds wrong, and it is. Johnson's development of his family business reflects a capacity for astute analysis, an ability to assess and react to changing circumstances and a capability for wise judgment."

Obviously, all that astute analysis, ability to assess and wise judgment was finding the right girl whose family could give him first a job, and then the whole company.

How Squawk Radio Wil Handle Their Cognitive Dissonance

The local squawkers will be needing to do some mental gymnastics this week after the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel came out and endorsed both Russ Feingold (damn liberal media) and Scott Walker (damn liber- who? wha?).

The erudite James Rowen explains how Sykes, Belling and company will spin this into a way that looks rational to the irrational mind of your average talk radio adherent.

Father Hypocrite

On Friday morning, Charlie Sykes was squawking about Tom Barrett and his stance for women's rights. Sykes went to so far as to question Barrett's Christianity and Catholicism.

That is a rather bold move given that Sykes has broken at least two of the ten commandments: The one about not committing adultery and the one about not bearing false witness.

In fact, I don't think he's made it a day without breaking the commandment to not bear false witness. I don't really want to know how long he can make it without breaking the other.

Piss Off A Squawker And Vote!

From One Wisconsin Now:



Charlie Sykes spent an untold amount of time whining about this video today. The funny thing is he kept saying that it should how much the left hates his listeners. Odd thing is, the video never said one peep about hate. In fact, the only hate was coming from the right. They just hate the left (probably for being correct all the time) and they hate that us lower class of folks have the right to vote as well.

But It's OK If He Does It

Charlie Sykes has a follow up to a story he's been carping about a lot. The story deals with state unions using state email for political purposes. He is correct in saying it's wrong.

But the question is: What right does he have to judge, given that he gives so much free air time to Republican candidates, especially Scott Walker, during work hours? Nor has Chuckles ever once condemned Walker for his political bike ride on tax payers money. Or for Darlene Wink. Or for Tim Russell.

There is a word for people like Sykes when he does that. Actually, there are several words. The polite one is hypocrite.

Why RoJo Is Supposedly Leading In The Polls

From the New York Times:

But the Wisconsin electorate he faces seems to have lost its progressive streak and become more like other Midwestern states. Several polls have shown that the number of likely voters who consider themselves conservative has risen from a quarter of the electorate to nearly half. The misinformation and simplistic solutions propounded by talk radio and the Republican Party are having an effect even in a state that preferred Mr. Obama by 14 points two years ago.

Of course, along with the misinformation being spread out like so much bovine excrement is whether RoJo is really leading by a comfortable margin.

Not all the polls agree on that. And given his recent total flop at doing a money bomb, I don't see his support being as great or as strong as squawk radio would have us believe.

The Sykesian Rule Of Politics

The louder Charlie Sykes squawks about something, the more likely it is that he really is trying to cover up something else.

Would Be Assassin Inspired By Glenn Beck

From Media Matters:

Fifteen years after militia-movement-inspired bombers killed 168 people in the Oklahoma City federal building, right-wing domestic terror plots are a fact of life in America. Since 2008, violent extremists -- many of whom subscribe to the hate speech and conspiratorial fantasies of the conservative media -- have murdered churchgoers in Knoxville, police officers in Pittsburgh, and an abortion provider in Wichita.

Conspiracy theory-fueled extremism has long been a reaction to progressive government in the United States. Half a century ago, historian Richard Hofstadter wrote that right-wing thought had come to be dominated by the belief that Communist agents had infiltrated all levels of American government and society. The right, he explained, had identified a "sustained conspiracy, running over more than a generation, and reaching its climax in Roosevelt's New Deal, to undermine free capitalism, to bring the economy under the direction of the federal government, and to pave the way for socialism or communism."

n a 2009 report, the Southern Poverty Law Center found that the anti-government militia movement -- which had risen to prominence during the Clinton administration and faded away during the Bush years -- has returned. According to the SPLC, the anti-government resurgence has been buttressed by paranoid rhetoric from public officials like Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann and media figures like Fox News' Glenn Beck.

Just last month, Gregory Giusti pleaded guilty to repeatedly threatening House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- including threatening to destroy her California home -- because he was "upset with her passing the health care law." His mother told a local news station that he "frequently gets in with a group of people that have really radical ideas," adding, "I'd say Fox News or all of those that are really radical, and he -- that's where he comes from."

After the 2008 election, Fox News personalities filled the airwaves with increasingly violent rhetoric and apocalyptic language. On his Fox News show, Beck talked about "put[ting] poison" in Pelosi's wine.

Observers of this most recent act were mystified by one of Byron Williams' reported targets: the Tides Foundation, a low-profile charitable organization known for funding environmentalists, community groups, and other organizations.

Beck, it turned out, had attacked Tides 29 times on his Fox News show in the year-and-a-half leading up to the shooting.

Now, in exclusive interviews and written correspondence with journalist John Hamilton, Williams speaks for himself. He asks Hamilton to be his "media advocate" and repeatedly instructs him to watch specific broadcasts of Beck's show for information on the conspiracy theory that drove him over the edge: an intricate plot involving Barack Obama, philanthropist George Soros, a Brazilian oil company, and the BP disaster.

Williams also points to other media figures -- right-wing propagandist David Horowitz, and Internet conspiracist and repeated Fox News guest Alex Jones -- as key sources of information to inspire his "revolution."

In a separate exchange with Examiner.com's Ed Walsh, Williams sought to defend Beck from "Obama and the liberals," whom he said are afraid of Beck "because he often exposes things that are simply forbidden in news." Williams said that Beck advocates non-violence and that he had already researched the conspiracy theories that informed his alleged plot -- before seeing them "confirm[ed]" on Beck's show.

Similarly, Williams tells Hamilton that "Beck would never say anything about a conspiracy, would never advocate violence. He'll never do anything ... of this nature. But he'll give you every ounce of evidence that you could possibly need."

From the Santa Rita Jail, Williams opens up about the websites he frequented, the broadcasts he listened to, and the "evidence" of "sabotage" he "uncovered" that eventually led him to target Tides.

Makes one wonder about people like Dad29 who is always saying to "get more ammo" and listens to the likes like Sykes and Belling or Mr. Congeniality, aka J. Rawson Schaller, from Badger Blogger.

A Disturbance In The Force

rightviewwi, that collective blog by not a single mind seems to have dropped off the face of the Earth.

Wherever shall I go for my weekly dose of regurgitated WDN lunacy?

Where will I be able to find the really cutting-edge conspiracy theories?

Who got custody of buck?

This leaves more questions than when White Shadow got cancelled and left us with no closure. With tatertotmike dormant and the northshoreexponent abandoned, who speaks for the poor downtrodden right-wing culture warriors?

Sykes Blames High Ranking Dem For Lack Of Clarivoyance

In this morning's show, as he does every Friday, Charlie Sykes was doing his scatologically-orientated feature of his "Deep Tunnel Awards."

The first runner up was Graeme Zielinski, the top communication guru for the Wisconsin Democratic Party. Zielinski's sin, according to Sykes, was calling Rebecca Kleefisch a lunatic when she just announced that she just had life saving cancer surgery.

What Sykes really did was a fine act of faux and selective outrage.

Zielinski did describe Kleefisch as being a lunatic in this tweet:

We're going to have to get treatment for the poor staffer who has had to listen to and watch the lunatic Rebecca Kleefisch speeches.

Said offensive tweet occurred on Tuesday, September 28th at 10:49 in the morning.

However, the Kleefisch story didn't come out until the next day, on the 29th. Heck, Sykes didn't even put up anything about it until the day after that, on the 30th.

But since Sykes has such a crush on Kleefisch, maybe he could explain to his listeners why Scott Walker's campaign has clamped down on her and won't even allow her to do a debate with Tom Nelson.

Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word

After getting busted for being a pants-on-fire class of liar, Belling admitted today that he was wrong with his silly argument that Russ Feingold faked being in front of his own home during a commercial shoot.

But if you were looking for Belling to be classy about it, you are in for a severe disappointment:

Feingold has spent so many years inventing his phony image of being a “maverick” while
actually voting in tandem with the Harry Reid crowd to tax and spend that he now looks
like a fake even in person. How else to explain the manufactured unnatural look in the ad
with the reality that it was indeed the actual Feingold at his house? Russ has been such a
fake for 20 years that he looks like a fake when he’s not really faking. It sure fooled me.
Russ, my deepest apologies.

But being the nice people we are, we at Whallah! would like to bring in an expert translator to say it for Belling:



But something tells me that Belling won't appreciate our help for some reason..