Paddy Mac forever?

Patrick McIlheran has been gone from the Journal Sentinel editorial page for a full month now, since leaving for greener pastures and the public trough. Praise the Lord.

He lives on, however, in the paper's website, where his last column, "The Right's Ideas Are Winning," continues to be displayed prominently with the other actual working journalists on the site.

I've sent a polite email to the assistant managing editor of the online edition. We'll see if that wipes the smirk off of McIlheran's face.

UPDATE: It took only 38 minutes to get a reply:

Good point. We'll remove him from the various spots he's featured. Thanks.

An Ode To Squawk Radio

From a reader:

Rant, rant, rant
Is what they do when they can't
Provide the information
for their side of the situation.
When they call me with their facts
That is when I react.
I hang up on them and
Rant, rant, rant.

How To Cause Instant Rage In A Wing Nut

Apparently, if you demand that the Republicans actually be held accountable for the consequences for their unethical behaviors, you get them instantly spitting mad.

Personally, I think Mike Tate didn't go far enough. The Republicans should also be held responsible for the mass unemployment, the deficit and all of the other social and economic woes they have caused with their greedy, myopic policies.

Solidarity Floats

A couple of weeks ago, the local paper, in an ongoing series of attacking public sector workers, pointed out a story in which the Racine firefighters union chose not to expend its limited resources for a non-union float, even though said float was originally designed to honor the victims of 9/11. It's not that they were opposed to it, but they felt that they could spend their time, money and manpower more effectively on other things.

As one might suspect, the usual suspects, right wing radio squawkers and their echo chambers, chose not to present the situation honestly but rather to conflate it to try to make it look like the unions were against the 9/11 victims and thus against America. Then again, honesty has never been a friend of the right, especially for radio squawkers.

As one might imagine, the float did just fine as people gathered in support, either to genuinely honor the victims, or to take advantage of the publicity to promote their own event or their image.

Ironically, one of the people that came out to "support" the float was Vicki "Wolf on back, snake on chest" McKenna, nee Pyzynski. This is the same woman who took to calling the firefighters thugs, despite their hero status, just because they simply opposed the Republicans' abuse of office and unilateral stripping people of their rights.

But how do the victims of 9/11 fell about this whole thing? Are they mad at the unions for dissing them? Do they feel that the unions were wrong for standing up for their civil rights like that?

Apparently not, according to this news story:



Did you notice that the firefighter highlighted in the clip, claimed to be a Republican? Did you catch when he said that the GOP's attack on the working classed superseded politics or the union/anti-union debate?

So why are right wingers like Charlies Sykes so anxious to make this such a big deal? The answer is simple. They know that they are, once again, on the wrong side of history. So they conflate and exaggerate a non-story in an effort to distract the public from what's really going on.

And thus they make themselves truly the ones that are disrespecting those they pretend to defend.

Cross posted at Cog Dis.

Sykes Stoops To Mocking The Disabled

We've already known for years that Charlie Sykes has no morals and no sense of decency.

But once again, Sykes has gone beyond the pale, and shown his true nature.

He has decided to publicly mock, both on his radio show and on his blog, Jeremy Ryan, or as he is more commonly known, Segway Jeremy Ryan, as that Mr. Ryan has made an online appeal to help with his legal bills:

You may have read/seen about "Segway Boy," the perpetual protester who has apparently made a career out of annoying behavior, wracking up dozens of unpaid tickets along the way. The last time we encountered Jeremy Ryan, he had "15 citations totaling $3,604.50 for protesting and disrupting events at the Capitol." As the paper reported: "So far, he hasn't had to pay a cent." Now he's taken to the internet to beg... for others to help him continue to mooch. Classic stuff...

Mr. Ryan has become a fixture around Madison, known for riding his Segway and being very vocal and very visible in his protests of the outrages being committed by Scott Walker and the Republican-controlled legislature. While I personally cannot condone all of Mr. Ryan's behaviors, he has had the right to make his feelings known.

While the Segway does make Mr. Ryan stand out and has made him an easily recognizable figure, it is equally as well known that Mr. Ryan has a very rare and life-threatening genetic condition that requires his using the Segway.

In fact, at the time of this writing, Mr. Ryan is currently in the hospital after collapsing and has been for days, due to this condition.

With these medical bills piling up, is it any wonder why Mr. Ryan would ask for a little help from his friends and supporters?

But the fact that Mr. Ryan has this life-threatening condition and is disabled to the point of needing the Segway in order to get around doesn't slow Sykes down one bit from mocking him.

Likewise, newly ordained Koch employee and comic book aficionado, Kevin Binversie also has to take a cheap swipe at him, basically saying he should sit down and shut up and do what the dark overlords tell him to do.

And to complete the trifecta of vulgarity, Bruce Redenz, known for getting into trouble in diners and doing ORRs from his job, comments on Sykes' site with this heart-warming way to treat a disabled person:

I will not be sending Jeremy a check.

I would, however, be willing to offer him a very unglamorous $10.00 p/hour job in the Madison area. He will need to be prepared to get filthy dirty doing arduous, repetitive work. I can offer him 35-40 hours per week at least through the summer. He will need to be prepared to show up consistently, at pre-determined, routine business hours.

This is a legitimate offer, Jeremy. Charlie knows how to reach me.

I will begin holding my breath now in preparation for Jeremy's call.

Sadly, these three seem to be more of the norm than the exception to the right wing of the state. And then they wonder why the people of Wisconsin are outraged and are actively working to correct the direction this state is heading.

Now, of course, if any of these three had a shred of common decency in them, they wouldn't have done what they done in the first place, so I wouldn't advise Mr. Ryan to wait for them to apologize for their crude and rude behavior, even though that is exactly what they should be doing.

But then again, if they are low enough to mock a disabled person, why would anyone care what they have to say about anything in the first place?