Charlie Sykes, Mr. Compassion

Charlie Sykes, who I understand is still on the radio (but not mine), is shamelessly shilling for his new book, "A Nation of Moochers" (not to be confused with A Nation of Victims," his earlier "work").
Here's a post he found at the right-wing Heritage Foundation website and shared with his public, which gets right to the heart of the matter.
The trouble with poor people, Sykes says, is that they are trying to live in the 21st Century.
Besides that, they don't dress nicely and are depressing to be around.
From Sykes "Nation of Moochers" Facebook page:

One of the problems with poverty is that the poor have so much stuff...

80 percent of poor households have air conditioning. In 1970, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.

92 percent of poor households have a microwave.

Nearly three-fourths have a car or truck, and 31 percent have two or more cars or trucks.

Nearly two-thirds have cable or satellite TV.

Two-thirds have at least one DVD player, and 70 percent have a VCR.

Half have a personal computer, and one in seven have two or more computers.  

 More than half of poor families with children have a video game system, such as an Xbox or PlayStation.

43 percent have Internet access. [Can you imagine?  That's more than two out of five who can get on the Internet!  Outrageous! -- Xoff]One-third have a wide-screen plasma or LCD TV. One-fourth have a digital video recorder system, such as a TiVo.

Just call him Mr. Compassion.

Even the Heritage Foundation is kinder:

The fact that the average poor household has many modern conveniences and experiences no substantial hardships does not mean that no families face hardships. As noted, the overwhelming majority of the poor are well housed and not overcrowded, but one in 25 will become temporarily homeless during the year. While most of the poor have a sufficient and fairly steady supply of food, one in five poor adults will experience temporary food shortages and hunger at some point in a year.

The poor man who has lost his home or suffers intermittent hunger will find no consolation in the fact that his condition occurs infrequently in American society. His hardships are real and must be an important concern for policymakers.

Sykes would certainly be welcome to visit our food pantry for Milwaukee's homeless and low income veterans any Tuesday morning, and ask the people moochers there how many cars, TVs, and computers they own.
Cross-posted at Uppity Wisconsin.

Not Her Day Time Gig

Today's TMJ 4 did a segment this morning at 8:45 on the "Kristi" ad that is being run lately by the Walker campaign.

In it, a teacher named Kristi talks about how she thoughtfully arrived at the conclusion that the recall campaign against Walker is wrong.

The segment that 4 ran shows the ad and then talks about the Facebook battle over the ad, leading off with a recall supporter writing how she wanted to "punch" Kristi.

No where in the piece did they mention that Kristi, is a choice teacher (and by choice, I don't mean elite), and that she is a Republican activist.

On it's own this is an effective ad. And quite it is possible that the people who put together this piece at 4 might have missed this information.

They will be running it again at 9:45 am this morning and hopefully some mention will be made. It would be took bad if they run it as is.

Why? This is yet another example of how the Walker campaign can't handle the truth, because they dole it out in pieces -- those pieces that suit their cause.

It was the case when Walker failed to mention that he would go after collective bargain, and oops, he's doing it again with the "Kristi" ad.

It's up to 4 to take the ball and run with it.

UPDATE -- TMJ 4 did not alter the piece at 9:45am. I know that this piece was no doubt produced the night before, but there was a comment that could have been made when the camera went back to Tom Murray that Kristi is a private school teacher has been pointed out, but then didn't give him copy to that effect.

If anything, why didn't correspondent who did the original piece when she communicated with Kristi over Facebook ask the teacher where she taught. The reporter could have kept the info as background, but at least she would have been able to point out the kind of school where Kristi taught.

Something That Charlie Sykes, Media Trackers, Wisconsin Reporter, WPRI and McIver Institute Should Familiarize Themselves With

The Tort of "False Light."

Read it, learn it, stop doing it.

Sykes' Fraudulent Fraud

Whoo boy! Charlie Sykes was all pumped up on Monday!  He claimed that he found the undeniable, unequivacable proof that the Democrats and Scott Walker recall groups were unethical, fraudulent, minor-bribing degenerates.

Only thing is his proof of fraud was fraudulent.

And from Illy-T, who's been covering the exposed scandal of a non-scandal all day long (in reverse order)

• Sykes' "fraudulent" petitioners
• Sykes the ex post facto equivocator
• More fraud accusations

And from the Brawler: Sykes - Race Baiter

And if you're wondering why Sykes would let his already tarnished reputation become further begrimed, well, he's already done more self-inflicted damage with absolutely no evidence.

They're Not Even Trying Anymore

The incestuous relation between right wing politicians and right wing money tanks has been shown time and time again.  But now they're not even trying to be subtle about it any more.

Charlie Sykes, who is owned paid by the Bradley Foundation, an extremist bunch of right wingers known for publishing the racist "The Bell Curve," to be the "editor" of WPRI (Worms Promoting Republican Ideology) sat down to interview David "Chokehold" Prosser.  One line says it all (emphasis mine):

Because that incident was still under investigation by the state Judicial Commission at the time of this interview, we did not address that issue in what was otherwise a wide-ranging discussion on the campaign and the state’s high court. I sat down with Justice Prosser in mid-October at the offices of the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation in downtown Milwaukee. ...

Keep in mind these things:

• The Bradley Foundation gave a ton of money to Prosser's campaign
• The Bradley Foundation gives a ton of money to WPRI
• Sykes' current (third) wife works as the Bradley Foundation's Director of Communication

To sum it up, the Bradley Foundation is merely using Sykes as a puppet to produce their propaganda to protect and promote the politicians they have purchased.

This is simply how corrupt the right wing has become.

Forward To The Past!

Charlie Sykes, faithful water carrier for Scott Walker, gives free advertising to the Walker campaign by repeating their spin on the recently released results of a survey done by DPI. They compare it to the report from WEAC in 2004.

First, you have look past the fact that they are comparing apples to oranges by using reports from two wholly different agencies.

But Walker is saying that things are just as good or better than they were seven years ago, which only goes to confirm one of the recallers major complaints, he is making Wisconsin a regressive state by trying to take us back in time when things weren't as good as they have been in more recent years.

Of course, compared to last year, things are much, much worse.  Sadly, if Walker is not recalled, things will be even uglier next year when his "tools" are all used up.

Boots and Fables

Ol' Boots Robinson promises to play hardball with any recall petitioners he sees, argue with them till he's blue in the face, record, video and photograph them, boycott their businesses, publicize their names, and do whatever he can to make their lives miserable.

He's from Texas, you know, and that's what they do to liberals down there. Just ask Rick Perry what he'd do if Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernake showed up there.

Maybe United Wisconsin should make sure it has the Robinsons' address and send a steady stream of people. We can start a pool on how long before he blows his cork, goes apoplectic and foams at the mouth. And we could record, video and photograph it.

But that would be wrong

Mountains Out Of Molehills and Molehills Out Of Mountans

Charlie Sykes touts another "breaking story" from the crack reporters propagandists at Media Trackers and at the MacGuyver Institute.  This time the story has to deal with some knucklehead who made a stupid off-the-cuff comment on Facebook about killing Scott Walker.

Keep in mind that there is no specific plan on how the alleged assassin-wannabe would go about the deed, strengthening the point that it was more of a vent than an actual threat.

Now compare that to the story at Mother Jones, where a group of thugs have actual plans on how they are going to try to tamper the recall effort by committing fraud in misrepresenting themselves and then destroying the ballots they have signed.

So how serious is this threat?  The article explains:

Michael Maistelman, a Wisconsin attorney and election law expert who reviewed screenshots of the comments, says the postings could raise serious legal issues if the plan is to tamper with official recall petitions. "If a person fraudulently solicits recall petitions and then destroys those petitions, they will probably go to jail," Maistelman says. "The law is very clear on this."

[UDPATE]: Reid Magney, a spokesman from Wisconsin's Government Accountability Board, says destroying or defacing an official recall petition would violate state law. (Here's the relevant statute.) Such a violation, he adds, would be a class I felony in Wisconsin, which carries a maximum fine of $10,000 and up to three-and-a-half years in jail.

Somehow, I don't think it pays to wait for Media Trackers or MacGuyver to cover this story. They simply don't deal with reality.

Cross posted at Cog Dis.

Media Trackers Exposes Their Own Flopsweat

Media Trackers, like the MacGuyver Institute and WPRI, are sham groups that serve no purpose than to be the propagandists for the conservatives and for Corporate America.  They get their funding from the likes of the Koch brothers and the Bradley Foundation.

But they do serve one useful purpose.  They are a gauge of sorts to see how nervous the conservatives are at any given time.  The more desperate the story, the more desperate or their masters.

Judging from a recent story from Media Trackers, they must be very nervous as the movement in which the people of Wisconsin rise up and reclaim their state by recalling Scott Walker begins.

This propagandist group, represented by one Collin Roth, if that's even his real name, claims they have "exposed" a cabal of lefty politicians and community leaders who are poised to bring Walker down by following the rigged rules the Republicans have rammed through in an effort to shred the Constitution and stop the people from exercising their rights.

Their proof of this cabal? The alleged members received an email!

Obviously, because they received an email, they must be in cahoots.

But this gave the researchers here an idea.  Why not find out who these people at Media Trackers are by seeing what emails they might be receiving.

Seeing what kind of group Media Trackers is, our crack research team concluded that anything dealing with them closely resembles spam, since that is what they produce.  Hence, they further concluded that the best way to see who Media Trackers is was to check the spam files.

Preliminary reports show that it is possible the members of Media Trackers are friends with various Nigerian princes and widows and English attorneys who are involved in a money laundering scheme.  It is also believed, judging by the likely emails that they receive, they are looking for high-paying easy work, cute girls that want to chat, and suffer from erectile dysfunction.

And now you know and knowing is half the battle.