Media Trackkkers Gets Called Out

Last week, the Cap Times doled out a royal smackdown on MacIver Institute.

On Friday, it was Media Trackkkers turn to get it.  This time it was Dan Bice at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in his online chat about Walkergate delivering the what for:

Q: Nick, Appleton - What did you make of the Media Trackers folks alleging illegal leaks from DA's office? (http://mediatrackers.org/2012/01/da-chisholm-may-have-illegal-leaks-from-office/) 

A: Daniel Bice - Haven't seen it until now. Media Trackers has a spotty track record, so I would take what it is saying with a grain. The two guys there also toss around strong allegations and then try to temper them by saying something may or may not have occurred. That's not reporting. It's a rhetorical trick.

I wouldn't have even been that kind to that group of propagandists.

Now all we need is someone to do the favor for Wisconsin Reporter and we'll have a trifecta.

MacIver Institute Gets Called Out

The Cap Times lays a smackdown so hard on the Koch Brothers front group MacIver Institute that even David Koch felt it:

The John K. MacIver Institute for Public Policy is a conservative political operation — sorry, “think tank” — that seeks to promote Gov. Scott Walker’s agenda. Indeed, its website features a new advertisement that makes all sorts of claims about how the governor’s programs are “working.” The ad is amusing, as it asks Wisconsinites not to believe what they see going on around them and instead to fall for the spin developed by Walker’s messaging team.

So it is that, at the same time the state acknowledges that Wisconsin has lost jobs for six months running, the MacIver Institute is peddling a fantasy that says of the Walker agenda: “It’s working!”

“It” may be working. But if Walker keeps at it, Wisconsinites won’t be working.

Make sure you read the whole thing, especially the last three paragraphs.

The Right's Questionable Tactics

The right wing media has been beside themselves for the last couple of weeks.  What got their dander up is Ian Murphy had been traveling the state a few weeks ago to help encourage and reinvigorate recall volunteers in the last few weeks of the signature gathering phase.

Media Trackkkers did a story about Murphy.  Christian Schneider, paid propagandist, did a story.  (By the way, would some tell Schneider that Scott Walker did indeed meet with the Koch brothers?)  Sykes not only posted Schneider's article, but has been ranting about this and little else to his remaining 4.3 listeners.

Their collective faux outrage stems from the fact that Murphy wrote a piece years ago railing against the worst parts of war, things like what happened in Abu Graib.

But that is not what they are upset about.

What they are upset about is that Murphy is the guy who imitated David Koch last year in a phone call to Walker and showed Walker's true corrupt nature.

I don't know.  I could be quite wrong about this, but I wouldn't thing it's generally a good idea to keep drawing attention to the guy who naturally reminds everyone about that phone call and thus Walker's corruption.

But that stategy could explain why Walker's popularity numbers are so low and falling lower by the day. Maybe instead of criticizing these people, we should be thanking them for making our jobs that much easier.

Sykes on recalls, back when they were OK

"Businessman Michael Cudahy derided the recall supporters as a “lynch mob,” but outsiders who saw only the anger misunderstood the depth of the outrage. Supporters were neither puppets nor radicals: they were taxpayers who had raised their families in Milwaukee, bought homes, paid taxes, and played by the rules all their lives. They remembered when Milwaukee was known for its efficiency and integrity, and were offended at the insult to both their intelligence and their integrity."

That's Charlie Sykes, back when recalls were okay, when they led to Scott Walker coming to power, and when Sykes was paid by a group that also was funding Scott Walker. Recalls AGAINST Scott Walker? Not so much.

-- Source.

Who Does Paddy Mac Work For?

After years of trashing the government and the money wasted on bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., Patrick McIlheran became the second most hypocritical person* in the world when he left the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel to go work for Senator Ron "Sunspot" Johnson. As the paper reported at the time:

Patrick McIlheran, a columnist for the Journal Sentinel's op-ed page since 2004, is leaving the newspaper this week to take a job with Republican Sen. Ron Johnson's staff.

McIlheran, who will work out of Johnson's Washington, D.C., office, will research issues and write about them for the senator. McIlheran also will work for the Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia, of which Johnson is the ranking member.

A little later, it was found that Paddy Mac was making around $93,000 a year, although it appears he does little more than tweet Republican talking points.

But now it gets really interesting.

Michael Horne, working at Milwaukee Magazine, has also been covering this story, and had the same facts. Despite this, RoJo's press secretary contacted the magazine, wanting a correction, claiming that P-Mac didn't work for the Senator at all and just for the subcommittee. Horne also reports that since Paddy has started suckling at the government teat, as he would quaintly put it, he's changed is Linked In and Facebook profiles to reflect the same.

Case closed, right?

Wrong.

Horne has this to add to his report:

Finally, our original reporting included a call to the subcommittee office asking for McIlheran. The operator said McIlheran did not work at the subcommittee’s office, and forwarded the call to the office of the senator.

Perhaps it's time for an open records request just to see exactly which teats Paddy Mac has been suckling on and how he got there.

If he's only been with the subcommittee, someone needs to explain RoJo's involvement in all of this. Did RoJo manipulate the system to get a job for someone who was lobbying hard for him?

And if Paddy Mac's getting money from both RoJo and the subcommittee, why is RoJo's office lying?

*The most hypocritical still belongs easily to Scott Walker, who holds that title by such a wide margin, he'll never lose it.

Yep, Jeff Wagner Proves Me Correct Again

Three weeks ago, on Cog Dis, I discussed the matter of Andrew P. Jensen, Jr., the Scott Walker crony who was put in the hoosegow for a day because he refused to cooperate with the John Doe investigation into Walker's sleazy campaign tactics and unethical behaviors. In specific, I would point out this blurb:

Oddly, Jensen's attorney, Patrick Schott, said that Jensen was jailed because Jensen "wouldn't adopt their version of events." But the facts that authorities tried to offer Jensen immunity and that he tried to take it if he could remain anonymous while doing so would indicate that Jensen knows what the score is, but is too afraid of the Republican party machine that he doesn't want it known that he sang.

Now that Jensen's been outed, watch for the right, especially in the form of talk radio, rally around him and try to make him appear as a living martyr in a feeble effort to discredit the investigation.* This is not so much to congratulate him for keeping his mouth shut - so far - as it is to remind him that they are watching in case he does.

And just like clockwork, here comes WTMJ squawk radio host Jeff Wagner with exactly what I had predicted:

Take the case of prominent Milwaukee real estate executive Andrew Jensen. Jensen is a well known area real estate broker, a past chairman of the Commercial Association of Realtors - Wisconsin and a relatively small dollar contributor to Governor Walker.

According to published reports, Jensen was to be granted immunity in this secret proceeding. However, according to his lawyer, Jensen irritated prosecutors by refusing "to adopt their version of events" - leading to his sudden arrest and subsequent release without charges being issued. In the meantime though, the media was tipped off about Jensen's situation and given an opportunity to trumpet his arrest and tarnish his name. Talk about your Star Chamber.

One way to interpret the public comments of Jensen's attorney is that prosecutors wanted Jensen to make a false statement and that Jensen was arrested after refusing to do so. If there is any truth at all to this suggestion, you have to wonder: "Is this Salem, Massachusetts in 1692 or Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 2012"?

You can read the rest of my post at Cog Dis to see just how badly Wagner is lying about the course of events.

It's bad enough that they can't admit the truth about what is happening, but do they have to be so bad and so predictable about it?