He Should've Made It A Year

Oh boy, I bet this will create a lot of jobs!

Scott Walker is bringing his full weight of office to bear by issuing a proclamation that he wants all to participate in the openly bigoted, anti-homosexual "National Marriage Week."

Word is he is going to ask his good pals Charlie Sykes, Newt Gingrich, John McCain and Rush Limbaugh to be honorary spokesman for the special occasion.

If you gave each of them a week per marriage, you'd have most of the year covered.

Laughable Item Of The Day, Indeed

Aaron Rodriguez* of the Hispanic Conservative figures that he is going to take a cheap shot at Eugene Kane, one of the few remaining employees at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Rodriguez' whole argument is trying to poke fun at Kane for saying Obama's economic policies are working. To do so, Rodriguez shows that he has all the economic savvy of a rock, and ignores the reality that his hero, George Bush and his failed policies are the one that got us into this mess.

But if he is going to criticize Obama on his economic policies, or Kane on his journalistic musings that even Senator John McCain, who lost the election to Obama, acknowledges that things are getting better, Rodriguez would be smart to do one thing first.

Make sure his spell check is working. Here is the title of Rodriguez' post:


*Hysterically, Rodriguez, according to my Google reader, goes by the name of A-Rod.

I'll Wait For It

I won't post the Brave New PAC's ad that MSNBC just yanked based on Bilious O'Reilly's rantings. I'm sure that Charlie, with his newfound penchant for bringing to the forefront opinion pieces which have been spiked, will be posting it any minute now.

And, of course, all those copy-cat bloggers who bellowed, "Censorship," will be spreading the message of McCain's health concerns far and wide.

Sure. When pigs, lipsticked or lipstickless, fly.

Save Wisconsin's Vote

We already know of the low-handed ways that the desperately flailing Republican party is willing to stoop to win the upcoming elections, whether it be by hook or by crook. This includes, but in now way is limited to, Camp McCain mailing out fraudulent absentee ballots to Democrats on a statewide basis.

The fine folks at One Wisconsin Now have created a way for us to demand that Team Spuds is held accountable for their shenanigans:

Media are reporting Wisconsinites have received absentee ballot applications from the John McCain for President campaign with incorrect return addresses, which would likely prevent registration and processing from being completed.

The easy solution would seem to be: check the records, inform people who received an incorrect application and make sure no one is disenfranchised.

Unfortunately, the McCain campaign has been unwilling to provide the exact number and refuses to be interviewed about the scope of the problem. A top Republican Party of Wisconsin official said “hundreds of thousands” of absentee ballot application have been mailed by the McCain campaign.

Fair and clean elections are a critical issue for the state of Wisconsin and protecting the right to vote is essential to our Democracy.

Unfortunately, the McCain campaign has been unwilling to provide the exact number and refuses to be interviewed about the scope of the problem. A top Republican Party of Wisconsin official said “hundreds of thousands” of absentee ballot application have been mailed by the McCain campaign.

Act now and sign the petition to the newly-created Election Task Force and the Government Accountability Board below calling for an immediate investigation of the mailing. They must get to the bottom of this as soon as possible.

They also have a tool available for filing a complaint for those that have already received one of the bogus petitions. Both are available here. Click on it and sign it now.

Cross posted at Cog Dis.

What Sykes Won't Be Saying Today

It just seems like yesterday that Sykes was crowing about how the stock market was on the verge of breaking the 14,000 barrier. He was putting all the credit on George Bush's economic policies and the big tax breaks for the rich.

Today, after the Dow Jones has dropped more than 800 points in the last three days, and is opening at 10,600, even Sykes has to admit that the economy is falling apart. Somehow, he fails to see the relation between the economy now and Bush's policies.

Could it be because McCain voted with Bush 90% of the time? Could it be that McCain has morphed his economic policy to be the mirror image of Bush's?

Of course, we can't expect that type of intellectual honesty from Sykes. That's why we are here.

GOP Director Says, "No list is perfect." Attorney General Says, "Huh?"

Well let's see how last week went. Attorney General Goodhair filed suit against the Government Accountability Board, essentially because the refused to go back in time and clean up the database discrepancies between the voter rolls and the DoT files.

The GAB has said that it has confidence that the files can be made to match going forward from August of this year. The AG wants them to be forced to go back to January of 2006 to meet the arbitrary deadline set within the Hinder American Voters Act (brought to you by Flyin' Jim Sensenbrenner.) Goodhair (Did we mention that the AG is co-chair of McCampaign in Wisconsin?) says that a 20% mismatch rate between the databases is unforgivable and has filed his little suit just in time to create maximum disruption at the polls in November.

Also this past week, McCampaign is soliciting vote fraud by mailing out flyers asking, mostly Democrat voters, to file for an absentee ballot in a district in which they do not reside. The McCain Campaign, false sense of honor intact, claims a mistake. "We never intended to disqualify Democrats," they demur. "We are not lying scum who would take advantage to drum up a cry of fraud," they claim with a straight face.

Here's the money quote from Mark Jefferson, executive director of the state GOP..."You do the best with the lists you have, and no list is perfect...[ ]" There you have it. "No list is perfect."

Somebody should tell the Attorney General. (Did I mention that the Attorney General, tasked with maintaining fair elections is co-chair of the campaign for the formerly honorable John McCain?)

Wagner Says, "Turn Off That Radio. Stop Buying That Cruddy Paper"

Jeff, not being able to recognize the hand that feeds him says,

As for the media consumer? Well, there are ways to fight back!

I couldn't agree more. Just turn off that crud on TMJ and pick up a good book.

Fischer Bites On Another Hook

For someone that is supposed to have a journalistic background, Fischer isn't much better than that other person who claimed to be a journalist and teaching professional (whatever her name was again).

This time he bit on the lies spread by Camp McShame about Obama's campaign discarding hundreds of American flags.

Too bad for Kevin that it was made up. Too bad it was made up by the same guy who got into trouble for lying about John Kerry in 2004. Of course, it would make sense that old Kev bit on this one.

The other liar was from Faux News, and they can't tell reality from delusion either.

Tip of the crown to Jay.

The Smartest Man In Ozaukee County

From the Brawler, whose keen eyes caught the smartest man in Ozaukee County:




Also check out the Brawler for his not one, but two, takes on the classlessness of the Republicans in Wisconsin. Especially the honesty-challenged Charlie Sykes.

Sykes Spins Out Of Control

I had taken the day off to take care of some castle-keeping business that has been put off for too long, and had the chance to catch most of Sykes show today. I tell you, gentle reader, he was spinning more than your average dervish, and if one had the opportunity to see him live, I bet his head was spinning like Regan's in the Exorcist.

I won't get into all of the factual errors he made today, both intentional and unintentional, because it would simply just take too long to type them all out. But I am not the only one that notices Sykes having his meltdown this morning. Bert, Mav and Dan also picked up on the fact that Sykes was being more than a wee bit hypocritical and out of control.

But what was causing Sykes' meltdown? That is the question that piqued my interest. He was literally besides himself in his anger to quell the sudden storm surge of information coming out about Sarah Palin. He kept going back to the point on how terrible it was that the media was talking about Palin's pregnant teenage girl, and telling us how terrible it was for the majority of his show, and about a half dozen posts on his blog.

Nothing like making some mileage doing what you are blaming others for doing, is there?

Sykes kept asking if Obama would be vetted the way that Palin has been. This I found especially amusing, considering that was probably about 80% of his show for the past two months and 50% of it for the previous eighteen months.

He also kept threatening to go into Obama's relationships, like with Rezko, Rev. Wright, Ayers, and whoever else they've tried to hang on his neck. Like he hasn't done that ad nauseum.

Sykes was using every hateful label he could think of for anyone that was part of the media or a blogger from the left. There was more name calling in this morning's show, than in all of the playgrounds in Milwaukee on this first day of school.

So why was Sykes manifesting this crazed behavior. Some of the less objective readers from the right would comment that Sykes was simply defending Palin's honor. Sykes might even try to make that argument himself. But, outside that a professional politician would need protecting from the likes of Sykes, and outside of the fact that that would be a rather sexist attitude to have, it is also inaccurate.

If that was Sykes' goal, he would have been much more effective to use facts in a reasoned and reasonable tone of voice to refute the allegations against Palin. He didn't do that. He resorted to name-calling, threatening, and intimidation and belittling people that would call and disagree with him. That is what most people would call being a bully.

Bullying is often most associated with school children, but also happens in the work place. Or in this case, on a social level. Either way, the reasons are usually the same.

The bully feels that life is out of control, and thus bullies other people that he or she believes to be weaker, in order to get a sense of control. The bully also may have low self confidence in themselves, and uses that sense of control they feel when bullying someone else to make themselves feel better about themselves. Building oneself up by tearing other people down, as it were. Sometimes it's just because the bully is an asocial asshole.

I'm not saying any of these necessarily apply to Sykes, in this specific situation, but it does seem to be more than a passing trend among some of the local right wing media and bloggers, but more of a conscious lifestyle choice.

I personally think it's just because they were in panic mode, and that became hysterical panic mode when McCain announced Palin to be his running mate. They realize they are in a losing battle, and are just getting extremely desperate.

Stay classy, Sarah Palin!

No wonder Charlie Sykes et al like Sarah Palin so much. She's the kind of gal who'll chuckle along as some talk radio thugs call Alaska state senate leader Lyda Green -- a Republican and a cancer survivor -- a "bitch," a "cancer"and, for good measure, make a fat joke.

via Sadly, No!



Truly, this performance is the sort of thing that should win over independent women voters and disaffected Hillary supporters. Did I mention that women appear more skeptical of Palin than menfolk do? Perhaps they don't feel as energized by the pick as callers to Charlie's show.

Sarah Palin's classy performance brings to mind someone else...Oh yeah, her putative boss.

Sykes: Palin will reform the GOP...

…as for the country, umm, I’m guess they’ll get back to us on that one:

Democrats repeatedly and forcefully tried to frame the campaign's narative as a rejection of four more years of George W. Bush. By choosing Sarah Palin Mccain (sic) is signalling (sic) his own counter-narrative: Reform.

Take out Palin's gender and you have a compelling Mr. (Mrs.) Smith Goes to Washington story. The Wall Street Journal calls it a Reform ticket designed to transform the GOP brand.

Take out the typos, and what you’re left with is this: Sarah Palin, according to Sykes and the Wall Street Journal, is a good choice for the Republican Party.

And while I certainly think the GOP is in need of reform, it seems doubtful that most Americans will reward the party’s sudden self-awareness by putting Palin a heartbeat away from the presidency.

Note--Blogger seems determined to fix Sykes' spelling errors.

Cross posted at Pundit Nation.

Sweating With Sykes

After last night's historical speech, TMJ4 had Charlie on to give it his spin. Just looking at this face, one could tell Obama hit the sucker out of the park much better than Sykes expected. Sykes pale complexion and sweaty brow, his stuttering and deer in the headlights look was more than enough to tell how the tide was rising.

Then he opened his mouth and his biggest complaint? Obama's speech was too partisan. Huh? They pay him for this? Um, Charlie, Obama, the first African-American presidential candidate in history, has been attacked by you and your doppelgangers for month, and now you're surprised to find out he was a Democrat all along?

Or perhaps, Sykes was just a little nauseous. He may have just learned, before air time, that Obama had drawn some 80,000 people, while McCain can't even give away tickets to his announcement of a running mate.

Tip o'the crown to Caffeinated Politics.

Musical McMansions

By now, unless you live under a rock, you should have heard of McMain's inability to recall how many homes he and his wife own. If you haven't, Zach has more on it here.

There's a new musical video out to commemorate this:




But even though McCain might not have a clue to how many houses he has, it does not mean he is an elitist. It just means he has no clue to what's going on.

How Does He Do That?

Sykes this morning was going on a wild rant full of self-contradiction, hypocrisy and outright lies regarding the whole Georgia/Russia affair that is going on.

First he talked about how great McCain was for standing up for the Georgian people, and that his words brought them such great comfort. Yet this is the same guy that got his panties in a bundle about Obama doing a speech in Germany. In fact, the right wing is still in a tizzy about the whole thing. So much so that they are going to the extreme of violating Godwin's Law.

He went on how the liberals should be ashamed of ever trusting Russia, and that McCain's machismo is why people should vote for him in November. Sykes however failed to mention that it was Bush, who is hardly a liberal, was the one that peered into Putin's eyes and liked what he saw. He also willfully neglected to tell his audience about McCain's chief foreign policy advisor is on the take from Georgia. You can read about all of Bush's and McCain's cognitive dissonance at my other home, Cognitive Dissidence.

How Sykes can be so hypocritical and blatantly lie to such an extreme, and not have his head explode is beyond me. Jay Bullock believes that it is the right wing's campaign strategy to be full of double talk, which would explain why Sykes' head hasn't imploded. For me, I'm thinking it's the hair spray.

Put on a Happy Face

In winger-world where whistling past the grave yard is uplift, John McCain's talking point that Paris Hilton in the send up of the childish "Celebrity" ad is advocating an energy plan "more coherent than Obama's" is purveyed by Charlie Sykes to his audience.

What non-McCain fans might notice is that Senator Straight-Talk is slapped around 28 ways to Sunday in the clip, whereas for balance Obama is referred to as "that other guy."

But on the other hand if McCain would really focus on the video, if he could only work that play arrow, he too would be totally hot.

Wind And Noise Revisited

Well, there he goes again. It's not bad enough that McCain decided to attack Senator Obama and lie about his motive for not visiting the troops (by showing him playing basketball with the troops) but now we get this little maverick-trailbiscuit.

What the McCain campaign doesn’t want people to know, according to one GOP strategist I spoke with over the weekend, is that they had an ad script ready to go if Obama had visited the wounded troops saying that Obama was...wait for it...using wounded troops as campaign props. So, no matter which way Obama turned, McCain had an Obama bashing ad ready to launch. I guess that’s political hardball. But another word for it is the one word that most politicians are loathe to use about their opponents—a lie.

The Straight Talk Express is running further and further off message every day.

The Video Charlie Doesn't Want You To See

Charlie's posted that inane video from McCain's camp (which they created to take attention away that he is really running for Bush's third term).

In short order, Progressive Accountability showed that Britney Spears has more in common with McCain that with Senator Barack Obama:





They also provide a tidy list of McCain quotes that perfectly display how much McCain is like Bush, down to not even knowing what the hell is going on.

Kind of like some squawk radiophites.

If I Were A Right-Wing Blogger

Christopher Hayes is right on target.

Sykes Is Just Hopeless

Six months ago, there was some talk about whether talk radio was on its way to the media graveyard. The theory was that with McCain becoming the presumed Republican candidate for presidency, despite all the squawking of the squawkers, that talk radio was no longer effective.

At the time, I had stated that the feckless squawkers would just flip-flop, like McCain, and would continue on like nothing happened.

Of course, I was correct. Sort of.

Talk radio is still alive, but it is not well and kicking.

It appears that squawkers, like our own litttle Chuckles, has been reduced to mewling about the popularity of Senator Barack Obama, while they desperately scramble around to find something, anything from the McCainiacs to crow about.

But being the squawkers that they are, all they end up doing is laying big goose eggs.