Jessica McBride takes on talk radio, defends public workers

Jessica McBride, who once aspired to talk radio fame and fortune, wants to know what's the matter with Tommy Thompson? He's running into a lot of flak from conservatives, and McBride, who once worshiped at the feet of Charlie Sykes, now says:

Thompson has run into the “new Republican party,” inspired by a tea party hold-theline ethos, a zero-tax-levy governor, and a talkradio machine that demands absolute fealty to a message. Or else.

She defends Tommy's spending, and even says:

Tommy is also out of step with current conservative dogma because he grew the size of the state work force. In other words, he didn’t ascribe to the “public workers are greedy people at the trough” rhetoric. Well, those jobs employed people and put them to work, so they could put their money back into the economy. (Now Republicans tout stimulus job creation in Rick Perry’s Texas). Scott Walker didn’t lay a bunch of people off, either. I am sure Tommy needed some more workers in the prison system because he was so tough on crime. Remember truth in sentencing and all that?

Of course, her husband was a state employee for quite awhile, and she still is. That tends to make one a little more empathetic.

If you must, read it here.

Exceptionally Fatuous

The line in the song "Up on the Roof" goes, "you just have to wish to make it so."

Pretty much defines the Syksian perspective when it comes to this concept of American exceptionalism.

Now just about all of us regard the good old US of A as the greatest country on earth, liberals included. We love our country warts and all, but an adult recognizes that if you want to be Miss America, you'd better burn off the warts.

In his continuing efforts to whip up his herd, Charlie Sykes is taking umbrage that President Obama is insufficiently delusional about where we stand in the world. Or as Sykes puts it:

Republicans, including a string of prospective presidential contenders, have taken their objections to President Obama's policies to a provocative and controversial level. Over White House objections, they're accusing him of not embracing the concept of American exceptionalism, saying he is pursuing an agenda on health care, the economy and foreign affairs that is at odds with fundamentals that distinguish the United States.

Sykes thinks he has a winner here. By gum, no president born in Kenya is going to tell us that we lag in health care, or education, or infrastructure. The sad truth however is that we are in fact staring at the behinds of other countries, and usually our rankings come in at around the low 20s when compared to other nations. In that health care issue Sykes talks about, we're number 37.

But we also rank at the low 20s when it comes to taxes. Think there is a correlation? Of course there is. Other countries are investing in ourselves, while here all the deep pockets fritter away their money on financial speculation, not job creation as some assert. As for the rest of us, a lot of our money that is untouched by taxes goes into buying products made overseas. Again, not job generators.

Charlie apparently thinks that being exceptional comes through wishing, or can be had on the cheap. Like W put it, "it's hard work" and it also takes hard cash to measure up to our world wide competition.

Sargent Sykes always whines about how bleeding heart parents and teachers like to hand out trophies in order to bolster the self-esteem of their looser kids who come in second.

Can anyone explain what is the difference here, except for Sykes' continual effort to come up with something, anything, to criticize our President?

For the realists among us, and oddly lately they happen to be liberals, there is a fear that we are in our sunset years as a country. We can reverse this course, but this is a classic case where we have to put up or shut up.

The more that people like Sykes talk the voters out of insisting on the investments needed to make us a leading country in college education, research, infrastructure and other areas, the more we put ourselves farther behind.

MSM, Reality Doesn't Follow Template

From the Wisconsin State Journal:

The average Wisconsin resident paid $40 less in state and local taxes and had an income almost 6 percent less than the average American in 2008, according to an analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data by the Wisconsin Budget Project.

Revenue collected in Wisconsin is further below the national average if all state and locally generated revenue is accounted for, including fees and taxes. The state and local government revenue in Wisconsin was $6,152 per person, $236 below the national average.

In per capita federal revenue, the state received $1,310 per person compared with a national average of $1,582. Wisconsin's ranking in per capita federal revenue dropped to 46th from 35th in 2000.

The analysis also found state and local government spending per capita was $7,541 in 2008 — 4.4 percent below the national average — which brings the state down to a ranking of 22nd. Wisconsin was ranked 12th in 2000.

In state and local taxes relative to income, Wisconsin went from 4th in 2000 to 13th in 2008.

Wait, taxes and spending are down?! Under a Democratic Governor?!

Now what the heck will Charlie Sykes, Mark Belling and Patrick McIlheran use to bash Tom Barrett?*

Oh, wait, I forgot who I was talking about for a minute. Sykes, Belling, et alia never worried about reality when coming up with their squawking points.

*They have to bash Barrett because they can't find anything positive about Scott Walker either.

PaddyMac's Theorem on Taxes

PaddyMac thinks it's just fine that wealthy developers put up a couple of corn plants on land they own, in order to get a tax break.

But when he tries to rationalize his position, he starts to contradict himself. Repeatedly.

The miffed lawmakers’ error would lie in thinking the tax break can go to a specific kind of person: family farmers. Sorry, that’s not how it works, especially since Wisconsin’s constitution tries stopping such games with its rule that all property of a certain kind must be taxed uniformly. Tax breaks are based on how the land is used, not who’s using it.

Rightly so: Otherwise, it all devolves into a matter of being popular (or, rather, not being reviled, as property developers are in some circles). Take that to its logical extension and you end up with tax breaks not going to family farms as a whole but, when some future legislators take it into their heads, to only some kinds of family farmers. Ones who don’t raise meat, say. Or who aren’t grumpy. Or whatever.

Taxes shouldn’t be about who you are. They should be about what you do.

I always thought that farming was a profession. So wouldn't farmers be qualified since what they do is farming. Likewise, land developers squatting on land until the prices go up, or land developers. That is what they do.

Methinks that Paddy was simply trying to echo the usual right wing meme, but in a more creative fashion. Unfortunately for him, he got lost somewhere along the way.

What Paddy probably meant was:

Taxes shouldn't be about who you are. They should be about how much money you make. And the more you make, the less you should be taxed.

Lies Woodhouse Strikes Again

A faithful reader reminded me of yet another lie that Lies Woodhouse, aka Charlie Sykes, has been ranting on about. This particular lie was that Harley Davidson was having its problems due to the combined reporting tax law.

He would constantly try to blame Tom Barrett, the Mayor of Milwaukee, for this state law and would say that Barrett would not lift a finger to do anything about it.

Again, Sykes lies:

At a news conference in his City Hall office, Barrett, the likely Democratic nominee for governor, said he and his staff had talked to senior Harley executives, contacted Harley union leaders and discussed the issue with outgoing Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle and his aides.

In talks with Harley's top managers, however, Barrett said, "They have made it clear to us that they do not want this issue politicized." The executives did not ask about tax incentives to stay in Wisconsin, nor did they offer criticisms of the state's combined reporting tax rules, he said.

Instead, the Harley management team wants to work through the issue with employee unions, and Barrett called on management and labor to work together to keep the plants open.

Even Scott Walker throws his mouthpiece under the bus, again:

In a separate interview, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker partly agreed, saying, "Having talked with officials, it is pretty clear what they need right now is support, public support, so they can work on some of their internal costs."

How anyone can believe this pathological liar, who would lie to even his own family, is beyond me.

Um, About Those Taxes

What! Sykes And Walker would lie to people? Color me shocked!

That last item is an important point to make, as the Charles Sykes and Scott Walkers of the world conveniently leave out that higher-income people are much more likely to itemize their taxes on their federal return, which allows them to get back some of their state and local taxes. I've never had any reason to itemize, and have taken the standard deduction in my previous tax years because it was the bigger deduction, and I bet many of you do the same. But you can bet Charlie and Scotty don't, the WMC types that back them don't, and they're counting that the dopes who listen to them don't know that. It's a lot like how national angry-man radio hosts leave out that the "overtaxed" rich pay a much lower % of their income on Social Security and Medicare taxes due to the income cap (by comparison, we pay the full 7.65%)

The state reoport also shows that from a pure % of income standpoint, it's doubly stupid for the WMC crowd to be against higher sales taxes to pay for transit and parks, as opposed to either increased property taxes or cuts that hinder people's ability to take advantage of these needed public goods. Unless you have NPD and think government exists solely for you and your needs, of course.

From Jake's Economic TA Funhouse. Read the rest.

There Are Taxes, Then There Are Taxes

PaddyMac got a memo from Steve Smith that he needed to support Scott Walker from those that correctly point out that Walker isn't really the tax hawk he likes to pretend that he is. So he tried to do so.

Apparently Paddy no longer thinks that fees equate to taxes, since he doesn't mention Walker's desire to raise taxes on toddlers last summer, even though he didn't even have the authority to do so. Nor does he mention Walker's desire to have parking meters at the lakefront, which would end up double-taxing UWM students, even the ones there to learn journalistic ethics from Jessica Bucher McBride.

But the biggest thing that Paddy misses in his snide sniping at Mayor Barrett. At least Barrett was able to balance his budgets. We are still waiting for Walker to be able to balance his first one.

Good Question

Steven Hanson of Uppity Wisconsin is at the Democratic convention in Green Bay this weekend, and has been giving us updates.

In his most recent one, he is talking about Ben Masel who raised a very good point to ponder:

He [Masel] also made an interesting observation that many right-wing radio shows are being largely supported by advertising paid for by government agencies. This is particularly interesting in view of the declining financial status of Clear Channel radio - so the question here is why is the government supporting the radio shows of people like Rush Limbaugh?

It's time we get rid of these free loaders who keep feeding at the government trough.

Suck Up Gentlemen!

Gotta love how once the right wing gets a dumbassed idea stuck in their heads, like the teleprompter bit they are attempting to do on Barack, they come down with lockjaw.

The reason why this doesn't work is everybody knows how inept their president was in front of crowd or a press conference. I doubt if there will be a daily desk calendar of Obama miss-speaking as there were for Bush, creating this niche of the publishing industry.

And then of course there was the celebrated receiver not-to-well hidden underneath W's suit jacket during his debate with Kerry.

But now that they have this chew toy, the right wing won't let go of it despite the bad taste it will eventually leave.

For an example of this syndrome, look at the catch-phrase commedy over at Sykes' site which stands in for creativity -- "Hot Read," "You Stay Classy (Name Here)," "Shut Up (He/She) Explained," ad nauseum.

Now we have the oh so clever Tea Party they will be holding across the country to protest the government we all elected.

Again, it doesn't work.

There is an aristocracy as in 1773. It's called corporate America. Unelected, though now more and more in the hands of government thanks to the ineptitude of these masters of the universe.

Don't get me wrong. There is a place for corporations, but they should be here for us, not the other way around as fancied by the right wing.

Stick these guys led by Americans for Selective Prosperity (ASP) in a time machine and send them back to pre-revolutionary Boston. No doubt with their perspectives, they wouldn't be dumping the tea. They'd be drirnking it.

Pants On Fire

Charlie cries poor-mouth on behalf of the richest 1% of Americans and claims that they're being "soaked." He even points us toward a Wall Street Journal OpEd to back up the 7 words he managed to string together as commentary.

It appears, though, that even the WSJ could see the underlying impact of the new numbers Charlie snarls about.

In a new sign of increasing inequality in the U.S., the richest 1% of Americans in 2006 garnered the highest share of the nation's adjusted gross income for two decades, and possibly the highest since 1929, according to Internal Revenue Service data.

Meanwhile, the average tax rate of the wealthiest 1% fell to its lowest level in at least 18 years. The group's share of the tax burden has risen, though not as quickly as its share of income.

Even the WSJ can see that this consolidation of wealth is killing the American dream. Wealth isn't being left on the table for the Middle Class to work for anymore. Elitists like Charlie like it that way.

Taxes? What?

There was a certain twitter in the Quesosphere when it was revealed that Al Franken's corporation had misfiled certain state Income Taxes. That foofoorah was soon cleared up, as well it should have been. The levy by each state on performers and athletes is an accounting nightmare that should be remedied by some form of reciprocity but it is, after all what it is and Franken owed and paid the tax.

Then there was the Olbermann Tax flare. Based on one gossip note from one columnist in a paper owned by one of Keith Olbermann's main competitors we saw OUTRAGE! Of course, that story died in a fizzle of facts soon after and we haven't heard a word about it since.

Now we have the latest scofflaw story and I, for one, just can't wait to see the fighting keyboarders of the Cheddarsphere swing into their well-rehearsed high-dudgeon mode and unleash the fury of the torture of the nibbling ducks upon the miscreant.

AFP(fs) has been honing the swift sword of skewering and should be ready to pounce, pounce I say, upon this scofflaw who would steal from the pockets in the gown of Liberty. I look for these newly minted conservative bloggers to don the mantle of their elders and betters and charge headlong into battle against...

John and Cindy McCain????? WTF? They're worth, like, a hundred million dollars, right?

Well, heck. We'll never hear a word about this innocent little misunderstanding from the forces of indignant righteousness. If we do they'll point out, quite rightly, that the McCains sent a check a soon as Newsweek asked them about the debt glossing giddily over the fact that the check was short. Rich Republicans can't be bothered by petty inconveniences like civic responsibility. Besides, it's easy to miss a tax notice for four years.

Tax Day Thoughts

Did you ever notice that with some people, taxes are the only times that they worry about the minority?

It's Time For Sykes To Stand Up For What's Right

Sykes brags about how he stands up for what's right, or in his case, what's Right-wing.

He went on and on and on about the non-issue if Obama committed plagiarism for using the same ideological rhetoric that another politician, who happened to be close to Obama, had used. Now imagine the frothing at the mouth we would have seen if Obama also lied about people that appeared in one of his commercials. Clean up in Aisle 62o, please.

Well, Sykes has his chance to do the right thing now. Scott Walker has been busted using a previously used theme in political ads, in his latest commercial, the "I believe in Milwaukee" shtick.

Not only that, but as Xoff points out, Walker has lied about the people appearing in the commercial. They're not real taxpayers, in the local sense, but paid actors, who I am sure probably paid taxes on the money they were paid to shill for Walker.

And has icing for the cake, yours truly has taken Xoff's points, and added that Walker is a big old hypocrite when it comes to his whole "I won't raise taxes" malarkey.

If I were a betting man, I would put my whole kingdom that Sykes is going to be as big of a hypocrite as Walker, showing that they both share something besides receding hairlines.

Fischer Does A Whallah! On Himself

We have seen a certain phenomenom with the right wing local media. Belling, McIlheran, Sykes, and McBride have all done it. I am referring to using faulty facts, if not just making up shit, to try to make a point.

But never before have I seen one admit it. It was usually up to Whallah! to have to point it out.

But now, with a tip of the hat to John Michlig, we see Fischer do his own Whallah! on himself.

You may remember the post about Fischer needing a fact checker. Well, a couple of commenters on Fischer's blog pointed out his error. Fischer responded:

I was well aware of the disclaimer by the Tax Foundation when I posted this entry. Obviously, I had no problem with this post (after all, I plastered it on my blog) because I had an important point to make.

Yup, you read it right. Or as John paraphrased it, "I knew the information was wrong, but I posted it anyway because I had an important point to make."

Sheesh, if they keep this up, we'll be out of business.

Is There A Fact Checker In The House?

Fischer, yet another self-proclaimed journalist (when will they ever stop with this silly line?), has put up a post with a whole bunch of numbers that he believes proves that Bush's economic policies are more friendly to the taxpayer than those of President Bill Clinton. He then warns us that those nasty old Democratic presidential candidates, Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, want to repeal all of Bush's tax policies.

However, being the great king that I am, I have fact checkers that eagerly wait for such easy mistakes that these self-proclaimed award-winning journalists try to foist upon us.

Like any good blogger would do, Fischer is kind enough to provide us with a link to his source for these numbers. However, what he fails to do is look beyond the first click. On the site he links to is yet another link, which leads the good reader to this site, which has a certain disclaimer written on it (emphasis mine):

While the basic message of the comparison is correct (federal income taxes have indeed fallen under George Bush for groups at all points on the income spectrum), the chart created by the author of this comparison contains some mathematical errors. Furthermore, the comparisons are exaggerated by the fact that annual inflation adjustments in the tax code would have lowered tax bills in 2008 relative to 1999 under a constant nominal income amount.

However, my diligent fact checker was still not satisfied. This clever scribe also provides us with further information, showing that the correction was still incorrect:

The Tax Foundation's claim of ever-increasing tax burdens is in direct contradiction to evidence from the two leading sources of tax information for Congress — the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation. These authoritative sources find that taxes on typical middle-income families are substantially lower than the taxes the Tax Foundation claims Americans pay on average. Moreover, CBO and the Joint Committee on Taxation find that taxes on middle-income families have been declining in recent years, not rising as the Tax Foundation reports would lead the public to believe.

Would someone please be kind enough to inform that "journalist" Fischer that he shouldn't always go with the first click he finds. If he keeps that sort of behavior up, the next thing you know, he'll be posting about how he will be receiving millions of dollars from a prince/businessman/widow from Nigeria/Ethiopia/Bangladesh. Also, someone could provide him with another link he might find useful: http://snopes.com/

Leading By Example

Forsooth, a good king leads his people not with an iron fist, but by example. Verily, the day previous, I had posted on an article by one of the Knights that say Squawk, pointing out the falsehoods with which he was trying to beguile the good people of Milwaukee.

Truly, I must have set a good example for my fellow knights. For this day, we fine that others have taken up arms in defense of the good people of Milwaukee.

Sir Paul the Wise and Mustachioed points out that WMC needs to be muzzled, and prevented from doing more sabotage to the business community in Wisconsin.

We also find that Brew City Brawler, the Arch (put up your)Duke(s) of Deliberateness points out that McIlheran fails to point out that one of the anonymous critics that McIlheran refers to is none other than the National Catholic Reporter newspaper.

It Taxes The Mind, Part Deux

In the same article in which McIlheran whines about people wanting big businesses to be good corporate citizens, he touches on a topic which near and dear to my heart:

The answer, and a common-sense one, was that plenty of our money is flowing to local governments, only it's not being spent very effectively. No surprise: Look at the reaction when Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker talks about using more seasonal staff for a seasonal service such as parks or when he brings up hiring lower-cost private contractors. It's plain that some people see lowered labor costs as being incompatible with the public interest.

It is as if public services were, literally, priceless. From the standpoint of companies that employ the people who pay the bill, that's a hard attitude to justify. Our present ways of doing things, even our present levels of service, really do have a price, as does the attitude that it's gauche to bring up the cost.

Again, McIlheran is behind the times, but at least not by three years this time. That witty, charming, and ruggedly handsome contributor at folkbum's already covered the subject, pointing out there is a better way than to decimate the county and to sell off the remains.

Oh, and Patrick--There are thousands of people in Milwaukee County who receive services, which, to them, is literally a matter of life and death. I would think that someone that values life as much as you, would be all for them to get these services.

It Taxes The Mind

In this morning's MSJ, McIlheran goes back to one of his fallback rants. "Taxes on businesses are too high!" he complains:

The good-government Public Policy Forum the other day asked the heads of some of Milwaukee's big, successful companies how to make the city competitive. The answers were surprising only in that they were no surprise. It's about money.

Taxes, of course: These were CEOs, so within minutes someone mentioned that ranking about 40th or so on tax climate doesn't help. Debate the criteria all you want, but the people deciding where the plant goes think they're valid.

Too bad for McIlheran that this was already debunked---three years ago. Paul Soglin, in a post from last August, refers to Exposing the Wisconsin Tax Hell Hoax (pdf) written by Jack Norman. In his post, Mr. Soglin highlights a few points:

As property taxes on manufacturers and agricultural lands dropped, home owners picked up the burden. When the business property next door had its taxes lowered a few thousand dollars, the difference was picked up by the residential property owners.

As the Republicans led the charge to lower corporate income taxes, personal income taxes had to pick up the burden. That is why Forward Wisconsin boasts: "Wisconsin ranks fourth lowest in the nation in business taxes as a percent of all state and local taxes."

All of this shifting means that while home owners used to pay 50% of all property taxes in Wisconsin, they now pay 70%.

Of course, some might say that McIlheran hates taxes. Whallah! has already shown that to be not true. But he doesn't want your money to go to taxes, but he doesn't want you to keep it either. He wants you to just give it all to the nice fat cat CEO's.

He Was Against Them Before He Was For Them

We have already talked about how McIlheran does a mean flip-flop. Now he is committing a reverse flip-flop.

McIlheran, like the rest of the right-wing squawk brigade, doesn't like fees imposed by the government. "They're just another word for taxes" they squawk.

Now, we find that McIlheran actually likes fees. In fact, he is suggesting them. Channeling his inner Tom Reynolds, McIlheran is suggesting that the Dept. of Transportation expand the I-94 system to eight lanes, with the extra lanes being for high speed travel. He further explains that this could be paid for by use of a special toll fee.

I guess some fees are OK, as long as they benefit your Big Business buddies. James Rowen and Sprawled Out share their thoughts on this matter as well.

She Teaches What?

This is a question from the Other Side of McBride, based on this:

Now I know that she is just writing on a blog. And I know she's probably writing bits and pieces between the times she spends with her daughter, or looking at the television, or scheming ways for her husband and herself to keep their name in the limelight (you know, like lawyering up for the Sheboygan One). But still, you would think she had a little more self-respect and would attempt to at least make some sense.

Read the rest of it here. His post is in regards to a post by McBride, critiquing a story in this morning MSJ about two police officers being shot on Milwaukee's south side.

In McBride's same post, she writes the following:

He also told WTMJ: "How do we deal with the drugs that are on the streets, and the violence that is associated with the drugs? And you have to ask yourself in the light of last night's shooting, where did the 15-year-old get this gun? That's a legitimate question and I know people don't want to ask it."

Answer: Don't release so-called "non-violent" drug offenders - AKA the Kathleen Falk/Journal Sentinel editorial board plan - into the community through diversionary programs. Remember that Falk wanted to release such inmates (read drug dealers, often with violent records) from state prisons. Hopefully, Barrett will use his soap box to oppose such plans next time they arise.

Her answer raises another question or two. Does she realize that her solution would cost a lot and would have to be paid for by taxpayers dollars? And will she keep this in mind next time she starts to complain about tax hikes?