What Does WISGOP, Squawk Radio and Right Wing Bloggers All Have In Common?

The answer is that their positions are so indefensible that their only line of argument anymore is name-calling, as exemplified in this mass email from WISGOP:

You know that squawkers like Sykes and the echo chamber will be using these names until election day and beyond as they lick their wounds.  

After all, original thought has never been their strong suit.

McIlheran: In Defense Of Witch Hunts

Professor William Cronon is a history professor at the University of Wisconsin - Madison.  He is also a blogger who wrote an eye-opening piece on how the Koch Brothers and their ilk are funding and controlling this recent assault that we have seen in recent weeks, not only on the working people of Wisconsin, but all across the country.

Within days, the Wisconsin GOP came down like a gang of locust, making a very specific open records request.  It was obvious by their choice of words to search for that their only concern was to throw a wide fishing net in their expedition in hope of finding some stray tidbit that they could conflate and use in an effort to discredit his good name.

Patrick McIlheran, resident GOP spokesman at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (motto: Have you unsubscribed yet?) tries a pathetic attempt to justify the GOP's witch hunt (emphasis mine):

Schneider points out something else: The left has freaked, loudly enough to shake some conservatives, because the Wisconsin Republican Party ran a freedom of information request on Cronon's UW e-mail account. Was the professor using the equipment provided by taxpayers to play politics? Inquiring minds are curious, but the left behaves as if to request the records was itself some kind of suppression of the professor's free thought.

The question for McIlheran is this: On what grounds do you suspect that Professor Cronon was using the government's computer to write his blog?

Having some experience myself with what Cronon is currently going through, I have to wonder.

Is it based on some baseless and artificially created "proof" as the right is wont to rely on, since the truth and reality rarely supports their positions?

Or is it because they so often don't do the ethical thing that they naturally presume no one else does either?

Or is Charlie Sykes their director of research?

As McIlerhan would say: Inquiring minds are curious...

Priebus Not All That Popular After All

Charlie Sykes has been spending a number of weeks just gushing his man love for Reince Priebus, head weasel of the WISGOP, who wants to stab his buddy, Michael Steele, head of the RNC, in the back. Even though Priebus was supposedly Steele's confidante and advisor, he's turned the tables and wants his former friend's job.

Although the latest news reports show Priebus taking an early lead in the RNC race, things might go south for him quickly as his two-facedness becomes more commonly known.

Consider these:

• Gateway Pundit points to Priebus and his law firm working to help clients snag up stimulus dollars even though Priebus was often a critic of the stimulus package (sounds like Scott Walker and Ron Johnson, doesn't it?)
• Think Progress points out that Priebus and his law firm came out calling the health care reform as being Constitutional and touting the benefits of the reform
• National Review Online also discusses Priebus and his pursuit of stimulus funds.

So why is Priebus so unpopular? Is it his double talk? Is it that fact that even though Wisconsin turned temporarily rather red, it was with buffoons like Scott Walker and Ron Johnson who have already proven themselves not to be up to their respective jobs even before taking office? Could it be his bad hair? Who knows?

But what is rather telling is not many conservatives are standing up to the plate for him. In fact, his most strenuous defender is Illusory Tenant, who could hardly be labelled as a conservative.

Regardless of the turn out of the RNC eat-your-own contest, it will be fun to watch. I'm going to go pop some popcorn and wait for the next installment of this comedy.

McIlheran Should Return His AFP Award

Last year, Americans for Prosperity rewarded Patrick McIlheran with their "Defenders of the American Dream" Award. He needs to give it back, unless they mean the American Dream is to deny minorities and young people their voters' rights.

It has been revealed by One Wisconsin Now that Americans for Prosperity has been in cahoots with the Republican Party and some Tea Party Groups to conspire to commit the illegal act of voter caging.

Voter caging is an illegal method to try to suppress voters' rights and is usually aimed at college students and minorities:

Usually, caging occurs when an official-looking, non-forwardable piece of mail is sent to a group of registered voters, often to minorities and students. The parties involved in caging then compile a list of voters whose mail was returned as undeliverable. On Election Day, these organizations will use the undeliverable mail to challenge voters at the polls, utilizing law enforcement and attorneys to support their challenges.

The goal of caging is two-fold. First, is to force as many voters as possible to cast provisional ballots, which require voters to follow-up the day after an election for the ballot to be counted. Historically, about 35% of all provisional ballots are never counted. Additionally, voters whose registration is challenged at the polling place are unlikely to have the required material to complete an Election Day registration, meaning the voter will be turned away at the polls.

The second goal is to create long lines at the polling place as the caging operation challenges voter after voter. Many people cannot afford to sit in line to vote for hours on end. Long lines discourage voters and many simply leave without casting a ballot.

Via OWN, you can read the conspirators' outline of how they were going to do this and the transcript of the tape of Tim Dake of the Grandsons of Liberty talking about this plot.

Even McIlheran's own Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who tried to minimize the reality of this grave injustice, ends up showing Dake, Reince Priebus of the WISGOP and Mark Block of the AFP tripping themselves up in one contradiction after another.

So now will P-Mac give his award back and stand of for voters' rights? Of course not. He probably won't even acknowledge this exposure of wrong doing.