Loser Picks Loser As Winner

This morning's rendition of Incite with Charlie Sykes had PaddyMac picking Michael "Ethics-free" Gableman as his winner of the week.

It speaks volumes about both of these men.

Zinging Paddy Mac

I won't spoil it. Just go to Paddy's latest on climate change and read the first comment.

A Sign of Desperation?

It must not be going well for Team Walker, when their unofficial official spokesman, Charlie Sykes, has to play the racist card.

Sykes: A Liar? Gasp!

From The Brawler:

Amusing. Sykes is ranting and raving about Feingold's "penny pincher" ad. The ad kicks off with Feingold saying he voted against the bank bailout. Sykes says "I'm glad he voted against the bank bailout."

That of course is a big fat lie as Sykes stumped for the passage of TARP and hailed Paul Ryan for voting for it after a protracted Hamlet act.

From Illy-T:

Given the Pythagorean axiom, "minus one times minus one equals one," maybe if Journal Communications, Inc. had both Sykes* and McIlheran talking at the same time, truth might conceivably result.

* "Charlie Sykes" is actually a stand-alone, all-purpose punchline** in certain quarters, which fact is tremendously comical all of itself.

** And is it any wonder

And back to the Brawler:

This seems fairly obvious to anyone who's ever listened to Charlie Sykes. Yet Charlie, who clearly dearly wishes he was a principled and independent thinker like his old man, as opposed to a thrice married guy who preens as a moralist, would have nothing to do with it. The Brawler recalls, quite clearly, Charlie saying on the radio that yes he receives talking point emails. But you know what he does with them? He puts them in the trash!

Humorously, he read an RPW release , virtually in its entirety, today just after 10:25.

And They Say There Is No God

Proof that He exists:

Belling worked himself into High Dudgeon when he connected the dots between a Pewaukee sewage-dumping and the subsequent E-Coli-caused beach closing on Pewaukee Lake.

Just as he got around to decrying the lack of media coverage of the dumping.....

his station went off the air.

Unfortunately, Satan let them back on the air.

Something tells me that this is one of Daddio's post that PaddyMac won't be showing the linky love for.

Sykes Should Look After His Own County

Eight years ago, riding on the wave of anger generated by the Ament pension scandal in Milwaukee County, Charlie Sykes and company made a great push to oust Ament and as many of the County Board Supervisors that they could. Unsatisfied with this blood lust, they also pushed to downsize the Milwaukee County Board, saying that 25 supervisors were too many for a county the size of Milwaukee.

The Board members acted proactively and downsized themselves to the current number of 19 seats, before the angry mob could make it lower.

Now we see that the Ozaukee County Board voted to approve a resolution to apologize to the State of Arizona because MATC protested their bigoted immigration policy. Their ignorant vote is bad enough, but the story goes on to mention something really surprising (emphasis mine):

On a 16-5 vote, the board approved a resolution describing the MATC action as "intolerant and divisive" and asking the college's board to reconsider its decision. There are 31 supervisors on the county board. In addition to the five no voters, seven supervisors walked out of the meeting before the vote and three others were absent.

Ozaukee County has a population in the range of 85,000 people or one eleventh of Milwaukee County's 950,000+ people. Despite the drastic difference in populations, the Land of Oz has 12 more supervisors than Milwaukee County.

What should be even more alarming is that a full third of the supervisors in Oz didn't have the fortitude to make a stand one way or the other.

The question is: Why is Sykes, who lives in Ozaukee County, OK with having an excessive number of wimpy supervisors, but hates Milwaukee County's supervisors so much that he would like to see them all gone? Is it because he is bitter from not making it as a county employee? Or is it because his Republican masters are worried that they might defy Walker and make him look even more foolish than he already does?

His Fourth Marriage Didn't Mellow Him At All

Rush Limbaugh, now married for the fourth time, hasn't mellowed, or apparently slowed down his drug consumption, one bit.

He is now blaming President Obama for going back into time to create the recession because of racism:

Rush Limbaugh said on his July 2 radio show that he believes Obama tanked the economy on purpose, both as "payback" for 230 years of racial oppression and because Obama simply doesn't like America.

He railed: "Who is Obama? Why is he doing this? Why? Why is he doing it? Is he stupid? Is it an accident? Is he doing it on purpose or what have you? ... I think we face something we've never faced before in the country -- and that is, we're now governed by people who do not like the country, who do not have the same reverence for it that we do. Our greatest threat (and this is saying something) is internal."

Maybe he is simply trying to out-Beck Beck...

Rush, A Racist? Who'd A Thunk It?

From Politicususa:

On his radio show today, Rush Limbaugh was speculating as to why First Lady Michelle Obama did not attend Sen. Robert Byrd’s funeral, and his speculation focused on Michelle Obama’s “pure slave blood,” and President Obama’s “lack of pure slave blood.” Limbaugh managed to not only take a shot at the deceased Byrd, but he also leveled a racial slur at the Obamas.

[...]

Limbaugh said, “I don’t know why Michele my belle is not there, but as has been said by several black civil rights leaders, Obama does not have authentic slave blood, but Michele does. We can only speculate. Maybe she is at a skybox at a baseball or football game, who knows?”

That's the leader of the GOP, folks. And they think that this stuff will really sell with the majority of Americans?

H/T James Rowen

They Must Not Get MJS In Wausau

From the Wausau Daily Herald:

If central central Wisconsin is going to get young professionals to move here and stay here, it needs to improve its image online, open up communication between hubs Wausau, Stevens Point and Wisconsin Rapids, and it needs more bike lanes.

Those were some of the ideas raised by a group of young leaders assembled Wednesday by the regional economic development organization Centergy, which covers Marathon, Portage and Wood counties. The Centergy Creative Council is a group of about 20 people, mostly in their 20s and 30s, who are tasked with finding ways to make the region more attractive to young professionals. Fifteen people attended the group's "inaugural summit" at the chalet at Granite Peak Ski Area to discuss the specific initiatives they hope to pursue.

The article goes on to point out that one of the biggest obstacles facing this group is that the area is not regionalized.

Bike paths? Lifestyle opportunities? Regionalization?

Obviously, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel doesn't get delivered up there nor do they have access to JSOnline for some reason. If they had access to these, they would have been able to learn from Patrick McIlheran that the only way for a community or region to survive is if there is sufficient sprawl to pave everything over.

Fighting To Maintain Their Title

As we approach the day that the statewide smoking ban is implemented, State Senator Mary Lazich, or more likely, her overpaid glorified secretary, Kevin Fischer, put up a blog post pushing for the use of e-cigarettes.

That would be the same e-cigarettes that consists of a scary chemical cocktail in itself, as the impeccable and multi-talented Emily Mills points out:

What are e-cigarettes? Well, their manufacturers would like you to know them simply as the "tar-free and safe alternative to smoking" and not ask any further questions. They are tar and tobacco-free, yes, but what they do contain doesn't exactly make them all fuzzy bunnies and lollipops. There's artificial flavoring, vaporized nicotine and, as it turns out, a few other chemicals like diethylene glycol, an ingredient used in antifreeze.

That's why the FDA is (rightly) trying to impose tougher regulations on the product, though they're being met with considerable resistance. Some folks want to see e-cigs regulated as tobacco products, others as a drug or device, and the manufacturers seem intent on keeping their cylindrical cash cows free of any pesky oversight or regulation at all.

Ironically, the Lazich/Fischer post comes out just before the release of a study stating that smoking causes 8,000 deaths statewide each year. Apparently the Lazich/Fischer team wants to maintain or even improve those numbers. For the common good, no doubt.

Either that, or they are just trying to stay on top of their game and maintain their title of Worst Legislator and Worst Legislative Aide.

That's Not An Easy Feat

Cindy Kilkenny is finding amusement at how Scott Walker's free advertisement crew, aka talk radio, is preparing to jump the shark in their flailing defense of Walker's ineptitude and complete lack of leadership.

However, she cites an accomplishment by Mark Neumann which is not often done:

I’ll be very honest and say that I also hope another mistake like that press release from Neumann never happens again. I’ll also say I’m very impressed Neumann called into the show this afternoon. He made Belling look like an idiot. Oh. Or maybe I should say even more of an idiot.

When you're dealing with someone like Belling, or even Sykes, it's difficult to make them look even more idiotic or foolish than they already do. After all, they are masters at that task.

By Golly, She Really Is A Conservative Reporter

Rebecca Kleefisch has herself listed as a "Conservative Correspondent" on her Linked In profile.

Today, she proved it.

She reported that she was first in the state to file her nomination papers.

But, the truth is, she wasn't. Unless she changed her name and gender.

Warning: Exploding Heads In 3...2...1...

Patrick McIlheran and Charlie Sykes use a lot of hair spray to keep their heads exploding from all their hypocrisy.

But I don't know if there is enough hair spray to help these two pro-school choice zealots now.

From JSOnline: Study shows no big advantage for charter schools:

Researchers followed 2,330 students who applied to 36 charter schools in 15 states and found that students who won lotteries to attend the schools did not perform significantly better in reading or math, nor have greatly improved attendance and behavior, than students who lost the lottery and had to attend other schools.

Correctly Reading The Feingold/Johnson Poll

The right wingers are already trying to make hey with the latest poll results from Public Policy Polling. The wingers are misinterpreting the poll to think that Feingold is ahead by only a point or two.

However, the Chief points out a pertinent factoid:

Johnson is largely unknown to voters in the state. 62% have no opinion of him.

Thus, to correctly interpret the poll results, it should be thus:

• Feingold 45%
• Anyone but Feingold 27%
• Johnson 16%

In other words, Johnson is losing to an Feingold and anyone else. And for this, the GOP sold their delegate votes?

Linked In Questions For Kleefisch

Rebecca Kleefisch, the would be video-journalist turned would-be Lieutenant Governor candidate, has a very strange Linked-In profile:


There are two things that stand out to me immediately.

One is that she lists her Lt. Gov. has a past job. But she is still actively campaigning. Kind of sloppy, to say the least.

The other is that she lists herself as "Conservative Correspondent at Journal Broadcast Group."

I always thought that the whole thing about self-promotion was to make yourself stand out in a crowd, not boast of being one of the sheep.