Kevin Fischer: Legend in His Own Mind

Kevin Fischer has an awfully high opinion of himself, as evidenced by his recent assertion that's a multi-genre star:

This is Kevin Fischer.

Star of TV.

Star of radio.

Star of the blogs.

Now call me crazy, but by my definition, hosting one weekly show on PBS does not make one a "star of TV."

And call me crazy, but serving as a fill-in host on WISN radio when the regular guy is sick does make one a "star of radio."

And as for Fischer being a "star of the blogs," I don't know what makes someone a star of the blogs, but based on some of the tired talking points Fischer's rehashing on his blog, I don't see him being a "star of the blogs." There's plenty of other conservatives folks in the blogosphere who are far more original and insightful than Kevin Fischer, so I have a hard time believing he's a star of the blogs. I'd also note that it's easy to think you're a star on your own blog when you discourage any opinions that differ from your own through the use of your moderator powers to delete comments.

I will give Kevin Fischer credit where credit's due; he certainly is a star of something, but I don't think he wants to be known as a "star of exaggeration."

Fisking Fischer's Failed Fisking Foibles

Now, I will admit that I am not a resident of the fine city of Franklin, and I do not follow their politics very closely. But it is pretty obvious that Fischer and our own Green Knight, Greg Kowalski are on opposite sides of the table in many aspects.

Apparently, some of the candidates that young Mr. Kowalski was backing won. Not only did they win, they also survived a recount. As is the norm in the blogging world, he put up a post to celebrate this fact.

Fischer, either forgetting the flack he received from his last round of suburban style hate, or hoping to add to his two previous appearances in Milwaukee Magazine, or just lashing out because he is feeling the heat of the deep fryers, decided to lash out at Mr. Kowalski.

Fischer tries to fisk the Green Knight's post, but only manages to make himself look like the petulant child that didn't get his way. Let's look at it shall we? Kowalski's original statement is italicized, and Fischer's response in normal font. I shall respond in between.

Fischer's first attempt is this:

It was truly a pleasure to see Franklin Aldermanic candidates vie for a position without resorting to dirty tactics. This statement suggests that there were dirty tricks in the past. Would Greg be willing in a future blog to outline specifically what he’s talking about? I’d be very interested, wouldn’t you?

Or it could be that Kowalski was just glad to see clean campaigning. Perhaps, being a Republican, that concept is foreign to Fischer.

a new day looming for Franklin. Greg sees changes coming. But remember, Greg is grammatically challenged. He uses the word “looming.” By definition, that implies that bad things are on the horizon. Is that because two incumbent aldermen were defeated? Explain, Greg.

My copy of Webster's defines looming as "To rise and to be eminent; to be elevated or ennobled, in a moral sense." Perhaps it's the moral thing that scares Fischer.

I would like to believe that the people of this fine community stood up and said enough's enough relating to many issues. People aren't huge fans of backroom negotiations and discussions relating to properties near their homes or in key corridors or districts. Again, I’m dying to know what secret, inside information Greg is aware of. Would he please share? What backroom deals is he talking about?

Fischer only cites part of Kowalski's sentence. In reality, the sentence starts with the phrase "From my own observations and discussions with Franklin residents..." The secret, talking to people instead of at them. That's not so hard to figure out...for most people.

Many individuals would like to become more involved in the governmental process by being in the know of issues that they're curious about. I hope that’s true. That means more Franklin residents, if Greg is accurate, will turn out at all kinds of city meetings. Don’t hold your breath.

So now Fischer starts to insult the other citizens of Franklin. Why does Lazich keep him on the payroll? Or doesn't she care about the upcoming election?

As I've noted in the past, the city needs to be more open on bringing in the community when it comes to issues such as future planning goals and our civic center. The goal is commendable. But again, what specifically is he talking about? Every meeting is open to the public. If people want to be involved in the process, they need to show up at meetings or contact their elected representatives.

Oh, I don't know, maybe they could make more of an effort to let people know when meetings are, encourage their involvement, ask them for their input. Those ideas must be too foreign to Fischer to think of on his own.

People begin to wise up a bit when they're promised reduced taxes 3 years ago if they support an extremely pro-development Council, but yet see their levies jump higher and higher afterwards. Now I’m really curious. OK, Greg. Who specifically promised lower taxes three years ago and what did they say? If you can provide specific info, the people who made such promises need to be held accountable. What does “extremely pro-development” mean?

Again, Fischer omits the lead-in sentence, where Kowalski writes, "I like to believe that residents are becoming more aware about development and how it affects their taxes on a yearly basis." This means Kowalski is expressing a belief, not a cold hard fact.

Not only that, but the people that made those promises were probably the ones that didn't get elected, eh? And really now, doesn't the man own a dictionary?

Development needs to be done right and not in the current haphazard method. Greg, please define “right” and “haphazard.”

Fischer, please consult dictionary.com.

My advice to Fischer would be to stop being such a sore loser, and start worrying about your own behaviors. Maybe, he'd like to clean up his time sheets or something, to keep himself out of trouble.

Lack Of Editorial Control

McBride, as we all know, is involved with the UWM School of Journalism's Frontpage Milwaukee. I just never knew how scary things actually were over there. From their "About Us" section:

Editorial Control

The faculty supervisor, acting as a faculty member in UWM's Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, has editorial control. Questions should be directed to Jessica McBride, at mcbridej@uwm.edu.

Sheesh. Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, now she's thinking she got them mad editorial skillz.

First there is the question of whether she is even a faculty member, now there's the issue of falsely advertising herself as having editorial control.

H/T to Michael Horne

Fischer's Follies

Barack Hussein Obama steps in it again


That's the title of a blog entry last night by Kevin "Excessive Vacation" Fischer, one of this blog's favorite conservative bloggers.

What's most interesting to me about the blog title is the fact that the inclusion of Barack Obama's middle name really has nothing to do with the substance of the blog entry, and given the following warning from Fischer, I can't help but think his use of Obama's middle name is nothing more than a pathetic attempt to draw some attention to his blog entry. Here's the disclaimer:

NOTE TO READERS: If you intend to leave a comment, please stick to topic. Any comment referring to my use of Obama's middle name will be considered off-topic and removed immediately. Thank you.

What amuses me the most about Fischer's warning is the fact that the inclusion of Obama's middle name in the title of his blog entry has nothing to do with the actual substance of the blog entry, making the inclusion of the middle name off-topic.

Keep up the good work Kevin!

Damn Chain Letters

That dang Elliot Stearns gave me this stupid blogging version of a chain letter. I hate these things, and thought of ignoring it, but I like Elliot, despite all his faults, so will play along, to a degree.

The goofy thing reads:

1. Write your own six word memoir.
2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you want.
3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post and to the original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere.
4. Tag at least five more blogs with links.
5. Leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play.

So here goes:

1) My life is much too grand for six words, but I will go with:

Information is abundant, knowledge is scarce.

Although, lately, I would also use:

What the hell went happened now?

I also thought of using:

I'm gonna get you, Elliot Stearns.

2) I did, and the pictures are in the link in #1

3) Meet my "friend", Elliot, who cursed me with this thing.

4) Heh, I already stated that I thoroughly dislike these things, and will not foist it upon anyone. Not even the squawkers (although that would be funny). On second thought, I will do it to Charlie, Patrick, James T., Kevin and Jessica.

5) Let's see if they'll play, eh?

UPDATE: Fischer has deleted his tag, the big chicken. And it was his big chance to get his fourth and fifth reader. PaddyMac has me blocked. Charlie is out of town. James T. is having a family situation, so he gets a pass for now. And no one has seen or heard from Jessica.

Linking With The Enemy

A new and frequent visitor and commenter here at Whallah! is Kate, the young lady that runs the blogsite called Ol' Broad.

She has a style of posting that is at times similar to Owen Robinson, with a lot of linking and few words, but at other times, she does offer her own take on some things.

Kate and I don't rightly see eye to eye on some things. OK, we disagree on almost everything. I find some of her stuff rather hateful and spiteful. Sometimes, some of her commenters are truly over the line, and say things that wouldn't be allowed even here, which is a "left hate site" according to some.

However, Kate and I have had some lengthy conversations, both here at Whallah! and at her site. These conversations, while failing to convert one or the other, has led Kate to recognize that the left isn't necessarily a bunch of socialist, communist, moon bats that want to destroy America from within. We just want to make America even better than it is.

Although Kate has some reservations about Whallah!, and finds that some of our work gets too personal, she has given us the privilege of being one of the few, maybe the only, liberal site on her blogroll. In the interest of fair play (not to be confused with my lovely friend, Fair Play) and reciprocity, Whallah! is adding the Ol' Broad to our blogroll.

Go give her a visit, if you so wish, but behave yourselves. You are going as representatives of your King, and I want to continue to show the world why I have such pride in my good people.

Well Said, Ms. McBride

Jessica McBride may not be blogging as much, but she still does write for the Waukesha Freeman. In today's article, McBride, in all seriousness, does a splendid job giving credit to David Umhoefer at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for his Pulitzer Prize.

She also accurately points out that Mr. Umhoefer's glory would not have been possible if not for the ground work done several years ago by Bruce Murphy, who is now the editor at Milwaukee Magazine. Mr. Murphy was the person who broke the original pension scandal story that shook Milwaukee County.

Ms. McBride's column was so well done, that Whallah! is recommending it for reading, and is willing to overlook the couple of snarky comments she couldn't resist flinging at MJS

Just Leave Them Alone

Something that was not covered by the right wing mainstream media, was the President's immediate reaction to Congress questioning General Patraeus regarding Iraq:




This led to criticism of Bush by some parties which led to this press release:

Bad Talk Radio Translates Into Worse Talk TV

Milwaukee Magazine, in their insiderpressroom section, did a wonderful expose on Kevin Fischer. But what was transcribed in that post was not the whole article. There is a second part that brings us some bad news and some good news:

Meanwhile, the man Fischer fills in for on occasion, Mark Belling, remains without a TV show of his own. Channel 58 dropped Belling's Sunday morning panel discussion last summer. The WISN talker tells Pressroom that people working on his behalf made overtures to try to get the show back on the air, without success.

Belling says he enjoyed the program, but professes not to miss it. Still, given the way it reinforced his presence, it's not surprising he's open to its return.

A pending ownership change at WITI-TV Fox 6 could create an opening. But Sunday morning political chats aren't big sellers. "The audiences are relatively small for all these programs," says Jeff Fleming, director of public relations for Howl Fire, a new ad agency.

Belling rival Charlie Sykes (on whose TV show Fleming is regular panelist) now has the Sunday morning field to himself locally--or did until WISN-TV Channedl 12 hired retired WTMJ-TV Channel 4 anchor Mike Gousha to do a Sunday morning interview show. But that wasn't about making money; it was about building the Channel 12 brand as Milwaukee's serious news station.

Former Belling panelist Mordecai Lee says the lack of local public affairs shows is "a sad commentary on the economics of American television, and of how weakly licensees feel the need to substantiate serving the public interest." But Lee has a personal reason to see Belling return. "I've got six months worth of opinions all stored up, and nowhere to go."

So, talk TV isn't that popular, but there is still a threat that Belling might pollute our screens again anyway. Unfortunately, for Mr. Lee, Whallah! has insider information that indicates that if Belling would get a show back, he would only have panelists that are less intelligent than him. So far the line up looks like a rusty shovel, a rock, a dead cockroach, and George Bush.

Ask And Ye Shall Receive

There are those who've been asking for "just one" example of a lie from the SCoW campaign of Micahel Gableman or his supporters. "Just one," they prattle as if it would be so easy to narrow down.

Neener, neener, "Just one." Okay.

Butler, a former public defender, is such an extremist on the rights of
criminals that he has been dubbed "Loophole Louie" in reference to his
willingness to overturn convictions.

There ya get a threefer from one of the emptiest of the talking heads. Bellowing needs some fisking here.

By "an extremist on the rights of criminals" he means that the former Public Defender believes that all citizens have the right to representation at a fair and speedy trial. The former Justice also believes in giving a client the best representation possible.

That brings us to Big Fat Lie Two. The nickname dates to well before Justice Butler was ever on the bench. belling and the other lying liars would have the voters of the state believe that, somehow, a judge who voted with the majority of his peers 70% of the time was out of the mainstream.

That leaves only the most egregious, slimiest, most Sykesian lie for last. The "loophole" that lies at the root of Justice Butler's nickname is The Constitution. The same document which, with a little luck these days, protects us all is what PD Butler used to defend the rights of his clients.

"Just one" you want? Just wait. Belling's mouth will start moving again soon. You can have your lie then.

I Wondered Who Was Doing That

Friday Night Fischer Fry On Thursday

As I mentioned yesterday, Cindy Kilkenny was not with her investigation into Fischer. Today, she shares with us some of her findings.

She writes (emphasis hers):

When trying to determine vacation benefits, the senate human resource department sent me to this state benefit site. According to this, as an exempt employee with less than five years employment, Fischer should be using 120 hours per year of vacation. I don’t know if he has prior state employment that would increase the benefit. I do know he was let go from a TV station in October of 1996. Even if he had more, 5 to 10 years is 160 hours, and if he’s worked for the state since 1996 that would be 176 hours.

I’m getting somewhere with this, I promise.

Fischer consistently defends his time spent on WISN as his own. He takes vacation for it. When he filled in every day the week of 12/3 to 12/7, it’s on the time sheet for 2 hours each day. Lots of other WISN/vacation days line up, too. (He’s got most of the dates on his blog.) The wild thing is, in 2007 - even with September’s number unk(n)own - Fischer claimed (and Lazich signed off on) 209 hours of vacation. Ok, I thought, there’s something I’m missing.

I checked to see if compensatory or “comp” time is used. No, the time sheets all call these hours vacation, even though there is a box for “comp” time. An e-mail to Senator Lazich confirmed that she doesn’t keep overtime hours, so there’s nothing to draw against. Maybe it’s personal time - the site says employees gets an extra 4 1/2 days. Yes, there are actually 5 1/2 days or 44 hours called personal. The state gives 36, so I’ll back 36 hours off. That’s 173 hours of vacation sans September.

Her investigation is not complete yet, but it is looking like Fischer is practicing some of that Republican math to balance the time sheets. If her numbers keeping coming out the way they are looking, he's not looking too good.

Lots Of Sour Grapes To Go Around

A concerned reader emailed his King and asked for a boon. Said reader pled for Whallah! to point out some of the hypocrisy of the right.

Sykes, Belling, and the rest of the right wing echo chamber, after the election a couple weeks ago, have been all over the left with cries of "sour grapes", which was fueled by some in the state legislature calling for a change in how justices are placed on the bench of the Supreme Court, and talking about appointing them, as opposed to general elections.

Our faithful reader points out, with keen accuracy, that it was just a couple of years ago that the right was gnashing their teeth and complaining about the state ethics board, that wouldn't let Green just transfer money around willy-nilly. There they go again throwing their rocks throw the walls of their glass houses.

I also recollect that early in the year 2001, the right didn't have a problem at all with what was supposed to be an elected official being appointed. In that case, it happened to be SCOTUS appointing a president. It would appear that there is some sort of precedent for that sort of thing.

The Audacity Of Hypocrisy

Sykes puts up a post, complete with video and a copy and paste job, of a Reverend Eric Lee, President/CEO of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Los Angeles.

The story is that he said some pretty awful and anti-Semitic things. This is not condoned by Whallah!

What else is not condoned is the way Sykes portrays Lee. Sykes would leave the reader with the impression that this is similar to the Reverend Wright story. It's not. Lee supports Obama, but not as a close ally. Just as one of many Americans that support Obama. If every candidate had to distance themselves from a crackpot that said something stupid, and said they liked that candidate, that is all they would have time to do.

McCain alone would have to disavow just about every conservative squawker out there.

What is really egregious on Sykes part, where he reaches a new high in hypocrisy, is that he is making a big deal out of Lee's anti-Semitic remarks. After all, Sykes is the one that thought photoshopping the Star of David into a Nazi Swastika was "brilliant" and "pure genius." He is also the same one that belittled local religious leaders that politely asked him to take the hateful, anti-Semitic post down.

How does he look at himself in the mirror?

Who You Gonna Call?

Whallah!