Another Love Torn Asunder

Jessie McB is no longer in love with the neoconservative Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke.

That would be the second of McBride's loves that Milwaukee's top cop, Ed Flynn, has ruined.

And they want to give Flynn more control over public safety?

Where's Charlie Sykes' Page Now?

Earlier in the year, Charlie Sykes, squawking head at WTMJ-AM, showed that he, at long last, has shown that he has no sense of decency when he sent out a most vulgar tweet inferring that Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele was some sort of pedophile.

In his vulgarity, Sykes tweeted that he was paging another squawking head at the radio station, John Mecure, who's claim for fame is sensationalizing stories and pretending he's busting child pornography sexual predators.

But it appears that Sykes' little paging system is busted.

It has been recently reported that Phil Wentzel, a top aide - even once as high as spokesman - for Sheriff David Clarke, has been arrested for creating child pornography.  The arrest stems from nearly a year's investigation into Wentzel.

Even worse, even though Clarke put Wentzel on leave, it's with pay.

Now that there is an high ranking county staff person who is a sexual predator, Sykes is silent.  So is Mecure for that matter.

Is Sykes' silence on this serious issue because he is buddy buddy with the ultraconservative nut job of a sheriff?

Or is it that Sykes thinks sexual abuse of minors is something that should only be joked about, especially using a liberal as a foil?

If They Only Knew

Mike Plaisted on Sheriff David Clarke's bid on retaining his tin star:

No mention of his nut-right tea party ravings. No admission of his regular appearances on wing-nut radio and his tacit (or express) endorsement of all their often racist arguments and campaigns. No mention of the fact that Clarke's expensive billboard advertising is underwritten by the usual Republican and right-wing moneybags who have poisoned the political dialog in Milwaukee and nationally for decades.

If African-American Democratic voters knew Clarke's record, affiliations and the substance of his political grandstanding better, they would never return him to office. But Clarke is going to make sure they know he's African-American, as he has every right to do. But, alongside every one of those billboards should be a disclaimer: *NOTE: David Clarke is NOT a Democrat. More about that in a future post.

See also: "Running as a Democrat"

Just what we needed

My car radio has been a WTMJ free zone for more than two years, since I discovered a station that didn't believe the world was flat and actually let callers talk. I've been happily tuned to WMCS, 1290 AM, and stayed there even when a shakeup and change in station management resulted in Eric Von, the station's real pro, leaving his afternoon slot. I'd been more or less a Friday regular on his Man Show for a couple of years.

But today, host Earl Ingram opened his afternoon drive show with a surprise announcement -- Sheriff David Clarke, the conservative Republican teabagger who poses as a Democrat, will be the fill-in host when Ingram is absent.

I guess the new management thought it would be good to have at least one host who doesn't support Obama.

Can James T. Harris be far behind?

Aside from the question of whether an elected official -- and one who has run for mayor as well as sheriff, and likely has more ambitions -- is an appropriate host, there's the question of whether Milwaukee really needs one more right wing talker of any color.

The conservatives will no doubt say that some balance is good for WMCS. To which we might wonder, why isn't it good for WTMJ?

Lefty Joel McNally and Cassandra Cassandra still co-host the WMCS morning show, and Al Sharpton holds down the noon to 3 slot. Here's hoping Earl Ingram doesn't have many sick days or vacation coming.

Kevin Binversie, aka Mr. Obvious Man

Poor, old Kevin Binversie. He doesn't like Whallah!:

The more I read "Whallah!" on my RSS feed, the more I realize that blog would be really, really, really, really boring without the existence of conservatives. It's like every unoriginal thought the Port Side of the Cheddarsphere has had at a Drinking Liberally over the past five years rolled into one...with posts no doubt done on the taxpayer dime of Milwaukee Co.

Well, let's see now. The tag line at the top of the site reads:

Committed to the monitoring of the local right-wing media and exposing their lies, hypocrisies, and foibles, so that you don't have to.

Mmm. A site about right wingers. So if there is no right wingers to talk about, I would have to agree that a site about them would be rather boring.

No wonder the Republicans keep losing ground, if they got guys like Binversie working for them.

And what's up with the Milwaukee dime comment? Who does he think I am, Scott Walker or David Clarke?

When Will Clarke Show Some Leadership?

Sykes' misnamed "Hot Read" for Monday was an email from Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke. In his email, Clarke goes on about the rash of shootings over the past weekend, and of course, blames all the local leaders but himself.

Of course, this is the same David Clarke that pulled deputies from patrolling the parks, eliminated the drug unit, stopped supporting DARE, among other things.

But, in a matter of poor timing for Sykes and Clarke, this morning a deputy writes an open letter at Watchdog Milwaukee asking for Clarke to show some leadership for a change. And as usual, the wise Michael Mathias is way, way ahead of the game with a post from last June, giving some helpful advice to Clarke.

But to be fair, Sykes did also post a letter from Common Council Prsident Willie Hines, who Clarke attacked in his email.

Defending the American Nightmare

Today is the big day for the AFP and their misnamed Defending the American Dream Summit.

On their list of guest speakers is Vicki McKenna, aka the other McBride. They are also going to have McIlheran and Fred Dooley of the also misnamed Real Debate Wisconsin.

To spare you the pain of having to read their self-acclaiming posts that they are sure to be writing, Whallah! saves you the trouble by hiring two actors to recreate their contribution to this event:



Unfortunately, we cannot tell which actor is portraying which character, as they are somewhat interchangeable.

Also on the list of guest speakers is the local right wing media's darling law enforcement official David Clarke. I kind of wish I saw his appearance, especially in light of his frugal use of taxpayer's money:

Sheriff Clarke wants to force his deputies to make their legal signatures legible, and anyone who they think is not legible is being referred to internal affairs. This is not a choice being given to the Captain’s, they have been ordered to find/start 5 cases every week.

For other insightful looks at their little shindig, I would refer the gentle reader to my piece on folkbum's as well as the work of the Motley Cow.

And I would be remiss if I did not point out how the Chief explains why they were still looking for attendees as recently as yesterday, or the lackluster of one of their other star speakers.

H/T to Watchdog Milwaukee for the Clarke piece.

The Clarke-Jones Hypocrisy

Remember when Arthur Jones was the Chief of Police for the City of Milwaukee? Sykes, Belling, Wagner, et al. would hammer him on an almost daily basis for his "tyrannical" type of leadership, his ineffective policing strategy, and for treating the rank and file like dogs.

So why is it that they give Sheriff David Clarke, who rose in the ranks and was a higher ranking officer under Jones, gets such a break? For example, let's look at this excerpt from Sir Zachary the True Blue:

...This is a man who, during his tenure in office, has done more to alienate the rank and file members of the Sheriff’s Department than any of his predecessors, a fact that isn’t surprising given his penchant for calling his subordinates “losers” and “dumb,” and putting aside his lack of any kind of leadership qualities, he hasn’t really done much to fix that which is wrong with the Sheriff’s Department. This is also the same man who time and time again blames his subordinates whenever there’s a problem at the jail, leading me to conclude Sheriff Clarke’s obviously not a believer in Harry Truman’s philosophy that “The Buck Stops Here.” As Sheriff, he should take some responsibility for how the jail is operated, because that is one of his mandates as Sheriff, yet time and time again he deflects any blame off himself and on to the deputies and corrections officers that work under him, ostensibly because he’s more concerned about his own political future than he is about doing what’s right for the Sheriff’s Department - and not just David Clarke.

After all, how can anyone forget the absolute failure that was the GRIP program, Sheriff Clarke’s vaunted - but ultimately ineffective - program for taking guns off Milwaukee’s streets. I sure haven’t forgotten GRIP, because it was largely due to the GRIP program that deputies in the field were sent on a fool’s errand instead that yielded little in the way of actual results, while creating holes in coverage throughout the county.

You can read the rest of the post from Sir Zachary here.

Selective Outrage

The right side of the blogosphere has itself in a tizzy about some conservative blogger in Sheboygan and her feud with the mayor of Sheboygan. Apparently, she has been going after the mayor for some time, and it is now boiling over when the mayor and city attorney sent her a cease and desist letter regarding her keeping a link to the Sheboygan Police Department's website. There have been some accusations going back and forth, regarding racism, strong arm tactics, and abuses of power. It is has become so prevalent that it garnered a post from Sykes, a series of posts from McBride, and some air time from Mark Belling.

Now, having only given the case at hand a preliminary examination, I think all would agree that the mayor was out of line with his actions. However, the right, especially McBride, are questioning why the left side of the blogosphere's haven't met their same level of frenzied outrage, and wonder if the left actually condones the mayor's actions.

Curiously, the right did not have the same outrage when former State Senator Tom Reynolds and friends tried to use strong arm tactics on lefty blogger Gretchen Schuldt of Milwaukee Rising, when she was being a citizen blogger and investigating possible campaign violations from Reynolds failed bid to be re-elected.

Nor do I remember the outrage at Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke when he abused his position and authority in trying to strong arm deputies who didn't agree with him, or actively opposed his actions, even though they did so on their own time.

In fact, instead of outrage, Clarke was praised as was Reynolds, who McBride actually called "untouchable".

The left might not have reached the fevered zeal of the right regarding the Sheboygan blogger, but at least they weren't as selective with their outrages.

UPDATE: According to various right-wing blogsites, the Sheboygan blogger is now receiving legal assistance in her case--the famous trial lawyer, Paul Bucher. One can only hope that he serves her better than he did the citizens of Waukesha County.