Saving PolitiFact The Trouble

It's been a while since PolitFact has taken a look at Charlie Sykes' outrageous statements and lit his arse on fire, so we'll just have to do it for them.

Thursday morning, Sykes was ranting and raving about this article in the paper which told of how hundreds of people came out to Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele's budget hearing to speak passionately about saving paratransit.

I only caught parts of Sykes' steaming pantful, but there were two glaring lies he was telling his audience.

One, he said that the advocates for the disabled were saying that the paratransit fees were going to more than triple.  All this proves is that Sykes is illiterate.  The article actually reported this (emphasis mine):

The cuts proposed by the Milwaukee County Transit System also include elimination of service on six regular routes, ending Freeway Flyer service and shortening routes or cutting bus frequency on 28 other routes. The transit system also is proposing to raise paratransit fares for riders with disabilities by $1.25, to $4.50.

Again, it only shows that Sykes can't read.

But where Sykes really got it wrong, and thereby set his own trousers ablaze, was when he claimed that no one has ever threatened to cut paratransit services before and that he was outraged about it.

The only thing is that paratransit services have been threatened before, even as recently as last year when then Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker threatened to cut that service to the bare minimum required by federal law.

Secondly, per county records, now Governor Walker and his Republican allies in the legislature have decided to cut transit and paratransit funding by $5.5 million in the recently passed budget.

Don't expect Sykes to admit to that any time soon, though. He's too busy trying to keep the flames from his pantaloons from reaching all that hairspray in his helmet-hair.

Charlie Sykes, The Cowardly Lion Liar

In case you were lucky enough to miss it on Thursday morning, Charlie Sykes spent at least the first hour or so of his radio trying to show that he really isn't a sniveling coward.

He told of how he bravely put on a suit, with a blue tie even, and drove out to the Capitol Building.

Of course, once there, he goes straight to Koch Brother Media, aka MacGuyver Institute, and got a camera man to walk him across the busy street.

Sykes then shares how heroic he was by walking up to the door and going inside!  No word if it was one of the public doors or through one of the tunnels that Walker uses so smuggle in supporters.

He then shares how he disappointed he was that none of the protesters ran up and started yelling at him.  What a champion!  Of course, his self-imposed mission was made all the easier since he went after the Weasel King, Scott Walker, locked the People's House up to keep it away from the people and the working stiffs that have appeared at the Capitol for every day without incident.

The best part though comes after he is let inside.

He actually admits to going up to some of the protesters with the sole purpose of trying to instigate an incident.  The protesters not only refuse to rise to his adolescent taunts, but don't even know or care who is is.

It's nice to see that he is getting exactly the respect he deserves: none.

I hear for his next act of bravado, Sykes is going to host a panel of ultra-conservatives in front of a group of other ultra-conservatives.  And he'll do it without a net!

Gee, what a hero he is...in his own mind.

Something Smells Fishy

Ron Johnson, just like Scott Walker, runs to Charlie Sykes every time he gets into trouble, hoping that Ol' Chuckles bombastic blathering will help them past the self-inflicted damage.

Johnson, still reeling from a series of blunders, including flip flopping on whether to sell his BP stock, praising the thought of sending American jobs overseas, and wanting to limit people's ability to exercise their Second Amendment rights, was in desperate need for some help from old Uncle Chuck.

But RoJo is really nothing more than Wisconsin's version of Joe the Plumber. A fake who doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut, as One Wisconsin Now points out:

Ross said Johnson's fishing story wasn't particularly important, but part of a larger issue of Johnson's evolving public positions and possible embellishment of his "rags to riches" story. Johnson's television ads indicate his business skills make him a qualified leader.

Johnson's website reads, "In 1979, Ron and Jane moved to Wisconsin, where Ron started a business called PACUR with his brother-in-law." It also says, "PACUR has grown from a company supplying a single customer to the largest producer in the world of a specialty plastic used in medical device packaging and high tech printing applications." [Johnson campaign website]

The truth about PACUR and Johnson:

· PACUR was created as an off-shoot of the Curwood plastics company

· Curwood was founded by Johnson's father-in-law, Howard Curler

· Having just moved to Wisconsin, Johnson went to work for PACUR when he was 24-years-old along his brother-in-law, Curler's son.

· PACUR's sole client for years was Curwood.

"Just because your dad liked to fish does not make you a fisherman, and because your father-in-law built you a business, does not make you an entrepreneur," said Ross. "And unfortunately, Ron Johnson has fallen for the failed Bush tax cuts for millionaires hook, line and sinker."

Ya know, for a couple of professionals, you would think that RoJo and Chuckie would be able to be better liars than they are.

In Which Kevin Contemplates His Future...

[Because] some of our country's good-for-nothing bums are too chicken to rob
us at gunpoint. That would be members of Congress and the executive branch. How come we keep electing politicians who will tax the bejeezus out of us?
Especially Democrats? At least Republicans are smart enough to lie about
it."

How does Lazich keep getting re-elected if she does all of that?