Charlie Sykes: I Have The Right To Make You Pay More

During my travels Friday morning, I caught a piece of Sykes' show. He was griping about a proposed law in California that would limit how much power a TV would be allowed to use.

The gist of his argument was that as long as he paid for the TV, he could do whatever he wanted and run it as much as he liked, and no one should have the right to tell him otherwise. He tried to paint it that the people with the large energy-sucking TVs were the oppressed ones.

However, the article linked to above tells us only 13% of the TVs wouldn't meet the standards if they were in effect now.

But more importantly, it seems that Sykes, and those that would agree with him, think that they have the right to screw over the public for their own gratitude. When Charlie runs his power sucking TV, it creates a higher demand for the electricity. The higher the demand, the higher the cost it is for the electricity, not just for Sykes, but for everyone. So if the old lady down the street is on a fixed income, she will be forced to decide between buying food, paying for her increasingly expensive medicine, or having the lights on, well, according to Sykes, that's just too bad for her.

If Sykes was really interested in being fair, he would be willing to pay a larger tax to subsidize his higher consumption.

And, of course, none of this even mentions what it would be doing to the environment.

McIlheran, MJS Are Not To Be Believed

Last November, Jay Bullock of folkbum's rambles and rants, wrote this post about a column by Patrick McIlheran, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's in-house propagandist. Besides the column just being plain foolish, PaddyMac had notified Jay of the column in advance of it being published in the paper or on JSOnline:

I am a lucky guy. I think. Somehow, after all these years of duels and ripostes, in the last couple of weeks Patrick McIlheran has added me to his mailing list. That means every few days or so I get an email from him with the full text of a column of his slated to run in the next day or two.

Thursday night I got his preview of Friday's column*. (Confidential to PM in Bay View: Next time, use the BCC field. Your sole liberal correspondent might feel a bit weird about being your sole liberal correspondent, and was probably happier when he believed there was a more even distribution.) "Here’s an early look at my column in Friday's Journal Sentinel. You’re seeing it because I send a heads-up to a select group of talkers and bloggers whose work I admire. You’re among them." See? Lucky!

Gretchen Schuldt, of Milwaukee Rising, understated the obvious by pointing out that this was a violation of journalistic ethics. She also took it another step by getting in touch with George Stanley of MJS, who said that it Paddy's actions were inappropriate and shouldn't have happened (emphasis mine):

Patrick McIlheran’s pre-publication sharing of a column with a generally right wing bunch of bloggers was a mistake that shouldn’t have happened and shouldn’t happen again, according to Journal Sentinel managing editor George Stanley (previous posts here and here).

Gretchen later wrote in the same post that if PaddyMac ever did do it again, he should have "his butt kicked up between his ears." I expressed my doubt about believing Mr. Stanley with that claim in this post.

Well, I hope Gretchen has some good ass-kicking boots, because he went ahead and did it again.

Jay has another post up regarding McIlheran's poorly thought out propaganda piece that is due to hit the papers tomorrow (again, emphasis mine):

As sometimes happens, my inbox was graced this afternoon with an email from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Patrick McIlheran, who retains a place of high regard in my rogues gallery even if I don't bother writing about him much anymore. (Tom Foley has taken up a lot of the slack.) The email is pimping his column in tomorrow's paper, which is about the study of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program that was released earlier this week, which I wrote about here. Here's a line from the email:

Anyhow, in Sunday morning's paper, I'll look at the idiot notion that the school choice study results mean the program ought to be shut down.

Which threw me for a loop: I've followed the release of the study, the reaction, and the news about it, and I haven't read or heard a single person use the study as the basis for a call to shut down the program.

The rest of Jay's post points out how McIlheran is basically lying through his keyboard about school choice, and fails to accredit Jay by name (or by link on the website version of it, even though he wouldn't hesitate to do that for Rick Esenberg or Dad29).

This pretty much answers the question of whether McIlheran or the MJS have any integrity left.

But it does leave two other questions:

1. Will the MJS give us subscribers a chance for sneak previews, or if not, then a discount seeing that we are not receiving the same service?
2. Will Gretchen gives advanced warning so that we can bring a video camera and a lunch for when Paddy's buttocks ends up between his ears?

Why Republican radio talkers hate rail

Renee Crawford has figured it out.

If people get out of their cars, who's going to listen to them?

That's Entertainment

Over at the circus known as the Charlie Sykes blog, a supplicant who is mad as hell (her name is fittingly Maddie) pours out bile:

Charlie – what is the end game? I am sick and damned tired of waking up every day to find out who else that hasn’t (sic) played by the rules is going to be rewarded by our government. I am sick and tired of asking why I struggle to pay my bills and put a little away for a rainy day. I am sick and God damned tired of the grasshoppers being given the keys to my trough and the trough of all of my fellow ants. Why don’t they just take everything? Identify society’s producers and just take EVERYTHING that they have and give it to society’s non-producers and at least spare my weary ears from having to hear who is getting the fruit of my labor next?! Huh?! I’m at that point. I’m sick of it, just take it all and shut the F up!

Two amusing things about this. Maddie could have been playing Charlie and was referring to Wall Street.

Then at the comments a hapless soul by the name of Zenia starts things off by talking in a slightly liberal Pollyannaish language, not realizing she was going to open the gates of hell. She blithely touches off the master race fury of the Sykes peanut gallery, running nearly four dozen screaming comments. That'll learn her to troll.

Thank you Charlie for your fine contributions to civilized dialogue in Milwaukee. Where else could well reasoned thoughts of someone like Maddie get a chance to stink up the joint?

Right Wing Tank Thinker Is Now Against Tax Cuts For Business

The serious people speak. "Attracting business to Wisconsin is not government's job."

Rose Fernandez's Scandal?

Given how Charlie Sykes and Mark Belling were so gung-ho on calling out DPI candidate Tony Evers' campaign on something that they didn't even do, I was sure that they would have covered the scandal regarding Rose Fernandez and Rep. Don Pridemore's questionable politicking through public office.

Instead, there is not even a peep that I could tell of.

Even Sykes' compatriot, Aaron Rodriguez, who was all over that Tony Evers' story (and then backtracking on his use of an apostrophe) hasn't covered the questionable stunt by Pridemore.

What Rodriguez does do is try to discredit Cory Liebmann's stellar work regarding Fernandez. Unfortunately for Rodriguez, he fails miserably.

I shan't bore the reader with his long, struggling attempt and failure of refuting Cory's work, but draw the reader to one paragraph in particular:

If Fernandez had access to to these "substantial resources", wouldn't she have raised more than $20,000 in the primaries? The fact remains that Fernandez, out of necessity, had to loan her own campaign $4,000 dollars in order to reach the minimum qualifying amount for public funding. Where were the deep pockets of K12 in the primaries? And why did Rose need to loan her own campaign money if she was in a covert partnership with K12? Evers, on the other hand, has substantial resources with the WEAC endorsement. He raised more than $95,000 in the primaries, $26,000 from local unions, and this doesn't include $200,000 in WEAC's paid television advertisements in Dane County.

Does Mr. Fernandez really believe that we have forgotten about how much money the special interests have poured into the last two Wisconsin Supreme Court races? Or how these special interests have bought seats for two justices, Ziegler and Gableman, who have the distinct dishonor of bringing shame and a cloud of corruption to the highest court in the state?

I'm sorry, Mr. Fernandez, but I don't want our schools or our children going to the highest bidder. Nor do I want to have my taxes go up while she shows us that she doesn't know what the heck she is doing and making things only worse.

For further enlightenment on just how bad of a candidate Ms. Fernandez is, I would kindly refer to the fine ramblings and rants of my friend, Jay Bullock.

Conservative Women Show Real Class: Part II

Just a week ago, we saw how classy Laura Ingraham could be.

Tammy Bruce, guest hosting for Ingraham, isn't any better:

Discussing the first lady's visit to a Washington D.C. classroom last week, Bruce incredulously recalled Obama's story about wanting to get A's in school and called out her use of a "weird, fake accent."

"That's what he's married to," Bruce said. "...You know what we've got? We've got trash in the White House. Trash is a thing that is colorblind, it can cross all eco-socionomic...categories. You can work on Wall Street, or you can work at the Wal-Mart. Trash, are people who use other people to get things, who patronize others, who consider you bitter and clingy..."

Cue the "But the libs did it to Bush" defense in 3...2...1....

Reads Better in the Original German

Charlie's 50 Rules That Don't Apply to Rich White People is now in German.

Draw your own conclusions.

Chris and Charlie Go Tank Thinking

Why do we need so many conservative think tanks in Wisconsin? Because, in the words of John Wayne, they're no good.

WPRI finds a coincidence and deems it giggle-worthy. Chuckles (who has been cleaning the tank's filter for years) falls all over himself laughing. Hilarity ensues in the comments, just as you'd expect.

Our Neediest Cases

Who would argue that Barack Obama's Special Olympics comment on last night's Leno show was really dumb. We know it and he knows it, issuing a statement from Air Force One on the way back to DC, not because he was pressured into it but because he knew it was the right thing to say. Many people will probably reason that when you say enough things, in and amongst all the words will be a stupid comment or two. Bush got us used to that -- in spades.

But as we know the right wing is on a constant gaffe hunt because if they have to stand on the issues, they don't have much to stand on as the last election proved. As the John Kerry dis the troops incident proved, even if it isn't a gaffe the right wing will try to make it out to be one.

But of course Sykes as usual like a junkie and smack, just can't leave Obama's remark alone. Then Sykes adds a special dollop by citing the sagely Sarah Palin.

The problem is, as John Cook points out, the President is fairly gaffe proofed. To pin the President's poor comment on him so as to make him out as someone who hates mentally challenged people isn't going to wash. This will generate chatter among the right and their media enablers, but for the 80% of the rest of the country the focus will be on the economy.  

Another thing that will play on many minds is that the right has been not too mentally-challenged friendly. Look at where they cut funding when cuts have to be made. Scott Walker's performance when it comes to county mental health services is one example.

Then there is the out of control and aptly named Michael Savage, whose infamous comment that 99% of autistic children are frauds. The was not word one at TMJ for yanking this yahoo off the air.

If you you ask the parent of an autistic child which party is more sympathetic to the needs of their kids, the GOP probably doesn't spring to mind. 

If Barack Obama keeps on putting the mouth in gear before engaging the brain, he will be in trouble.

But don't bet on it.

Good To Know He's Got All Of His Own Job Done

Scott Walker took a break from his busy schedule of emailing his stump speeches to Sykes long enough to write a letter to the LaCrosse Tribune which contains his proposal for a sales tax holiday. It looks as if he's going to keep beating that dead horse until he can find another to ride.

It would be nice if Scooter could figure out the problems that he's getting paid to take care of without bothering the rest of the state with unworkable and ill-advised plans.

The New Face Of Greed

Well, it's not exactly a new face:

Whallah! On Wonkette

As I was cleaning out the old inbox, there was a dated email from a friend of Whallah! indicating that we again made the big time. From a dated post on Wonkette:

Just now your editors were having a little talky about our secret boyfriend, the New York Times’ token cross-dressing felcher Bill Kristol. “His column is boring and moderate this week,” said our Jim Newell. “He probably has some solid shit-eating lines, though.” And WALLAH, just like that, we found a nugget of silliness embedded at the very end of this kind of dull review of different strains of conservatism.

It's nice to be recognized, even if they can't spell our name correctly.

Programming Note

Just a quick not to the faithful Whallah! readers (all three of you), there was some confusion with the gmails (like a lost password), but all is whole in the kingdom again, and we are back in business at full throttle.

If we did not reply, or did not post, please don't be offended.

You can always reach us with tips, suggestions or volunteering to join the cabal of writers at whallah@gmail.com.

James Harris, Science Guy

James Harris found an article that says people are selling their hybrid cars are no longer hot sellers now that gas prices are lower.

However, there is something Harris seemed to miss:

Americans have cut back on buying vehicles of all types as the economy continues its slide.

Not only that, but Harris made his old science teachers cringe when he writes this nonsense (emphasis mine):

Hybrid vehicles were the hot babes at the pool last summer, but sales have collapsed as Americans refuse to shell out big cash for fuel-efficient cars now that gas is cheap again. Follow the money lefties! It's all about the Big Mac. Americans like meat and, DavidB, oil is a renewable resource.

For what it's worth, keep this in mind when Harris tells us other "scientific facts" that he knows, like that there is no such thing as global climate change.