Gableman and the Enablers

And all the conservative bloggers danced and sang, and not a one said a thang.

Couldn't Have Said It Better Myself

From Dan Cody, author of Left on the Lake:

Quick thought of the day. If you have a weekly television show on local network affiliate, a 2+ hour daily radio talk show on the biggest AM station in the region, and write an occasional editorial column in the daily newspaper, you are the “mainstream media”.

Not some Robin Hoodish character on the outside looking in who’s rebelling against it.

TMJ's GOP Infomercial Hearts Lena Taylor

James Rowen explains:

Charlie Sykes big annual "Insight " live radio panel at the Country Springs Hotel in Waukesha Wednesday was aired today.

One of the low-lights: a couple of the panelists talked over each other to eagerly agree that Milwaukee County Executive candidate Lena Taylor was "crazy."

They threw a few other adjectives the Milwaukee State Senator's way - - like "incompetent."

Nice.

Hard to identify the classy panelists who ganged up on Taylor, but the podcast portion of his blog should help.

Lena Taylor's First TV Ad

Well, you had to know I was going to post this:



Please note the articles being cited. Walker has none, just his own delusional paranoia. Also note, outside of Belling and McIlheran and Badger Blogger, I don't know of anyone local endorsing Walker. I'm sure there are some, but why doesn't he note them?

Some points of interest, that I wasn't aware of, was that Senator Taylor is being endorsed by Governor Jim Doyle (I did know that), U.S. Senators Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl, U.S. Representative Gwen Moore, and Mayor Tom Barrett. She is also endorsed by the Milwaukee County Deputy Sheriff's Association.

The company that put together Senator Taylor's ad was the same group that did the Fair Wisconsin ads. The company that did Walker's ads was the same company that did Steve Forbes ads, and they're based in Chicago. (Local companies must not be good enough for Walker. Way to support your county, Scott!)

SIDENOTE: Is it me, or is Walker wearing the same tie in each commercial? (No point to make; just an observation.)

Expect to hear her ads on the radio in the near future. She will have to pay for hers, as that I doubt Charlie Sykes and Mark Belling will give her the free time they give Walker.

Crossposted on folkbum's rambles and rants

Mickey Hearts Me And Lena Taylor

Taken from one of Badger Blogger's many attempts to discredit Senator Lena Taylor, mickey reveals my secret plan to take over the world:

mickey Says:

Patrick and Calvin, after my last post, I chuckled to myself that Crapper actually thinks that BITCHING about “THE PARKS”, is an issue that will help the ‘TOIDS. (as in LEFTOIDS).
Elections in Milwaukee and to certain extent Milwaukee County have become completely CENTERED around……
Those that GET. Vs. Those that PAY.
Dealing with the public, I’m often asked by normal Americans. “How does XYZ liberal get elected?” I explain with a few props.
I put a PENNY on the table for each DEPENDENT on LIBERAL POLICIES group that will vote for DOYLE or some other LIB hack.
1 Penny for UNIONS.
1 Penny for Trial Lawyers.
1 Penny for Naive students.
1 Penny for Gays.
1 Penny for Pro-Abortionists.
1 Penny for Racial groups and demogogues.
There could be more Pennies.
One Nickel for normal patriotic tax paying Americans, who get nothing for their vote.
6 Pennies for special interests and some benefit from government.
1 Nickel for normal work a day folks.
We lose.
Crapper is part of the 6 pennies.

Darn it. Now I have to come up with another secret plan...

Fischer Does A Whallah! On Himself

We have seen a certain phenomenom with the right wing local media. Belling, McIlheran, Sykes, and McBride have all done it. I am referring to using faulty facts, if not just making up shit, to try to make a point.

But never before have I seen one admit it. It was usually up to Whallah! to have to point it out.

But now, with a tip of the hat to John Michlig, we see Fischer do his own Whallah! on himself.

You may remember the post about Fischer needing a fact checker. Well, a couple of commenters on Fischer's blog pointed out his error. Fischer responded:

I was well aware of the disclaimer by the Tax Foundation when I posted this entry. Obviously, I had no problem with this post (after all, I plastered it on my blog) because I had an important point to make.

Yup, you read it right. Or as John paraphrased it, "I knew the information was wrong, but I posted it anyway because I had an important point to make."

Sheesh, if they keep this up, we'll be out of business.

Ghostwriting

We all remember how national conservative squawking head, Laura Ingraham, channeled her inner Ann Coulter and Jessica McBride, and ripped on Wisconsin icon and permanent Green Bay Packer Brett Favre for becoming emotional during his press conference in which he formally announced his retirement.

Then when the hoo-ha with Elliot Spitzer hit the news, she tied the two events, and did some major backpeddling regarding her offensive comments about Favre. But, I, like many people found her supposed apology somewhat lacking. One would think that even if she made a gross blunder, a national voice would know how to apologize. However, the ever-observant Illusory Tenant provides us with the reason why she came up so short:

If she had read any of his books, she probably would have known better.

Unclear On The Concept

Sykes has an email from a listener (one of the five or six), which follows in its entirety, with my emphasis added:

The topic came up during out Insight 2008 show and I received this email from a listener:

Greetings Charlie from da UP,

To illustrate the tax haven for retirees in Michigan. We are 71and 70 and I retired 12 years ago. We built a home and moved to MIv in 1998. My wife and I have a combined income for 2007 of $95,008. Broken down as follows:

Interest & Dividens: $7,160
Social Security: $24,792
US Govt retirement: $ 43,308 ( I retired from the US Navy
and my wife had a short career with DOD Schools in Germany)
Company Retirement: $ 3,549
MRD from IRAs: $ 16,199

We have a Michigan State tax bill of $11.

Michigan is a good State to retire in, but I might not want to live here and be looking for a job!

By the way we live on the shores of Green Bay, looking across the bay at Door
County. Our Property tax on a $400,000+ home is a tad over $2,400 a year.

Doncha love it when Charlie shoots himself in the foot? He thinks he
is showing what a "tax hell" Wisconsin is when compared to our neighbor.
But there are some things that he overlooks.

One is that the emailer notes his salary, but most of it is in interest, and is not usually taxed at a high rate.

Second, the emailer compares income tax to property tax. That is apples and oranges. Related to this issue is that the emailer doesn't report the value of the property in Michigan. I have two acres in property in Central Wisconsin with a house, a broken garage and a large shed. The value of that entire property isn't half of a regular city lot in Milwaukee. How much would you want to bet the property isn't worth $400,000+?

But the best line is "but I might not want to live here and be looking for a job!" Sounds like a stagnant economy there. Maybe because there's no work, there's nothing to tax. So, to drive out business, don't tax, and don't provide services because you can't pay for them.

Thanks for the economics lesson, Charlie.

How Much Is Your Next Breath Worth?

McIlheran is moaning about some new EPA standards that were set, to help improve the condition of the air we breathe.

Of course McIlheran is upset. This might cost some businesses to spend on updates on their emission cleaners, or even become--gasp--more environmentally friendly. This means their profits might not be as high as they could have been. And we all know how McIlheran, the humanitarian that he is, would hate to see a CEO starve when he or she only made millions of dollars, instead of the minimum of tens or hundreds of millions of dollars they need to maintain a minimal quality of life.

The formidable James Rowen expresses his surprise at how shallow McIlheran can be. Or is he all that surprised?

Where's Homeland Security When You Need Them?

I think we have a person who wishes harm to the United States. Someone call Homeland Security, now!

Walker and McIlheran Are Lying Together

McIlheran gives Walker some free advertisement by printing an email that Walker sent to him. I am sure Belling, Sykes and the rest will soon follow. You see, Walker tried to claim credit for a supposed $7 million surplus in the 2007 budget. (It is beyond me how anyone can claim a surplus when they owe more than they saved.) This was quickly shot down by the County Board and by yours truly.

Now Walker and McIlheran are spinning in full dervish mode. They are trying to say that it wasn't the budget that saved the money. It was how Walker implemented it. Now, let's just ignore for the moment, the problems that we have seen at the House of Corrections, the Mental Health Complex, forensic pathologists packing it up and/or moving away, and all the other problems that have popped up in the last year.

Let's go with Walker's premise, which is that he saved all sorts of money by being so hard-nosed with the unions. So hard-nosed that he gave county employees a $250 signing bonus, on a contract that was authored by the unions and David Reimer. (For those of you unfamiliar with the facts, David Reimer was Walker's opponent in 2004, and was sent by Governor Jim Doyle to help Walker out of his mess.)

All this goes to show is that Walker, and by default, McIlheran, are just big old hypocrites.

One Hand Smacks The Other. Other Hand Is Oblivious.

Our boy Paddy Mac thinks that waterboarding is okay because "it works." Who would possibly disagree with him?

Why, it's the editorial board upon which he sits. From yesterday's paper:

In a letter last year to the troops, the general said, "Our values and the
laws governing warfare teach us to respect human dignity, maintain our integrity
and do what is right. Adherence to our values distinguishes us from our enemy.
This fight depends on securing the population, which must understand that we -
not our enemies - occupy the moral high ground."

He added, "Some may argue that we would be more effective if we sanctioned torture or other expedient methods to obtain information from the enemy. They would be wrong. Beyond the basic fact that such actions are illegal, history shows that they also are frequently neither useful nor necessary."

Well put. Enough said.

How much do you want to bet that P-Mac thinks that's a dare?

Keep Your Freak Flag To Yourself

Bob Donovan is often a favorite of the local right wing media. He is always spouting off about something or other, looking nice and tough, and then usually doing nothing useful. His latest publicity stunt was to sacrifice life and limb to protect the city from drunken urinators.

Mike Mathias has a priceless take on the incident, and the report involved:

Now, here’s my question about this incident, which Journal Sentinel Reporter Jesse Garza either failed to find out or didn’t share with her readers:

Had the “apparently drunken” threat to aldermen everywhere, ahem, zipped back up before he and Donovan started “going to town”?

Sure, a lot of us might be willing to confront someone in a similar situation. You know, take back the streets. Whatever.

But, let’s face it: It takes, well, real fortitude, to go after someone whose freak flag is flying.

Cops keep surgical gloves in their trunk for just these types of occasions.

You can read the rest here.

The Gableman Gut Check

Pity the poor squawkers. After being turned down time after time by competent judges and incompetent former DAs, they had to settle for Gableman to run against Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler.

Even with the bankrolling of WMC, it will be an uphill battle for them. Why?

Look at what they have to work with. JSOnline has a report about Gableman's latest smear tactic against Butler (emphasis mine):

For instance, Butler pointed to Gableman's statements that Butler has sided with criminals 60% of the time. Butler said he had reviewed all the cases since he joined the bench, and found he upheld criminal convictions 75% of the time.

He positioned himself as a free thinker, one who follows the law and seeks justice. Gableman did the same, but sought to draw contrasts: "I'm a longtime prosecutor, he's a longtime criminal defense attorney."

Gableman said the 60% figure came from a study by an outside group.

"I don't know if the number is 30%, 60%, 80% or 90%," he said, before adding. "I'm unaware of any study that contradicts those numbers."

The Illusory One has more.

And for the record, I am putting the Royal Patent on "The Gableman Gut Check."

Thank You Sir, May I Have Another One Sir

Almost as disturbing as Eliot Spitzer's episode of You, Me and Dupre is the weird and perverse glee in Rightworld over his comeuppance because now Wall Street is getting some kind of payback.

Oddly Tweedy over at Hardball made reference. Also oddly -- which is not unusual when you think of it -- so does Charlie Sykes. As usual, busy man that he is, Charlie lets the quotes do the talking for him:

Trading desks across the United States stopped on Wednesday to watch the resignation speech of New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, fascinated by the downfall of the man who built a career on investigating Wall Street crimes.

You know Charlie approves because he cleverly refers to this as Spitzenfreud.

Of course we all feel for Spitzer's wife and family and the humiliation and shame they have to bear. Of all people Spitzer should have known what ensues during the investigation of prostitution rings because he led them. Unfortunately he got hung on his own arrogance. He in the end carried a major flaw.

But what sadly gets lost in all of this -- and sure will be if Charlie has anything to do about it -- is that with all the abuses tied in with people's life savings on Wall Street, it seemed that Eliot Spitzer was the one man who made the perpetrators realize and experience the consequences. You know, those outcomes that Charlie seems to feel only minorities and the poor should enjoy.

Spitzer was by no means Mr. Congeniality, but what endeared him to voters in New York and people beyond is he and his investigations gave us all some hope that there was at least one person who made sure the rules were enforced fairly. Rules that impacted mom and pop and you and me. And with so many of us depending upon our investments to retire on, Sptizer rendered a very important service.

Rules in fact that made sure people could trade with trust on Wall Street and the those who tried to get an unfair advantage and game the system would have to face the music. This was something certainly the Bush administration failed and refused to do.

When is Charlie's audience going to wake up to the realization that in his realm there are two sets of consequences. Once you reach a certain level -- and certainly have enough to contribute to the GOP -- then you have broken your bonds to the responsibilities borne by earthly mortals.