Occupy Fox News

Starring our friend, Sue Wilson:



Give 'em Hell!

Halloween Is No Longer The Scariest Day Of The Year

Halloween, for generations, has traditionally been the scariest day of the year.  Ghosts and goblins, skeletons and demons, vampires and werewolves and all sorts of other things that creep, crawl and go bump in the night were said to roam the world, creating chaos, mischief and evil.

They have sadly been replaced by other, scarier and more real monstrosities.

One is the conservampire, led by their kind, Count Walkula, who gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "blood-sucking weasel."

Even a more immediate threat to one's sanity and one's very life is the threat of an unbalanced, hate-filled woman with a criminal history of drunken violence carrying a gun:

If that doesn't scare the hell out of you, you probably need some professional help as well.

Barrett Can Now Give Sykes A Deep Tunnel Award

During last year's gubernatorial race, it seemed that the entire right side of the blogosphere suddenly realized that they had been traumatized during their toilet training. (We already knew that about Charlie Sykes, who every Friday thrills himself by playing toileting-related soundtracks and handing out an award named after a sewer.  A very far cry from the famed Golden Fleece Award handed out by the late Sen. Proxmire.)  Every time it even rained, the radio squawking heads and the Posse Comatose would practically wet themselves in anticipation that it might be a big rain and that MMSD would have to dump some mixed sewage into Lake Michigan.

The scatologically-fixated right wing zombies would practically poop themselves in order to get their attack posts published.  Charlie Sykes and company would spend days totally obsessed with the subject.  You couldn't turn on WTMJ or WISN radio stations without hearing one of their shock jocks screaming "THERE'S POOP IN THE WATER!!"

Of course, to maintain their attack, they had to ignore that not only was the Milwaukee sewer system working as it was designed to do, it was vastly improved over the old system or the systems of other cities, like Chicago.

It makes wonder what they'll have to say about the latest report of unacceptable amounts of raw sewage being dumped in the waters.  My guess is absolutely nothing.

You see, the culprit flushing their doo-doo in our drinking water is conservative Brookfield, located in the very red Walkersha County. Other culprits include Paul Ryan's Janesville and the Fox Valley's Oshkosh.

It's also worth noting that while the zombie bloggers and squawkers were hollering about how the city of Milwaukee should separate their sewer systems, despite the fact that this would raise their taxes by astronomical amounts, Brookfield does have separate sewers, yet had the same problems.

In summary, even though it would serve no purpose outside of an "I told you so," Mayor Tom Barrett could give Sykes and friends the Deep Tunnel Award for their selective outrage.  Or better yet, we could give them to the Deep Tunnel, which seems almost more fitting.

50 Horrible Sources For "News"

We are all familiar with the right wing's trite cliche of regarding the "left wing media."

Funny, but the truth is a bit different:

You often hear the term "liberal bias" when the radicals on the right try to demonize anyone who is willing to tell the truth. The real truth however, is that majority of the media (TV, radio, internet, print) is owned by big corporations who try to protect the radical conservative agenda. From big news outlets to small time blogs, there are many places that you want to avoid when trying to get good news and information.

They've even compiled a list of the 50 worst places to get your information from. It's no surprise that Faux News tops the list.

I should mention that this is your chance to fight our local bad actors like Charlie Sykes, Mark Belling and the like.  Details are here.

A Message From Sue Wilson

From the inbox:

Greetings!

Harry and I so enjoyed meeting you in Wisconsin, and look forward to continuing the very important work of making Wisconsin's broadcast airwaves represent all the people of your state, not just a few.

If you haven't done so already, please fill out the Broadcasters' Public Interest Survey at
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/OurPublicAirwaves .

Once we've gathered enough data, we can put together an action plan for your specific town.

Also, check out this website, it is a great fun way for us to have a continuing conversation about Wisconsin media issues. But we need volunteers to keep it running. It is a very simple task, we just need people who will agree to keep the page open on their computers for a few hours a day. You don't even need to type anything, just open the page and keep it open, and the program will allow us all to weigh in. If you are interested, please let me know.

If you signed up to be a team leader, or if you're just willing to work on a team, here are the tasks we need to do. Let us know what city you live in and which tasks appeal to you:

- Organizing meetings to determine your area's broadcasting problems/needs.

- Meeting with station management to discuss those needs.

- Monitoring radio or TV programs to measure who well broadcasters are responding to your requests.

- Writing reports about the results of monitoring

- Publicizing reports to the local media and the FCC

Also! If any of you are involved in the Occupy Wall Street protests, please talk about Broadcast reform. The NYC declaration says that Wall Street "purposely keeps people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media." They are right, but we know what to do about it, and we must share that wisdom. If you can, see if local Occupy Madison or other rallies will show Broadcast Blues to their crowds.

THANK YOU ALL so much. Together, we are taking our media back!

In Unity,

~Sue

Silly Protesters

The right wing, whether it be corporate shills like Charlie Sykes or just part of the Posse Comatose, regarding the #occupy protesters, made shorter:

"Silly protesters! Don't you know government giveaways and tax breaks are for corporations and the wealthy?!"

No, I'm not going to try to educate these fools. If they haven't learned their history lessons, that's their problem.

Because the Right Knows So Much About Civility

When the right winger whine and mewl about the horrible left and the lack of civility they show when they actually gather and sing, it only shows how pitiful and insecure they really are.

But while they complain of people singing, or God forbid, telling the power-abusing Republicans "Shame!", the somehow have never gotten around to mentioning their hero, the lying Andrew Breitbart, who told Wisconsin's working men and women to "Go to Hell!"

Given their level of selective and faux range, I doubt that anyone will condemn Breitbart when he increases his attention seeking desperation  to crossing the line and and goes NSFW*.

So how do the right sound off on one of their own dropping f-bombs?  They join right in on it, the poor adolescent fools that they are.

*Note to Breitbart: It might be formidable and dramatic if you didn't squeal when you say it.

Sykes Turns Yellow Over "Broadcast Blues"

Sue Wilson, public airwave crusader, brought her show, "Broadcast Blues," to Wisconsin.

This has Charlie Sykes and his right wing allies terrified:

Via Media Trackers; Apparently unable to win the argument, the left turns to the coercive power of the federal government to shut down conservative talk radio. Their agenda is not subtle: they do not believe that talk radio is protected by the constitutional right of free speech and hey want the government to pull the licenses of stations like ours... because they don't like the things that are being said on the air.

But that's not even remotely true, as Wilson explained to Erik Gunn of Milwaukee Magaizine fame:

Wilson's Wisconsin visit drew the ire of WTMJ's Charlie Sykes, who claimed on his blog that Wilson wanted to "shut down" conservative talk radio. But Wilson says that misses the point: Her aim, she says, is to open up the airwaves to a greater diversity of points of view.

"I am afraid that we are losing our ability to distinguish between fact and fiction, we are losing our ability to have a real debate and discourse in this country," she said after her Racine showing.

Or to put it another way, all Wilson is asking for is a chance for the public to hear all sides of the story, just not the one Sykes' corporate masters want you to hear.

Yet Sykes is terrified of this.

If you ever wonder why, just look at how he does on TV during an election cycle against any Democrat or liberal. He ends up losing his sammich and having it eaten in front of him.

Of course, that's not hard to do when he's got nothing to support his false arguments.

If you want to help scare Sykes some more by bring the public interest back to the public airwaves, here's how.

Crusing with Belling

Is it just me, or does the guy on the left  have a Frankenstein's monster quality about him? 

Jessica McBride takes on talk radio, defends public workers

Jessica McBride, who once aspired to talk radio fame and fortune, wants to know what's the matter with Tommy Thompson? He's running into a lot of flak from conservatives, and McBride, who once worshiped at the feet of Charlie Sykes, now says:

Thompson has run into the “new Republican party,” inspired by a tea party hold-theline ethos, a zero-tax-levy governor, and a talkradio machine that demands absolute fealty to a message. Or else.

She defends Tommy's spending, and even says:

Tommy is also out of step with current conservative dogma because he grew the size of the state work force. In other words, he didn’t ascribe to the “public workers are greedy people at the trough” rhetoric. Well, those jobs employed people and put them to work, so they could put their money back into the economy. (Now Republicans tout stimulus job creation in Rick Perry’s Texas). Scott Walker didn’t lay a bunch of people off, either. I am sure Tommy needed some more workers in the prison system because he was so tough on crime. Remember truth in sentencing and all that?

Of course, her husband was a state employee for quite awhile, and she still is. That tends to make one a little more empathetic.

If you must, read it here.

For the files

Might want to hang on to this quote from Mark Belling, writing in the Milwaukee Post issue dated Sept. 25, 2011, for future reference:

"But Scott Walker  is the straightest political arrow I've ever met.  I can't imgine him allowing any employees to do anything even slightly improper."

Wisconsin Media Watch: Your Help Is Needed

As you already know, Sue Wilson is visiting our once and future great state, bringing to us her knowledge of how to fight the unfair and illegal domination of the corporate media in our airwaves.

To aid us in our battle to reclaim our airwaves, she brings many useful things.

She has set up the website for Media Action Center with pointers on what we need to do to overcome the propaganda machine known as talk radio and to get them to present a balance of viewpoints to truly serve the people's interests.

On that website, there is a short survey that she would like you to take, so that our limited resources can be put to the best use.  Please take the survey, it's easy and only takes a few minutes.  I know, I tried it.

They have also established a streaming page, Hanniprocrisy, that people can go to and put down their observations.  For example, I just wrote about how WEA Trust is threatening to sue Mark Belling for his libelous and slanderous lies. I noted that on this site.  You can do the same thing.

If you hear Belling, Charlie Sykes or any of the other squawkers and screechers go overboard in their hyperbole or their rhetoric, or are just being unbalanced in their "news," you can report it here.

Consider it a crowd-sourced Whallah!, if you will.

Finally, and on a slightly more personal note, Sue and her husband are not being backed by big money special interests like the Koch Brothers, Wall Street or WMC.  They don't even own the movie "Broadcast Blues" although they do own the right to sell copies of it.  They're doing this on their own and out of their love for justice. So, when you go catch one of her presentations, please be so kind to scrape up some cash and buy a copy on DVD.

Let's help those that are helping us.

Belling Gets Schooled

A press release from WEA Trust lays it down for Mark Belling, who has been once again playing fast and free with the truth:

The WEA Trust, a Wisconsin-based private group health insurance company, today delivered a legal “cease and desist” demand to conservative talk show host Mark Belling, aired on WISN Radio, for repeatedly accusing the private company of “racketeering” by transferring its “profits” to the state teachers union, which is illegal under state and federal law.

“These are deliberate attempts to destroy a good company’s reputation,” said WEA Trust President and CEO, Mark Moody. “The accusations made against the WEA Trust on the air are not true—Mr. Belling has a responsibility to his listeners. He must state that his accusations of the WEA Trust are not true. The Trust is working with Wisconsin’s premier First Amendment law firm to demand an end to his false and defamatory public accusations.”

The WEA Trust was formed 40 years ago by the state’s largest teachers’ union in cooperation with small Wisconsin school districts to help them “pool” their health insurance, Moody noted.

“The WEA Trust is a ‘trust’ under federal labor law. It is not ‘owned’ by the union. It would be against both state and federal laws to use the Trust’s income to support the union’s political activities, as Belling has repeatedly charged—and the Trust has never done so,” said Moody.

Moody went on to add that the WEA Trust is a state-regulated, Wisconsin-based, fiscally sound, private health insurance company. The WEA Trust takes compliance with the law extremely seriously.

“Mr. Belling’s deliberate distortions don’t stop there,” Moody said. “We’re not a monopoly as he claims. We provide health insurance to roughly a third of the state’s teachers and school staff. Like our competitors, we win and lose customers all the time.”

“Belling’s accusations that the Trust was deliberately “overcharging” school districts is little more than a political attack that deliberately distorts the basic economics of our complicated industry in order to further destroy our reputation,” Moody said.

The Trust returns 93 cents out of every premium dollar back to school districts in the form of quality health care. Our seven cents of every dollar for overhead is less than half the overhead cost of many for-profit competitors.

The rapidly changing school district health insurance market has encouraged many other companies to bid for the business. And school districts are seeing health insurance costs drop in some cases, regardless of the carrier.

“But there’s no economic miracle at play here,” said Moody. “When employers, including school districts, require employees to pay more for their health insurance or reduce their benefits, it costs less for the schools.”

“The WEA Trust is demanding a retraction,” Moody said. “Mr. Belling’s statements are malicious and designed to damage our company’s reputation. He has a long record of attacks on our company, which we have on file. We have had enough.”

Looks like another retraction will soon be forthcoming. I wonder how long his employers will put up with this continuing embarrassment.

TMJ's Straw Man Is Made Out Of Toilet Paper

For at least two day, Charlie Sykes, Jeff Wagner and the hack John Mecure have been bashing on Senator Lena Taylor.

Their supposed issue with the good Senator is that she had posted a comment on her Facebook site which called for a boycott of all Koch Brother products.

What their faux outrage really is is a distraction stunt to keep people focusing on the people's favorite pastime of watching Scott Walker's world crumble down over his corrupt head.

How do we know it's faux outrage and just a decoy maneuver? Well, simply because they are a little too desperate to make a point and continuously hammering at it.  Also, they have to ignore a helluva a lot to get to that point.

For starters, Taylor is not the first person to advocate for this boycott, nor is she the only politician to do so.  People have been participating in this boycott since it was first learned that Walker and WISGOP were under the influence of Koch.  What Taylor wrote is nothing new and it's disingenuous of these squawkers to say otherwise.

Secondly, the squawketeers claim to be so worried about the 2300 or so employees that work for Green Bay's branch of Georgia Pacific.  They say that if the boycott takes off, some of those people could lose their jobs.

Again, this is a straw man made up of so much wet toilet paper.

As noted above, the boycott has been going on for a while and the company hasn't folded.  Secondly, why are these idiots worried about those jobs and not about the 2300 jobs that Walker has already caused to disappear.

Also, why are they not concerned about the loss of voters' rights, workers' rights and women's rights?  Do people's rights matter less than if the Koch Brothers make a few bucks less?  Apparently so in the eyes of the squawkers.

All three of these clowns, as well as TMJ management, owes Senator Taylor an apology.

Then they owe another apology to their listeners for their misleading and inaccurate statements.

Then they can admit that their biased as all get out and start immediate action to help restore our airwaves to serve the public interest.  For if they don't want to do so willingly, they will still do so, sooner or later.  The lessons on how to do that starts tomorrow.

Their Bite Is Worse Than His Bock

On Friday morning, Charlie Sykes again was trying to make hay out of the story of Miles Kristan, the boor who has crossed the line of protesting to harassment and assault by dumping a beer over the head of Representative Robin Vos. Not that Vos didn't deserve that and more, but that sort of thing is not done in a civilized society and is actually more detrimental to the cause than it helps.

Case in point, Sykes and the other using it to try to keep the heat off of Walker and his growing scandal.

In his ongoing rant, Sykes had Vos call in and whine about the "abuse" that has been suffered by him and his fellow Republicans by people aiming to hold them accountable for their own unforgivable behaviors, such as assaulting the rights of the working men and women of the state, focusing on gifting their campaign donors rather than creating jobs, abusing the state's ecology and violating almost every right we have.

But what really got to me is when he'd whine about his constituents who yelled at his aides.  First of all, if he bothered to speak to, and more importantly, listen to the people, he wouldn't even need to use his aides as human shields for his delicate feelings.

Secondly, having someone vent about the atrocities their boss has committed is considerably less offensive that what he and his colleagues did to the aides to the Democratic Senators, treating them like pawns in their political games, threatening to take away their parking places, withholding their checks, micromanaging them to the point of counting printouts and staples and even threatening their jobs.

If Vos is concerned about not being liked, maybe he should consider not acting like an arrogant and pompous ass himself.

Then to top off this comedy routine, Sykes had fellow adulterer Randy Randy "Bed" Hopper on the air who was whining that people were still mad at him for his role in the assault on Wisconsin.  I just wonder how much of the verbal abuse he supposedly suffers is from his malicious attack on the people and how much is due to the fact that he is a two-faced liar that abandoned his family.