Can We Do That Too?

A conservative radio squawker in Alaska has gotten himself in a bit of hot water and off the air.

Just like our local hosts of hate radio, the Alaskan squawker, Dan Fagan, spent most of his time bashing the liberal candidate, in this case, U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski, and singing paeans to his preferred candidate. But then he got carried away:

About halfway through Fagan's show Thursday afternoon a caller phoned in to say he had just registered as a write-in candidate in the Senate race, which includes Miller, Murkowski, and Democrat Scott McAdams. The caller's provocation -- and the reason Fagan liked the idea -- was the Division of Elections' decision to provide voters who ask with a list of the write-in candidates. The Alaska Supreme Court is currently looking at the legality of that decision. Flooding that list with 150 names ranging from Michael Ames to Kathy Jo Zurek, Fagan figured, would mean fewer votes for Murkowski.

Fagan gave the addresses of the Anchorage and Wasilla offices of the Division of Elections and urged his listeners to drive over and register as write-in candidates.

Branch Haymans, an Anchorage financial advisor, was angered by Fagan's show Thursday afternoon. Haymans is a close friend of Murkowski's and has volunteered for her campaign, but is not part of her paid campaign staff.

On Friday morning, Haymans called KFQD and spoke with Joe Campbell, KFQD's program director. Haymans said he told Campbell that he thought Fagan's on-air behavior bordered on election tampering, but didn't threaten legal action or ask for Fagan to be taken off the air.

Campbell did not return a message requesting comment for this story.

"To send people with no legitimate reason other than to create confusion and chaos in an election seemed, to me, to be over the line," Haymans said. "He was no longer a talk show host. He was just a mouthpiece for Joe Miller."

Given that at least Charlie Sykes was using his Journal Broadcast sponsored show to do fund raising for Ron Johnson and Leah Vukmir, couldn't that be considered a violation of election laws? (Yeah, we already know it's unethical, but since when have the squawkers worried about ethics unless they could use it against a political rival of their buddies?)

H/T Las Vegas Badger

Wise Judgement

Patrick McIlheran pontificates on some of the editorials in Sunday's paper.

He proudly crows about the paper's endorsement of Scott Walker. I've already pointed out that what they consider to be Walker's strengths are actually failures.

Also, Paddy touts his buddy's, Rick Esenberg's, opinion piece on why RoJo would make a better choice. Paddy selects this phrase "a gem":

“It is the peculiar conceit of the chattering classes (of which I am certainly a member) that an unintelligent person can build a successful business. That sounds wrong, and it is. Johnson's development of his family business reflects a capacity for astute analysis, an ability to assess and react to changing circumstances and a capability for wise judgment."

Obviously, all that astute analysis, ability to assess and wise judgment was finding the right girl whose family could give him first a job, and then the whole company.

How Squawk Radio Wil Handle Their Cognitive Dissonance

The local squawkers will be needing to do some mental gymnastics this week after the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel came out and endorsed both Russ Feingold (damn liberal media) and Scott Walker (damn liber- who? wha?).

The erudite James Rowen explains how Sykes, Belling and company will spin this into a way that looks rational to the irrational mind of your average talk radio adherent.

Why RoJo Is Supposedly Leading In The Polls

From the New York Times:

But the Wisconsin electorate he faces seems to have lost its progressive streak and become more like other Midwestern states. Several polls have shown that the number of likely voters who consider themselves conservative has risen from a quarter of the electorate to nearly half. The misinformation and simplistic solutions propounded by talk radio and the Republican Party are having an effect even in a state that preferred Mr. Obama by 14 points two years ago.

Of course, along with the misinformation being spread out like so much bovine excrement is whether RoJo is really leading by a comfortable margin.

Not all the polls agree on that. And given his recent total flop at doing a money bomb, I don't see his support being as great or as strong as squawk radio would have us believe.

Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word

After getting busted for being a pants-on-fire class of liar, Belling admitted today that he was wrong with his silly argument that Russ Feingold faked being in front of his own home during a commercial shoot.

But if you were looking for Belling to be classy about it, you are in for a severe disappointment:

Feingold has spent so many years inventing his phony image of being a “maverick” while
actually voting in tandem with the Harry Reid crowd to tax and spend that he now looks
like a fake even in person. How else to explain the manufactured unnatural look in the ad
with the reality that it was indeed the actual Feingold at his house? Russ has been such a
fake for 20 years that he looks like a fake when he’s not really faking. It sure fooled me.
Russ, my deepest apologies.

But being the nice people we are, we at Whallah! would like to bring in an expert translator to say it for Belling:



But something tells me that Belling won't appreciate our help for some reason..

No, Patrick, Competence Matters

Patrick McIlheran has his Sunday opinion piece up and this one is a real laugher. Patrick is actually trying to portray Scott Walker as the responsible candidate in the race for governor.

To prove his point, he decries the state's failure to keep petty criminals locked up for excessive lengths of time or to be able to turn around Milwaukee County's Income Maintenance program in one day:

The state doesn't pick up garbage anyhow, but surely the mayor meant it as a sign of some task that no one questions. The state has some of those - keeping prisoners locked up, for instance, or passing out food stamps. Gov. Jim Doyle decided the state couldn't afford the former and started releasing inmates early. His administration so badly botched the food stamps that federal authorities stepped in.

However, before Walker dumped the House of Correction on the Sheriff's Office, one of myriad of problems occurring there were prison escapes. I guess it's better if you make it look like you're not releasing them intentionally, but through negligence.

Paddy also forgets to mention that the reason the state took over the food stamp program was because Walker had mismanaged it so poorly that it was either the state take over and fix it (which they did do) or let the taxpayers in the state and Milwaukee County be hit with a multimillion dollar class action lawsuit.

Not exactly a stellar example of Walker's responsibility, is it?

But the best of the worst is when PaddyMac tries to make Walker's use of a private cleaning company better for the courthouse and the tax payers, and that budgets should be cut.

Apparently, in Paddy's world, instead of some county worker making $10 an hour is much better to give the CEO of a cleaning company a big old contract. Never mind that said CEO is a campaign contributor.

And about those budget cuts. They only produced situations like the horrible events that have been occurring at the mental health complex or the county's infrastructure to fall down. I wonder if Paddy would also call these things a "trade off."

Pride Goeth Before A Fall

Patrick McIlheran, echoed by the other half of McSykes (version 2.0), are busy slapping Charlie Sykes, Mark Belling and Jay Weber (what, no love for Jeff Wagner or James T. Harris?) for Walker's victory in Tuesday's primary victory.

xoff had already addressed that silliness here, as did The Chief at his site.

But I just needed to add my two cents to the matter, since I already debunked that drivel two years ago.

Jessica McBride was complaining about the budget that had just been recently passed and how so many Republicans had voted for it. She had put the blame on the fact that these upstate Republicans just didn't have talk radio to tell them how to vote.

The problem with her argument, and with that of McSykes, is that there is talk radio all over the state:

Too bad that she is lying, or at the very least mistaken. A quick Google of radio stations in Wisconsin, and Whallah!, there is a list of radio stations in Wisconsin, at least 20 of which are identified as talk or news/talk stations in the northern and central parts of the state. Now, if one looks at the map again, a good third of the legislatures are within easy range of WTMJ. Some of the other talk radio stations are located in Wausau, Green Bay, Superior, Wisconsin Rapids, Marshfield and Eau Claire. That pretty much covers all of the other Republicans as well.

The fact that there are so many talk radio shows all over the state eliminates the argument presented by McBride, or two years later, by McSykes.

The other issue with McSykes self-congratulations is the simple fact that Paddy Mac was lying about another part (emphasis mine):

The real difference between La Crosse, Eau Claire, Green Bay and Appleton on the one hand and the places around Milwaukee is explained, rather, by the fact that an AM signal travels only so far. The major talk-radio players in Milwaukee -- Charlie Sykes, Mark Belling and Jay Weber -- all covered the contest exhaustively. I think they did so fairly: Notably, both Walker and Neumann got on the air repeatedly with these hosts and were allowed to explain their views. The hosts, of course, formed opinions and expressed them, but given that both candidates were conservatives, the commentary was heavy on analysis and light on excoriation. This analysis and opinion, it seems, made a huge difference in turnout and result.

And that result was this: If a county was within the sound of Milwaukee talk radio’s voice, it voted Walker overwhelmingly. This is the power of ideas, well expressed.

I don't listen to Weber, but I distinctly recall both Sykes and Belling criticizing Mark Neumann at every turn, for grievances real or perceived, in order to help the establishment candidate.

But one shouldn't be shocked at this misrepresentation of reality by McIlheran and company. If it wasn't for their misconstructions and confabulations, they wouldn't really have any way to promote their candidates or themselves.

They All Had Experience

I've heard many pundits state that Ron Johnson's barrage of attacks on Russ Feingold as being a career politician is taking a secondary toll on Scott Walker, who is also a career politician.

Walker's supporters have been working overtime in trying to damage control. A prime example would be Patrick McIlheran's piece from Sunday's Crossroads sections in which he declares Walker the only one who has a chance to beat Tom Barrett in November. He throws everything except the kitchen sink, hoping something will stick.

He backs this up with a blogpost on Monday. Showing his desperation, he cites Aaron Rodriguez (who has blogged for Walker's campaign site), Brian Fraley (paid Republican operative and former Walker campaign staffer) and Badger "we got guns" Blogger.

The general meme they are trying to push is that being a career politician isn't always a bad thing. It just means that he has experience.

But given the deplorable state of the county, with buildings collapsing, hurting and killing people; the systematic failure at the mental health complex; the massive pension loan debt as well as the unpaid repair bills Walker has stuck tax payers with; and the state having to take over programs to protect tax payers from a class action law suit stemming from Walker's ineptitude, it becomes obvious that Walker might have the experience, but not the track record of being successful.

To show the gentle reader what I mean, consider the following:

• Captain Edward Smith had experience, and still drove the Titanic into an iceberg.
• General George Armstrong Custer had experience, until Little Big Horn.
• Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus had experience, but didn't know what to do when someone dropped a match.
• George H. W. Bush had experience, and yet he ran us into one of the worst economic recession ever recorded.
• King Louis XVI had experience, and was also a good conservative, until he lost his head.

As you can see, experience doesn't mean much if you don't learn and grow from that experience. Considering the shape of the county, Walker hasn't learned a single thing.

Sykes: Sexual Assaults No Big Deal

This morning, on the day before the primaries, Charlie Sykes was naturally talking about the elections and trying to convince his dwindling audience why they should vote for Scott Walker, Ron Johnson, etc.

Two things really struck me while listening.

One, things must be looking a lot tighter than Walker would like, if he is not losing outright. Why do I say that? Because Sykes was already making excuses for a Walker loss on Tuesday. He kept listing two reasons why Walker could lose:

1. A high turn out of "uninformed, casual voters" who only know what they see in the commercials
2. Democrats and/or union members crossing over to vote in the Republican races.

Considering the number of people that have Neumann signs, or are being active for him, not just here in the Milwaukee area, but all over the state, that is rather elitist and condescending of Sykes. If I were a conservative voter, that would be more likely to push me into Neumann's camp.

As for the crossing over, I don't see it happening. For a cross over to have any real significance, it would require the bulk to occur in Milwaukee and Dane Counties. It's not going to happen in Milwaukee, because there are too many people that are eager to start taking the County back, and give the boot to Jeff Plale, Peggy Krusick and David Clarke. It's my understanding that there is at least one heated Democratic race in Dane County too, which would eliminate a section of those possible cross overs.

Like I said, they must be feeling pretty damn scared right now.

The other thing that Sykes said nearly forced me to pull over in disbelief.

When he opened the phone lines for callers to say who they were going to vote for, the very first voter proudly stated he was voting for Neumann. When Sykes asked why, the caller stated that Walker proved himself to be a bad leader as shown by the O'Donnell Park tragedy and the ongoing horrors at the mental health complex.

Sykes blew off the caller saying that those were simply lefty/union talking points.

Is Sykes really saying that the death of a teenage boy and the sexual assaults of cognitively disabled women as being mere talking points? I thought Sykes was a misogynistic reprobate before, but even I wasn't ready as to how low he would stoop.

Since this is the talking point of Team Walker and the Republican Party, keep that in mind when you go vote. The death of a boy or the raping of women is no big deal, as long as they get to forward their ideological agenda.

It's Hard To Be A Conservative Part 58,3247

You have to condemn Mark Neumann for being a self-funded candidate, but embrace Ron Johnson for being a self-funded candidate.

Kleefisch Campaign Goes Into Silly Mode

Rebecca Kleefisch is still trying to make that run for Lt. Governor. She came out with her first ad, but for her sake, I hope she didn't buy any air time for it.

Besides not really saying anything but the usual, expected empty rhetorical platitudes, she has this visual which I captured from her ad:


There are some really amateurish mistakes in this one screen shot.

One, no one outside of Southeastern Wisconsin knows who Charlie Sykes or Mark Belling are and are unlikely to care what they think of Kleefisch. Secondly, the majority of the people in Southeast Wisconsin do know who these two are, and still don't care, or even find it as a reason to go the other way. If she is hoping that these two reprobates will get her elected, she is in for a harsh disappointment.

Also, I don't know where they filmed this, but it is kind of a put off having such a bright background. It takes the attention off of her. On second thought, maybe that is what she is trying to achieve.

But this ad isn't the only faux pas that Team Kleefisch has made.

It's not usually a good idea to infer that your opponents are pagan heathens. And it's a turn off to both the right and left wings to say that you're going to use the Bible instead of the Constitution in making official decisions.

Michael Horne also raises a very interesting question: Where the heck is her husband, state Representative Joel Kleefisch? Does he not support her campaign or is she trying to hide the fact that she is part of the Republican establishment?

Another Day - Sykes Gets Caught In Another Lie

Today, Sykes spent a considerable amount of time defending state Senator Jeff Plale by attacking his Democratic primary opponent Chris Larson.

Sykes brought up an old ticket that Larson had received when he was a young man. Jason Haas points out the hypocrisy of Plale and his allies like Sykes in attacking Larson on this, especially when Plale hires convicted felons without blinking an eye. Of course, as Zach points out, Plale tends make a habit of hanging around with shady characters.

Anyway, back to Sykes. Sykes brings up an incident from 2004 when a city contractor tows Larson's car away. Larson hopped in his car and was beeping the horn to get the tow truck driver's attention.

Sykes continues:

"When the car gets to the tow yard, Chris Larson is, yeah, blowing the horn, refuses to get out. The towing company calls the cops. The cops cite him for disorderly conduct. As far as I can tell, the case was resolved, uh, when it was dismissed with prejudice which essentially means a little plea bargain type thing, where you go take the class - anger management - I don't know what, you do something, and [mumbling] you know, you don't pay.

"But this ticket was issued. I have a copy of this ticket."

Naturally, I contacted Supervisor Larson and asked him about it. Larson replied:

"Basically, I thought the guy was stealing my car and I was the one who called the police. The ticket was given because I didn't have an ID on me and therefore couldn't verify who I was. The ticket was dropped pretty quickly after it was issued. Also, I was never arrested in my life."

This raises a number a couple, three questions:

1. What is the significance of Plale/Jensen running to Sykes? Is Plale really a D.I.N.O.S.A.U.R., like David Clarke?
2. When is Sykes ever going to be held responsible by WTMJ for all of the lies he tells? After all, xoff won't wait forever.
3. I believe Sykes when he says he has a copy of Larson's ticket. But does he still have copy of his own ticket?
   

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"

Kleefisch Gets Caught In An iLie

Rebecca Kleefisch, Sykes' conservative correspondent, and Lt. Governor candidate, got herself caught up in a little bit of a lie, when she was trying to play the role of Jane Common Woman:

Rebecca Kleefisch Lies from Sara N. Dipity on Vimeo.

H/T sarandipity on Twitter

I Hope It's In The Cow Barn

Today, Jeff Wagner is supposed to be holding a live debate between Scott Walker and Mark Neumann at State Fair Park. Yeah, like Wagner is going to be a fair and effective moderator.

Anyway, I hope they plan on holding their little rap session in the cow barn. At least there, they already know how to deal with all the bullshit that will be flowing.

Fischer Predicts Walker Victory

Belling: A Liar or an Idiot?

The question is being asked by The Motley Cow.

Personally, I'd say just a poor judge of judicial qualifications.

A Sign of Desperation?

It must not be going well for Team Walker, when their unofficial official spokesman, Charlie Sykes, has to play the racist card.

By Golly, She Really Is A Conservative Reporter

Rebecca Kleefisch has herself listed as a "Conservative Correspondent" on her Linked In profile.

Today, she proved it.

She reported that she was first in the state to file her nomination papers.

But, the truth is, she wasn't. Unless she changed her name and gender.

Correctly Reading The Feingold/Johnson Poll

The right wingers are already trying to make hey with the latest poll results from Public Policy Polling. The wingers are misinterpreting the poll to think that Feingold is ahead by only a point or two.

However, the Chief points out a pertinent factoid:

Johnson is largely unknown to voters in the state. 62% have no opinion of him.

Thus, to correctly interpret the poll results, it should be thus:

• Feingold 45%
• Anyone but Feingold 27%
• Johnson 16%

In other words, Johnson is losing to an Feingold and anyone else. And for this, the GOP sold their delegate votes?