Limbaugh Caught In Action

Rush Limbaugh, while at the Superbowl Sunday night, was caught in action as he prepared for his show:

H/T James Rowen

Belling Starts Digging That Hole Deeper

Yesterday, we discussed how Mark "Bombastic Boy" Belling dug himself into a bit of a hole with what could easily be conceived as an anti-Semitic remark. He was kvetching about the proposed Marriott Hotel and the delays in getting the proposal approved.

Instead of clearing things up like an adult, Belling takes the advice of Ron Johnson who said that if you find yourself in a hole, "start digging."

Since then, it made the local paper when reporter Tom Daykin brought it up. The key part of his post was Mayor Tom Barrett's response to Belling's bigotry:

Belling, Barrett told Horne, was “way off-base with his offensive comments. I was offended. There is no reason to bring someone’s religion into this debate and I think he owes an apology."

Today, Tim Cuprisin of OnMilwaukee.com picked up on the story. According to Cuprisin's report, Belling was anything but apologetic. Belling's rant about the issue was incoherent in itself. But the telltale mark comes at the end of Cuprisin's article (emphasis ours):

Belling repeated that it "may be neither here nor there," saying "It's what I meant and what I believed."

"I don't care what it sounds like I'm saying," he said. "I don't give three rips what it might lead people to think."

James Rowen, who has been covering this since the beginning, is also putting his two cents in.

Belling: Anti-Semitic, Paranoid, Or Both?

Last week, Mark Belling went on the tirade de jour, which involved the question of whether to allow the Marriott Hotel to be built at the cost of some historic buildings.

During said tirade, Belling came out with a conspiracy theory that involved "a cabal" who are determined to prevent anything new to come to Milwaukee.

For good measure, he pointed out what he thought was a pertinent fact:

“The fact that the majority of them are Jewish may be neither here nor there.”

Michael Horne, reporting for Milwaukee News Buzz, had this to lead off his report on the matter:

The topic at hand was the proposed Marriott Hotel and Belling’s belief that there is a conspiracy among the Jews to keep it from being developed as planned. According to Belling, the group that controls things uses a network of “patsies” to do its bidding. These pliant Gentiles include Ald. Bob Bauman and architect David Uihlein.

Their overlords are “The Marcus family, Franklyn Gimbel, who runs the convention center board dominating the west side of the river.” They are “part of this cabal of people that just don’t want anything new to happen in Milwaukee,” Belling charged, “a handful of people who control things.”

It is difficult to determine whether Belling felt that he had to point out some sort of Jewish cabal masterminding all of the events in Milwaukee was just his natural bigotry bubbling through, the rantings of a paranoid half-wit, or a little bit of both. But whatever cause you wish to attribute to his rants, it does not have a place in civilized conversation, much less being broadcast over public airwaves.

But perhaps the slandered Franklyn Gimbel put it in the best and most succinct way:

Attorney Frank Gimbel, who has been head of the Milwaukee Convention Center District Board since he was appointed in 1994 by Governor Tommy Thompson, tells NewsBuzz, “Belling’s comments, as usual, are Bullsh-t.”

It should also be noted that James Rowen was on top of this story from the beginning, complete with updates.

Kane Trumps McIlheran

On October 26, Patrick McIlheran posted on his blog that Council President Willie Hines was ready to run for mayor, regardless of whether Barrett wins or not on Tuesday.

Only thing is, it's not true.

Eugene Kane does what McIlheran only wishes he could do, which is practice actual journalism. Kane actually spoke to Hines to see what's up. He learned this:

It was reassuring to learn Hines isn't planning to announce a new campaign just as most voters are suffering fatigue from the latest round of political warfare. But the fact Hines plans to run for mayor of Milwaukee - whether Barrett wins Tuesday or not - is probably the worst-kept secret in political circles in Milwaukee.

In true conservative fashion, McIlheran deleted his post, without as much as a mea culpa or an "Oopsie, I screwed up again."

Perhaps if the powers that be at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel weren't so busy trying to help run Scott Walker's campaign, they could get around to replacing McIlheran with a real journalist, or at least offer Kane a bonus to tutor the poor man on how to be what he claims to be.

Tip of the crown to James Rowen.

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.

McIlheran: Walker's Failings Aren't Walker's Fault

In his column in Sunday's paper, Patrick McIlheran tries to stand up for Scott Walker and his failed economic development program.

McIlheran manages to blame everyone and everything shy of sunspots for Walker's failure:

Barrett's real point was the geography. The former freeway is county land. When former Mayor John Norquist ordered the freeway destroyed, he and others predicted that development would flock there. It hasn't, and Barrett said this was Walker's fault.

It must be someone's fault, since such great things were predicted. So sure was the Milwaukee County Board of the site's appeal that it added some conditions. Anyone buying Park East land from the county had to pay union-scale construction wages, had to hit certain racial hiring quotas, had to prefer city contractors, had to meet certain "green" building standards.

These rules add significant costs. Builders warned the board of this. The board scoffed. Walker vetoed the conditions as job-killing social engineering. The board overrode him. The land was "so valuable that, in my mind, we will get what we want," said the plan's sponsor, Willie Johnson Jr.

What we got was gravel. Walker, it turns out, was right. The land lay unbought through boom years as developers took their capital to less costly, less bossy places. This was the predictable result of harnessing economic development to an urge to re-engineer society.

At this point, I should note that Barrett, when running for mayor, supported a package of such requirements for that land.

In other words, it's the fault of African Americans, people wanting to make a wage that would support a family, environmentalists, the County Board and Milwaukeeans that Walker couldn't get that land sold in eight years. At least in McIlheran's world.

Unfortunately for McIlheran, his world and reality don't often sync up together.

If these conditions were so abhorrent, why has Tom Barrett and the City of Milwaukee, who face much the same conditions as the County, able to excel at economic development? In fact, Barrett and the city have such a good track record that Walker had once proposed that the County give the City the land for them to work on the development.

What McIlheran doesn't mention is the fact that instead of competent people, Walker had a revolving door for his appointments to that position until he put in campaign staffers like Bob Dennick and Tim Russell to lead the economic development efforts. Their success was somewhat less than spectacular, often leading up to massive deficits. Then in 2009, Walker totally abolished the Economic Division, only to ask for it to be reinstated this year. Even then, it took him until last month to fill the position.

I'm no expert in economic development, but I would suspect it would make things easier for companies who wanted to come to Milwaukee County to have someone to contact rather than get lost in a bureaucratic shuffle. Likewise, things would probably be greatly expedited by having some actually actively trying to sell the land than hoping a passerby might see the lot full of gravel and think this would be a great place to build his business.

Even if McIlheran was correct that the prevailing wage laws or the expectations of the building to be tinted even the slightest bit of green might have made things a little more difficult, Scott Walker never allowed it to get that far to find out by sabotaging the process well before it got that far.

See also: James Rowen vs. the Mr. Teflon

Don't Let McIlheran Read This

If Patrick McIlheran reads this article showing the affects of global climate change in the Himilayas, he'll be forced to embarrass himself with a stretch trying to show that it's all gobbledygook.

But the way you can compare the pictures is pretty cool.

H/T James Rowen

Rowen Takes Stock Of Talk Radio

In a commentary about how Sykes et alia seem to only focus on the negative, especially with the stock market, James Rowen offers this sagacious advice:

The truth is that the markets - - interconnected worldwide electronically, and balanced against and intermingled with each other - - are still trying to find their way out of a financial meltdown born of reckless deregulation and greed that started in 2007 and led to the worst economic crisis since 1929.

So there will be volatility. Not a partisan dynamic.

You have to remember that talk radio is part politics, part entertainment/distraction and hardly fact-driven.

So the next time you hear a talker worrying aloud about the Dow-Jones average - - keep an open mind and consider the exact opposite from what you're hearing.

And if they are bemoaning falling prices, or touting gold, maybe it's a buying opportunity in stocks.

Sykes Gets A Lesson On The Stock Market

And James Rowen gives it to him:

But seriously - - here's today's lesson.

Charlie Sykes noted this morning that the Dow Jones was down - - which it was at that moment - - but he tried to tie it to the Senate last night passing Wall Street banking reform.

Charlie said when the government institutes new regulations, as with the health care bill, the market tanks.

Today the Dow Jones closed up 125 points.

Right now the market is volatile. It's up, it's down. And is influenced by a zillion real factors and probably even more that are synthetic, technical or just plain irrational.

Not everything is Obama's fault.

Talk Radio Vs. Rail

James Rowen gives us a history lesson on how Milwaukee's talk radio has been anti-Milwaukee by sabotaging rail and mass transit and has sabotaged mass transit every chance it gets. Here's a snippet from James' post:

Though, as always, the Right exempts road building and its tax-supported billions from the perils of Big Government.

But my point today is to provide reminder of the damaging role that talk radio has played in getting us to where we are today - - a one-dimensional, congested, rail-free zone, as I wrote about for Crossroads a couple of years ago - - even though local conservative talk radio hosts en masse hypocritically and predictably jumped on the Zoo Interchange problems and pointed fingers everywhere except at themselves.

And I'm not overstating conservative talk radio influence in SE Wisconsin when it comes to whipping up fears about light rail among core suburban listeners, and in downright panicking office-holders who might stray from the anti-rail template.

Rowen On Belling: One Out Of Three Ain't Good

James Rowen did the superhuman task of listening to Mark Belling last Friday.

His take on it can be found here.

The One

Squawkers and their Echo Chamber, besides being a great name for a band, follow party memes in calling President Barack Obama things like "The One" and try to paint him as an elitist. Likewise, they try to dehumanize anyone that likes Obama and claim that these people are like religious cultists that worship instead of merely admire Obama.

I wonder if the squawkers will go after someone who actually compared herself to God: Sarah Palin.

Does anyone really think that God would have to scribble a handful (pun intended) of talking points on His hand to remember them? Or would screw it up if He did?

H/T to James Rowen

Needed: Some Top Shelf Fireworks

I've heard of the blind leading the blind, but this is an example of the lying introducing the lying (emphasis mine):

Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin will visit Milwaukee next month for a speech at State Fair Park.

The former Republican vice presidential candidate will speak Nov. 6 at the Wisconsin Exposition Center in West Allis. Tickets cost $30 each and can be purchased online only at www.SarahPalinEvent.com. No tickets will be sold at the door.

The program is scheduled from 7:30 to 9 p.m.

Palin's visit is sponsored by Wisconsin Right to Life and will feature Charlie Sykes of WTMJ-AM (620) as master of ceremonies. Palin was Sen. John McCain's running mate in the 2008 presidential election.

Liz Woodhouse better be keeping a close eye.

The best line about this comes from James Rowen:

The cost is $30, and if Palin isn't enough of a draw, Charlie Sykes is the MC.

No word yet if free tea will be provided, if Joe the Plumber will show up or if Balloon Family will handle the flyover.

But you can hope.

Why Listen To Talk Radio?

James Rowen gives his answer to that question here.

As for us, it's all in the tag line:

Committed to the monitoring of the local right-wing media and exposing their lies, hypocrisies, and foibles, so that you don't have to.

Why The Squawkers Should Be For Health Care Reform

The right wing should be all for health care reform. After all, it's pretty obvious that their current coverage lacks the mental health treatment they need.

Case Study #1:

James Rowen shows us how Mark Belling is forced to keep altering his reality to be able to keep up with his unrealistic rants against health care. Unfortunately, the only thing that was real about Belling's screed was his blatant racism.

Case Study #2

Kevin Fischer, who has never been in touch with reality, shows how delusional he really is when he states that Congresswoman Gwen Moore wouldn't interact with the crowd. Fortunately, we have Zach Wisniewski who, unlike Fischer, actually gives a damn about his community, and went there and found the reality would be something to scare Fischer sober.

Belling and Fischer obviously need psychiatric care, which they apparently lack under their own coverage. Call your U.S. Representative and Senator and tell them to support health care reform, so that we are no longer exposed to the insane ramblings of these racist, delusional and schizophrenic madmen.

I Think He Was Guessing Low

James Rowen notes that the right wing media is alarmed because the government is listening to us and doing what we ask of them.

How does he know they are upset?

I'll let him explain:

In response, conservative talk radio this morning sounded the Sky Is Falling alarm.

Since Bill Clinton's election, and with the minute-by-minute on-air catastrophizing since the emergence of Barack Obama as a political force, today's Sky Is Falling alerts put the number of alerts at 17,328.

Really.

See the whole thing here.

Squawk Radio Doing Itself In

For decades, squawkers on national and local levels, have been advocating for irresponsible economic policies. They had fully enjoined the call for the Iraq War and other irresponsible spending while demanding excessive tax cuts for the rich. They have systematically tried to destroy the middle class by trying to bust up unions. The squawkers have repeatedly pushed for all of the wealth to be in the hands of the few, hoping to be rewarded for their loyalty by getting some of these fortunes handed their way, like a dog begging at the dinner table.

Now it is all coming back to bite them in the microphone:

But for all the anti-tax swagger and the occasional stunts by personalities like KFI's John and Ken, the reality is that conservative talk radio in California is on the wane. The economy's downturn has depressed ad revenue at stations across the state, thinning the ranks of conservative broadcasters.

For that and other reasons, stations have dropped the shows of at least half a dozen radio personalities and scaled back others, in some cases replacing them with cheaper nationally syndicated programs.

And as James Rowen, who found this story, points out, these things tend to take time to work from the West to the East, it will be a only a matter of time until it reaches here. Remember, Clear Channel, which runs WISN-AM, recently announced a large amount of layoffs. And Journal Broadcasting Group, parent company of WTMJ-AM, tried to tell the unions that they would be laying off people, although that may have been a lie in trying to force an unfair contract on the unions.

The Clairvoyant James Rowen

Charlie Sykes touts the idea of Bobby Jindal giving the GOP answer to Obama's speech. (He was terrible by the way. Sounded like a televangelist selling snake oil.)

James Rowen predicts where this will get the GOP.

Seems to me that James nailed it.

National Charlie Sykes Appreciation Day

I know that Halloween might have been more appropriate, since it appears that Sykes now believes his sole purpose in life is to tell stories, trying to scare people to death, or at least to his way of thinking (and I use the word thinking loosely).

Sykes does love to rant and rave and distort, doesn't he? Just last week, he was griping about the story of Palin's wardrobe, giving it an interesting spin. Chuckles was actually trying to justify the expenditure by saying Palin was poor, and needed the nice clothes to be presentable. Gee, I didn't know that $1.2 million was considered poor.

Anywho, there are many others out there that have also noticed the ridiculousness that is Sykes.

The prodigal Brawler notes that Sykes thinks that everyone that has lots of money did the old-fashioned way-they earned it. Yeah, just like Paris Hilton. Brawler's refutation can be found here.

Brawler then points out that Sykes is less than intellectually honest, unless Sykes is referring to Reagan as a Socialist.


Dan Cody, at Left on the Lake, has learned a lot from talk radio like Sykes' show. Like when to pay attention to polls, as well as why TV news is on the decline.

James Rowen noted that Sykes is already blaming the Obama presidency for the crashing stock market, even though the elections aren't until next week, and even when Obama wins, he won't be taking office until January. Obama just might have some serious powers if he can travel back in time. I wonder if Sykes will give Obama credit for the big jump yesterday as well.

Jim McGuigan questions the judgment of Alberta Darling, who first used Mark Belling, and now Charlie Sykes, to do robocalls for her. As a commenter points out, who's next? James T. "Hit him where it hit" Harris? With people like Sykes endorsing her, no wonder she's feeling a little desperate.

So go out and celebrate Charlie Sykes Appreciation Day, and give someone a good scare.

Is PaddyMac's Job In Jeopardy?

If I were Patrick McIlheran, I would start updating my resume. First we have seen how, twice in the last year, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has cut key staff people due to their financial troubles. Then this past week, they've started cutting features and consolidating others, all in an effort to cut down the size of the physical paper.

It doesn't help Paddy to be spending all that time and wasting all that ink on a column that is quite false in nature. His points are so weak that even Charlie Sykes and Dad29 feel they have to act as endorsers (or is apologists) for such drivel.

To make things even worse for Paddy, they actually printed a column by a talented writer, James Rowen, on the front page of the Crossroads section. All this does is highlight that Paddy is severely lacking in honesty and talent.