Republican Post-Election Dining

A couple of great election-related cartoons:

First, the ever-talented Stuart Carlson:

And the equally talented Gary Markstein:

A Force To Be Reckoned With

A message from AFSCME:



"Boots on the ground was more important than Wall Street money..."

Yeah, tell me again about how the unions are dead.

Damned If They Did Win, Double Damned That They Didn't

As I write this, they just called it that President Barack Obama has won reelection.

Just as delicious, Tammy Baldwin is giving her victory speech.

That is, obviously, the good news.

It's not that the Republicans and their fascist backers didn't try.

Oh, how they tried.

First, their were the propagandists, trying to cast doubt on the election. One such example is Kevin Binversie, employee of Koch Industries, who tried to say that the Black Panthers were out there intimidating voters. Fox News tried it too, but if you watch their video, it's as comical as their story with the palm trees in Madison:



Watch the whole video, especially at the end. Did you see the way that Black Panther intimidatingly opened the door for those women? The beast!

Brian Sikma, proven liar, and his colleagues tried to intimate that it was somehow wrong to take the elderly, the poor and the disabled to their polling places.

Then there were the actual problems at the polling places.

There was the usual broken machines and insufficient ballots, which oddly keeps happening in poor neighborhoods or neighborhoods with higher number of minorities.

There were the poll workers asking for a picture ID, here in Wisconsin and in other states where it's not required. Apparently poll workers are one of the few types of people with no social media, no radios, no TVs and no newspapers, so they weren't aware of that these aren't required.

Then there were the "poll watchers." digby really has covered this with a number of examples of states with more sense than ours, where they simply banned these fools. Even better, she points out how dumb their watchers are when they spill the beans:

Elections Director William A. Anthony Jr. said the group may be investigated for possibly falsifying documents after today's election. The forms themselves warn that elections falsification is a fifth-degree felony...

One person told the elections board that she attended True the Vote training sessions and the observers were instructed to use cameras to intimidate voters when they enter the polling place, record their names on tablet computers and send them to a central location, and attempt to stop questionably qualified voters before they could get to a voting machine.

Here in Wisconsin, we didn't protect our elections, or our tax money, as well, allowing them into the election areas, only to have to kick them out when they tried to interfere with voters and listen to them complain when they couldn't.

Then there is the story, if it's indeed true, of the corrupted electronic voting machines.

At least there was some comic relief when Team Romney went so far as to complain that a polling place was held at Barack Obama K-8 School.

But like I said, the victories by Obama and Baldwin is the good news.

The bad news is that the Republicans' unethical and blatantly corrupt gerrymandering paid off for them as they not only kept the state assembly but retook the state senate. Sadly, Dirty Duffy and Dribble Ribble also kept their ill-gotten seats because of the gerrymandering.

The really bad news is that Romney's defeat means that Scott Walker is going to double down on his bid for the presidency.

We'll have to be girded for the fight against oddly termed "right to work" legislation, further raping of our environment (including the mining in the Northwoods and fracking everywhere else) and further attempts at voter suppression, anti-women and anti-LGBT legislation.

Walker's going to have to show the American fascists why he is the right tool for them.

I know, I know. Not an exactly a rosy picture for us Wisconsinites, right.

But it's not all doom and gloom.

The Obama and Baldwin victories show us that the Republicans are paper weasels and only have a temporary hold on the state because of their corrupt and unethical stunts. It also shows that they are very vulnerable in state wide races. And Walker is going to have to try to keep things together for two years if he hopes to be reelected in 2014.

But we don't have to wait for two years to start setting things to right.

Justice Pat Roggensack is up for reelection in the spring. If we can retake the majority of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, we can at least get some honest rulings on the unconstitutional laws coming out of the ALEC Walker administration.

And let us not forget Walkergate. John Doe just might be able to take care of the job for us.

So while the elections might make the future look dark for our state, we have also shown that we can fight through the dark and let the light back in.

Enjoy the victory for a few days. You've earned it. Then come back and we'll get back to work. We helped save the country, now we gotta save the state.

Kick Some Axe

The best campaign slogan goes to Pat Kreitlow:

If the gentle reader is not familiar, Sean Duffy fancies himself to be quite the lumberjack, although the companies that had hired him might have a different opinion.

Kreitlow has been mocking this since his first commercial:



All I can say is "Well played, Mr. Kreitlow. Well played indeed."

Yeah, I'm Still Not Convinced

OK, let me see if I got this clear.

Mitt Romney and his supporters are trying to tell us that after eight years of Bush/Cheney's economic ruination, Obama should be fired for not fixing everything in four years.

On top of that, we should hire Romney, who says he needs ten years for a plan he either doesn't have or won't share because it's so awful no one would vote for him if he did say it.

Yeah, I'm still not convinced. I'll stick with Obama, thanks anyway.

The Fraudulent Leading The Fraudulent

Charlie Sykes and the right wing echo chamber are trying to convince themselves that Mitt Romney will win Wisconsin on Tuesday.

Their source for their new found confidence?

Ben Domenech.

Yeah, that Ben Domenech.

Doesn't everyone get their information from frauds and plagiarists?

The Obligatory "Who I Am Voting For And Why You Should Too" Post

Before I start, I just want to make sure the gentle reader is aware that in Wisconsin, the gentle voter does NOT need to show a picture ID. Also, the gentle voter should be aware that there is no more straight party voting. One must go down the entire ballot and mark the ballot for each candidate separately.

Now, let's move on:

President/Vice President

As one might surmise, I am going to vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

When one looks at the main topics, the choice is really a no-brainer. While Obama has made his fair share of mistakes and has routinely tried to placate to many people instead of sticking to his decisions, he far exceeds Romney on every level.

While most people wish that the economic recovery was proceeding faster and that the jobs were coming back at a better rate, the fact is that this country has had 31 (or is it 32 now?) straight months of job growth. Romney, on the other hand, whether as governor or private businessman, has done nothing but kill jobs. As governor, Romney drove his state's status of a job creator from the 30's to nearly the worst. And that was just in one term. And do I really need to point out his aptitude and attitude towards job creation by pointing out Bain?

As for Obamacare, it is also that simple to sort out. On one hand, we have Obamacare which will make healthcare much more affordable. The Republicans are correct in saying that some people's taxes will go up. What they don't mention is that you'll be saving the exponentially rising cost that we are currently paying, eliminating the fear of being insurance poor.

With Romney/Ryan care, costs go up by thousands of dollars per year per person- and that's if one is lucky enough to even be able to keep one's insurance and not have it turned into a voucher coupon. The money that you've paid into the system will be gone and put in the hands of Wall Street, never for you to see again. Basically, it would be legalized robbery.

One of my favorite things to do, when encountering a person who says that they want "change" and are going to vote for Romney, is to ask them which Romney they are going to vote for. He has flip flopped so much that I'm not even sure he knows where he stands on any given issue. The only thing that Romney has brought to the table is baseless innuendo and race-baiting smears.

While Obama won't go down as the greatest president this country ever had, Romney has proven himself to be utterly unqualified.

US Senate

This is probably the easiest race to make a decision.

Tammy Baldwin's slogan sums it up neatly and honestly: While Baldwin stood up to the special interest, Tommy Thompson stood up with them - usually as their lobbyist.

The only thing that the Team Thompson and his special interest backers have been able to throw at Baldwin is that she is the "most liberal" and "mot extreme" person in Congress. It's kind of funny how any time a Democrat runs for any office, they automatically most liberal and most extreme in that body of government, the world and the universe. I've lost count long ago, but by a very conservative estimate, there has been about 2,495,781 most liberal/extreme Democrats that came from Wisconsin alone. And that's just in the last couple of years.

Meanwhile, the misogynistic, racist Thompson has a heckuva long history of turning his political positions into a big pile of personal wealth and now has a bit of a legal problem to boot.

And for anyone that would try the tax argument on this race, may I simply remind you of Thompson's most infamous words: "Stick it to them!"?

US House of Representatives

District 1

I'm not in this district, but the nod would have to go to Rob Zerban. Zerban is a small businessman who understands what works and what will create jobs, something which has been absent for years from this district. In fact, representation at any level has been missing from this district as Paul Ryan has gotten caught up in the world of the rich and powerful who have bought him off.

Zerban has been busting butt connecting to people throughout the district, answering tough questions and listening to what the people have to say. Ryan, when he bothers even being in his district, tells people what they should think and has anyone not toeing the line arrested.

The choice is easy for the people of this district. If you want at least a fighting chance at success, or if you want a job, or if you just want to be heard. If you want to maintain the status quo of no job, no money and no future, by all means, vote for Paul Ryan.

District 4

If you have ever heard Dan Sebring's radio commercial, you would automatically know that he is utterly unfit for office. The only thing he has to run on, in his peabrain, is that he is a white man and the incumbent Gwen Moore, is a black woman. There is no place in our government, or anywhere else, for that kind of blatant racism.

Outside of the racist ad, Sebring also would never be able to come close to matching Moore's compassion for the people of Milwaukee, nor would he even think about bringing all the benefits to the city that Ms. Moore has.

The nod definitely goes to Moore.

State Legislature

The following are the official Cog Dis endorsements. When possible, I've included the link to our original post about them.

State Senate

District 14 - Margarete Worthington

District 18 - Jessica King

District 20 - Tanya Lohr

District 22 - Robert Wirch

District 24 - Julie Lassa

District 28 - Jim Ward

District 32 - Jennifer Shilling

State Assembly

District 7 - Daniel Riemer

District 13 - John Pokrandt

District 14 - Chris Rockwood

District 15 - Cindy Moore

District 20 - Christine Sinicki

District 23 - Cris Rogers

District 38 - Scott Michalak

District 46 - Gary Hebl

District 48 - Melissa Sargent

District 62 - Melissa Lemke

District 63 - Kelley Dee Albrecht

District 71 - Yeah, good luck up there, people. You don't have a progressive to choose. Better luck in 2014!

District 96 - Tom Johnson

District 97 - Marga Krumins

Don't Let Mitt Turn Back Time On Women

Via Steve Hanson:



Although Cher was wrong on one thing - Paul Ryan doesn't look like Dracula. He looks like Eddie Munster.

President Romney - Day 100

Even a Republican could follow this one:



There are no do overs and no what ifs. If you don't vote, you have no one to blame but yourself. And if you vote for Romney, and then get screwed, again, you have no one to blame but yourself.

So ask your self these questions:

• Romney or jobs?
• Romney or wealth?
• Romney or healthcare?
• Romney or lower taxes?
• Romney or rights and freedoms?

It's really that simple.

Thompson's Desperate, Deceptive, Dishonest and Incompetent

While I was up north, I had the opportunity, or perhaps I should say, misfortune, to do something I almost never do - watch TV.

If you thought that the political ads in the urban areas were bad, they are almost wall to wall in the more rural areas. The Green Bay and Wausau television markets have a lot more area to cover, so the ads during the silly season are almost nothing but political ads, the same ones over and over and over.

One of the ads that I sadly saw over and over again was the one by Tommy Thompson in which he politicizes the horror of the terrorist attack of 9-11 to score a few cheap political points. Thompson claimed that Tammy Baldwin had voted against a memorial honoring the victims.

Not only was the commercial base and insulting for trying to politicize something as somber and painful as the memory of those 3,000 souls lost, but he was lying through his booze-soaked dentures.

Showing her moxie, Baldwin did not take this insult passively. Instead, she came back and struck a mighty blow of her own by presenting the facts regarding not only her own record on respecting the victims and survivors of that horrid day, but also Thompson's record:



Unlike Thompson's smear attack, which was utterly false and omitted key facts, Baldwin's rebuttal is based on documented facts.

On November 16, 2008, an article appeared in the Wisconsin State Journal and covered Thompson's ethical problems with the provision of health care coverage for 9-11 volunteers. The article was written by Dee J. Hall and was titled "THOMPSON AND A 9/11 CONTRACT - DEAL INVOLVES LA CROSSE FIRM, AND TREATMENT OF SOME PATIENTS IS CRITICIZED." (Sorry, no link.) Here is the article in its entirety, just to show how corrupt Thompson was and is:

Like thousands of other Americans, Judy Wolff, a nurse's aide at Holmen High School near La Crosse, dropped everything and rushed to New York after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to see how she could help.

A volunteer with the American Red Cross, Wolff went to the World Trade Center site to help victims and their families get food vouchers and pay bills as they coped with the stunning loss of life, injuries and joblessness caused by the attacks.

After three weeks of breathing in a toxic cloud of crushed concrete, asbestos, lead and fumes from burned jet fuel, Wolff herself now is fully disabled - one of thousands struggling with a constellation of ailments common to those who helped victims and pulled bodies from the wreckage seven years ago.

Adding to her troubles: The 51-year-old Wolff has had to fight to get insurance coverage for her prescriptions, medical appointments and upcoming surgeries, even though Congress has set aside money specifically to care for her and the estimated 4,000 other responders living outside of the New York area. (Responders living near Ground Zero are cared for at a network of New York area hospitals.) The problem began in June, Wolff and others say, when Logistics Health Inc., of La Crosse, headed by former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson , won an $11 million federal contract to provide medical care and health monitoring from the agency Thompson once led - a decision that continues to raise eyebrows on Capitol Hill.

Prior to June 1, responders living outside New York were served by a small nonprofit funded by the Red Cross with donations it got to help the victims of 9/11. Five months into Logistics Health's one-year federal contract, just a fraction of those patients have gotten the required medical monitoring, according to figures from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

And while NIOSH officials say all of the patients, such as Wolff, are now getting needed treatment, the claim is difficult to verify. Responders come in and out of the program at different times, depending on their health, said Fred Blosser, spokesman for the federal agency. As of last week, 187 patients were actively being treated for medical problems, Blosser said. In addition, he said 274 patients - out of 4,000 responders - have received testing and medical monitoring services.

Dr. Jim Melius, chairman of the World Trade Center Medical Monitoring and Treatment Steering Committee, which coordinates care for 9/11 responders, said some patients may have simply dropped out of the program during the rocky transition to LHI. He said HHS should cancel the contract.

"I just don't have any confidence that they (LHI) have the capacity or the understanding to do this," Melius said. "They are doing a disservice to these people. There are hundreds more in the medical treatment program and thousands more that need medical monitoring, and they're not getting it."

Logistics Health spokeswoman Tracey Armstrong referred all questions to NIOSH, saying its federal contract prohibits the company from answering any questions from the media. But Blosser said the contract only requires that the company submit to NIOSH for review any statistics it plans to disseminate to the press.

Blosser said the agency was "pleased" that "progress is being made and additional responders are being brought into the program." But he said he's aware of the criticism that LHI is moving too slowly.

"We will be monitoring that information as time goes on to make sure that progress is being made and that responders who want to receive treatment ... are being served," he said.

'Just like that'

Anne Marie Baumann, senior vice president of the FealGood Foundation, which helps injured and ailing 9/11 responders, said she's heard from about three dozen responders around the country, including Wolff, about problems getting reimbursement for prescriptions and treatment from LHI.

"All of them were receiving services, and then all the services stopped, just like that," Baumann said. "I lose enough responders with cancer and leukemia and suicide. I don't need to lose them because they couldn't get their medications."

U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, the Democratic congresswoman representing Queens and Manhattan who has spearheaded the effort to care for 9/11 responders, said it's not clear where the blame for the delay lies, "but even administration officials admit that the start of this program was anything but smooth."

After Logistics Health Inc. took over this summer, Wolff said, her claims for reimbursement for expensive cough medicine and an inhaler came back as denied. And it wasn't until mid-October - more than four months into the one-year contract - that the company agreed to pay for her treatment for a respiratory ailment that afflicts many 9/11 responders.

Wolff, who lives just 15 minutes' drive from the Logistics Health office in downtown La Crosse, said she doesn't want to single out anyone for blame. But John Feal, founder of the FealGood Foundation, isn't so circumspect. Feal points the finger directly at Wisconsin's former governor, who is also president of Logistics Health.

"I know Judy Wolff really well, and she's suffering. And I know Tommy Thompson and his group, and they're neglecting these people," Feal said.

Thompson spokesman Jason Denby referred questions about the contract to Logistics Health. But he said that Thompson - who is on boards and in management and consulting positions at 22 companies - "has been working closely with the team (at LHI) to ensure that the contract is carried out properly."

Partner at law firm

Thompson , 66, came to Logistics Health shortly after being President George W. Bush's secretary of Health and Human Services, which includes NIOSH, during Bush's first term. Upon leaving his federal post in December 2004, Thompson quickly assembled a large portfolio of private sector positions, including partner in one of Washington, D.C.'s most influential law firms, board directorships on medical device and pharmaceutical companies he once regulated, and as an executive with Deloitte & Touche, a major federal contractor that provides health-care consulting services.

In March 2005, Thompson was named president of LHI, which provides "customized health care solutions" for private companies and the federal government using a network of medical and dental providers. Armstrong declined to say how much the privately held company pays Thompson .

Since the former HHS secretary joined Logistics Health three and a half years ago, the company has seen its federal contracting business skyrocket. According to OMB Watch, a nonprofit group that tracks government contracting, the company of 400 employees has gone from $19.9 million in federal contracts in 2003 to $104.8 million in 2007, including part of the first year of a five-year contract to provide health and dental services to military reservists worth an estimated $790 million.

In at least two published interviews, LHI founder and chairman Don Weber has credited the company's recent growth to Thompson 's connections in federal government.

"If I were to go in a try to get a meeting with some of the decision makers in these organizations, it would take me a lifetime," Weber told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in February 2006. " Tommy is able to make a phone call - and then we get in front of people who make decisions. And when we can show them what we're all about, it expedites decisions."

Weber made a similar statement to the La Crosse Tribune in September 2006.

"He ( Thompson ) has definitely had an impact" on the company's growth, Weber told the newspaper. " Tommy really is able to get us in to see the right people, the decisionmakers."

Denby insisted that Thompson has never contacted anyone at his former agency to discuss business. "He doesn't talk to HHS about contracts. It's simple," Denby said. Armstrong also didn't respond to messages seeking an interview with Weber.

Request was conceled

How Thompson 's company won the contract to provide 9/11 responder care has come under scrutiny. Last fall, the administration solicited bids to provide medical and pharmacy care for ailing responders living outside of New York City. In December, a few days before the bids were due, HHS canceled the request for proposals. Knut Ringen, a Seattle consultant, said his client, Zenith Administrators and QTC of Diamond Bar., Calif., was ready to submit its bid when the solicitation was canceled.

Suspicious about the change, one New York City congressman held a hearing in January to try to force HHS to explain why the request for proposals had been scuttled. The agency declined to send a representative to the hearing of the House Subcommittee on Government Management, Organization and Procurement.

Blosser said the process was halted because it wasn't clear how much the government would pay for patients with health insurance, although Congress had appropriated $108 million for that purpose. He said the solicitation also was "structured in a way that inadvertently limited interest from bidders that may have been equipped to address the complexity of the program on both the local and national scale."

U.S. Rep. Ed Towns, chairman of the subcommittee, didn't buy the explanations offered by the health agency.

"It is really a baffling decision, and they can't even get their stories straight for why it happened," the Democrat from Brooklyn said at the hearing. "First they said that the bidders were confused. Well, we talked to bidders, who had invested a lot of time and money in their proposals, and they said they were ready to go. Then the administration said there wasn't enough funding. Well, how could they know that before the bids came in?"

In March, the HHS' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which includes NIOSH, issued a new request for proposals. LHI was among four bidders. Ringen prepared a second proposal, this time just from Zenith. He said LHI's $11 million proposal was several million dollars less than those of the other three bidders. Blosser declined to say how much the other proposals would have cost, adding that such information can't be released to the public under federal contracting rules.

"We could not do the project on the budget LHI proposed - at least and do it responsibly," Ringen said. "We couldn't even come close to what they were proposing."

In the transition

Before LHI got the contract, the nonprofit Association of Occupational and Environmental Clinics provided heath-care services for 9/11 responders, many of whom had sought for years to get help from the federal government for respiratory, gastrointestinal and mental health problems. After the contract was awarded in May, Katherine Kirkland, the association's executive director, said her group tried to ease the transition for patients.

"We offered to talk with them (LHI) and work with them, and they said they had everything under control and they'd get back to us," she said.

Kirkland said she tried unsuccessfully to contact LHI as dozens of patients began calling her with complaints about lack of service. Finally, she said, the association and the Red Cross agreed to continue paying medical claims for the patients beyond the scheduled end of their program on June 30.

"In spite of everyone saying whoever got the contract, that they'd be ready on Day 1, they weren't," said Kirkland, whose association continued to pay claims through July under its agreement with the Red Cross.

Kirkland said Logistics Health isn't solely to blame. She said the federal government "just didn't allow enough time for the transition" for a program that serves patients scattered across nearly every state. "I just don't think they (LHI) understood and I don't think the federal government understood what was involved in providing treatment for these people," she said.

Wolff said she continues to struggle with the effects of her three weeks at Ground Zero: Depression, looming surgeries and permanent disability that makes her unable to work. She said she's had to cancel doctor appointments because she can't afford the gas to get there.

Towns, the New York City congressman, said the care provided to Wolff and others is "one of the worst-managed programs I've seen. The lack of action for these heroes, and the bureaucracy they've had to go through, is simply unacceptable. It is shameful."

The question the gentle reader should be asking themselves is this: If Thompson would be willing to sell out these heroes for a "few shekels," do you really think he would even blink an eye at selling out you or me?

A bonus question would be: Where the hell was Thompson's campaign manager?  He should have known that Thompson had this history and steered clear of the whole issue.

Zomneypocalypse!

Now this is funny:



Source

Beth Lueck For District 8

Alberta Darling might have to get off the golf course and run a campaign now.

Darling, who had been running unopposed in her new gerrymandered district, now does have an opponent.

Beth Lueck, a college professor, has launched a write-in campaign to give voters in District 8 a choice.

From Professor Lueck:

I’m running a write-in campaign as a Democrat against Alberta Darling in Senate District 8.

My goal is to return integrity and civility to the state legislature.

In the proud tradition of Wisconsin progressivism I stand for transparency in state politics and a return to working together with Democrats, Republicans, and Independents.

Together we can improve our state’s economy, bring back respect for unions that strive for better working conditions for everyone, support veterans, and improve our schools, from K-12 through the UW System, which have suffered from years of declining state support.

I support full civil rights for everyone in Wisconsin and women's reproductive rights.

I also believe that Wisconsin should take all necessary steps to be in full compliance with the federal Affordable Health Care Act.

As a Professor of English at UW-Whitewater I will dedicate myself as a citizen-legislator to work together with others for a better Wisconsin for everyone.

The recent gerrymandering of districts by Wisconsin Republicans has resulted in districts so lopsided that in many cases no other party is running against the incumbent.

As Steven Walters of WisconsinEye pointed out in the 16 September Journal Sentinel, few of the Assembly seats and even fewer Senate seats this fall are really competitive.

A situation where candidates run unopposed is contrary to the very basis of democracy.

Therefore I’m announcing my candidacy for the Wisconsin State Senate seat in District 8.

For more information please reply to richardschwalb@yahoo.com or write to Beth directly at lueckforsenate@gmail.com .

Thank you

That is going to be one helluva uphill battle to take on Darling and her corporate money, but you gotta love the good professor for putting herself out there and giving it a go. That takes more courage than the entire Republican caucus possesses.

You can learn more at Lueck's Facebook page.

Hostility In The Workplace: A National GOP Strategy?

Last night, I wrote about Mike White, the idiot at Rite Hite who thought he was about the law and decided to send a threatening email to his employees on what he would do to them if they voted for Obama.

I have now heard from various sources that the employees at Schneider Trucking Company heard the same thing, almost verbatim. The only difference between the two companies being that Schneider was stupid enough to put it in writing.

It is highly unlikely that this is a coincidence, especially given that there are reports of similar statements from all over the country.

This is probably coming from the US Chamber of Commerce through their subsidiaries, like Wisconsin Manufacturing and Commerce.

This also seems like a logical conclusion given their habitual use of fear and smear campaign techniques, since their real agenda simply won't sell except with the greediest of the greedy and the densest of teahadist.

The best way to counter that is with all boots on the ground and sharing the truth with everyone and anyone, and then get their butts to the polling station.

Pat Kreitlow: Axe

Pat Kreitlow, running to unseat reality TV star Sean Duffy, has a knew ad out:



For those of us downstate, this ad, called "Axe," has two edges. One is the obvious one, in which Kreitlow shows that Duffy is unfit for office and is willing to sell out his constituents in a heart beat.

The other edge is that it is an effective rebuttal to Duffy's latest ad. Kreitlow has been running ads that tweak Duffy about his "lumberjack" persona. Duffy obviously doesn't like that given his ads try to mock Kreitlow for not being a lumberjack. However, all Duffy has been able to do is show his pettiness and immaturity.

The only reason Duffy is still in the race is due to the gerrymandered district and the flood of corporate money keeping his pathetic campaign alive.

You can help Kreitlow keep getting his message out by donating to his Act Blue page.

Piling It On

Pat Kreitlow, who's running against Sean Duffy, has a new ad out which is just as good as his first one:



You can help Kreitlow out by donating to his Act Blue page.

You can also learn more about him at his website.

Thompson On Thompson: Kenya Dig It?

The gentle reader already knows that Jason Thompson, son of senatorial candidate and former governor Tommy Thompson and lawyer at the official law firm of Fitzwalkerstan, Michael Best & Friedrich, played the birther card while representing his father at a Republican brunch on Sunday.

On Monday, Jason Thompson issued an apology...to his colleagues at the law firm, but not to President Barack Obama or to the voters of Wisconsin:

Jason Thompson , the son of former Gov. Tommy Thompson, has apologized to colleagues at his law firm for saying at a Republican event over the weekend that voters have the chance to send President Barack Obama back to Kenya.

Michael Best & Friedrich, the firm where Jason Thompson works, issued a statement Monday distancing it from his widely publicized remarks.

"Over the weekend, one of our attorneys and the son of Senatorial candidate Tommy Thompson made a regrettable comment at a campaign event for his father," said the statement from the Milwaukee-based firm. "We want to make it clear that the comment made at the campaign event in no way reflects the views, beliefs or values of Michael Best & Friedrich."

As if that wasn't bad enough, Tommy Thompson has been mum on the matter. Not one word:



Besides the video, the Democrats have a long laundry list of some of the various places where this comment has been discussed. Tommy isn't one of them.

Well, Tommy Thompson's silence didn't last much longer after the Democrats released that video and press release.

He came out of whatever undisclosed location he's been hiding in to make a statement on his son's racist comment. And in making his statement, he shows us who taught his son about inserting his foot into his mouth:

Thompson addressed the issue on the shop floor of Grover Corp., on Milwaukee’s south side, where he received the endorsement of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

“My son feels miserable about it," Thompson said. "If you looked at the video, you would have seen that somebody, he said, ‘go back to Illinois,’ and somebody in the audience, if you looked at it, somebody said the other country (Kenya) and my son responded.

“Talked to my son he feels terrible about it and nobody is suffering more than he is about this, and he has apologized. That is all I am going to say about it.”

Reporter: “Do you think that he needs to apologize publicly and to the president?”

“No,” Thompson said. “He has already apologized and that’s enough.”

Reporter: Do you think he wasn’t that serious about those remarks, or what?

“It was an off-handed remark that somebody mentioned it in the audience," Thompson said. "If you look at the movie, he didn’t say it, somebody in the audience said it and he repeated it and I have talked to him about it and he’s apologized about it and that’s it.”

Oh, really?

Well, here's the video again. Turn up the volume.



The gentle reader can easily tell that no one said anything until after Jason Thompson made the Kenya statement.

So, Thompson the Elder first lies about the comment, trying to blame it on some mystery problem that no one else can hear. Or maybe Tommy is just suffering from auditory hallucinations. Either way, it's not good.

But Tommy goes on to dig that hole a little deeper by calling the comment an "off hand comment." That would infer that this is something his son said without thinking about it, which would mean that this is what he really thinks.

And do I really need to point out who was one of the greatest factors in forming Jason's attitudes and beliefs.

Tommy's third strike comes when he said that his son didn't need to apologize publicly. This might seem crazy, but I don't think telling the voters that they don't deserve an apology is not the best way to win friends or influence people.

Given the fact that Tommy appears to be just as bigoted as his son, if not more so, I hope he will be able to cope with the mere thought that he will have lost this race to a homosexual woman. If Tammy Baldwin were black also, he'd never make it.

The Political Candidate And His Reflection

I am sure the gentle reader remembers Aesop's fables from their childhood. Many parents used those simple tales and their morals to help teach their children right from wrong.

One of Aesop's fables was the one of the dog and his reflection. The story is of a dog that got himself a nice old bone and was walking along with it in his mouth. As he went across the bridge, he looked down into the water and saw his reflection, but thought it to be another dog with a bone. In his efforts to get the other dog's bone to add to his own, he ended up losing his bone in the process, ending up with nothing.

One cannot help but be reminded of that fable when one thinks of Paul Ryan.

Paul Ryan has been the Representative for Wisconsin's First Congressional District for 14 long years. And he is running for reelection for this seat.

But that's not enough for Ryan. He's also running to be the Vice-President for Mitt Romney.

And just like the dog in the fable, Ryan is having problems trying to handle both pursuits.

When Romney announced Ryan as his running mate, the right wing, especially here in Wisconsin, were beside themselves in their euphoria. I mean they were down right giddy.

But that giddiness has succumbed to controlled panic as their poll numbers keep dropping. Making Grandma put one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel doesn't sell as a viable healthcare plan after all. Who'd've thunk it?

And both the presidential and vice-presidential candidate getting caught up in lies and/or making rather elitist statements is not a big sell either.

So to try to bolster they falling numbers, Team Romney has sent their puppy-eyed Boy Wonder to Wisconsin several times for various fundraisers, appearances, and more fundraisers.

But this has led to Ryan to start losing the bone he already had, his congressional seat.

By my best figuring, since being tagged as Romney's VP selection, Ryan has been to Wisconsin or has an appearance planned for a total of eight times:

• On August 12, Ryan and Romney appeared in Waukesha for a "homecoming" even though Ryan's home is in Janesville.
• On August 27, he was at a send-off rally in Janesville.
• On September 12, he was at a town hall meeting in De Pere.
• On September 15, he was at a fundraiser in Middleton.
• On October 6, he had a fundraiser in Milwaukee.
• On October 7, he used his family for a photo op at a pumpkin farm in Sturtevant.
• On October 14, he appeared at a fundraiser for Tommy Thompson. Without doubt, he raised some cash for himself as well.
• On October 15, he's scheduled for a town hall in Waukesha.

Despite all of these appearances in or near his home district, Ryan has not once appeared with, much less debated, his opponent, Rob Zerban. And after the way that he got his rear end handed to him by Vice President Joe Biden, Ryan is probably going to be too scared to do another debate for a long time.

Instead of allowing the voters the chance to see the real differences between the two men and make an informed decision on Election Day, Ryan is hoping to get away with bamboozling them with a flurry of misleading TV ads. His offhand approach to his own district, plus the fact that he has done nothing for them in 14 years except increase unemployment and poverty isn't playing well against Zerban's positive attitude and attention to the voters.

As it stands at the moment, Ryan is about to find out that he isn't a big dog after all and is about to lose his first national race. And due to his focus on that bigger bone of being VP, Ryan is well on his way to losing the hold he once had on his congressional seat.

And I can't think of anyone more deserving of learning that lesson the hard way.

Thompson's Bad Week Goes From Push To Push Poll

This hasn't been a very good week for Tommy Thompson at all. And it's only Tuesday.

On Sunday, we learned that he is so unpopular that he has to beg for people to like his Facebook page.

On Monday, it came out that he has John McCain Syndrome, in that he is so stinking rich he can't even remember how many houses he owns.

Some lefty blogger also reminded the world that Thompson's son, Jason, is embroiled in the Walkergate scandal. I guess that this is proof that the bad apples don't fall far from the tree, eh?

Today, Erick Erickson of Redstate doesn't think much of Thompson either:

Tommy Thompson is flailing about in Wisconsin as the senile old grandfather with his various assorted women issues.

Erickson goes on opine that Todd Akin, of all people, is more deserving of funding from the NRSC than Thompson.

Then tonight I received a call, on my cell phone nonetheless, from a young woman, Stephanie, from a company called Opinionology. Based on the Caller ID, they're based out in Utah.

Stephanie told me that she wanted to ask me some questions about the upcoming elections. I chose to oblige her, but first I asked was who was funding this survey. She readily responded that it was Tommy Thompson.

The questions started out pretty standard. Simple things like who I was going to vote for or asking how strongly I felt towards or against an issue or a candidate, including the US Senatorial race or the presidential election.

But suddenly the questions started taking on a new tone. Instead of just who will you vote for, it was stuff like, " Will you be voting for Tammy Baldwin who supports the extreme leftist, big government agenda of Barack Obama or the straight forward, responsible budgeting approach of Tommy Thompson and his Republican allies?"

As soon as Stephanie asked one of these types of questions, I exclaimed, "Oh good! It is a push poll after all!" This started Stephanie giggling. Apparently she had heard similar comments before.

She asked a few more questions along a similar vein, but never to the point of accusing Baldwin of eating babies or claiming that Thompson had God's personal endorsement.

I think the part that made me laugh the most was when Stephanie asked me if I had seen, heard or read anything from the Baldwin and Thompson campaigns, what those things were and if that made me more or less likely to vote for them.

I replied by asking how long she had per call, because I could take up her night.

I swear I could hear Stephanie groan when I mentioned Thompson's "Who better?" gaffe.

By gauging how Stephanie was responding, I don't think Thompson's gonna like what he gets for his money on this poll.

Thompson's Got More Than Money Problems

It's been noted that Tommy Thompson has been absent from the campaign trail and is hardly running any ads. Pundits have put this on the fact that Thompson's campaign doesn't have a lot of cash left after a grueling primary. In fact, Scott Walker and Mark Neumann have both sent out email blasts in an effort to raise funds for him. And in the near future, Paul Ryan will be making one of his rare public appearances to help raise funds for Thompson's campaign. Betcha it ain't gonna be anywhere near the $2.8 million he raised to bolster the ticket he's dragging down, like Romney really need any help doing that.

But Thompson is going to need more help than just money.

Reminiscent of the Great Twit-Off between Walker and Neumann, Thompson has taken to desperation and is begging people to like his Facebook page:

Thompson is currently sitting at 19,578 "likes." If you subtract reporters and lefty bloggers looking for fodder, that number would probably drop to about 17,500. And if you take out paid Koch/ALEC employees and campaign staff, he might, just might, still be in double digits.

This is not surprising, since we know that he started out unpopular and has been losing ground ever since, as it becomes more obvious that he is not really interested in being the people's senator.

And for what it's worth, Tammy Baldwin is currently at 27,626, showing she is far above Thompson in more ways than one.

Is Mitt Romney Considering Dumping Paul Ryan?

In a Cog Dis exclusive, we have learned that Mitt Romney is considering putting Paul Lyin' Ryan in with Seamus on the dog cage strapped on top of the Romney campaign bus.

Sources close to the Romney campaign have told us that Romney is very upset after not gaining a single new voter after successfully doing a Gish Gallop all over President Barack Obama in Wednesday night's debate.

Said sources have told Cog Dis that Romney and his top campaign advisers have taken a long and hard look at what's going on in an effort to discard the things that aren't working for them and to generate more excitement about their lagging campaign.

When Romney had announced that Lyin' Ryan as his running mate, right wing pundits praised the move, saying that Romney did the exact right thing by "going bold."

But now, Romney is apparently having second thoughts about his choice in running mates.

Ryan was supposed to bring with him a big bounce in polls as well as big economic plan.

However, even in Wisconsin, Ryan's home state, the small bounce in the polls lasted as long as a free hot dog at an AFP rally and Romney is trailing Obama by double digits in a supposedly suddenly turned red state.

Furthermore, the Ryan budget which Romney has embraced is really nothing new. It's the same plan that Ryan has been touting for the past decade and the same one that is deemed too toxic by all but the most extreme Republicans and one senator, Ron Johnson, who thinks that the world's problems are caused by sunspots.

It turns out that taking Grandma's medicine and health care away and replacing them with an Entertainment Book coupon isn't so popular with the voters after all.

Adding to the strain between the two men is Ryan's open lack of faith in their chances as evidenced by the fact that Ryan has run not just one, but two commercials aimed at keeping his congressional seat. On top of that, besides introducing Ryan to all of the big money special interests and billionaire corporation executives and their PACs, Ryan still is losing in fund raising to his opponent, the much nicer and much, much more qualified Rob Zerban.

It is said that Romney is considering to jumping on one of his "zingers" from the Gish Gallop by making Big Bird the face of the 47%, the group of people that Romney has utter disdain for (the poor, the disabled and the elderly) and hopes to get the public to share in his elitism.

Ignoring the fact that PBS, the network that carries Sesame Street, barely accounts for one one-hundredth of one percent of the federal budget, or about $1.35 per person, Romney is hoping to make people believe that cutting funding for them will balance the budget, lower everyone's taxes to zero and make everyone billionaires, just like him.

He's also planning on arguing that offing Big Bird will also increase virility and end male pattern baldness, in order to get the Rush Limbaugh listeners more firmly on board.

In order to help sell this War on Big Bird theme, it is being reported that Romney is considering dumping Ryan as his running mate and going extra-super-duper bold by signing on another Wisconsinite: Wisconsin State Representative Joel Kleefisch.

Kleefisch would bring a lot to the table - in more ways than one.

Joel Kleefisch can just smell
Big Bird on his grill.

The reason that Kleefisch would be the best choice as a running mate in this War on Big Bird is obvious: No one knows more about taking out big birds than Kleefisch, who once declared sandhill cranes to be the "ribeye of the sky."

Furthermore, Kleefisch could help bring in more votes by being married to the furniture-fetishist Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch. Romney would like to tap into their Koch money and their electronic voting machines to ensure a win in Wisconsin, a very important swing state.

Cog Dis sought out Rep. Kleefisch to get a statement about this rumor. Unfortunately, when we found him, he was at his favorite country club, and starting to dig in on his fifth sandhill crane and his tenth pitcher of beer. When asked about his potentially being named Romney's new running mate, Kleefisch responded, "Chomp, chomp....if these sandhill cranes are ribeye, Big Bird would be porterhouse steaks...chomp, swallow, gulp....plus...belch...Kermit...chomp, chomp....frog legs....and I'd like to...chomp, gulp, slurp...[unintelligible] Miss Piggy..."

We also tried to contact Paul Ryan, but a spokesman told us that after climbing every mountain in the Himalayans after lunch, Ryan decided to cool off by swimming the length of the Amazon. He was due back in three hours, give or take a few minutes, but that was after press time.

Stay tuned to Cog Dis as we bring you the latest news in this developing story.

And coming up next...What color will Mitt Romney's face be next?