You're (Not) A Good Man, Charlie Sykes

By Jeff Simpson

Chuck Sykes made bigger news today than he should have, by saying he was leaving his radio show at the end of the year.

Charlie Sykes, who has helped shape conservatism and some of its leading local figures for more than two decades, is leaving the air at the end of the year.

What Bice meant to say was that Charlie helped define a new brand of conservatism(Who is Ike anyway?)in the eastern corner of Wisconsin.   Sykes, as we have seen by the lack of actual influence of Wisconsin Republicans on the national stage, has had a very minimal effect on national "conservatism".

As we pointed out a couple weeks ago, Charlie has started trying to rework his public persona and too many "journalists" are working with him to allow that too happen.

Politico had a puff piece where they used an example to show how Charlie has changed:

“Yeah! Let me make a comparison, and I don’t mean this in a bad way,” Audrey says. “They’re talking about phasing out breeding of pit bulls. Well, not all pit bulls are bad.”
 “You’re comparing American citizens, Muslims, to rabid dogs,” Sykes responds.
 “No, I’m saying, they’re talking about phasing out the breed because so many are bad. No one wants to phase out poodles! I mean, there’s no Lutherans doing this! We never know when one of these people are going to be radicalized.”
 “One of these people,” says Sykes.
 Sykes ends the call. He’s silent, broadcasting dead air. He looks upset, like he’s stopped breathing. He goes to a commercial break.
 “OK, that doesn’t happen very often,” he says off-air. “I’m not usually absolutely speechless.” He says his listeners never talked like this until recently.
 “Were these people that we actually thought were our allies?” he asks.

Interesting question Chucky,  the quick answer is YES!

The Politico piece was written in August, where the blatant racism took Charlie's breath away.

Charlie recovered quickly though, and within a couple months, was back at it with winks and nods towards the Audrey's of Wisconsin.

Our Friends at Wisconsin Law and Liberty (WILL) will be holding a Soiree in Milwaukee coming up, where there is a $100 entry fee to see a conversation between Dr. Charles Murray and (you guessed it) Charlie Sykes.

While $100 seems expensive, it is a small price to pay, when you can gather a room full of people who look like you and find an "expert" to tell you that you are superior to everyone who does not look like you!

Doc Murray has made a career telling white people that they are smarter than black, women, and latino's. That of course fits the perfect profile of someone that WILL would get as a guest of honor and Charlie would want to spend the night speaking with.

The white nationalist Dr. Murray, who also happens to be a good friend and ally of Paul Ryan, will be at the University Club of Milwaukee on Wednesday October 12th from 6:00-9:00 pm.

Cash Bar will be open at 6:00, followed by a serving of bigotry, discrimination and narrow-mindedness, dessert will be a fresh serving of Jim Crow, made from Charlie Sykes own recipe.

In between the courses, Charlie Sykes and Dr. Murray will be discussing the wonders of white people.

In the end its no surprise that Charlie Sykes will be the lone person on stage with Dr. Murray.

The question that needs to be answered though, is will Audrey be in the front row?

Abele, Republicans Propose A Jim Crow Education Plan For Milwaukee

Just when you thought the Republicans couldn't go any lower or do anything more despicable than what they already have done, they take it as a challenge and outdo themselves.

State Senator Alberta Darling and State Representative Dale Kooyenga have come out with a proposal they quaintly and misleadingly call "Opportunity Schools Partnership Program."  Despite its cheery little name, it is nothing more than a proposal to hasten the privatization of the Milwaukee Public School System.

The gist of the plan is that they declare a number of Milwaukee Public Schools as "failing" and target them for take over by a private school.

But there is a particularly nasty twist to their plan.

These privatized schools would be run by Milwaukee County Executive Emperor Chris "Boss" Abele:

Solution: The Opportunity Schools and Partnership Program (OSPP) will create a new governance>structure in MPS to free students from nonperforming schools.

• OSPP shall be run by a Commissioner for an at will term appointed by the Milwaukee County Executive
• The Commissioner shall operate independently from the MPS Board
• The Commissioner shall receive parallel authority to the Board, but shall be free of all state and local regulations except for safety, health, special education, and non-discrimination laws 

Now, the gentle reader is probably asking themselves why would they choose the Milwaukee County Executive Emperor to run the City of Milwaukee's schools?

Well, Abele believes in plantation economics, just like his Republican friends.  Abele is also good friends with - and heavily influenced by - Michael Grebe, the head of the Bradley Foundation, which has been pushing for privatization of public schools for years and years.  Oh, and Abele has donated money to Kooyenga.

This Jim Crow education plan is flawed on many levels, which have been outlined by the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association.

Chief among the flaws is the misrepresentation that the schools caused Milwaukee's economic and social woes.  The truth is the opposite of their assertion.  The economic and social segregation imposed by Abele and his Republican friends are what is driving the poor test scores.

Abele and friends also ignore the vast evidence that privatized schools are no better - and often much worse - performers than public schools.

But hey, who needs facts when there is profits to be had?

Another problem with their scheme is this line:

All employees at a school incorporated may apply for a position in the new school. However, such an application waives current and future privileges to be represented by any union as all employment within OSPP is at will.

That is in violation of federal labor laws regarding the private sector.

Then again, Abele and his Republicans also have never shown any respect for the law, nor do they have any love lost for the unions.

For a front line view of this battle for Milwaukee's future, I strongly urge the gentle reader to go to Wisconsin Soapbox, who has more on this wrong-minded debacle.

Then, if you're as righteously outraged as I am, please go here and sign up (at the bottom of the page) to show your support for our public schools, for our teachers and for our children.

State Rep. Jesse Kremer Proposes Jim Crow Diet For The Poor

In the latest of lame-brained, poor shaming ideas from Wisconsin's Republicans war on the poor, Jesse Kremer (R-Kewaskum) has a doozy. He wants to put poor people receiving food stamps to go on a Jim Crow diet:

Food stamp recipients in Wisconsin would be required to use photo ID cards for their purchases under a bill being proposed by two Republican lawmakers.

Rep. Jesse Kremer, R-Kewaskum, says the proposal is an effort to crack down on waste, fraud and abuse and to make programs like FoodShare more efficient. But detractors say it would shame those living in poverty, with no discernible benefit.

The bill, currently being circulated for co-sponsorship, would require the state Department of Health Services to submit an implementation plan to the U.S. Department of Agriculture for approval to issue electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards with photo identification to participants in FoodShare, the state's successor to the food stamps program. Sen. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, is the Senate's lead sponsor.

Of course, like most of the dreck brought up by the state's Republicans, this proposal runs afoul of a number of laws, including the fact that any member of the family can use the EBT card, not just the head of the household. Federal law also forbids food stamp recipients to be treated differently than anyone else. I can't recall any time that I was carded to buy a loaf of bread.

But there's more. There's always more.

Kremer really wants to make sure the poor are shamed thoroughly by forcing them to shop at poor people-only stores:

Kremer also wrote in his "term paper" about an idea he'd raised during his campaign: limiting the use of QUEST cards to privately-run food pantries overseen by the government.

"Yes, it may be humbling to go into the pantry to purchase 'needed items,' but as I mentioned earlier, most people understand that this is meant to be a crutch and not a lifestyle. I would also love to see photo lD's (sic) on all Quest cards and will continue to work this angle," Kremer wrote.

The pantries could be set up on grocers' property, Kremer said, but they would not sell items like junk food, liquor or cigarettes.

"The fact that the author of the bill would, in his perfect world, require poor people go to segregated grocery stores to get food for their families, makes it clear that it's seething contempt, not legitimate public policy concern driving Kremer and supporters of this bill," Ross said.

Apparently Kremer has been hanging around with Scott Walker so much, he caught the same delusions about St. Ronnie and his fairy tale of welfare queens.

I just wonder what they are going to try to segregate next.

Reince: King of Denial!

By Jeff Simpson

Reince Priebus, head of the republican party, recently did what republicans do best - spend a bunch of money needlessly, to figure out a problem that was easily understood, then do nothing with the money spent.  Otherwise known as GOP Rebranding.

The party's top activists will spend much of Thursday in strategy meetings aimed at best practices for packaging and presenting their conservative ideas to young people, women, and black, Hispanic, and Asian constituencies. The training is part of the party's new outreach efforts to types of voters who overwhelmingly have supported Democrats in recent elections.

Of course in this same conference, was the party base, asking "why are slaves so upset we gave them occassional meals and didnt charge them rent?"  

Baby Steps!

However we see why there is such panic on the right.  For the first time, black turnout exceeded white turnout in 2012.   In a brilliant piece on The Daily Beast, Michael Tomasky breaks it down:

 Because for all this talk about a “new” GOP out to steal minorities’ hearts, the (usually white) people doing the talking seem to forget that today’s Republican Party is doing more to stop black people from voting than George Wallace ever did. ....

Do Republicans really think black and brown (but especially black) people just won’t notice all this? I suppose they must. They think that people won’t see what’s right in front of their nose. And of course, Republicans don’t actually talk to black people—well, they talk to black Republicans, but that is sort of like evangelicals talking to Jews for Jesus and thinking they’ve gauged Jewish opinion—so they have no way of knowing how disingenuous they look.

The Republican Party is thus more officially racist than it was in Nixon’s day. Back then, at least they had Jackie Robinson and Sammy Davis Jr. And at least, back then, the Republican Party did these things in code and not via the law. It was not so brazen as to think it could on the one hand be waging efforts in half the states to keep black people from voting and on the other be improving its “outreach.” The black vote will dip a bit when Obama retires, but as long as Republicans insist on these tactics, they will be doing more than they know to keep turnout high and keep hope alive.

What are the voter suppression techniques that he describes? Ari Berman from the Nation runs them down:

 In 2011 and 2012, 180 new voting restrictions were introduced in forty-one states. Ultimately, twenty-five laws and two executive actions were passed in nineteen states following the 2010 election to make it harder to vote. In many cases, these laws backfired on their Republican sponsors. The courts blocked ten of them, and young and minority voters—the prime target of the restrictions—formed a larger share of the electorate in 2012 than in 2008.

By my count, 235 new voting restrictions have been introduced in forty-four states over the past three years.
Here’s the breakdown of where such laws have been introduced in 2013.

• Mandating a government-issued photo ID to cast a ballot: Arkansas, Connecticut, Iowa, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Washington, Wyoming
• Restricting voter registration drives: Illinois, Indiana, Montana, New Mexico, Virginia
• Banning election-day voter registration: California, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska
• Requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote: Massachusetts, Missouri, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia
• Purging the voter rolls: Colorado, Indiana, New Mexico, Texas, Virginia
• Reducing early voting: Arizona, Indiana, South Carolina, Texas, Wisconsin
• Disenfranchising ex-felons: Virginia.
(On the plus side, thirty states have also introduced measures to make voting easier by adopting online voter registration, election-day registration, expanded early voting and the restoration of voting rights for ex-felons.)

Where in does the republican takeover of Wisconsin fit into this?

Let's ask Speaker Robin Vos:

 “We promise that election reform led by voter ID will be in place for the 2014 election,”  Robin Vos said.

Vos's Speech here. 

The Shadows That Loom Over The RNC

So the Republican National Convention goes on like a grotesque calliope, building up with a crescendo for the grand finale on Thursday when Mitt Romney is to give his speech and opening up the flood gates for the din and cacophony coming at us for the next sixty-some days.

Like any staged production, which this convention is, there are a lot of bright lights, special effects and choreographed stunts. But once one looks past the bright lights and past the smoke and the mirrors, and start looking at the things the Republicans don't want you to see, you see that their show is nothing more than an expensive facade. And as any stagehand could tell you, behind those bright lights, there are shadows.

The shadows which loom over the RNC are larger than life and have the Republicans terrified. ;Oh, they would never admit it, but their behaviors give them away.

The first shadows over the RNC came in the form of Hurricane Isaac.

The Republicans gave themselves away on the days leading up to the convention, when there was concern that Tampa might be in the storms path. All one heard was that the Republicans were afraid that the news of the hurricane might upstage their own production. Not one fret was given for the people that might be hurt or killed in the storm, but only on how it would impact them and their agenda. This was the ultimate White Whine.

It turned out that Isaac was the shadow which was cast by George W. Bush and his date from several years ago, Katrina. Ironically, Isaac hit New Orleans and the gulf on the anniversary of Katrina's landfall. And like those seven years ago, the conventioneers echoed Bush by not giving a damn about the victims, but just wanted to keep on partying.

And related to and mingling with George's and Katrina's shadows, there is the shadow of Jim Crow and all the racism he brings with him. Do you think it's mere coincidence that the Republicans don't care about the people in the hurricane's paths, then or now? Let's not forget that these are the same people that are trumpeting their false concern of voter fraud in order to justify their voter suppression.

We have already seen that the Republicans will be playing the race card as one of their major planks, by the behaviors of their nominee and of their party leader. With leadership like that, it's not at all surprising that the rank and file felt that it was appropriate to start throwing nuts at African American camerawoman working for CNN and yelling, "This is the way we feed animals."?

The next shadow, and one of the two biggest ones, is being cast by Todd Akin. Akin, of course, is the buffoon who made the moronic comment about how women can't get pregnant from rape because their bodies automatically stop the fertilization process. It didn't take long for there to be many examples of the misogyny of the right, including their vice-presidential nominee, Paul Ryan.

I found it laughable how the Republicans were taking great pains to show just how much they are not a large groups of misogynists and racists by saying how much they just love women and blacks. They did everything short of uttering the phrase, "Some of my best friends are women and/or blacks." The fact is, if they were really friendly to minorities and to women, they wouldn't have to tell people because their behaviors would reflect that. The way they are over-hyping their inclusiveness only serves to point out that there is none.

It is this over-hyping behavior that pointed out another huge shadow over the convention. In fact, the pieces didn't fall together until today, when the usual suspects inadvertently pointed it out by trying to hide it.

The shadow they were trying to hide belonged to our old friend, John Doe.

The GOP mouthpieces disguised as radio squawkers and bloggers were taking great pains to point out how "popular" Scott Walker was at the convention. Charlie Sykes repeatedly pointed out that Walker got two standing ovations. Every radio personality and/or journalist for the Walker-loving Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and/or blogger has been swooning about the "Cheddarhead" movement which included Walker, Reince Priebus and Paul Ryan.

Like I said, their overextension of Walker's supposed popularity made me wonder what they were trying to keep people from seeing.

That answer came shortly when Sykes attacked Milwaukee District Attorney John Chisholm, twice even, regarding the John Doe investigation into former Supervisor Johnny Thomas and trying to tie it into Walkergate, the John Doe investigation into Walker, his campaign and his former staffers. This attack was repeated by Jeff Wagner, who only revealed either a gross misunderstanding of the law and/or that he is just a plain, flat out liar.

That's when things started to click together.

First, look at their hype of Walker's supposed popularity and his status as a rising star and rock star of the Republicans.

Walker, as he is fond of repeatedly pointing out, is the only governor in the history of the nation to survive a recall attempt. (We'll discuss the legitimacy of either of his election victories at another time.) He became the darling of the teahadists when he was able to tank the state's economy by removing a large amount of the state's money from circulation and redistributing it among his wealthiest campaign donors. No wonder he's so popular, right?

Yet, despite his alleged popularity, he was given only seven minutes on an off night when everyone's attention was on the keynote speakers of Governor Chris Christie and Ann Romney. Heck, they didn't even announce his appearance until days after the keynote speakers had been named. When Walker was finally announced, it was with a lot of other minor players.

Not exactly the way one would treat a superstar, is it?

By all accounts on the left and right, Walker's speech was pedestrian and barely functional. Many described him as flat and not very inspirational at all. I had heard some opine that it was because he wasn't the center of attention and that he's not much of a team player.

But what if Walker's poor showing was because there was something else occupying his mind and making him worried? And I don't think that something was his failings as a job creator or his failure to reduce the deficit, balance the budget or keep taxes down.

Now, let's not forget that Tim Russell had to get himself a public defender, and it appeared that a plea bargain might be in the works for that case. Could it be that such a deal is imminent or even already made?

I haven't heard or seen anything that would confirm that something else is about to pop in the ongoing Walkergate investigation. But judging by the increased level of worrying by Walker and his supporters and their need to lay the ground work for a defense of Walker by making him seem more popular than his is and libeling the investigation, and the obvious attempts by the Republicans to separate themselves from Walker, it would seem like there is a good chance of something coming down and coming soon.

Now wouldn't that make a lovey Labor Day present?

Jim Crow Falls, McCarthyism Rises

On Monday, voters in Wisconsin won a temporary reprieve from the onerous and oppressive Jim Crow voter suppression laws enacted by Scott Walker last year, when a second judge found the law to be unconstitutional and imposed a permanent injunction against it.

The money phrase comes from the actual ruling:

A government that undermines the very foundation of its existence – the people’s inherent, pre-constitutional right to vote – imperils its legitimacy as a government by the people, for the people, and especially of the people. It sows the seeds for its own demise as a democratic institution.

As I said above, the reprieve, as significant as it is, is only temporary.  I believe that Walker and company will not only appeal the ruling, but will try to take it directly to the Supreme Court, citing some nonsense about how it is needed in time for the upcoming recall elections.

And we all know how well things turn out in the Supreme Court of Fitzwalkerstan, where David "Choke Hold" Prosser doesn't bother reading the lawsuits, the law or the Constitution, but rather makes his decisions based on what his campaign donors, the Fitzgerald boys and the Walker administration tell him on how he should rule.

I hope that the recallers are ready to file immediately in federal court to have that act of disingenuousness turned over

But sad to say, with the falling of the Jim Crow laws, there is another disgusting relic from the past on the rise recently: a new version of McCarthyism.

To practice this art of intimidation and bullying, the right wing is using their "Verify the Vote" database from the recalls.  Whenever someone does or says something they don't like, the lemmings on the right scramble to the database to see if they signed the petition.  They then use this in an effort to intimidate their chosen victims.

As of the time of this writing, some of the first victims of the New McCarthyism includes Dane County Judge David Flanagan, who was the first judge to rule against the Jim Crow laws; UW staff and Regents; and Mary Lou Young and Linda McFerrin, officers at United Way of Greater Milwaukee.

Even yours truly isn't immune from the harassment from the right.  For the umpteenth time, someone has filed an Open Records Request against me with my employer.  The requester wants to see if he can find more dirt on me from the acts of retaliation Scott Walker and his minions threw at me as well as to see if I'm qualified to do my job.

I am not worried about this in the sense that they will find anything to discredit me or get me into trouble.  But I do find it irritating that they will not cease in their harassment because they don't like that I speak the truth and keep exposing Scott Walker and his allies for the miscreants that they are.  And yes, questioning my qualifications to do my job is nothing short of an act of harassment and retaliation.

The person who made this request is a sloppy blogger turned GOP operative named Kyle Maichle.  Maichle has worked for the Koch brothers and Herman Cain, to show you the type of person he is.  As a blogger and researcher, he has a very poor reputation.  But given his severe man-crush on Walker and his flailing efforts at besmirching people that oppose his hero, who knows what he will try in his desperation.

But I'm sure the right wing will have no problems with their harassment, bullying and intimidation of Wisconsinites.  They'll just keep telling themselves it's only fascism when the other guy does it.