Baby Don't Get Hooked On CAPITOL CHAOS

Mac Davis has got the WTMJ schtick down.

Scott Walker raises taxes on the poor

Not only the poor but the poorest.

WMC chair lays off 450 workers

Via One Wisconsin Now. Sad. You remember WMC, they're the gang of cheap dissemblers that got the unethical judge Mike Gableman elected.

Gableman moves up the food chain

Hires Viet Dinh.

Wonder how much that dude charges.

Wisconsin's 2012 Leaders in the Law

Inter alios, Dane County Circuit Court Judge Maryann Sumi.

Hear, hear. Most emphatically. And shame on the conservative Republican authors of the Wisconsin Supreme Court's June 14 unsigned "miscellaneous order" for their shabby treatment of Judge Sumi.

Also, SPD Ellen Berz. That can't hurt.

h/t Capper.

Charlie Sykes writes what he knows

"Charlie himself was — by his own definition — a moocher."

Which flavor of Christianity promotes lying?

Because my friend Jay a.k.a. Folkbum is wondering.

(My guess is it's the conservative Republican flavors.)

Sykes is WTMJ's biggest angry white man asset

620 WTMJ Can Run But It Can't Hide — Learned counsel Mike Plaisted

(The "ridiculous J.T. Harris" was on Sykes's teevee clown show Sunday.)

After that, the [620 WTMJ] morning team handed Walker off to — you guessed it — Charlie Sykes, who "interviewed" the governor in the same studio, with the extra enhancements, I would hope, of mood music, scented candles and flavored oil for the romantic encounter to follow.

Haha. That's my pal.

The sleazy saga of Mike Gableman continues

By Bruce Murphy.

More accurately, Gableman was unsuccessful in having the Judicial Commission's complaint against him dismissed. It remains pending.

And the black letter law of admissible evidence is not a "technicality."

Earlier: "I'm aware of a story involving another justice."
Earlier: Who will be the next Wisconsin special prosecutor

Where is that investigation.

Justice David Prosser on Gableman's ethical breaches: "Get over it."

Yeah I don't think so.

Fact checkers fall prey to false equivalence

Steve Benen: PolitiFact ought to be ashamed of itself

Wisconsin: Why isn't Gableman being recalled?

"Appearance of impropriety" is a dead, legal fiction 'round here.

State Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman in two cases cast the deciding vote in favor of parties represented by a law firm that gave him tens of thousands of dollars of free legal services, a review of State records shows. — By Patrick Marley.

Tens of thousands of dollars worth. For free.

Thank heavens it wasn't a Speed Queen rib.

Except nothing is for free, is it.

"That's a judgment call," Rick Esenberg said.*

Naturally. Rick Esenberg and his then-research assistant at the Marquette University Law School stumped extensively for Gableman. Esenberg even appeared in a video for Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, which spent like the bejeezus getting Gableman elected.

Rick Esenberg should have declined to comment. It does not look good on him that he did, considering his status as an enthusiastic Gableman surrogate. This blog has been following Gableman's antics for four years.

Kind of a sordid anniversary ain't it.

I was still an idealist in those days. No more.

* "Thanks for the golden insight, Rick." — Mike Plaisted

rofl

Stay classy, you Disciples of Scott Walker

Two arrested for allegedly spitting on recall workers in Iowa County

Volunteers need rabies shots now or what.

Contribute now: $6.20 Walker-TMJ Radio

Ha.

Earlier: Graeme Zielinski touches a Journal Broadcasting nerve

Hey I found the god who blesses Charlie Sykes

APATE was the spirit of deceit, guile, fraud and deception.

Wondered which one it was.

Earlier: "God bless you, Charlie Sykes."

Jake's on a roll

Milwaukee, Madison papers cop out, and other media BS

@JakeMillerWis

Everyone realized possibility of recall elections

Is what it says here.

Everyone except for the lawyers who drafted Wisconsin's redistricting.

Whoops. Maybe the people can look into backcharging Michael Best.

Damn straight that's what a "job creator" would do.

Of Michael Best's "horn book" Civil Procedure

Looky here:

Because the Wisconsin Supreme Court tied over the ethics complaint, Gableman couldn't argue to the board that he had won and the State should cover his fees, Michael Best & Friedrich's chief attorney Jonathan Margolies said in the letter.

Well. Isn't that something. I have been saying for years that Mike Gableman failed to win his ethics case, because the three-judge panel below the Supreme Court convened on Gableman's motion for summary judgment, and pursuant to his own motion, Gableman was unsuccessful. And it also happens to be a conclusion in which Justice N. Patrick Crooks, who has been a judge for more than three decades, concurs.

(I reckon Crooks, J. knows a thing or eleventeen about legal procedure.)

Therefore does the ethics complaint against Gableman remain pending.

Mr. Margolies might presumably know better than anybody, as it was one of his colleagues at Michael Best who participated in Gableman's defense.* This space's conclusion was based on an examination of the statutory framework governing the civil procedure with which the State deals with ethics allegations against judges. This space does not make substantive legal claims without having undertaken such examinations.

So it amuses me no end to recall that Richard Esenberg, a professor of the law at Marquette University, would criticize me by asserting that my view of the Gableman case's procedural posture was informed merely by "a reference to horn book Civil Procedure" which "does not cut it here."

A "horn book" is something like a Cliff's Notes that first-year law students use to prepare for exams. Esenberg is billed as a "prominent Milwaukee attorney" by Wisconsin Public Radio but his condescension on occasion most certainly does not comport with that description.

Now perhaps Esenberg can direct his scorn at MB&F's chief attorney.

I am always suspicious of Esenberg's claims, and you should be too. Yet Wisconsin Public Radio and other local media outlets continue to present him as a disinterested academic, whereas he's as partisan as they come.

Esenberg's former research assistant's claims are mighty lame as well.**

Feet of the master and all that, apparently. Laughable.

* At no charge, as it turns out. And a classy defense it was indeed.

** I trust that was the end of atrocious legal analysis from the faculty blog, since Prof. Esenberg is abdicated as one of the website's editors.

Reince Priebus thanks Charlie Sykes for all the lies

"God bless you, Charlie Sykes."

That would be the famous "trickster God" of theology, evidently.

Meet your GOP presidential frontrunner

Newt Gingrich Would Send U.S. Marshals To Arrest 'Activist' Judges*

Gingrich, during last week's Iowa Republican debate, called 9th Circuit Judge Alfred T. Goodwin "radically un-American." Judge Goodwin is a US Army veteran of World War II. Newt Gingrich is what's known as a chickenhawk. I would like to see Newt tell it to Judge Goodwin's face.

* Perhaps Gingrich has retained Jim Troupis.

MacGyver Institute "ignores critical facts"

We asked MacGyver spokesman Brian Fraley* if he had evidence beyond the video to back the group's claim. He said he did not.

What else is new.

* And Bradley Foundation "intellectual."

Journal-Sentinel editorial board is "appall[ed]"

So the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel editorial board is "appall[ed]" that Wisconsin Dems spox Graeme Zielinski would point out that the fake drumbeat of recall election fraud emanates loudest from the paper's sister broadcasting and cable teevee companies. But it's the truth.

Meanwhile the paper acts as surrogate for a WISGOP fronting, phony news outfit's sleazy rumors and innuendo, and it's "appall[ed]" at GZ?

Who are they trying to kid.

Where's their editorial on professional responsibility?

eta: Proving Zielinski's point, among the guests on Charlie Sykes's TMJ-4 clown show this morning is Media Trackers sleazemonger Brian Sikma.

You tell 'em, Lori Compas

Contra WISGOP's tediously bogus shouting point:

"It's an offense to all of us who are working so hard to be sure that our efforts reflect the will of the people. To say that we're accepting signatures from Mickey Mouse, it's absolutely not true."

Wisconsin Senate recall efforts on pace

A Brawler Quartet

Four from the Brawler:

Why can't GOP see signatures early? Ask the Schenks
The Bush administration looked for, didn't find voter fraud in Milwaukee
Rick Esenberg: Fraud paranoia for me, but not for thee
Was Wisconsin a welfare magnet?

More WTMJ Reward Scott Walker gewgaws

Bisphenol A-Free! Help Save the Planet!

To minimize unwanted tastes and scents, the inside [of the Journal Broadcasting WTMJ Charlie Sykes Reward Scott Walker Sigg Water Bottle] is lined with a water-based, non-toxic epoxy resin that is compliant with FDA anti-leaching requirements.

Because damned federal regulations are throttling our job creators.

lolz — Jokers is exactly right.

Zielinski touches a Journal Broadcasting nerve

Creating 250,000 jobs ... in Red Communist China

After Wisconsin Dems spokesman Graeme Zielinski went on AM 620 WTMJ yesterday and treated a pair of radio hosts to a blinding glimpse of the obvious — that the station is a continuous shill for conservative Republicans in power — its teevee corollary, Today's TMJ-4, ran this as its lead story. "It got ugly," sez the Journal Communications, Inc. subsidiary, because Zielinski referred to Scott Walker as a "joker." Journal Broadcast Group Vice President Steve Wexler "thought it was odd" that Graeme Zielinski "critique[d] our programming." Hahaha.

Is Steve Wexler a joker too? See that there pic?

Mr. Wexler is literally selling those on dry goods and gewgaws.*

They sure think we're stupid, don't they.

* Note the metric system, favored by socialist regimes worldwide. And, here's an interesting item on Hanesbrands, the manufacturers of WTMJ's CafePress.com Scott Walker swag, shipping American jobs off to China.

So, yeah, "jokers" is a pretty good fit. And a grotesque understatement.

eta 01: "Throw a blazer over later for country club mingling."

That would be your Charlie Sykes/Scott Walker public relations geniuses.

eta 02: [Most Excellent] Post by Jake.

Jeremiah Wright's Beethoven Scherzo Challenge

Some time ago erstwhile Barack Obama Chicago pastor Jeremiah Wright delivered this nonsensical sermon about European classical music, and in particular its alleged lack of rhythmic imagination. As it's Beethoven's 241st birthday, here is his Op. 18 No. 6 String Quartet in B-flat Major, Third Movement Scherzo. It's in 3/4 time so Jeremiah Wright's Challenge is to count along, clapping on the first beat of each measure. Try it.

Graeme Zielinski v. You guys

Go get 'em tiger.

Screw Journal Broadcast Group.

Both cases need to be laughed out of court

It is utterly unremarkable anymore that the state Republican Party has such disrespect for the law. As if we needed any more reasons to recall them.

I concur.

Gableman has easy defense to latest imbroglio

Michael Gableman received free legal service worth [tens of] thousands of dollars from one of Wisconsin's largest law firms [Michael Best & Friedrich] as it defended him against an ethics charge. The state's ethics code says state officials cannot receive anything of value for free because of their position.

As Mike Gableman received that something of value not — strictly speaking — because of his position but because of acting inconsistent with his position he should be free and clear. Good to go. Covered in glory. This firm has some pretty sweet deals with the WISGOP alright.

Gableman is tasked with supervising the ethics of the State's attorneys.

Of course I repeat myself but that is the darkest joke in all Wisconsin.

Gableman ran an ad ... [that] did not mention that Butler was unsuccessful in getting the offender out of prison early ...

Except Butler's objective was not whatsoever to get the offender out of prison early but rather his objective was to have evidence excluded because the black letter law commanded its exclusion and to not have sought its exclusion would have been an ethics violation on Butler's part.

Contra Gableman, Louis Butler is a professional, and a gentleman.

That Gableman purportedly understood all this contributed to his lie. The justices who voted against Gableman's position certainly understood it.

Bloody Hell

In Memoriam: Christopher Hitchens.

Amazing fellow, marvelous writer.

DWD: Trust us, we have no idea what we're doing

Scott Walker's Department of Workforce Development claims it's got the most accurate jobs reports, but then immediately admits:

[O]ur state needs an accurate jobs reporting system that allows us to understand the trends without unnecessarily alarming the state’s job seekers and job creators.

So lemme get this straight. If you need an accurate jobs reporting system, then that means you don't have an accurate jobs reporting system, yet we're supposed to rely on the accuracy of your jobs reports that are somehow conjured without an accurate jobs reporting system.

Sounds like they've taken to baffling themselves with their own bullshit.

Them's the only ones left to baffle, once everybody else has caught on.

Not even the Walker-endorsing Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel is buying it:

Wisconsin lost private-sector jobs for the fifth consecutive month in November, the same months that the nation has been adding private-sector jobs, according to a report Thursday from the state Department of Workforce Development.

Nor, however, does the MJS mention the DWD's remarkable admission.

That tidbit should be the lead paragraph, accompanied by the fact that the mighty Scott Walker administration has had nearly a year to put together an accurate jobs reporting system and it still doesn't have one.

If this failure occurred in the private sector, heads would surely roll.

The Assembly Committee on Judiciary and Ethics

The Wisconsin Assembly Committee on Judiciary and Ethics is holding a public hearing this morning at 10:30. Among the agenda items is a proposal to make Chief Justice an elected position (currently it's awarded by seniority).* As there are four conservative Republicans on the Supreme Court, which is composed of seven justices, it's obvious what the resolution's sponsors are up to. For some reason Republicans harbor an intense dislike for the present Chief Justice, Shirley Abrahamson, and would like to see her replaced.** Ironically, three of those four Republicans have had their problems pursuant to the conjunction of "judiciary" and "ethics." Justice Annette Ziegler was publicly reprimanded for violating ethics guidelines. Justice David Prosser is now the subject of a Wisconsin Judicial Commission investigation concerning allegations he was involved in a physical altercation with one of his colleagues. And then of course there is Mike Gableman, the poster boy for Wisconsin's code of judicial ethics, which Gableman believes unconstitutionally abridges his First Amendment right to defamation.

Here's hoping someone raises these issues at today's hearing.

The resolution's partisan sponsors are pretty much asking for it.

* Among the resolution's sponsors is Senator Leah Vukmir, who called Justice Sonia Sotomayor and former Justice David Souter "dim bulbs."

Most lawyers can only aspire to be so dim. Funny thing is, Justice Souter wrote a watershed opinion*** a few years ago, which Vukmir has most likely never even heard of, raising the bar for prospective civil plaintiffs. In other words, it acts as a heightened guarantee against the "frivolous suits" that Leah Vukmir et al are otherwise so fond of bellyaching over.

So you tell me who's the dim bulb in this array. It ain't David Souter.

** Probably because she's brilliant, and this necessarily offends them.

*** I understand citations to it broak teh Lexis-Nexis, as the kids say.

Ann Althouse: Recalls are all about MEEEEEEE!

"I am especially concerned about the appropriation of names of people (like me) who did not sign." — Ann Althouse, law professor

Then go apply for one of the temporary jobs with the GAB. The Board is only concerned about "concealed zealots," not openly ridiculous zealots.

Where was all this handwringing about verifying petition signatures when the Republicans were trying to recall Democratic Senators last summer?*

Nowhere to be found, obviously.

* Republican efforts failed on each and every account. Meanwhile Democrats successfully replaced two Republicans in the State Senate, yet it was the latter that was widely characterized as the failure. Seriously.

Ellen Berz for Dane County Circuit Judge

No brainer.

Republicans love to politicize judicial elections* and when April rolls around, being a "Walker appointee" will not be the most enviable thing in the world. As for Mr. Remington, do you think being an assistant attorney general will be a premise for heaping scorn, as it was for Mike Gableman and Charlie Sykes when they criticized JoAnne Kloppenburg?

Me neither.

* "Non-partisan," by law. That's a laugh.

Why can't Scott Walker tell the truth?

It can't be all that difficult, can it?

Eagle Scout, preacher's son, yadda yadda yadda. Biotch please.

Part June Cleaver, part meat cleaver

Wisconsin protester Joanne Staudacher — TIME's Person of the Year

Speaking of your Bradley Foundation intellectuals

Who could forget this all-times classic:

Although the authors of the WPRI Report argue that "[m]ost of the empirical research done on retail gasoline markets suggests that the primary problem in the market is not predatory pricing, but rather a propensity towards price collusion," there is no evidence in the WPRI Report of any actual collusion in the Wisconsin motor vehicle fuel market. — Seventh Circuit Ct. App.

Price collusion = voter fraud.

Meet your Bradley Foundation intellectuals

The thing about voter fraud is it's just like rape. It happens more than you hear it does because not every victim comes forward to report it.

And that is why Republicans can't report any voter fraud. The end.

Scott Walker not concerned about investigation

Arrested realtor moved 130,000 square feet for WISGOP law firm

[Wisconsin Governor Scott] Walker has maintained that he is not concerned about the investigation because he has followed the high standards given to him by his parents.

What a hoot.

And a hell of a thing to do to your brand new communications director.

Who killed Bambi?

Walker appointee Wisconsin DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp is who.

Fulfilling? Whatever turns you on I guess.

Edward Tudor-Pole — Who Killed Bambi?

h/t James Rowen.

Ron Johnson, Wisconsin's minimum wage Senator

"Bottom line, when you're a good worker, you don't stay minimum wage for long." — Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson

Bottom line, Ron Johnson does stay minimum wage Senator.

Ruthelle Frank v. Scott Walker

Nice law you got there, WISGOP.

Plaintiff Ruthelle Frank is an 84-year-old Caucasian resident of Brokaw, Wisconsin, where she has served on the Village Board since 1996, and an eligible voter registered to vote in Wisconsin. She has no accepted form of photo ID under the photo ID law and lacks a certified copy of her birth certificate, which she needs to prove citizenship to the Wisconsin [Dept. of Motor Vehicles]. Ms. Frank was born at her home in Brokaw in 1927. Though she has never possessed a birth certificate, upon information and belief, the state Register of Deeds has a record of her birth and could produce a certified copy of her birth certificate at a charge. However, that record bears an incorrect spelling of her maiden name: Wedepohl. The process to amend a birth certificate is lengthy and costly, with some reports suggesting it might require $200 or more. She has voted in every election since 1948 and intends to vote in Wisconsin again next year.

And sixteen others, versus Scott Walker.

Yes, let's make your First Amendment right burdensome and costly.

And why? Because of Jim Ott and those similarly situated's phantasies.

Meet your Scott Walker disciples

Fred Frisby of — where else — Brookfield, Waukesha County.

"Mooching," eh? Sounds familiar.

Make minimum wage? You're not a good worker.

"Bottom line, when you're a good worker, you don't stay minimum wage for long." — Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson

Easy for him to say, he married into millions. He's also an enormous hypocrite and thinks the Constitution's Executive Power belongs to him.

And for this jackanapes we replaced Russ Feingold. Pure insanity.

Ron Johnson Communist China Economic Certainty Travel Mug

Charlie Sykes, risible suburban hypocrite

Medium wave spokesmodel Charlie Sykes provides an excerpt from his latest mendacious anthology of wing-nut wisdom, A Nation of Moochers.

How about Charlie Sykes and his corporate paymasters commandeering the public airwaves to shill and literally sell merchandise connecting conservative Republican Governor Scott Walker with the publicly-owned frequency? Somehow the most substantial mooching goes unmentioned.

Come on. How can anyone possibly take this character seriously.

Top conservative blargher writes real good

Right-wing blogger and CNN contributor Erick Erickson:

The Tea Party has lined up strongly in favor of Senator Ron Johnson in against Establishment- favorite Roy Blunt for in the race Vice Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference.

That's the first sentence (I didn't read the rest — are you kidding).

Brutal.

h/t WisOpinion.

Scott Walker gives gift of inadvertent comedy

Early Xmas for left-liberal Quesosphere

He's hired an old Sharron Angle hand to be his new PR flack

And she looks pretty crazed too.

KOCH: What's his name again?

WALKER: His name is Tim Cullen.

Here's a little background ...

Nobody knows what the hell McIlheran does

For his ninety-three thousand federal dollars per annum

Another setback for the WISGOP contingent

The latest on Wisconsin's ongoing electoral redistricting debacle.

Reporter Patrick Marley's been all over this thing like a cheap suit.*

* Or a cheap petition, as it were.

On teh web: Federal court reminds WISGOP who's in charge