Now that sounds like a really marvelous plan

Local control

Waukesha County clerk Kathy Nickolaus "does all the teaching of municipal clerks on how to run elections."

Described by colleagues as headstrong.

"This is not the Wisconsin I know."

Judge Maryann Sumi, a former assistant attorney general chosen to serve on the bench by [Republican] Gov. Tommy Thompson in 1998, has justified his faith in her many times over. She is a person of impeccable integrity, wisdom, and warmth, and I am proud to have her as a colleague. . . .

I don't know what Judge Sumi's ultimate decision will be ...
But I do know one thing. She will be thoughtful, careful, independent, thorough and timely. She is the quintessential neutral magistrate. She is fulfilling her oath of office to the letter. Her professional work has been superb. It has been particularly unfair and irresponsible to direct personal criticism at her and her family, as some have done.

Read the whole thing.

The right-wing will either dismiss or ignore it, as is their wont.

La Crosse, WI to Show Newt the Cheese

Gingrich La Crosse, WI vicinity appearance Wednesday

Newt Gingrich called for Americans to "help" Scott Walker in February, describing the Madison protests as "a campaign of intimidation and cowardice."

Take that, #WIunion. Aux armes et au fromage!

David Byrne is 59

Couple tracks from the essential Rei Momo:
Independence Day (Cumbia)
Make Believe Mambo (Orisa)

I won't make you jealous by mentioning I saw that tour (c/w with 15-piece Brazilian orchestra) from front-row center at Massey Hall.

Before that there was this:
Mind
Found A Job

DB made some great records.

What did Herb Kohl ever do to Patrick McIlheran?

Probably nothing. [eta: See below*]

You've stooped to new levels, dude. Taking shots at the guy walking out the door ... I expect this from McIlheran, but I'm surprised by the J-S edit board for allowing this to happen.

I'm not. Funny, the premise to Patrick McIlheran's cheap and bitter sarcasm is his assumption that Sen. Kohl did nothing, period. Which is why Herb Kohl couldn't have done anything to Patrick McIlheran.

According to Patrick McIlheran's own reasoning (such as it is).

Even F. James Sensenbrenner, Scott Walker, and Ron Johnson honored Sen. Kohl for his long service to the State of Wisconsin.

You know you're hurting bad when you've got less class than them.

* Aaand, this comment was deleted by the MJS by Sunday morning. There was nothing particularly offensive about it, except it began, "Just when I thought McIlheran couldn't possibly be a bigger dick ... "

Why don't the editors delete Patrick McIlheran's posts, if they're that concerned about causing offense? After all, McIlheran is the dick.

Mike Huebsch's original damages estimate

Finally tracked this back down, which I'd seen ages ago but had forgotten where it was: It's right here. Big ups to @matt_t1.

Condition assessment, recommendations, and cost estimate for work: $500,000.00
Restoration Work
$6,000,000.00 INTERIOR*
$1,000,000.00 EXTERIOR
* Does NOT include any carpet replacement.

Latest bid came in at $112K, so first bid probably didn't get the job.

And apparently NO carpet required replacement.

Meanwhile the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel threw up another Capitol damages story late Friday night, which is much harder to find right now than the initial screaming "Capitol security costs pass $7.8 million" top-of-the-index-page headline was. Reports the MJS:

The recent huge protests at the Capitol did an estimated $270,000 in wear and tear to the building — less than 4% of an early damage estimate given by Gov. Scott Walker's administration.

Well, no, because the $269,550* includes $108,500 for "exterior repair," $3,100 for "ongoing repairs," $30,500 for "custodial services," $1,900 for "photography," and $13,800 for the "assessment," leaving $111,750 in "wear and tear to the building."

So it's actually 0.018625% of the early damage estimate.

Apples to apples, people. Shrubs are neither part of the building nor the building's interior, unless you count GOP Sen. Glenn Grothman.

But constructors had him condemned and sold off for scrap years ago.

* Some of the interior damage is actually attributed to people in wheelchairs, if you can believe that. No winning "optics" in there.

Justice Prosser leads recount by 7,000 dollars

Freud slipped here, notes @Shripe.

Today's TMJ-4 is Journal Communications, Inc.'s MKE teevee station.

Huebsch nicked and chipped his own limestone

Further to this here and this here.

Don't miss this photo, courtesy of that ever-enlightening friend of the blog, gnarlytrombone. Ya see that strip of yellow tape on the side of the teevee monitor? It reads: "Property of DOA, Capitol." DOA stands for Department of Administration, which Mike Huebsch is in charge of. And there is non-approved tape all over the bleedin' place.

So Mike Huebsch, remit yer invoice to Mike Huebsch.

WI Republicans on true meaning of Christmas

That would be fart jokes.

Capitol damage vs. Big Fitz's legal fees

Wisconsin.

Scott Walker and Mike Huebsch wrote you a letter today:

Repair work to the stone in the Capitol is expected to cost approximately $111,750.

This is your number, right there, 112 grand, to restore ALL of the interior damage to the Capitol building, some of which may have existed previously, as I read the underlying report, which can't say for sure. But never mind that. Additionally, they say, $49,300 as follows:

Ongoing repairs* $3,100
Add'l custodial services* $30,500
Pro photography $1,900 (Nice gig.)
Prepare estimate $13,800

So, okay. For one thing, the cost of preparing the estimate (granted, the estimate also looked at external facilities but the interior has always been the focus of the so-called "Capitol Chaos" whereupon the hippies and thugs ran rampant) was 12% of the total cost of the interior repairs. Nobody disputes the building's interior magnificence or its preciousness to the people of Wisconsin (and elsewhere).

However, 112 grand is your bottom line number. Chump change. By comparison, Scott Fitzgerald paid three lawyers twenty-seven thousand dollars** to tell him he could have a seven-months-pregnant woman "carried ... feet first" into the Senate chamber, something Fitz apparently had no intention of doing, as he himself characterized the $27K worth of Republican-for-hire legal advice, "comical."

In other words, Senate majority leader Fitzgerald personally spent a full 24% of what it will cost to repair the entire interior of the Capitol building for what was — and always was, as devoted followers of this space would know — essentially a load of complete bollocks.

Wherefore my question reduces to this: Why does the Journal Communications, Inc. organ Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel pump this story so absurdly disproportionately harder than it pumped — or probably will ever pump — the $350-per-hour lawyers story?

Same reason JRN's flagship teevee station is still rolling the "Capitol Chaos" character generator over its reports, presumably. And the reason its marquee radio performer is continually shoutraging.

But it's a serious question. Somebody's missing the point here.

By the way, Huebsch is asking the Wisconsin Supreme Court to declare the Wisconsin Open Meetings Law unconstitutional.

Is that not a story too? Seems to me it might be, especially since Huebsch himself was found by a different court to have violated the State constitution by barring the people of Wisconsin from the Capitol, the Capitol he's now complaining needs $112K in touch-ups.

The pattern is not emerging, it's beating you about the head.

* Repairs of what, or repairs to damage caused by whom, they don't say. Nor how the cost of "custodial services" applies to the repairs.

** Anybody cipher out the difference between a $290-per-hour lawyer and a $295-per-hour lawyer yet? That's a real heck of a stumper.

eta: See also Huebsch nicked and chipped his own limestone

Shorter Capitol damage report

Link to it (.pdf; 6 pgs.):

The primary damage ... appears to be limited to nicks and chips at the corners of Kasota Stone piers on the ground and first floors. ... These sharp corners of soft stone are vulnerable to damage from items such as handbags ... Carts and wheelchairs also contribute to these chips. ...

Then immediately following:

Essentially the building experienced 3-5 years of wear within a two week period of late February and early March, 2011.

Rest assured Journal Communications, Inc.'s marquee personalities will seize on the latter claim.* But there's no support for it throughout the rest of the report and in fact the report's own admission that "primary damage appears limited to nicks and chips on the ground and first floors" completely belies its "3-5 years of wear" claim.

How many years of wear, for example, did the building's roof endure?

And let's hope folks remember why the building was filled to capacity.

* As do, predictably, Scott Walker and Mike Huebsch (.pdf; 2 pgs.).

Messrs. Walker and Huebsch add, for no particular reason:

For instance, during the demonstrations, the building's HVAC system ran nearly non-stop, a volume [sic**] it was not designed for, shortening its useful life.

I worked in construction for 15 years and never once heard of an HVAC system that wasn't designed to run for two weeks. The tin whackers and millwrights I knew must be howling with laughter.

When is the WISGOP going to tire of insulting our intelligence?

** An HVAC system's capacity by volume, obviously, has nothing to do with how long the system is running. Who elected these people?

I bet it wasn't engineers.

Scott Walker for Governor ... still!

#Fitzwalkerstan
WISGOP CC bill woefully inadequate ... undermines public safety

The Journal Communications, Inc. organ endorsed Scott Walker for governor and since January has been complaining about pretty near everything he's done. As if any of Walker's antics are a surprise.

Also, yesterday the MJS decided that the Supreme Court decount was "probably not worth it." Could have told them that five weeks ago.

Wisconsin: Public service announcement

This afternoon at five o'clock, CST:

The New Organizing Institute is proud to present: "Organizing the Occupation of the Capitol: The Role of Social Media," a panel discussion of the social media organizing strategies utilized in the Wisconsin Budget protests.

On Thursday, May 12th at 5pm, Wisconsin State Senator Chris Larson along with several key social media organizers will share their firsthand accounts of the #WIunion movement.

Your panelists:
Chris Larson
Melissa Ryan
Emily Mills
Chris Liebenthal
Maxwell Love

Where: UW Madison Union South is located at 1308 Dayton Street.

Union South ... in the "Industry Room." See, they can get along.

Or else: Link here to the live stream of this great event.

Your humble narrator is thereby retained to keep 'em all in line.

In case you needed another reason to boycott M&I

Item: Unions threaten boycott of M&I over support for Walker

M&I Wealth Management is proud to sponsor Charlie Sykes, a wealth of information on demand when you need it most.

— Actual podcast intro at Journal Communications, Inc. website.

Missouri conservatives openly defy Jesus Christ

Stand by for bolt of lightning:

A proposed constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to privately pray in public places, including schools, unanimously cleared the Missouri Senate on Tuesday and will appear on the ballot in November 2012.

But see:

But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

How come only atheists read the Bible.

Walker: nvr 2 broak 2 suppress teh librul vote!

@news3jessica tallies up the costs of voter photo ID.

"We are broke." — Scott Walker

Also: 30M would lose health coverage under Ryan plan

Forward! to Libertopia.

You thought those Wisconsinites were saying "Aina"?

Nope: "Ayn-a."

Wis. S. Ct.: Huebsch v. Cir. Ct. for Dane Co.

Not sure how I missed this:

05/04/11 — ORDERED that the respondent, Circuit Court for Dane County [a.k.a. Judge Maryann Sumi], et al, shall each file a response to the petition for supervisory writ and for immediate temporary relief, with a supplementary memorandum, on the issue of whether this court should accept jurisdiction over the writ and on the merits of the substantive issues[*] raised in the writ, on or before 5/18/2011.

Then oral argument on June 6. Looks like Charlie Sykes & Friends' Kloppenburg/union thugz conspiracy theory was/is real valid huh.

So the Supreme Court hasn't taken jurisdiction of the case yet, but it wants to hear why it should. Noteworthy too because both Justices Prosser and Gableman held last August that the Supreme Court could issue injunctions against parties to a case even before the court had decided to take jurisdiction of the case, but the Supreme Court is not exercising that recently discovered constitutional authority in the present instance. Something told me that that August opinion was kind of an important thing that nobody else seems to have noticed.

Quite the development though. Was this in the paper?**

* a.k.a. Fitz Van Walker's big dilemmas.

** Evidently it was. The hell wasn't this above the fold? Yr hmbl corresp. apologizes for leaving wscca.wicourts alone for a few days.

This is a huge case in constitutional law.

eta: Judge Sumi is in more than capable hands.

MJS blames Obama for their boy's rail #fail

Governor-elect Walker and his team have told the company they want the train jobs to stay even if there is no train.

Journal Communications, Inc., which endorsed Scott Walker for governor of Wisconsin, is upset because the federal government passed over the State for grants to upgrade the Amtrak line between Milwaukee and Chicago. Walker, it may be recalled,* turned down $800M worth of new construction for a rail link from Milwaukee to Madison. His sharp negotiation skillz apparently led him to believe he could still have the Amtrak upgrade money, but it was not to be.

The money went to the feds' "strongest partners," the "reliable people." And those ain't among the Fitz Van Walker administration.

The JRN mandarins knew Scott Walker was spurning the MKE-MAD money when they blessed his candidacy. Why did it not further know that Scott Walker is about the worst negotiator in Christendom?

Walker is out of feet to shoot himself in. When will JRN admit it?

Face the facts. Walker blew it.

* Indeed, Walker will be eligible to be recalled from office in January.

Jim Holperin draws a ringer

To wit (and I use the term advisedly):

The scary comparisons of the indoctrination tactics of our youth today and those of the Hitler Regime of past.

The author is challenging incumbent Democratic State Senator Jim Holperin in this summer's recall elections. Should be hugely entertaining, as Simac is slightly to the right of Rousas Rushdoony.

Interlude: Youth Of Today — Musical Youth

We under heavy heavy manners yeah.

Brookfield's bursting bags-o-ballots bingo

She thinks we are all idiots. — MJS reader comment

Here they are, the famous votes of City of Brookfield, Waukesha County, Wisconsin, those 14,000 or so not included in the running Associated Press totals posted on election night, Tuesday, April 5.*

The results were four votes off compared to the final canvass, which included a total of 14,315 votes. Official canvass for Brookfield: Prosser, 10,859; Kloppenburg, 3,456. Numbers from the recount: Prosser, 10,862; Kloppenburg, 3,457.

These are the votes that Kloppenburg tried to prevent from being counted (which is puzzling as how else are you going to check the canvassed figures, or check the canvassed figures against the figures reported to the Associated Press to make sure if everybody's story squares up). Because it's a decount, obviously, and the only way Kloppenburg can hope to make up anywhere near 7,000 votes is to keep Prosser's votes from being counted, because there's not going to be any extra Kloppenburg votes. Not enough people voted for her.

So you have to decount and not recount, the inglorious approach.

The Kloppenburg objections, it has been reported, arose when it was discovered that so many Brookfieldians voted for Prosser, sacks stuffed with ballots were literally bursting at the seams. Brad Blog composed a 9K-word theorem and a D-Kos diarist had to be sedated.

Nevertheless the ballots were adjudged fit to be re- and not de-counted, and four additional ones were discovered among the 14,000-plus. Statistically notable is that 75% of them were Prosser's, which matches his score throughout the county: 74%. Not an exact match but close enough for government work, as the apt saying goes.

That is, a tiny sample but remarkably accurate, it turns out.

Lord only knows where the darkest of suspicions fomented or, more to the point, where those darkest suspicions persisted unabated by the considerably more parsimonious explanation of gross ineptitude on the part of the top ranking Waukesha County elections official.

When a tearful Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus appeared on a local Journal Communications, Inc. teevee outlet, we believed her d-Based tale of "human error" not out of heartfelt empathy but because she'd pulled likewise egregious stunts so many times before.

And when Kloppenburg's campaign manager Melissa Mulliken filed a complaint with the Government Accountability Board alleging — with nary a scintilla of evidence — a late night meeting between Justice Prosser and Governor Scott Walker and conspiracies involving "conservative bloggers," the jig was up, and only the most credulous of the foil-hatted imagined voting fraud instead of voting farce.

So next time eschew the Roundy's ballot bags for the brand name.**

* The individual City of Brookfield tally was reported by a different WaukCo. election official to a different, local internets reporter, so the bags-o-ballots always existed, and always had been cast. They weren't stuffed into or out of the bags days after the April 5 fact.

** Roundy's aluminum foil remains on the approved vendors list, and works as well as any other to repel the brain-controlling mindwaves.

Kloppenburg decount updates

With 60 of Wisconsin's 72 counties complete and reported, Supreme Court challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg has picked up a net 258 votes: 443 compared to incumbent Justice David Prosser's 185-ballot gain.

Prosser clings to his 7,000-plus vote lead. Decounting in eleven of the remaining 12 counties is reportedly complete but not yet stamped with the State Government Accountability Board's seal of approval.

Waukesha County, where slapdash methods of tabulating inspired the Statewide decount in the first place, has a ways to go, and has requested a two-week extension to tomorrow's 5 p.m. deadline.

Most accurate county: Vernon, with zero net change among 7,909 Supreme Court ballots cast. Least accurate county: Waupaca, with 92 votes net change among 12,233 Supreme Court ballots cast.

Dear Lord, make it end, before Brad Blog is abducted by space aliens.

They're only incompetent* in WaukCo. They're not criminals.

* Allegedly.

Associated Press Wisconsin highlights

Via the SF Chronicle:

Wis. Governor Scott Walker and GOP leaders have launched a push to ram several years' worth of conservative agenda items through the Legislature this spring before recall elections threaten to end the party's control of State government.

Six of eight incumbent Republican Senators face recall elections tentatively set for July. Winning three would give Dems the Senate.

That likelihood is strong.

Republicans plan to legalize concealed weapons, deregulate the telephone industry, require voters to show photo ID, expand school vouchers and undo an early release for prisoners.

The latter initiative probably won't encounter much public resistance, even though there are substantial cost savings to placing low-risk defendants in community monitoring programs as opposed to prisons. Which goes to show that the Fitz Van Walker administration isn't really as committed to fiscal discipline as it claims to be.

The GOP may also act again on its controversial plan stripping public employee unions of their collective bargaining rights. An earlier version, which led to massive demonstrations at the Capitol, has been left in limbo by legal challenges.

Note the "may." Personally I think the thing is dead in the water, unless the Supreme Court decides to declare Wisconsin's Open Meetings Law unconstitutional, which would be a real hoot.

Obviously the Fitzwalkerstanians don't have the votes, otherwise they would have properly noticed and passed it months ago. If they try again, we're entering nicer protest weather than it was in February.

eta: Much more from Publius No. 9.

Shorter Oxford English Dicktionary

La Valle man added to cloistered nuns' prayer requests

I have several dictionaries and the only one where "jew" is marked as a verb is the OED (and where, obviously, the said usage is labeled "offensive"). Unless Mr. Hartje meant the Urban Dictionary.

Switching course, Kloppenburg demands a decount

This is from a couple of days ago (it's been painful to watch):

Hotz objected to the counting of those ballots* . . . Mulliken said Kloppenburg remains confident in her decision to request the recount in order to make sure all votes are counted . . .

"Recount" being a bit of a situational misnomer, apparently. Either that or enter "remand a decount" into the anthology of Spoonerisms.

* Bags and bags of 'em from, where else, Waukesha County. With 71 of Wisconsin's 72 counties expected to be complete by Monday's deadline, Justice Prosser is clinging to his 7000-plus vote lead (which just happens to reside in those particular bags and bags of ballots).

WaukCo's next goat rodeo is in July and will feature Ted Nugent.

Waltz Across Texas

Waltz Across Texas

The game is seven card stud, with Scott Walker

Deal me the hell in:
WI Gov. Scott Walker rescinds layoff notices for assistant DAs

Nice try, Bluffy McBlufferson. And this get-it-out-on-Friday-afternoon crap doesn't cut it anymore.* Everyone's paying attention all the time.

Of course Walker's "communications directors" never were much use.

* But see:

not many pro-Walker [reader comments] on the article — I guess that's what happens when an article goes online late Friday afternoon and all of Walker's political appointees have left their cushy public sector jobs for the weekend.

— mustudent10 (and a smart one).

Charlie Sykes disingenuous Tweet of the Day

It's Friday night so I can say this: the GOP has a crackpot problem...

Which Charlie Sykes's mission in life is to feed and encourage.

Charlie Sykes is another fine product of Journal Communications, Inc.

Why do we call them wing-nuts?

Because this.

That's not "derangement syndrome," that's full-blown psychosis.

Fox News Network's token fired-by-NPR guy

At last night's Republican presidential candidate debate on Fox News, ex-NPR personality Juan Williams asked the array of hopefuls a Wisconsin-related question, which presumed that Gov. Scott Walker had stripped State employees of their collective bargaining rights.

Except no, Scott Walker hasn't. He's trying to, but his Department of Justice lawyers have all but forfeited the case, and a Dane County circuit judge imposed an injunction barring implementation of the governor's so-called "budget repair" bill. While one expects non-factual answers from Republican candidates, one doesn't expect non-factual questions from journalists. Unless it's Fox News.

And Juan Williams. Next time get a real reporter, like Steve Doocy.

Pro Tip: Canvas is a fabric

You see this a lot, e.g., here at the Madison Capital Times:

The canvas board chose to discard the ballots. . . . The canvas board should reconsider this ...

It's canvass. Canvas is what you paint on and make tents out of.

Fitzwalkerstan: Open for crime

Wis. DoA about to engage in blatant contract violation

"I think it's a dishonorable way of treating dedicated public servants." — Milwaukee County DA John T. Chisholm

Well we're talking Scott Walker here. It's what he does.

Sykes: World's biggest bawl of whine & cheese

Check out this grown man crying like a baby (don't worry, it's only about a minute long). Pure conspiracy nonsense as well. I know five-year-olds who comport themselves with greater decorum.

And people actually listen to this for hours on end?* Truly amazing.

* I mean, non-ironically.

Wis. voters required to show photo of Jeff Stone

Good friend of the blog Emily Mills on the WISGOP's voter ID bill.

Everybody knows the Republicans' bill is most likely to discourage from voting those classes of persons who are most likely to vote Democrat. Even Wisconsin's Louie Gohmert, Senator Glenn Grothman of Washington County, copped to this empirical fact yesterday.

Personally, I didn't watch any of the hearings, but my most reliable sources tell me the bill's sponsors, Republicans Jeff Stone and Don Pridemore, were utterly clueless in the face of questioning and were reduced to offering up personal anecdotes from their college days.

Indiana passed a similar bill, which was challenged and went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which decided in favor of the constitutionality of the photo ID requirement in the case of Crawford v. Marion County Election Bd., which lead opinion has the added Republican bonus of having been authored by the liberal avatar Justice John Paul Stevens.

Now I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, but I reckon any and all concerns leveled at Messrs. Stone and Pridemore are addressed in that set of opinions, and even more so among the numerous Friends of the Court briefs filed on behalf of the photo ID bill's supporters, all of which documents are freely available on the internets these days.*

Reportedly Jeff 'Get me the least expensive black guy' Stone mentioned the case, but it was quickly made apparent he hadn't even gotten past the syllabus: Preparation with an H for hilarious.

These are your lawmakers, Wisconsin.

* I mean, you don't even have to hump it down to the law library and reconnoiter the latest-fangled digital reader of microfiches.

Tweet of the Month

For those complaining that the SEALs fired before being fired upon. THAT"S WHAT THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO DO IDIOTS.

Via @dmataconis.

Kloppenburg winning the optics

Sympathetic as kicking a puppy
Gets 18 ballots of cloistered Cistercian nuns disqualified.

Lookin' good. Is it time for our side to disown her yet?

Even the MKE Journal-Sentinel sat up and took notice:

The State Supreme Court recount has come to this ...

That's a news lead (i.e., the last place you'd expect editorializing).

Hence: "Optics."

Alternate headline: Prosser sweeps the illegal nun vote

By the way, among all the many speakers at last weekend's Democratic Party of Wisconsin Founder's Day dinner, not a one of them mentioned the Supreme Court election. I wonder why.

Probably because it's just an unwelcome distraction at this point.

Obama ruins everything

'We should've just let Osama live in his stupid house.' — A. Pareene

Notice the wing-nuts don't call it "derangement syndrome" anymore, even though it's more appropriate than it ever was with G.W. Bush.

Prosser assails Kloppenburg's statutory rights

Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser has set up a classy website here, to criticize the challenger to his seat, JoAnne Kloppenburg, for exercising her statutory right to a Statewide recount of April 5's Supreme Court ballots. Yes, you read that correctly.

Justice Prosser terms Kloppenburg exercising that right a "disaster."

So are they justices or politicians? More the latter, don't you think?

(Neither of them are very good politicians, if you ask me.)

Ken Cuccinelli goes to Hell

For weird sects

How much would I give to be one of the 72 Virginans [sic] Osama is 'hanging out' with since Sunday?

@KenCuccinelli, Virginia's health-care-fightin' attorney general.

I give up. How much?*

* Maybe somebody would pay his way. They take Confederate dollars.

MJS buries the lead

Headline: GOP wins 2 of 3 Assembly elections. Further down: "Democrats [won] a seat held by Republicans for 16 years." And the latter seat belonged to Mike Huebsch, who is these days trying to have Wisconsin's Open Meetings Law declared unconstitutional and whose own flagrant actions in barring the public from the State Capitol were themselves found unconstitutional by a circuit court.

Kind of important points, and which go unmentioned. But then, the MJS editorial board did endorse Scott K. Walker for governor.

Your librul media (a.k.a. Journal Communications, Inc., home of Patrick McIlheran, Charlie Sykes, Michael Savage, and Cal Thomas).

The MJS has a new comments policy in place, incidentally, which requires logging in via Facebook. This may discourage the racist, right-wing trolls from commenting at the MJS — which is the MJS's goal — but will likely encourage them to chase other users over to Facebook to learn their personal information. It's how they roll.

MJS home to "worst" political pundit

No, not Patrick McIlheran. Syndicated goof Cal Thomas.

But having them both is a special coup.

Justice Prosser back doing what he loves

"The judge is back at work doing what he loves to do," Brian 'Too much Waukesha County in him' Nemoir said of Prosser.

But still not loving to accept Wis. Admin. Sec. Mike Huebsch's veiled request to declare the State's Open Meetings Law unconstitutional.

Meanwhile Republican State Senate majority leader Scott Fitzgerald is dreaming in technicolor:

Andrew Welhouse, a spokesman for Fitzgerald, said Thursday that the "preferred avenue" for implementing the collective bargaining bill is still the State courts.

Fat chance.

The lawmakers gave less than two hours notice before commencing the 6 p.m. hearing.

I think that's the first time I've seen that reported as fact.

Kudos, Jessica Van Egeren.

$27K "carried ... feet first" out of public coffers

Get a load of this:

[Republican-for-hire attorney James] Troupis was paid $375 an hour, and other attorneys with his firm were paid[*] either $290 or $295 an hour. The total bill came to $26,955.

That was a real bargain wasn't it.

Even Scott Fitzgerald called James Troupis's legal advice "comical."

"We're broke." — WI Gov. Scott Walker

* Billed out as, more accurately. I wonder what the difference is between a $290 an hour attorney and a $295 an hour attorney.

Maybe $295 gets you the Hamline-tutored lawyer.

Obama produces death certificate

Fulfills promise made Oct. 7, 2008

We don't often rejoice at the death of persons, but we make an exception for this phony religious murderer and torturer of innocent children and women. Whomever scored the head shot deserves a Congressional Medal of Honor. Osama bin Laden made war on the U.S. and got his corpse fired into the sea to rot and be devoured.

Sometimes vengeance is appropriate, and sweet.

Charles Franklin forgets Ron Johnson already

"You don't beat somebody with nobody," Franklin says.

Axiom fail.

Trump / RoJo 2012

For this you traded Russ Feingold

"Obviously, someone has given serious consideration to (me being a potential running mate), but I'm focusing on my role in the Senate," said Ron 'Sunspots' Johnson of Oshkosh, WI.

Because they're serious people with serious ideas. Meanwhile today's Republican Party is busy vilifying its most viable 2012 presidential candidate for trying to assist the young, the ill, and the elderly while today's GOP's most viable 2012 candidate is doing his best to deny it.

h/t @tiffanybrault.

Kloppenburg lawyers up

Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate JoAnne Kloppenburg, who called for a Statewide recount of 1.5M ballots based on a notorious mishap in reporting votes to the AP in Waukesha County and who moreover requested of the Government Accountability Board an independent investigation into Waukesha County, sends an attorney to monitor the recount in Waukesha County — but three days into the process.

Would it be fair to say that is not beneficial to the "optics"?

Making me look like Nostradamus over here. Worse still, giving to Justice Prosser's "recount manager" Brian J. Nemoir* the upper hand.

Again.

* Of Waukesha County and as a matter of fact: "Too much Waukesha County," as Justice Prosser himself slyly put it in a March interview.

(WTMJ-4's report calls him "Brian J. Niemer.")

Ambitious Walker advances to violating federal law

Violating Wisconsin constitution unsatisfying

Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. — Jesus

Gov. Scott Walker's proposal to privatize work determining who is eligible for food assistance in the state would violate federal law and could expose the state to a loss of more than $20 million in federal money, federal officials say.

Money for food stamps. Thanks, "Tea Party."

"I really think there's a reason why God put all these political thoughts in my head," said Walker of his "Walk with Christ."

Thanks for Ron "Either ignorant or lying" Johnson also.

This is what you get for electing Ayn Rand's disciples.

Proving Obama BC a forgery probably not possible

Because the government has had two-and-a-half years to work on it.

Okay these people are just flat out insane.

MJS edit board calls Patrick McIlheran "silly"

"Will the silliness end?" pleads the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, calling Donald Trump "pathetic" and "birther-in-chief." "The birthers will never accept Obama's legitimacy," say the board, and they're probably right. Meanwhile the J-S's unintentionally comic wing-nut calumnist Patrick McIlheran allowed Tuesday that he "f[e]ll in the 'probably' camp" where it came to Obama's U.S. natal provenance.

And in any event he was "exhausted" by all the talk of Obama's birthplace (it's Hawaii, have you heard). There, there, get your blankie and have a nice lie-down. Let's warm you up some milk.

Oh, but not too exhausted, apparently:*

Suppose, just for the sake of argument, that we come to learn that Obama really was born outside the United States. Suppose he were born in Kenya ...

Followed by some other typically phantasized nonsense.

Then of course the next day Obama finally decided he'd had enough and Patrick McIlheran just went about busying himself along his merry wing-nut way. He must have a pretty strong union steward.

* McIlheran's I'm-not-saying-Sonia-Sotomayor's-a-racist-but move.

eta: McIlheran flogged some more with another Bisphenol A editorial.

Clandestine Walker-Prosser meeting revealed

"Never went beyond the reception person."

[A]ny visit would have been to request gubernatorial mementoes for visiting international students.

Mighty spooky stuff. These guys aren't exactly Machiavellians.

Now does that make the allegation better? No: It makes it worse.