Dirty Trick of the Day

From the Dirty South.

Justify Your Existence

Tomorrow, print journalism as we know it today is going to die. Completely. No more daily newspapers or weekly/biweekly/monthly/bimonthly/quarterly magazines.

You can save the status quo by sacrificing one of these magazines to the Journalism gods ...

Which one is it and why?

We'll have our answer up in a few days.

The Founding Fathers on Anonymity

One of the great ironies that no one seems to be mentioning with regard to the outing of a previously pseudonymous blogger this weekend is that said author's nom de blog was "publius."

Publius was the pseudonym Alexander Hamilton chose when he sat down to publish his part of the Federalist Papers.

Anonymous participation has always been an important part of the civic debate in this country. It's a tradition that should be respected by both anonymous bloggers and those who write under their real name.

It's amusing that the "outer" in this farce is a conservative lawyer who, to the the best that I've been able to glean, is a "strict constructionist" in terms of legal philosophy. Had he adapted his legal principles to his blogging principles and asked himself what the founding fathers would have done in his case, he would have had the answer staring him right in the face.

MORE: Conor Friederdorf notices it too.

EVEN MORE: James Copland chimes in.

MORE STILL: Steve Benen.

END OF MORE STUFF: This appears to be the end of things.

One would hope this incident establishes a kind of precedent.

Ink Blots

We had planned an elaborate post on the Mayor's Breakfast to-do, but since there will be no event this year -- much of what we were going to say is, alas, immaterial.

But that's not going to stop us from making one relevant observation. We were a bit surprised by the ferocity of the conversation regarding the Breakfast (both online and off) and are worried about what it portends. Frankly, we see the day soon approaching wherein any type of local event, positive or negative, immediately becomes a kind of Rorschach test over Esslinger's leadership.

And we mean even the events that don't even remotely involve him.

Congressman Petri "Raps" with America's Youth

Wow:

Rep. Tom Petri's (R-WI) first job was hosting a radio show called Teen Time, a weekly program that made him the Badger State's youngest on-air personality.

Do you think he discussed simplifying the tax code for lower income families or who was going to score at Makeout Point on the old radio show?

Mayor's Breakfast to Move to a Single Booth at the Perkins on Highway 41

We have a pretty good feeling that the Mayor's Breakfast shitshow just now getting under way won't end until well after whatever event comes to replace it. In the mean time there we can all sit back and enjoy finger-pointing, name-calling, gnashing of teeth and rending of hair. We'll have more to say on the matter in the next few days (and there is plenty to say).

For now, we'll just note that this is the fourth divisive distraction to befall the civic conversation in the six weeks of Esslinger's reign (Appointmentgate, L'Affaire Buchholtz & the ongoing Parking Lot Debacle).

For It Before He was Against It!

How the hell does this make sense?

Esslinger has opposed the parking lot since fall, when it was included in the city’s annual capital improvements program. He argues it is a luxury the city cannot afford in light of pressing needs to upgrade sewers and other infrastructure.

Still, he and McHugh voted in favor of borrowing $972,000 for the project in late April. Esslinger said he signed off on the bond issue on the assumption that he’d have one more chance to kill the project. That opportunity will come up when construction easements and bids for the work go to the council this summer for approval.

"I was under the understanding from our city staff we would have one more kick at the cat," Esslinger said. "I think the staff needs to be more clear to the council when these issues come up. We need to be told ‘This is it. You need to vote no here.’ Or they need to explain exactly what the vote means."

But if you don't like it, why not just vote no when it's in front of you?

By the way, an animal abuse metaphor is just plain creepy.

MORE: From "logichead" (a misnomer if ever there was one):

Good for you , Paul....stick to your guns and listen to the majority of voters. Downtown is dead. Don't spend more of our tax dollars on it. Also....can the Grand. It's a old pile of bricks that needs to go, It wil be less expensive to build a new theatre that to repair the old junk pile.

(emphasis added)

Esslinger is flip-flopping and this putz is telling him to "stick to your guns" ... what guns are those?

That's right, the guy also said "screw the Grand" ...

Annals of Not Very Good Predictions

Not so much.

The Chief's SAT Word of the Day

Pogrom

You Know What will Save the Conservative Movement? Two White Ivy League Rappers who went to Prep School!

Men of the people, speaking the language of the streets!

Rufful and Riddle, both due to graduate in 2012, came to Dartmouth from the Northfield Mount Hermon School, a private school in Massachusetts.

We can only hope this is the "hip-hop make over" that RNC chair Michael Steele was talking about.

Old Grey Mare Just Ain't What She Used to Be

Several conservative bloggers in Wisconsin seem to be enjoying a hearty laugh over an editorial recently published in Pravda that argues the United States is becoming too radical or Marxist or whatever.

One problem: the Pravda of which they speak is not "the Russian House Organ" it once was. It's actually now a tabloid -- and not a New York Post tabloid, but a Weekly World News tabloid (though, of course, many would argue there is no difference).

Not only can you find inherently laughable commentaries in the latest incarnation of Pravda, but you can also read such stories with headlines like:

• Aliens forced Americans out from the Moon

• Another human civilization may live within Earth's hollows

• Russian scientists contact nether world

• Soviet Union witnessed invasion of US-made UFOs in 1980s

• Vampires are proved to exist

• Russian fishermen catch squeaking alien and eat it

With all of that excitement, I can't imagine for the life of me why any sane reader of the news would by-pass all of these amazing stories and go straight for the boring opinion piece on US domestic policy ... especially when there are vampires and aliens and the undead to talk about!

A quick stop over to Wikipedia would have straightened all of this business out:

After the paper was closed down in 1991 by decree of President Yeltsin, many of the staff founded a new paper with the same name, which is now a tabloid-style Russian news source. There is an unrelated Internet-based newspaper, Pravda Online (www.Pravda.ru) run by former Pravda newspaper employees. A number of other newspapers have also been called Pravda, most notably Komsomolskaya Pravda, formerly the official newspaper of the now defunct Komsomol and currently the best-selling tabloid in Russia.

But why bother checking one's sources when you can just rely on your understanding of a foreign country's press as it stood almost 20 years ago?

Good going, Cheddarsphere!

We'll be sure to ignore everything anyone has to say about Russia in the future.

MORE: The suckers just keep on coming ...

Kyle Prast:

...there is one news source that has the guts to report what has been going on since Jan. 20, 2009 straight up: Russia's PRAVDA!

Yes, and they've also done a helluva job on the Werewolf beat too!

Peter DiGaudio:

A lecture to Americans … from Pravda, no less.

And here's an ongoing series on the evil symbology of the one dollar bill!

Let's not forget the meteorite with Christ's face on it or the Yeti who was caught by Russian scientists using Google Maps!

The current news arm of the Russian government is RIA Novosti. RIA is the transliteration for the Cyrrilic acronym that essentially translates to Russian Information Agency. RIA Novosti runs Russia Today, or RT, which is the current Russian government's official state news organization.

MORE STILL: Ugh ...

Life Imitates Art

Or rather, South Park imitates Oshkosh city council meetings.

One Other Thing...

Don't be surprised if Michelle Monte is appointed to fill Buchholtz's seat on the Landmarks Commission. Not saying it's going to happen -- just don't be surprised if it does:

I had applied to be on the Landmark's commission twice in the last 2-3 years. I have a great interest in historical architecture and studied many of the styles that appear in Oshkosh when an art student many years ago. It is still an interest of mine. Mr. Tower had stated during his candidacy and after his election that he would be looking for new faces to join committees to bring in fresh ideas. Mrs. Mattox was appointed to the Landmark's Commission as she had been a member while on the council. The next seat was filled by a gentleman I am not familiar with except that he knew someone already on the Commission. I was satisfied with the thought that the two people chosen over myself were better qualified. There was no reason to make an issue of it.

It's not like the fate of the universe hinges on just whatever the hell it is that the Landmarks Commission does, but you know ...

About that Email...

When the current council business began we said the most important part of the process was going to be transparency.

And anyone who saw the voting can rest assured they received none.

Tonight Mayor Esslinger mentioned an email that was sent to council members as one of the reasons that convinced him to vote for Harold Buchholtz. This suggests -- oh, hell confirms, a certain degree of behind the scenes lobbying that went on before the vote. That may be perfectly within the rules, but often times all it takes is the mere appearance of funny business to delegitimize an otherwise completely appropriate action.

Tonight we got word of an email that only the council got to read; a council member -- McHugh -- who could barely be bothered to explain the rationale for his vote with anything other than a shrug; and a bizarre brief recess in the middle of the vote which, frankly, looked an awful lot like the "closed caucuses" that occur in another legislative body in this state. And at the end of all of this, someone was chosen to fill the seat whom was not on anyone's radar and whom most of the city knows little about ... and if we need any further evidence of this, there was actually a discussion over how to pronounce Mr. Buchholtz's last name at the meeting tonight.

That's not transparency.

Buchholtz deserves a chance and an opportunity to prove his metal. Who knows, he might be a municipal budget ninja? (We're pretty sure if that were the case, however, he would have broken budgets in half with his bare hands during his presentation this evening.) The councilors who voted for him, on the other hand, will get questions from the NW, voters, and especially critics. Some of these will border on the conspiratorial, but that's no one's problem but the councilors.

Council Meeting Live Blogging

Howdy. We're going to be experimenting this evening by kinda live blogging the city council meeting ... which we will only be watching intermittently because, frankly, we think the Cleveland/Orlando game is far more important in the grand scheme of things.

Also, don't be surprised if we abandon the project without warning at some point during the evening. If that does happen, it's because we decided to get sloppy, stumbling drunk, which is probably the best way anyone can expect the evening to wind up.

About Tonight

One of the many problems of staging a 15 person winner-takes-all Royal Rumble over the course of a single evening is that, not only does the schedule prove to be unnecessarily inconvenient for some of the participants, but, most importantly, it becomes brutal on the spectators. If anyone thinks tonight's spectacle is going to be an exemplar of municipal charter beta-testing, we have some subprime loans you can invest in at a cost no one can beat!

Much of this has to do with the council's apparent desire to condense this process into as short a time as possible and to pivot the submission and presentation dates around one of the busy travel holidays of the year. To wit:

• The submission deadline was before noon on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend, a day many people -- not just potential candidates -- leave the office early to visit family or go on well-earned vacations.

• The "Selection Spectacle" takes place the next Tuesday. Many folks tend to take extra days off around holidays like Memorial Day to get a little more bang for their vacation day buck. They plan for these weekends months in advance.

• Not only is there just one chance for candidates to make their case, but likewise there is only one chance for the public to question them. (Likewise, we didn't see any "Get to know the Candidates" article in the NW, but, seriously, like that was going to happen over a holiday weekend?)

• The Dog and Pony Show will be brutal to sit through. Of the fifteen candidates, 13 appear to be attending the meeting. Let's assume all 13 will be smart enough to use the entirety of their allotted 5 minutes to make their case to the council (but, miraculously, not a second more). That alone will take 1:05. Let's assume that the council will devote another 5 minutes to questioning the nine "viable" candidates as outlined by Ron Hardy: now we're up to 1:50. Let's add another 15 minutes of polite banter between the council and split among the 6 "nonviable" candidates, because there's nothing more embarrassing than going through this whole process and hearing nothing but crickets at the very end. We're already at over two hours and the public hasn't even been allowed to ask questions to the candidates yet (and it's not like the council has been known for making its own train run on time, either). In other words, this will take all night.

• And despite the marathon municipal jam session we only get 15-20 minutes with each candidate. That basically guarantees that the person chosen will have a long track record in Oshkosh as it will be impossible to introduce one's self in such a brief period of time.

So in the end, the person most likely selected will be of the city's "elder statesmen," and likely under the assumption that he or she will merely be filling out the rest of the term then go quietly off into the sunset. We're cool with that.

Maybe that's how things are supposed to work? Maybe this process will succeed despite itself?

We'll see.

"Sources tell TPMmuckraker that it is indeed possible to understand straightforward questions after having smoked pot."

Yeah, "sources," that's the ticket ...

And on Memorial Day Too

Stay classy, Barry Laker:

I give John McCain credit for being an American, but I stop short and say he has sold out his COUNTRY in his political life with McCain Fiengold etc, stc, etc.

So much for supporting the troops ... Five years in the Hanoi Hilton and the guy comes back to be accused of selling out his country?

It boggles the mind.

There's a Sucker Born Every Minute

... And when there's not Kevin Fischer's there to pick up the slack!

Fischer is peddling the laughably spurious lunatic conspiracy theory that Bill Ayers actually ghost wrote Barack Obama's Dreams from My Father as "a fascinating piece of detective work" when, in fact, it is little more than gross speculation founded on the flimsiest of weak coincidences:

Curiously, Obama tells the story of this past love while cutting "two green peppers." In his 1997 book, A Kind And Just Parent, Ayers specifically links "green peppers" with "saltpeter" and other substances that scare young men with the threat of impotence. Go figure.

Yes, and both authors wrote memoirs in the first person! It must be true!

Not surprisingly, the author of the this paranoid fever dream has a weekly column at World Net Daily, which has taken up the mantle of being the internet's foremost promoter of crazy nonesense regarding the President.

All of which begs the question: which Obama-related conspiracy will Fischer be hawking next? My money's on the "Obama's real father was Malcolm X" dosey.

Undisciplined

By day, Lance Burri (pictured left) earns a living servicing state Sen. Mary Lazich as part of one of the most mind-blowingly inept office teams ever to grace the Wisconsin Senate. By night, Burri services the second-rate conservative blogger Robert Sydney McCain by imitating his idol's every writing tic on his own blog.

So what the hell is Burri doing telling his readers to boycott the National Republican Senatorial Committee?

It's one thing for disgruntaled conservative blowhards to advocate boycotts of thier own party's instutions, it's quite another for "professional" political staffers to do the same.

Easy Answers to Absurd Questions

Q: Is "American Idol" an elaborate scheme to distract the American public from Barack Obama marching this country into a socialist hell from whence none shall return?

A: No. Don't be ridiculous.

Books n' Books

It take a special kind of gall to loudly and self-righteously proclaim that there is no such thing as book banning in a blog blog post that sits right next to a petition to ... ban books in the author's local library, but somehow the asshole at Wissup manages to pull it off:

(We realize that there are numerous nuances to the West Bend Library brouhaha, but Wissup's professed alliance with the deplorable American Family Association, a long time advocate of outright book banning, make us a bit leery that all she wants to do is "move the books.")

Ladies and Gentlemen, random n00b ....

Big up yourself. You're welcome here whenever you goddamn please!

"The Road" Trailer

Very cool book. Dope cast. I give the trailer a B/C though:



More here.

Todd Lohenry: Not Very Bright, Now -- Is He?

Todd Lohenry -- 3rd Vice Chair of the Wisconsin GOP -- attempts to prove that the USA is a "Christian" Nation by supplying his readers with the preambles of each state's constitution ...

One problem ... The only time the word "Christian" appears in any of the constitutions cited by Lohenry is in Virginia's:

Virginia 1776, Bill of Rights, XVI Religion, or the Duty which we owe our Creator can be directed only by Reason and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian Forbearance, Love and Charity towards each other…

"Christian Forbearance" is hardly "Christian Religion" ... and a Christian Nation it certainly does not make.

Try again, Lohenry.