The Juiciest Paul Ryan Gossip You'll Probably Ever Read

Wow.

I really don't know which paragraph to excerpt.

Scott Walker Really does Think You're that Stupid

Either that or he thinks everyone in Wisconsin is blind. Behold, Scott Walker's jobs plan in all of it's glory:

Scott Walker 68 Page Jobs Plan

An Actual Crazy Candidate

There's been a lot of talk about a certain candidate from Delaware being little nutty today, but did you know there's a candidate for statewide office in Wisconsin who has been endorsed by the state GOP and won his uncontested primary on Tuesday who has actually spent time in a mental health institution?

Of course not.

Said candidate is none other than Rev. David King, the Republican Party's choice to be the next Secretary of State. Here's an excerpt from a seven year-old MJS article:

For two years starting at the age of 9, Mr. King says, he was sexually abused by several men. He didn't tell his parents. He started smoking marijuana and crack. He fathered four children by two women. He would later write, "I was full of darkness."

Then his brother John died of a heart attack during a basketball game at age 24. Then Mr. King's wife left.

That was how Mr. King came to be on the bridge early Jan. 4, 1992. He was crying. When he looked into the water, he saw faces: his four daughters. He could not take his own life.

Instead, he took a bus to the Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex and checked himself in. After he left, he went to church. On New Year's Eve, 1993, Mr. King, who had become a church deacon, asked God to forgive him. A few months later, Mr. King preached his first sermon.

In one respect this is a very positive story of personal redemption, a spiritual rags-to-riches story. But it's also remarkable that such a troubled past and history of institutionalization seems to have been ignored by one of the major political parties.

There's a ton to be said about King's campaign. He's running on expanding the scope of the SoS office to include mentoring troubled youth and funneling state funds to his "God Squad" organization to help accomplish this feat -- a conflict of interest to which King seems oblivious.

King is also a frequent speaker at Tea Party rallies that claim to not allow candidates to speak. He ran for state Senate in 2008 as a Democrat -- an association with the enemy that seemed to doom Dick Leinenkugel's brief run for U.S. Senate earlier this year. A number of his community outreach programs have folded over the years and his "God Squad" organization is still pending its tax-exempt status almost four years after it began -- a combination that reeks of financial incompetence (at best) or malfeasance (at worse). He also seems to lack the first clue as to what the Secretary of State actually does.

It all begs the question: what makes David King so special? The answer has many facets that involve race, minority outreach, the homogeneity of the GOP and other uncomfortable issues, but it's a discussion worth having.

I'm from Talk Radio and I'm Fucking Awesome!

Can we throw some cold water on today's McIlheran/Skyes mutual appreciation society lovefest? Seriously, the homoerotic tension between those two is getting downright volcanic.

The two seem to think that Scott Walker's win in last night's GOP primary was the result of how kick-ass talk radio is:

If a county was within the sound of Milwaukee talk radio’s voice, it voted Walker overwhelmingly. This is the power of ideas, well expressed.

Perhaps, though saying thoughts on Milwaukee-area talk radio are "well expressed" is an arguable point on it's best day.

In this claim, Sykes and McIlheran have neglected to ask themselves perhaps the most interesting question about last night's election results: was Walker's win over Nuemann because of or in spite of his last minute deluge of attack ads/mailers against Nuemann?

Walker has been the recipient of nearly daily tongue baths from likes of Sykes and Mark Belling for years now and yet despite the near constant adulation Walker still felt it necessary to devote an absurd portion of his war chest to merely winning a primary most people thought he was a lock to win months, even weeks, ago. That should actually suggest that talk radio probably isn't as powerful as some talk radio host would have their listeners -- or local newspaper columnists -- believe.

But lets look at this another way: If talk radio is the reason for Walker's win in the GOP primary -- how is Walker supposed to win the Gubernatorial race when a proxy unavailable to a large segment of the state promotes his message better than his own campaign?

Regardless of how one looks at talk radio's influence, Scott Walker begins the general election in a significantly weaker position than he had anticipated and the only person who can fix that problem is Scott Walker. Sykes may have taken Walker (and Rebbecca Kleefisch and Ron Johnson) this far, but now his preferred candidates are on their own.

Primaries!

Is it just me or are the primaries in Wisconsin a lot sexier this year than they have been in the past?

They really shouldn't be. The outcomes of just about every primary aren't in much doubt, but the details are still fascinating to pour over.

First off, we've got Ron Johnson ready to cruise to an easy victory over Dave Westlake, who has become something of the Tea Party candidate that many people thought Johnson was going to be. RJ, on the other hand, has morphed into a traditional party establishment candidate. The only real question will be how much Johnson wins by. Given the money Johnson's dumped into TV time there's really no reason why he shouldn't win by 60+ points.

Moving on we have the races for Lt. Governor. The Democrats seemed to have settled on Tom Nelson over scrappy insurgent Henry Sanders. And the Republicans? Good Question! On the one hand there's a handsome state assemblyman who has a track record of winning in a largely Democratic district in Brett Davis. But, on the other hand, there's a Charlie Sykes' henchman with no experience in elected office, so you can plainly see this is a really hard decision for Republicans to make...

Then there's the GOP gubernatorial primary. Scott Walker will probably win on Tuesday, but he apparently won't be winning by enough to make anyone happy, so he's going to be walking away with a few bruises that navel gazers such as myself will discuss ad nauseum for several weeks. The big question is whether Walker will use the occasion to retool his campaign -- as even some Republicans have suggested -- or if he will continue on his merry way.

If Walker pulls out the Nancy Pelosi comparisons against his Republican opponent, we can only guess what murderous 20th century dictator he's got lined up to endorse Tom Barrett.

Last, but certainly not least, is the race for the 8th CD GOP nomination, which really has been nothing short of a shitshow. Honestly, I think this race is cursed -- one of the former candidates, after all, dropped out of the race only to promptly commit suicide earlier this summer. The establishment candidate, Reid Ribble, seems to be plagued by questions about his residency and the publication of Spanish language version of his website ... by his own party. Terri McCormick is still batshit insane and apparently believes she's on a book tour. Roger Roth hasn't been able to get much traction (and may actually be suffering from the moderate legacy of his uncle, who occupied the seat for most of the '80s and '90s). Ribble will probably pull this off, but the race has been emblematic of the GOP's issues in the 8th CD. There's really no reason it shouldn't be in Republican hands, but the party just can't seem to get it's shit together to actually do anything about it.

So there you have it. There are national primaries too -- including a scorcher in Delaware that has parallels to the Alaska Senate and South Carolina gubernatorial races (and about a dozen others), but the races in Wisconsin are far more ... sane.

9 out of 10 Misanthropic Shut-ins Endorse my Candidacy!

Rebecca Kleefisch's campaign issued a press release touting endorsements from various state bloggers, including the proprietor of The Underground Conservative, Peter DiGaudio.

DiGaudio, as you may recall, threw one of the Cheddarsphere's epic temper tantrums on election night '08 over in the comments section at Boots and Sabres. Some of the highlights included repeated denunciations of his American citizenship as well as his desire to assassinate then President-elect Obama. He even added this astonishing claim:

I don’t hope for [Obama's] success. In fact, I seriously hope this country gets attacked by terrorists over and over again and every possible bad thing that can happen does happen ... to people like you.

His behavior was so over the top that Team Robinson told him to toss off.

And toss off DiGauido did, retreating back to his own blog, the now defunct Texas Hold'em Blogger, where he continued to take a shit with his clothes on, posting an upside down American flag with assorted other rantings before finally deleting the entire blog and starting a new one.

DiGaudio walked back some of his statements, but it wasn't the first time he's gone off the deep end, which begs the meta-question: is bragging about bloggers' endorsements wise? Or better yet: what does hyping bloggers' endorsements tell us about the candidate?

Sure, I guess, but endorsements are only as valuable as the credibility of the endorser. In this case, I find it hard to understand why anyone would want to be associated with someone whose sole claim to notoriety is a proclivity for cataclysmic melt downs.

Kleefisch is being backed by a number of people who occasionally have interesting things to say and appear to be influential in certain circles, but DiGaudio's inclusion into that mix diminishes everyone.

Then there's the small matter of a blog called "The Right Choice" -- which consists of exactly ten posts and hasn't been updated since May. That really only barely qualifies as a blog and certainly isn't anything to brag about. God only knows what that's all about.

By the way, Brett Davis appears to be carpet bombing Oshkosh cable TV with ads this weekend.

Compromise!

You know, maybe only some of the Koran needs burning...

Dick Morris Calls Russ Feingold Gay

Way to run a classy operation, AFP!

At this weekend's Sheboygan Freedom Rally, Dick Morris demonstrated why he's America's favorite visitor-of-prostitutes/FOX News contributor:

Nationally known multi-faceted political commentator/analyst/writer Dick Morris dove right into the Wisconsin scene. “For Russ Feingold to pose as a moderate, as an independent…my goodness, it shows how far we’ve come when Russ Feingold tries to dress up like us. But that act of transvestitism [sic.] is going a little far even for Greenwich Village and San Francisco – or Madison.”

No need for dog whistles with that statement.

Dirty Trick of the Day

Burqa-clad pension stealers:

The Wisconsin GOP Really is just Taking All it's Cues from Charlie Sykes...

... whether they're true or not.

Ron Johnson is Basically Trying to Buy a Senate Seat

Here's the Ron Johnson Strategy for winning in November:

1.) Avoid the press as much as possible.

2.) Meet only with friendly audiences.

3.) Spend a shitload on TV (and, later, direct mail):

Johnson has spent $4 million on broadcast TV in the state compared to $1.4 million for Feingold, according to figures obtained from CMAG, a northern Virginia firm that tracks television advertising.

The numbers refer to ads aired this year in the state’s five TV markets: Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, La Crosse/Eau Claire and Wausau/Rhinelander. They do not include radio or cable television spots.

The spending gap grows a bit bigger (to more than 3-1) when you include the $300,000 spent on TV recently by American Action Network, a national conservative group that has run an ad attacking Feingold for voting for the stimulus plan.

In Communist China, Money Makes You!

Another day, another gaffe:

In the interview, Johnson made reference to Las Vegas casino mogul Steve Wynn. In paraphraising Wynn's feelings about business, Johnson said, "His point is...the climate for business investment is far more certain in communist China than it is in the U.S. here."

Followed by another absurd walk-back:

As the Johnson interview began to make the rounds on talk shows and Democratic partisans, campaign spokeswoman Sara Sendek issued this statement: "We unequivocally reject any notion that Ron Johnson ever said or implied that communist China is better for business."

This is Getting Ridiculous

Shit like this is absolutely dumbfounding:

It's one thing to flip-flop on the issues.

But who's ever heard of a candidate rewriting his own company history?

That's exactly what U.S. Senate candidate Ron Johnson did last week.

For nearly nine years, his plastics company has carried this online description of its beginning:

"Founded in 1977, Pacur occupies a facility constructed specifically for sheet extrusion, which provides polyester and polypropylene sheet and rollstock to converters, distributors, and end users," said the website for the Oshkosh-based factory.

But that changed on Wednesday.

Ron Johnson Email #14

Ron Johnson for U.S. Senate Email #14

Oops

Just read this.

WI-08 Poll

It's basically from the Ribble campaign -- so take it with a grain of salt:
AAF WI-08 Poll Memo
WI-08 Poll: Toplines
WI-08 Poll: Crosstabs

Problems

Ron Johnson's got a few.

Government Cheese

Sure is expensive:

"Tax-free bonds allow a borrower to borrow at a lower rate," said Andrew Reschovsky, a professor of applied economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "That's a subsidy from normal borrowing."

"I have never lobbied for some special treatment or for a government payment"

It's an attack ad that writes itself -- via Taegan Goodard:

In an interview with WKOW-TV, Wisconsin U.S. Senate candidate Ron Johnson (R) blasted government subsidies.

Said Johnson: "I'm in business. I have never lobbied for some special treatment or for a government payment.... When you subsidize things...it doesn't work through the free market system very well."

Never ever ... for ever never?

However, it turns out Johnson actually received a $2.5 million government subsidized loan to expand his company back in 1985.

Get ready for a lot of parsing between what counts as a "subsidy" and a "subsidized loan" ... and a relentless barrage of well-deserved attack ads from Feingold.

This is about as flagrant a lie as one is going to find in politics and since Johnson has based a large swathe of his campaign on the evils of government spending -- in particular the dozens of press releases detailing the so-called pork in the stimulus bill -- this should cripple his credibility.

I don't expect too many deathbed conversions to Dave Westlake's campaign, but wouldn't be surprised if a few intellectually honest conservatives advocated as much in the face of this absurdity.

MORE: And here we go:

Campaign spokeswoman Sara Sendek says the bond in question wasn't special treatment or a subsidy, but a loan that was paid back in full.

Bullshit. If Johnson were to acting in accord to his "free market"/Ayn Rand rhetoric, he would have gone to a bank for the loan and paid off the interest. Instead, he went to the government because:

In the 1980s the company expanded through the help of a $2.5 million government bond issued by the city of Oshkosh - a bond that charged below-market interest rates.

[...]

Late this afternoon the Johnson campaign sent a one-sentence response to our story, saying the sort of bond issued by Oshkosh is neither special treatment nor a government payment or subsidy.

They also say the loan was paid back in full.

In case you missed it, Johnson's campaign apparently made no mention of paying off the equivalent interest.

So much for "free market principles"...

EVEN MORE: Here's the Memeorandum thread.

MORE STILL: The MJS points out that not only has Johnson been caught with his hands in the cookie jar, but his campaign's initial response to the matter has also been demonstrably false:

In a statement issued Wednesday, Johnson's campaign said, "An industrial revenue bond is neither special treatment nor a government payment or subsidy. It is a loan and was paid back in full."

Got that? RJ.com calls it a "loan" (as did several of the news organizations featured above). But:

An industrial revenue bond is a tax-exempt bond normally issued by a governmental body for a project. The City of Oshkosh was not making a loan; a bank or other lender would buy the bonds from Pacur and resell them to investors. Pacur would then have been responsible to pay back the bonds' principal amount, plus interest.

But at a lower rate of interest than he would have received from a private bank. That's good business, but completely contrary to his campaign message.

Event City

Just a reminder: We do requests!

Oshkosh's latest attempt at rebranding itself has brought on the usual griping in the NW comment section, angst from elsewhere and some good-natured ribbing.

Companies rebrand themselves all the time and, like it or not, cities now have to market themselves in similar ways. (Hell, individuals now have to market themselves like businesses these days.) Oshkosh was long overdue for a marketing revamp and this explanation as to why is about as good as it gets:

Hielsberg said On the Water, while accurate, does not distinguish Oshkosh from any of the myriad other cities in Wisconsin that are also on the water. She described the old slogan as describing an attribute of the community, but not what can set Oshkosh apart from others.

Cities have been branding themselves for centuries now (a fact Ron Johnson recently learned with his inaccurate Greenland comments), and it's an almost essential process these days. Milwaukee recently redubbed itself the City of Festivals, a far more inviting and all-encompassing moniker than the Brew Town or Beer City nicknames of old, which made it sound like a destination for drunks and little more. There's no reason why Oshkosh shouldn't update it's profile to the rest of the world.

The name itself -- Wisconsin's Event City -- is undoubtedly the source of a lot of the consternation over the rebranding process. It's so simple that most people probably look at it and think to themselves, "Well, I could have come up with that --- where's my $40,000!" Alas, it's not that easy. In fact, the brand's simplicity is good thing and the city should be very happy the results, which are infinitely more agreeable than the disastrous rebranding effort by the state Department of Tourism last year.

The best part about any rebranding effort is that it's as much about a city's aspirations as it is about the image a city wants to project to the world -- and offering to be a hospitable destination to the rest of the state is not a bad niche to fill.

Quote of the Week

Director/Actor Eli Roth on his cameo in Piranha 3D:

After "Inglorious Basterds," I thought it was gonna take a lot to get me out of acting retirement. Because how are you going to top working for Quentin Tarantino alongside Brad Pitt? But ["Piranha 3D" director] Alex Aja, in his very charming French way, said to me, "I have written a part for you: I want you to be the wet T-shirt contest host." And I said, "OK, what time do you need me?" So I went to Lake Havasu, and it was like being in the middle of a bizarre frat party: it was 500 people, 300 of them in bikinis, all of them in incredible shape. It was ridiculous. I was on a raft hosing down breasts for two days. After the first day, I called up Tarantino and said, "I think I found a director I like working with more than you."

Juggaloes!!!

Since Juggaloes were a story of local note last year, I feel compelled to point people to a few pieces on the annual Gathering of Juggaloes, which was held in Illinois last weekend. There are some absolutely mind-blowing reports from the festivities that deserve to be celebrated in all of their glory.

First, here's the promotional infomercial that bounced around the internet prior to the event. Yes, infomercial: it's almost 20 minutes long. When I first saw it a month ago I thought I was going to watch 30 seconds of it, roll my eyes and then move on to something else; but, alas, I ended up watching the whole damn thing. Go ahead and try watching it: if you make it passed the first minute, you'll be sucked in for the long haul.



Next, and for a little historical perspective, here's a story from Vice Magazine chronicling the 2007 Gathering.

Lastly, is the phenomenal photography of Nate Smith, who went above and beyond the anthropological call of duty in documenting this year's event:

A general overview.
Portraits of Juggaloes.
Comedy at the Gathering.
The Miss Juggalette Contest & Juggalettes baring their breasts.
The art of nonverbal Juggalo communication.
The story of the Method Man and Redman set.
Midget wrestling at the Gathering.
An account of the infamous Tila Tequila set.
"The Michael Jackson Moonwalk BBQ Blowout Pajama Jam"

Fee Assessed on Very Rampant Egos

Funny.

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Velp Avenue in Green Bay is now hallowed ground.

Yes, the "pattern developing here" is the rapid spread of mass paranoia fueled by right wing opportunists with no more hope at public office, but who still have a raging hard-on for public limelight and the money to fuel their self-involved vanity projects.

Ron Johnson gets His own Memeorandum Thread over "Sunspots" Comment

It's kind of a sign of internet virality (no matter how thin the thread actually is).

Here's a helpful video detailing why Johnson is wrong on the sunspots theory: