Uppity Wisconsin

 UPDATE: Equally unreliable Rasssmussen poll says Feingold and Thompson in a dead heat for US Senate. WPRI had Tommy up 12%.

Wisconsin's Pretend Research Institute (WPRI), the right-wing propaganda machine, is trying to defend itself against recent bad publicity suggesting its polls -- or the way it reports results -- are slanted to fit their world view: WPRI Poll Tracks Consistently with National Polls:

Today, NBC and the Wall Street Journal released a poll that details public opinion regarding the health care bill before Congress, the public’s views of the direction of the country, and other national issues. The NBC/WSJ poll tracks very closely with the WPRI poll we released late last week. To wit:

•In the WSJ/NBC poll, 48% of the public opposed the health care bill currently before Congress, while 36% labeled it “a good idea.” In the WPRI poll, 37% favored the plan and 55% opposed it.

•In the WSJ/NBC poll, President Obama’s approval rating was 48%. In WPRI’s poll, Obama’s approval is 49%.

•In the WSJ/NBC poll, 33% of Americans believed the country was headed in the right direction, while 59% believed the country was on the wrong track. In the WPRI poll, those numbers are 34% and 59%, respectively.

All of that proves exactly nothing, of course. Are we to believe that the opinions of Wisconsin people are exactly the same as those across the country?

Our favorite irascible media tyrant is in the news once again, and once again it’s time for me to bring you a story of doing one thing while wishing for another.

In a November 6th interview, Sky News Australia’s David Speers spent about 35 minutes with the CEO of NewsCorp, Rupert Murdoch; the conversation covering topics as diverse as software piracy, world economics, the role of Fox News (and Fox NewsPinion©) in American politics, a strange defense of Glenn Beck, and, not very long afterwards, an even stranger defense of immigration.

We have heard a lot about the...how can I put this politely...challenges Murdoch seems to face associating factual reality with his reality, and we could have lots of fun going through his factual misstatements—but instead, I want to take on one specific issue today: Rupert Murdoch says he hates it when people steal his content from the Internet to draw readers to their sites...which is funny, if you think about it, because he has no problem at all stealing my content (and lots of yours, as well) for his sites.

Tradewell is on the bleeding edge of criticism that our military is leveling against its Democratic commander-in-chief.

From the Times report Monday (Bumiller): "Last week the national commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Thomas J. Tradewell Sr., gave voice to the concerns of those in the military when he issued a terse statement criticizing Mr. Obama’s review of Afghan war strategy. 'The extremists are sensing weakness and indecision within the U.S. government, which plays into their hands,' said Mr. Tradewell’s statement on behalf of his group, which represents 1.5 million former soldiers.

Funny how big a crowd of 5,000 (if it really was that big) played in the media when it was right-wing teabaggers coming to protest paying for their government services. It was portrayed as a mammoth grassroots uprising, a taxpayer revolt.

When perhaps twice that number of people marched in Milwaukee Friday for immigration and labor rights, the stories were about how much smaller the crowd was than last year's 30,000.

The May Day rally organized by Voces de la Frontera had no official crowd estimate. The estimated attendance at the Republican-organized teabag rally at the state Capitol came from the organizers.

Given that precedent, Voces should have told reporters there were 50,000 at Veterans Park.

Update: They did estimate 30,000.

Many more marched than stayed for the speeches, but the photos are impressive.

This week's cause celebre in the Wisconsin Rightysphere appears to be alleged email improprieties on the part of Tony Evers and Jeff Dieckert.  Starting off with a barrage of claims on the part of Mari Belling on the radio, there've been allegations that Tony Evers has had campaign discussions with Dieckert on government email. 

Now of course, Belling has not appeared to have actually released the documents in question, so at the moment we have his word for it.  

Update: Complaints prompt The Mic 92.1 to bring back 'Thom Hartmann'

I listened for the Lee Rayburn show on 92.1 (Madison)  today, and asked around and found out that Rayburn quit.

Rayburn had the best local show pretty much in the history of Madison, excluding WORT Radio.

There are lots of programming changes going on for the worst at Madison's progressive radio station, for example, there's some religious-financial guru where Thom Hartmann used to be. 

Emily Mills has the story a Lost Albatross:

"I am thoroughly bummed. Madison's only progressive talk radio station, the Mic 92.1FM, is undergoing some sort of strange programming flip. This change has already resulted in two terrible casualties of the airwaves: the loss of Thom Hartmann's show, and more recently, that of Madison's own Lee Rayburn."

Meeting tonight:

GWC 022406 LIPSTICK 

They say you can put lipstick on a pig – but it’s still a pig.

(SOUND EFFECT: OINK!)

An ill-advised constitutional amendment, once called TABOR, is back with a new name, the Taxpayer Protection Amendment.

Update: Broder was in Madison last night offering his piercing insights.

David Broder is truly the Dean of American corporate journalism and commentary: Inane and living in a comfortable bubble of ideology.

No one is ever quite sure whether the Broders of the world are lying or deluded.

Today, Broder musters out a typical column in the Post: It's too early to call the presidential election for John McCain, no matter the opinion of the "party pros" Broder is in touch with.

Good, Mr. Broder, but what the frack are you talking about?

This is the same guy who can never quite get the nerve to call the Republicans bald-faced liars (we know these guys are liars), so I guess we should not be too surprised at any given Broder column, but he offers this beauty: