Sly In The Morning: WTDY Chief Political Correspondent Dylan Brogan shut out of Press conference.

This is one of the most important and revealing stories yet, that exposes the Republican Party as not just authoritarians, but shredders of the constitution.

"Guilt through association" was the excuse used by state GOP leader Ben Sparks, to throw WTDY reporter Dylan Brogan out a press conference. Amazing? Folks, that's all it takes to shut the press out of covering the candidates for the voters. This is the tea party tactic that is becoming very popular nationwide. Tea Party  dummy Ron Johnson made sure vengeance and retaliation for Sly's protest in Janesville was carried.

I'm out of town tonight, so no video but a link instead. Amazing stuff:

Sly In The Morning: WTDY Chief Political Correspondent Dylan Brogan sh...: Yesterday, Ben Sparks, spokesperson for the Ryan-Romney campaign, kicked WTDY reporter Dylan Brogan out of a press conference hosted by Ron Johnson.

CNN also had this brief coverage. 

Dennis Smith Sleeps with a Married Employee who’s nearly burned to death by her Husband?

There are two stories here, but really, for the purposes of this blog just one.

The Republican guy in charge of health care in this state, Dennis Smith, is allegedly screwing another man’s wife, Mary Spear, who is also a subordinate and chief legal counsel in the same department. Her boss.

That’s the kind of person Scott Walker personally picked for the Department of Health Services, apparently for Smith’s strong qualifications and moral character. Yeah, chalk up another bad choice, like the people in the John Doe investigation. Here’s the story leading up to these shocking revelations:

WSJ: A retired Texas businessman was charged with attempted murder Tuesday for allegedly pouring gasoline on his wife at an East Side storage locker then igniting the gas with a lighter. "You're gonna die in here and nobody will never know," he told her, according to the complaint. "They'll never find your body."

Andrew Spear was alternately despondent and threatening over his belief that his wife was having an affair with her boss, state Department of Health Services Secretary Dennis Smith, according to the complaint. Mary Spear, who told police that Smith is a longtime friend, is the chief legal counsel for DHS. According to the complaint, she denied to her husband the affair but later told him that she loved him and was sorry that she had lied to him.

So there you have it. Another Walker pick caught up in more unprofessional behavior sleeping with an employee who was married that nearly resulted in her death.

Tea Party Loser Rep. Jason Chaffetz now says government better than private sector. Make up your mind.

Get government out of the way, right? It can’t do anything, not like the private sector can.

But hypocrite and tea party politician Jason Chaffetz apparently doesn’t believe that’s true, especially when he tries to fake outrage over the Obama Administration letting a private sector advertiser work its free market magic. Fox News had a field day twisting into a pretzel trying not to appear to ridiculous:  

The Obama administration paid a PR firm nearly $500,000 in stimulus funds to run a barrage of ads on White House-friendly cable programs promoting its green job training program … a company that negotiated a media buy on MSNBC's "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" and "The Rachel Maddow Show." 

Here’s where suddenly government, under Republicans authority, knows more than a major advertising agencies how to market a specific product or message. And here we thought government couldn’t do anything right.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, who sits on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, told FoxNews.com … he's writing a letter to the Labor … complained that the federal government already spends "way too much" on advertising as it is. He said the targeting of these ads also raises questions about "political motivations." 

Chaffetz knows much more about advertising and the (agency) McNeely Pigott & Fox Public Relations. Get a load of the perfectly logical explanation:

The Labor Department defended the expense, suggesting the decisions on placement were largely made by the contractor … relied on an outside contractor and media buying expert to perform research, conduct cost comparisons of media outlets, determine the most cost-effective way to reach the target audience, and create and place the ads," the department said. 

Let's here from an angry conservative special interest group that apparently now believes government is better than the private sector:

Rick Manning, a spokesman with Americans for Limited Government who used to be chief of staff in the Labor Department's public affairs office in the George W. Bush administration, took issue with the department's explanation of the purchase. "The fact that they claim that they delegated this spending authority to a consultant without oversight is outrageous," he said. 

And yet, it's hard to argue with the following bit of common sense:

The official "award summary" on the Labor Department contract explained that the ads were meant for "raising awareness among employers and influencers" about the green job training program and to move a "target audience" to contact the Job Corps Call Center to ask about enrolling. 

Sean Duffy the animated Carnival Barker.

Rep. Sean Duffy is on message at a recent "victory" meeting of Republican minds. Where do I begin?

Duffy waves him arms as he continues the misinformation campaign about Medicare, never proposes his parties own plan and how it saves money (without cuts?...don't think so), and promises current seniors their coverage won't change despite opening up the donut hole again and taking away free check ups.

All that's missing here is a bottle of magic elixir.

Local News gets it right on Paul Ryan Medicare lie. It can happen.

I'm posting the following clip for one reason; believe it or not, local news can cover news stories and still be factual. Like this coverage of Paul Ryan's lie about his plan for Medicare. I almost fell off my chair:

Attorney Generals Office now Prosecuting last years Protesters!

Anyone have deep enough pockets to fight the Attorney Generals office in court? That's what Scott Walker is counting on, a quiet peaceful and frightened electorate.

Your First Amendment free speech rights will not be tolerated under the Scott Walker administration. The right to protest your government is an antiquated activity, and not a part of the new Republican authority.

Under new Capitol Police Chief David Erwin, all future protests will see the official role out of Walker's unconstitutional limits protesting.  

But just to send the right message, AG J.B. Van Hollen has decided to prosecute past offenders:

WKOW: In an unusual move, an assistant attorney general is prosecuting a civil case involving alleged disorderly conduct by a State Capitol protester, and there are indications the state Justice Department may become involved in other, similar prosecutions.

The defendant in the civil case, Jeremy Ryan, tells 27 News he believes the attorney general's involvement in the prosecution of his case represents a crackdown on protests by the Walker administration. "To me, this looks like a political, legal hit job," Ryan said.

But Ryan, a frequent Capitol protester who uses a segway because of a medical condition, says he's been cited more than 30 times in the past two years, and nearly all his citations have been dismissed.

Ozanne says for the attorney general to prosecute what's called a civil forfeiture case, it requires request from the governor or the legislature. Ryan says his July citation involved his presence in the gallery of the state senate chambers with a camera and a placard.

Petty and vindictive, the Walker authorities actions should (but won't) scare conservative and tea party activists as well, because they would be exposed to these same prosecutions and rules. Here's who is now in charge of the state Capitol:

WSJ: David Erwin is a 16-year veteran of the Wisconsin State Patrol and has been serving as a captain in charge of Gov. Scott Walker's security with the Dignitary Protection Unit, the DOA said. He also served as commander of the State Patrol air support unit. Erwin served in United States Marine Corps, where he was an instructor sergeant.

Nothing like a drill sergeant to take control of the Capitol protests. Just as interesting is this description from another "crack a few heads open" true believer, DOA Secretary Mike Huebsch, who rephrases that more authoritarian sentiment by calling it "a fresh perspective of leadership:"

“Chief Erwin brings considerable experience to the job as well as a fresh perspective of leadership and experience to the Department. I look forward to working with him.” 

"Who's your Daddy" DNA Truck coming to a neighborhood near you?

As bad as it was to see VP candidate Paul Ryan and Rep. Todd Akin coming to the aid rapists, others have found a way for men to avoid supporting their unwanted kids:

Opposing Views: For men who have ever wondered if their kids are really 'their kids,' a new traveling DNA test may provide the answer.

The 'Who’s Your Daddy' truck is selling DNA tests in New York City, mostly to dads who suspect their children may not actually be theirs, reports CBS New York.

'Who’s Your Daddy' owner Jared Rosenthal told CBS New York: "They flag us down, they pull us over, they talk to us. Sometimes, because of the nature of the services, they want to be a little more discreet about it, but they do come or they’ll call the number.”

What Ryan is Against....

A week back, Lawrence O'Donnell listed almost everything Paul Ryan was flat out against. As Jacob Marley said to Ryan a few Christmas' back, "Ah! You do not know the weight and length of strong chain you bear yourself!"

Zerban on Ryan's Budget: "Based on 2.8 percent unemployment...reduces discretionary spending down to 3 percent GDP."

Paul Ryan's Democratic opponent for his house seat, Rob Zerban, summed up Ryan's budgeting plan with brutal honesty. He's not exaggerating. I posted a past clip of Ezra Klein explaining how Ryan convinced the CBO to grade his plan under the most impossible and idyllic conditions. That's what Ryan continues to brag about, and Zerban is exposing in the clip below. From Upfront with Mike Gousha:

Wisconsin's higher taxes = quality of life and education. Republican Chad Lee doesn't get it.

WKOW's Greg Neumann asked the one question I've been dying to ask a state politician hell bend on  making Wisconsin different in name only. Sure we pay higher taxes and state regulations, but don't we also have a higher quality of life?  Republican Second District Congressional Candidate Chad Lee  doesn't understand a simple differentiation between us and other states. It's too complicated for the low information candidate, who's blank stare is not just a little unsettling.

U.S. Cutting Jobs in Education thanks to Republican Dominated States.

Nothing says dumb like cutting education when there are fewer manufacturing jobs, and a greater need for a college education. The pride of Republican public job reductions is showing, and President Obama clearly noticed:



This will not mean a thing to Republicans, who are proud of vilifying public education, firing teachers, and privatizing schools. It's cheaper and shifts the blame for private failures on parent who supposedly "knows what their kids need."

United Health Care drops out of Badgercare due to the Walker Administrations Rate Cuts. I thought Obama was doing that?

All the while Republicans warned that the Obama plan to limit Medicare and Medicaid premiums would end up forcing providers to drop out, that’s exactly what they’re doing now in Wisconsin, without any hint of embarrassment or accusations of rationing.

What did Scott Walker and the Republican state legislature think would happen when they cut payment rates to providers? They must have known, and perhaps desired this outcome, as a way of proving how bad “government run health care” is.

This is a major problem for Badgercare too, because United Health Care was perhaps the best and biggest provider:

jsonline: After seeing the state cut payment rates in 2011 and then again this year, UnitedHealthcare has opted to end its contract with the state to oversee care for 174,000 people insured through the BadgerCare Plus program in southeastern Wisconsin. UnitedHealthcare will end its contract on Oct. 31.

The health insurer is the largest of the four managed care organizations that won contracts in 2010 from the Department of Health Services for six counties in southeastern Wisconsin.

UnitedHealthcare's decision raises the question of whether the state has cut payment rates too much.

Walker's Campaign to Vilify Teachers just another Tool, that's Working.

In the past, it would have been almost impossible to imagine an adult making such a derogatory comment about the teaching profession, but thanks to Scott Walker, we're working with a new set of tools. Acting like a 14 year school yard bully, Burlington County Board member Philip Ketterhagen said what most Republican privateers are saying behind our backs:

jsonline: A Burlington Area School Board member has been censured for saying during a meeting that teachers were like cattle who should be struck with a board to get their attention, the Racine Journal Times reports.

The censured board member, Philip Ketterhagen, made the comment while discussing test scores and teacher pay raises ... Ketterhagen said during a meeting that teacher pay raises should not be included in the next budget based on the lower-than-desired scores. He then said "school personnel were like cattle and should be struck with a two-by-four so as to get their attention."

Akin's just like every other Republican.

Rep. Todd Akin thinks rape might be legitimate at times. But he's obviously not alone, since the Republicans are the closest thing to the ultimate alien evil, the Borg. Can you just imagine what these guys are saying behind our backs?

Seattletimes: Rep. Todd Akin, the newly christened GOP Senate nominee in Missouri, said in an interview that aired Sunday that "legitimate rape" rarely causes pregnancy.

Explaining his no-exceptions policy on abortions, Akin was asked why he opposes abortion even when the pregnancy is the result of rape.

"First of all, from what I understand from doctors, (pregnancy from rape) is really rare," Akin told KTVI-TV in a clip posted to YouTube by the Democratic super PAC American Bridge. "If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down."

Akin added: "But let's assume that maybe that didn't work or something. I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist and not attacking the child." Akin issued a statement Sunday saying he misspoke.

But there's more:

LA Times: “Akin previously was the co-sponsor of a bill to redefine rape,” McCaskill said. “And it was recently reported that Akin opposed a state law against spousal rape because it might be used as a tool against husbands in a ‘messy divorce.’ ”

Government Regulation getting in the way of Business? Just the opposite.

EPI’s Lawrence Mishel and Isaac Shapiro reported, Government regulation isn’t impeding the recovery: That means that this recovery is far more investment-led than the preceding ones.

Ryan begged for Stimulus, Unemployment, and Health Care Assistance in 2002 Recession. Hypocrisy Exposed...Again!!!

This could be the game changer. The very policies Paul Ryan blames for turning the U.S. safety nets into hammocks, and ending our entrepreneurial freedoms, are the same policies that filled a need in his own agenda back in 2002. Heads up to the Huffington Post for the tip.

MSNBC's Chris Hayes uncovered lost video of Ryan on the House floor pleading his case for the same kind of stimulus Obama has been pushing since taking the presidency. How will the tea party react to this? They want to win, so they'll drop kick their whole agenda for Paul "two face" Ryan. Here's Hayes' analysis:



Just for fun, and to get the word out for those who want to use this video, here are the individual Ryan clips. First, Ryan insisted on July 1, 2010, the whole idea of a stimulus is a false premise.



Back in 2002, Ryan supported creating jobs by supporting unemployment and Medicaid health coverage;



Finally, Ryan admits in an economic slumps, the revenues aren't there to revamp Social Security and Medicare...recovery is first:

Seniors more likely to believe Scam Artists, Hucksters and Republicans on Affordable Care Act.

A few things to keep in mind; the poll is more about the effectiveness’ of the negative Republican marketing campaign against it than whether people like the health care components; seniors know they’re not really effected by "Obamacare."

More importantly, it’s a gauge of how poorly Democrats stood behind one of the most important social and lifesaving changes in 50 years.

You’ll notice seniors, who really don’t have any real stake in the Affordable Care Act, fear its implementation most. The ACA does close the Medicare donut hole and provides free health checkups.

Newsmax: President Barack Obama’s plans for healthcare are far more scary for seniors than those proposed by Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan, a new Rasmussen Reports poll in Florida shows.

More than half — 54 percent — of those over 65 say Obamacare scares them more than Ryan’s plan, the poll from Rasmussen Reports shows. Only one in three believe the Ryan plan is more scary.

The figures show the older a person is the more likely they are to be worried by the Obama plan. For likely voters under 39, both plans scare them equally, for those between 40 and 64, Obama’s is the worse by a 47 to 41 percent margin.

Republicans can do what they want.....

Have you noticed how easy it is for Republicans to say no. No to tax forms, no to the details of their plan to take America back, no to how they would create jobs, no to how free market health care would work. Actually, that last one would cost lives, just so they can live out their ideological theories.

Republicans always stick to their guns, never get flustered, never get embarrassed, never admit they're wrong, push lies that turn into truthyness, blame others, double down on stupid, and still win a few elections.

Are the Democrats the most inept party in the history of our country? Yes. They fold under pressure, they "compromise" their values, never answer a question directly, play nice to the opposition, respect those that would cut their throats, and never stick to a strong agenda of health care for all, returning voting rights, strengthen public schools, returning labor rights, and lead on wind and solar energies.

How hard it this...my god.

Ryan uses his mom to lie about Medicare, hitting new low.

Ed Schultz revealed this outrageously deceptive and transparent ad campaign last week, showing Republican politicians using their moms to convince voters they would never kill Medicare. 

Hey, these GOP moms say that's not so. What kind of mom would say otherwise?

Here's the plan:

It's an old idea, that's new again. Trotting a few Medicare moms like Ryan below, for purely political reasons, just so a few selfish teabillies can feel good about attacking "socialism," is as nasty as Republicans can get. At least Ryan's mom has hers already.

jsonline: Paul Ryan, a champion of changing Medicare, spoke as a passionate defender Saturday in Florida, promising seniors that he and Mitt Romney would save it, and he introduced his mother to voters to drive home the point.

Ryan's silent mom didn't actually have to say if Ryan was lying or not. Here's how the truth is bent into a pretzel:

Ryan accused Obama of raiding the Medicare "piggybank" to pay for his health care overhaul and he warned starkly that hospitals and nursing homes may close as a result. The Wisconsin congressman introduced his 78-year-old mother to an audience of seniors in Florida and passionately defended a program that has provided old-age security for two generations of his own family. Said Ryan in Florida: "You want to know what Medicare is saying about this? From Medicare officials themselves: One out of six of our hospitals and our nursing homes will go out of business as a result of this," meaning Obama's Medicare cuts.

That was a far from exact reference to a 2010 analysis by Medicare chief actuary Richard Foster. He said then that roughly 15 percent of hospitals and nursing homes that provide Medicare services could "become unprofitable" over a decade not necessarily go out of business thanks to cuts in payments from the government under the health care law.

But Foster's analysis also said the law would improve key Medicare benefits, solve the "doughnut hole" gap in coverage for seniors, expand health insurance to millions more people, reduce the federal budget deficit and extend the solvency of the government's hospital insurance trust fund by up to 12 years. Hospitals remain largely on board with the health care law, without apparent fear of closing.

Ryan meets another protesters, and the Romney/Ryan list of Lies.

Paul Ryan continues to be reminded not everyone believes everything he's saying about the stimulus. Love the protesters guts and showmanship when he tore up a Romney/Ryan sign.

I also love the mob like audience falling all over themselves, buying this GOP snake oil, shouting down one guy in the crowd. Stoning's next?



Here's the longer video where Ed Schultz tracks all the Romney/Ryan lies. It's important to note that no matter how good a point Ed or anyone in the more liberal media makes, we're locked in our own echo chamber. We're fooling ourselves if we think were changing anyone's mind with the facts. The polls are showing that.

Janesville's favorite son is polling well in the state, putting Romney in the lead by 1 percentage point. Likability is up for Ryan too. I'm fascinated by the fact that Ryan has the ability to actually sell a horribly unrealistic 30 year plan on the deficit, require greater out of pocket costs to seniors on a fixed income for Medicare, reduce or get rid of hard working Americans safety nets, penalize the public for an economy trashed by Wall Street banks, and turn health care into a consumer product you either can or can't afford.

Romney/Ryan are slightly behind, tie and ahead according to recent polls. It's close, leaning toward a Republican win, and a big win for the Senate Republicans anti-Obama strategy of filibustering everything. Sadly, we're going to be getting just what we deserve.