"You're Doing A Heck Of A Job, Scottie"

The dumbassedness continues in the governor's mansion in Wisconsin, where Scott Walker's guts are probably starting to curdle and twist in fear of the no show Tuesday by the state senate's Democratic caucus, an act that will effectively force him to deal with his budget shortfall without the benefit of a bond refinancing.

I couldn't see it happening to a nicer guy.

I told you earlier this week why this kicked out of college nincompoop would be an idiot for giving the rest of the world time to really study the entire 146 pages of that bill he and his posse were trying to pass so fast.

I could never have imagined that he would be dumb enough to TAKE A CALL FROM A BILLIONAIRE WHO IS ON FUCKING SKYPE! I actually have a similar recording device on my Skype account, although it doesn't work nearly as well as the one used by the editor of the Buffalo Beast.

Which is why "you're doing a heck of a job, Scottie" is getting half hearted endorsements from his fellow GOP governors, including ole Chris Christie, who just can't seem to form his lips around the words "no collective bargaining in my state."

But that's not why I'm posting here on a Saturday when I am almost half a day behind schedule already. I'm here because I am disgusted at the way this entire debacle, as ridiculous as its underlying premise is, has been discussed by the mainstream media solely in right wing talking points, as if the Fourth Estate doesn't own any dictionaries. Most of the people who call themselves journalists these days need to pour gasoline on their keyboards and set them on fire.

FOR INSTANCE, the entire conversation this week has focused on the compensation of public sector workers. But instead of describing their salaries and benefits accurately, as a combined salary and benefits package, they have mostly fallen down on the job, insisting that the taxpayers are "footing the bill" for public employees pension plans, when any fifth grader can tell you that if you agree to give him an apple to take out your trash, and he tells you to cut the apple in half and so he can have some later, the half you give him later is still a half that he earned for taking out your trash.

But I guess I shouldn't expect much from an entire contingent of journalists and pundits who continually refer to the Social Security as an "entitlement program" even though it has always been set up as an INSURANCE PLAN, one that has provided a whole lot of cash for our Congress to piss away like water back when times where good.

So if you have fifteen minutes today, you need to read this article on the Forbes magazine blog that takes the rest of their brethren to task for royally fucking up a fundamental part of the whole Wisconsin union pension argument - whose money is this?

Pulitzer Prize winning tax reporter, David Cay Johnston, has written a brilliant piece for tax.com exposing the truth about who really pays for the pension and benefits for public employees in Wisconsin.

Gov. Scott Walker says he wants state workers covered by collective bargaining agreements to “contribute more” to their pension and health insurance plans. Accepting Gov. Walker’ s assertions as fact, and failing to check, creates the impression that somehow the workers are getting something extra, a gift from taxpayers. They are not. Out of every dollar that funds Wisconsin’ s pension and health insurance plans for state workers, 100 cents comes from the state workers.
The Wisconsin Lie Exposed

This is why newspapers are going out of business - because their publishers insist on keeping their staffers on a leash and printing the kind of bullshit stories the general public could care less about.

As Gordon Gekko said to Bud Fox, "tell me something I don't already know."

And if you can't do that, just present the facts - ALL OF THEM - whether or not they look "objective" or "balanced" - and quit wasting our time with "response quotes" from bald faced liars, no matter which political party they support.