Brew City Brawler

Boots and Sabers or Boots and Kittens?

Perhaps John Foust and the Boots and Sabers crew have patched things up. Because it appears Owen is doing John a big favor by writing  this post, which John could plant unchanged into Boots and Kittens.

In which the Brawler gives Boots and Sabers a lesson in composition

The other day the Brawler suggested that Boots and Sabers blogger Owen Robinson didn't know much about history.

Apparently, based on Owen's protests, he knows history. He just doesn't know how to write a coherent paragraph.

Here's an original Owen Robinson paragraph from a Waukesha Freeman column:

Since elections are so crucial to the very fabric of our nation, there have always been people who seek to manipulate elections for their benefit. For decades, the crooks of Tammany Hall in New York City routinely stuffed ballot boxes, twisted arms, and invented vote tallies to make sure that their fellow crooks were elected into office. During the LaGuardia administration and for several years afterwards, Tammany was so corrupt that it was none other than the "Prime Minister" of the mob, Frank Costello, who pulled the strings of New York politics.

The Brawler said Owen was linking LaGuardia and Tammany -- a stone-ignorant connection.  (LaGuardia, actually, was a Republican and ran, with FDR's support in 1932, as a reformist against the Tammany Machine.)  (Note: the Brawler includes the first sentence of the paragraph, which he did not in the original go-around.)

Owen says, No I wasn't! When he dropped LaGuardia's name, he was just making reference to the time period! He could have said it was the 1930s or during FDR's administration or Hitler's rein. So, Owen charges, the Brawler was misreading the paragraph and the Brawler should update his post.

The problem, of course, is unlike the 1930's, Hitler or FDR, LaGuardia was a person who was elected as a city politician in New York. And the paragraph as it is written -- regardless of Owen's intent -- suggests that LaGuardia was a product of Tammany Hall. How else could somebody be elected except with the backing of that arm-twisting machine?

Here's a handy definition of a paragraph from Wikipedia (which, yes, Michael J. Cheaney, can be a handy resource if you're familiar with the terms defined and can glean whether the wiki is accurate):

Typically, a paragraph starts with a main point which is followed by supporting details. The non-fiction paragraph usually begins with the general and moves towards the more specific so as to advance an argument or point of view. Each paragraph builds on what came before and lays the ground for what comes next.

Let's review Owen's paragraph. The first sentence is quite general:

Since elections are so crucial to the very fabric of our nation, there have always been people who seek to manipulate elections for their benefit.

Fine (although the "always" is wildly unsubstantiated).

He goes on:

For decades, the crooks of Tammany Hall in New York City routinely stuffed ballot boxes, twisted arms, and invented vote tallies to make sure that their fellow crooks were elected into office.

Wow! That Tammany Hall is clearly an example of "people" who seek to manipulate elections. The sentence  builds on what came before.

He goes on:

During the LaGuardia administration and for several years afterwards, Tammany was so corrupt that it was none other than the "Prime Minister" of the mob, Frank Costello, who pulled the strings of New York politics.

Now, if you assume that each sentence in a paragraph builds on what preceded it -- and lays the groundwork for what follows -- this sentence clearly suggests LaGuardia was a product of Tammany Hall. After all, Tammany Hall made "sure their fellow thugs were elected to office." So how could LaGuardia have been elected if he wasn't a "fellow thug."  Then, after mention of Fiorella's name, we're told that a mobster "pulled the strings of New York politics." (Even though Fiorella worked over time to attack said mobster.) If everything was so corrupt, how could Fiorella have been elected?

Owen can say he knows that LaGuardia was an enemy of Tammany. But the way he writes suggests otherwise. And that's not a misreading. That's looking at the cold print. (One could say he was assuming that Waukesha Freeman readers knew the ins and outs of NYC city politics in the 1930s, but that would be a deeply flawed assumption.) Moreover, Owen completely elides that a strong contingent of progressive Democrats -- including FDR -- were opposed to Tammany.

The Brawer, frankly, is confused as to why Owen didn't allude to Tammany in its19th century heyday. But perhaps that didn't have the hot mobster link he was looking for.

But The Brawler suggests that in the future Owen consult with an English teacher -- Folkbum's a nice guy -- before launching an attack!

UPDATE: Apropos of Michael Horne's comment, the Brawler has corrected repeated misspellings of LaGuardia throughout the piece. The Brawler apparently had an Esenberg moment, what can he say. And yes, the irony -- the damnable irony -- of the misspellings is not lost on the Brawler.

UPDATE II: With admirable brevity and a lack of spelling errors, Kay carries on the fight for good composition in the comments section at Owen's original post. Wendy, meanwhile, demonstrates she doesn't know how to compose a paragraph. None of this will deter the Robinsons from making their voices heard on education policy, however.

Boots and Sabers' Ol Lady Owen REALLY don't know much about history

Here's a whopper among whoppers from Ol Lady Owen Robinson's Waukesha Freeman column on why we need voter ID:

For decades, the crooks of Tammany Hall in New York City routinely stuffed ballot boxes, twisted arms, and invented vote tallies to make sure that their fellow crooks were elected into office. During the LaGuardia administration and for several years afterwards, Tammany was so corrupt that it was none other than the "Prime Minister" of the mob, Frank Costello, who pulled the strings of New York politics.

Owen likes to say he's a history buff, but linking LaGuardia and Tammany is just stone-ignorant, as revealed by a simple glance at wikipedia:

In 1932, the machine suffered a dual setback when Mayor James Walker was forced from office and reform-minded Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president. Roosevelt stripped Tammany of federal patronage, which had been expanded under the New Deal—and passed it instead to Ed Flynn, boss of the Bronx. Roosevelt helped Republican Fiorello LaGuardia become mayor on a Fusion ticket, thus removing even more patronage from Tammany's control.

The Brawler is stunned at Robinson's slander of the little flower, all the more so because over at B&S he suggests that LaGuardia was a Democrat...

Moreover, LaGuardia was not known for his love of the mob:

Being of Italian descent and growing up in a time when crime and criminals were prevalent in New York, LaGuardia loathed the gangsters who brought a negative stereotype and shame to the Italian community. When he was elected to his first term in 1933, the first thing he did after being sworn in was to pick up the phone and order the chief of police to arrest mob boss Lucky Luciano on whatever charges could be found. LaGuardia then went after the gangsters with a vengeance, stating in a radio address to the people of New York in his high-pitched, squeaky voice, "Let's drive the bums out of town." In 1934, LaGuardia's went on a search-and-destroy mission on mob boss Frank Costello's slot machines, which LaGuardia executed with a gusto, rounding up thousands of the "one armed bandits," swinging a sledgehammer and dumping them off a barge into the water for the newspapers and media. In 1936, LaGuardia had special prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey, a future Republican presidential candidate, single out Lucky Luciano for prosecution. Dewey led a successful investigation into Luciano's lucrative prostitution operation, eventually sending Luciano to jail on a 30-50 year sentence.

Does Owen wonder why people laugh at the "When the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor" line in "Animal House"?

And in any event,  don't Republicans feel the case for Voter ID is a bit ... weak ... when none of their examples of widespread voter fraud are more current than the Richard J. Daley machine (they never mention Nixon shenanigans in 1960 btw)? And they can never demonstrate that voter fraud has been an issue in Milwaukee or Wisconsin? Or that there's a machine that can actually sponsor and direct fraud, as was the case in Tammany, Daley's Chicago or the Jim Crow south?

An extra bonus in the column: Owen citing Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich as experts on voter fraud!

Boots and Sabers' Ol Lady Owen don't know much about Iraq

Boots and Sabers' proprietor Ol Lady Owen Robinson says "I agree with this" in response to news that a new law in Iraq will allow Baathists to return to public life.

Shoot, George W. Bush says it's a good thing -- and a breakthrough -- so it must be good news, right?

The Brawler, who recently finished reading the fabulous Imperial Life in the Emerald City about the botched occupation of Iraq, first thought "Too little, too late. Right move about four years ago. Tough to undo years of bloodshed."

The New York Times story makes that point:

However, it was unclear on Saturday how far the legislation would go toward soothing Sunni Arabs, because serious disagreements emerged in the hours after the vote about how much the law would actually do.

While the measure would reinstate many former Baathists, some political leaders said it would also force thousands of other former party members out of current government jobs and into retirement — especially in the security forces, where American military officials have worked hard to increase the role of Sunnis. One member of Iraq’s current de-Baathification committee said the law could even push 7,000 active Interior Ministry employees into retirement.

Liberal blogger Matthew Yglesias has his doubts:

Basically, it's totally unclear how this is going to work in practice and different Iraqi political leaders are making wildly different claims according to their own priorities. Under the circumstances, things could work out for the best, but little has really been achieved here. More to the point, the conflict over what the law says indicates that there isn't any underlying consensus about what ought to be happening, which tends to cast the prospects for reconciliation into doubt.

It's more nuanced than Ol Lady Owen's sterling "I agree with this" analysis -- but possibly a bit more realistic.

The ABCs of Milwaukee's Right Wing

It's 2008 and an election year. That means the full force of the Milwaukee's Stupider Media -- the bloggers, the columnists, the yakkers -- are going to be upon you. 

Here's a handy A-Z guide on what you can expect to hear from them. Because to Milwaukee's right wing, words mean what they want them to mean!

A is for affirmative action. V. bad -- except when it gets Patrick McIlheran a job as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's conservative columnist!

B is for Bush Derangement Syndrome. A condition marked by the belief that George Bush is a good, if not great president,when nearly 7o percent of the country disapproves of the job he's doing. In extreme cases, sufferers will suggest that it's liberals who actually are alienated from America.

C is for Catholic. Against abortion and in favor of vouchers. As for following the Vatican's opposition to the war and support for labor and liberal economic social policies and dialogue with Islamic peoples (including Iran) ... not so much. You can adhere to the Vatican's opposition to the death penalty so long as you mention that (quietly) only once a year.

D is for Democrats. See N is for Nazis.

E is for Evangelicals. S0 long as they mind their place -- dutifully voting for establishment Republicans -- they're fine. Should they try to push one of their own as a presidentail candidate -- Mike Huckabee -- well, that's just unseemly.

F is for France. Because France was right about this whole Iraq War/occupation not being a good idea, they deserve to have abuse heaped upon them. (Neglect to mention that French troops actually are in Afghanistan.) Boycott all things French, including words (laissez faire doesn't count).

G is for Government. Governments that seek to protect the environment, protect workers and administer health care are big bad nannygestapo states. Governments that engage in illegal surveillance of its citizenry, mislead their people into a war and never-ending occupation of another  country and actively seek to push people off the voting rolls are called limited governments.

H is for humor. Retard jokes? Hilarious! Irony? That's hard!

I is for Iraq. As long as we stay there, we're winning. No matter how many people (our own and others) are killed or wounded, no matter how many hundreds of billions go down the drain, no matter how much it exacerbates regional tensions or inspires hatred of the US, we're winning. What are we trying to accomplish? We'll tell you that later!

J is for journalism.  "The smarter the journalists are, the  better off society is. [For] to a degree, people read the press to inform themselves -- and the better the teacher, the better the student body."  Warren Buffet said that. It's unclear whether he knew Jessica McBride teaches journalism at UW-M.

K is for Ku Klux Klan. A white supremacist group. A member of this group might call a group of Latinos "chihuahuas" (particularly if it was a bunch of women and kids) and inform them they should learn English or leave -- as did a prominent Wisconsin right wing blogger.

L is for Liberal. See N is for Nazis.

M is for McBride, Jessica. See here.

N is for Nazis. The political party that, under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, led Germany from 1933 to 1945. It was responsible for the bloodiest war in Europe's history and its rein of terror was marked by the Holocaust, the deliberate extermination of six million Jews and many more others deemed as "unfit." Because liberals (i.e. Democrats) see an activist role for government, this puts them on a continuum with the Nazi Party.

O is for Once Upon a Time. A fictitious past that conservatives frequently hark back to in advancing arguments. For example, Owen Robinson believes that in "once upon a time" people grew old with dignity -- and without the indignity of the welfare state. The fact is, of course, that until big gummint came along, old age mean impoverishment for most working people. History is hard!

P is for Pinochet, Augusto. Chilean general who ousted the democratically elected Salvador Allende in a military coup in 1973 and ruled the country until 1990. Even though he was a dictator whose regime killed thousands of people (including the American Ronni Moffitt, who, along with the actual target Orlando Letelier, who was killed in a car bomb assassination in Washington DC in 1976), some righties think he's OK -- or at least his sins are mitigated -- because he instituted a variety of "free market" reforms. The fact that his economic policies proved disastrous and were often reversed is seldom noted.

Q is for quicheoise. A term of opprobrium for Madison lefties that was invoked by Charlie Sykes in a recent column. The coinage earned him all sorts of huzzahs from other right wing bloggers. Obviously -- as with virtually all other bon mots or insights made by this man -- he lifted it. Nothing necessarily wrong with that. But the Brawler wonders where Sykes get the stones to questions some peoples' manliness when he admitted recently that he was incapable of shoveling out his driveway so his car would get through. Charlie, it's not the length of your driveway that matters -- a real man can always carve a path through the snow!

R is for Robinson, Owen. Proprietor of the rightwing blog Boots and Sabers. He doesn't know much about history. He thinks the only things Justice Louis Butler has to run on are his incumbency and his race. He booted off a commenter over dubious charges of sockpuppetry. He posted a retard joke on his blog and said it was OK because his mom had been a special ed teacher. So you can see why he's the keynote speaker for Green Lake County GOP Lincoln Day Dinner on March 2! See also here and here.

S is for Sykes, Charlie. The latest issue of Milwaukee Magazine summed it up nicely with some quotes from yesteryear.  "Syked Out:“Away from his professional cronies … his books and his daily blows against the status quo, [WTMJ-AM radio host Charlie] Sykes is an isolated man.” (July 2000). “A man of immense talent and ambitions, yet unsure what to do next in life, a man who has gained the respect and fear of the power elite while failing to win the long-term loyalty of even a single friend.” (h/t Whallah!) The Brawler would add that the man seems to get only pettier -- and lazier (want to know what Chuck's going to talk about tomorrow? read conservative blogs the night before) -- with the passage of time.

T is for T-Shirt. Few things exercise Patrick McIlheran more than kids wearing Che T-shirts. Paddy: Don't worry! You can get a Pinochet t-shirt if you want!

U is for urban. Adj. Scary.

V is for voter fraud. There's never been any evidence of organized voter fraud in Milwaukee (it never had the sort of machine that would drive such abuse, for one, at least in the Twentieth Century), but that won't stop the state GOP and its fellow travelers from raising this charge in election cycle after election cycle -- or advocating Voter ID to address an illusory problem. Meanwhile, it will never occur to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel to investigate GOP-instigated voter suppression.

W is for Walker, Scott. The Milwaukee County executive whose strongest base of supprt may be with right wing pundits who live outside Milwaukee County. Ma Brawler, meanwhile, thinks he's a weasel.

X is for Xoff. A prominent member of a group known to the right wing as the "hate left." The evidence of this group's hate? Its tireless effort to poke holes in the bogus arguments of the right. (However, equating Muslims with Nazis is not hate -- it's just freedom of expression!)

Y is for yacht. Yacht is one of many many words that F. Scott Fitzgerald could not spell. Right-wing blogger and attorney Rick Esenberg is known to make a spelling mistake two, misspelling Favre -- twice! -- in one recent post.  According to the formidable logic typical of Jessica McBride (and, frankly, not a few other denizens of Milwaukee's right), this means Rick Esenberg wrote The Great Gatsby.

Z is for Ziegler, Annette. Ethics -- indeed, professionalism -- are for suckers!

(This column, particularly the intro, was "inspired" in part by a recent Patrick McIlerhan column, addressed by Mike Plaisted here.)

Boots and Kittens kickin' it

Perhaps it's for the best that the Boots and Sabers family booted John Foust over questionable, and unproven, charges of sockpuppetry.

It's given Foust more time to work on Boots and Kittens, one of the funniest parody sites anywhere on the Interwebs. (And if you think it's impossible to parody B&S, which often already seems like a parody, check it out.)

In this edition: Hear Wendy's "educational" call on behalf of the AFP!

Meanwhile, over at Boots and Sabers: retard jokes! Nothing like elevating the dialogue!

Indeed.

(Updated from original posting)

Sockpuppetry, deception and Boots and Sabers

You've got to be kidding me.

Last week the Boots and Sabers family booted longtime commenter John Foust on a bogus call of sockpuppetry. Ol Lady Owen Robinson subsequently maintained that the good Mr. Foust had posted under different names on a half dozen occasions. Although he provided no evidence.

Today it turns out that foul-mouthed blogger Wendy Robinson, wife of the aforementioned Owen and a proprietor of the blog, recorded a phone call for the Americans for Prosperity in opposition to the $119 million West Bend school referendum. A referendum that has been wildly misrepresented by the AFP with calls that have come close to breaking the law.

Now sockpuppetry is an Internet no-no. But here's a no-no for columnists (when he's not writing an inspired "Heh" on Boots and Sabers, Owen is  an utterly predictable columnist for the Waukesha Freeman): Actively Working -- or your spouse doing the same -- for an advocacy group on a cause without disclosing it.

Now by working, the Brawler doesn't mean receiving money for your troubles. Volunteering crosses the line.

The reason, of course, is that it raises questions about your independence and it raises the appearance of a conflict of interest. And while columnists are paid to have opinions, they're expected to be more than mouthpieces or flacks. (That said, the Brawler pities the reader who expects intellectual independence from Robinson.)

And, no, it doesn't matter if you (or your spouse) are expressing opinions you would have anyway.

The classic example is George Will helping prep Ronald Reagan for a debate against Walter Mondale and subsequently calling Reagan's performance brilliant. There's no question Will supported Reagan and he no doubt would have extolled his performance regardless of his involvement. But his -- undisclosed -- participation in the process was  widely seen as a breach of trust.

And so it goes with Boots and Sabers.

Another interesting point in the Mike Nichols piece: Apparently AFP has three or four dozen members in West Bend. Apparently that makes it a grassroots organization in Owen's eyes.

A final point: Owen doesn't mention Wendy's involvement with the AFP in yet another broadside against big gummint in his latest Waukesha Freeman column. His key insight: Votes are decided by people who show up. You read it in the Freeman first!

UPDATE: Upon further review, a paragraph has been dropped.

Banned at Boots and Sabers!

It seems Ol Lady Owen Robinson has banned John Foust, frequent commenter and puncturer of Owen's pipedreams, from Boots and Sabers.

Mr. Foust got bumped after, in good fun, pretending to be Wendy in a comment string under yet another wrongheaded piece by Owen.

Wendy, whom the Brawler always thought had better sense, accused Foust of sock puppetry, which violates the B&S TOS. Jed then weighs in and banishes Foust. Owen then claims that Foust has repeatedly posted under a half dozen names in the past and this latest instance was the straw that broke the camel's back.

The Brawler, despite appearances to the contrary, is not omniscient. But he finds Owen's case dubious.

Owen presents no evidence of Foust's sock puppetry -- which would be nice given the severity of the charge ("severity" being a relative term in the Cheddarsphere). But given that Owen's a fan of the Bush administration, perhaps he doesn't view evidence as necessary. That said, the Brawler is confused as to why Owen wouldn't have called Foust on this earlier. Also: Why would Foust, who's obviously not afraid to express opinions and take unpopular positions under his own name, have to resort to sockpuppetry?

Perhaps Owen is correct. While difficult to conceive that reality, it is possible. But the Brawler does wish Owen would present evidence.

UPDATE! In comments John Foust declares his innocence and calls upon Owen to back up his accusation.

The Brawler says: Order some popcorn!

Boots and Sabers: Looks like Owen fell for "another Rovian trick" in Iraq

On Sunday Ol Lady Owen Robinson at Boots and Sabers crowed about this sign of "progress" in Iraq:

Iraq's top Shi'ite, Sunni Arab and Kurdish political leaders announced on Sunday they had reached consensus on some key measures seen as vital to fostering national reconciliation.

Foreign affairs experts and B&S commenters including Joe and Kevin Binversie agreed this was progress. (Curiously, Joe seems to believe that the winning of the peace in Japan and Germany lasted "decades" as violence lingered on. The Brawler has no idea what Joe is talking about -- is he thinking about the much-hyped Nazi "werewolves" cited by disgraced former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld? Joe: there was no meaningful resistance, organized or otherwise, to the US occupation in Japan or Germany. The US maintained a military presence in those countries to check communist expansion, not to suppress resistance in those countries. And there was no meaningful "violence.")

The Brawler  -- who tends to be suspicious of "good news"  coming out of Iraq, particularly if its timed in a manner that fits in with the administration's talking points -- gently suggested that Owen was jumping the gun a bit.

And, shocking no one, the Brawler has been proven correct once again.

From Time Magazine:

Late on Sunday five Iraqi politicians, representing the country's Sunni, Shi'ite and Kurdish constituencies, announced a deal to allow some former members of Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party to return to government jobs, which has been a key demand of Iraq's Sunni Arabs. U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker called the announcement a "positive and encouraging message."

But a day after signing the deal the country's Sunni vice president, Tariq al-Hashemi, announced that the Sunni bloc that walked out of the government August 1 still had no plans to return. "Our previous experience with the government has not been encouraging," he explained, "and we will not go back just because of promises, unless there are real and tangible reforms."

Meanwhile, commenting on Washington Post 's coverage of a GAO report that shows the Administration is blowing its benchmarks on Iraq, Spencer Ackerman at Talking Points Memo observes:

On Monday, President Bush gave a speech praising a recent accord among the Shiite and Kurdish political parties of Nouri al-Maliki's government -- which has no Sunnis, who, along with the Sadrists, have withdrawn from the cabinet -- pledging to play nicer with the Sunnis. (Tariq al-Hashemi's Iraqi Islamic Party, a leading Sunni political entity, signed the accord, but hasn't brought his party back into the government and the other Sunnis doubt Maliki's sincerity.) The cost-free accord for Maliki smelled a lot like an illusory political deal intended to bolster the Petraeus/Crocker assessments next month to Congress. Sure enough, the GAO finds that Bush's public statements about political progress by the Maliki government are entirely contradicted by internal studies:

An internal administration assessment this month, the GAO says, concluded that "this [Sunni] boycott ends any claim by the Shi'ite-dominated coalition to be a government of national unity." An administration official involved in Iraq policy said that he did not know what specific interagency document the GAO was citing but noted that it is an accurate reflection of the views of many officials.

Of course, the Pentagon is saying the report is overly pessimistic. The Brawler supposes Owen Robinson is among that shrinking part of the electorate still gives credence to the people who brought you tales of Jessica Lynch's heroism.

Boots and Sabers ... and sexy pictures!

When he's not mangling the history of health care or Social Security or seeing mirages of progress in Iraq, Owen Robinson of Boots and Sabers can be counted on to denounce the moral turpitude of young hussies who bear "tramp stamps" or who write about, uh, entertaining young men in bathroom stalls.

Given Owen's belief in the importance of marriage and horror at wanton behavior, the Brawler was somewhat surprised to see that Boots and Sabers carries an ad for a retailer of "patriotic" T-shirts that relies on T&A shots to move product.

Click through to the Ranger Up site, and you're first greeted by this image:

It seems difficult to reconcile this picture with a fervent belief in family values and horror at the sexualization of American culture -- I don't see any of these three parties wearing a wedding ring.

But I suppose it's possible the blonde is wearing one -- and the brunette is an upstairs neighbor who just fell through their ceiling!