Major League Demagoguery

It is always interesting to read Joel McNally, a left-wing columnist for the pseudo-newspaper Capital Times of Madison, who also hosts a talk show on a predominately black Milwaukee radio station WMCS (despite being as lily-white as I am). He takes left-wing talking points and adds a pinch of bitter vitriol for a reading sensation that is analogous to projectile vomiting. It's swell!!

This column is typical. He posits that the Republican party is basically a wholly-owned subsidiary of the oil industry (I refuse to call them Big Oil), and lists all the favors Chimpy has done for oil. Of course, this has been beaten into the American public since Bush won the Republican nomination in 2000. It's to the extent that I almost believe it. The only problem is, the GOP is right about oil. There is a supply problem. Lowering demand domestically will only do so much as demand increases in other countries. Simply put, we need more supply.

He faults the Wisconsin GOP for not allowing Jim Doyle's windfall profits tax bill to become law. This quote is amazing:

We had Republican legislators standing up in the Assembly making speeches about how the largest profits in the history of the world weren't actually all that excessive.

Alternately, Republicans argued we shouldn't pass a windfall profits tax on the oil companies because the oil companies were run by such big crooks they would just illegally pass the tax on to consumers.

Doyle's windfall profits tax contained a provision making it illegal to pass the tax along at the pump and included penalties for companies that broke the law.

Republicans said the companies would find devious ways to act illegally and pass the tax along anyway. Their argument basically was we know what big crooks the oil companies we support are and, trust us, they'll find some way to break the law.

In a corrupt political world, it takes one to know one.

Here's a newsflash: All taxes and fees paid by every company everywhere is passed onto the consumer!!! It's part of the price we pay for things!! Jim Doyle wants to alter the laws of economics?!! He can't do it! That is what the GOPers in the Wisconsin Assembly are saying, not that "we know what big crooks the oil companies are..." It was bad law. Also, it was pretty much unenforceable. But, we can't go confusing the issue with facts and evidence, now can we?

After that, McNally goes on about how evil oil companies and their paid handlers in the GOP want to drill for oil. Never mind that this is exactly what needs to happen. McNally is a practicing member of the Church of Mother Earth, so more drilling is blasphemy.

Bottom line: If you like shrill leftists who genuinely hate you if you don't agree with them, then Joel McNally is your guy.