Thursday, March 29, 2012

For The Record, Righty Talker Wagner Way Off Mark On Recall Signatures

WTMJ-AM righty radio talker Jeff Wagner has had a lot to say about the signatures gathered for the Scott Walker recall, so let's go over the record now that the Government Accountability Board in Madison is poised to schedule the recall election because it has certified as valid more 350,000 signatures than the 540,000 of signatures minimally needed.

Here's what Walker said about recall signatures, and what I posted about it in January:

Wednesday, January 18, 2012


Jeff Wagner's Recall Prediction

The WTMJ radio talker has predicted 25% or more of the Walker recall signatures would get tossed.
I'll take a dollar of that.
The Right believed its own word balloons, and whipped up the base, which had already been conditioned to believe in 'voter fraud ['Sic], leading to an interesting comment on that posting from "Reagan's Disciple," one of this blog's inveterate Righty readers:
        Reagan's Disciple said...
I'll say 20% will be tossed.
At the risk of elevating these pseudonymous dreadmeisters - - Yawn. 

And to the people better connected to the effort who predicted in the comments a disqualification rate below 5%. Take a bow. 

It was my personal experience that care taken during the collection process, the signature collectors' universal dedication to a serious task, and the double-and-triple checking at the turn-in stations all kept errors or monkey-business to a minimum.

Now here's how I reported the findings from the GAB earlier Thursday:

Thursday, March 29, 2012


Walker Recall Signature Verification Exceeds Talk Radio, Tea Party Spin

The GAB validates more than 900,000 good signatures on the Walker recall petitions.


The board invalidated roughly 3% of the total submitted.


So the effort by Tea Partiers and talk radio hosts to muddy and monkey-wrench the process with their own 'inspections' and predictions was off by a few hundred thousand signatures and a factor of eight, according to their own 'data' (click through the "True the vote" link).
Talk radio is constantly a fact-free zone.


11 comments:

Anonymous said...

The entire world of politics is a fact-free zone, dear. Lies are knee-deep all around.
And if the response to that (as I suspect it is for most) is to frantically tally up which side is lying more - we've already lost the whole enchilada, and who cares.
I often wonder (since I believe it's true what hairy gurus on tops of mountains say, that the only person you can ever hope to control is yourself) if it might be wise to paddle each of our own little canoes in a nice straight line. Try real hard not to be naughty ourselves, be masters of our own domains. That might even make the bad guys look badder to a confused, exhausted public.
Or, we could probably study the behaviors of the worst of the worst and try real hard to be just like them. Because, you know....it works.
Right? Do I think you personally are a liar? Nope. But I know you see it all around and never call it. (Lol, because the "stakes are too high")

Anonymous said...

Dear Anon1,
Such a doomsday gal you are and then resorting to following the devil down his road of destruction because in your mind it works? Hmmm

Such random thoughts...

Anonymous said...

Anonymous - You make absolutely no sense.
Anon.2

James Rowen said...

You Anonymi should at least adopt screen names so we can folo this a little easier.

Reagan's Disciple said...

While my prediction may have been high, it is probably not far off.

After all, the number claimed when they were submitted was over 1 million for Walker alone.

In fact, left commentator Boxer stated 1.9 million*, baby!!! Can't argue with that!
* combined total, Walker and Kleefisch.


Given the initial union numbers of 1.9 million total signatures, an actual number of 1.7 million signatures is 12% less than the original total claimed by big labor.

While I will admit that is certainly not 20%, it is still in the numerical ballpark. Now if we had a truly fair and impartial GAB (which in error I forgot to factor in), I certainly think there would have be more signature struck.

Would it have reached 20%? Probably not, but it likely could have reached the mid teens.

Someone should have taken me up on my 20% wager. They could have made some money for their favorite charity or union.

gnarlytrombone said...

After all, the number claimed when they were submitted was over 1 million for Walker alone

The GAB (rightly) struck 12,000 names for "incomplete" dates. That doesn't mean those people are fictitious.

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

I certainly think there would have be more signature struck.

I bet you do.

Hilarious in any case, since the GAB would have had to invalidate nearly half the signatures to avoid a recall, an unprecedented amount.

Pretty typical though. When something doesn't go the 'right' way, claim all the agencies involved are partisan. The GAB is explicitly non-partisan.

Boxer said...

Rayguns,

Your predictor ray gun is shooting blanks again.

I'm no mathematician, but it doesn't take one to see the B.S. in:
"While I will admit that is certainly not 20%, it is still in the numerical ballpark."

No, 12% is NOT in the numerical ballpark of 20% -- it's more in the ballpark of 10%, and that's IF one accepts your ridiculous proposition (debunked above by GT) that the number of signatures claimed by Dems in a press release on signature delivery day would equal the actual number of signatures counted as received by GAB. (Did you think that Dems don't round up as you do--or have you gone so far around the bend that your lies, such as numbers of jobs created by Walker, feel like truth to you?) (1)

As long as we're on the subject of fuzzy math, as I pointed out above, 12% is closer numerically to 10% (again, IF one accepts your 12% which one doesn't). And 10% is numerically in the ballpark of 5% (closer to 5% than your 12% is to your 20%) which is in the numerical ballpark of 0%, or statistically negligible.

Or you can just choose to go with James'3%, even more statistically negligible.

I'd take his word any day over that of the partisan, cretinous tea baggers your side imported from outside Wisconsin to do your dirty work. Remember--oh no, RECALL--how well that worked out for you during the election? I think there's a clip on YouTube. . .

And do you recall that at the time you made the 20% prediction, you and others intimated --and sometimes said outright--that the disallowed signatures would consist of fraudulent names* and fictitious addresses deployed intentionally to deceive** and circumvent the legal process,*** that we'd have to make up names in order to have enough for a recall?

What I meant by "1.9 million*, baby!!! Can't argue with that!
* combined total, Walker and Kleefisch." --not that it probably matters to you--is that the 1.9 million number was way too high for GOPers or the GAB to disallow enough that the recall would not go forward. You do recall--how I love using that word!--that the issue at the time was whether or not there would be enough signatures collected (given the extremely high standards recallers had to meet) to trigger recalls of Gov Job-Killer and Gov Lite, Becky Kleefisch.

(1) This is why no one took you up on your bet: who would trust you not to manipulate the numbers so you'd not have to pay out--or even worse, be WRONG?

*Recall Micky Mouse, who claimed to have signed 20 times?
**Recall the teacher in Racine/Kenosha who claimed s/he'd collect up to 150 signatures and destroy them, and 'no one would be the wiser'?
***Recall the several Right Wing zealots who snatched clipboards from circulators and tore up a signature sheet or two? Or the one who drove off with the entire clipboard?
Do you recall the Republicans running against Dems in the summer recalls?

It appears that the bulk of voter fraud and election dirty tricks are oozing from the Right: yes, that means you. Read your Bible, the old Testament passage about casting out the log in one's own eye, before looking to the splinter in someone else's eye.

Anonymous said...

The GAB found four, repeat FOUR, names that may be fake in almost two million signatures.

As gnarly notes, the rest deemed not countable do represent thousands of voters against Walker and his minions.

Bring it on, RD. Bring it on, all others who will reap the harvest of these lies, excuse me, misinterpretations of realities for too many years now.

We are taking back our Wisconsin, seat by seat in the state Senate, and now clause by clause in Act 10 struck down as unconstitutional.

Bring it on.

RD said...

Boxer,

Can you read, or do you choose not to? In my post I admitted that I was wrong on my 20% prediction and would have had to pay out if someone took me up on it.

(Just as you should admit you were wrong about your combined total of 1,900,000 signatures.)

Secondly, I don't know what MPS school you went to, but 12% is always closer to 20% than it is to 3%, but I wasn't even arguing that point.

Furthermore, I don't believe I ever denied that there wouldn't be enough signatures to force an election.

Also... what side are you complaining about bringing in out of state people to do the dirty work? That is probably one of the funniest things that I have heard from the left.

Also,your homophobic slurs about the tea party members are getting old. I know it is extremely difficult for you liberals to NOT name call but, really, it's makes you sound unintelligent and more immature than I'm sure you probably are.

RD said...

@ anon

Your side is the one bringing it on. We'll just defend it from the public union leaders.

I'll concede that you may indeed win back the senate. I hope not, but even so, come November and the new election boundaries, it will return back to republican control.

Let me remind you that voter ID was also struck down. We'll wait and see how that plays out for ya ;).

WI is more Red than your coffee shop baristas lead you to believe.