No Runny Eggs

The repository of one hard-boiled egg from the south suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (and the occassional guest-blogger). The ramblings within may or may not offend, shock and awe you, but they are what I (or my guest-bloggers) think.

Archive for September 25th, 2006

Paging Mr. Belling, paging Mark Belling

by @ 18:47. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

(H/Ts – Patrick and Brian)

I hope that this commercial from the Green Team whacking back at Team Craps’ attempts to buy the election meets with your approval. It does meet with mine.

Consolidating the Grand Theft Courts posts

by @ 18:16. Filed under The Blog.

I created a new category called Grand Theft Courts to consolidate my various posts on the attempts by Team Craps to rob the Green campaign of between $468,000 and $1.24 million (the amount depends on how successful their multi-part effort is).

Unconstitutional Highway Robbery endorsed by Doylie judge

The last sentence of the order from Dane County District Court Richard Neiss (appointed by Jim Doyle to the bench in 2004) that denies the Green campaign’s request for a temporary injunction (both links from JSOnline) against the State Doylie Election Board’s ruling retroactively declaring $467,884 of the $1.3 million the Green campaign says it all regarding the approach of Team Craps –

The bottom line is that the Elections Board reached the correct result, regardless of the infirmities, if any, in its process.

Allow me to translate – it doesn’t matter whether the state Constitution (specifically, Article 1, Section 12) is violated, just as long as Team Craps and the State Doylie Elections Board gets to commit highway robbery. Morever, the Doylie judge has set up the rationale to complete the full-monty Grand Theft Courts of the $1.24 million the state “Justice” Department now wants to pull off.

Just how is the state Constitituional prohibition against ex post facto laws violated by Team Craps, which now includes a hand-picked judge? First, let’s take a look at the section itself (the annotated version of the state Constitution is linked above):

No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, nor any law impairing the obligation
of contracts, shall ever be passed, and no conviction shall work corruption of blood or forfeiture of estate.

Just what is an ex post facto law? The annotated version of the state Constitution defines it as such:

An ex post facto law is one that punishes as a crime an act previously committed, that: 1) was innocent when done; 2) makes more burdensome the punishment for a crime, after its commission; or 3) deprives one charged with a crime of any defense available at the time the act was committed. State v. Thiel, 188 Wis. 2d 695, 524 N.W.2d 641 (1994).

The annotated verison further goes on to note that this provision applies to judicial pronouncements:

The ex post facto prohibition applies to judicial pronouncements as well as legislative acts. The question to be addressed is whether the new law criminalizes conduct that was innocent when committed. State v. Kurzawa, 180 Wis. 2d 502, 509 N.W.2d 712 (1993).

So, what was the status of state law regarding the conversion of a federal campaign to a state campaign as of January 25, 2005, the date that Mark Green’s campaign made said conversion? Since the State Doylie Elections Board subsequently changed the applicable administrative rule (ElBd 1.39), we have to head to pages 9 and 10 SEB legal counsel George Dunst’s memo of January 26, 2005, where Dunst describes how the administrative rule that applied to a conversion of a federal campaign to a state campaign could be amended to prohibit same. Stripping out the language underlined and restoring the language struck through reveals the status of ElBd 1.39 as of the date Mark Green converted his campaign from a federal one to a state one:

ElBd 1.39 Conversion of federal campaign committee to state committee.

(1) As used in this rule,
(a) “Federal campaign committee” means the campaign committee of a candidate for federal office, which is not registered with a state or local filing officer, and
(b) “State campaign committee” means the personal campaign committee of a candidate for state or local office.

(2) A federal campaign committee may convert to a state campaign committee and use funds collected for federal purposes in a state or local campaign filing a campaign finance registration statement, pursuant to s. 11.05, Stats., with the appropriate filing officer and simultaneously filing a campaign finance disclosure report showing the sources of all funds on hand at the time of the report, pursuant to the requirements of s. 11.06 (1) (a), (b), (c), (d) and (f), Stats. In determining the sources of funds on hand and allocating those funds among the sources, the funds shall be treated on a last-in, last-out basis, so that they will be attributed in the report to the most recent sources, in the full amount received from each source.

Indeed, Judge Neiss acknowleges, as part of the “Undisputed Facts” of his order, that the emergency rule (ElBd 1.395) that the Green campaign seeks relief from did not apply at the time of the conversion (emphasis in the original):

17. On January 25, 2005, Congressman Mark Green converted his federal campaign committee to a state campaign committee by filing a campaign finance registration statement and a campaign finance disclosure report….

19. On January 26, 2005, the Board met for the purpose of, among other matters, discussing the issue of the conversion of federal campaign committees to personal state campaign committees….

20. The Board voted to promulgate an emergency rule (ElBd 1.395). The Emergency Rule was published on or about February 3, 2005….

21. The Emergency Rule states:

ElBd 1.395 Use of funds transferred by a federal campaign committee to a state committee restricted.

Funds which have been converted by a federal campaign committee to a Wisconsin state campaign committee may not be used for political purposes in Wisconsin if the contribution of those funds to the federal campaign committee would not have complied with Wisconsin law if the contribution had been made directly to a Wisconsin campaign committee. The state campaign committee shall divest itself of such money in compliance with s.11.26(11), Stats.

22. Wis. Stat. ยง 227.24(c) states with respect to emergency rules:

A rule promulgated under par. (a) takes effect upon publication in the official state newspaper or on any later date specified in the rule and, except as provided under sub (2), remains in effect only for 150 days.

The ruling then goes on to justify the denial of the injunction by essentially denying that the version of ElBd 1.39 that existed on January 25, 2005 ever existed. I’m not a lawyer, and I don’t profess to play one on the Web, but that sure looks like a violation of the state Constitution to me. Of course, we all know what the state Constitution means to Jim “Craps” Doyle (WEAC/Potawatomi-For Sale) and his Craps-packed State Supreme Court.

Cheddarsphere league wrapup Week 2

by @ 7:35. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Once again, a week late and a dollar short…

– Spiraling Colby 101.55 (2-0, 214.83), Right Wing Wackos 96.42 (1-1, 213.09) – In the matchup of the top 2 scoring teams in Week 1, the Colby used the two-pronged attack of Donovan McNabb (28.85) and LaDanian Tomlinson (24.20) to overcome a spirited performance by the Wackos and the OldBrowns (27.00).

– No Bid Contracts 109.25 (1-1, 195.79), Highway Runners 44.10 (0-2, 105.05) – The Contracts used Brett Favre (30.55) to pave over the depleted Runners. Trent Green and Clinton Portis were scratched from the lineup, and Terrell Owens suffered a broken finger early in his game. Joey Galloway led the Runners with 16.10.

– TheDebateTeam 102.50 (2-0, 203.87), Warriors 99.01 (1-1, 175.07) – The Debaters needed just about every point from top-scorer Peyton Manning (32.70) to overcome the Warriors. Rudi Johnson showed up to play, scoring 26.80.

– teach3 93.34 (1-1, 184.83), Caledonia Bloggers 68.35 (0-2, 129.86) – Carson Palmer (21.14) returned to form in time to lead teach3 to an easy victory over the Bloggers. Larry Johnson (14.70), Corey Dillon (14.00) and Matt Stover (14.00) also joined in the balanced attack for the Teach, while Dallas was the Bloggers’ top scorer at 12.00.

– Vast Conspirator 105.55 (1-1, 160.99), City Workers 90.47 (1-1, 188.24) – The Conspirators used 6 double-digit players, led by Antonio Bryant (19.10) to beat the Workers at the consistency game. Buffalo (18.00) led 5 Workers who topped 10 points.

Sanders’ Sabers 121.14 (2-0, 203.88), Killer Boars 74.82 (0-2, 171.14) – On the strength of some trickery and 7 of 9 players going into double digits, the Sabers simply outgunned the Boars. Eli Manning (31.17) almost outpointed his big brother to lead the cavalry charge, while Chicago’s defensive mastery (16.00) was once again not enough for the Boars.

Cheddarsphere league wrapup Week 1

by @ 6:53. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Yeah, it’s a couple weeks late, so sue me, just leave my team (Spiraling Colby) alone :-)

– Spiraling Colby 113.28, teach3 91.49 – Behind game-breaking performances by Donovan McNabb (20.98), LaDanian Tomlinson (20.90 in an unnecesary pile-on), and Frank Gore (27.00), the Colby rolled over preseason favorite teach3. Carson Palmer, teach3’s starting quarterback, treated Week 1 like a preseason game, and despite the Bengals mauling the Chiefs 23-10, he only scored 3.69 points.

– Right Wing Wackos 116.67, No Bid Contracts 86.54 – Behind the strengths of top-scoring Kurt Warner (27.77) and the OldBrowns shutout of Tampa (25.00), the Wackos steamrolled the No Bid Contracts. D’onte Stallworth shined in his debuts for the No Bidders and the Eagles, getting 20.10 points. Chris Cooley piled up the only negative score of the week, costing the Contracts 0.30 points.

– TheDebateTeam 101.37, Vast Conspirator 55.44 – It was no contest as two of the Conspirators (Stevfe Smith, Mike Vanderjagt) sat out Week 1 with injuries. Jeff Wilkins whacked 6 field goals for 21.00 points for the Debaters, while Ronnie Brown gamely put up 18.20 for the Conspirators.

Sanders’ Sabers 82.74, Caledonia Bloggers 61.51 – The transplanted Texan used a balanced attack of Eli Manning (17.94), Steven Jackson (14.00) and Pittsburgh (14.00) to overwhelm the Caledonian in this one. Tom Brady ignored a bum shoulder to put up 14.31 for the Bloggers.

Warriors 76.06, Highway Runners 60.95 – The Warriors came out to play, with the Johnson Boys (Rudi-16.30 and Brad-14.36) leading the way in this mild upset. Terrell Owens’ 14.00 lead the Runners.

City Workers 97.77, Killer Boars 96.32 – The City Workers used a 5-player double-digit attack (Marvin Harrison-11.30, Tiki Barber-17.10, Heath Miller-16.10, Chester Taylor-19.10 and Buffalo-14.00) to score a comeback squeaker victory. Chicago’s 19.00 and Fred Taylor’s 17.50 helped the Boars to a Sunday night lead, but it wasn’t quite enough.

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