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 December 6th, 2007

Reason #16,329 taxes are out of control in Wisconsin

I missed the budget meeting and the subsequent Common Council meeting here in Oak Creek where they passed a tax-and-spend-to-the-max 3.86% levy increase/4.1% expenditure increase budget the other week. However, thanks to Mark Verhalen, I do have one of the reasons why they did that rather than the original 3.03% levy increase and 3.0% expenditure increase; they wanted to grab $250,000 in additional state shared revenue for the 2009 budget under a program supposedly for communities that practice fiscal restraint available only to those local governments that did tax and spend to the max.

Yes, you heard that right – the state is passing out state tax money to communities that screw the taxpayers the maximum amount allowed so that they can continue to spend out of control when the one-year semi-freeze limit hits.

Words, at least those not involving BS-bombs, H-bombs and F-bombs, fail me.

Damn that glass .500 ceiling

by @ 19:37. Filed under Sports.

The week went much like the Packer game; an early-fuckup, a battle back, and a late choke.

Green Bay 27 (+7) @ Dallas 37 – Unfortunately, only half the secondary showed up, and was promptly taken out of the game by zebras. Fortunately, the over came in.
Detroit 10 @ Minnesota 42 (-4) – If only the Packers had taken care of business,….
NY Giants 21 @ Chicago 16 (+2) – How do you spell choke? B-E-A-R-S! Damn the G-men for getting greedy when all they needed to do was run the clock out and kick a field goa.
Atlanta 16 @ St Louis 28 (-3.5; line from the Las Vegas Sports Consultants opening line) – In a battle of backups, it’s best not to play the third-stringer.
Buffalo 17 (+6) @ Washington 16 – I wonder if the Hall of Fame can kick out a coach for sheer stupidity.
Houston 20 @ Tennessee 28 (-4) – The Texans were definitely doomed.
Jacksonville 25 (+7-WIN) @ Indianapolis 28 – Or get smashed by the over.
New York Jets 40 (+1.5; line from MGM Grand) @ Miami 13 – Do not look for the Jets to score 40 the last 4 games.
San Diego 24 (-6) @ Kansas City 10 – Where was this LT all season?
Seattle 28 (+3; line from MGM Grand) @ Philadelphia 24 – The Eagles’ fans are wondering what they’ve done to deserve this. Clue – the booing of Santa.
San Francisco 14 (+3) @ Carolina 31 – And I missed out on a 30″ walleye. At least I know my counter-contra picks worked out.
Cleveland 21 (-1) @ Arizona 27 – The NewBrowns continue to beat themselves on the road.
Denver 20 (-3.5) @ Oakland 34 – Actually, it turned into a hell of a week for the out-of-staters.
Tampa Bay 27 (+3) @ New Orleans 23 – Bow-wow-wow!
Cincinnati 10 (+7; line from MGM Grand) @ Pittsburgh 24 – Fugly explains the BenGALS.
New England 27 (-21-LOSS) @ Baltimore 24 – The Pats are exposed. Unfortunately, the ghost of Dennis Green infected the OldBrowns.

9-7 on the week and 1-1 in the over/unders punches me to 90-91-11 ATS and 16-9-1 on the over/unders.

NFL Week 14

by @ 19:07. Filed under Sports.

I’ll add a link to the wrapup of an oh-so-close Week 13 in a bit, but I need to get this out before kickoff. As always, the lines come from Bodog, which unlike last week, doesn’t have any games off the board.

Chicago @ Washington (-3) – This time, it will not come down to a Gibbs brain-fart.
Oakland @ Green Bay (-11) – The good news; Eric (aka Black Tygrrrr) won’t have to rip his “We’ll trade our 45 for your #4” sign in half.
Dallas (-11.5) @ Detroit – The Lions continue their late-season slide. Take the over-51.5.
Minnesota San Francisco (+9) – This game features the dumbest over/under I’ve seen all season. Take the over-39.
Carolina @ Jacksonville (-11) – This one’s going to be ugly.
Miami @ Buffalo (-7) – If only it were in Miami, the Fins could avoid another crushing loss. Unfortunately, it’s not.
New York Giants @ Philadelpha (-3) – The G-men will continue to crater.
San Diego @ Tennessee (+1.5) – Ignore history; it’s not Schottenheimer’s Bolts.
St Louis (+7) @ Cincinnati – It’s a very risky play with Bulger not yet certain to play. However, he was a full participant in today’s practice.
Tampa Bay (-3) @ Houston – Can you tell me why the Bucs are only favored by 3? I can’t figure it out, even though the game’s circled.
Arizona @ Seattle (-7) – Stat of the week – Arizona has not swept Seattle since The Realignment. It’s not happening this year either.
Pittsburgh (+10) @ New England – I know, this game’s on the road, where Pittsburgh sucks. However, the Pats have been exposed as having no running game and no real ability to stop the run.
Cleveland (-3.5) @ New York Jets – Insert standard comment about the Game of the Weak
Kansas City @ Denver (-7) – This is in Denver, right?
Indianapolis (-10) @ Baltimore – The OldBrowns had the Pats right where they wanted them; unfortunately, they’re not good enough to do it two weeks in a row.
New Orleans (-4.5) @ Atlanta – The only thing I have to say is the Birds are no good.

Revisions/extensions (7:39 pm 12/6/2007) – Link to the Week 13 wrap.

It’s local election season – Oak Creek’s 2nd Aldermanic seat is open

by @ 17:19. Filed under Politics - Oak Creek.

I probably should’ve had something up before now, but I’ve been a wee bit lax in getting local stuff up. Here’s what’s up for election in Oak Creek in the spring 2008 election cycle:

– 2nd Aldermanic District (incumbent Al Foeckler – not running)
– 4th Aldermanic District (incumbent Michael Toman)
– 6th Aldermanic District (incumbent Tom Michalski)
– City clerk (incumbent Beverly Buretta)
– City treasurer (incumbent Barbara Guckenberger)
– Municipal judge (incumbent Alice Rudebusch)
– One Oak Creek-Franklin School District seat (incumbent Sheryl Cerniglia)

Oak Creek Now points out that candidacy papers are due by 5 pm January 2, and notice of non-candidacy by the incumbents are due by 5 pm December 21.

The word is Al Foeckler announced Tuesday that he is not running for re-election. That leaves an opportunity for interested citizens. Even though I just moved back to the 2nd, I do not anticipate following in the footsteps of Fred Dooley and Kathy Carpenter, but I will offer the following bits of advice for potential candidates (culled from the still-in-business State Elections Board):

– Read the Campaign Finance and Bookkeeping Manual, even if you do not intend to raise or spend more than $1,000 or receive more than $100 from anybody other than yourself in a calendar year.
– File a completed Campaign Registration Statement with the city clerk the moment you decide to run, before you either start raising/spending funds or start circulating nomination papers, and before 5 pm January 2.
– Collect at least 20 signatures on the Nomination Paper for Nonpartisan Office form and have them into the city clerk’s office before 5 pm January 2.
– File a completed Declaration of Candidacy with the city clerk no later than 5 pm January 2.

Huck boomlet about to bust?

by @ 15:11. Filed under Politics - National.

I’m still gathering my thoughts on a “X campaigning days to Iowa” update on the race, while waiting to see what a couple of late-breaking moves (one I should have seen coming, one I couldn’t) and the Mitt Mormon speech did. However, I can’t let Mike Huckabee’s meteoric rise in Iowa, South Carolina (if Rasmussen can be believed), and nationally (again, if Rasmussen or national polls can be believed) go without comment, especially since just about my entire blogroll is playing Hack-a-Huck. Allow me to get my six fouls in.

While I agree with Ace that the presstitutes are pretending to love Huckabee right now and that a Huckabee-Dem matchup would hand the Oval Office to said Dem, I’m a bit more conspiratorial than his implication that matchup is what they want. While they would like that matchup, it is only their second-favorite matchup behind the Rudy Giuliani-Dem one because they’ll win either way there. Despite the (apparent) lack of movement by Fred Thompson, they are still deathly-afraid of Thompson as the nominee, and they’ve also become afraid that the full “conversion” of Mitt Romney to a conservative is real. They needed someone to finish cutting the tires of Romney’s early momentum, and who better than someone that can finish the process of separating the pro-lifers from the Republican Party because his only conservative qualifications are that he’s a Baptist minister and pro-life?

The binary choice of Giuliani and Huckabee is unpalatable to signifiant and different, if somewhat-overlapping, segments of the Republican Party. Despite not being exactly a fiscal or governmental conservative, Giuliani is positively Goldwaterian (circa 1964) compared to Huckabee. On the pro-life front, there almost cannot be a wider difference between the two.

Huckabee has several serious problems as a Presidential candidate beyond his fiscal and governmental liberalism. Despite his late protestations that he isn’t an shill for illegal aliens (H/T – Hot Air), he has a long and sad record of being a shill for same. I wish those three items were enough to have killed his campaign, but as the second President Bush has proven over the last 8 years, the core of conservatism has been eroded over the last 75 years to the point where government-induced “compassion” has become a bigger draw than the desire for a hands-off government that actually maintains its borders.

Depending on whether Huckabee is stopped cold before or after January, it’s fortunate or unfortunate that those are the least of his problems. You may or may not have heard of Wayne Dumond (if you haven’t, he’s a convicted rapist who was paroled at the urging of Huckabee who went on to rape and murder a woman; a damning timeline of Huckabee’s involvement in the decision to parole Dumond at Hot Air). Considering that Republican voters care a bit more about stuff like that than Democratic ones (just ask Mike Dukakis), I’ll wager that Huckabee’s ultimate failure will come well before Dukakis’.

If those don’t sink Huckabee in Iowa and South Carolina, there’s an interesting (in a Chinese way) quote from Huckabee that was caught by Jim Geraghty that will finish the split job started by the presstitutes – “There’s only one explanation for it (Huckabee’s surge in the polls), and it’s not a human one. It’s the same power that helped a little boy with two fish and five loaves feed a crowd of five thousand people.”

Maybe it was the minimum markup law

by @ 13:43. Filed under Business, Politics - Wisconsin.

Crude oil futures are (still) at historic highs, and the last time gasoline futures (specifically, New York’s version of reformulated unleaded) were trading at this level, gas was tickling $3.30/gallon in southeast Wisconsin. I picked up gasoline the other day at $2.88/gallon, and MilwaukeeGasPrices.com has gas as low as $2.73/gallon (note; they drop the 0.9¢, I round up because we pay the extra penny on 9 out of every 10 gallons).

Hmm, what could be the difference between then and now? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? Before you say, “Ethanol,” it’s trading at some of the highest levels of 2007 (December 2007 ethanol at CBOT is over $1.95/gallon). True, it’s significantly lower than the 2006 highs, but those $3.30/gallon gas prices were earlier this year.

Also, before you say, “RBOB”, I’ll note that while NYC RBOB isn’t the same as Milwaukee/Chicago RBOB, they’re close enough, and that NYMEX switched to quoting NYC RBOB some time ago. As a further side note, while those cheaper gas prices haven’t hit much of the state, Janesville, Beloit, and points west of there also have cheap gas, and the last time I checked, there was no RBOB or ethanol requirement there.

Rather, it can fairly be attributed with the elimination via judicial fiat of the minimum markup law with respect to gasoline. Care to revise and extend those remarks that said that eliminating the minimum markup law wouldn’t make any difference, governor? I’m sure the rest of the state would like to enjoy those benefits.

Related to that, a couple of my favorite Assembly members, Leah Vukmir and Bill Kramer, introduced a bill called the Competitive Marketplace Act the other week. It will in one bold stroke wipe out that onerous markup mandated on not only gasoline but tobacco and alcohol, and also wipe out the very real competitive disadvantage Wisconsin retailers have compared to those just across the borders.

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