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 July 16th, 2008

Another shiv in the back of Milwaukee’s business climate

by @ 19:54. Filed under Business, Politics - Milwaukee.

(H/T – Peter)

JSOnline’s DayWatch reports that the various groups seeking to impose mandatory paid sick leave on every private-sector employer in Milwaukee via direct legislation had enough signatures verified. Businesses with more than 10 employees would be required to provide an hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, or 9 full days (72 hours) for a full-time employee, while small businesses would have their liability capped at 5 full days (40 hours). Employees would also be able to bank the time, but not take more than 72 hours per year.

Since this is direct legislation, the only way this can be stopped is if the Common Council decides to let the voters have their say, and then the voters reject it. The Council cannot otherwise do anything other than adopt it as-is.

Welcome to France.

Civilian National Security Force?

by @ 19:01. Filed under Politics - National.

How did I miss this one? Barack Obama uttered this back on July 2:

Obama repeated his pledge to boost the size of the active military. But he also said the nation’s future and safety depends on more than just additional soldiers….

“We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set,” he said Wednesday. “We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded.”

Note – there is a reason why I cut the two paragraphs I did; I will return to them later in the post.

The first mention in a search of my over-bloated feed reader came from Charles Johnson over at Little Green Footballs on the 8th. Michelle Malkin put it in the Hot Air Headlines on the 13th. There were a couple of other mentions between then and today, but still somehow I missed it until Leslie Carbone and Fred picked it up today.

If one only looked at the portions of the article I quoted, it would either be exceptionally-good news or exceptionally-ugly news. Does that mean I’ll be able to get that Paladin (I still qualify as a member of the unorganized militia as defined in the United States Code)? Does it mean that Asian Badger (an ex-Navy pilot) would not only be able to mount a minigun on AB1, but replace AB1 with an F-15E Strike Eagle, complete with bunker-buster bombs (I call back seat!)? If it means that, we’re looking at something north of $400 billion in spending.

Does it mean that the military loses those and future weapons to match the inability of the populace to get automatic weapons or explosives? After all, Obama is on record as advocating unilateral nuclear disarmament and a “slowdown” of developing new conventional military weapons.

I guess it’s time to bring in the “missing” paragraphs to help explode some fantasies:

“It also depends on the teacher in East L.A., or the nurse in Appalachia, the after-school worker in New Orleans, the Peace Corps volunteer in Africa, the Foreign Service officer in Indonesia,” he said.

Obama had first outlined many of the proposals he talked about Wednesday during appearances in Iowa last December.

It sure sounds like a combination of a return to the wussification of the standing military conducted under Bill Clinton and a massive expansion of the federal nanny state. Not at all surprising, yet disappointing, from a person whose first considered reaction to 9/11 was that the college-educated leaders of Al Qaeda just didn’t have enough education and welfare opportunities.

Roll change – striking out on her own

by @ 11:23. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Katie Favazza, the managing editor of Townhall Magazine, has decided to take her blog to WordPress. Please adjust your rolls to http://www.katiefavazza.com, and fix your readers accordingly.

The Morning Scramble – 7/16/2008

by @ 11:06. Filed under The Morning Scramble.

Summer is here…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fxhebNeFXk[/youtube]

  • Jim Hoft found a bare spot in the latest Obamination whitewash. Those of you with weak stomachs and those of you in “sensitive” offices, you may not want to view the latest SluShop presented by Ace (the rest of you, enjoy).
  • McQ highlights the long, sordid history of Barack Obama’s view on the Second Amendment. Do remember that past performance is an indicator of the future, and it’s bleak for those of us that are armed.
  • Patrick Ruffini sounds the alarm on the Obamination Ground Game. If memory serves, Hillary Clinton spent a ton on state-level staffing.
  • That includes the opening of Obama’s Waukesha office (from Cindy Kilkenny, who beat the local paint-catcher by two news cycles). Waukesha County, in 2004, had the second-largest percentage spread and largest vote-total spread favoring President Bush in the state.
  • Stix, with the help of Michael Ramirez, found the draft of Obama’s proposed Brandenburg Gate speech.
  • American Pundit found Time not knowing what happened in May 2004. Only in an Obamination does $22 million beat $26 million.
  • Uncle Jimbo fires for effect on the Obamination Iraq Flip.
  • Michelle Malkin educates Obama on the level of education of the Al Qaeda leadership.
  • More Gateway Pundit on the Obamination Watch – he caught Obama flipping on The New Yorker cover. Guess his wife (the bad Michelle) let him have his Malkins after the good Michelle told him to grow a pair.
  • Lee Cary found Obama’s plan to fully-federalize education. The good news; no more referendums to increase taxes to build new Taj Mahals staffed by millionares. The bad; no say in the increased taxes to build new Taj Mahals staffed by millionares.
  • Rick Moran found some rumblings below the Obamination mountaintop. Unlike Rick, I believe there is some cow to go along with the bell. The superdelegates already proved themselves to be a fickle lot.
  • Warner Todd Huston found that lobbyists will be sponsoring the Obamination coronation. Does this count as another Barack-track?
  • Byron York found the architect of the previous $6.3 billion accounting scandal at Fannie Mae giving economic advice to Obama. Suggestion for those of you looking for the outrage from the Left; don’t hold your breath.
  • Jim Geraghty found the Washington Post dangerously-close to apostasy as they declared that Obama is “indifferent” to the outcome in Iraq. When even the liberal Washington gatekeeper doubts one’s committment, there’s definitely something wrong.
  • William Teach found Obama caring about Muslim sensitivities over The New Yorker cover.
  • Smooth transition time (if I hadn’t announced it, that is) – Zip found the head of the Anglican Christian Dhimmitude Church bowing once again to his Islamokazi masters.
  • In light of the previous two items, Jon Ham asks whether there is nothing that won’t offend Muslims. Let me start with polygamy and honor killings.
  • Fred Keller says, “Know thine enemy.”
  • Mike Pechar found a brand-new religion; smokers. They already have more gumballs than the Archbishop of Cantebury. Unfortunately for the shrinking number of American smokers, the religion started in Europe.
  • McQ found even more evidence that Gorebal “Warming” has replaced Socialism as the leading secular religion. Actually, Gorebal “Warming” is merely the latest manifestation of Socialism, as it pushes the same claptrap (lack-of-)results arranged to a slightly-different set of “greivances”.
  • A lot of people caught this, but I’ll give the credit to Teresa – she found a direct connection between even the discussion of more drilling and lower crude oil prices. I believe Degeneration X has two words for SanFranNan.
  • Silent E and Michael Ramirez have 1,000 words for SanFranNan and her opposition to drilling where there is oil.
  • Kevin Fischer outlines the costs of allowing oil prices to continue rising. Do note that study was in a vacuum; it would be even worse with all the additional spending the ‘Rats, both nationally and statewide, want.
  • Dad29 has a simple solution to the petroleum crunch. Of course, those that are “sick” of oil won’t give up its advantages; they want us to give up its advantages.
  • Speaking of gubmint spending, John J. Miller and Americans for Tax Reform wish you Happy Cost of Government Day.
  • Sean Hackbarth caught Barney Frank (D) declaring the dollar (actually, $4,000,000,000) “lousy”.
  • Curt says there’s going to be trouble for “some” in Washington, namely those in the bipartisan Party-In-Government that thought the surge wouldn’t work.
  • Stephen Green found a Denver Goron that wouldn’t mind feces thrown at the police in his city.
  • Jeff Emanuel found that Rush Limbaugh is right again – conservatism wins every time it’s credibly espoused.
  • Tom Tancredo sounds the early warning on the potential failure of Mexico as a nation; their police are starting to seek political asylum here because they’re threatened by the drug cartels.
  • Ed Driscoll says the blogosphere market is up 48% this year. Shoebox and I are wondering where our mad blogging money is.
  • We’re in between Drinking Right and Blog ‘n Grog, but that won’t stop the beer from flowing. Wyatt Earp found a guy with a $1000/week beer habit. That’s some serious drinking.
  • James Wigderson thinks he’s part of the Drinking for McCain brigade.
  • Van Helsing found the next target of the Nannies; strong beer. Stay out of my Labatt Maximum Ice and everything will stay golden.

Boo Hoo, Don’t Hurt the Caribou!

by @ 5:10. Filed under Energy.

As the Dems continue to bet on a losing hand, they’ve posited all kinds of reasons why we shouldn’t open ANWR. The one that is focused on the heart strings and gets repeated with both great ignorance and emotion is: “You can’t drill in ANWR! The Caribou will be disrupted and not be able to migrate, mate, make little Caribous etc.”

As I’ve said before, I’d be happy to sell Alaska back to the Russians for the same price we bought it for. I’ll guarantee that the Russians would put a drill through the head of a sleeping baby Caribou to get the oil out.

I was initially suprised that some found my plan “insensitive.” However, when I thought about it more, I see their point. It would be like selling a used car that you knew had a bad head gasket. Why would we want to saddle the Russians with our Envirowhackos? We should be willing to deal with our own problem.

So what about these Caribou? The MSM would have you believe that they will be at big risk should we disrupt them in ANWR. When we show them pictures of Caribou hanging around the Prudhoe Bay facilities and pipeline, they tell us that they gather there because we have disrupted their migration patterns.

Nuts!

Take a look at what the Alaska Department of Natural Resources says about Caribous and oil drilling.

 Alaska Department of Natural Resouces says about Caribous and oil drilling:

Population dynamics: There are approximately 950,000 wild caribou in Alaska (including some herds that are shared by Alaska and Canada’s Yukon Territory). Caribou are somewhat cyclic in number, but the timing of declines and increases, and the size to which herds grow is not very predictable. Although overhunting caused some herds to remain low in the past, today, varying weather patterns (climate), overpopulation, predation by wolves and grizzly bears, and disease outbreaks determine whether most herds increase or decrease.

In the 1970s people were concerned about the effect of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline, expanding oil development, and increased disturbance from use of aircraft and snowmobiles on caribou. Although there was some displacement of caribou calving in the Prudhoe Bay oilfield, in general, caribou have not been adversely affected by human activities in Alaska. Pipelines and most other developments are built to allow for caribou movements, and caribou have shown us that they can adapt to the presence of people and machines. As human activities expand in Alaska, the great challenge for caribou management is for man to consider the needs of our caribou herds and ensure that they remain a visible, healthy part of our landscape.

In fact, the myths you hear about the Caribou were based on hypothetical hysteria before any development had been done (sound familiar?) or, as the Heartland Institute shows in this paper, on incomplete studies:

In 1995, Congress considered opening ANWR to oil exploration, but the initiative failed. That same year, an important census was taken of the caribou herd that uses the existing oil fields. Caribou numbers were found to have declined from 23,000 in 1992 to about 18,000 in 1995.

Most notably, the numbers of caribou in the western part of the range (with the oil fields) fell from 14,842 in 1992 to 6,327 in 1995, while numbers in the eastern part of the range (without oil fields) increased from 8,602 to 11,766 during the period.

The results of the census were heralded in a front-page headline in the Anchorage Daily News, “Oil field caribou decline.” The story focused on speculation that something about the oil fields had caused the decline.
…..
The herd was counted again in 1997, and the caribou numbers were found to have increased from the 1995 levels, to over 19,000 caribou. The number of caribou in the western range (with the oil fields) increased to 10,669 between 1995 and 1997, while the numbers in the eastern range (without oil fields) fell to 9,061 caribou.

The year 2000 caribou census showed the herd population had increased to 27,128 animals. The number of caribou in both the western (oil field) and eastern (no oil field) ranges increased (to 14,295 in the western range and 12,833 in the eastern range). This provides strong evidence that the oil fields did not cause the decline in caribou numbers between 1992 and 1995.

Incredibly, these dramatic reversals of the negative results of 1995’s census were not reported to the public.

“But Wait,” the Whackos say. “We’re not talking about any ‘ol Caribou this time! We’re talking about the Porcupine Caribous and they are MUCH different!”

Um, no, they aren’t really.

The Porcupine Caribou wander vast areas and move their calving grounds from year to year just like their cousins by Purdhoe Bay. Yes, the proposed drilling area is in part of their known calving area, but so was Purdhoe Bay’s drilling area in a calving area. While Purdhoe Bay was more centrally located in a calving area (this is part of what you’ve heard referred to as the “caribou migration issue”) and much larger, the ANWR drilling area is proposed on the very Western side of a large, annually changing, calving area. Just like their cousins to the West, unless the Porcupine Caribou have become intransigent Democrats, they will adjust and be no worse for the wear…again, just like their cousins.

Perhaps Nancy and Harry could learn something from the Porcupine Caribou.   When the Caribou’s circumstances change, they adapt to survive while the Dems refuse to acknowledge reality.   Could it be that the Caribous are actually a higher evolved specie than that of a Democrat leader?

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