No Runny Eggs

Or at least those that haven’t already been sent to this dark corner of the web by various BBA members. Don’t mind the dust; while I spent a lot of time in the comments sections (and if I somehow missed your blog, I apologize; I just didn’t get to yours yet), I’m still a bit new on this side of things.

Gate, retired Coast Guard who runs The Gatehouse, has a very powerful piece on the life of a Coast Guard family. Please, go read it and then thank him for his service.

John McAdams, the Marquette Warrior, has a great semi-distant review of Katrina coverage. He says it much better than I could, so go and read it.

Here lies yet another view from the part of the lake a bit south of Kevin’s. As Kevin (and the rest of the BBA gang that made it to State Fair) can tell you, I’m usually a lot quieter than this :-)

On Saturday, Milwaukee recorded its 99th and 100th homicides (note that neither merited its own story in the Journal Sentinel; indeed, what turned out to be the 99th victim was item #4 in the regional news briefs and not identified as such until Monday’s reginal news brief). Today, the editorial board provides a mealy-mouthed editorial on this that is just ripe for the fisking.

Milwaukee reached an unhappy milestone over the weekend – the 100th homicide of the year. According to police, a trio of young men left a tavern in the 2900 block of N. 8th St. early Saturday when a second trio confronted them at gunpoint and demanded and got money. Shots nonetheless rang out, and 23-year-old Sharmon Malone, one of the holdup victims, was fatally hit.

No question, the three men who perpetrated the robbery are dangerous and their capture must be a top police priority. Anybody with information must come forward, if only to help ensure the safety of their neighbors and their loved ones.

I’ll add that their lifetime incarcerations must be a top priority of the District Attorney’s office.

At the same time, the 100th homicide of the year ought to be an occasion for key players in Milwaukee to reflect on the strategies they’ve deployed to reduce the murder rate and on ways to step up their efforts. Were murders to continue the rest of the year at the pace they have so far, Milwaukee will have totaled 129 murders by year’s end, 47% more than in 2004.

Yes, last year’s total, 88, was unusually low. It was the first time homicides dipped below 100 in 16 years. But expectations ought to be for a low homicide rate. In fact, 88 murders are too many.

Nice save at the end. However, there is a certain intellectual disconnect between 88 murders being “unusually low” and 88 murders being “too many”.

True, the pace of murders has slowed since July. On Aug. 23, we calculated that homicides would reach 137 for the year. So the slowdown means eight fewer homicides. The trick now is to slow the pace even further and to prove our prediction of 129 wrong.

A cursory check of the murder rate by month suggests that this “slowdown” happens every year as the weather gets cooler. It’s no “trick”; and further, there is no “trick” to reduce the homicide rate, just a sea change in attitudes.

What must be done? A lot. Inner city pastors must address the issue. Yes, some already are. But their ranks must grow. And they should coordinate among themselves for greater effectiveness. Community agencies must hone their efforts. And lawmakers must direct public funds their way.

I’m actually shocked (and no, not in the Casablanca way) that the JS edit board recognizes that churches have a role. I am troubled, however, that the bottom line is always “give away more tax dollars”. I also don’t see the newspaper assigning itself a role, but then again, what tenent of their statement of principles haven’t they ignored or outright violated?

The police must try harder. It must get its problem-plagued computer system together to help in the development of anti-crime strategies. And the police must work with community groups to identify trouble spots needing special attention.

Ah, a moment of clarity.

The private sector is doing miserably in terms of putting jobs in the inner city where the disappearance of jobs has helped cause the present state of affairs. That sector must do much better.

It’s kind of hard to get the private sector to create jobs when taxes are so high. It’s even harder when the WEAC-run public school system can’t turn out high school graduates.

Yes, Mayor Tom Barrett and the Common Council are upping the number of officers, which may give the Police Department more maneuverability.

There’s a start.

All in all, the city’s 100th homicide must be an occasion to reflect on how Milwaukee can get a handle on this terrible problem.

Treating murders in Milwaukee as at least as big a story as every terrorist murder of American troops in Iraq couldn’t hurt.

I have but one word to describe the day games – UNNNGGGHHH!!!!! Let’s review the carnage (winners are underlined – switched from bold because it doesn’t seem to stand out too well)

New England 31 @ Atlanta 28 (-2.5) – Why didn’t anybody tell me Vick was out?
Miami 14 (+3) @ Buffalo 20 – Losman was so lost, he got himself benched. Side note; I’m now 0-5 on the Barking Dog.
Carolina 24 (-3) @ Arizona 20 – Denny Green wrote the book, How to Choke Without Really Trying.
Chicago 10 @ Cleveland 20 (-3) – I love it when a parlay comes together.
Washington 19 @ Denver 21 (-7-LOSS) – I HATE the Prevent Victory Defense, especially when I laid the lumber.
Baltimore 17 (+1.5) @ Detroit 35 – Who are the OldBrowns going to get it going against?
New Orleans 3 (+3) @ Green Bay 52 – Where was this team Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, and Week 4? Oh well, it’s only money.
Tennessee 34 @ Houston 20 (-3) – I should’ve done best 2 of 3 on the coin toss.
Indianapolis 28 (-15) @ San Francisco 3 – I didn’t need Sorgi to take care of the under.
Philadelphia 10 (-3) @ Dallas 33 – …and I’ve lost my judgement on NFL teams :-P
Seattle 37 (+3) @ St. Louis 31 – …so they sent me along, to go crush The Man. (sorry, bad Pink Floyd reference)
Tampa Bay 12 @ NY Jets 14 (+3) – Let’s see; 46 yards from Pittman, 18 yards from Graham, a dozen from Alstott, and 8 from Greise. Yep; they missed the Caddy.
Cincinnati 20 (+3-TIE) @ Jacksonville 23 – And then there was one undefeated team, and it wasn’t the BenGALs.
Pittsburgh 24 (+3) @ San Diego 22 – Good news; I won a MNF game. Bad news; Big Ben’s knee is toast.

Looks like I’m eating macaroni and cheese for the next week, and then only if I’m lucky. Oh well, I need to lose weight anyway. At least the two over/unders came through for me.

Sunday night update – added the Cincy-Jax result and commentary, altered the time to reflect this.
Tuesday morning update – it was too damn late to add the Steel Curtain win last night. The year-to-date record is now 37-35-2.

Never let it be said that I don’t keep my promises. It may have taken a couple months from the BBA get-together, but I indeed got on this side of things.

Revisions/extensions – I really need a new keyboard :-)

Actually, all you eBayers beware. ABC News is relaying an AP story on a North Dakota attempt to require North Dakotans that use eBay to sell third-party goods to obtain am auctioneer’s license.

To get a North Dakota auctioneer’s license, applicants must pay a $35 fee, obtain a $5,000 surety bond and undergo training at one of eight approved auction schools, where the curriculum includes talking really fast….

The (Public Service Commission) already licenses auctioneers and is asking North Dakota’s attorney general for a legal opinion about whether the definition of an auctioneer covers eBay sellers.

Commissioner Kevin Cramer said he does not believe the law applies to people who sell their own goods over eBay, but it could cover those who sell property consigned by others for a fee.

“Our laws probably didn’t contemplate this type of commerce,” Cramer said. “It’s probably time to take a look at them.”

Somehow, I doubt that this is about the $35 license or even the $5,000 bond. Rather, it’s all about the sales taxes. It’s a lot easier to force a state-licensed business to collect them. Indeed, if I were more cynical than I already am, I’d say they’ll use the physical presence of these eBay-using licensed auctioneers to claim that eBay itself has a physical presence in North Dakota and thus compel them to collect sales taxes on everything sold to North Dakota residents via eBay.

If they’re successful on either front, look for this to spread nationwide, “moratorium” on Internet taxes be damned.

I know the week has only begun, but I don’t know if I can find a more-ridiculous suit than this one from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel –

A widow alleges in a lawsuit against a helicopter manufacturer that an aircraft it created, occupied by her husband and daughter in a fatal crash, was defective and unreasonably dangerous.

Cheryl Berg seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages from the California-based Robinson Helicopter Co. in the suit filed recently in U.S. District Court in Milwaukee.

Cheryl Berg’s husband, Thomas, a Mukwonago businessman, and their daughter, Chelsey, died in the June 25, 2003, crash. Thomas Berg’s employee, Michael Siegler of Lake Geneva, was a passenger in the helicopter and also was killed.

The helicopter, a Robinson R44 II, was headed to Kansas City, Mo., where Berg, the helicopter’s pilot, had business. The aircraft took off from Mukwonago and crashed nose first about 90 minutes later in northwestern Illinois.

The National Transportation Safety Board later ruled that pilot error, with amphetamine use as a contributing factor, was the probable cause of the accident. The board also said Thomas Berg should not have been flying with passengers because he had only a student pilot certificate.

The suit alleges the helicopter’s main rotor control system was defective and dangerous. Another part of the helicopter, a main rotor servo actuator, failed, causing a loss of control of the main rotor control, the suit alleges.

The NTSB accident report is here (there are also 3 other incidents involving this type, with the two where investigations are completed not reporting any failure of the rotor control system). The findings from this incident are:

Occurrence #1: LOSS OF CONTROL – IN FLIGHT
Phase of Operation: CRUISE
Findings
1. (C) ROTOR RPM – NOT MAINTAINED – PILOT IN COMMAND
2. (F) USE OF INAPPROPRIATE MEDICATION/DRUG – PILOT IN COMMAND
3. (F) PROCEDURES/DIRECTIVES – NOT FOLLOWED – PILOT IN COMMAND
4. (F) IMPAIRMENT(DRUGS) – PILOT IN COMMAND
———-
Occurrence #2: IN FLIGHT COLLISION WITH TERRAIN/WATER
Phase of Operation: DESCENT – UNCONTROLLED
Findings
5. TERRAIN CONDITION – GROUND
Findings Legend: (C) = Cause, (F) = Factor

The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident as follows.
The pilot not maintaining main rotor RPM during cruise flight. The factor in the two passenger’s fatal injuries was the pilot not following directives concerning the prohibition of carrying passengers while a student pilot. Other factors were the pilot’s use of inappropriate medication/drugs, and the impairment of the pilot by amphetamine.

Yep; sure looks like a design flaw instead of an inexperienced, drugged-up pilot to me. </sarcasm> More likely, the money is starting to run out, and the widow is grasping at the “no-fee-unless-we-win” straw for more. Where is tort reform when we need it?

(HT: tee bee at Guide to Midwestern Culture)

Two days without commenting on the Miers nomination is just too much. With Jib also falling off the M.A. bandwagon, I guess the Wisconsin chapter of Miers’ Anonymous is now closed.

The Washington Post reports on Senate Judiciary Char Arlen Specter’s appearance on ABC’s “This Week”. While in one breath, he condemns the “stampede to judgement”, on the other, he sure seems to be echoing some of the complaints lodged against her:

Specter said he would press Miers “very hard” on her approach to legal issues such as whether the Roe v. Wade abortion decision is settled law, and on whether she has privately given anyone assurances on how she would vote on the bench. He will even ask to see her law school transcript from Southern Methodist University because “academic standing is relevant,” he said.

Specter and Vermont Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, the committee’s ranking Democrat, said they intend to follow up on a comment by Focus on the Family founder and chairman James C. Dobson that, based on conversations with White House adviser Karl Rove, he believes she opposes abortion and would be a good justice.

“This is a lifetime appointment,” Specter said. “If there are backroom assurances and there are backroom deals, and if there is something which bears upon a precondition as to how a nominee is going to vote, I think that’s a matter that ought to be known by the Judiciary Committee and the American people.”

And I suppose asking her whether Roe is settled law isn’t asking for a precondition as to how she’ll vote. </sarcasm> I guess old Scottish Law’s laundry list of questions can be summed up thusly – “Ms. Miers, will you ever rule to the right of where Justice O’Connor ruled?”

Along those lines, I hope that President Bush is regretting jettisoning history by helping old Scottish Law in his 2004 Pennsylvania primary.

• OpinionJournal’s political pundit John Fund retracts his earlier call to mute the criticism of Miers, relaying this quote from an unnamed “close colleague” from her law firm, “She is unrevealing to the point that it’s an obsession.”
• Beldar comes up with impressive list of cases that Miers worked on in private practice. While he puts a serious dent in the “just a third-rate trial lawyer” arguments against her (something I never bought into; no American law school gives away JDs and you don’t get to the head of the Dallas Bar Association and State Bar of Texas by being a “third-rate” or even “second-rate” lawyer), that he only cites the results from these cases and not the briefs does nothing for my main argument that her likely judicial temperment is still a complete unknown.
• The Hedgehog asks a series of “what now” questions. While he blames the anti-Miers camp for the necessity of the “what now” questions, Jib asks why the pro-Miers camp continues to belittle those who have serious doubts of Miers.
• WTMJ’s Charlie Sykes is now hoping on-the-air that there can be some “face-saving” way for the Miers nomination to be withdrawn in favor of, say, Janice Rogers Brown. Somehow, I don’t see that happening, much less a Brown-for-Miers replacement

If anything, Matt Drudge had underreported how much former FBI Director Louis Freeh would rip former President Bill Clinton. Despite a sometimes-contentious tone from interviewer Mike Wallace, and a mealy-mouthed reply from the Clinton Camp that old Mike delivered, Freeh acquitted himself quite well over on “60 Minutes”. Yes, he also ripped the Pubbie-led Congress for massively underfunding the FBI (so you lefties out there can take something from all this).

I will be headed over to the local Barnes and Noble (or maybe Borders; dunno which yet) on Tuesday to pick up Freeh’s upcoming book, My FBI : Bringing Down the Mafia, Investigating Bill Clinton, and Fighting the War on Terror.

I was hoping to have something very witty to say, but I guess this will have to do –

Green Bay Packers 52
New Orleans Saints 3

And if you had taken my betting advice, remember that it’s only money :-)

If there is anything I know, it’s the NFL is anything but predictable. However, it’s the most-fun investment going today (assuming, of course, you do so in a locale that allows gaming). With that in mind, and the standard warning that if you wager money based on what you see here you are fully responsible for any losses, taxes on winnings, broken bones or legal ramifications, here are my nose-picks for the week (31-28-1 going in) using the Saturday afternoon line from Yahoo as some of these games have gone off the board at various Vegas sports books:

New England @ Atlanta (-2.5) – Too much running for the Pats to handle.
Miami (+3) @ Buffalo – As Jimmy “Masterlock” Duggans would say had he thought about this game, you may like the points, you may want the points, by law in Nevada, Trinidad, Barbados, and other off-shore gambling havens, you will get the points — but you’re not gonna need them. Losman is lost, the rolling distraction known as Ricky Williams isn’t back for the Dolphins yet, and it isn’t December in New York yet.
Carolina (-3) @ Arizona – Josh McCown isn’t Brett Favre.
Chicago @ Cleveland (-3) – Take the under (35) in the Game of the Weak Part I
Washington @ Denver (-7) – The Redskins’ luck has just run out of oxygen.
Baltimore (+1.5) @ Detroit – If the OldBrowns can’t get things going against Detroit, who are they going to get them going against?
New Orleans (+3) @ Green Bay – Game of the Weak, Part II. If the Pack is going to go 0-16, you may as well make some money off it to help with the pain.
Tennessee @ Houston (-3) – Game of the Weak, Part III. The coin came up in the Texans’ favor.
Indianapolis (-15) @ San Francisco – I’m not quite crazy enough to take the Colts -46, but only because I’m taking the under and counting on Jay Sorgi coming in for significant mop-up duty.
Cincinnati (+3) @ Jacksonville – Hell continues to freeze over.
Philadelphia (-3) @ Dallas – The Tuna has lost this team.
Seattle (+3) @ St. Louis – Mike Martz isn’t well; he should’ve stayed back at the hotel.
Tampa Bay @ NY Jets (+3) – While the J-E-T-S S*CK! SU*K! SUC*!, the blown tire on the Cadillac is more than the Bucs can overcome.
Pittsburgh (+3) @ San Diego – I just have to go with the better defense.

Jib’s started M.A. Sounds like a good plan :-)

Hello, I’m steveegg. I’m a Miers-aholic, and I have a problem.

It’s still a bit odd being on this side of things. Now, about that pizza, as long as there isn’t anchovies,…. ;-)

And yes, GBfan is the BlogFather.

Lance Burri over at the Badger Blog Alliance suggested that everybody read Thomas Sowell’s take on who is to “blame” for the Miers nomination. It is a wonderfully-written and -reasoned piece, but I can’t reach the same conclusions as Thomas Sowell.

Chief Justice Roberts was originally a replacement for Justice O’Connor, and his confirmation was already considered a foregone conclusion before Chief Justice Rehnquist died and Roberts’ nomination was changed to the Rehnquist/Chief Justice slots. While the Roberts-for-O’Connor vote probably wouldn’t have been 78-22, where did 22 Dems, 1 “independent”, and 6 RINOs go in the week between his confirmation and Harriet Miers’ nomination so that we couldn’t have another Roberts’-like nominee, much less attempt to push the envelope with a more-conservative one?

Sowell does answer where the ‘Rat support went; they’re backed into a corner after being beaten down so completely. However, where did the 6 RINOs go? Did not the 7 RINOs on the “Gang of 14” say that if a judicial filibuster was used and it wasn’t an “extraordinary circumstance”, that they would not automatically vote against a rule change to take that off the table? It would seem to me that a filibuster of a Roberts-like nominee for O’Connor’s seat, after they were willing to accept Roberts himself for O’Connor, would not be an “extraordinary circumstance”, but then I have a vested interest in seeing a more judicially-conservative Supreme Court.

Taking Sowell’s suggestion that the administration be held for its shortcomings, I can and will fault President Bush for campaigning for Sen. Specter in the Pennsylvania primary, ignoring the tradition of remaining neutral in primaries and knowing full well that Specter would stab him in the back like he did. I don’t automatically buy the line that Pat Toomey couldn’t have won the general election. The infamous “gang of 14”, which was left unmentioned by Sowell and is more responsible for this than anything else, is the fault of Senate Majority “leader” Bill Frist, who is following in the same general track as former Senate Pubbie “leader” Trent “Cave-A-“Lott. Again, I ask where the support that was there for the Roberts-for-O’Connor nomination went.

To me, it’s hard to imagine Miers being better than O’Connor on almost any issue. Her religious background is indeed encouraging, but I seem to recall a former Democratic failure of a President, Jimmy Carter being an evangelical Christian. As for how she would rule on individual cases, the larger record is rather contradictory.

On the abortion issue, the only one where there doesn’t seem to be a contradictory record, she does indeed seem to be a major improvement over O’Connor. Even there, that effect is limited. While states will likely finally be able to start regulating late-term (specifically, partial-birth) abortions as Roe v Wade allegedly allows them to do (and, if the polls are to be believed, the vast majority of Americans want), there still is a majority that supports the underpinnings of both Roe and the newer Casey.

FoxNews reports that a House bill designed to make it easier to build new refineries (no new refineries have been built since the 1970s, though capacity at existing refineries has gone up to barely keep up with demand) made it out of the House 212-210 on an effective-party-line vote after House Republican leadership held the vote open more than an extra half-hour to try to get it passed. It notes that 2 Pubbies finally switched to give the vote passage, while the few Dems that had “aye” votes all went to the party line. I don’t know the exact order of vote-switching, but the ‘Rats switched first.

The final vote tally notes the following:

• Dems/Socialists voting aye – NONE
• Pubbies voting no – Boehlert (NY), Bradley (NH(, Castle (DE), Fitzpatrick (PA), Johnson (IL), Jones (NC), LaHood (IL), Leach (IA), LoBiondo (NJ), Saxton (NJ), Shays (CT), Smith (NJ), Weldon (PA)
• Dems/Socialists not voting – Boswell (IA), Delahunt (MA), Hastings (FL), Neal (MA), Olver (MA), Payne (NJ)

Pubbies not voting – Beauprez (C0), Deal (GA), Norwood (GA), Paul (TX), Royce (CA), Schwarz (MI)

Guess all the House ‘Rats (at least those that bothered to show up to vote) and the Dirty Bakers’ Dozen RINOs like the idea of any little thing causing gas prices to go over $3/gallon. We’ve all seen what happens when you take out a couple refineries when they’re all running at capacity – price spikes, fuel shortages, calls for investigations into price gouging and fuel shortages. Yet when something constructive is suggested, many of the same politicians that bleat, “Big Oil’s gouging us!” turn right around and reject whatever is proposed to limit this cycle.

Sickening.

Back when Gov. Jim “Craps” Doyle worked his veto pen to give us peons in Wisconsin a 2-year “freeze” (out of a 3-year freeze put in the budget by Legislative Republicans), he said, “The result of the freeze that I will sign will be that the average property tax on the average home will not go up at all next year, and will actually go down $5" in December 2006. Here it is, October, and as the temperature has dropped since July, Charlie Sykes points out a physical anomaly; the Doyle tax “freeze” has begun to melt even as the temperature is dropping. The latest news, included in the web posting of Charlie’s CNI Newspapers column, is that Madison will be able to increase the property tax by more than 7% (I haven’t seen any news on budget action out of that town yet).

Bloggers such as Owen of Boots and Sabers, Kevin over at Lakeshore Laments, and James Wigderson over at Wigderson’s Library & Pub have chronicled a 10% tax-and-fee levy increase in the city of Milwaukee, a $14 increase in the Dane County portion of the property tax bill for the average home there, a 4.68% increase in the Waukesha County levy (or a $10 increase on the average home there), and a likely budget-buster in the city of Sheboygan.

Sure looks like a melted Sno-Cone to me. To his benefit, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker has once again proposed a 0% increase in the tax levy. Of course, since he’s one of the two major Republican candidates for governor, the liberal-dominated County Board will likely follow their marching orders, stuff the budget full of pork, and like last year, override enough of Walker’s vetoes to make it an increase.

Matt Drudge has some juicy details on an upcoming “60 Minutes” interview (coming up this Sunday after NFL on CBS football) with former FBI Directer Louis Freeh. Freeh, plugging his upcoming book, My FBI : Bringing down the Mafia, Investigating Bill Clinton, and Fighting the War on Terror, gave interviewer Mike Wallace 4 tidbits on his and the FBI’s dealings with former President Bill Clinton:

• Freeh refused a White House pass that would have allowed him to enter the building without signing in, wanting every visit to be “official”.
• Clinton refused to ask Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah to allow the FBI to question suspects in the Khobar Towers bombings that the Saudis had captured, instead asking for a donation to the Clinton Presidential Library.
• There’s a rather unsavory detail from the Lewinsky matter I won’t go into here.
• Freeh ended up bound and determined to not let Clinton name another FBI director.

Looks like I found some new reading material, and I’ll be watching C^BS for something other than football for the first time in ages.

It appears that RoadRunner forged a back-door around the severed Level3/Cogent peer to make the Drudge Report available again. One major site back up, many to go.

Update – as of 8:30, RoadRunner has lifted its advisory of problems connecting to sites dependent on Cogent.

First, there was the Level3/Cogent spat that blocked off sites like the Drudge Report. Then, BlogSpot/Blogger stayed down a bit longer than planned for maintenance. Now, HaloScan, one of the most-popular commenting systems, is nowhere to be found, at least for me.

What’s next in the steps to mass hysteria? Dogs and cats living together?

Update – HaloScan’s back

For a while, I thought I broke BlogSpot, but at least that was just planned maintenance. On a more-serious note, CNET is reporting that Level 3 Communications has cut off its direct “peering” connections to Cogent Communications. It seems Level 3 wants payment from Cogent for the “privilege” to directly connect (“peer”) to it, while Cogent feels it’s large enough to continue the common courtesy for like-sized networks to have those peer connections. They couldn’t agree, so Level 3 shut off those connections to Cogent.

Bottom line; if your ISP has chosen sides, there’s a slew of websites you can’t get to until either Level 3 and Cogent reach an agreement or your ISP decides to “hard-wire” a back-door. For example, I as a RoadRunner customer can’t get to the Drudge Report because RoadRunner depended on Level 3’s “peering” to connect to the Cogent network.

Unnngh! My first typo (at least the first one I noticed). It’s fixed.
Update #2; where’s the blanking SpellCheck? :-)

I want to believe that Harriet Miers is a judicial conservative. I want to believe the President Bush can break the cycle of Republican Presidents nominating conservatives only half the time. However, we have essentially a blank slate for a nominee; one with no judicial experience (not necessarily a disqualifying or even bad item), no apparent writings on Constitutional law to help discern a likely judicial philosophy, a thin, contradictory public record, and as of Tuesday night, only words repeated from Monday that say that she is a judicial conservative. For every item that would indicate that she has conservative leanings (her opposition to efforts to repeal of the Texas sodomy law that was recently voided by the Supreme Court in 1989-from Time, support from Dr. James Dobson), there is one that suggests otherwise (her support for full gay rights in that same questionaire, Senate Democrat leader Harry Reid’s support of her).

At this point, her nomination resembles a mushroom. It looks a lot like one that is edible, but there are some markings that make it look like a poisonous ‘shroom. If you like mushrooms, there’s three things you can do:

1. You can ignore those markings, eat the mushroom like it was something you remember as edible, and hope you don’t get poisoned.
2. You can throw away that mushroom, believing it to be poison and maybe miss out on a good morsel.
3. You can study it more closely, identify it, and act accordingly.

The White House and other Miers supporters, like Texas Senator John Cornyn in this morning’s Wall Street Journal, are continuing to tell us to just blindly trust that she is a judicial conservative. Sen. Cornyn does succeed in making her, in another contest, er, context, Miss Congeniality, and in justifying most of the side issues, but all that does is polish up the mushroom. He does also promise that at some point, we’ll have evidence of her judicial philosophy. With the Senate’s track record of choosing, depending on whether a Dem Senate is facing a Pubbie President or not, politics or congeniality over a verification of a judicial philosophy, we’re likely going to find out whether the “instant proclamations” of judicial conservatism, not exactly backed up by anything, are accurate or not. Given that most “stealth” nominees turn out to be something less than judicial conservatives, I can only pray that we don’t get judicial food poisoning.

Check.

Keyboard’s hot.

Welcome to No Runny Eggs. I’m your humble short-order cook, pigskin prognosticator, political pundit, mumbling edit and all-around quiet guy, steveegg. Don’t mind the mess; I got this thing nice and cheap (namely, free), and since I got invited over to The Wisconsin Sports Bar, I figured I may as well have a place to hang my hat instead of just mumbling about in various blogs and Free Republic.