No Runny Eggs

Revisions/extensions – Patrick once again fills an important function by archiving the Belling knockout of Gard

Mark Belling. Selected exchanges (paraphrased because my fingers aren’t THAT fast) –

Belling – Will you vote for or against the end of the automatic gas tax increase?
Gard – I want to stablize the transportation fund, whines about the Marquette interchange and how outstate has been shortchanged (me – Shortchanged? 2 freeways between Milwaukee and Green Bay, a freeway between Portage and Wausau, 4-lane expressway between Chippewa Falls and Superior, roundabouts all over the place, shall I go on?)

Belling – Again, how will you vote?
Gard – I’m against.

Belling – Join the ‘Rats.

Belling – There’s so much money in the fund that you raided it.
Gard – I didn’t raid the fund.
Belling – The budget you voted for raided the fund.
Gard – Threatening the Marquette Interchange and Milwaukee-area freeway rebuilding.
Belling – Most of the money goes to outstate road construction.

Belling – I want to clarify this.
Gard – I don’t think we’re going to vote on Reynolds’ proposal (me – guess he’s counting on Dale “No talk shows here” Schultz and his fellow ‘Rats on both sides of the aisle killing it in the Senate). Continues to whine about US 41 in his district (me – golly, I don’t recall Michigan having US 41 at more than 2 lanes).
Belling – Minnesota’s gas tax is a dime less.
Gard – Whines about registration fees, says his sister pays $250/year in Minnesota.

Gard – You’ll be happy with the end result.
Belling – You told me that a few months ago about ethanol. What have you guys done this year?
Gard – Starts mentioning a bunch of things they passed (but aren’t law).
Belling – Points out that those things are not law.

Gard – Whines about NE Wisconsin being “shoved to the back of the line again.”
Belling – Lists some of the pork that went up to NE Wisconsin.

Gard – Trots out the vetoed stuff again.
Belling – Points out that it was vetoed, points out that the budget Gard voted for allowed Craps to raid the transportation fund. Challenges Gard to send a straight elimination of the auto gas tax increase to put Craps on the hot seat.
Gard – Trots out TABOR
Belling – I haven’t seen it out of the Assembly yet.
Gard – They will.
Belling – I just want it before I’m dead. Why will it happen in March 2006 when it didn’t happen January/February/March/April/…/2005?
Gard – It will. Glenn Grothman’s working on it. TABOR’s the holy grail.
Belling – There’s a heap of other stuff I haven’t seen out of the Republican Legislature.
Gard – But, but, but we passed a hard property tax freeze 3 times.
Belling – That was vetoed and not overridden 3 times. The base wants results NOW!

Belling cuts Gard short (mainly because Gard’s been spewing a bunch of pap for about 25 minutes). Patrick, hopefully you caught this on the computer :-)

After days of ducking Mark Belling on the automatic gas-tax increase issue, and doing a piss-poor performance against Charlie Sykes (who gave him every chance to redeem himself – audio courtesy Patrick), State Assembly Speaker and candidate for the 8th Congressional District seat John Gard (RINO-Peshtigo) will be on Belling’s show shortly to be filleted alive. With the power turned down on WISN at sunset, those of you not in the nighttime pattern for WISN-AM can listen here.

Item #1 (H/T – Dad29) – The Sheboygan School District, faced with an unexpected $1 million after exhausting everything they were authorized to build via a referrendum, chose to waste this $1 million on empty space in the high school instead of returning the money due the taxpayers…because some of that money would have to go back to the federal government because it wasn’t spent.

Item #2 – (H/T Kevin) – By a final vote of 15-1, the Sheboygan Common Council turned a meeting called to reduce the budget $300,000 into a $33,600+ INCREASE and a 1.6% levy increase over last year. Alderwoman Robin Renee Suscha touched on why her fellow aldermen decided to buy 20 previously-unbudgeted tasers, previously-unbudgeted cameras to be mounted on said tasers, and a previously-unbudgeted crime mapping/analysis program – it seems she believes that the school board (talked about above) and the county are “fiscally responsible”.

Oh well; they’re just taking the lead from Gov. Jim “Craps” Doyle (WEAC-Potawatomi). On this morning’s Early Spin (H/T –Fred), he made the ridiculous claim that if the state dropped the automatically-increasing gas tax a nickel, “Big Oil” would just jack the price up that nickel.

Homer nods – I really need that caffeine; had to fix a typo or so.

I’m sure Patrick will have the audio soon, but for those that missed the Green interview on Mark Belling’s show and Owen’s take on this (for shame if you got here without seeing that), Mark Green now officially supports the end of the automatic gas tax increase. Mark did have to pull teeth somewhat, trying to get Green to comment on the specific bill introduced by Tom Reynolds, but he finally did.

Revisions/extensions – will the Journal Sentinel report this, or will they ignore it like they ignored Walker’s call for this repeal as part of his larger transportation funding plan? I’ll take the latter and offer 5-2 odds to those that want to take the other side.

Revisions/extensions #2 – Just like Walker’s call to end the automatic tax increase, Green’s call is met with silence on 4th and State. I’m shocked, SHOCKED, that the biggest newspaper in the state would continue to ignore this hot-button issue </sarcasm>

In the headline on a story about Citizens for Responsible Government, the Journal Sentinel claims that CRG is planning on taking on Jim “Craps” Doyle. Funny, that’s not exactly supported by the article. Let’s review the two mentions of Craps in the article –

In the 4th paragraph – “Now it has its sights set on the biggest political target in the state: Gov. Jim Doyle.”

In the 22nd paragraph – “That broader appeal, Kliesmet and Seymer hope, will come on a conservative fiscal agenda they see coming from Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker and Green Bay Congressman Mark Green, the Republican candidates to challenge Doyle next fall.”

Get the feeling that the Journtinel doesn’t much like CRG?

While I’m on “curious writing”, Jessica McBride seems to find something curious about the article, pointing to her September 6 WisPolitics column.

Aaron at Subject to Change has the “Doyle dog” ad. Go, read and laugh.

Belle has a cure for Packeritis over at Leaning Blue, at the expense of the UW system. Even better, she finally has the comments working again.

Once again, Favre costs the Packers. He had plenty of company (Thurman, Gado, R. Lee, KGB, Carroll, Roman, Bates for continuing to trust KGB on running plays, the special teams as a whole, the GM team nightmare of Thompson and Sherman for dredging up the horrid players on the roster, and the MASH unit they’re running). Now that we’re both officially eliminated from the NFC North and guaranteed a losing record, it’s time to clean house. Heck, with Houston winning, we might be in the running for the Reggie Bush sweepstakes again.

Meanwhile, the Deadfins shock the world by dismantling the Raiders 33-21, and I go to 8-4-1 on the week (and 8-3-1 on my Vegas picks), pending the results of the Giants/Seahawks game.

Revisions/extensions – Make that 9-4-1 on the week, 9-3-1 on the Vegas picks and 10-4 straight-up as the G-men can’t nail 3 field-goal attempts to win (2 in OT), and the ‘Hags pull it out in OT 24-21 (sadly, I had the Giants straight-up).

5:55 – Is Favre playing for both teams? Accuracy out of both QBs has, in a word, sucked (Favre – 11/24-133-1-1, McMahon – 9/24-67-0-0). 3-and-out once again, but Chatman goes backwards on the punt.

6:04 – Franks will be staying in a Philly hospital for observation overnight. Meanwhile, Jax is up on the Cards 24-17 late in the 4th, Miami still leads Oakland by 2, and Seattle’s deep in Giants’ territory. Favre got run over on a coverage sack (unusual because Driver wasn’t double-covered). I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that the Eagles also took some – Ware, Gordon and Rayburn were knocked out for at least a while. Time for the Pack to punt; piss-poor punt – 28 yards puts the Eagles at their 20. The Seahags tack on another touchdown, they’re up 21-13 on the G-men late in the 4th.

6:16 – Barnett run over again, Roman almost run over on the same play. Diggs can’t cover again. At least they can sniff out the halfback option. Al Harris, please pick up your jock strap – you can’t miss it, it has the #4 tattooed on it. The Raiders are falling apart; the Deadskins score another touchdown to make it 30-21, and the G-men . Break out the hard stuff, the Eaglets are up 16-13, and the G-men waste a timeout to decide whether to go for 2 with under 2 minutes left and tie it up.

6:18 – Audrae fumbles the kickoff, the Eaglets get it at their 25. Meanwhile, the G-men tie it up 21 all, and the Jax/Arizona game is a final; 24-17 Jags. One more win and I’m guaranteed a winning week, both overall and in Vegas (since my sister didn’t get there until Friday, I missed the Turkey Day stinkers, and my first of 2 over/unders missed).

6:27 – Someone want to tell me again just how “great” Bates is? 5.5 yards per rushing play given up by the defense. 8 chances to make a stop, 6 blown (though at least this time, they only gave up a field goal with time left instead of giving up the field goal to end the game, a touchdown to make it a 2-score game, or simply the end of the game). 1:49 left (less the time for the kickoff), no timeouts, and a touchdown required to score. Meanwhile, the G-men get the ball in great field position and a timeout left.

6:30 – 1:44 left with 71 yards to paydirt after an Audrae muff. 2 incompletes, a bad snap resulting in pick #2…BUT a bogus roughing the passer gives the Packers second life at the 44 and 1:26 left.

6:34 – The ref must’ve seen a clothesline. Fergie manages to get both a first down and out of bounds. Meanwhile, the G-men choke the field goal, so we have the 4th OT game of the weekend. Toni Fisher has a false-start to put the ball back to midfield. There’s pick #2 and the game as Fergie not only doesn’t get open on a triple-team in the end zone, but gets an offensive pass interfierence play by wasting his fight while the ball is in the air. At least I win for the week.

5:15 – Good news; Franks will head home with the team. Bad news, William Henderson got a knock on the head. Great news; the Packers now lead in forcing 3-and-outs 3-2.

5:21 – Make that tied in 3-and-outs (though the Packers had penalties in all 3 of theirs).

5:33 – Na’il Diggs can’t cover; 2 completions and an illegal contact on the 2nd one. KGB’s starting to tire. Meanwhile, Jax is laying the lumber to Arizona, the Seahags grabbed a 1-point lead, and the Deadfins still hold a 2-point lead on the Raiders. Golly, who did the Eagles run over on 4th and 1? Nick Barnett and Ahmad Carroll, along with Westbrook blowing by Mark Roman At least they pulled KGB on that. Add Paris Lenon to the injured list with a hand. This time, Roman got run over. Un-freaking-believable; Carroll did a decent play on 3rd down (even though he was the only one with a shot at the ball). Add the ump to the injured list as Westbrook ran over him (guess the white confused him :-) . Akers continues to nail them; Packers now up 14-13. Make that 23-14 Deadfins (unnnggghhhh), and Henderson is back.

5:39 – Ump’s also back, and Al Harris is out temporarily with cramps. Nifty running by the other Lee to pick up the first. Didn’t help him that next time because the Eagles swarmed while the first guy was busy whiffing. Gado fumbled for the 4th time after nearly nailing the ump again, and the Eagles have the ball in Packer territory pending the (futile) challenge.

5:46 – Do I have enough alcohol? The Raiders get a touchdown to pull within 2, and the Packers lose a timeout. Carroll got just enough contact to impede the progress but surprisingly didn’t draw the flag. Holy cow; Roman had a good recovery, but because McMahon didn’t just air it out, the Packers force their 4th 3-and-out of the Eaglets.

5:50 – Favre needs to learn how to slide, as the head linesman takes a shot from him. Why pass 10 yards when you need 17 on 3rd down and there’s 3 guys who are in position to make the play before the marker? Oh well, time to reload, 15 minutes left in regulation and the Pack is clinging to a 1-point lead.

4:06 – Poor pass plus great defensive hit equals a loopy Franks. Favre now 1-7 for 23 yards. Bad news/good news/good sportsmanship – bad, the cart’s coming out; good – Franks has movement and Dawkins (the guy who cleanly laid him out) kneeling at a respectful distance praying.

4:13 – Correction on the last kickoff; that was Al Harris returning kicks (someone tell Turd Fergie). V-for-victory from Franks, and the Philly fans salute him with applause. On the injury front, add Jeremy Thornburg to the injured Packers (taken to the locker room for a shoulder X-ray). Meanwhile, Driver is now facing double-and-triple-teaming, and Antonia Chapman can’t get open.

Muffed punt, and the Eagles get it back in a scrum.

4:20 – 3-and-outs are now equal at 2 (mainly with a non-call with Ahmad Carroll draped all over a receiver on 3rd down), but the other Lee (Donald) gets nailed for a block in the back to wipe out decent field position.

4:33 – Tingling in both shoulders of Franks, but he won’t go to the hospital. Favre still struggling with accuracy, and Gado made Whittaker look good. Where’s the flag for the out-of-bounds shove? My Least-Favorite Martian now hobbling, and Gado’s the beneficiary of a shortened chain on 4th-and-1 at the Eagles’ 31. They should’ve kicked it; pick #18 on the year as Donald Lee can’t get open and Favre underthrows into the end zone.

Time to break out the Wild Turkey 101.

4:40 – Westbrook (not a big guy) just levelled Carroll; (un)fortunately, Carroll got up. Why is KGB in on running downs? He also got run over on 3rd-and-short and couldn’t do anything more than slow down the back. Good news/bad news/ugly news from the other 2 late games. Miami’s up on Oakland 14-7 at the half, and the G-Men just went up on Seattle in the game of the day 10-7 (while I do have the Giants and the points, I have the Seahags straight-up). McMahon has the same problems with the deep ball, so Chatman finally gets a no-flag good return.

4:52 – These refs are ridiculous with hands to the face penalties today. That’s at least the second phantom one today (though this one does benefit the Pack). Unfortunately, they’re not as willing to throw the flag for pass interference; unlike what the horse’s pitoot claims, that was a catchable ball without the grabbing. Favre completed his second pass in the end zone (after further review, the ruling on the field stands), and this time My Least-Favorite Martin pulls it out of his facemask to give the Packers (pending a booth review) a 14-10 lead.

4:57 – Possibly the worst commercial to ever air is brought to you by Peyton Manning and MasterCard. Whatever you do, don’t let your kids watch it lest they emulate that behavior. The Philly fans return to form; after a holding call on one running play and a 2nd running play without a penalty, they boo the Eagles into the locker room. Score at the half in the shocker of the day, the Green Bay Packers 14, the Philadelphia Eagles 10.

We’ve got a good Sunday after a piss-poor Turkey day. After that disastrous 0-2 start, I’m 4-0-1 in the early games with the San Diego/Washington and Houston/St Louis games headed to OT and Tennessee handling San Francisco.

3:15 – At least the Packers won the toss. RaShard Lee managed to hang onto the ball. Tony Fisher gets the start and, surprise, surprise, fumbled on the opening play. They got the ball back (was ruled an incomplete pass). At least it wasn’t a 3-and-out; Clifton had a false start to make it 3rd and 15.

3:20 – Make that 6-0-1 as San Diego (make that LaDanian Tomlinson) finds the end zone in OT and Tennessee finishing the crushing of the Whiners, er Niners. Meanwhile, the special teams and the defense both are letting Brian Westbrook run all over them. SHOCK! The Pack gets the ball back as Lamar Gordon fumbles inside the Packers 10.

3:27 – Another 3-and-out as Gado gains 6, loses 1, and Favre throws out of the reach of Driver, is now 0-4. Another Philly start inside the Packers 40 as the coverage allows a 15-yard return.

3:32 – Mike McMahon must’ve went to the Favre school of passing behind your receivers. What a stat from Buck (how did he draw this turkey of a game?) and Aikman (how did we draw him for this turkey of a game? – at least we get a bundled-up Pam Oliver to look at for time to time); Career starts – Jon Runyan 139, rest of the offense 115. Will Bates finally take Mark Roman out of coverage? I could have completed that 3rd-down pass.

3:37 – There goes my lossless Sunday; I’m now 1-2 in overtime games for the weekend. Where’s that 6-pack of Maximum Ice?

3:39 – Make that a 12-pack; after Akers nailed a field goal, RaShard Lee coughs it up at the Packers 32 on the ensuing kickoff. Add Al Harris to the list of Packer DBs who don’t know how to keep his hands off guys. Oops, make that a case; Westbrook torches the Packers for a 27-yard TD run. 10-0 bad guys.

3:45 – Lee has a rib “injury” (probably from one of the coaching staff ramming his ribs with a ball), so Audrae Thurman is now returning kicks. Unlike Lee, Thurman hangs onto it. Holy cow; Favre completes one, and the Packers get a first. Gado answers nicely; 2 carries, 51 yards, touchdown. That was an ugly PAT, but we’re back within 3.

3:53 – Kampmann is a player, and if Jackson keeps his shoulders parallel to the line, he’s still a force. We got some help from the ump (who’s thankful it was McMahon throwing that ball and not Favre) to get a 3-and-out.

3:57 – Can we bench Whittaker? He just stands there and ruins any chance to run right or up the middle. 3-and-out #2 (if you ignore penalties that wipe out plays). At least Sander lofted the ball high enough to get a fair catch this time.

4:00 – It’s much the same story with the two McQBs; they can run, but they can’t get air under the ball. I swear that ball hit Jenkins in the chest.

4:03 – Two words for the Packer offense; run left! The first quarter is mercifully over.

Joining me in live-blogging, Aaron of Subject to Change

10:00 – Charlie opens with a national look at what blogs (Rather, Miers, among others) did. Says in 1998, there were 23 blogs, in 2002-750,000 blogs, now-millions).
The panel, left to right, Jeff Mayers (WisPolitics/WisOpinion), John McAdams (Marquette Warrior), Charlie (Sykes Writes), Jessica McBride (McBride’s Media Matters), Owen (Boots and Sabers/Badger Blog Alliance). First question, “Who reads them?” Jessica – just about everybody. John – mainly Marquette types. Owen – mix of opinion-makers and average people. Jessica says that politicians are starting to court bloggers to amplify their messages.

Charlie asked Owen about how blogs are fact-checked. Owen says that it’s a building of trust and a meritocracy, and that bloggers are held accountable by their readers. Jessica and Jeff agree. Commercial.

10:11 – “How have blogs changed the mainstream media?” Jeff – there’s no technical hurdoe anymore, another alternative voice like talk radio keeping the media honest. Jessica – expounds on the alternative voice, saying it stays there after the host goes off the air; helps keep media honest. John – bloggers can keep the media on their toes. Owen – it’ll help the media better. Charlie – or transformed, talks about the younger generation who doesn’t pick up a newspaper. John – speeds up the media (“more blog-like”), talking about the Journal Sentinel’s coverage of Marquette’s name change.

What does this do to the papers? Jeff – “Papers provide a lot of fodder” for bloggers.” Jessica – Where’s the conservative columniss in the papers?

10:19 – The quick list (no links) – nope, No Runny Eggs isn’t there. Asking now about breaking news covered by blogs. Owen – lists John’s breaking of WRIT’s not playing CHRISTmas music, his breaking of the county van in Illinois. Says the media can’t cover everything. Jessica – lists a couple of things the media wouldn’t cover because of a double-standard (Walker’s call for the end of the automatic tax increase, Doyle’s barbecue). Charlie expounds on this. Jeff – “This is like the stock market” because it helps predict what will be big. Lists the blogs on WisOpinion (Xoff Files, Free Will). John, Charlie and Jeff – helps keep stories alive. Up next, “Winners and Losers”.

10:27 – Winners/Losers (sorry, they went too fast for my semi-limited typing skills). Somebody with faster fingers or TiVo will have it.

The first of probably several extensions/revisions; James notes that he got a mention. I also seem to recall Jiblog getting a mention.

Revisions/extensions #4, take your base – Charlie and Jessica have their takes. Jessica has a second, calling Charlie the Don of Blogs to which Charlie replied, “…(T)his guy sounds kind of scary.”. I think the Joker said it best in “Batman” (the good one with Jack Nicholson), “Wait till they get a load of me.” Elsewhere, Steve at Eminent Domain and the Texas Hold’Em Blogger have some more reaction (Dennis x2), and Jib has a quick reaction or two.

The latest addition is Ragnar Mentaire and I AM THE FORCE. I have to thank Charlie for finding him.

I really need to include her in my newsreader so I don’t go a week before finding gems like this scattershot take on Dennis York’s piece on CRG’s recall of Mayor McCheese. Come to think of it, now that Dennis is back blogging (at least when he’s not trying to eat himself to death), I better put him in the blogroll.

Now that’s the kind of humor missing here ;-)

Please welcome Peter DiGaudio and Texas Hold’Em Blogger to the blogroll. Don’t let the “Texas” part fool you, Peter’s one of the sane people in Racine.

(H/T – Dean at Musings of a Thoughtful Conservative) –

Mark Belling has a classic column in the Freeman family of papers that points out the naked partisan hypocrisy of the LeftStream Media. He takes on Michael McGee, the anti-war anti-Bush crowd, Jim “Craps” Doyle, Keg Goldschlager, the “asterisk” editorial, the Palm Beach County prosecutor, UW-Eau Claire, the Craps tax anti-freeze, and the Craps deep-sixing of a DOT lawyer for releasing a suppressed report that was ordered released by the courts (notice a pattern here?). Go, read and be edified.

I just happened to take a look at Charlie Sykes’ blogroll, and this hole in the wall of the Web happens to be there. Dunno exactly how that happened; it wasn’t even much of a bleg (I happened to notice that there was a blank spot between Spotted Horse and On the Borderline, and pointed that out to him, as well as an invite to check out this place).

At least he didn’t invite me to the blogger edition of Sunday Insight; I’d probably break the cameras :-)

So, if you’re here from Sykes Writes, take a look around, ignore the near-silence I had the last 2 weeks, and pipe up.

I won’t comment on the disaster Weaks 9 and 11 were, or crow about Week 10. I’ll simply recap.

Weak 9 (5-7-2)
Cincinnati 21 @ Baltimore 9 (+3)
Atlanta 17 (-2.5) @ Miami 10
Detroit 14 (+1) @ Minnesota 27
San Diego 31 (-6.5-LOSS) @ NY Jets
Carolina 34 (-1.5) @ Tampa Bay 14
Tennessee 14 (+3) @ Cleveland 20
Houston 14 @ Jacksonville 21 (-13.5-LOSS)
Oakland 23 @ Kansas City 27 (-4-TIE)
Chicago 20 (-3-TIE) vs New Orleans 17 @ Baton Rouge
Seattle 33 (-4) @ Arizona 19
NY Giants 24 (-11) @ San Francisco 6
Pittsburgh 20 (-4) @ Green Bay 10
Philadelphia 10 (+3) @ Washington 17
Indianapolis 40 @ New England 21 (+3.5)

Week 10 (9-4-1)
Green Bay 33 (+9.5) @ Atlanta 25
(somehow this was left off the blog, but did make KHDC so you know I wasn’t lying) Arizona 21 @ Detroit 29 (-4)
Kansas City 3 (+2.5) @ Buffalo 14
NY Jets 3 @ Carolina 30 (-9)
San Francisco 9 (+13.5-WIN) @ Chicago 17
Denver 31 (-3) @ Oakland 17
Houston 17 @ Indianapolis 31 (-17.5-LOSS)
Baltimore 3 (+6.5) @ Jacksonville 30
New England 23 (-3) @ Miami 16
Minnesota 24 @ NY Giants 21 (-9.5)
Cleveland 21 @ Pittsburgh 34 (-7.5)
St Louis 16 @ Seattle 31 (-7)
Washington 35 @ Tampa Bay 36 (-1-TIE)
Dallas 21 (+3) @ Philadelphia 20

Weak 11 (7-9)
Tampa Bay 30 @ Atlanta 27 (-6)
Carolina 3 (-3) @ Chicago 13
Miami 0 (+2.5) @ Cleveland 22
Detroit 7 @ Dallas 20 (-7.5)
NY Jets 0 @ Denver 27 (-13)
Indianapolis 45 (+6) @ Cincinnati 37
Jacksonville 31 (-4-LOSS) @ Tennessee 28
Kansas City 45 @ Houston 17 (+7)
New Orleans 17 @ New England 24 (-9.5-LOSS)
Philadelphia 17 @ NY Giants 17 (-7)
Pittsburgh 13 (-3.5) @ Baltimore 16
Buffalo 10 @ San Diego 48 (-11)
Seattle 27 (-13-LOSS) @ San Francisco 25
Arizona 38 (+9.5) @ St Louis 28
Oakland 16 (+6) @ Washington 13
Minnesota 20 @ Green Bay 17 (-4.5)

That puts me at 82-73-5. For the record, that’s making money.

Don’t forget; the window is always open right up until game-time. One of these days, I’ll figure out just how bad the last 3 weeks were for me (I’d like to see you do better, Dad29 :-) , but for now, let’s look forward. As always, the line comes from Yahoo, and even though I actually will be putting money on most of these picks (my sister’s headed out to Vegas tomorrow), they’re for entertainment purposes only (there, that should keep the revenuers off my back for another week).

Atlanta @ Detroit (+3) – It’s Thanksgiving, so that’s worth 4 points for the Lions. How could the bookies forget that? Oh well, make sure you run to the window to take advantage; you have about 45 minutes to do so and have a turduckhen on your Man.
Denver @ Dallas (+2.5) – No Lett, no snow, no problem.
St. Louis @ Houston (+4) – Career backup Jamie Martin has his 2 wins.
New England @ Kansas City (-3) – Too many injuries to overcome to continue their win streak.
Cleveland @ Minnesota (-4.5) – I don’t want to take Duh Viqueens, but Duh NewBrowns are in complete disarray, and the game is in the Rollerdome.
Carolina (-4) @ Buffalo – Worst red-zone defense, meet a pissed-off 2nd-best red-zone offense. Pissed-off 2nd-best red-zone offense, meet the Bills end-zone.
Tampa Bay @ Chicago (-3) – The Bears defense will outscore the Bucs to ensure that the NFC North will not have a loser for a champ.
Baltimore @ Cincinnati (-9) – Who would’ve thunk that the BenGALS would be 7-3, or that the OldBrowns defense would be so torched?
San Diego (-3) @ Washington – Take the over 43.5 as yet another former Redskins coach beats up the Deadskins. This time, that coach has an offense.
San Francisco @ Tennessee (-7.5) – Dorsey, Smith; it doesn’t matter.
Miami @ Oakland (-7) – Stick the fork in the Dullfins; they’re done.
Jacksonville (-3) @ Arizona – If you’re wondering why I’ mainly sticking with the favorites, it’s because the bookies usually have a good grasp of what’s what this late in the season.
Green Bay @ Philadelphia (-4.5) – If Ron Wolf says the Pack is done, believe it. This is the game of the weak.
NY Giants (+4.5) @ Seattle – This great game, which on any other week would be The Game of the Week, will not be seen in Milwaukee, Green Bay, or Philadelphia. We’ll be missing a barnburner.
New Orleans @ NY Jets (+1.5) – Jimmy Hoffa says you won’t need them points. ESPN is wondering what it did so wrong to get this game of the weak, part deux.
Pittsburgh (+7.5) @ Indianapolis – Over/under on the Al Michaels gambling references-4. Take the over on that, take the under 47 for the point total, and end the week rolling in dough while enjoying the game of the year.

Here I am trying to figure out Week 12, and this liberal who claims to be Jeff Wagner wants to make a seat-belt violation a primary enforcement issue, involving a heftier fine and points off the driver’s license. One of his arguments is that because we already let government regulate driving so heavily, what’s another thing? Well, why not make the sales tax 6% statewide because it’s already at 5.85% in Milwaukee County restaurants? Why not make the top rate for the state income tax 10% because we’re so close now? Why not let the feds take 80% of every dollar you make above $186,500 (or so) because we were there once? Why not require a photo id to purchase limited quantities of Claritin (quantities that don’t last more than a week during allergy season) because we already do that to a whole class of its competitors?

Sorry, Jeff. The line has to be drawn somewhere. If you want to stick gubmint in the seat-belt issue, why not make it a mitigating circumstance in the courts and insurance claims?

(For the record, I do wear my seat belt; not because the gubmint tells me to, but if I decide to or am forced to make a sudden maneuver, I don’t feel like leaving my seat.)

Imagine my surprise when I saw this story in this morning’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (executive decision to take a break from ripping them for the asterisk editorial this time only) that claims that school taxes are going down by an average of 0.5%. Let’s take a look at the first paragraph:

Property taxes for schools will drop 0.5% statewide on the bills that go out next month, but individual school districts could see bigger decreases or substantial increases, according to a report to be issued today by the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance.

Well, here in Oak Creek, they’re going up 2.21% to go along with the city’s 4.17% levy increase with an over-5% spending increase financed with a fund raid, the county-board-mandated 2.98% county levy increase, the 4% MMSD (the Crappy Water People) levy increase, and the 6.6% MATC levy increase. I decided to see if I can find the report referenced by the Journal Sentinel. I went to the Wisconsin Taxpayer’s Alliance website; nope, nothing there about this. The latest item they have on the site is a piece on administrative rules from 11/17 with an accompanying press release. I went to WisPolitics.com Press Release archive, thinking that the webmasters at wistax.org were a bit slow on issuing a press release. Oops; the latest press release from the WTA they have there is also the 11/17 adminstrative rule press release. I did manage to come up with the numbers myself and was shocked to be able to confirm them.

However, I do notice that this ignores the spending, which has gone up due to fund raids at the state level. Also, this comes at the back end of a stunt by Craps. This is noted in a way at the end of the story, but I’ll get back to that in a bit. Remember that the state aid increase came 2 years after he unilaterally shorted the state’s 2/3rds share of the funding of schools (61% seems to stick in my mind), and his various raids brought that back up to essentially 2/3rds. So, let’s take a look at the levy since the 2002-2003 school year (the last year before Craps began his budget games). Due in large part to that shorting, the total statewide school property tax levy went up 5.50% between 2002-2003 and 2003-2004, and 7.22% between 2003-2004 and 2004-2005. So, doing some fancy math and taking this year’s gimmick tax “cut” into account, the school tax levy went up an annual average of 4.02%. For those interested in viewing the numbers themselves, you can either head to DPI’s Tax Levy page and do the math, or download my worksheet (a 125 KB Excel file). Any takers on next year’s school tax levy INCREASE being less than 4%?

Back to how this was noted in the Journal Sentinel. They quote Wauwatosa School Board Business Services Director John Mack – “The levy is actually completely controlled by the state, and when I give my budget presentations, I don’t take credit when it goes down and I don’t take the blame when it goes up.” What a crock of horse manure. Mr. Mack, you’re paid to figure stuff like this out, and considering you’re a school district employee, you’re probably compensated very handsomely in both salary and benefits. Could your inability to figure this out have resulted in the average annualized levy increase of 3.81% (8.36% between 2002-2003 and 2003-2004, 3.62% increase between 2003-2004 and 2004-2005, and a 0.37% decrease between 2004-2005 and 2005-2006)?

At least he’s not as far out of it as I am. Heck, I never did give you the expanded view on Weak 11. Anyway, here’s some quick hits:

• Tony Stewart won his second Cup Sunday. Look for Brainless France to “tweak” the Chase some more so that the guy who deserves it by scoring the most points over 36 races doesn’t get it next year.
• Wisconsin’s own Ted Musgrave took the Craftsman Truck Series crown in a rain-delayed race Saturday. Because he is a Cheddarhead that had exactly 1 win this year, look for the CTS to get its own Chase next year (can’t have them Wisconsin boys winning through consistency).
• Staying with sports, Greg Gall, the guy most responsible for the Packers’ 6th loss in Cincinnati, got probation and a $200 fine for running onto the field and taking the ball from Brett Favre. No word on whether he’ll be reimbursed by the Bengals.
• Ron Wolf said the Packers’ season was lost. Well, duh – I could’ve told him that the second that Javon Walker went down.

Mark Belling is reading a response from the Mark Green campaign claiming that Niagra, Wisconsin is out of cell-phone range (gee; how does the campaign know what he’s doing if they can’t get his cell working?) and blasting Belling for never having Green on (never mind that you can’t get WISN in Green’s Congressional district). Guess they’re just as beholden to Payne and Dolan and company as just about every other politician in the state.

Oh, BTW, the first caller after Mark read the response had just come back from deer-hunting in Niagra, and his cell phone worked just fine.

I’ll expound on these games when I get home from church, but I want to get these in now –

Tampa Bay @ Atlanta (-6)
Carolina (-3) @ Chicago
Miami (+2.5) @ Cleveland
Detroit @ Dallas (-7.5)
NY Jets @ Denver (-13)
Indianapolis (+6) @ Cincinnati
Jacksonville (-4) @ Tennessee
Kansas City @ Houston (+7)
New Orleans @ New England (-9.5)
Philadelphia @ NY Giants (-7)
Pittsburgh (-3.5) @ Baltimore
Buffalo @ San Diego (-11)
Seattle (-13) @ San Francisco
Arizona (+9.5) @ St Louis
Oakland (+6) @ Washington
Minnesota @ Green Bay (-4.5)