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 March 9th, 2006

Death-to-corn-a-hole thanks

by @ 21:04. Filed under Corn-a-hole, Politics - Wisconsin, The Blog.

Now that I’ve had a few hours to let the scope of our near-total victory over AB15 (the bad-gas bill), as well as some celebratory ethanol, sink in, it’s time to thank some of the people that helped drive it into the coffin known as “indefinite postponement”.

  • First, we have the 17 Senators that voted for the postponement –
    • Roger Breske (D-Town of Elderon in the northeast part of the state)
    • Tim Carpenter (D-Milwaukee), who believed his constituents and his gas gauge rather than ADM
    • Robert Cowles (R-Green Bay)
    • Alberta Darling (R-River Hills)
    • Mike Ellis (R-Neenah)
    • Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau), though this is VERY qualified – more in a bit
    • Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend)
    • Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay), who believed his constituents and the prices of gasoline in his district instead of ADM
    • Ted Kanavas (R-Brookfield)
    • Neal Kedzie (R-Elkhorn)
    • Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin)
    • Joe Leibham (R-Sheboygan)
    • Jeff Plale (D-South Milwaukee), my Senator
    • Tom Reynolds (R-West Allis), glad he saw that his vote was needed
    • Carol Roessler (R-Oshkosh), who took a VERY long time to finally come down on the right side
    • Cathy Stepp (R-Sturtevant), our first convert in the Senate
    • Bob Wirch (D-Kenosha)

    Yes, at least one of these people really wanted to pass AB15, and a few more did a lot of hemming-and-hawing, but for the moment, it’s the result that matters.

  • Everybody who called their Senator to oppose AB15. We got no less than 4 Senators to come down against AB15 – Stepp, Carpenter, Hansen and Roessler – after they either announced support or didn’t announce either way.
  • The talk radio trifecta of Charlie Sykes, Mark Belling and Jeff Wagner. It sure is good to have a 50,000-watt antenna to amplify your voice.
  • The Cheddarsphere. I can’t thank James enough for being our whip on this issue, Jib for staying on top of the ethanol price spike, and countless others for bringing the message to the electron universe.
  • Scott Walker, who once again jumped into this with both feet.
  • A back-handed thanks to Rep. Stephen Freese (ADM-Hazel Green) and the 5 members of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Insurance who unwittingly gave us Fitzgerald when they decided to act like ‘Rats and kowtow to the Sierra Club. Without this, Fitzie would have been vote #16 in favor of corn-a-hole, and I’d bet the farm that Luther Olsen would have ignored his self-imposed abstention to be vote #17 to enrich the family business.

Nice to know I’m still under the Craps radar

by @ 17:42. Filed under Corn-a-hole, Politics - Wisconsin.

(H/T – Charlie)

Quote from Jim “Craps” Doyle (WEAC/ADM/Potawatomi-For Sale) – “Outside of a couple of talk radio hosts in Milwaukee, ethanol has strong support in Wisconsin -and for good reason.”

To which I retort, “Outside of a minority of Senators, a shrinking majority of Assemblymen, a bought-and-paid-for governor, and ADM lobbyists, ethanol has weak support in Wisconsin – because the people realize that it is bad fuel that doesn’t do what ADM claims it does.”

Good/bad/ugly news from the county

by @ 14:54. Filed under Politics, WTPA.

JSOnline’s Daywatch is reporting that the Milwaukee County Board has defeated immediate action on putting an advisory referendum on the September ballot asking for a new 0.25% sales tax for parks and cultural attractions by a vote of 10-9. Thus ends the good news.

The bad; they’ll be back next month to try, try again. Considering what the “ugly” is, the proposed referendum will be worse once approved.

The ugly: not all 10 who voted to wait a month think this is a bad idea. Quoting from the story: “Some said the advisory referendum as written would fail. Others said the sales tax increase should be 0.5%. Some argued that the county bus system also deserved a special sales tax.” What’s missing from the explanation? Taxes are too high already.

Mea culpa maxima addition to the roll

by @ 14:09. Filed under The Blog.

How in the world did I forget to put Letters in Bottles on the roll? In any case, the oversight is corrected.

Corn-a-hole “postponed indefinitely”

by @ 13:38. Filed under Corn-a-hole, Politics - Wisconsin.

By a vote of 17-15, AB15 has been “postponed indefinitely”. While this isn’t a stake-through-the-heart killing, it’s dead until the end of April at the earliest.

The roll (they’re much faster than the US Senate) –

AYE (vote to indefinitely postpone) – Breske, Carpenter, Cowles, Darling, Ellis, Fitzgerald, Grothman, Hansen, Kanavas, Kedzie, Lazich, Leibham, Plale, Reynolds, Roessler, Stepp and Wirch

NAY (vote to not indefinitely postpone) – Brown, Coggs, Decker, Erpenbach, Harsdorf, Jauch, Kapanke, Lasee, Lassa, Miller, Risser, Robson, Schultz, Taylor, Zien

Not voting – Olsen (whose brother stood to get millions from the mandate)

Senate is back in session

by @ 11:49. Filed under Corn-a-hole, Politics - Wisconsin.

This will be updated as I catch tidbits of the debate, available here in real-time. Warning; this contains strong language because of the asshats in the Senate. I am not responsible if your work’s filters declares NRE a porn site.

Interesting bit from Scott Fitzgerald – he’s just raised a point of order that AB15 has not been refered to the Joint Finance Committee. Sgt. Schultz is claiming it doesn’t have to be, using the “it’s done all the time” defense.

And add Robert Jauch (D-ADM) in the drunk category. He just announced that he supports AB15 on the floor, and wants the vote today. Erpenbach (D-ADM) wants more time to convince his fellow Senators to get drunk, while Harsdorf (R-ADM) continues the ADM lies and wants the vote now.

Brown (R-ADM) is making the ridiculous claim that it just a “change in the formula” and not a mandate. Hey dipshit, what part of “shall require” is not a mandate? He’s also praising Minnesota’s push for an E20 mandate (never mind that no auto manufacturer will honor a warranty if E20 is used).

Decker (D-ADM) is declaring war on us. Well FUCK YOU, Decker! You work for us, we don’t work for you, you dumbfuck. You’ll be sending more of our money out to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Brazil, not to a handful of your constituents.

Sgt. Schultz (RD-ADM) is praising Jim “Craps” Doyle (WEAC/ADM/Potawatomi-For Sale). Just join the Rats already, Dale.

Zien (R-ADM) has lost his mind. Now, is it just me or are the only Senators being allowed to speak on this move are the ones that are drunk with ADM cash?

Back to Fitzgerald (R-ADM) – the bill is flawed and needs work. He wants a guarantee that the DNR won’t pull the plug a month after it starts. Well, fuck you too, Fitzie. The Glorious Guards Shock Army will steamroll you.

The chair rules that the issue of sending it to Joint Finance is valid. Harsdorf (R-ADM) doesn’t give a flying fuck that we’re $4,000/year less per capita than Minnesota. There may be a couple of plants hiring a couple people, but when everyone will be paying $0.10-$0.30 per gallon MORE because of your stupid mandate, that’ll take another huge chunk out of that paycheck. Speaking of environmental impacts, when the Sierra Club only signed on after getting a guarantee that the DNR would clamp down even harder on business, corn-a-hole is NOT environmentally-good.

Finally, a non-drunk Senator, Alberta Darling (R-not drunk). It’s all about the mandates. How convenient that Sgt. Schultz had his cronies pull the plug on the web feed. Was it something I said? If so, I’m sorry I didn’t say it sooner.

How fucking convenient; the stream came back just as Kapanke (R-ADM) jumped to the floor. We missed Darling and Lazich (turncoat-but not drunk).

Kedzie (R-definitely not drunk) railing against the subsidies (71 cents/gallon total). Notes that the complaints against E10 is statewide. Asks why we need the mandate if corn-a-hole is growing as fast as the drunk crowd says it is (Chris asks the same thing). Wonders why the drunk crowd doesn’t want an educated voter (well duh, then the asshats can’t pull shit like this).

Jauch saying, “What’s one more mandate?” Well, jackass, it’s the straw that’s breaking our backs. Sorry about crashing your little tea party, but when you want to fuck us over, we’re going to crash your little tea party, you twit. Once again, you work for us, we don’t work for you.

Tim Carpenter (D-moment of clarity) – “If it looks like a mandate, walks like a mandate, it’s a mandate”. Welcome to the party, and thank you for believing your gas gauge. Calls to his office – 100s against, none for that he can recall.

Hansen (D-not drunk) – E10 in his district – $2.45/gallon. E0 – $2.31-2.39/gallon. That’s got to hurt. Once again, his constituents are complaining about corn-a-hole, both the mandate and the mileage loss.

Harsdorf again – claiming that we don’t have a choice at the pump. Well, in Milwaukee, she’s right. I don’t have a choice; I’m stuck with corn-a-hole unless I make a 64-mile round trip to East Troy. However, she wasn’t listening to Hansen. No part of his district has an E10 mandate, yet there are stations that offer E10. As for “choice” with AB15, Shelia, don’t be surprised when your bosses (namely, us) vote with our pocketbook and pay an extra 8-10 cents from what E0 regular for midgrade rather than pay that extra 8-10 cents for E10 regular. She also has no concept of economics.

Carol Roessler (R-almost drunk) has a hard time deciding between the vast majority of her constituents and the ADM cash. She finally came down against.

Erpenbach again – See my latest comments to Harsdorf. Not everybody is as rich as you and can afford new “E-friendly” motors (maybe we should cut your pay). I prefer to be “left behind” on a dying bad fuel, and even if the other 49 states are stupid enough to mandate corn-a-hole, what’s to prevent ADM from having their corn-a-hole plants in Wisconsin? Oh, that’s right, taxes. In fact, I prefer “Big Oil” to tell me what they’re providing rather than you and your fellow dumbshits tell me what they’re going to provide me.

Brown again – Question for this drunk RepublicRAT – when we do reject E10 regular in favor of E0 mid-grade, will you then push the mandate up to the mid-grade, and then when we head to E0 premium, will you then push the mandate there? You might want to fix that tin foil hat; I don’t think “Big Oil” is fixing the price of corn-a-hole.

Jauch again – demanding to be heard. Do you have any comment on what felon Chuck “Upchuckwalla” Chvala did to the Pubbies when he had the majority chair?

Voting on sending it to Joint Finance NOW (1:34 pm). POSTPONED INDEFINITELY 17-15.

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