No Runny Eggs

It’s been a while since I highlighted Wagner on the Web, but Jeff just blows up Jim “Craps” Doyle’s (WEAC/ADM/Potawatomi-For Sale) claim that the near-death-blow to AB15, the bad-gas bill, was entirely the work of a couple of talk-show hosts. I don’t think Charlie’s, Jeff’s and Mark’s reach extends to the likes of Tim Carpenter, Dave Hansen and Carol Roessler, all of whom cited a massive constituent opposition to corn-a-hole.

Fortunately, we will be able to tell Craps he has no clothes soon in the way that truly matters. Unless my calendar is lying to me, there’s 242 days until the election. While Scott Walker is by far preferable to Mark Green, not least because Green also supports a corn-a-hole mandate, either Pubbie would make a better governor than Craps.

Unlike Jeff, however, I am one of those who opposes ethanol on the merits. We simply can’t grow enough corn to create enough corn-a-hole to replace gas. Even if we could, at the questionable maximum of E10 for unmodified engines (just ask owners of late-model GM cars, older-model cars of any type, boats, snowblowers, motorcycles, lawnmowers, et al), corn-a-hole gas simply can’t come close to matching the economics or physics of good gas. Indeed, the physics are so bad that we would be using more oil and natural gas, all bought from foreign sources because we import gobs of both oil and natural gas because many of the same weenies won’t let us explore and exploit in this country, to create the ethanol than we would save by replacing 10% of gasoline with corn-a-hole.

(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.”

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)

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.

Since our friends at Journal Interactive don’t feel the need to enable comments, I guess I have to answer Charlie’s rhetorical questions for Sgt. Schultz here:

(A) Yes he does know how bad the ethanol mandate will split the base, but not only in southeastern Wisconsin. As, charitably, a “country-club” Pubbie, he’s far more comfortable with, say, Jim “Craps” Doyle (WEAC/Potawatomi-For Sale) than Scott Walker. That also explains the visceral reaction from the RPW, especially those from the Green Bay area, to Scott Walker’s candidacy, and the abandonments by the RPW of the last 2 opponents to Russ el-Slimeroad.

(B) It will only hurt Mark Green up until the end of the primary. Unlike those country-club Pubbies, who tend to refuse to back conservative Pubbies, conservative Pubbies tend to back even moderates.

(C) Frankly, the GOP legislature had no backbone or principles before this, especially Sgt. Schultz’s Senate.

(D) He’s betting, much like Jim “Craps” Doyle (WEAC/Potawatomi-For Sale), that money solves everything. As an aside, we could stand to lose Kapanke and Brown, even if it costs the Pubbies those 2 seats; such are the benefits of a titular 3-seat majority.

In short, he does fully-understand this. As a RepublicRAT, he just doesn’t give a flying damn (I would use the f-bomb, but I don’t want Casper’s work filters declaring NRE a porn site again).

Revisions/extensions (4:38 pm 3/8/2006) – Charlie is reporting that AB15 WILL be on the Senate calendar tomorrow. It’s show time.

Our anti-bad-gas whip, James, reports that despite losing a straw vote in the Republican caucus 13-5, and by James’ account, only having 11 of the 18 votes he needs to force corn-a-hole on everybody in Wisconsin make that 12 if his report that Senate Minority Leader Judy Robson (Chilrun will die!-Madistan) does the expected and rolls like the Sierra Club to make state gubmint ever larger, Senate Majority “Leader” Sgt. Dale Schultz (RepublicRAT-No talk radio here) is going to push AB15 to the floor tomorrow. The funny thing is, if the vote track is right, two of the drunk Pubbies had a moment of clarity because we had 7 big-gubmint, big-business Pubbies counted – Sgt. Schultz, Ron Brown, Shelia Harsdorf, Dan Kapanke, Alan Lasee, the no-longer-abstaining Luther Olsen (whose vote is apparently needed to enrich his family business) and Dave Zien.

This is it; I don’t care if you’ve already hammered your Senator or not, whether your Senator plans on voting against or for AB15, or if he or she still has the finger in the wind. Hammer them one more time to drive the stake into the cold heart of AB15. James has the Madison phone numbers on his vote chart, and if you don’t know who your Senator is, you can either head here to find your Senator and his or her contact info, or call the Legislative Hotline at 1-800-362-9472 (1-800-228-2115 for the hearing-impaired) and have the staff pass along the message (they’ll help you find out who your Senator is).

Revisions/extensions part 2 (8:15 pm 3/8/2006) – And the war against Sgt. Schultz is on. Patrick called for a coup, Charlie asks whether Sgt. Schultz has a clue, and Поле Выстраивает Chris is mobilizing the Glorious Guards Shock Army for the drive to the Mississippi with an early stop in Richland Center. Since I’m about a quarter-mile behind enemy lines, I can’t do much more than promote this war, but promote it I will.

What version of the R&E is this? (11:10 pm 3/8/2006) – Peter checks in with his official photo of Sgt. Schultz, wonders what kind of deal he cut with Robson, and calls for Schultz’s defeat, “even if it means putting a Democrat in the seat”. Note to Peter; there already is one there – Sgt. Schultz. Meanwhile, Owen explains everything that can still happen to AB15. I make it no secret I prefer it defeated on the floor, but if it’s sent back to committee, it’ll kill it for at least a month.